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Imagine this. The mechanicus come into contact with a low level civilization, and when they study them, they notice the aliens worship the emperor. For some reason or another.
Would they let them live in service to the emperor, or would they bring in the SPHAS MAREEEEEEENS?

Never. Suffer not the alien to live.

Exterminatus, that right there is a double heresy of aliens thinking they are people and thinking the God-Emperor cares about them.

Also, before people cry jokaero, note they aren't sentient, they make the weapons by instinct. They are considered like a grox .

 MyDigitalHazard wrote:
Imagine this. The mechanicus come into contact with a low level civilization, and when they study them, they notice the aliens worship the emperor. For some reason or another.
Would they let them live in service to the emperor, or would they bring in the SPHAS MAREEEEEEENS?

Normally no. Normally that would just make them an easier target, but it it's Salamanders, Raven Guard. or the reasonable marines (there have to be a few chapters like this, come on) they they'd graciously accept it.

The imperium has a history of hiring alien mercenaries.

 ImotekhTheStormlord wrote:
The imperium has a history of hiring alien mercenaries.

I'm sure the imperium has tons of Cad Banes.
And no the imperium is heavily branched, and most of them would kill the mercenary when they're through, or better yet not hire them at all. What branch are you talking about?

In some of the old fluff around the time the Tau were initially release there were a couple of Kroot mercenary stories with the Imperial Guard (Mostly IG finding Kroot eating the enemy and an officer saying "Wait guys, these boys on our side!"

A few Inquisitorial fluff pieces with xeno mercs.

I would think if a planet was discovered with an alien race that would allow it be exploited for the benefit of the Imperium would be one thing. When you add in the worshiping the Emperor part though, aside from a rogue AdMech/=I=/Ministorum agent keeping them a secret for a private army/resource/something or other they are going to get massacred pretty quickly.

Excellant slaves for the god-emporor.

i think it would depend on how human they look i mean look at the old squats (now called ratling snipers or space dwarfs) not human but human looking and the inquisition has employed the help of eldar mercenarys heck some space marine chapters ask for dark eldar mercs for help but if they looked more like tau or orks i think they would be a little quicker to extermenatus

Any sentient species the IoM encounters that are not human, or Abhuman, are routinely marked for extermination. It the Imperial playbook, and they have been running plays outta it for over 10k years..don't see them changing anytime soon.

Only way for Aliens to not get rubbed out is to be able to make themselves scarce, Or be to much trouble to wipe out, for the time being....it sucks but that's 40k grimdark humans, afterall the setting is a for a game about constant war, negotiating don't sell models

Squats are abhumans, or a human offshoot. Ratlings are another abhuman offshoot, not related to the Squats (BTW you, as well as I, will soon be visited by the GW elite black squadron "silencers" for typing the S-word) as are Ogryns. They are humans, but because of the worlds the initial Homo Sapiens colonized they developed into distinct sub races.

true that p.s. i like code monkeys to

 tmo38 wrote:
true that p.s. i like code monkeys to

Toddonia recognizes you as a valued ally, and you are accorded all the rights therein.

@Soo'Vah'Cha: Another way is for them to make themselves inexplicable as feth, such as those creepy orb creatures that congregate around the warp drives of space ships.

Well hovering around something that does not react well to weapon fire helps as well

But for example the Tau were encountered by Imperial surveyors some 3k years or so ago, and they were still a primitive race..no threat, and were marked for routine Exterminatus.....but they lost the paperwork or somesuch, and bingo the Tau survived...to vex grimdark fanboys everywhere.

So no..no race could serve the Imperium in any lasting not ending in death of servant race manner. Individuals here and there maybe, but not a imperium-wide hug fest, IOM don't play that way.

In the days of the Great Crusade, the idea of enslaved Xenos used as laborers and protectors of human colonies was toyed around with a bit, but then the Horus Heresy happened so there was not really any time to implement it.

In the 41st millennium, as far as I am aware, the notion of integrating xenos into Imperium society is unheard of. You get some isolated incidents of forced alliances of necessity, even sometimes respect sown between one faction and another (Gideon Ravenor and the Eldar, Marneus Calgar and the Tau, Dante and the Silent King's Necrons, etc.), and of course occasionally Xenos are hired as mercenaries (Kroot, Orks, and even Dark Eldar if the buyer is especially stupid), but in general? Suffer not the enemy to live.

 Void__Dragon wrote:

You get some isolated incidents of forced alliances of necessity, even sometimes respect sown between one faction and another (Gideon Ravenor and the Eldar, Marneus Calgar and the Tau, Dante and the Silent King's Necrons, etc.),

And usually because there is some kind of perceived benefit/outcome to the humans. Ravenor learned how to "ware" humans as a result of allying with the Eldar, allowing him to escape the prison of The Chair occasionally, The Ultramarines holdings are pretty close to the Tau Empire so having semi decent relations with them is nice, especially since they want to expand and the UM also have to contend with Tyranid hive fleets. Blood Angels and Necrons...Well, they are weird.

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
it sucks but that's 40k grimdark humans, afterall the setting is a for a game about constant war, negotiating don't sell models

That's why they need to make a specialist game, Diplomacyhammer 40,000. Tell the council we're forming a committee to come to a consensus about aliens!

