I thought we might start a thread listing the various named (if not described) xenos species in 40K, so that folks have a resource to draw on when creating new threats for their kill-teams. The usual suspects (Eldar, Orks, Tyranids, Tau, Necrons) are familiar to pretty much everyone, but there are many others that I'm sure a lot of players have never heard of (and may only be mentioned once or twice in canon).

The Deathwatch book mentions at least a couple of xenos races I haven't heard of before (the Mire, the Cell-kin). Some will also be familiar with the Slaugth, from Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader and the Storm Wardens Chapter history. In addition to those, one of the 40K Wikis provides this helpful listing:

* Barghesi: Aggressive race near the Grendl stars. No other data is known.
* Caradochian: Winged race often appearing as mercenaries.
* Chuffian: Use a characteristic Power Maul weapon. No other data is known.
* C'tan: The race worshiped by the Necrons.
* Demiurg: A race of short humanoids, allied with the Tau. May or may not be related to Squats.
* Drugh: Large larval invertebrates with advanced psionic capability. Stem from the world of Pyrus I.
* Enslavers: Parasitical warp-based lifeforms that look for psychic hosts to transform into living Warp portals.
* Galg: Green, scaled, frog-like creatures rumored to be Tau-allies.
* Galthite: Xenos from the Oenorian Inner Systems.
* Hrud: A race of near-invisible scavenger aliens who infest several areas of the galaxy. Commonly considered to be little more than vermin.
* Jokaero: Resemble orangutans. They are famous for their instinctive technical brilliance.
* Kathap: A race using what appears to be organic weaponry.
* Khrave: Alien mind-eaters.
* K'Nib: Described as "festering clawed fiends", have 10 limbs.
* Kroot: Reptilian hunter species allied with the Tau.
* Lacrymole: A race of shape-shifters.
* Loxatl: Amphibian quadrupeds who communicate through infrasound. Grey-skinned and foul-smelling. They are known to smell like rancid milk and mint.
* Nicassar: A psychic race allied with the Tau.
* Necrontyr: The race that became the Necrons.
* Nekulli: Little known about the Nekulli race, apart from their Whisperlance technology.
* Old Ones: An ancient race who fought the C'tan.
* Psy-Gore: From Perseus; makers of crystalline firearms.
* Q'Orl: An insectoid species, whose empire is centered on the swarmworld of Loqiit.
* Scythian: Martial species devoted to the art of combat.
* Slann: An ancient reptilian species, connected to the Old Ones.
* Stryxis: Nomadic creatures said to resemble a humanoid canine embryo, with no young or gender differences ever reported. Voracious traders, their culture is eccentric and obscure, although they despise the Eldar.
* Tallerian: Reptiloid mercenary allies of the Tau.
* Thyrrus: A squid-like race with color-changing skin.
* Umbra: A species of floating spheres with a hard, black carapace.
* Vespid: Winged insectoids allied with the Tau.
* Viskeon: Huge, muscled humanoid creatures, when part of their body is cut off, a fetus forms from it, feeding off its nutrients to eventually become a fully formed Viskeon.
* Xenarch: An isolationist, Warp-worshiping species from the Galactic north.
* Yu'vath: A race of warp-worshipping sorcerer-slavers from the Koronus Expanse, apparently annihilated in the 39th millennium during the Angevin Crusade, although remnants of their empire persist.
* Zoat: Large, strange, centaur-like creatures that were conquered by the Tyranids. The Zoats were used as a slave race for the hive mind and its followers, and many revolts by the Zoats (brutally put down by the Tyranids) led to the near extinction of their race. Eradicated by the Imperium upon their arrival in Human space.

If you know of other canonical xenos races (or want to add your own), please post them here. As a courtesy, indicate whether your entry is canonical (and the source if possible), or homemade.

Just to point out, Kroot are avian-based, not reptilian. Otherwise, nice resource Is that the list from Schola Progenium ?

The 40K RT lists many more (including plants!) and I'd consider them canonical still unless more recent information overturns any information present in there (as in the case of the Genestealers, for example).

Alex

I didn't proofread it for accuracy. When I get home I'll refine the list so it can be edited and added to. That list is from plain ol' Wikipedia, I will research more thoroughly when I'm not at work... just wanted to get the ball rolling. I'm sure there are much more complete lists to pull from.

