Lore Explainer: Abhumans

Welcome back, my friends, to the Lore Explainer. Come, gather round, how have you been? Find yourself a nice cosy spot by the fire and let me enlighten and entertain you with ephemera from the 41st millennium. Today’s topic touches on abhumans. What are abhumans, and how do they fit into the general universe of Warhammer 40,000? 

Abhumans, broadly speaking, are mutants that are considered to be a “Stable” strain created by a sort of Lamarkian evolutionary adaptation to external conditions, rather than any particular Chaos taint. As such, while generally reviled by and repulsive to baseline humans, they’re considered useful enough to be allowed quasi-citizenship (some, like Ogryns and Ratlings are citizens in their own right) and are not targeted for summary extermination by the Inquisition. Because abhumans come into “the lore” from a very early time, there are still plenty of traces of Warhammer Fantasy to be found within their ranks, but we’ll get to that.

Now that we have a working definition of what an abhuman is, let’s take a tour through all the various types living on the fringes of the Imperium, shall we?

Navigators (Homo navigo)

Let’s start with the most important in-universe abhuman subtype – the Navigators, or Navis Nobilite. As their name suggests, these are the abhumans responsible for guiding the voidcraft of the Imperium during their extremely perilous journeys through the warp, which they accomplish through the use of the bizarre psychically powerful third-eye in the middle of their foreheads, which connects to the Astronomican like some kind of mental GPS. With their warp-attuned senses they’re able to gaze into the warp and steer Imperial ships as though they were vessels on the Terran sea, running ahead of warp storms and slipping past metaphorical reefs and shoals, collision with which would invite disaster for the ship and its inhabitants. 

As you can imagine, warp travel without a Navigator is practically impossible, and so these mutants are an absolutely essential part of the imperial machinery which grants them an incredible amount of political power. While other abhumans toil in obscurity on the edges of society, the Navigators are raised to the status of nobility, with all the luxury that their stature entails. Despite belonging to the Imperial elite, Navigators are still considered deeply unsettling to be around, and physically repulsive to baseline humans with unnaturally tall and lanky bodies, black eyes, and pale skin. When they’re not jacked into the matrix, they tend to keep their unsettling third eyes hidden behind ornate headbands and crowns; however, even with their third eyes covered, there’s no mistaking Navigators for ordinary people.

Ogryns (Homo sapiens gigantus)

Certainly the most visible abhumans in both lore and game are Ogryns, and as the name suggests, these muscle-bound giants share a common DNA with the Ogres of Warhammer Fantasy and Age of Sigmar. According to their background, Ogryns have their origins on harsh prison planets which became isolated from the rest of mankind during the warp storms that preceded the Great Crusade. These ancestors responded to the harshness of their environment by evolving into enormous muscular beings that regularly overtop even Space Marines in terms of height, with the largest surpassing three metres. Such incredible physical prowess comes at a cost though, the unutilised intellect of these Ogryn precursors withered to a mere stump. Ogryns are almost as renowned for their blunt stupidity as they are for their monstrous strength, with Imperial Guard commanders required to phrase their orders as literally as possible to avoid misunderstandings – a hapless lieutenant who calls out “cover me!” may soon find himself crushed to death under the weight of a pile of Ogryns following his order to the letter.

This propensity for stupidity coupled with their imposing stature leads Ogryns to be derided by baseline humans as “Slabs,” useful only in performing menial labour and fulfilling the role of blunt-instrument shock troops. To this end, Ogryns are typically equipped with giant semi-automatic shotguns manufactured to be robust and simple-to-use enough to withstand the clumsiness of their wielders. Some particularly powerful Ogryns wear carapace armour made from old tank chassis with tank treads as a kind of ersatz chainmail, and toting massive tower-shields large enough for even an Ogryn to hide behind, these are the Bullgryns (Bulwark Ogryns). A typical Bullgryn deployment involves locking their mighty shields to form a mobile defensive line, behind which their baseline human comrades can shelter and advance on enemy strong positions in relative safety. 

