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OUTCASTS
"The settlement of [[REDACTED]], along with all residents, is hereby expunged from all Imperial records."
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 934.M40
Each of Necromunda's hives houses billions of souls. Whilst house gangs strive for infamy in the underhive and fight the shadow wars of their patron houses, countless more watch on from the darkness, unbound by notions of alliance and loyalty. These are the outcasts of Necromunda, willing to take on the dirtiest and most disgusting jobs to line their pockets with credits. From wannabe gangers to jumped-up criminal scum and even fugitive wyrds, the shadowed corners of the underhive are home to numberless undesirables that are hired by bigger gangs to soak up bullets, collect bounties and retrieve dangerous artefacts. If you have the creds, there is an outcast gang ready to assemble and do the worst jobs the underhive has to offer.
RENEGADES & REBELS
"They might be the scum of Necromunda, but I'd trust them with my life... Well, maybe not my life but certainly yours."
Toven Craw, Dust Falls Fixer
Necromunda's most plentiful resource is its people. For every infamous house gang, five more lurk in the shadows, composed of the scum dredged from the corners of shanty towns and sump settlements. Scummers are ten a cred in the darkness of the underhive - fighters with no affiliations or loyalties who skulk on the fringes of gang warfare, looking to earn, or steal, their next payout. Most of these individuals are unimportant, often former helots looking for a different life, or even descendants of long-dead houses. Regardless of origin, these fighters are known collectively as outcasts, and they are always available for hire.
There are myriad reasons a gang of outcasts might be hired. Clan House gangs looking to pad their frontlines with bodies is chief amongst them, allowing their better equipped fighters to stay alive longer with the hired guns taking most of the rounds. A bounty hunter or Venator on a difficult contract might form a ragtag gang of outcasts to help them out, with the hope that most will be dead by the time the bounty is collected and shared. Despite being amongst the lowest of the low, outcasts take a grim pride in their ability to survive without house or hive to support them. Many believe that their difficult lives are a small price to pay for their freedom - even if it is just a hollow mantra to justify their miserable existence.
Occasionally, outcast gangs are formed entirely of criminals. These scummers are often guilty of crimes considered inexcusable by the upper hive, with some cast out from their houses after betraying their clanmates and others expelled for embezzling money from the Mercator Guilds. As law-abiding gangs will not offer them work for fear of Enforcer involvement, these gangs stick together and offer their services to narco lords and crime syndicates who require work done by those outside the reach of Lord Helmawr. These criminal outcasts are often paid even less than their law-abiding counterparts, though they are just as likely to sneak a cut of whatever they were sent to 'retrieve' in order to offset their payment.
Rogue psykers often end up as outcasts, should they evade capture by Lord Helmawr's Psykanarium. They are drawn together by their latent and often uncontrollable powers, forming gangs known as wyrd gatherings. Though these groups often seek to live undiscovered by society, they will occasionally hire themselves out in order to earn credits for food and resources - and when they do, they are a lethal psychic force.
OUTCASTS
HIVE SCUM WITH
CHAMPION WITH
COMBAT SHOTGUN
AUTOPISTOL & FLAIL
COMBAT SHOTGUN
HIVE SCUM WITH FIGHTING
HIVE SCUM WITH AUTOGUN
HIVE SCUM WITH
KNIFE & STUB GUN
AUTOPISTOL & FLAIL
KRIA THE HUNTRESS
LADY CREDO
ASHWOOD STRANGER
EYROS SLAGMYST
GOR HALF-HORN
ESTUS JET
Any Ogryn who can maintain their freedom is hereby freed.
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 748.M41.
Wielding the huge spud-jackers and saws of their previous trades, Ogryn gangs are ferocious bands of ex-slaves that have made names for themselves across Necromunda. Though constantly chased by Enforcers and bounty hunters, few are foolish or strong enough to try to haul them in for credits. Those Ogryns powerful enough to form their own gangs and carve out territory in the underhive are a terrifying prospect.