I left out critter-type or otherwise non-sapient xenos (Ambulls, maw-flukes, etc); no reason we can't add critters though.

Direach said:

It might be a good idea, as the kill-team will get around and no doubt will meet quite a few of those too.

Alex

I'm wondering if it will violate any copyright laws if we listed xeno species by book as well, since there are so many xeno species all over the DH/RT (and now DW) books? Unless there's already a list like that out there.

Razorboy said:

As long as you are just putting the xenos species name, a description, and the book their in, no, there shouldn't be a problem. It becomes a problem if you start copy/pasting big chunks out of the book though.

There was one that was a gene-created race, they made their warriors to excel in what ever environment they fought in. They were exterminated by space marines in one of the bloodiest battles in history. Was in a White Dwarf as a fluff piece, don't remember the name of the race, just the storyline.

There is the Rok'gol, a four armed reptillian race mentioned in RT I think.

The Glenn, you are thinking of the Lael, or Laer, or something like that, that the Emperor's Children Legion whiped out during the Great Crusade. They mention them in the book Fulgrim.

A few more, from the listing in the Lexicanum:

Jorgall: A race of aliens that occupied Imperial space in the Tasak Beta and Fallon systems using long cylinders as their homes until they found a suitable planet and colonized it. In their natural state the Jorgalli adult is about 4.5 metres tall and they have three legs, and three arms. On their extensible neck sat an egg shaped head with rheumy eyes and fleshy notches for noses and mouths. Their skin, scaly and horned, resembles a lizard's. Almost all Jorgall feature extensive cybernetic upgrades such as feet replaced by wheels, and hands replaced by claws, teleoptic cameras and subdermal armour. Some even featured basic needler weapons inside cavities in their bodies.

Kinebrach: No description available.

Megarachnids: A fearsome and violent Xenos race, resembling giant spiders and winged insects. They possessed long sword-like claws which appeared to be made from an organic metallic substance, and lived and worked in large swarms.

Saruthi: A race with no optical or auditory functions (i.e.: no eyes and ears) but their sense of smell and taste are much more developed by human standards. The Saruthi and their worlds have a lack of symmetry that is unnerving to anyone that views it. An interesting feature of their culture is their apparent lack of space travel, instead having interplanetary travel, similar to the eldar webway.

*yoink*

Nice work on digging these links up, even without the full descriptions this gives me a whole lot of ideas and seeds. Thanks all

May have been, I remember an article in WD about them to emphasize how mean the marines were.

Direach said:

The Saruthi were featured in the Eisenhorn Trilogy, the 1st book i believe.

The Glen said:

The Laer, I believe. Exterminated by the Emperor's Children just before the Horus Heresy. A serpentine, warp corrupted race in the thrall of Slaanesh.

Direach said:

I think they were blue, humanoid and had a distinctive smell. This is from memory - Horus Rising, I think. (I could be confusing them with Smurfs, though.) I seem to recall they formed alliances with a number of human societies, which annoyed the Great Crusade forces. Not much mention of them, but one imagines they were proabably wiped out either during or after the Heresy by either Imperial or Traitor forces.

Here's my thoughts on how the same list would look if grouped in chronological order, with the most ancient races first:-

* C'tan: The race worshiped by the Necrons.

* Old Ones: An ancient race who fought the C'tan.

* Slann: An ancient reptilian species, connected to the Old Ones.

* Necrontyr: The race that became the Necrons.

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The ones above the line above are the REALLY old races, the ones that started the "war in heaven." The later (but still almost impossibly ancient) races probably began with:-

*The Eldar

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Then it all gets a bit debatable, but we'd be looking at a few candidates like:-

* Hrud: A race of near-invisible scavenger aliens who infest several areas of the galaxy. Commonly considered to be little more than vermin.

* Jokaero: Resemble orangutans. They are famous for their instinctive technical brilliance.

*Ork (Krork)/"Brainboyz(?)"

*Rashan

These are races that I would tentatively identify as having been created by the Old Ones to use in wars against the Necrontyr and the C'Tan. There may be others on this part of the list we don't know about, and there may be races that are equally ancient that were not part of this war. Presumably most of the races created during this period may have died in the Enslaver plague, caused by the

______________________________________________________________________

* Enslavers: Parasitical warp-based lifeforms that look for psychic hosts to transform into living Warp portals.

