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Hey guys,

I was wondering, are there any chapters, regiments or worlds in the fluff that are stated to be dominated by a non-caucasian ethnicity?

All I can think of with my limited fluff knowledge is the White Scars.

It really seems to me that 40k fluff is dominated by images of the Aryan superman (Cadia, Macragge, etc.). I'd like to see some more diversity... I mean, the only characters I am aware of who were black were both in the DoW series, the Inquisitor guy and Jonah Orion.

I heard the Salamanders used to be black but were retconned? The guy who told me about this said it was because Salamanders used to have -1 Initiative because they came from a high-gravity world, but people were misunderstanding the reasoning...

It surely makes sense that there would be non-whites in the Imperium at any rate.

Actually, it probably makes even more sense than in 38,000 years we'd have eliminated the concept of race and all interbred together to make a nice standardised ethnicity (that wouldn't be white)... Then again, I guess humanity got seperated during the Dark Age of Technology... ack, it's hard!

You can pretty much make anything what you want it to be.

I don't think that there is any deliberate exclusion on GW's part.

As Mr. Burning said, you can make the fluff what ever you want it to be. In my IG army, I have a vet squad that is black and my Primrias Psyker is also black. I believe that the Salamanders are black and they do come from a heavy gravity planet.

guardpiper wrote:As Mr. Burning said, you can make the fluff what ever you want it to be. In my IG army, I have a vet squad that is black and my Primrias Psyker is also black. I believe that the Salamanders are black and they do come from a heavy gravity planet.

Salamanders are now coal-coloured as a result of radiation, I was told that wasn't always the case.

My IG army also has a black veteran squad, so ditto!

But I just wanted to know if there is any OFFICIAL fluff.

The people who live on Nocturne(Salamander home world) are white, but when a Initiate recieves the geneseed the genes react to the radiation on Nocturne causing their skin to grow excessive amounts of Melinen(spelling?) and their eyes to turn bright red(some sort of radiation shielding)


The fluff doesn't really say anything about race and only occasionally someone has an exceptional skin tone.

I like that the fluff leaves race, except whether you're green or not , out of it.

Personally i think bringing up racial differences and demanding Political correctness is a form of racisim.

I hadn't brought political correctness into it, had I? I'd been waiting for someone *else* to accuse me of it, mind, but yeah... if anyone was ever offended by 40k, I'd expect it to be politically correct... but you've evidently misunderstood me

I'm just asking if there are any racial minorities present in the fluff, what's wrong with that?

The Salamanders as stated, but the original fluff from Rogue Trader stated that all marines has the same reaction when exposed to radiation. So if you want to use this then there is a reason why any marine can be of colour or indeed race when you consider that all marines were originally normal humans at some point.

Many BL novels that I have read have included ethnic minorities, Wystan Frauka in the Ravenor trilogy for example. But this is more in the desciption of his skin tone. The differances that we [21st century man] would usually descriminate on would seem pretty trivial I would imagine, 41st millenium man seems to be more concerned with class/nobility and planet of birth. As others have stated the human race would be a pretty well shaken up biological hot pot.

In a culture where xenophobia is looked upon as a good personality trait, the colour of ones skin, gender, sexuality are not really formost in peoples minds. United against the Alien and all that, unless you are a mutie then you can feth off!

That being said I wouldn't expect too much in the way of racially segregated squads or regiments as when included against the overal Imperial tyrany/genocidal/xenophobic overtones of the 40k universe that might be a bit too near the mark for modern day publicists/toy makers.

I would stick to this where wargaming is concerned - if it looks cool go with it!

I didn't mean to imply they were segregated, but I've thought of another example... the Tallarn!

I just meant that individual planets have individual ethinicities.

that reminds me from the first Gaunt's ghosts books... the Vitrian regiment that appeared... for their description, they should be dark skinned, Maybe South American or black people...

I can't recall any particular planet or system being dominated by a single race. However, I can recall seeing references to various races and regional back story for certain guard regiments and civilians. Even the space marines have racial variation. I think the dominance of white characters has more to do with the number of white players, writers, and staff. I could see where the company might feel awkward describing race when its such an unimportant detail in the far flung future but such a hot-button issue in today's society.

Make up your own fluff, don't need any approval for something like this.

My old Imp guard had a Hispanic colored HSO and a Black Lascannon operator

@Bavius

On Cadia they're all blonde and blue-eyed apparently.

Do Space Marines have racial variations? I wouldn't know, if so, are these amongst chapters that recruit from various worlds?

I mean the White Scars are an example of a Space Marine that I am pretty certain is formed up of one ethnicity.

I'm not really after approval, I was just curious as to whether any non-white organisations existed beyond the White Scars and Tallarn.

There's a black commissar in Cadian Blood (he ain't Cadian, however). Weren't Eisenhorn's pilots (father and daughter) also black?

IIRC the guys with the glass armor in the first book of Gaunts ghosts books were black or at least really really tan to red.

Manchu wrote:Weren't Eisenhorn's pilots (father and daughter) also black?

Yes indeed.

For thousands of years after Caliban blew up Dark angels where Navajo or possibly Hopi.

Yea they used to be native american, untill they turned into Monk- Marines.

The robes are pretty sweet though imo.

The whole reason that Deathwing armor is white is becuase of this and why it may be centuries (if ever) before they can recruit from this world again.

