Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

What do childern do .

Get eaten, blasted, disintegrated, transformed into hideous beasts, or grown up before dying in some horrible matter.

Get drafted while there still 8.

Well, primarily, they grow up.

In all honesty, human children live lives much the same as the ones that real life children do. The majority of the worlds of the Imperium are not warzones, and life for children on those planets continues in much the same fashion as it would for a similar human culture. On the other hand, in those worlds which are war ravaged, children live in a similar fashion to normal children in a similar real life situation.

The notable exception is that orphaned children are considered a resource. Under the guise of 'providing continued care and shelter' for these poor waifs, either the Schola Progenium (in the case of orphans whose parents were Imperial Guard officers) or the Ecclesiarchy provide for these children. They also use the children in their employ as a recruiting pool. In some cases, corrupt Ecclesiarchy members will even use these children as slave labor, selling them off into 'apprenticeships'. I believe (and I could be wrong, so don't quote me) that there's a short story in Let the Galaxy Burn about this very thing. The book Cain's Last Stand contains some good information on the Schola.

Also notable is the existence of hiver gangs of children. In hive worlds, orphans and runaways sometimes come together and form themselves into a gang of thieves and murderers. I imagine that these gangs grow to become the worst sort of gang scum the hiveworlds have to offer.

Jimsolo wrote:Well, primarily, they grow up.

In all honesty, human children live lives much the same as the ones that real life children do. The majority of the worlds of the Imperium are not warzones, and life for children on those planets continues in much the same fashion as it would for a similar human culture. On the other hand, in those worlds which are war ravaged, children live in a similar fashion to normal children in a similar real life situation.

The notable exception is that orphaned children are considered a resource. Under the guise of 'providing continued care and shelter' for these poor waifs, either the Schola Progenium (in the case of orphans whose parents were Imperial Guard officers) or the Ecclesiarchy provide for these children. They also use the children in their employ as a recruiting pool. In some cases, corrupt Ecclesiarchy members will even use these children as slave labor, selling them off into 'apprenticeships'. I believe (and I could be wrong, so don't quote me) that there's a short story in Let the Galaxy Burn about this very thing. The book Cain's Last Stand contains some good information on the Schola.

Also notable is the existence of hiver gangs of children. In hive worlds, orphans and runaways sometimes come together and form themselves into a gang of thieves and murderers. I imagine that these gangs grow to become the worst sort of gang scum the hiveworlds have to offer.

Sorry not GrimDark enough. While many planets may not actually be warzones, they still have to contribute to the imperial war effort.

On whichever plaet they are born on, children will have to start working from the earliest opportunity. On agri-worlds they will be used to help with the fields and clean out the massive processing machinery. On forgeworlds they are stuck on the production line doing something menial, or cleaning out the machinery. On more martial worlds, like cadia, they are just conscripted as early as possible and trained to die for the emperor.

Those that are born to planetary govenors will be taught diplomacy and tactics and what-not so they will become effective generals/admirals/planetary govenors. Some might get picked up by a rogue trader for some reason. And some very very few may be accepted for astartes training where they will spend their life gettig shot at until they are eaten by a carnifex.

You have to think about like during the industrial revolution. Children were basically used as slaves, to do the jobs that adults couldnt or wouldnt. There are no rights for kids as you soul is on loan from the emperor anyway, so as long as you die horribly doing your duty it doesnt really matter, there's always another kid that can be thrown in to clean the plasma reactors.

xxmatt85 wrote:What do childern do .

Work in sweat shops and ammo factories cleaning empty shell cases.

On a more serious note.

In cadia, by the age of 8 you already know how to assemble a lasrifle (and shoot it obviously), if you catch the astartes attention in your teens you could be receiving implants to become astartes, in catachan, well, better not talk about that, think everyone knows the death rates there.

It would really depend on the world they are born.

Um...Regwon? On what do you base this? I am basing my information off of what I have read in Black Library books...and it doesn't bear much resemblance to the picture you paint. Are you getting your information from somewhere concrete, or are these just suppositions based on your own opinions of the "Grimdark" Imperium.

Play with toy Guardsman and Leman Russes, and get all bitter and twisted at the kid whose parents can afford the toy Baneblade.

Fixed.

xxmatt85 wrote:Get drafted while they're still 3.

Same thing as most kids except today except get indoctrinated into a different religon.

Jimsolo wrote:Um...Regwon? On what do you base this? I am basing my information off of what I have read in Black Library books...and it doesn't bear much resemblance to the picture you paint. Are you getting your information from somewhere concrete, or are these just suppositions based on your own opinions of the "Grimdark" Imperium.

Imperial society is fundamentally different from modern life in developed countries here on Earth. The societal model is feudal, autocratic, undemocratic, and class-static. 1850s Manchester is probably the best model for industrial worlds, medieval European society generally is appropriate for agri-worlds. In these societies, you start working as soon as you can, and stop as soon as something heavy falls on you and breaks your spine. Or the local lord decides to have a little war for the lulz and has his goons drop by the house, drag you to the front, and, if you're lucky, pass a lasgun your way. I think really you're confusing the Imperium with a place where the average person has rights.