Like other humans, Ogryns are adherents of the Imperial faith that reveres the God Emperor, however, as a result of their simple minds, they believe very literally that the Emperor himself is always watching over them personally, and likewise that every order that comes from above surely must come from the Emperor himself and are thus extremely obedient and loyal to their units and commanders.

Rarely, an Ogryn might display exceptional mental aptitude (the ability to count to four, the mental dexterity required to write one or two letters, so on). These outstanding individuals are selected to receive a brain-boosting implant known as Biochemical Ogryn Neural Enhancement or BONE. The recipients of BONE are known as Bone’eads whose increased mental aptitude makes them ideal to lead Ogryn squads as Sergeants.

Ratlings (Homo sapiens minimus)

Where Ogryns are massive, Ratlings are small, not much taller than human children. Where Ogryns are stupid, Ratlings are incredibly cunning and sly. They have a great love of, and natural affinity for, food and cooking. They walk around barefoot with hairy feet. They’re adept at stealth and thievery. Are you picking up what I’m putting down here? They’re Hobbits/Halflings in space! These ain’t your po-faced innocent Tolkien Hobbits though, oh no; Ratlings are commonly involved with activities like petty theft, smuggling, fencing, and indulging in all manner of low-brow vices and promiscuity. 

Typical civilian employment for Ratlings entails either employment in kitchens and commissaries, or as gofers and runners aboard imperial voidcraft, though through discrimination and distrust from many of the baseline population, many Ratlings are driven to work outside of the law as members of criminal gangs and enterprises. Even when pressed into service by the Imperial Guard, Ratlings quasi-magical abilities to make a tasty meal from just about anything makes them ideal to serve in regimental mess halls. Despite the risk of court-martial, Ratling criminal activity continues unabated, acting as fences and black marketeers for their regimental mates – if you need something, there’s a good chance that the Ratling working in kitchen can get it for you, for a price. From booze and lho sticks to harder narcotics and special weaponry, many soldiers are very grateful for the “chef’s special”. This capacity for making the hell of war slightly more comfortable means that Ratlings in the Guard are not discriminated against quite as much as their civilian counterparts. 

As their physical stature makes them unsuitable as battleline troops, Ratlings are almost always deployed as irregular light infantry, so when conscripted as troopers into the Imperial Guard they employ their special aptitude for stealth and marksmanship in service as advance foragers, scouts, and snipers. Mischievous Ratlings find a great deal of amusement in sniping enemy commanders and watching the ensuing mayhem from afar through powerful telescopic sights.  

Squats (Homo sapiens rotundus)

Squats are essentially, as their early name suggests, Space Dwarves. Back in the very early days of Warahmmer 40,000, Squats were created as a clear analogue for the dwarves of Warhammer Fantasy, and they persisted in the game for awhile until, as the 40k universe drifted further and further from its WHFB origins, they were written out completely and therefore “assumed extinct”. Fast forward almost 30 years and the Space Dwarf archetype has been revived as the Kin of the Leagues of Votann, but here’s where things get a bit confusing – the Kin are classified as a type of Xenos rather than a strain of abhuman, but they’re also kind of the same as Squats, and in-universe the humans don’t really make a distinction. But there are also “Squats” in the game of Necromunda who are much more like the OG Squats, so what’s going on there?

Well…Games Workshop has justified this by saying that the Necromunda Squats are a sort of offshoot of the Votann Kin who went and settled on Necromunda before the Leagues did their journey to the galactic core and all the general Votannic weirdness that occurred there. So we have Squats (abhumans) and Squats (Xenos). Confusing? Good.

For the purposes of this article we’re obviously going to focus on the abhuman Squats rather than their Xenos cousins.

As you might expect from their Dwarven origins, the Squats are shorter, broader, and more muscular than regular humans. They embody all the traditional dwarven stereotypes, being doughty warriors famed for their resilience, expert craftsmen, and are generally interested in the discovery and mining of minerals for use in their technology and crafts. Along with these characteristics, Squats follow the lead of the Warhammer Fantasy Dwarves in other ways, WHFB Dwarves are not magically adept and therefore Squats are similarly naturally resistant to the effects of the warp, and have barely any Psykers among their ranks. Despite the stigma of abhumanity, Squats are broadly tolerated in their interactions with human society, most ordinarily as mercenaries, although they prefer to keep themselves to themselves.

