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How do!

Been shopping today, and picked up the Necromunda hardbacks, amongst other things (yes, yes I do love payday!).

And I’m reading the bit about Goliath ‘Zerkers.

It got me wondering about where House Goliath got their know-how and tech. See, it describes Vat-Growth and muscle grafts as actually kind of common across The Imperium, but notes House Goliath can do stuff no others can. To the point where the entire House is on the brink of being a sub-species (ala Squats, Ogryns, Beastmen and Ratlings) unto themselves.

How realistic is it, do you think, that their origins could lie in The Emperor’s genetic soup recipe for the Thunder Warriors?

Extremely unrealistic. The fact that the kind of work they do is common across the Imperium implies there's plenty of variety to it as well. There's tons and tons of local tech that every semi-developed world has, but is rarely exported. Tying this to the Thunder Warriors would honestly just make the galaxy feel smaller. Let House Goliath be unique and stand on its own.

Perhaps.
Cawdor are now Custodes impersonators.
To get them on the field implies a massive battle that has been scrubbed from the records. Maybe the custards needed quick reinforcements. It was quicker to thunder warrior humies, than call for reinforcements.
Or maybe theyre partial Fists that havent been neutered.

Probably not, but we also don't know what happened yet to Arik Taranis and Ghota. (They may have had some other Thundar Warrior companions as well, it's been along time since I read outcast dead)

Just browsing the new rulebook, and there’s a nugget to two which I can use to (badly) shore up the theory.

House Goliath use vat grown clones. They also use drugs and stims bought from House Escher to build and maintain their frames. They’re often also fairly short lived (one imagines as a side affect of tinkering with metabolics and that).

And there’s also the solid chance that the founders of House Goliath may have originated on Holy Terra, albeit long before The Age Of Strife.

So perhaps if not a recreation, instead a divergent evolution of the same base tech?

The thing is, we don't know that the Thunder Warriors were vat-grown/cloned, but given they are "proto-astartes", it is more plausible they are augmented humans.

EDIT : I even seem to recall they were created from adult males (as opposed to the teenage/kid recruits from the Space marines), even though I can't seem to find a source for that.

gene bulked warriors is hardly unique to the thunder warriors, everyone did it. the emperor just did it BETTER. what makes an Astartes, and presumably a thunder warrior stand out isn't just their muscles, but the additional organs that give added functionality. the second heart, the third lung etc

I would imagine there might be similarities in the processes, and chances are the technology in both processes comes from similar DAOT sources, but I wouldn't think there's a direct link between the Thunder Warrior process and the Goliath modifications.

While the Thunder Warrior process was crude, from what we know, the Goliath process seems much more basic and cobbled-together.

But I suppose it's possible that someone on Necromunda got hold of some old notes and thought they'd give it a go, ended up with Goliaths. As this is 40K, I imagine there were some very unpleasant results before they got the process working properly!