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The latest edition of WH40K tossed out a few names with very little context:

the Ulumeathic League (now devoured by Hive Fleet Naga)

the Church of Dracolith (some sort of crystalline entities)

The Draxian Hegemony (no information)

Worldweave of the Noisome Reek (at war with the Tau it seems)


and the ever mysterious Fra'al (last seen with guns blazing during the Gothic War).


And now for the question:


Faction-wise, these groups are definitely one offs.

Fluff-wise - well what role do they play? All of the "mega threat" roles are taken up by things like the 'nids, Chaos, and the Necrons.

Of the groups cited above (and i'm sure there are more in fluff), only the Fra'al look somewhat menacing and have the power to inflict grevious harm on the Imperial Fleet or its adversaries.

I suppose they can serve as "mysterious race that does X, even if the rest of 40K Fluff says X is impossible), ie: One Trick Pony.


Thoughts?

The ulumeathi were mentioned again in the grey knight codex as the creators of the Plasma Syphon (reason enough to kill them) so we can assume that they have quite a lot of technology that deals with plasma weaponry, or at least deal with plasma users on a frequent enough basis to warrant creating a counter for it.

You've also forgotten to mention the Barghesi, which admittedly aren't mentioned in the rulebook, but the term "hyper-violent" always precedes their mention and several chapters of space marines are dedicated to fighting them, which implies that they are some straight up nasty Mofos.

Kain wrote:
You've also forgotten to mention the Barghesi, which admittedly aren't mentioned in the rulebook, but the term "hyper-violent" always precedes their mention and several chapters of space marines are dedicated to fighting them, which implies that they are some straight up nasty Mofos.

I smell the "single characteristic race" popularized by Star Trek. You know, "Klingons are Violent! Romulans are sneaky. Ferengi are avarious."

ContemplativeSphinx wrote:

Kain wrote:
You've also forgotten to mention the Barghesi, which admittedly aren't mentioned in the rulebook, but the term "hyper-violent" always precedes their mention and several chapters of space marines are dedicated to fighting them, which implies that they are some straight up nasty Mofos.

I smell the "single characteristic race" popularized by Star Trek. You know, "Klingons are Violent! Romulans are sneaky. Ferengi are avarious."

The Barghesi are likely a semi-clever attempt to sneak in a reference to the Barghest Ghost of English Folklore, a vicious spectral hound. So this probably means they're at least canine-esque in nature. But as we haven't gotten much expansion on them, they're likely to remain just that one minor race that is enough trouble to the imperium to warrant multiple space marine chapters to deal with amongst other things.

Other minor races worthy of note include the Qu'orl from xenology, essentially insect people who are the ants to the Tyranid's locusts, having an actual society you and I would recognize (if only just) and are starting to put mind control bugs into human navigators to allow them to navigate the warp.

Then you have the thyrrus who treat all things as if they were a show and purposefully use hollywood tactics for the sole purpose of entertaining some great powers of their belief system, they are currently locked in war with the imperium and seem to be quite advanced and provide a considerable threat despite their purposeful disregard for sensible tactics.

Then there's the Sarhuadin from the old days of Rogue Trader whose main shtick was "Shark Men", likely a reference to the Sahuagin of D&D, who were also shark men (or shark worshipping lizard fish men more to be more accurate.)

And you have the Hrud who went from "The Skaven in Space" to "Walking piles of detritus that make fancy warp-plasma guns who have some elements of space skaven."

Hrmm.. I remember the Qu'orl from Xenology, and they do have a political system...of sorts..

Not sure i could count int he rest, espeially the Hrud since they are more like a walking plague than an Empire.

If I read xenology correctly, the Imperium considers the Qu'orl swarmhood enough of a threat to try and prevent it from getting warp drives at any cost. Interestingly, it primarily occupies that one sector of the galaxy where there are hardly any orks at all if I'm reading the map correctly. I find this a coincidence worth looking into. Perhaps the Qu'orl have found a much better way to combat the orks than the other civilized races?

The Slaugth immediately come to mind as an example of a "background" species that's been fleshed out more than most, though that's largely down to FFG. As for those you mentioned in the OP, I agree that some could be intriguing, but unfortunately I doubt whoever wrote about them knows much more about them than we do - just names tossed in to add flavour.

Kain wrote:If I read xenology correctly, the Imperium considers the Qu'orl swarmhood enough of a threat to try and prevent it from getting warp drives at any cost. Interestingly, it primarily occupies that one sector of the galaxy where there are hardly any orks at all if I'm reading the map correctly. I find this a coincidence worth looking into. Perhaps the Qu'orl have found a much better way to combat the orks than the other civilized races?