As Regwon says, it is of course totally different for children of the elite.

There's 1 million worlds: all different. Many are just like our current earth.

Children are watched over by the Sisters of Battle and those Imperial Guard priest guys.

Odin know what THEIR doing.

As everyone said, depends on world.

Fortress world: Learn to fight from the day you're born or work in the production of weapons & stuff.
Forge worlds: Same as hive worlds usually. Servitors do most manual labour in the forges.
Hive worlds: Sell weapons on the black market, endless work chores, try not to get shot by gangs, never see the sun, etc, etc...
Agri world: Work on farms
Feudal world:Similair to medieval europe
Civilised world: Like todays earth, but with more expensive properties and a much more advanced playstation
Feral world: Hunt mammoths with daddy
Death world: Try to survive endless poisoning, not get eaten by catachan devils, never approach barking toads, hunt for some food which doesn't explode in your stomache or eat you from the inside.
Dead world: Don't be ridiculous
Daemon world: Life's a breeze here. No, honestly, it's all fun.

Everywhere: If an orphan of an Imperial soldier, go to Schola Progenium.

Melissia wrote:Everywhere: If an orphan of an high-ranking Imperial soldier, go to Schola Progenium.

Just nitpicking here.

felixthecat345 wrote:As everyone said, depends on world.

Fortress world: Learn to fight from the day you're born or work in the production of weapons & stuff.
Forge worlds: Same as hive worlds usually. Servitors do most manual labour in the forges.
Hive worlds: Sell weapons on the black market, endless work chores, try not to get shot by gangs, never see the sun, etc, etc...
Agri world: Work on farms
Feudal world:Similair to medieval europe
Civilised world: Like todays earth, but with more expensive properties and a much more advanced playstation
Feral world: Hunt mammoths with daddy
Death world: Try to survive endless poisoning, not get eaten by catachan devils, never approach barking toads, hunt for some food which doesn't explode in your stomache or eat you from the inside.
Dead world: Don't be ridiculous
Daemon world: Life's a breeze here. No, honestly, it's all fun.

The Playstation9 they advertised like 10 years ago.

Emperors Faithful wrote:

Melissia wrote:Everywhere: If an orphan of an high-ranking Imperial soldier, go to Schola Progenium.

Just nitpicking here.

Just picking nits myself. Dark Heresy Inquisitors Handbook just says 'children of parents have perished in the service of the Emperor' and a chart goes on to mention the following: Imperial Guard, Imperial Loyalists, Parents not dead but likely to never see you again (Crusade, Distant Outpost, Rogue Trader), ship crew and 'Never Spoken Of' So they may even take children of traitors.

Also Felixthecat345, You left out:
Paradise World where life is perpetual holiday.
Shrine World where life is perpetual Sunday school.
Colonial World where it's just a few thousand people and a world of untapped resource.
Space Born where it's like on a ship, but in Space

I'm trying to think of a NAMBLA-in-space joke, I really am, but I just don't have it in me right now.

xxmatt85 wrote:What do childern do .

For most: Most likely suffer and die unless they are "fortunate" enough to have some quality (physical, skill based, or otherwise) that catches the attention of some ordo, organization, group/person of power, etc. that recruits them for their own purposes.

It really probably isn't much different then the real world in that the children of the rich enjoy the advantages of said fact, and those that do not suffering increasing hardship, illness, exploitation and unhappiness the further down the social ladder they happen to be...

Human nature is human nature even in the 41st Millennium I would imagine.

Emperors Faithful wrote:Just nitpicking here.

Has nothing to do with rank; one could argue that the orphans of high ranking individuals are more LIKELY to do it, but it's not the only way.

Childern do nothing.

Children on the other hand... depends on their circumstances, just like modern day earth.

Eat, make noise and mess. That's about it AFAIK....

how is childern formed

how space girl get pragnent

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Childern do nothing.

I choked on my Chinese Takeaway reading this.

Emperors Faithful wrote:Fixed.

xxmatt85 wrote:Get drafted while they're still 3.

Yeah, but not forget those drafted into the Airforce:

Speaking of which of all the disturbing things in 40K (and there's a lot) do you not find Cherubs the most disturbing of them all?

They're undead, cybernetic babies!!

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Speaking of which of all the disturbing things in 40K (and there's a lot) do you not find Cherubs the most disturbing of them all?

They're undead, cybernetic babies!!

Indeed. Shows that the Ecclesiarchy and the Mechanicus are the creepiest bastiches around. Dark Eldar should be afraid and tell scray campfire stories about them.

I don't fully understand the methods of creating cybernetic cherubs, I think they are actually grown in vats akin to the method of full grown servitors. Still pretty creepy though.

Most full grown servitors are mindwiped criminals, then modified to perform menial tasks endlessly.