Rumours describe them wielding heavy weapons as easily as fighting knives and drawing on seemingly endless stamina reserves in order to stay ahead of their pursuers. Alongside these freed slaves lumber huge Lobo Ogryns - cybernetically enhanced members of their kind that possess unmatched loyalty and brute strength in equal measure. Only those with a death wish are stupid enough to cross an Ogryn gang, and fewer still live to tell the tale.
SANCTIONED ABHUMANS
"We had nuffin' but pain and chain before Guruk. Now we free and no one take that away."
T.H.R.E.G. 06,
Pitbreakers, Free Ogryn
Ogryns have long been one of the most common strains of abhuman on Necromunda. They possess little in the way of intelligence yet are ludicrously strong, leading many of the planet's industries to use them as a slave caste. Each is taller than even the largest of Goliaths, with enough strength to prise boulders from quarry walls and endure mining the most unforgiving ash pits.
Yet after being used and pitted against each other for sport, some Ogryns begin to desire freedom. Perhaps it is the heady rush of cheering gladiatorial crowds or the thrill of violence, but every so often a group of determined workers will break away from their masters and flee into the underhive. They band together behind the most powerful of their number and carve out pieces of territory in the undesirable badzones where other gangs refuse to tread - or, should their former owners continue to pursue them, go out into the ash wastes. With their formidable constitutions and tireless work ethic, Ogryns are adept at survival and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Ogryn gangs established all over the planet.
Those groups of Ogryns that outmanoeuvre their pursuers and begin their own gangs are a terrifying breed of combatant. Many are escaped pit fighters, skilled in close combat and possessed of raw strength. Others. are former ash miners that wield huge saws and spud-jackers that punch through flesh much faster than the earth they were once used for. A few are drawn from the ranks of bodyguards and kit themselves out with armour thick as a human fist. Most terrifying of all are the Lobo Ogryns: those Ogryns so cybernetically altered that only their immense strength and mindless loyalty remain. Yet despite this, the gangs they belong to see them as equally deserving of freedom and of a place in the hierarchy as every other Ogryn. Fiercely dedicated to whomever leads the gang, these cybernetic soldiers serve as heavy shock troops that are unstoppable once they close in on their foes.
Due to their status as escaped slaves, Ogryn gangs are outlawed in hives and are constantly on the move. They will often encourage and even lead other Ogryn slave uprisings and there are rumours of hidden settlements, such as the legendary Ogryntown deep within Hive Primus, where Ogryns live in free societies. Whether such places actually exist, however, has never been confirmed.
FREE OGRYNS
GENESTEALER CULTS
"All factoria workers must bare their heads at the start of each work cycle or else face Punishment Duty #J847"
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 890.M41
An Escher Maiden with a strangely ridged brow; a Delaque agent with one too many arms; a Road Boss concealing a pointed spine - it is easy for those infected with the Genestealer Curse to hide upon a world where mutation is so common. These xenos cults multiply in the dark corners of Necromunda like a disease, growing more alien with each generation, their minds urging them to obey the higher purpose of their distant, otherworldly sires - to spread the curse and continue to produce new generations until their warped bodies are perfected. The Genestealer Cults stalk many underhives and ash waste outposts, often unnoticed amongst the population. Yet, when they are challenged, they can tap into latent wyrd powers granted by a shared higher consciousness, allowing them to manipulate minds and tear apart bodies with ease.
INFILTRATORS & SABOTEURS
'All praise be to the Four-armed Emperor, for by his guiding light the darkness of our existence shall be consumed!"
Graffiti linked to unauthorised cult activity
Legends and myths are popular in the wastes. It is not uncommon to hear of secluded family groups of miners and rig workers, wandering bands of treasure hunters, or ash guilders journeying out to trade, all with high-quality goods and little to say about their origins. Many of these groups simply guard the secrets of their trade and sources of wealth. Yet it is amongst these unassuming traders that the Genestealer Curse spreads fastest.
First unleashed within Hive Secundus, those bred from the Genestealer Curse are abominations of xenos and human DNA. Their minds are attuned to a higher purpose, part of a whole, carrying out the will of a distant patriarch of their kind in the hope that their sire race will eventually consume Necromunda and welcome them home. As the generations pass, their bodies mutate; their intelligence grows, limbs morph and multiply, and psychic powers take root. It is the curse's potential to consume the planet that makes it so insidious - and why Hive Secundus is now a dark smear on the ash-blasted landscape.
