Lore question: Imperial Guard Beastmen - purged or retconned?

[SpaceDwalin]

Back in the days of my youth and 1st edition, Imperial Guard could include Beastmen units, they were classified as abhumans.

I see that Ratlings and Ogryns have survived, but not so the self loathing Emperor worshiping beast folk.

My question is - Is there some narrative mention of Beastmen being turfed out of the guard, ie current lore says Beastmen used to serve in the guard but no longer do.  Or has it been retconned so that there never were any imperial guard Beastmen?

[Gamiel]

We have at least one post plastic minatures pre-Guilliman return WD article about abhumans in the guard that hade beast men, one of the WD earlier this year had an article about... fanatics or faithful I think it was, that had as one of the theme illustrations a photo of a force of imperial beastmen. We also have the beastmen in Blackstone Fortress who I think was supposed to be ex-IG

[redmapa]

iirc they were outlawed because their genes were too unstable to be considered Abhumans and as mutants they were purged from the Guard, if I'm not mistaken this was mentioned in 6th Ed.

[TechCaptain]

While semi purged my understanding some enclaves are allowed to exist in Admech research areas or quarantine worlds for observation or testing. A ton fell to chaos.

[ImperialWarrior]

I think it was left intentionally vague.

[LameBeard]

45 minutes ago, ImperialWarrior said:

I think it was left intentionally vague.

Agreed. In the 4th - 7th edition era I think the position in White Dwarf was that abhumans with a bestial flavour were in Guard regiments, but those with full-on horns and cloven hooves are just with Chaos.  But it was a kind of off-hand comment by the modeller on how to 'sell' the look of their kitbash, I don't know if any novels or codices have given any proper lore. What is the background to the chap in Necromunda - any clues there?

[TechCaptain]

So I know Felinid flavor are just really rare to begin with and their main planet got quarantined so Admech can experiment to find what dark age tech did the genetic engineering that created that flavor of cat people. And my understanding some of the other types got similar treatment. 
 

Edit: in my Homebrew lore a variant of the felinids occupy some of my planets and are used in place of Oygrns and Ratlings because those adhuman are rarer in that corner of the galaxy and it just works.

Edited November 4, 2022 by TechCaptain

[Beaky Brigade]

I'm currently using the lore more as "guidelines", planning a force of Wargame Atlantic Lizardmen with gas masks and autoguns and a squad of Knightmare Games "space minotaurs" as ogryns (or bullgryn?)

 

Admitidly its a more tounge in cheek rogue traders army than anything else but I don't really care at this point what a lore purist might say about it, I just want to have fun! 

 

I would welcome beastmen returning to the fold officially, but I think I have quite specific tastes and would want more cutesy anthro miniatures than the body horror mutants Gw would most likely create. 

[GreenScorpion]

Based on mini releases the beastmen are still around even if they might not be widely accepted.

Many like the ones in the Blackstone Fortress are servants of chaos now, but some should still operate in the service of the Imperium.

 

For example the necromunda bounty hunter (https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-EU/Gor-Half-horn-Beastman-Bounty-Hunter-2017) is technically imperial, even if a bounty hunter wouldn't be in any way related with the imperial authorities, but he has at least to be recognized as a citizen in some capacity to walk around necromunda.

 

GW has been leaving the background somewhat dubious in what relates with them, mostly because they want to avoid bringing everything they had initially introduced from the fantasy game into 40k, but at the same time they want to leverage nostalgia with some of the older factions and models, so beastmen should in theory have been purged in many locations, but not all for sure. One thing is for sure, at the moment they are still around, even if most serve the chaos gods.

[SpaceDwalin]

Thanks all 

So my plans to kitbash some Guard Beastmen for fun will survive a bit of lore scrutiny.

They'll be part of a Rogue Trader's Imperial Guard attachment, so if anything I can say the RT and his forces have been out of touch with the Imperium since 1989!

[Inquisitor_Lensoven]

54 minutes ago, SpaceDwalin said:

Thanks all 

So my plans to kitbash some Guard Beastmen for fun will survive a bit of lore scrutiny.

They'll be part of a Rogue Trader's Imperial Guard attachment, so if anything I can say the RT and his forces have been out of touch with the Imperium since 1989!

Victoria minis has some beastmen kits

[SpaceDwalin]

38 minutes ago, Inquisitor_Lensoven said:

Victoria minis has some beastmen kits

They look amazing, but I'm UK based and postage/delivery don't look cheap 

I'll investigate if they have a UK stockist 

Edited November 4, 2022 by SpaceDwalin

[Beaky Brigade]

I did see some 3D print ones advertised here

 

Store page.

 

I haven't got a printer so haven't tried them out but I may see if I can commission a local person to print them at some point.

[4ndroid]

I was planning a AoS Beastmen/ Catachan mashup but when I saw how different the stat lines are for the Blackstone Beastmen and regular Guard, I’ll probably pass. Last thing I need is a narrative only based army when my other 12 haven’t been painted yet

 

Beastmen are awesome though love the old RT models!