Anemone wrote:
Pouncey wrote:
Well, I mean, my fanfiction army is made up of xenos and humans who ended up having no problem with these particular xenos. So when they learned what the Imperium was, they, uh, like, left. In space ships. And they went beyond the reach of the Astronomican, and kept going quite a ways. Then they settled down and rebuilt their civilization somewhere
the Imperium couldn't reach them. Because the sane thing to do when you have a spacefaring civilization that is neighbours with xenophobes. You move away from them. Like, don't even think about beating them, just, like, go live somewhere else. You can travel to other star systems, you can just go anywhere that you're willing to spend the time traveling to.
One doesn't always have the luxury of that choice. The Diasporex, for example, were forced to remain within certain bounds because they depended on reactors around stars in that area to power their life-necessary systems. To attempt to leave would have seen them all die.
They desired to be left alone, in peace, because they posed no threat to anyone. The Imperium killed all of them. You can't always just pick up and go. The fact is that, in
40k, no-one is in a worse position than minor Xenos factions. They are all doomed to die the moment the Orks, Imperium, Tyranids or Dark Eldar (eternal torment in this case) find them. Any minor Xenos' factions statistical best chance of survival is encountering the Farsight enclaves, Craftworld Eldar (if not on a Maiden World or somehow useful to the Eldar dead) or the Tau Empire (in that order). Any other option is at best slavery (Some Necron) or worse (Every other faction).
In
40k the Imperium controls most of the galaxy and has already rendered extinct dozens, if not hundreds, of alien species for not being human. Simply fleeing clearly isn't an option in many cases, which considering the nature of space travel within the setting isn't a surprise. A culture lacking Warp travel is too slow to escape the Imperium. The original answer 'cause its Grimdark' is still the only one which really I'd agree with, although I become more and more disheartened with time that something I considered satirically and purposefully portrayed as negative is being embraced as positive inspiration for real life motivation.
I wish I could put longer text into sigs...
Even the more positive options (Eldar and Tau) are probably pretty ropey at best. With the Tau there's a significant chance you'll end up enslaved anyway (Vespid), or forcibly coerced into joining 'The Greater Good'. With the Eldar, even if you're not on a Maiden World they'll probably just ignore you (not that bad comparatively).
Perhaps the only reason the Farsight Enclaves are any good is probably because they're a 'minor xenos' faction themselves, and could do with the extra muscle to protect themselves.
I suppose the other way to survive is to be bloody scary yourselves (see Bhargesi)...
