Felinids

By Cymbel, in Only War House Rules

How would you make a fluffy felinid "specialty" class. My thoughts are it would be something like that ratling. With the bigger bonuses and maluses. Would probably have perception, fieldcraft, finesse and agility at least for aptitudes, maybe some kind of racial advantage like night vision penalties reduced or claws. Any ideas?


I wouldn't.

IMHO they sound too far from the human species to be considere abhuman, and as such they would be xenos and should be clensed from the univers by holy fire.

But it is your game so, you can do what you want.

Edited by SolP

I wouldn't.

IMHO they sound too far from the human species to be considere abhuman, and as such they would be xenos and should be clensed from the univers by holy fire.

But it is your game so, you can do what you want.

Are you kidding me? All jokes about furries aside, you take issue with Felinids - a confirmed abhuman strain (Homo sapiens hirsutus) - while there's such abhumans as the ogryns (homo sapiens gigantus) and straight-up beastmen (homo sapiens variatus), the latter which sports everything form bull-horns to alligator teeths?

Nevermind whatever the hell Pelagers (homo sapiens oceanus) are - presumably mermaids or sharkfolk or something equally obscene. Or Troths (homo sapiens verdantus), which sound like some kind of ape-men, from the world Verdant.

Felinids might be abhuman filth, but abhuman they are.

To me, that seems to be a matter of interpretation yet again!

Personally, I believe that the Imperium assigns "degrees of tolerance" to mutants and abhumans depending on a wide range of characteristics and ancient edicts, which may even differ slightly depending on the individual world. As such, I consider it perfectly acceptable that ratlings and ogryn may still be condoned in the Imperial Guard, whereas beastmen and felinids could be barred from service, forced to remain confined to labor camps in some underhive or whatever.

There's probably a reason GW has not brought the topic of beastmen in the IG up for years even whilst reprinting and expanding upon other areas of the fluff, just like 6th Edition does no longer mention the link between SoB and Ordo Hereticus anymore. However, there's nothing wrong with sticking to older fluff if you think it makes for a better game.

tl;dr: you're both right :P

Personally, I believe that the Imperium assigns "degrees of tolerance" to mutants and abhumans depending on a wide range of characteristics and ancient edicts, which may even differ slightly depending on the individual world. As such, I consider it perfectly acceptable that ratlings and ogryn may still be condoned in the Imperial Guard, whereas beastmen and felinids could be barred from service, forced to remain confined to labor camps in some underhive or whatever.

Could also vary from world-to-world. I can't remember if it's the Uplifting Primer or the Munitorum Manual, but one of them mentions beastmen as a type of abhuman a guardsman is liable to encounter and that they often wear clear symbols of the Emperor so that they don't get mistaken for a Chaos mutant and gunned down.

Also; are felinids actually an abhuman species mentioned in official fluff? I've never heard of them and kind of worried since felinid is what I was going to call a species of feline humanoids in this fantasy novel I've been planning. I don't want to risk another Spots the Space Marine incident (assuming I ever get around to writing this story in the first place - been in the planning stage for more than a decade already).

EDIT: Nevermind; just found them mentioned on the Warhammer 40k wiki's Abhuman page . Now I've got two species to re-name (not too happy with the one I thought of for this reptilian species).

Edited by ShadowFighter88

Wow. I would not have guessed that cat-people would be concidered acceptable abhuman-subrace in WH40k fluff. Ratlings, Squats and Ogryns at least look human even if their body proportions are off.

Then again, if Darksiders with eyes that grow on stalks and Beastmen are accepted then felinids aren't that extreme.

On the bright side, at least the Squats are back.

http://i.imgur.com/WfOL7.jpg

Wow. I would not have guessed that cat-people would be concidered acceptable abhuman-subrace in WH40k fluff. Ratlings, Squats and Ogryns at least look human even if their body proportions are off.

Then again, if Darksiders with eyes that grow on stalks and Beastmen are accepted then felinids aren't that extreme.

On the bright side, at least the Squats are back.

http://i.imgur.com/WfOL7.jpg

Where's that pic from? I'm not embarrassed to admit that, if it's in the OW core book, I haven't exactly paid attention to the abhuman sections.

