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I've been wondering what life is like on the planet Krieg. A particular aspect of Krieg that I find fascinating is the Vitae Womb, the source of the planet's near-constant stream of new regiments. So what do we know about life on the planet? And how do we think the Vitae Womb works?

Its a long story to be honest, although pretty much the whole planet is covered in radioactive fallout and ash, trenches will be abundant with unburied corpses, most likely ancient ones. And Living on a planet like that would be training for war the day you can walk. But i do agree dear sir, i too, find krieg fascinating!

From what I have seen, the Vitae Womb just appears to be an artificial womb.

Basically they're all test tube babies. You conceive the baby in the Vitae Womb instead of doing it naturally.

IIRC, Krieg was ravaged by a civil war in which a heretical (I think) faction attempted to secede from the Imperium. Then, a member of the Krieg PDF decided to nuke the planet, leaving it, as Thunderfury said, in a radioactive fallout. The Vitae Womb, also, is a radical technology given to Krieg by the Adeptus Mechanicus, and I believe that Krieg is one of the only planets to have access to that technology.

The surface of Krieg is, as others have said, a radioactive wasteland, an entire world soaked in isotopes that seem to have no 'shelf life'. It's a world that is the very definition of a Death World - nothing lives on it, besides the Krieg soldiers completing their training in live-fire mock battles and drills. Ruined and desolated cities still pock the landscape to remind of what Krieg once was before the civil war.

The Vitae Womb - well, neither GW or FW have been forthcoming in exactly what the Vitae Womb is -but- theories abound. Some think it's cloning, others that it's a form of 'test-tube' baby thing and many other things. Either way, all we know for certain is that it's a means by which Krieg can maintain a very high population levels. Considering Krieg produces the maximum tithe it can for it's size, it still produces more regiments each year than most planets will tithe in a decade.
It's also forbidden technology but, despite the protestations of the Adeptus Biologis, Krieg is allowed to use it to maintain the steady production of their much-sought after Death Korps regiment. On top of this Krieg has a carte blanch, given in a decree by the High Lords of Terra, to demand whatever resources they need to continue producing regiments.

 Sparks_Havelock wrote:
The Vitae Womb - well, neither GW or FW have been forthcoming in exactly what the Vitae Womb is -but- theories abound. Some think it's cloning, others that it's a form of 'test-tube' baby thing and many other things. Either way, all we know for certain is that it's a means by which Krieg can maintain a very high population levels.

Considering this, I can't see why they must be mutually exclusive. Regardless of whether the resulting children are genetically cloned from one parent or the natural combination of sperm and ova, to produce so many children, the Vitae Womb may utilise zygote-division cloning, or the "Bokanovsky's Process" as it is famously called in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. This effect occurs naturally in monozygotic (a.k.a identical) siblings, where a zygote splits and the resulting cells grow into individual embryos. The Vitae Womb may be an artificial womb that is capable of splitting a single zygote into incredible numbers and successfully nurturing their development to produce literally armies of identical brothers.

In one of the short stories, Krieg used some people who wouldn't join the regiment as target practice. Pretty much everyone is in the armyr and drilling and training day in and day out.

 Sparks_Havelock wrote:
The surface of Krieg is, as others have said, a radioactive wasteland, an entire world soaked in isotopes that seem to have no 'shelf life'. It's a world that is the very definition of a Death World - nothing lives on it, besides the Krieg soldiers completing their training in live-fire mock battles and drills. Ruined and desolated cities still pock the landscape to remind of what Krieg once was before the civil war.

The Vitae Womb - well, neither GW or FW have been forthcoming in exactly what the Vitae Womb is -but- theories abound. Some think it's cloning, others that it's a form of 'test-tube' baby thing and many other things. Either way, all we know for certain is that it's a means by which Krieg can maintain a very high population levels. Considering Krieg produces the maximum tithe it can for it's size, it still produces more regiments each year than most planets will tithe in a decade.
It's also forbidden technology but, despite the protestations of the Adeptus Biologis, Krieg is allowed to use it to maintain the steady production of their much-sought after Death Korps regiment. On top of this Krieg has a carte blanch, given in a decree by the High Lords of Terra, to demand whatever resources they need to continue producing regiments.

carte blanchE

Tsk that pesky E key.

TiamatRoar wrote:
In one of the short stories, Krieg used some people who wouldn't join the regiment as target practice. Pretty much everyone is in the armyr and drilling and training day in and day out.

Which short story? As far as I know they pretty much live for war. Their entire existence is about fighting and winning for the Emperor. When they can't win they simply cost the enemy as much as they can before dying.

 purplefood wrote:

TiamatRoar wrote:
In one of the short stories, Krieg used some people who wouldn't join the regiment as target practice. Pretty much everyone is in the armyr and drilling and training day in and day out.

Which short story? As far as I know they pretty much live for war. Their entire existence is about fighting and winning for the Emperor. When they can't win they simply cost the enemy as much as they can before dying.

This one: Down amongst the dead men