So those are the most “ordinary” of the abhumans, and the ones we know the most about (and of which models exist), everything from here is more nebulous and speculative, both in-and-out of universe.

Beastmen (Homo sapiens variatus)

The most piteous of all the abhuman strains, the Beastmen have mutated into something intolerable to almost all subjects of the Imperium, through genetic malady they present in a variety of bestial shapes, most commonly with the head of a goat, digitigrade satyr-style legs and cloven hooves. Although their strain of abhumanity is broadly considered Stable, due to their animalistic appearance, the Beastmen are the victim of the most severe stigma from broader Imperial society, being actively prohibited from settling on hundreds of thousands of worlds, and widely hated even when their presence is legally sanctioned. Given this suffering, it’s small wonder that many Beastmen flee their sad existences and seek community among the mutant-friendly cults that worship the ruinous powers.

Where Beastmen are recruited into the Auxilia of the Imperial Guard, they are employed mostly as a particularly savage first wave or Forlorn Hope, expected to die in order to soften the enemy somewhat. The Imperial Cult views the deaths of Beastmen in the service of the Emperor as a meagre sort of penance for the sin of being born so aberrant. 

Longshanks (Homo sapiens elongatus)

As the name suggests, the defining attribute of the Longshanks is their great height, the result of long centuries of isolation on planets with gravitic fields considerably weaker than the galactic norm. Longshanks tower over even Ogryns, however unlike their strapping musclebound cousins, Longshanks are spindly and less physically robust, but can be an imposing sight when heavy armed and armoured. While their great height gives them a very useful vantage over the field of battle, and their long strides allow them to move with a good deal of speed, their use on the battlefield is hampered by their unfortunate inability to take cover behind anything short of a three-storey building. They’re sort of like fantasy giants but if fantasy giants were very skinny but otherwise normal humans.

Longshanks are often compared with Voidborne humans (baseline humans who have lived for generations aboard the slightly-reduced gravity of voidcraft, and are thus somewhat spindly and slender in appearance) but the difference in height is clear, Longshanks are much much taller.

Nightsiders (Homo sapiens tenebris)

Across the galaxy there exists an incredible variety of inhabited worlds, and of the humans that have adapted to their homes perhaps none are quite as strange as the Nightsiders. A Nightsider homeworld may be a planet tidally locked with its star, so that one side is subjected to constant scorching starlight while the other exists in a permanent night, or a rogue planet unbound to any star wandering through the permanent blackness of space. In either case, the humans that call these worlds home have adapted to live in unending darkness, developing mutations that facilitate such a tenebrous existence. Much like you if you spend too much time inside playing computer games, many centuries in darkness has lead to their skin becoming extremely pallid or even translucent. Some Nightsiders develop oversized eyes with reflective material (like a cat’s) behind their retina to gather as much light as possible in the gloom. Still others have lost their eyes altogether, developing greatly enhanced auditory and olfactory senses to compensate for their lack, such individuals are able to navigate their way through this permanent pitch darkness by means of echolocation and may find the position of an enemy through scent alone.
These skills make Nightsiders tunnel fighters and night-time infiltrators without peer, but their exceptionally unusual natures and bizarre, unsettling appearances lead them to become the victims of significant prejudice among the ranks of the Astra Militarum. 

Afriel Strain (Homo sapiens maledictus)

One of the two strains of abhuman created “on purpose” (along with the Gland Warriors), the Afriel Strain trace their origins to a genetic experiment. The scientists believed that by combining the DNA of some of the greatest heroes of the Imperium into a great big gene soup, they would be able to create a bunch of hyperchads, the perfect new man. Unfortunately things never really go to plan, for while the Afriel Strain are indisputably superior soldiers, something intangible about them (maybe some kind of latent bad-mood field) is repulsive and aggravating to their baseline-human comrades. This general mistrust and dislike is amplified by the Afriel Strain all being albinos with white skin, white hair, and pink eyes. These problems are coupled with and magnified by their inhumanly bad luck, no-one wants to be around the guy who’s cosmic misfortune is so bad that it might pull an enemy artillery shell off course and smack you in the braincase with it. 

