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Men of Gold

2023-02-07T23:14:49Z

2607:FB90:9B29:1A84:5158:B6DC:7327:3567:

{{Wh40k-stub}}
Men of Gold are a mysterious sect of Humanity that appeared during the [[Age of Terra]]. They were physically and emotionally superior than ordinary men, and used them to learn and spread across the [[Terra|Old Earth]], turning the anarchy of Nature into the order of Civilisation. To help them colonize Galaxy, Men of Gold created [[Men of Stone]], which surpassed their masters in population in M21. With the start of [[Dark Age of Technology]], most of them disappeared. Characteristic-wise, they MIGHT (emphasis here) be similar to the [[Perpetual]]s. Additionally, some Kin myths mention a “group of gleaming golden figures” in relation to the first Votann (sometimes referred to as the Gilded One, the stonemind, and the primal ancestors). Some myths speak of them as being the wisest and eldest of the First Ancestors, and are also depicted as shadowy presences that are ill-defined and shown in many different forms, both humanoid and otherwise, where they are depicted at all. They have also been said in some myths to look like a wheel of graven stone faces. It said in Kin myths that the Votann (an alternate name for the First Ancestors’s leader and namesake of the Ancestor Cores) raised the Kin up, and sent them sailing into the dark void – before oceans of fire and flesh rose to swallow them.

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Squats]]
[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Under Development]]

Rejuvenat

2023-02-07T16:03:08Z

2607:FB90:9B29:1A84:5158:B6DC:7327:3567: /* Cell Draining */

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'''Rejuvenation''' (often shortened to '''Rejuve''' or '''Juvenant''') refers to procedures in the [[Imperium of Man]] which extend the lifespan of a baseline human. The basic process involves reconstruction of the body with stem cells and tissue grafts, most of which are grown in growth vats. With rejuve treatments, someone can easily live for centuries.

The Imperium being the Imperium, there's not enough Rejuve to go around. Mostly it's reserved for favoured servants (battle tested officers and commissars, higher ranking Administratum bureaucrats, Inquisitors and their retinues, etc) of the Imperium and for rich people who can afford the steep prices involved. If those on top can last centuries then they can better secure their position against upstarts.

==Cell Draining==
Now so far this does not sound so bad in of itself, especially by IoM standards. Sure, it's exclusive and helps rich buggers stay on top of the dung heap but compared to things like gangs of deckhands towing shells into Macrocannons while being whipped or The [[Death Korps of Krieg]] it's positively benign. And when things are working as they should this is the case. That said, Rejuve Therapy does have it's Grimdark side.

There's always a high demand for Rejuve treatments and it's big money. As such, the demand for inputs is also high. This means that people which can supply the right tissue samples can make a lot of money and there are other ways of getting it than with expensive bioreactors. In short, a young person gets taken by some unscrupulous bastards which hook them up to a rig which drains them of their blood, bone marrow and stem cells. The bleeders are kept alive for weeks or months as they are drained until they give no more and their broken remains are discarded. In [[Varangantua]] the practice is to ensnare lower class teenagers at parties, but you know that kids would be targeted as well. Historically, the Imperium even used certain xenos as the supplies during the [[Great Crusade]], but the demand for it was just as massive as it is now that those various xenos were drained to extinction just to feed the supply chain.

The scary thing about Cell Draining is that it's not done by Chaos Cultists, Xenos infiltrators, twisted Dark Eldar who glory in pain for pain's sake or crazed fanatics like the Redemptionists. There's a demand for a product, there's a quick and dirty way to get it and gangers (and occasionally other business ventures) are more than willing to supply it for cash by said means. Thankfully in a rare bout of of common sense and basic decency in the Imperium, it's illegal and the Bastions come down hard on it when they get wind of it.

There are also alternative sources like Xenos. One, the [[Adarnians]], were left alone during the Great Crusade due to being harmless but then were hunted to extinction when they were found to be a source of an elixir more potent than most other rejuvenats. Said poaching and usage of Adarnian rejuvenat exilir was illegal mind you, and Sedayne lamented being unable to synthesize their genetic code. [[Belisarius Cawl]]’s predecessor, Ezekiel Sedayne, was a known user until he tried to take over Cawl’s body and was made a minor persona in Cawl’s gestalt mind.

==Limitations==
While the prospect of biological immortality without the [[Chaos|usual complications]] sounds nice, the body gradually requires more treatments just to keep itself going, eventually coming to a point where the person in question simply cannot accept more treatments and has to come to terms with natural death. The Mechanicus and their allies have their own workarounds for this by simply replacing failing parts with mechanical equivalents, though anyone who'd want to go that route would have to butter up their local [[Magos]], and knowing the Mechanicus they're not too keen on sharing their best toys even with that in mind. The exact limit tends to vary from author to author however, with five centuries being the closest to a widely-agreed value.

To give you an idea of the upper limits of Rejuve treatments, [[Tarasha Euten]] had arguably the best case scenario (being the foster mom of [[Roboute Guilliman]] on top of being the acting administrator of [[Ultramar]] while he was away meant it was easy for her to get on the priority list, and she lived during the [[Great Crusade]] and survived the [[Horus Heresy]], two periods where the Imperium's technological base was ''much'' better than it is now), and even she succumbed to old age in the end. Still, she achieved something very few Imperial citizens can match: actually live long enough to die of natural causes.

[[Category:Imperial]]

Adarnians

2023-02-07T16:02:43Z

2607:FB90:9B29:1A84:5158:B6DC:7327:3567:

{{Grimdark}}

'''Adarnians''' were a fairly non-threatening and harmless sapient xenos species that was placed under Imperial Protectorate, meaning that they were not to be exterminated by any rowdy crusader fleets. They were mostly ignored by the Imperium until it was discovered they could be used to produce [[Rejuvenat]] drugs to reverse the aging of the upper crust of the Imperium. This resulted in the brutal genocide of the entire species just to drain them for this purpose. Said poaching and usage of Adarnian rejuvenat exilir was illegal mind you, and Sedayne lamented beinf unable to synthesize their genetic code. They are now extinct, with the last of their kind being used to keep [[Magos|Archmagos]] Ezekiel Sedayne alive a little bit longer to meet [[Belisarius Cawl]].

This is similar to the Stookies from [[Judge Dredd]].

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Xenos]]
[[Category:Minor Xenos Species]]