Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

= Abhumans =
In addition to true abhumans (which are separate subspecies), the galaxy is also home to  numerous baseline human populations that are nearly identical to the rest of the galaxy but differ in just a few alleles originating in their isolation during the Long Night, equivalent to how human populations today differ in skin tone, the ability to digest lactose, survive long trips over water, or [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-altitude_adaptation_in_humans breathe easier at high altitudes]]. Some of these populations are distinct enough to qualify as distinct ethnicities, but are not truely abhuman. The purple eyes of [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Cadia|Cadians]], the exact same shade as the Eye, act as a natural filter against the unnatural colors of the Warp, spread through the population because those that had it were less likely to go insane and more likely to have children. This makes Cadians more Chaos resistant at the cost of a bit of Warp color-blindness. [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Prospero|Prosperans]] naturally have a reddish-brown/orangish skin tone that is reminiscent of a strong sunburn, and because of the influx of refugees back in M34 “Prosperan Orange” is rapidly becoming a common skin color on Old Earth. The [[Nobledark_Imperium_Member_States#Interex|Interex]] are slender, pale, somewhat Asian-looking, and have big ears. Not pointy, mobile ears like eldar, just big human ears. [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Catachan|Catachan]] are unusually tall and muscular which is believed to be from the majority of Catachan’s population being at least part Ogryn. [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notable_Planets#Fenris|Fenrisians]] have a small trickle of non-human genes in their system, the result of rare “one in a million” accidents where offspring produced from unions between a non-augmented human and a Space Wolf/Valkyrie don’t have the genes from the Canis Helix deactivated through Dark Age geno-copyright protection. [[Nobledark_Imperium_Member_States#Hubworld_League|Hubworlders]] have a few unique genetic mutations which protect them from heart failure in a high-gravity environment. Their unique stature is due to development in a high-gravity environment, but Hubworlders raised offworld look identical to normal humans. However, the minor differences in genome were enough of a loophole for the AdMech to classify them as abhumans out of spite, even though by that logic every human population not on Earth (and some that are) would have to be classified as such.

Another thorny issue that rarely comes up is that if anyone were to get a sample of pre-spaceflight humanity (as in, ''Homo sapiens sapiens''), "modern-day" baseline humanity (a.k.a. the Men of Stone) would have to be classified as a different subspecies due to the degree of genetic differences spliced into the collective genome by Dark Age medicine, including tweaks in the code to eliminate certain inherited diseases, reduce risk of cybernetic or biological implant rejection, digest proteins regardless of their chirality, prevent spaceflight osteopenia, etc. It's just like the eldar humans have assumed what is actually genetic engineering is natural because everyone has it.

== Ratlings ==
Because the Imperium isn't as xenophobic in this timeline, ratlings have been allowed to expand and have colony worlds all across the Imperium. This proved to be a lifesaver when Ornsworld, the ratling homeworld, was depopulated during the 12th Black Crusade. The loss of Ornsworld was a tragedy, but it wasn't fatal to the ratling subspecies.

Ornsworld is a world kind of like Earth, but with a lot more mountain-building and mountain-ranges. About the same time the Age of Strife happened, Ornsworld started going through an Ice Age, so the ancestors of the ratlings got hit with a double-whammy of being cut off from their technology base and being in the middle of an Ice Age. Ornsworld's extensive mountains didn't help, as all they did is provide more space for glaciers to grow and cut off the various basins and valleys from one another. Populations were isolated, and food and living space was at a premium. Like many species stuck in environments with little food and viable land, [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insular_dwarfism the inhabitants of Ornsworld became smaller in size], and this period greatly contributed to the ratlings' behavior and culture. They're gluttons because evolved in an environment where you're never going to know where you're going to get your next meal. They tend to filch things because their ancestors had to hoard anything that might be useful to survive. They're really good cooks because their ancestors had to learn how to make terrible things palatable in order to survive another day (sort of like jellied eels used to be a food for the poorest in the U.K.), and those cooking techniques were passed on through families even after the ratlings were no longer on the edge of starvation.

About a thousand years before the Imperium arrived the Ice Age broke and Ornsworld got really nice. Large portions of the planet went from being covered by glaciers to fertile valleys that could support bountiful harvests. Basically a combination between the Shire and Space Austria. The ratlings, normally used to living on the edge of existence, exploded in population due to the sudden abundance of food and good living conditions. Of course, that was before the 12th Black Crusade and the Warp Hounds burned the planet down.

== Felinids ==

The felinids hail from the world of Carlos McConnell. It’s not clear if the name of the planet was due to a mixup in the initial paperwork reporting the planet, if Carlos McConnell was an important figure in the planet’s history, or both. Carlos McConnell is a wet, rainy world. Much of the planet is covered in some manner of rainforest, temperate rainforest on the large mountainous continents that mostly straddle the continent’s temperate latitudes and tropical rainforest on the volcanic island chains located closer to the equator. As a result, there is very little arable land on Carlos McConnell, and very few large animals that could be used for livestock.

One of the best source of food for a Stone Age hunter-gatherer society would be the numerous small game found throughout the planet’s rainforests. So it was really useful to have features that allowed you to track down and hunt small game, even if you had to climb up trees and tear it apart with your bare hands and teeth. And the domestic cat of Earth was the perfect murder machine to use as the template. In truth, felinids are probably as much marmoset-like as cat-like, as cats probably weren’t the only species that the natives of Carlos McConnell were spliced with and when you start to make a primate cat-like they begin to resemble a marmoset. But in the darkness of the 41st millennium, more people know what a cat is than a marmoset.