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
Well hovering around something that does not react well to weapon fire helps as well

But for example the Tau were encountered by Imperial surveyors some 3k years or so ago, and they were still a primitive race..no threat, and were marked for routine Exterminatus.....but they lost the paperwork or somesuch, and bingo the Tau survived...to vex grimdark fanboys everywhere.

So no..no race could serve the Imperium in any lasting not ending in death of servant race manner. Individuals here and there maybe, but not a imperium-wide hug fest, IOM don't play that way.

See it the same way. Btw Tau got off because the extermination fleet went lost with all hands and then they forgot to check.

Certain individuals within the Imperium might ally themselves with Xenos, or certain small groups within larger Imperial organizations... but that's a much different thing than the Imperium entire permitting an intelligent, sapient Xenos species to survive. That just isn't going to happen.

It should also be noted that those individuals that *do* work with, work alongside or have peaceful contact with the Xeno can be censured (read as: killed) by certain strains of Puritan Inquisitor, for they have obviously become tainted by the corruption inherent in all Xenos.

+ witch hunters will massacre you if they find out, because consorting with xenos is heresy

It depends. For example (and I know I m about to be pelted by rotten fruit for bringing this up) BA are very friendly with Necrons. I'm sure if BA met an alien species that wanted to serve the Emprah they would let them live.

Siding with the no camp here. However thats mainly due to the threat of uprising/rebellion or malign influence by said Alien race rather than the somewhat harder "kill em all" line.
I just think the Imperium would not risk a long term alliance or integration due to the reasons above.
Humanity is quite a paranoid race with very low trust levels.
Even if the Aliens were benign Imperial Dogma wouldnt sanction integration.

I think it depends on the general appearance of the alien race in question. If they are mostly humanoid and smart enough to keep their true nature hidden, then the Imperium will classify them as "abhumans" and life will go on. Until the first Ordo Xenos investigation at least.

But a non-humanoid alien race can only get total annihilation.

There is a big disconnect with official policy and what actually happens on a day-to-day basis in the Imperium. With the everlasting storm of grim-dark and conflict, who's got the forces to spare to snuff some little non-invasive xenos? They've got bigger fish to fry then some local problem.

There is also the bureaucratic angle. A survey ship/rouge trader finds the aliens, files the paperwork (or not) then it filters through the system. Eventually a fleet and some IG will be mustered to snuff them, which might be lost to the warp or diverted. And the paperwork might never be corrected, so the problem is officially dealt with. By the time the problem works itself out, the xenos might get an extra few thousand years of life.

If you want to include some in your personal army/fluff there is enough wiggle room to make it happen

In the imperium's defense, there really are quite a few xenos species out there who are actually almost as corrupting as Chaos itself is. Parasites, hrud, body snatchers, gene-stealers, etc. When one is investigated for "xenos taint" just for being in contact with xenos, it's sometimes literal physical xenos taint.

When Fulgrim first came upon the Laer, several commanders proposed taking them in as a protectorate species of the Imperium. Fulgrim's reasons for genociding them were rather morally abhorrent, but one can only imagine what would have otherwise happened given that the laer were corrupted by Slaanesh (not that bad things didn't happen anyways after the genocide, but at least the sector today is a very productive Imperium sector).

Still tragic/grim-dark that even more reasonable xenos like the Tau would be subject to extermination if the Imperium had the chance and resources, though. Fortunately for those xenos and for writers who want some xenos flexibility, the Imperium doesn't.

No, the Imperium doesn't practice enslavement of Xenos, nor would they tolerate it on any scale.

The only individuals allowed to have dealings with Xenos are Rogue Traders, Space Marines, and Inquisitors. Rogue Traders because they are given allowance to operate beyond the Imperium's borders and act as sorts of information gatherers. Inquisitors because their authority is absolute. And Space Marines because they are outside any Imperial authority, although most SMs will still ruthlessly prosecute Xenos as a point of law.


An Alien race wishing to serve the Imperium would be told to line up for execution. that is all.

An Inquisitor, a Space Marine Chapter, or an Imperial Guard regiment might get away with interacting with/enslaving a few xenos. However, the Imperial bureaucracy hates xenos, and opposes even the slightest interaction with them. There's no way that anyone could get away with commanding a whole species. Also, the closer the captive xenos are to Terra, the less likely someone will let them live. I imagine its primarily on the fringes of the Imperium, where the Administratum doesn't have as much say, where you aren't killed for simply interacting with xenos.

 Void__Dragon wrote:

In the 41st millennium, as far as I am aware, the notion of integrating xenos into Imperium society is unheard of.

This is not entirely true, but also not completely wrong either. In one of the Ciaphas Cain novels (I believe it is the first one, For the Emperor, but I could be mistaken), Cain and his regiment are sent to a planet to deal with a colony that was assimilating with the Tau. They had all kinds of Tau influences in their architecture and daily routines. However, the Guard was sent in to eliminate the problem, so although there was a peaceful and relatively successful attempt to integrate an alien race into human society, it was not allowed.

So to answer the original question, there is no way that an alien race would be allowed to live unless it was first heavily exploited for the Imperium's use, and even then it still might not be tolerated.

Thats not an example of Xenos being integrated into human society. its the Xenos subverting Imperial society.

Aliens try and subvert human planets all the time. But as far as the Imperium itself doing anything, no.