That or they were able to develop because of the lack of Ork presence.

I mean, if we do think about it, what if the Orks landed on Terra during one of the real historical periods in Earth history? Emperor or no Emperor, we wouldn't be the race that we are in 40K.

Hmm, that would also mean 3/4ths of the Chaos Gods may have never have come into existence. It would be just Gork, Mork, and Slaanesh...

The Slaugth immediately come to mind as an example of a "background" species that's been fleshed out more than most, though that's largely down to FFG. As for those you mentioned in the OP, I agree that some could be intriguing, but unfortunately I doubt whoever wrote about them knows much more about them than we do - just names tossed in to add flavour.

I do find the Slaugth highly intriguing. Kind fo like Slaught:Biotechnology::Necron: Physical Sciences.

Although i do also recall the reason why they "hide" from the view of we mere mortals is because a head-to-head fight between the Slaugth and the Imperium would result in the destruction of the Slaugth.......

Maybe they do have some sort of Mini-Empire beyond the Halo Stars...

ContemplativeSphinx wrote:

Kain wrote:If I read xenology correctly, the Imperium considers the Qu'orl swarmhood enough of a threat to try and prevent it from getting warp drives at any cost. Interestingly, it primarily occupies that one sector of the galaxy where there are hardly any orks at all if I'm reading the map correctly. I find this a coincidence worth looking into. Perhaps the Qu'orl have found a much better way to combat the orks than the other civilized races?

That or they were able to develop because of the lack of Ork presence.

I mean, if we do think about it, what if the Orks landed on Terra during one of the real historical periods in Earth history? Emperor or no Emperor, we wouldn't be the race that we are in 40K.

Hmm, that would also mean 3/4ths of the Chaos Gods may have never have come into existence. It would be just Gork, Mork, and Slaanesh...

The Slaugth immediately come to mind as an example of a "background" species that's been fleshed out more than most, though that's largely down to FFG. As for those you mentioned in the OP, I agree that some could be intriguing, but unfortunately I doubt whoever wrote about them knows much more about them than we do - just names tossed in to add flavour.

I do find the Slaugth highly intriguing. Kind fo like Slaught:Biotechnology::Necron: Physical Sciences.

Although i do also recall the reason why they "hide" from the view of we mere mortals is because a head-to-head fight between the Slaugth and the Imperium would result in the destruction of the Slaugth.......

Maybe they do have some sort of Mini-Empire beyond the Halo Stars...

Even without an ork presence in their development, now that they've grown into an Empire as in the same rough category of size if not bigger than the Tau Empire the Orks should be flocking over to the Swarmhood for a fight against "da buggiez" so they're probably doing something right.

Kain wrote:
Even without an ork presence in their development, now that they've grown into an Empire as in the same rough category of size if not bigger than the Tau Empire the Orks should be flocking over to the Swarmhood for a fight against "da buggiez" so they're probably doing something right.

Hmm. Good point, although i'm always torn about these Xenos Empires in the following manner:

1.) Someone decides to invent a Xenos Empire - "cause its cool."

or because they need a bad guy outside of the established fluff that is threatening but not so threatening to replace the "major xenos threats." FFG did this with the Slaugth.

2.) By inventing a Xenos Empire out of scratch we're stuck with the problem of integrating the Empire into the whole 40K narrative.

2a - One can argue that they were always there, like the Tau for instance, just "occulted" for some reason - like that convenient Warp Storm

2b - One could also argue that despite the Imperium's "Paper Map" of the Cosmos - whole segments of the Segmentums remain completely unexplored.


I guess 2b relies upon the "patterns of colonization" for a Sector or Subsector.

Conceivably if everyone is using the Warp to get from one region to the Next there would be a whole lot of unexplored areas between Sector A and Sector B.

And therein lays our xenos empires?

The Imperium hasn't even scratched the surface of the galaxy. Even Imperial territories themselves are just islands in a massive sea that is 90% unexplored. You could have an alien empire of 1000 worlds in Segmentum Solar and the Imperium could not have discovered it. Personally, I'd like to see an expansion or spin-off game that explores the Ulumeathic, Draxian, Dracolith, Reek, Hrud, Barghesi, and Slaugath. These come off as the only alien civilizations with any level of relevant power besides the main factions.

A problem with all galaxy-scale Sci-Fi settings whose setting is just now massive a galaxy is. In the massive Star Wars galaxy for instance, all events of the movies/EU take place in about 50% of it (the other half is known as the Unknown Regions)/

Harriticus wrote:The Imperium hasn't even scratched the surface of the galaxy. Even Imperial territories themselves are just islands in a massive sea that is 90% unexplored. You could have an alien empire of 1000 worlds in Segmentum Solar and the Imperium could not have discovered it.