Of course, a curse is not so easily vanquished.
Escapees from the irradiated ruins of Secundus hide, centuries later, in the darkest corners of Necromunda. Their descendants have grown the Genestealer Cults within respectable organisations and clans, many of whom are either well concealed or completely enmeshed within the industries of smaller hives where they can continue to multiply and amass power and influence. Even the esteemed Clan Houses have not escaped the malignant spread of the cults through their ranks - the underhive of Quinspirus hides four-armed Goliaths and bald, ridge-browed Orlock drudges just as readily as heavily clad miners and guilders that sound a little too guttural to pass as fully human.
Most of the largest conclaves of the Genestealer Cults live under the guise of ash mining families out in the wastes. The Cult of the Second Son is perhaps the largest of these; their hazard-suit-clad raiders have even wrested control of a few routes from Orlock road gangs, allowing the cult to claim a foothold in the Palatine Cluster.
Despite their rapid growth, the Genestealer Cults of Necromunda have been unable to produce any purestrain offspring. True power appears to have been denied to them thus far, possibly due to the irradiated taint of Secundus' curse. Yet, should the Genestealer Cults continue to thrive unchecked, they might truly root themselves within the hierarchy of Hive Primus - and from there, it will only be a matter of time until they unlock the potential of their alien blood.
"The Salvers of Suffering are hereby declared a Heretical Cult. All members are to be destroyed on sight."
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 491.M40
Their inhabitants repressed under a brutal, uncaring regime, it is little surprise that every hive is a hotbed of discontent. Whispers seep into the minds of the disaffected, growing loud enough to lure fighters, factoria workers and overseers alike down into the underhive with the promise of dark gifts and relief from the drudgery of their endless toil. These radicals form cults in the service of the ones that whisper, and thus do gangs of Chaos Helots form.
Chaos Helots are mad, insatiable worshippers who build profane sites of power in order to strengthen the energies of the Warp. They engage in acts of orgiastic violence as promises of power and relief grow louder with every passing day, until their bodies begin to mutate with growths or bulge with strength. It is their hope that the veil between Necromunda and the dimension of their masters will be wrenched open, and they will rise up to dominate the planet.
FOLLOWERS OF CHAOS
"Drudging classes of the Hive unite! Worker, let not the bounty of your labours line the pockets of the Guilders! To have more, we must take more. To take more, we must know more! Free yourselves and look to the Serrated Star for your Salvation!"
Graffiti linked to Helot Cults
Like countless worlds of the Imperium, Necromunda is plagued by heretics and renegades. Chaos Cults fester in the depths of the hive, raising profane altars in the tunnels and domes, and spreading the dark influence of their hellish gods.
The minds of men have always been fertile ground for the Dark Gods. In the soul-crushing depths of Necromunda's hives even the faintest promise of power can tempt a worker to corruption. After all,
a short and
brutal life in the service of the Ruinous Powers, with the remotest chance for glory, is often preferable to a short and brutal life under the clans with the only reward for their labour being death. Where cults take root within the hive, Helmawr's Enforcer cadres are swift to take action - often purging entire levels when even a hint of subversion is found. Bounties are also regularly issued against such deviants, and many gangs take pleasure in exterminating the cults, as though gangers do not understand the true depth of the corruption they face, they know what happens when such cabals are allowed to take root.
In the drudging levels of Hive Primus, the Helot Cults are a disease the guilders have never been able to completely extinguish. Birthed in illegal work lodges, these nefarious cults are formed of dissidents corrupted by charismatic demagogues - dark preachers who defame the Imperial Creed and extol the power of the Warp behind lies of solidarity and brotherhood. These whispered sermons offer freedom and power and slowly infect the minds of the workers until the thunder of the factorum and the bark of their overseers becomes unbearable. At first, a Helot Cult will
keep itself secret - meeting in the hidden spaces between tunnel walls or the reeking bowels of hab blocks. There, they hoard weapons stolen from production lines, underhive traders or hive gangs and fashion the serrated symbols of their faith. Many cultists live double lives, joining the work crews during their work shifts and meeting in secret to take part in dark rituals and acts of murder during off-shifts, their identities kept hidden behind cruel masks.
