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“’Course I know about plasma generators,
an’ warp-core as well. You think my family’ve always bin grox-herders?
My father’s father’s father’s father’s father, he was a rating on the Belasarro: decided to join the colonists when they dropped ‘em off here. Now pass’em gloves: gotta fence needs mendin’.”
The
spread of ‘civilisation’ has taken an uneven course in the Calixis
sector, gaining only tentative footholds on some worlds and withering
on others. Simultaneously, the tech-level of many of the sector’s most
prodigious planets is by no means uniform: the great hive cities of
Scintilla, Malfi, Solomon and elsewhere give way to stretches of
wilderness containing many tentative settlements whose inhabitants hold
substantially different mentalities to those of most hivers. These
partially-colonised areas represent the outer edge of Imperial rule:
the periphery, where the reach of Imperial justice’s mailed fist does
not always extend, and where survival often depends upon one’s ability
to compromise, both with one’s environment and one’s neighbours.
Known by scholars as Homo Sapiens Minimus, sometimes known by themselves as Halflings or Hobbits and know by others as Runtlings, Stunties or worse. They rarely reach 1.3 meters high and tend to dumpy and weak. The ancestors have spent many millennia in-breeding on food rich planets often with soporific climates. As such they tend to be idle, hedonistic, gregarious, over-friendly and sexually promiscuous.
Now some of them remain on there home planets as land barons or seldom used craftsmen in self sustaining medial agri planets. Others have travelled the stars looking for cheap thrills and easy money.
Originally these planets may have been wild places sometimes even settled by marooned space travellers but years of cultivation without any large threats have taken their toll on the runtlings. Several planets in Calixis sector were found to be inhabited by Ratlings when they were re-discovered. One is even wealthy now because of particularly high yield crops and specialist cuisine. Its original Halfing land owners now a rich noble class that has made use of their wealth to form extensive and exclusive 'leisure' facilities.
Stacks is a typical hive that supplies mining
goods to the mines of the toxic world of Lo. In the mid hive every day industry
grinds away helping the Emperor and his servant make the things that keeps the Imperium
Run. But in the under hive life is much harder. Here you fight or die, kill or
be killed and the other levels do not care what happens to you. Here you know
you have to make a better life for your children but how. No one knows when the
Tenyear started, probably when the Brotherhood Space Marine Chapter started to recruit
from the under hive. Those not chosen to be Marines where still a cut above the
average Imperial subject, so the Spire Born started to desend upon the lower
hive to pick up those not brought to His Right Hand.
Deathworlds are planets so inimical to life that every day there is a battle for survival. The hardy people of deathworlds, by necessity, are a tough breed well versed in survival amidst planet-wide jungles that swarm with voracious predators, flesh-eating plants, poisonous insects and virulent diseases.
So I was there the other day creating
a character for an upcoming game. I decided I wanted a seen-it-all mercenary
veteran who sells his customized guns to the highest bidder (actually, I just
wanted a chance to use the Spectre). And what I realized was this: What world
does a veteran come from?
There are dozens of 'abhuman' species within the Imperium; creatures devolved from humans over generations of living on worlds outside the normal human environment. Most of these strains, when encountered by the Imperium, are eradicated without condition as the vile mutants they are. Some, however, such as the Squats, Rattlings and Ogryns are found to still be loyal servants of the Emperor, and permitted to continue serving him.