A problem with all galaxy-scale Sci-Fi settings whose setting is just now massive a galaxy is. In the massive Star Wars galaxy for instance, all events of the movies/EU take place in about 50% of it (the other half is known as the Unknown Regions)/

So basically we have a giant blank space for future writers of GW Fluff and Fiction to exploit as it so chooses?

ContemplativeSphinx wrote:

Kain wrote:
You've also forgotten to mention the Barghesi, which admittedly aren't mentioned in the rulebook, but the term "hyper-violent" always precedes their mention and several chapters of space marines are dedicated to fighting them, which implies that they are some straight up nasty Mofos.

I smell the "single characteristic race" popularized by Star Trek. You know, "Klingons are Violent! Romulans are sneaky. Ferengi are avarious."

A valid criticism of Star Trek (but then, what criticisms are not?), but perhaps misplaced here, given that few of these xenos races are anything more than footnotes.

ContemplativeSphinx wrote:So basically we have a giant blank space for future writers of GW Fluff and Fiction to exploit as it so chooses?

And we have some nebulous "unknowns" to remind us that the galaxy is a dangerous place, filled with mysteries as-yet unexplored.

Don't forget the Rak'Ghol. (http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rak%27Gol#.T5b9mfUcWl4)
They are savage marauders ( a monstrous cross between an ork and a chaos marauder without the orky humour but weaponised extra limbs ) and can be found in the Koronus expanse.
They might have some kind of connection to the now extinct Yu'vath, a species of terrible and powerful warp sorcerers.

Kain wrote:The ulumeathi were mentioned again in the grey knight codex as the creators of the Plasma Syphon (reason enough to kill them) so we can assume that they have quite a lot of technology that deals with plasma weaponry, or at least deal with plasma users on a frequent enough basis to warrant creating a counter for it.

It does not necessarily have to deal with "plasma weaponry".

Plasma is one of the states of matter. It would not necessarily be silly for a race to create some kind of technology to manipulate plasma.

Kain wrote:
Then you have the thyrrus who treat all things as if they were a show and purposefully use hollywood tactics for the sole purpose of entertaining some great powers of their belief system, they are currently locked in war with the imperium and seem to be quite advanced and provide a considerable threat despite their purposeful disregard for sensible tactics.

Am I the only one who gets a Slaaneshi vibe from the Thyrrus? I mean they are very showy about warfare, they sacrifice large number of soldiers simply to make war entertaining. Just sounds like something Slaanesh worshipers would do.

Buttons wrote:
Am I the only one who gets a Slaaneshi vibe from the Thyrrus? I mean they are very showy about warfare, they sacrifice large number of soldiers simply to make war entertaining. Just sounds like something Slaanesh worshipers would do.

the Shemale's Cosmic Joke on Khorne perhaps?


In all seriousness though, I do have to wonder how the Thyrrus have survived. If humanity's history is something one can go by, "ritualized" warfare only lasts so long as the participants agree to the rules of the game.

And then someone else show's up - with a different rulebook.....

My guess is that it is a mixture of being advanced, the blessings of the God(s) and the fact that the Imperium has bigger fish to fry. If GW ever added another race (eg. not another human faction like Mechanicus Skitarii or something) I would want these guys, sound like a fun army, flashy colours, and combat through overwhelming numbers of plasma weapon blob people.

Buttons wrote:My guess is that it is a mixture of being advanced, the blessings of the God(s) and the fact that the Imperium has bigger fish to fry. If GW ever added another race (eg. not another human faction like Mechanicus Skitarii or something) I would want these guys, sound like a fun army, flashy colours, and combat through overwhelming numbers of plasma weapon blob people.

Yeah the Thyrrus as a whole are pretty cool. Though with them being a rather short species they will probably be better at getting cover saves than anyone else.

Yeah, the only problem with cover saves is fluffwise they try to stand out in battle with their flashy colours (although the fluff seems to imply they can use active camouflage, they simply choose bright colours). Perhaps they would get some interesting rules regarding that, perhaps they get -1 to any cover save rolls, but can decide to use their active camo abilities (giving them stealth) at a hit to their leadership (they want to look flashy so admitting that they have to hide is seen as humiliating or something?).

Now I have an urge to make a fandex for them.

