Return of Imperium Beastman?

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**DeathKorp_Rider**

Well I know that one the game first started Beastmen were made part of the Auxilia before being removed in later editions. Now we have Chaos Beastmen. What confuses me is the recent article GW put out about the Ravagers for kill teams. They say:

“ The Fellgor Ravagers are the first new Beastmen in Warhammer 40,000 in a long time – though we mustn’t forget their surprise appearance in Blackstone Fortress. These feral abhumans may have fewer clothes than the Militarum Auxilla deserters who joined up with Obsidius Mallex, but their kit’s quite an upgrade, packed with options and cosmetics.”

It almost sounds like they are saying they are still part of the Auxilia, or is it a stretch?

**Dysartes**

While there haven't been specific unit rules (or models) for Imperial Beastmen Auxilia for a while, I don't think they ever truly left the background.

I thought that Gor Halfhorn from Necromunda was an example of one of these, released in 2017, but the write-up on the FW site doesn't mention it.

**Tyranid Horde**

They've always been in the background fluff. They're typically one of the more shunned strains of abhuman, so most leave the Imperium and/or fall to Chaos. As abhumans go, the more warped you are, the less accepted you'll be.

**Brickfix**

I own the beastmen from Blackstone fortress. They are equipped similarly to the traitor guard elements, with something that might pass for a tattered uniform, chainmail etc. While the traitor guard released for kill team are quite similar in design to the Blackstone fortress guard, the new beastmen look totally different.

So I believe this short text passage was just about justifying their different design.
Loyal beastmen do exist in the background but just don't have a lot of miniatures (or none, actually)

**Tsagualsa**

Dysartes wrote:
While there haven't been specific unit rules (or models) for Imperial Beastmen Auxilia for a while, I don't think they ever truly left the background.

I thought that Gor Halfhorn from Necromunda was an example of one of these, released in 2017, but the write-up on the FW site doesn't mention it.

His background mentions him being an Auxilia as one of several legends circulating:

Gor is a figure of dread in the underhive, but equally, they make him a target for every raving zealot he encounters. As a sanctioned bounty hunter, Gor is entitled, in theory at least, to go wherever he will in pursuit of his targets; in reality, he has often found himself the quarry, though so far none have bested him. Because it is so rare for a Beastman to be sanctioned as a bounty hunter, Gor has become the subject of numerous legends throughout the underhive. Some say he was once a member of an Abhuman Auxilia attached to an Astra Militarum regiment, and the sole survivor of a battle of apocalyptic proportions. Others whisper that he was once in the employ of an Inquisitor, whose service he fled for a life among the damned. Some have even claimed that he was not born an Abhuman at all, but a noble scion who developed hideous mutations in his adolescence and fled downhive lest he be put to death by his own kin.[2]

https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Gor_Half-Horn

**Haighus**

Gor's equipment looks like Guard gear, so I suspect he is ex-Guard.

The last rules were in White Dwarf (March 2005), which had a Chapter Approved on abhumans using the IG codex doctrines system.

I am pretty sure it was mentioned in... I want to say the 8th edition core rulebook? that Homo sapiens variatus (beastmen) were becoming increasingly less tolerated and on the verge of being formally reclassed from abhumans to mutants. This would make their use in the Guard extremely rare as true mutants are only occasionally pressed into use as expendable cannon fodder in slave levies.