Scavvies

Scavvies are humans who exist in the lowest reaches of the Hive cities and/or Starships, where the effluent of industry makes its way downward and pollutes the environment. This is also a region where the rule of the Imperium holds little influence and so there exists little rule of law and even less support or provision of food and water.

A typical Scavvy appears how one would expect any human who lives in extreme poverty to appear. They have a very poor complexion of almost yellow skin, due to the build-up of pollutants, the lack of sunlight, and disease. They also often have wasted and/or deformed limbs, probably due to poor healthcare or birth defects.

Despite these outward defects, it is important to note that Scavvies are not necessarily Mutants, although mutants do appear among them as they do among other human populations. The majority of scavvies are of baseline human stock, just horrifically deformed or inbred to the point of it being completely apparent.

Tabletop

While they were originally presented in the table-top battles game: Necromunda, that era has long since past.

However that's not to say they have completely vanished. Dark Heresy has incorporated much of the pre-existing fluff into options for player characters (though that wasn't difficult as Scavvies are simply a by-product of their environment) and if you want to field them on the tabletop in much larger battles then go no further than the Renegade & Heretics army list and choose a Mutant Overlord as your HQ choice.

Necromunda Gangs

Due to the nature of their environment, Scavvies must group together in order to survive. Yet due to the isolation and their anti-social behaviours, these groups invariably consist of several families that are severely inbred, no doubt increasing their rate of degeneration.

Yet loyalty to their family is not a common trait held by scavvies, and thus the group is held together through a combination of brute force and underhandedness by the strongest male of the pack (ie: the gang leader) who has to pass Leadership Tests after every battle or some of its members will wander off.

Scavvies do not organise themselves well enough to occupy or operate any territory that they might inhabit, which may or may not be a result of their lack of education. Thus any location that they move their base camp to will quickly accumulate garbage and filth as they fling food scraps all over the place and have not quite figured out how to use the plumbing and flush toilets and the like. In gameplay terms any territory they hold onto becomes Scrofulous Wastes immediately after they capture it, rendering them a one-time influx of cash as they steal anything not bolted down, and apply a layer of fecal matter to anything that is. After that, no-one else would want to capture any territory back from them.

Also, most of the Scavvy leaders have the foresight to bring support with them whenever they go into battle and will round up even less fortunate hive dwellers and goad them into battle as fodder:

Followers

Scavvy Dogs

Wild animals inhabit the underhives, and just like humanity have not been untouched by their environment. Scavvy Dogs are like the Scavvies themselves in that they are twisted and degenerated from their natural state and also much like Scavvies they are ruthless survivors.

Packs of these dogs prowl the underhives in search of weak prey and can be a terror to unarmed communities though they can also provide the vital function of consuming the dead in an environment with no interest in funereal rites.

Occasionally a Scavvy leader will "befriend" a pack of these wild dogs and bring them into battle. Although this level of domestication is of the lowest sort and its loyalty is entirely up to the dog remaining fed.

In game terms, they've actually got pretty good statlines, just very few special rules that make them interesting.

Plague Zombie

Even Necromunda has not been untouched by the Zombie Plague although it is uncertain whether anyone realises that this is the touch of Chaos or not. Although the plague has long since passed it has not been purged entirely. Small handfuls of directionless zombies can still be found in the lowest reaches, feeding on animals or dead things.

Scavvies have learned to utilise these unthinking creatures by rounding them up and pushing them towards their enemies. This is a potent tactic as although the zombies are not the strongest of adversaries, they have no fear or sensation of pain and may yet pass on their plague to their unfortunate victims if they wound them in close combat, where after the battle the survivor must take a check to find out if he has contracted the plague or not... most of the time they are just sick and get over the illness over a few days (ie: the next battle in game-time) but if they are really unlucky they'll just get removed from play and possibly even attack their former gang-members... causing a domino effect of plague.

This can be absolutely amazing if it knocks out an entire gang after only a single wound but it's actually mathematically unlikely.

Ghouls

Ghouls are cannibals plain and simple. Who knows what causes them to fall that far from society, but this is 40k and poor people get desperate.

Despite this, Ghouls may not originally have been poor Scavvies at all and may have come from further up the social ladder, particularly if they have a hard-on for Slaanesh and figure that eating people might be a cool new experience. That's the sort of thing that leads to mental derangement so they would invariably find their way to the bottom of the hive and share the same spaces as the Scavvies.

Particularly clever Scavvy groups can entice the ghouls into battle the same way that they do the dogs... by waving fresh body parts and calling "here ghoulie ghoulie ghoulie".

Scalies

Essentially what you get when an Ogryn suffers mutation. Some mutations may stabilise within populations and create an entirely new form.

Scalies are so named due to their thick reptilian-like skin which grants them a built-in 5+ armour save and they also cause Fear. They are particularly massive, immensely strong (S5/T4/W2) and have the unique ability to regenerate from almost any debilitating injury and will re-grow lost limbs if given enough time.

However, Scalies are so obviously divergent from baseline humans that it is unlikely that they would be tolerated by any Imperial citizen. Furthermore, their voiceboxes have also mutated to the degree that they can no longer communicate in human languages and so their intentions and origins are almost impossible to determine. It is suspected that they live in hidden tribes in only the most polluted locations of the hive where no human can travel.

Despite all of their physical enhancements, they are dumb as door-posts and are completely incapable of command (despite their inability to talk) so if the gang-leader dies, they are never counted as eligible candidates to replace him.