Edited by ShadowFighter88

Yeah, some communities were...somewhat enraged by "NYAAA~ Catgirls" being in 40k. Not sure about the details on the other "new" races.

Also, I believe they first appeared in the 6th edition 40k rulebook, dunno if FFG has included them at all in anything

"Felinids" are whatever you want them to be. Aside from the fact that (to the best of my knowledge) no official source whatsoever has ever written anything about them other than a name (homo sapiens hirsutus could just as well mean nothing but people with an overabundance of body hair), there is always the clause that details such as these are up to the player/gamer/writer to include or discard as they see fit. Black Library novel authors and FFG do the same all the time.

But yes, that scan is from the 6th edition rulebook. It had some very good fluff, imo. <3

Where's that pic from? I'm not embarrassed to admit that, if it's in the OW core book, I haven't exactly paid attention to the abhuman sections.

It's a page from the most recent WH40K Rulebook, in a 'fluff' section discussing abhumans.

Then again, if Darksiders with eyes that grow on stalks and Beastmen are accepted then felinids aren't that extreme.

On the bright side, at least the Squats are back.

Keep in mind that the 'beastmen' are not the goat-headed, cloven-hooved Beastmen you are thinking of, but rather degenerate humans with vaguely bestial traits. To quote a White Dwarf article on abhumans: It is known that the more extreme of mutants in the service of the Great Enemy tend toward gross physical mutations and sometimes have horns, cloven feet, and even the faces of goats. Such mutants are destroyed on sight, for they are considered beyond the pale of acceptable variation. Those kind of Beastmen were only an Imperial Guard option in the very first edition of the tabletop game- before Chaos was added to the 40Kverse.

And I'm pretty sure the reference to 'Squats' was just an Easter Egg. The Squats from 1st/2nd Ed. are completely incompatible with modern 40K: they were not part of the Imperium, but ruled an empire of their own (the Homeworlds) which was allied with the Imperium due to their mutual hatred of Orks. They were never an option in Imperial Guard armies, but their own separate army list.

It's weird how many people seem to want the Squats to return without knowing anything about them...

Thinking about it, Ratlings don't exactly look like rats, either.

Thinking about it, Ratlings don't exactly look like rats, either.

"Hobbit" and "Halfling" were already copyrighted. :P

But not Robbit! Or Ralfling!

People that British (Welsh, at least) might eat the one, and I wouldn't want to eat anything made by a Ralfling. ;)

How would you make a fluffy felinid "specialty" class. My thoughts are it would be something like that ratling. With the bigger bonuses and maluses. Would probably have perception, fieldcraft, finesse and agility at least for aptitudes, maybe some kind of racial advantage like night vision penalties reduced or claws. Any ideas?

I'm calling the Ordos on you...

(sorry, too good an opportunity)

For using abhumans to further the glory of the Imperium? To not use any approved tool to fight His enemies is the reason to call the Ordos

"That, citizen, is a cat."

Imperial Guard beastmen do in fact look like the ones from fantasy. Or did, back when they were part of the Imperial Guard. 1118_md-Artwork,%20Beastmen,%20Copyright That still doesn't mean felinids are cat people, however. There's no reason to make them cat people unless you absolutely want to, and the cries of "furry, furry!" are your own fault, since you're the one who decided on that interpretation.

Imperial Guard beastmen do in fact look like the ones from fantasy. Or did, back when they were part of the Imperial Guard.

-Which was First Ed. (aka 'Rogue Trader') only . The reference to 'beastmen' in the Abhuman fluff section of the most recent TT rulebook is referencing the White Dwarf article I quoted, which makes it clear that Chaos-style goat-headed beastmen are never tolerated in the Imperium; they have gone the way of half-Eldar Space Marines...

Edited by Adeptus-B

There were half-Eldar space marines?

There were half-Eldar space marines?

Yes indeedy- at least one. He was a special character in 1st Ed- I think he was the main Librarian of the Ultramarines.

The fluff has changed just a wee bit since then...

Oh man, old WH40k sounded like fun WH40k

It was.. Then they started to change things

Warhammer 40 000, where golden age is long gone, everything is degrading and present is but a pale shadow of glorious past stays true to itself even when it comes to newer editions.

If I was playing with easily angered players, I'd be tempted to put a cat-person regiment into my OW game, just to annoy the people who take 40k too seriously.