While Helot Cults work continually to add to their numbers and spread their influence, their true ambition is something far more sinister. Scattered throughout the hive are cursed sites, places covered in maddening symbols and built upon ancient, bloodstained floors, where the power of Chaos seeps slowly into reality like a vile poison. Helot Cults seek these places out, hoping to prise open the rents and bathe in the malevolent energies that spill forth. The cult demagogues especially revere these sites, and use the ancient fanes to pray to the Dark Gods for power - their hope that if their efforts bring favour, then one day their dark masters might force their way through the veil between realities and into the hive, possessing the blessed flesh of the faithful and bringing about a glorious age of blood and madness!
THE MALSTRAIN
"The existence of any 'Malstrain' genus is mere hearsay and those found spreading false information are to be reported to the nearest precinct-fortress for transfer to the Dust Wall."
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 921.M41
Deep within the ruined cradle of Hive Secundus, a foul presence spreads. Once the incubated descendants of an alien race seeded in human flesh, the Genestealers of Secundus were nearly cleansed by the Lords Helmawr of old. Yet, in the blasted remains of the Underhells they have matured into something else: the Malstrain Corrupted. These are chittering alien-human hybrids, twisted beyond recognition by radiation and decay. All who dare to enter Secundus looking for lost treasure and knowledge risk meeting their end at the claws of the Malstrain. At their heart lies their progenitor, the hideous Malstrain Patriarch, a psychic mutant to whom all other Corrupted answer. This monster uses its underlings to test the ruins of their prison in their never-ending struggle to escape - and to spread their Genestealer Curse across all of Necromunda.
HORRORS OF SECUNDUS
"Such beautiful creations... so perfect in their form and function... Sifted with my brilliance in every twist of their genetic heritage."
Magos Biologis Hermiatus
Hive Secundus is a treasure trove of archeotech, ancient data crystals and relics. It attracts treasure seekers, tekhunters and Venators from across the planet who seek to claim even a fraction of its riches. Yet very few of them return, for the rad-blasted Underhells that remain of Secundus are haunted by monsters so terrible that not even orbital bombardment could fully cleanse them from Necromunda: the Malstrain Corrupted. These grotesque creatures, equipped with weapons both biological and archaic, are driven by their desire to spread their Genestealer curse.
The Malstrain Corrupted are a debased form of Genestealer. Genestealers are produced by fusing human DNA with that of an ancient, devouring alien race known as the Tyranids. The curse that would eventually become the Malstrain was unleashed hundreds of years ago by the Tech-Priest Hermiatus, who sought to understand and conquer it for the benefit of the Imperium. At that time, Hive Secundus was a bastion of knowledge, diplomacy and study for not just those of Necromunda but also curious off-worlders - and the curse ripped through this defenceless population quickly. The then Lord Helmawr, fearful of the planet being consumed by the curse, blasted much of the hive to ash via orbital bombardment. All that was left behind
was the underhive of Secundus, now known widely as the Underhells due to the monsters still lurking deep within. This was contained within an exclusion zone surrounded by a great fortress known as the Dust Wall that, centuries later, is still guarded by Enforcers to prevent anyone from getting in or out. Yet the surviving Genestealers are not the perfect hybrids their DNA demanded them to be. These mindless survivors have been twisted by the radiation into the Malstrain Corrupted: incomplete killers with only animal instincts and alien hunger left in their deadly shells.
Yet not all the Malstrain are as unintelligent as first thought. With the re-emergence of their Patriarch, these creatures push at the boundaries of the Underhells each passing cycle, ambushing patrols overground, launching attacks on the Dust Wall and even exterminating an ancestral Squat hold within the exclusion zone. Disturbingly, there have even been reported sightings of strange figures, their visages closely resembling the ancient Hermiatus, as if the Malstrain Patriarch wishes its creator to cure the fault in its DNA. The Malstrain Corrupted will stop at nothing to escape the cage of the Dust Wall in order to walk freely upon Necromunda once again. Some claim they may already have escaped...
