I was checking out the reviews for Kronous Beastiarum and it spelled out rather clearly that the Rak'Gols are indeed servants of Chaos.

So before I made my decision to not make my Rak'Gols followers of Chaos I thought that I would check in here to ask if anyone knows if there are any hidden implications for making these aliens free from the slavery of Chaos as opposed to be its thralls.

I understand that their connection with the Yv'ath will need to be re-writen but I'm already thinking that they are perhaps more concerned with preventing humans, who may be known as easily corrupted by Chaos, from getting their hands on the remains from the Yvaths. Obviously the Rak'Gol will still be badboys but not connected with Chaos in the manner that they are described as being in the official sources.

Thoughts?

Yu,vath are chaos "things" from what we can gather a bit like the Enslavers, that is what I figured out.

They use construct made of energy from the warp and there is no mention of a Yu'vath themself.

The Rag'Kols are just another race that decided to go chaos and their society was easily corrupted by their piratical tendency and their augmentation desires.

That's a different view from to be sure. I always considered the Yu'vaths to be more like, I don't know for any good examples, but aliens who were warp-tainted and used a warp-based tech-sorcery to create an empire in the Calyxis Expanse before the Angevin Crusade wiped them out. While I knew the Yu'vaths used human slaves I thought it was a combination of material domination and warp-sorcery to taint and control the human thralls. I never figured that the Yu'vaths would be similar to the Enslavers.

In regards to the Rak'Gols I understood that from the start it was hinted that they MIGHT have fallen to Chaos but that later on it was explicietly stated that they HAD fallen to Chaos.Also I recall that there was some kind of mentioning that Rak'Gol attacks were following some sort of pattern and that they often showed up where Yu'vath remains had been excavated. From that I drew the conclusion that both these two races were tainted by Chaos entirely and beyond salvation, and that the Rak'Gols were trying to get their hands on Yu'vath tech-sorcery.

Gurkhal said:

I think that's partly the role of the Eldar in the entire 40k 'verse, which can get old, but on that scale it seems most appropriate for the Eldar. I would totally use Kroots or Stryxis or the occasional semi-coherent Rak'ghol who filled this role, but they are kind of meant to be one of the full on enemies of the Imperium. I imagine that since 40k has this whole "galaxy wide doom just minutes away" that they're going to wake up something terrible and just need a few more Yu'vath artifacts until they're ready. Think Lovecraft, deep ones, whatnot. I think they might be bringing back the Yu'vath, having been created as a warrior race with a contingency plan to bring them back if they ever went away. Yu'vath coming back from the brink of the Immaterium would be pretty freaky, even on a galactic scale, with some scary implications.

But that's just my imagination, you do what you will. If you like the Yu'vath preventing the fall of mankind, do it. I mean, who's buying the books? Who's running your game? It's all you, man. These books have a lot of ideas, but they're all just suggestions, meant to be used when it's fun, not chained to only use FFG's ideas. And I don't think it would ruin anything in the Expanse to do what you're thinking.

jordiver2 said:

Yes, I totally agree with that my idea of the Rak'Gols would take some thunder from the Eldar who are usually the ones to do this kind of stuff and that's one of the great weaknesses with my idea. Otherwise I agree that the Rak'Gols are the enemies of everything that isn't Rak'Gol.

jordiver2 said:

That absolutely an angle that works really well, although I'm kind of more thinking that some derenged Chaos or Xenos Cults could fulfill that task. And I like your idea for the Rak'Gols, I really do. Would you think that there would be some way to explain a cooperation between a cult that wants to bring back, or use forbidden technology to turn themselves into, the Yu'vath?

jordiver2 said:

I would most certainly not want the Yu'vath to be anything else than 110% bad guys but I was thinking about the possibility to disconnect the Rak'Gol from the the obvious connections to Chaos. While I can of course do as I want in my games I'd rather throw out my idea for some feedback on this great forum before showing it to my players. And so far the feedback has been pretty good.

Gurkhal, in regards to whether some other force could be at work on bringing back/becoming Yu'vath, or working with either Yu'vath or even the Rak'ghol, sure, absolutely! Imagine the Eldar (or Strxys, I like them quite a bit) deprogrammed the Rak'ghol goal of reawakening. Perhaps Explorator Thule, lost ages ago in the Expanse, has abandoned his previous goals and is now trying to control the Imperium of Man with the Yu'vath artifacts for their own protection (isn't there some organization in the Inquisition trying to do this, the Hydra?). Then again, some pirate captain of little to no importance could suddenly become the scourge of the Koronus Expase after a Yu'vath bronze wyrm wriggles it's way into his brains, setting him on a path that could doom everyone by waking the Yu'vath, or transforming him slowing into one (btw, I think I read that the Yu'vath look like Lovecraft's Mi-Go, so google that, it gives me inspiration every time).

jordiver2 said:

Thanks for the ideas! I'll have to chew on them for a while and then I'll hope that I'll remember to come back tell about them.

Spoilers for Deathwatch below, you know who you are.

In my current Deathwatch campaign, the librarian had access to a sealed record dating from the Angevin Crusade. The reason why the Imperium states the Yu'vath as "extinct" is because each of them was a dark beacon in the warp, a smaller and more corrupt version of the astronomicon when in numbers. They didn't hide from the Imperium because they were mad with warp-taint and couldn't if they did want to. So they all died, the Imperium knowing where to strike.

My Rak'Gol weren't chaos tainted. Emphasis on "weren't". Their former tech-based society was breaking down into civil war as primitive instincts combined with rising technology and population. They found artifacts and writings in an isolated former Yu'Vath outpost and learned enough to speed their way through the warp, albeit far more slowly than navigators. They've gotten better though, finding and incorporating more and more tainted Yu'Vath knowledge into their fractured packs. They seek to plunder the Egarian Dominion as that race were corrupted into extinction by the Yu'Vath and left wonders behind.

Decessor said:

That's an interesting take on the Yu'vath and the Rak'Gol. I kind of think that the idea that the Yu'vath could be so strong that they make this print on the war although possibly I'd have to modify it so as to not give them away at once. The Rak'Gol were pretty cool as well and I assume then that the race isn't acting as a unified whole but that individual Abominations and Broodmasters are lead their packs/warbands according to their own agenda at most times.

How would you see the Rak'Gols taint of Chaos as being? Aware and organized according to a cult like pattern like some human Chaos cults, or that the race has a taint which has not manifested itself as a direct cult of the Ruineous Powers, or maybe a third way?

Gurkhal said:

Oh sure, use it as you like. That tome was more to emphasis a theme in the campaign: knowledge is kept secret for a reason. Some truths are too terrible to be known by just anyone. A xenos race gleefully in thrall to the ruinous powers and fuelling hellworlds with human suffering like so much kindling? They deserved extinction if any breed ever did.

A good question! I see the Rak'Gol as not showing much in the way of physical mutation but afflicted increasingly by something akin to maligencies, more subtle changes to their attitudes mostly - and "enjoy" the experience. A twist on a species that is quite violent and physical. The species has fallen from whatever peak of near-unity they might have once had. Some abominations use chaos less, others more. All are sliding into greed for more taint. More power to keep their brood strong.