It's a big galaxy and the human race has spread out like a wave of vermin. Current ethic "groups" (caucasian, asian, afro-carribean etc etc) have no relevance at all. 38,000 years of breeding and new environments is plenty of time for untold new "groups" to spring up, fall, mix etc.

If anything, I'd find a regiment of <insert current ethnicity> IG to be distinctly out of place. Invent one that befits the setting.

Henners91 wrote:@Bavius

On Cadia they're all blonde and blue-eyed apparently.

.

negative. on Cadia natives are just violet/blue eyes.
i think the natural hair colour there is black/brunette actually.

Pedro Kantor...

If he's not mexican what is he?

poipo32 wrote:Pedro Kantor...

If he's not mexican what is he?

Space-Mexican, duh.

Nurglitch wrote:

poipo32 wrote:Pedro Kantor...

If he's not mexican what is he?

Space-Mexican, duh.

Second and lol

dark6spectre wrote:

Henners91 wrote:@Bavius

On Cadia they're all blonde and blue-eyed apparently.

.

negative. on Cadia natives are just violet/blue eyes.
i think the natural hair colour there is black/brunette actually.

Yep according to the fluff in Cadian Blood, its dark hair and violet (see purple) eyes... Something to do with the eye apparently.

fething hell... the Redemptionists are burning an Aquilla on my lawn again...

Black Corsair wrote:that reminds me from the first Gaunt's ghosts books... the Vitrian regiment that appeared... for their description, they should be dark skinned, Maybe South American or black people...

The Vitrian Dragoons! They had reversable glass armour and towing glass cities. The celtic tanith seem like saveges compared to them.


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Henners91 wrote:@Bavius

On Cadia they're all blonde and blue-eyed apparently.

Do Space Marines have racial variations? I wouldn't know, if so, are these amongst chapters that recruit from various worlds?

I mean the White Scars are an example of a Space Marine that I am pretty certain is formed up of one ethnicity.

I'm not really after approval, I was just curious as to whether any non-white organisations existed beyond the White Scars and Tallarn.

The Salamanders are Black. They're even described as Negroid. Cadians have many different skin tones but actually they all have purple eyes! Dark Angels and Black Templars recruit from all over the galaxy and so are multicultural too. (there are many like them but they are the most famous.)


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The Fox Lord wrote:For thousands of years after Caliban blew up Dark angels where Navajo or possibly Hopi.

What? They seem pretty British to me.

Well there you go, a fabuloso recital of lore

Nice to see GW apparently caucasian-centred... I'd just like to see a chapter or regiment that actually has black skin in its paint scheme, mind.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

The Fox Lord wrote:For thousands of years after Caliban blew up Dark angels where Navajo or possibly Hopi.

What? They seem pretty British to me.

Henners91 wrote:Well there you go, a fabuloso recital of lore

Nice to see GW apparently caucasian-centred... I'd just like to see a chapter or regiment that actually has black skin in its paint scheme, mind.


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The Fox Lord wrote:For thousands of years after Caliban blew up Dark angels where Navajo or possibly Hopi.

What? They seem pretty British to me.

With *those* Officer Uniforms? Martial culture? They reek Germanic to me, but I've yet to read Cadian Blood.

I'm also biased since Lexicanum essentially establishes them to be sausage-eating blonde haired, blue eyed rascals:

"Cadia was settled sometime in the early 32nd millennium by humans, who quickly became the dominant species. The Cadian people are naturally tall, fair-skinned, with blonde hair and blue or purple eyes."

Or ofc we can just content ourselves by saying THEY'RE STARSHIP TROOPERS, Y'ALL.

Every single planet in the Imperium will have various ethnicities depending on climate, white skin does not indicate that they are all caucasian (in fact caucasian itself includes non-white skinned people).

In the 41st Millennium people with white skin are almost certainly not caucasian but any one of thousands of different ethnicities which exhibit white skin, just the same that any other colour of skin does not indicate asian, african or any other current day ethnicity.

For instance as an example and for sake of argument we will ignore the fact Salamanders have red eyes and coal black skin, let's just say they were a shade of brown, that does not make them in any way negroid, it makes them Nocturnian an ethnicity which resembles that of current day afro-caribbean peoples.

Gogsnik wrote:Every single planet in the Imperium will have various ethnicities depending on climate, white skin does not indicate that they are all caucasian (in fact caucasian itself includes non-white skinned people).

In the 41st Millennium people with white skin are almost certainly not caucasian but any one of thousands of different ethnicities which exhibit white skin, just the same that any other colour of skin does not indicate asian, african or any other current day ethnicity.

For instance as an example and for sake of argument we will ignore the fact Salamanders have red eyes and coal black skin, let's just say they were a shade of brown, that does not make them in any way negroid, it makes them Nocturnian an ethnicity which resembles that of current day afro-caribbean peoples.

Oh ya, everyone agrees that you're going to see alot of different people across a million worlds. There's 2 BL books that actually have people with greyish skin.
The question is are non-white people under represented in their model ranges. It true that 16 out of the 18 Legions were white people. There's alot of reasons for this but I don't actually think GW is racist. Its just that almost everything in 40K is based on a real culture and most of the human armies are based on WWI, WWII (for IG) and Roman and Greek (for SM) stuff.
Also I always have some black dudes in my IG army and honestly they don't look very good. Painting black skin is super-hard!