THE MALSTRAI
MALSTRAIN GENESTEALER
BROOD SCUM WITH AUTOGUN
BROOD SCUM WITH AXE
& SAWN-OFF SHOTGUN
MALSTRAIN ALPHA
BROOD SCUM WITH
MALSTRAIN TYRAMITE
FIGHTING KNIFE & STUB GUN
SPYRE HUNTERS
"All scions of the Imperial House must prove their worth as Spyrers before taking on the mantle of power."
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 413.M38
In the darkest, most hellish depths of Necromunda, mechanical hunters stalk shattered domes in search of worthy prey. These are no automata but scions of the Imperial House, kitted out in the finest hunting rigs the Imperial House has to offer. They fight for sport rather than necessity and find glee in the spilling of blood, be it human or monstrous creature. Whether alone or in loosely co-ordinated packs, Spyrers traverse even the harshest of environments in order to claim trophies and elevate their standing in high society. Though they care not for the squabbling over turf of the Clan Houses, they are fickle and will think nothing of attacking a gang that demonstrates weakness. With their suits tracking a kill count that rewards the Spyrers for their murderous efforts, gangs should take care to never appear like prey to these hunters - lest they become targets on the path of the Spyrers' bloody hunt...
CHILDREN OF THE SPIRE
"It is not for you to berate me just because you were unable to protect yourselves. | am not here to help you, you are here to bait out foes worthy of my time! Now be quiet before | decide to continue alone."
Quinnelloia Helmawr, Last Daughter of the Onyx Flats, Jakara Spyre Hunter, House Helmawr
For most subjects of a hive, the Spyrers are a horror story used to scare children. Yet these remorseless killers are no fable. Noble scions of House Helmawr all, each Spyrer is selected in youth for their cruelty and tenaciousness before being granted a Spyrer hunting rig as a rite of passage. They are sent into the deadliest environments on the planet and set one simple challenge: slaughter the most powerful enemies they can find. Even a lone Spyrer is capable of taking on throngs of foes with ease, their suits thrumming with energy and constructed from the finest off-world technology available to the Spire. When faced with particularly vicious opponents or dangerous locales, Spyrers will even set aside the rivalry sparked by their noble blood to hunt as a pack - and it is within these formations that they are at their most deadly.
Though every suit is different, Spyrers have come to be recognised by four main patterns. The Orrus-pattern suit is the strongest in terms of raw power thanks to its sheer size and the huge pair of power claws mounted on its frame. It also comes with close-range artillery built into its arms, though this is mostly to distract lesser enemies whilst the Spyrer rips apart their main prey with wild abandon. Many nobles consider the Orrus-pattern suit brutish in its fighting style, which some would say more resembles that of a wild sump beast than a high-born hunter. These scions often opt for the Jakara-pattern suit, which favours a mirror shield and monomolecular blade for unparalleled cleaving and parrying, prioritising speed over strength.
Many Spyrers that form parties opt to have at least one stealthy attacker in a Malcadon-pattern suit. These long-taloned rigs allow their wearers climb vertical surfaces and strike out from the shadows, while drop rigs and grapnel launchers allow them to from under the cover of shadow at height. Yeld-pattern suits also favour attacking from stealth, though these winged killers are best at range, their wearers able to glide short distances whilst picking off their opponents afar with bespoke laser gauntlets.
Becoming a Spyrer is a gruelling task, though a necessary one should a young Helmawr wish to earn the respect of their peers. The suits are either inherited or custom-made, the exact process of their creation a closely kept house secret, and their wearers must be modified to inhabit them. This can involve the elongation or amputation of limbs, the addition of countless neural ports, or the reshaping of the torso. Should they survive their tenure as a Spyrer and return to take their place in high society, their limbs are regrown in custom limb farms and neural ports closed up - though the remaining scars are often purposefully left untouched as a badge of honour.
