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Hey,

I was wondering, for some of my objective markers, would a kroot hound be a good idea for a company mascot?
What would the Imperium think of it? Advicable or not?

Thanks,
Loner

Heresy?

They're dirty xenos and you're a heretic for consorting with them. Someone send in the commissars.

Definitely heresy - much better to have a cuddly cyber-mastif instead

Okay. Thanks for the fast replies.

Not Heresy. Catachan's name units after the horrible creatures of their world. Why not another? Xeno animals are not a problem (Ambul steaks, anyone?) though a kroothound is rather notorious for being vicious, and iirc not particularly loyal to non-kroot. It might make for a good objective though, especially if it was in the way of a weapons cache or something.

I was thinking about using the captured Slayer model from Skull Pass as a Pain token, myself.

xenos as just alien creatures are no problem, however these particular Xenos serve the Tau, who are heretics.

I see what you're saying and I half agree but isn't it abit tricky drawing the line under xenos and xenos animals. I mean you wouldn't get a unit named after kroot or hormagaunts or Squigs and aren't the catachans named after local animals that they hunt? I suppose if you can train these hounds to be nice to humans then it's pretty plausible- I reckon if you got a pretty traditionalist commissar rotated into the unit then he might put an end to the practise (which you don't get with catachans anyway)

Have a pet alien orangutan instead.

Not only do you get Pratchett-cred but since the new GK codex it's not heresy

I think it'd be OK.

Xenos animals are generally not viewed with the same geneocidal repulsion as sentient Xenos creatures.

Perhaps the regiment wiped out a unit of Kroot, & as they were burning the bodies, they found an uninjured kroot hound puppy.

Unable to put the cute little bird-dog out of its misery, they adopted it into the regiment. it was so young it hadnt already been trained to attack anything that wasnt a kroot.

Something like that perhaps?

If you put it that way, I guess it would be a possibility depending on what kind of regiment this was.

At first glance, yeah it would be heresy and the Ordo Xenos might have some rather pointed questions for you. That being said it isn't outside the realm of possibility to justify it, so I'd make sure to have a justification in case you are asked.

Here's an interesting point that nobody has brought up yet. Aren't Kroot Hounds technically related to Kroot genetically? They're a type of Kindred that's stopped evolving or something. So, they're pretty much as despicable and xenolicious as your average bird-lizard-man. That said, I think that a less traditionalist IG regiment, like any regiment from Catachan, or the Tanith First (who have a pretty cool dude for a commissar), might take on a tame (or just toothless) Kroot Hound as a mascot. But they'd probably put him on a short leash, just in case.

Brother Captain Andrecus wrote:Here's an interesting point that nobody has brought up yet. Aren't Kroot Hounds technically related to Kroot genetically? They're a type of Kindred that's stopped evolving or something. So, they're pretty much as despicable and xenolicious as your average bird-lizard-man. That said, I think that a less traditionalist IG regiment, like any regiment from Catachan, or the Tanith First (who have a pretty cool dude for a commissar), might take on a tame (or just toothless) Kroot Hound as a mascot. But they'd probably put him on a short leash, just in case.

You are correct good sir, it appears that nobody above has much experience with the tau. But yes kroot hounds are like the evolutionary dead end of kroot. As far as I know only kroot can handle kroot hounds, the tau won't touch them and hate them. I somehow find it highly unlikely that and IG regiment could ever master one, b/c they are still semi intelligent beings, it's unknown if they are still sentient or not. But I suppose it would not be impossible, so it could technically happen I suppose.

Yes, they are evolutionary dead ends (like krootox, kroothawks, and knarlocs). It would be like keeping a chimpanzee as a pet. It's related to people, but it isn't people. It's an apt comparison, as chimps are also rather vicious creatures and not to be lax around, just like kroothounds.

Kroot have also been known to fight alongside the Guard as mercenaries :winking at DC for his dig against the posters: so it is far from unheard of. Generally, though, it is the sentient Xenos that rankle the Inquisition. Otherwise, the Empire would starve to death if other plants/animals than the ones that evolved on Holy Terra were untouchable.

Nagashek wrote:Yes, they are evolutionary dead ends (like krootox, kroothawks, and knarlocs). It would be like keeping a chimpanzee as a pet. It's related to people, but it isn't people. It's an apt comparison, as chimps are also rather vicious creatures and not to be lax around, just like kroothounds.

Kroot have also been known to fight alongside the Guard as mercenaries :winking at DC for his dig against the posters: so it is far from unheard of. Generally, though, it is the sentient Xenos that rankle the Inquisition. Otherwise, the Empire would starve to death if other plants/animals than the ones that evolved on Holy Terra were untouchable.

you misunderstood me. I did not say it would be highly unlikely for a xenos to fight with the Imperium, kroot are mercenaries as you said. Even then that is pretty rare, especially since the Tau have assimilated the kroot into the Empire for the most part. What I said would be nearly impossible if for an IG regiment to take a group of those xenos and start training them on their own. The imperium would never train their own kroot regiments. An kroot hounds are even known to turn on their own kroot masters, so I'm skeptical on their loyalty to a human. But that's what I said it's just improbable, not impossible.

I'd say go with one. Rule of cool applies, just like the people doing Catachan Rough Riders on cold ones.

Run with the idea though, don't just do a one off objective marker. Make sure it's known that it's the mascot. Put it on banners and hand painted on tanks. While the fluff may not necessarily supprt it, it's still your army, and no one you play is going to not play you because you have a Kroot Hound mascot.

You could use it as a grox, the ubiquitous, barley descried dog/horse of the Imperium.

The Mad Tanker wrote:You could use it as a grox, the ubiquitous, barley descried dog/horse of the Imperium.

They are a bit more like the ubiquitous cow/pig/chicken/rabid alligator of the Imperium.

A grox is a cow. Whether that's the mammalian cow we know from earth, a reptile, a repto-avian, a repto-mammalian or some knock-off of the Star Wars "bantha"... a grox is a cow.