[0604854]

Will update you on new fluff...

[Charax]

one of the big ones: Squats are back!
that, and we get a new bunch of abhumans - Fishmen, Catpeople, Neandors and treepeople

[Dolnikan]

That sounds very interresting. I'm very curious to see what else is there.

[Shannow]

that, and we get a new bunch of abhumans - Fishmen, Catpeople, Neandors and treepeople

Have to say they sound like ideas generated by a 14 year old in an english literature class imo


EDIT: not to say that these ideas can't be done well (as dapper as pointed out), it just sounds a little like GW have gone

"Oh how can we make this more interesting?"

and then developed a venn diagram of what can you combine humans with to make not quite humans.

again just my opinion and it may be done very well, I shall remain sceptical

[DapperAnarchist]

Fishmen - totally Deep Ones. And therefore awesome. Shadow Over Innsmouth and Thing on the Doorstep are two of Lovecraft's best.

Neandors - potentially interesting idea, wonder what was meant. Can anyone translate the latin/greek? Are these supposed to be Neanderthal "regressions"?

Catpeople - the latin name just means hairy, and the "Gothic" name is "Felinid", so could just be a very hairy human? Or perhaps something more monkey like, less catgirl? Though I think that the Catperson concept can be good - read the Instrumentality stories for some interesting catpeople.

Treepeople - I'm seeing this as less dryads, more as gene-engineered survivors with symbiotic plant life, similar to Orks... If anyone has read the Book of the New Sun, like the Green Man that Severian meets in the circus, like that.

[Charax]

See, the Neandors are interesting. First thing that leapt to mind was Neanderthals, and Robey agreed, but technically Neanderthal comes from New Man, and the New Men were the Sensei - who would, technically speaking, be Abhumans. Rebecca looked into some of the greek and came up with a bunch of possible meanings that leant that way.

and being GW, either's possible. I kind of like the nod to Sensei.

[Holiad]

Personally, I don't feel that a name on a list of "known abhumans" even comes close to "squats are back".  Is there any actual information about them, such as their prevalent culture, level of technology, or even their relations to the other races, which I *wouldn't* expect to include a friendly relationship with the imperium.

[Dolnikan]

It depends, to be classified as abhumans a group would need a friendly attitude, otherwise they would just get lumped in with the 'xenos scum which are to be exterminated.'

At least there are vague references again, meaning lots of speculation and perhaps even some nice modelling ideas.

[Glorioski]

Personally, I don't feel that a name on a list of "known abhumans" even comes close to "squats are back".

It's the first time the name Squats has been mentioned in a GW publication since the nineties. In the sense that until now GW had written them out of the fluff almost entirely (they even edited books to remove references to them), they are certainly back.

[Macabre]

Rebecca looked into some of the greek and came up with a bunch of possible meanings that leant that way.

Oooh, I've been mentioned ^_^

Yes, Neandor is archaic Greek for 'New Man', and whilst I couldn't find any links to hyannothus (or any direct derivation), broken down, the latin roots suggest it means either 'These do not exist' or 'these are the new age'.

But then again it could just be GW making up words again.

[Charax]

Personally, I don't feel that a name on a list of "known abhumans" even comes close to "squats are back".

It's the first time the name Squats has been mentioned in a GW publication since the nineties. In the sense that until now GW had written them out of the fluff almost entirely (they even edited books to remove references to them), they are certainly back.

It wasn't quite THAT bad, they edited one reference, added a line to mention the Tyranids and started referring to them as Abhumans rather than Squats. They've been mentioned a few times, just not in a "HEY, THESE ARE SQUATS! LOOK HERE!" way

[DapperAnarchist]

Like the short "Outremer" soldiers mentioned in Legion (though that's Horus Heresy, so might not count) and I think Golgotha was described as an abhuman world in some 3rd edition material, perhaps after the 3rd War for Armageddon campaign...

GW's staff seems to include some pretty smart people (or at least as smart as some of their more clued in fans, as they probably were clued in fans before), so it's quite possible "hyannothus" means both of those, in a punning way. Like More's probably-intentional misspelling of "Utopia".

[Dolnikan]

Just a small question, but are there any other changes? Did the tau thing really happen?

[Glorioski]

Just a small question, but are there any other changes? Did the tau thing really happen?

No the Tau thing isn't in there. That rumour appears to have been false conjecture drawn purely from the allies matrix.

It's actually a really well written book. Background section is full of little tidbits, I'll see if I can post a few when I've read more.

[Dolnikan]

Thank goodness that it wasn't true. I really feared that they would have done that.