OPYRE HUNTERS
SPYRE HUNT MASTER
ORRUS
SPYRE HUNTER
MALCADON
JAKARA
SPYRE HUNTER
ORRUS
SPYRE HUNTER
SQUATS
IRONHEAD SQUATS
"For the next 100 grand cycles, all salvage rights to the Stormarc Reaches are hereby granted to the Ironhead Squats of Clan Anglish."
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 185.M39
Necromunda has been a carcass of a planet for millennia, stripped of its life, resources and even its waste run-off. Yet still toil the Squats of the Ironhead Mining Clans, who seem to have a knack for finding rare deposits within even the barest excavation sites. These are hardy abhumans that have long lived outside Imperial rule, instead bound by Charters penned millennia ago. They travel where they please in their great land trains, solely focused on accumulating wealth and resources. Whether their convoys are heading to pastures new or back to their ancestral holds, the Squats meet any who stand in their way with heavy gunfire, lasers and mining tools. It is rare to see the Squats take to the hives, for they eschew the cities of Man in favour of their long-held freedoms - yet where their Ironhead expeditions can be found in the underhive, treasures of great interest are undoubtedly nearby.
PROSPECTORS &
"The Charter has been ratified, our future is Suaranteed. The Urlish League shall make their home here forever more."
Oryith lroneye, The Confederation of Urlish
To face the Ironhead Clans of the Squats is akin to facing down a solid wall of impenetrable armour. They move with disciplined practice to meet the threats Necromunda offers, laying down gunfire with heavy bolters and cannon until their opponents are ash at their feet. Rarely are these sturdy miners seen within the confines of the hive cities, for they make their homes within the punishing atmosphere of the ash wastes.
Squat Prospectors are renowned for their mining prowess - so much so that they are more readily tolerated than other abhumans on Necromunda due to the output of their industry. Having come to Necromunda millennia ago, shortly after the planet was reduced to ash and dust, they brought with them invaluable off-world skills and the determination to unlock the planet's potential. Their mining techniques produce outputs rivalling that of House Orlock, and are able to syphon valuable chemicals from run-off slurry located kilometres below the earth. Their ability to find these ancient deposits is unmatched and allows the Squats a seemingly endless source of wealth. On the rare occasion they are challenged by other mining gangs over their excavation sites, they are quick to brandish their Charters: ancient contracts, conceived upon the race's arrival, that grant them exclusive ownership over the seams of refuse they find.
The first Squats forged the Great Charters with the Imperium, offering great aid to Necromunda's development. Whilst Squats can be found throughout the planets of the Imperium, those who settled upon Necromunda were originally known as the Urlish. It is not fully known why their leader, Oryith lroneye, chose to take the Confederation of Urlish to Necromunda, but a popular Squat tale tells of a bet made against her by the leaders of another confederation - that even her expert miners could not turn a profit on the dying planet of Necromunda.
Whether wanting to prove a point or just sensing untapped wealth, the Urlish, aboard thirteen clan vessels, crossed the galaxy to Necromunda and met with the then Planetary Governor Lord Vargas, seeking permission to mine. Luckily for Oryith, Necromunda was desperately trying to rebuild after orbital bombardments had destroyed its land following a xenos invasion and the Imperium's civil war. Lord Vargas wished to establish himself as the hero that rebuilt the planet and issued exclusive mining rites in the form of the Great Charters to the Urlish, in exchange for their terraforming services. Thus did the Squats settle on the planet, taking apart their vessels and reforming them into what would become their ancestral holds, to serve as their bases of operation.
Though the Squats of the 41% Millennium are miners by trade, those who arrived with the first of their number were also engineers and inventors. It was they who erected the poles capable of syphoning high quantities of carbon dioxide from Necromunda's toxic atmosphere, allowing the ash wastes to be traversed with a degree of safety and reducing the frequency of ash storms on the planet's surface. Hive Primus doubled in size during these early centuries as the Squats expanded Lord Vargas' seat of power. Other wonders of their creation include the ancient mag-lev railways and the Great Ash Road, the latter of which is still, to this day, a vital trade route between the hives.