It is possible of course that the Enslaver plague actually happened BEFORE the evolution of the races set out in the box above. The nature of the Enslavers and the description of the Enslaver plague in Codex:Necrons suggests that virtually ALL life in the galaxy was wiped out. But there are hints that the Old Ones messed with the DNA of races like the Jokaero, and the Old Ones seem to have been absent since the Enslaver plague, so...the chronology is up for grabs, here. Perhaps the Old Ones were so sophisticated that they messed with the DNA of the Jokaero while they were still bacteria or something...

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Then there are the very ancient races which appear to be wildcards, like

* Umbra: A species of floating spheres with a hard, black carapace. (Some say these are connected to the Old ones in some way...)

and ancient warp tainted races like

* Yu'vath: A race of warp-worshipping sorcerer-slavers from the Koronus Expanse, apparently annihilated in the 39th millennium during the Angevin Crusade, although remnants of their empire persist.

who seem very old.

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Then we have the good old

*Tyranids

and possibly their chums/slaves

* Zoat: Large, strange, centaur-like creatures that were conquered by the Tyranids. The Zoats were used as a slave race for the hive mind and its followers, and many revolts by the Zoats (brutally put down by the Tyranids) led to the near extinction of their race. Eradicated by the Imperium upon their arrival in Human space.

We don't know how old these guys are, but possibly very old indeed if they've travelled through intergalactic space.

_________________________________________________________________________

Then we have a whole host of races that seemed to spring up within the Milky Way galaxy after the end of the Enslaver Plague. I've tried to group these in some sort of rough order, but this whole chronology from this point on is up for grabs, really:-

*Slaugth: Mobile, utterly evil worm-colony entites that feed on the brains of other races, Xenos Horrificus, Calixis Sector resident

* Khrave: Alien mind-eaters.

* Barghesi: Aggressive race near the Grendl stars. No other data is known.

*Laer: Warp tainted serpentine eugenic experts

* Drugh: Large larval invertebrates with advanced psionic capability. Stem from the world of Pyrus I.
* Chuffian: Use a characteristic Power Maul weapon. No other data is known.
* Caradochian: Winged race often appearing as mercenaries.

* Galg: Green, scaled, frog-like creatures rumored to be Tau-allies.
* Galthite: Xenos from the Oenorian Inner Systems.
* Kathap: A race using what appears to be organic weaponry.
* Lacrymole: A race of shape-shifters.
* K'Nib: Described as "festering clawed fiends", have 10 limbs.

* Demiurg: A race of short humanoids, allied with the Tau. May or may not be related to Squats.

* Nicassar: A psychic race allied with the Tau.

* Xenarch: An isolationist, Warp-worshiping species from the Galactic north.

* Stryxis: Nomadic creatures said to resemble a humanoid canine embryo, with no young or gender differences ever reported. Voracious traders, their culture is eccentric and obscure, although they despise the Eldar.
* Psy-Gore: From Perseus; makers of crystalline firearms.

* Tallerian: Reptiloid mercenary allies of the Tau.
* Thyrrus: A squid-like race with color-changing skin.
* Vespid: Winged insectoids allied with the Tau.
* Viskeon: Huge, muscled humanoid creatures, when part of their body is cut off, a fetus forms from it, feeding off its nutrients to eventually become a fully formed Viskeon.

* Loxatl: Amphibian quadrupeds who communicate through infrasound. Grey-skinned and foul-smelling. They are known to smell like rancid milk and mint.
* Kroot: Reptilian hunter species allied with the Tau.
* Scythian: Martial species devoted to the art of combat.
*Humanity

* Q'Orl: An insectoid species, whose empire is centered on the swarmworld of Loqiit.
*Tau

The last three are a little uncertain, but the Q'orl seem to be perhaps a little younger than humanity, perhaps not, but stil quite young in galactic terms. There aren't many sentient races that evolved within humanity's history, the Tau seem to be the only ones I can think of.

Anyway, that's all a very personal interpretation. There are bound to be many errors there in the "running order" of sentient species evolution, but it's an attempt to group the list up on that basis....Any thoughts?

I might add that regarding the Barghesi seem to have some sort of weird genetic traits, because the Codex Space Marines mentions that the Iron Lords Chapter has herded them in the path of a hive fleet, and that consuming their DNA is somehow messing up the 'nids.