Kilkrazy wrote:

By far the most odious habit of the Kroot is their practice of eating the flesh of the dead. In battle, this leads them to ritually devour the corpses of those they have killed, and almost nothing is beyond their tastes. The Kroot digestive system is extremely efficient, capable of breaking down almost any organic material into an energy form that can be stored in specialised organs scattered throughout their bodies called nymunes. Should anything inorganic and indigestible be consumed, the Kroot must regurgitate it, with considerable discomfort. However the strangest quirk of Kroot digestion is their ability to extract potentially useful strands of their food's DNA. Adeptus Mechanicus Genetors have long been aware that much of the double helix structure of DNA is in fact blank. Used to separate those areas that do contain genetic information. The Kroot have somehow inherited the ability to incorporate useful DNA codes into their own genetic make up. Larger Kroot, called Shapers, who have an instinctive understanding of this process, can direct their kindred to consume certain prey in order that in successive generations, they may take on elements of those genes.

Thousands of years ago, when an Ork asteroid fortress, known as a Rok, crash landed on Pech, the survivors found themselves in the unenviable position of being outnumbered by a warrior race with a taste for flesh. The Orks were quickly destroyed and their bodies consumed by the Kroot. The Kroot laired in the Rok and, several generations later, they manifested the ability to mimic certain aspects of technology learned from the DNA of the dead Ork Meks. Around the remains of the shattered Ork Rok, the first Kroot city began to take shape as the inherited knowledge of technology became more commonplace.

Within the space of a few thousand years, Pech's prime continent was home to five Kroot hives, and factory farming and mining were commonplace. This became known as the Kroot expansionist phase and saw the Kroot construct warp-capable warspheres to take them to the stars.

Here, the Kroot met the Orks once more, but this lime the balance of power had changed. Untested leaders and untried ways of war failed the Kroot in the face of Ork brutality and they were pushed back on every front by the more aggressive Greenskins. However, each world the Orks took remained a thorn in their side as Kroot guerrillas continued to fight the invaders. Eventually, the Kroot were forced to take service as mercenaries with various alien races in order to survive. After twenty years of war, the Kroot (with Tau assistance) were able to reclaim their worlds with minimal resistance as the Orks had simply engaged in looting and destruction on a massive scale before moving on.

The Kroot now looked to rebuild their worlds as they had been before the Ork incursion, but those Kroot who had remained behind to fight the Orks had other ideas. They were not about to rebuild a society that had led them into war and then failed to defend them. Led by a visionary leader named Anghkor Prok, they advocated a return to the old ways, to the time before the coming of the Ork Rok. There would be no rebuilding and the Kroot would revert to the traditional ways that had served them perfectly well for thousands of years. A compromise was reached where each kindred would spend time as mercenaries and fight for other races, returning to their home world periodically to pass on any useful genetic material they had acquired following their victories. A number of warspheres remained on Pech to guard against further invasions and the mercenary Kroot departed to ply their trade amongst the stars.

Today Pech is a wild and untamed world; the forests still cover most of the prime continent and the hives that were once home to millions of Kroot are now overgrown and provide shelter to many Kroot kindred. There are no cities on Pech, though there are places sacred to the Kroot, such as the enormous carved Jagga tree on the slopes of Mount Kaikown that marks the final resting place of Anghkor Prok, the Oathstone on the Plain of Bones, where he first swore loyalty to the Tau empire, and the Grove of Ancestors in the Kamyon Mountains. There are also places that the Kroot avoid, cursed and haunted regions like the Y’gothlac Forest wherein dwell terrifying monsters evolved from the Kroot genus thousands of years ago. Such places are shunned and are places of twisted, black trees and polluted ground, as though the land itself understands that what lives within is evil and a corruption against nature. Some Kindreds use these dark woods as proving grounds for their warriors to display their courage and manhood, but such practices are few and far between, as only a fraction of those who venture within are ever heard from again.

Kroothawk wrote:To keep the racial integrity, Kroot have to avoid chaotic mutations by Chaos and the incompatible genestealing DNA by Tyranids. Shapers are responsible to watch the food of the kindred. They smell Chaos corruption and Tyranid's incompatibility. So absolutely no Tyranid or Chaos Kroot.

Riffzor wrote:Cool. Do they have the same kind of intelligence as 'normal' kroot or are they completely beast-like? And do the Kroot see them as their brethren or as war-beasts/pets?

KamikazeCanuck wrote:The original kroot is the Kroothawk.