Goliath

Are Goliaths abhumans? Well, maybe! In-universe sources don’t seem to know one way or another and neither do we! They certainly don’t look like regular humans, what with their being massive size (almost matching that of a Space Marine) and very short lives (the oldest Goliaths might reach the stately age of 10).

Like several other strains of abhuman, Goliaths were created intentionally, in their case as the result of genetic experiments seeking to breed a slave race that could withstand the pressures of working in highly dangerous environments.  

Goliaths are mostly grown in vats rather than birthed as a result of reproduction, and therefore most Goliaths are sterile males. There is the possibility that a fertile opposite-sex Goliath pair can have a child, such an individual is named a “NatBorn”, which confers several genetic advantages including a longer lifespan and higher degree of intelligence.  

Neandors (Homo sapiens hyannothus) 

Restricted to a single world (Hyannoth IV) the Neandors are a strain of abhuman that have “devolved” into what are essentially cavemen, losing their intelligence and technical ability during their long isolation. From the records of Imperial Xenologists, Neandors are noted to be stupid but possessed of a particularly high level of strength. There’s not really anything else to say about them. Neandor… Neanderthal? Geddit? 

Gland Warriors (Homo sapiens auctus glandulae)

Another biological experiment, the creators of Gland Warriors clearly drew inspiration from the extra implanted organs of Space Marines and applied that procedural knowledge to alter regular humans, ostensibly with the aim of creating warriors with an enhanced capability to fight Tyranids. To this end, Gland Warriors were both genetically altered and implanted with “glands” that dispense hormones, steroids, and stimulants. As a result of this extra chemical assistance, Gland Warriors tend to be stronger, impervious to most toxins, and much more resilient than their baseline kin. 

This enhancement carries a rather heavy price, however, with Gland Warriors being far less mentally stable than normal, having a super tough, very strong guy on your side is great right up until his fragile mental state snaps and he yank your head off in a blind rage.
Gland Warriors are also prone to a deadly phenomenon common to people heavily reliant on stimulants (both in the real world and that of 40k), sometimes they just drop dead on the spot, this happens particularly in heightened states of arousal like combat, as their glands dispense more combat drugs into their bloodstream than their body can cope with, causing a sudden cardiac death.

Don’t do drugs, kids! 

Troths (Homo sapiens verdantus) 

An abhuman strain whose existence and characteristics are dubious even among in-universe sources, the Troths are what happens when humanity in isolation decides to get really freaky with it. Coming from their forested homeworld of Verdant, Troths are described as having evolved the ability to draw nutrients from the soil of their homeworld and are alleged to have oaken skin and “arboreous appearances”. They’re tree people or dryads, basically. Space Ents. Told you it was freaky.  

Felinids (Homo sapiens hirsutus)

As you can probably guess from their nomenclature, Felinids are a strain of abhuman that resemble cats, making them the internet’s favourite abhumans by far, with endless fanart featuring Felinid Imperial Guard soldiers. The nature of their mutation and the degree to which they resemble cats is unclear even to in-universe sources, along with whether or not they actually exist at all. Do they look like the cats from the musical Cats, or like the cats from the film of the musical Cats (god I hope not). As a result of this ambiguity we know essentially nothing about them. Their homeworld is called Carlos McConnell, why the homeworld of the cat people would have a human name (and for whom the planet is named) is a mystery to which no-one seems to know the answer. Maybe Felinids are an in-joke that took on a life of its own and became capital L Lore? 

Pelagers (Homo sapiens oceanus)

Certainly one of the strangest of the sanctioned abhuman strains are the Pelagers, born of worlds almost entirely covered by deep ocean. The ancestors of these Pelagers adapted to their homeworlds by evolving the ability to breathe liquid and live their lives beneath the waves. You might be picturing Kevin Costner in Waterworld, but descriptions of Pelegars make note of their unusual physiques, with scaled skin and huge muscle-bound bodies – the result of living in environments subject to intense oceanic pressure. How they are able to survive on the surface without popping like a blob-fish is unknown, probably some kind of space magic.

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