If you passed a well-dressed, well-groomed modern felinid on a hive city street, you probably wouldn’t notice that much was off at first glance. Felinids have hair everywhere but their faces, hands, and the soles of their feet, so their faces look mostly human. However, their eyes are very cat-like with slitted pupils and their ears are pointed, protruding and definitely non-human. Their canine teeth are also enlarged, though this varies between individuals. Felinids from the continents having bigger canines. They may be able to open their mouth wider than baseline humans, in order to use those canines to take slashing bites out of things. The lower incisors may be specialized for grooming like some primates.

Felinids tend to have a bushy mane of hair in both males and females, and very little facial hair. The mane is as much cultural as genetic, and is/was useful for keeping things from biting your neck. Their hands and feet both have retractable claws, the one on the thumb being particularly nasty. The feet are kind of like those of some ancient human relatives, where the second toe is enlarged to partially take over from the function of the big toe, which has become opposable. Felinids can wear human boots, but prefer their own footwear for comfort. The ankle joint can flex, allowing them to use their feet like hands to clamp onto trees. The tail is mostly used for balance while moving through the forest or climbing. Overall non-human enough that they aren't magical-realmy, but human enough that its possible to see why baseline humans are sometimes attracted to them.

Although still omnivores, a much greater proportion of the felinid diet is composed of meat compared to humans. This turned out to be a problem when the felinids decided to stop being hunter-gatherers and start rebuilding civilization. Although hunting small animals worked fine for hunter-gatherers, the easiest way to get enough protein to feed sedentary populations would be to get it from the sea. As a result, advanced civilization on Carlos McConnell mostly developed in the tropical archipelagos, where it was easy to catch enough seafood to feed dense populations and volcanic action made it easy to mine for workable metals. The diet of the more technologically advanced felinid cultures has been compared to the Tau, though rather than being primarily wheat noodles supplemented by a small amount of seafood like the Tau their diet tends to be mostly seafood with a little bit of noodles.

Overall, there are two distinct cultural groups of felinids living on Carlos McConnell. There are the aforementioned People of the Islands, which are more technologically advanced and have been culturally described as a cross between Japanese and southeast Asian cultures. They were technologically advanced enough that the Imperium did not see them as completely feral like the Ogryn and the Beastmen, but at the same time did not have space travel (feudal level). The felinids living on the more sparsely populated continents (the Continental Tribes) are still largely tribal hunter-gatherers. They have been described as being overall Wookie-like in culture, and tend to be larger and tougher than the islanders with thicker fur. There are stories of a rarer third variety of felinid, whether it is a distinct kind in its own right or a recurring mutation is debatable. It is the Saber-toothed Felinid. It’s what you get when you cross a felinid and a Nova-Ogyrn.

Although they can function in groups on their own, felinid soldiers tend to operate at peak efficiency when broken into squads and distributed among other regiments of non-Felinids. Organizing them is very much a case of herding cats. They generally get along with nova-ogryn better than nova-beastmen and get along with either far, far better than Fenrisians due to conflicting territorial instincts. Both islanders and tribal continent-dwellers have a nasty habit of trophy taking. Teeth, finger bones and vertebrae made into adornments is the most common means of this expression. They generally have an edge at trap setting, ambush and are considered a poor man’s answer to real assassins. They are shit at holding a position.

Much like the ratlings, although the felinids were once confined to a single world, they have expanded outward in the 10,000 years since and there are now felinid colony worlds as well as significant felinid populations on many worlds.

Carlos McConnell himself is a figure of veneration on the felinid homeworld, despite being an outsider. The felinids know that when Carlos McConnell discovered the planet he could have easily exploited them as a source of cheap labor, grease a few palms in the Administratum to make the planet disappear and turn it into his own personal fiefdom as has happened with many other Rogue Trader dynasties. Instead, he brought modern technology to the medieval-era People of the Islands and gradually exposed them to the galaxy in a way that would allow them to thrive. It didn’t hurt that he’d married one of the natives. That’s one way to make people not see you as an outsider.

Carlos McConnell is considered a Paul Bunyan-esque folk hero on the similarly-named planet, with all sorts of impossible things attributed to his name that are technically true, but blown out of proportion through millennia of tall tales. For example, McConnell is said to have put a flag on the felinids' moon by throwing it really, really hard. He did put a flag on the moon, but he did so by landing on the moon in his spaceship. Like a normal person. Similarly, they say he put a goldfish into the sea which grew into the sea serpents of the planet. Carlos McConnell did have a goldfish, but the correlation between that and the sea serpents is a bit of a stretch.

Although he didn't turn the planet into his own little mercantilistic fiefdom, Carlos McConnell did make the planet his base of operations, as he found no shortage of willing individuals who wanted to go out into the stars and bring back resources to support their families. As technology and wealth flowed into Carlos McConnell the planet’s inhabitants were gradually uplifted in technology, and skyscrapers gradually replaced the feudal castles of the old daimyos. Like all Rogue Trader dynasties, the Carlos McConnell started looking inward as trading opportunities dried up. Now the Carlos McConnell Corporation is a business power that rivals some individual megacorps on Kiavahr, selling everything from dried goods to acting as a middle man for Mechanicus products. The inhabitants of the felinid homeworld were always hunters, they just traded warpaint for business suits. This is more the case for the felinids on Carlos McConnell than anywhere else, the felinid colonies don't have the Carlos McConnell corporation to bankroll everything for them. The company’s mascot is a cutesy-stylized felinid tested by focus groups for maximum appeal (read: Hello Kitty-esque moe catgirl), recognized throughout the Segmentum Tempestus. Few people realize it barely looks anything like an actual felinid.