Buttons wrote:Yeah, the only problem with cover saves is fluffwise they try to stand out in battle with their flashy colours (although the fluff seems to imply they can use active camouflage, they simply choose bright colours). Perhaps they would get some interesting rules regarding that, perhaps they get -1 to any cover save rolls, but can decide to use their active camo abilities (giving them stealth) at a hit to their leadership (they want to look flashy so admitting that they have to hide is seen as humiliating or something?).

Now I have an urge to make a fandex for them.

Do it, the Chaos Gods, Gork and Mork, the Emperor, the Hive Mind, and the C'tan command you.

Not alien, but there used to be knight world humans in 2nd. A large human empire that was able to avoid being conquered by the imperium. They commonly picked fights with the exodites and were situated in the north east corner of the galaxy. There were never rules for them and GWS simply never brought them up as a subject after 2nd edition IIRC.

One the thyrrus:
I wrote a fandex for the thyrrus a while ago, it didn’t seem to generate a lot of interest at the time:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/392315.page#3235414

Grunt13 wrote:Not alien, but there used to be knight world humans in 2nd. A large human empire that was able to avoid being conquered by the imperium. They commonly picked fights with the exodites and were situated in the north east corner of the galaxy. There were never rules for them and GWS simply never brought them up as a subject after 2nd edition IIRC.

One the thyrrus:
I wrote a fandex for the thyrrus a while ago, it didn’t seem to generate a lot of interest at the time:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/392315.page#3235414

They were dropped because they were so obviously the Brettonians in space it wasn't funny. There was literally nothing to them other than "Brettonia in space."

Kain wrote:

Grunt13 wrote:Not alien, but there used to be knight world humans in 2nd. A large human empire that was able to avoid being conquered by the imperium. They commonly picked fights with the exodites and were situated in the north east corner of the galaxy. There were never rules for them and GWS simply never brought them up as a subject after 2nd edition IIRC.

They were dropped because they were so obviously the Brettonians in space it wasn't funny. There was literally nothing to them other than "Brettonia in space."

I think you've got that mixed-up, the Knight Worlds (as described in the first and second editions of Epic Space Marine), were part of the Imperium, governed by the Mechanicus, and are still (at least nominally) part of the background. If they haven't been mentioned in years because Epic hasn't been supported for a decade or so. Forge World have even mentioned plans to produce models for them in 28mm.

English Assassin wrote:

Kain wrote:

Grunt13 wrote:Not alien, but there used to be knight world humans in 2nd. A large human empire that was able to avoid being conquered by the imperium. They commonly picked fights with the exodites and were situated in the north east corner of the galaxy. There were never rules for them and GWS simply never brought them up as a subject after 2nd edition IIRC.

They were dropped because they were so obviously the Brettonians in space it wasn't funny. There was literally nothing to them other than "Brettonia in space."

I think you've got that mixed-up, the Knight Worlds (as described in the first and second editions of Epic Space Marine), were part of the Imperium, governed by the Mechanicus, and are still (at least nominally) part of the background. If they haven't been mentioned in years because Epic hasn't been supported for a decade or so. Forge World have even mentioned plans to produce models for them in 28mm.

The knight world humans I brought up were definitely a separate human empire - GWS might have used the same term for two different things in this case. They had the bretonnian honor system and mentality as well as being based on them as a concept, but they were not horse riding knights in space. Battles between them and exodites were described as dinosaurs versus tanks. There was no mention of them being horse riders, but suggestions that they used vehicles as their cavalry units. I believe all the info on them came from their conflicts with exodites; they were never really explored beyond their mention in the 2nd eldar codex.

Considering how popular Guant's Ghosts is, I'm surprised no one's,mentioned the Lox'atl yet.

Lexicanum quotes the Church of Dracolith as "a fledgling empire that is beginning to conquer Imperial space." I think if anyone's to consider here, it's them.

Lox'atl are a cross between chamaeleons, geckos and porcupines. They're mentioned in the iron warrior anthology as a tribal race that follow the strongest leader. They use their colour changing abilities to sneak up on their prey and fire their quills at them....or have i got the wrong aliens.

To be honest all gw need to do is create a stat line and various upgrades to allow people to make their own aliens its really simple enough to do

Why doesn't GW have the Jokaero as a 40k faction?

Eighteen Wheeler wrote:Lexicanum quotes the Church of Dracolith as "a fledgling empire that is beginning to conquer Imperial space." I think if anyone's to consider here, it's them.

The Ulumeathic, Reek, Dracolith, and Draxian are all described in the 5e rulebook as "fledging xenos empires beginning to move into Imperial space". The Imperium actually fights a great many xenos factions, something BL needs to expand upon one day.