Ostishi Plague Hawks

This page details people, events, and organisations from the /tg/ Heresy, a fan re-working of the Warhammer 40,000 Universe. See the /tg/ Heresy Timeline and Galaxy pages for more information on the Alternate Universe.

Ostishi Plague Hawks
Chaos Symbol on a Green Wing
Homeworld	Ostish
Doctrine	Aerial Bombardment, Air Cavalry
Colors	Green and Black
Associated Legion	Life Bringers

Homeworld

Ostish is a world dominated by fungoid life. Crimson mushrooms, hundred of feet tall, release their spores to the strong winds at the canopy of the forests while queer myconid creatures mingle with deathcaps in the mycelium roots of the spore-trees. Though all this an impressive sight, it is restricted to humans without the use of a gas mask, as many of the native mushrooms release toxic spores that form a dense cloud so large that only certain mountains and fungi the size of hive cities can penetrate the deadly mist. Being as mushroom caps and mountaintops are not known for their abundance, the people of Ostish flew down fom their biological pillars to cultivate vast farms of edible mushrooms in the undergrowth of the mycelium forests, where they were largely undisturbed save for the odd mildew infestation or myconid incursion.

After the Nurglite corruption, the large mushrooms have turned a sickly purple, while the undergrowth is home to pools of putrescent sludge not entirely dissimilar from mucus. But Ostishi don't care about the defiling of their home into a twisted shadow of what it once was; it is a landscape made in the image of their god. For them, it is paradise.

History

(Work in Progress)

Ostish was largely ignored by colonists due to its toxicity until the Age of Strife, in which a civil war on another planet in the sector drove a group of refugees to shelter there. Many died because of the spores and food shortages, but over time the huddled tent cities of the City Shrooms developed into burgeoning settlements that lived off of their mushroom farms and trade from other worlds.

During the Great Crusade, Ostish was conquered by the Life Bringers. Impressed by the healing potential of some of the local mushrooms, they incorporated them into the Legion's medicines. After the planet submitted, the Ostishi Hawks (as they were called at the time) often worked alongside the Life Bringers by airlifting wounded, bombarding the enemy with biological weapons and squeezing into hazardous spaces that the hardy marines could not enter themselves.

Around the time of the Hektor Heresy a Nurglite cult called the Brotherhood of the Embracing Mist successfully infected several City Shrooms with their taint, ensuring that once the mighty fungi reached their mating season the spores they released would be laced with a mind-altering sickness that would make them worship Nurgle. Once the citizens noticed the tainted spores, it was too late. All who were not wearing a gas mask at the time became hysterical, and the last recorded transmissions were of panicked PDF soldiers who were on duty when the spores were released. The Brotherhood assumed control of Ostish, and rechristened the Hawks as the Plague Hawks to venerate their putrescent master.

During the Hektor Heresy the Plague Hawks fought alongside the Life Bringers once again, only now they were serving the Ruinous Powers rather than the Emperor.

Tactics

(Work in Progress)

Notable Regiments

(Work in Progress)

Notable Champions

(Work in Progress)

Miscellaneous

The Ostishi Plague Hawks are the growers and distributors of the most potent hallucinogenic mushrooms in the known universe. This endears them to the Lions Rampant, who often buy from them. Remember: if it didn't knock you on your ass, it wasn't Ostishi.