I was wondering if anyone has compiled (or knows where to find) a list of all the xenos species (major or minor) known in the Expanse?

There are of course the obvious Eldar, Orks, Yu'Vath, Rak-Gol and Strixis. But what else? Many of the books make off hand references to Xenos species but provide no detail of who/what/where they are. I wanted to try and incorporate some of these into my setting as I am kind of sick of the Eldar being used in every **** adventure and want something new. So before I started scouring my PDFs for xenos species names IO thought I would cast out a a question here and see if anyone had already done the work.

Also, any xenos species people have designed themselves and willing to share would be great.

From the major ones there're also Kroots, Genestealers (so maybe bigger bugs too - forgotten fleets and such) and probably Necrons. The smaller ones I can think at the moment are lazy bones from Ilisk, Egarians and primitive tripods mentioned in HA. And also Slaught description mentions their empire somewhere in the halo stars - if I remember correctly:)

Orks, Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau, Kroot, Vespid etc.

I wouldn't call genestealers as their own species though, as they're a subspecies of tyranids.

Necrons are as well, but I would advise against using Necrons in a Rogue Trader game. When necrons rise, they rise in the billions and they do not speak or negotiate- they shoot on sight with their vastly powerful gauss weapons.

I'm not sure if Tau would work either. They will try to integrate humanity into their empire, but refuse the offer and they'll attack with their tough battlesuits and powerful pulse weapons and high-tech weaponary; far more advanced than the Imperium's.

Those are the major ones (barring kroots and vespids) anyways.

Tau and Vespids are not in the Expanse. Some Kroot mercenaries are there, but they keep their mercenary work a secret from the Tau.

Tyranids aren't there either; just the Genestealers for now. Of course, there could always be a splinter fleet coming from deep space, but for now there is no official mention of that.

The Enoulians (Creatures Anathema) could be there, possibly.

Sslyth Mercenaries.

The unnamed Xeno species that crashed on Orn and devolved into aggressive savages.

The primitive xenos that are forced to work the nephium mines on Lucin's Breath, though it's not sure if they're intelligent at all.

Hrud can be dropped in just about anywhere…

I came up with a spacefaring race to throw at my players. They don't have Warp travel yet, but they were fascinated by the wrecked human ship (and surviving crew) that crawled into their little patch of the Heathen Worlds 50 years ago.

The Pukusians are friendly, eager to trade, colourful, deeply odd, and a hell of a lot more cunning than the PCs have given them credit for…

puenboy said:

The latest edition of the Necron Codex actually makes them an empire again- Necron Warriors are the same loveable faceless drones, but Necron Lords can speak and negotiate and whatnot. In fact, they're quite amusing characters who could definitely spice up a Rogue Trader game.

susanbrindle said:

the necrons don't always just turn on with a flick of the switch either - if you've read any of the Deathwatch source material (no spoilers so don't worry) you'll note that things don't always go according to plan even for the necron tomb worlds. awakenings can be botched, programs go awry, directives interpreted in strange ways. even the necron lords aren't immune to system degradation or insanity. all of which can be used to introduce necronts into a game without making them into an unstoppable tide of terminators.

for what it's worth, I'd also shy away from introducting Tau, vespids or the Tyrannid hive fleets. they either don't fit the theme of Rogue Trader, would be completely disruptive or would involve a LOT of fudging to throw into the Koronus expanse. just my .02 cents tho.

Yeah, there can certainly be smaller numbers of necrons present, you don' t have to have them in the billions.

Fra'al could also be present in small numbers.

susanbrindle said:

Fgdsfg said:

actually, I *really* liked the necron codex. it expanded the army list nicely and balanced the Necrons into a viable army. plus it filled out the back story a bit.

and I say this as a long time Necron player. prior to the updated codex, the Necrons were more cheesy than space wolves.

The Koronus Bestiary mentions a few more Xenos races as well that would be in the Expanse, although not much information is given about the races themselves.

The Byavoor are said to be slaves and sacrifices of the Yu'Vath, but are "passive" and were not viewed as a threat to the Imperium so they are still in existence.

The Djarlik were an aquatic race that excelled at void combat due to their natural grasp of 3-dimensional combat, but were also thought to be exterminated during the Angevin Crusade

The Strinx are a microscopic race that form hyper-intelligent colonies that are also mostly wiped out, and are now limited to tiny colonies are asteroids, and are only viewed as an intelligent threat once their colonies reach a certain size.

Species X-10198.RK are a primitive xenos race, but were implied to have once been more intelligent before radiation from the planet they were found on slowly degraded their neural pathways.

The Dark Heresy sourcebook The Radical's Handbook features a small section on xeno equipment, which is probably indicitave of species that can be found in the Koronus Expanse: Morgauth ('scavenging reptilids'), Xenarch ('-of the Northern Rim, little is known'; they have a brief write-up on the Lexicamun ), Draethi ('-dark alien race-'), Scythians (also touched on in Lexicanum ), and the Q'Orl ('-insidious insectiod race-'; brief article in Xenology ). I've been tinkering at adapting some of these to my Dark Heresy campaign- here is my take on the Morgauth.

Fgdsfg said:

While the rest of us are quite pleased by the massive improvement in the Necron fluff

macd21 said:

I think we all agree that the changes to Necrons have been massively divisive and have polarized the community between wanting eviserate and worship Senor Ward.

have them meet some crons, read there new fluff some of them will wheel and deal for certain items or aid.

Doesn't Rogue trader take place in the 8th century of the 41st millenium though, roughly two hundred years prior to the awakening of the Necrons?

It's 816.M41 in Rogue Trader if I remember things correctly. The first reported necron confrontation is supposed to be Sanctuary 101 in 897.M41, which gives us roughly eighty years. The thing is though, is that there are many settlements that disappeared without a trace earlier, and the necrons are notoriously thorough in their extermination of biologial life. They might just have had problems with FTL and such.

There's also a probability that the Ordo Xenos might try to supress rumours of unstoppable killer xeno robots as long as they're not an immediate threat to the Imperium.

Another evidence of necron activity in the Koronus Expanse is the artefacts Remnants of the Ageless who are clean, immaculate silver objects with a green glow, no wear or aging and apparently infinite energy. Go figure.

Yeah, while the necrons aren't widely known to the Imperium at this time that just makes them perfect for Rogue Trader. The 'crons can have woken up recently (or even be woken by the Rogue Trader!) and be expanding carefully, learning about the status quo in the Expanse etc. Thus the PCs could have a chance to stop them before they become a threat to the Expanse and the Calixis Sector… or they could work with the 'crons in exchange for riches and power…

The 'crons feature prominently in both Deathwatch and Black Crusade, both of which are set in the same time frame. Worse, one of the Rogue Trader books describes a world that sounds a lot like a tomb world. (Edge of the Abyss, if I remember correctly.) So, it's safe to use them in Rogue Trader without fluff violation. Of course, there may be the burning of many fate points if you do; Necrons are tough, and Gauss weapons are just plain evil.

As for other Xenos in the expanse, Yu'Vath ruins are certainly a possibility, and I've always been fascinated by the Egarians… And if you really want to get nasty, have the players run into Dark Eldar.

Cheers,

- V.

SirFrog said:

This.

Plus Tranzyn the Infinite is just to cool to miss for a RT. (What would be the acquisition roll for a head of Sebastian Thor?)