A short but fluffy question... (Squats and the Deathwatch?)

[mjrwaud]

So, ever since that Squat bounty hunter model was released for Necromunda and the Squats are once again (semi)cannon I've wondered... how the Deathwatch would interact with these abhumans or abhumans in general?

 

I'm especially curious because I have a soft spot for the Squats (being an old Dwarfs player) and was really thinking of making a squat Ordo Xenos inquisitor and acolytes (using the standard rules for those and kitbashed from the Kharadon overlords) as specialists against the tyranids... on account that the tyranids essentially wiped them out but survivors would likely have knowledge useful to the imperium.

 

I know it's a really fluffy / heretical idea, but I'm just throwing the idea out there to get your thoughts.  Thanks in advance!

[Qui-Gon]

A squad Inquisitor would be an extreme oddity. With how xenophobic and pro pureblooded human the imperium is, it wouldn't be very likely. Afterall, you don't see ratling and Ogryn outside of niche units in the guard, because there they are given a purpose and a utility to validate their...mutation?

While squats may be abhumans and so are more mutant than xenos, the Deathwatch I don't believe would be outright opposed to it, but need to understand how infinitesimally rare it would be.

[anarchistscourge]

Your idea is awesome! Not to sure how the inquisition would view an abhuman inquisitor though. Just had this funny image of a squat having a bunch of human acolytes he orders around.

In regards to how deathwatch regards abhumans, it really depends on how the rest of the imperium view them. Something like ogryns and ratlings, they would be tolerated as much as Astartes tolerate normal humans. So I would of thought it would be the same for squats.

 

You have just given me the idea for a small squat deathwatch kill team though, always wanted to do something with kharadons.

 

Whatever you do keep us posted as I would love to see your ideas come true

[Xisor]

The Inquisition doesn't view the Inquisition, really. It's handfuls of Inquisitors interacting with other handfuls of Inquisitors.

 

The Imperium, as a rule, is *very* anti-alien and anti-daemon. Psykers aren't viewed too fondly either,you may be aware. But I hate to break it to you all, the Deathwatch...

 

Sit down, you shouldn't be standing.

 

The Deathwatch make use of psykers. They sometimes use alien weapons!

 

And it is a standard that many inquisitors are psychic. And Eldar were effectively invited to the throneworld, ork ambassadors have stood in the Senatorum Imperialis, humans have gone to the Black Library, jokaero have rules that retain battleforgedness with Inquisitors.

 

Also daemon hosts,theyre a thing!

 

So as far as I can see?

 

Humans are humans. I'm 100% convinced that's true across the board. Beastmen, squats, sump scum hive mutants, ogryns, ratings, they're all human. Humanity might be intolerant, compared to being an *alien*, abhumans are you're best friends.

 

(Incidentally, compared to 'fear the alien' species-y intolerance, I've for a long time felt GW could wholesale ditch the abhuman prejudice from the main concept. Keep it, where it serves a purpose, for narrative purposes, but otherwise: they're human. An ogryn is recognisably human, with human gait and human facial expressions, human intellect and human empathy. It's a bit too real, a bit too close for comfort, to have actual 'dehumanising' of different "breeds" of humanity. Transhumans, that's a slightly different aspect - it's grafting extra bits or deducting bits from humanity - but squats and ratings and ogryns? They're human, :cuss. It'd be like saying that the disabled, or women, or people with freckles, can't be Inquisitors)

 

All that said: The brutality of the Imperium generally ensures that "mould breakers" don't get especially far *easily*. Though relatively speaking, even the hyper privileged don't live easily. Luxuriously, sure, but it isn't portrayed as easy. But becoming an Inquisitor, if you've got the skills, isn't a trivial trouble-free job.

 

Could a squat, rating, ogryn (see appendix mention of Grey Ogryns) be an Inquisitor?

 

Absolutely.

 

Would it be especially common? Probably not. Relatively common, again, perhaps not - demand would only go for their own worlds, they'd supposedly face entrenched issues off world. (How many left handed Inquisitors?) And on their own worlds, colonialism would see a few of the available 'jobs' (I know, not how the Inquisition works) taken up by offworlders. But to do the job effectively? I digress.

 

The appendix indicates that voluminous a human populations aren't bountiful. (In contrast, say, to Hive Worlds.)

 

If you've got a fully functioning world or system of worlds, environmentally well suited only to ogryns, who governs it? Who runs cities and towns? Who runs cities? Who produces culture and marketing? Who consumes idle culture? The answer, I think, is the same as for squats and ratlings: they do.

 

And accordingly: that's fine. I don't think it makes the Imperium any less grim dark than the existence of women Inquisitors. (See also women Custodes & Astartes, in my estimation. See also also: Watcher Keep in my signature for more.)

 

So, from the Deathwatch perspective, I think having squats is fine. If they're suitably competent, no issue. It's literally a case of switching expectations from a vague "DW would have that prejudice" to the vague converse (Deathwatch barely trust anyone who's human and an Inquisitor, anyway, so trivial baseline deviations are not relevant to 8ft killing machines?)

 

...

 

Jeez though, the word is awful. Same with the cod Latin High gothic rotundis. Homo Dawi? Homo Duardin?

[Delta.Skies]

Yea you got deathwatch mixed with red scorpions who hate everybody. Deathwatch is a band of brothers who are good at killing xeno rather than the hate of them if that makes sense. Think about them as being the men in black.

[mjrwaud]

Thanks for the input!

@ Qui-Gon - Agreed, I can imagine how rare it would be for a "non-standard" human to rise to a position like that in the Imperium (not big on trust and open-mindedness) but squats really are the most  similar to "standard" humanity in terms of ability / mindset so probably wouldn't be limited by such things... while ratlings and ogryn have distinct limitations (size and low intelligence, respectively). The galaxy is a pretty big and strange place so who knows what could happen, but I still want to try and use them in a way that doesn't seem too heretical / self-indulgent against the setting.

 

@ Anarchistscourge - Thanks! Yeah, I love those Kharadron models and they're sooo close to being 40k ready. I'd thought about converting them as marine equivalents but I'm not sure they look armoured enough, even with the addition of power armour pauldrons / power packs (the old ironbreaker models worked okay for that). I have tonnes of deathwatch bits so some experimentation is definitely going to happen.

 

@ Xisor - Woooow, I wasn't expecting that detailed a response! Thanks! You've brought up some of my thoughts and concerns... the deathwatch fluff can be a little inconsistent in terms of their reaction to "non-standard" humans and even some Xenos species. Sometimes they're described like rabid space-racists and other times like a force specialized in using whatever tools available, including xenos tech, to combat uncommon xenos threats (a description I muuuch prefer). So, it seems reasonable to me that they might work with uncommon allies to get a mission done... but I wanted to test the waters and see what others thought.

 

@ Delta.Skies - I hear what you're sayin and agree with that portrayal of the DW, but some of the fluff really does portray them as pretty prejudicial. "Death to the Xenos", "Suffer not the alien to live" and other maxims of the DW are harsh words for a harsh setting and not something I could see Will Smith saying... ;)