Assuming you would be lucky enough to find a human planet like one what are the lower upper population limits for a hive world? I seem to remember figures being given in 40k 3rd edition but I cant find a copy of that tome. (anybody out there got stats?)

Or are Hive Worlds less to do with the populations and more to with the spire rising or mega city 1 sprawling urban archologies?

Finally what would be the chance realistically of finding such a world in teh expanse? (are they not meant to be cronically dependant on outside food suppplies?)

Does it even really fit thematically with Rogue Trader as a Rpg?

1. 10-100 billion per hive cluster, 5-20 clusters per world, according to random sources I've found.

2. As a general rule, a hive world is any world in which a colossal population resides in a condensed space; the number of hives on a world merely defines its stature.

3. Next to no chance of one in the Expanse, short of the Warp doing something odd and moving a planet from one location to another in a warp storm.

4. There's no particular reason against them being in Rogue Trader, they make excellent ports of call for Acquisitions and repairs after a long endeavour.

Generally, I'd require my players go back through the Maw to Scintilla or somesuch if they wanted to travel to a hive world.

I would think that it would be next to impossable for a hive world to exist in the exspanse.

Every book I have read that features one implies or states that the world is dependent on agriworlds for its food supply, unless of course the population survived on corpse starch or some such ). Most hive worlds are pretty messed up ecologically before they get to the hive world status.

-Erich

"10-100 billion per hive cluster, 5-20 clusters per world, according to random sources I've found."

Ive seen this figure posted on the net a couple of times, but I cant find its source ( ). 5-20 'clusters'?, thats when you have a number of hives in close proximity connected by tunnels and roadways right?

I think that the general consensus is correct that a living hive world would be all but impossible. However a dead one where a civilisation had exhausted all the planetary resources might be a possibility and messed up the atmosphere is a distinct possibility... (as a well as a mountain of loot)

Anybody have facts of figures for a generic hive city for example dimesions? Using the map from Purge the Unclean of Stropes House and some nifty calculations, and the staggering scientific technique of using a ruler on the page and comparing the diametre of the floor on the stropes estate against the silouette image of the hive, I calculated a base diametre to be 4200 m and a height of 6900 metres, which makes it a substantially smaller tha Primus Hive on Necromunda (10 Miles High). I was content with this right up to the point I checked its description in the DH rulebook where it was decribed as having a 8000km wide book which leaves me back to square one.

Ideas anyone. Creating and looting a dead Hive world lookes enticing as well as a good endevour...

The thing about hive worlds is they are like almost everything else in the Imperium, they are a classification, not a true descriptions.

There is no "correct" size, population, architecture, or way they work. A hive world is just a world with x+ population that doesn't qualify as a forgeworld.

Some of them have "clusters" which are large, distinct, planned out hive cities. Others are like corescant, sprawl over the entire surface. Others may be burrowed into the crust and the mountain ranges, the whole exterior of the planet nearly hollow, with power plants along the tectonic plates powering the whole thing.

There is no correct size, correct shape, correct population, correct design, or correct culture.

Hives just have LOTS of people and don't qualify as something else.

So let your imagination run wild.

Agree with Riplikash, Look at Landunder, Hiveworld yes, but the Hives seem to be diddy compared to real hives, only a billion souls per city and less than 10 cities i think. Compared to Malfi which is truly epically vast.

As for Hives in the expanse, I could imagine a small pocket empire, one hive world with a couple of agriworlds and maybe three or four fringe worlds. It would have to be a little out the way and hella defended to survive the generally unpleasant environment that is the expanse, but it could be done.

Are they common, hell no! Ruined Hive worlds might be, but live ones, full of humans, nope.

chances are actually big. Human do populate the expenses for countless eons ( Dark age of thecnology) and it is part of our nature to build bigger and better.

So it is entirely possible once in a while... BUT make sure you take in account that a hive world needs food from other worlds or something equivalent...

I believe there is a world where there are hive sized crawlers criss crossing the land and making war with one another...

There are at least a few ex-hive worlds in the Expanse. Naudesh for one. As for a living hive world, I am pretty sure it would be known about if it were a human world. It would just be worth too much for any self respecting Rogue Trader to pass up.

The thing about Hive Worlds, whatever their designation, is that they need a basic reason for existing. In the Imperium, its the place where a great deal of manufacturing and raw resources processing takes place. This makes sense from an economic and logistic point of view (at least in the 40k world), and because there are a great many ready markets for the products of the Hives.

In the Expanse, it isn't too far-fetched that a Hive World could exist. There are several examples where Hive Worlds survive primarily from a nearby large agri-moon or even another planet within the same system (although this is rare, astronomically speaking). Naturally the Hive World wouldn't ever approach the giants in Calixis such as Scintilla or Malfi, but by the standards of the Expanse it could be impressive.

However, where this breaks down is in figuring out where the markets for such a HIve World's products are located. Currently, there's nothing published that could justify the existence of a Hive World. The Expanse is very much in the colonial phase of existence, which means major manufacturing facilities are neither needed or logical. It is far more cost-effective (especially in the short term), to just plunder whatever resources you can obtain and take them back to the more civilized areas. As the Imperium strengthens its grip in the Expanse and human populations rise, that will change.

If you were hell bent on a Hive World though, you could easily make it yourself. Perhaps a modest 1-2 Cluster Hive World, with an accompanying food supply in-system, and trading with a few nearby human occupied planets for resources.

Alternatively, you could go all out hardcore and create a so far undiscovered star cluster, based around one of the lost Forge Worlds established by Mars. The priests of such a Forge World would expand their grip to nearby star systems for raw materials, and to other worlds for recruits and labor. A sort of mini-techno Imperium, based around the credo Omnissiah. Who knows how such a small star empire would react to being re-discovered by the Imperium of Man?

My guess is that there are probably no hive worlds in the Koronos expanse. Hive worlds imply civilization and the Koronus expanse is a wild frontier. Besides, the fluff seems to indicate that Port Warder is the big city that Rogue traders go to for R&R, any hiveworld would probably take that distinction away from Port Warder.

However, a hive world that has been abandoned, or has a handfull of inhabitants living out a feral existance in the shadows of the rotting spires, THAT would seem appropriate for the Koronus expanse. That would imply treasures to be plundered as well as a mystery to unravel as to why this great civilization went extinct. The impression I have of the 3 games is that Calixis Sector is about every day life in the Imperium, The Koronus Expanse is about discovery and mapping out new territory, and the Jericho Reach is about the endless war which makes the 40K universe so endearing.