In total there are twelve ancestral holds upon Necromunda. For reasons lost to time, those who had boarded the thirteenth Urlish ship departed, possibly due to friction with the Squats' first leader. The other holds became sprawling underground bastions formed of both ancient ships and carved rock. Each is ruled by a Charter Lord, named for the Great Charters bestowed by Necromunda's Planetary Governor Vargas. However, the Squats rarely dwell for too long in these holds - time spent inside is time wasted that could be used to ply their trade. They return to their holds only during the worst storms of the Season of Ash and spend the rest of their time travelling in great land trains, snaking across the continent in search of rich refuse seams. When the Squats are not on the move, their vehicles circle quarries in formations known as laagers, creating a defensive wall to allow their inhabitants to work the ground below.
Though most duster gangs are kept at bay by the legal claims of the Squats' Charters - or, more accurately, the heavy firepower lurking behind them - the Squats have found no enemy so tenacious as the lawless Ash Waste Nomads. These mysterious raiders considered the wastes their home long before the Squats arrived, and their fury at the miners' presence is matched only by the Squats' determination to evict them. War frequently breaks out between the Squats and nomads, leaving battlefields in the wastes scarred by explosives, gunfire and impenetrable toxic fog.
THE ANCESTOR CORE
The Squats who first reached Necromunda were inventors and engineers as much as they were miners. This was in part due to the Ancestor Core that they brought with them from the vastness of the void - a relic carried by every Squat delegation in the galaxy. These objects were akin to artificial minds, each storing the collective knowledge of their race. They were also used to create new Squats artificially, allowing existing Squats to focus on their own productivity without having to worry about their numbers. Squats cloned and born this way were sound of body and instilled with innovative and comprehensive knowledge of their crafts.
Disaster struck in the 36" Millennium when the planet Somnus passed too close to Necromunda, triggering highly destructive ash storms and quakes. The whole world shook and the Squat ancestral holds were devastated. Though they would eventually be rebuilt, the Ancestor Core was plunged into Necromunda's underearth, never to be seen again. As a result, much of the Squats' more advanced knowledge has been lost, and they must now pass down their talents through more traditional means. Many Squats have ventured below the earth in an attempt to find the Ancestor Core once again, but so far none have returned.
IRONHEAD SQUATS
DRILL-KYN WITH
CHARTER MASTER WITH STONE
IRONHEAD AUTOGUN
BURNER & POWER HAMMER
DRILL MASTER WITH
DIGGER WITH TWO
IRONHEAD BOLTGUN
IRONHEAD BOLT PISTOLS
DIGGER WITH
DRILL-KYN WITH
IRONHEAD HEAVY STUBBER
IRONHEAD AUTOPISTOL
Hilt
ASH WASTE NOMADS
"The Great Equatorial Wastes have been fully cleansed of nomads. Protection will no longer be offered to any travelling through the area and all Enforcer patrols are hereby recalled."
Proclamations of the Lord Helmawr - 288.M38
Beware the stalkers of the wastes - pitiless warriors who see all others on Necromunda as their hated foe. The Ash Waste Nomads are as numerous as they are hostile, and throughout Necromunda's long history have struck terror into any who dared travel the wastelands unprepared. Just as many of their foes have been cut down fleeing in panic as have chosen to stand and fight. The nomads craft their weapons from the reclaimed equipment scavenged from their enemies and clad themselves in robes and rebreathers so not an inch of their skin is visible, and no one truly knows what lies beneath. These could be a lost, ancient line of people; yet the nomads could just as easily have shed the remains of their humanity millennia ago - assuming they were ever human to begin with...
GHOSTS OF THE WASTELAND
"These pitiable creatures, their technology stagnated, mired in superstition, too unimaginative to do anything but repeat the mistakes of their ancestors, would be almost laughable did they not present such a visceral warning of where we might be, were it not for the guiding hand of Lord Helmawr and our glorious Imperium."
Caleb Tench, Ministorum Preacher, Necromundan 8"
Rarely do the prey of the Ash Waste Nomads see them coming. These hunters will lie for hours even in harsh ash storms, cloaked in their flowing 'haaz'arn' robes that grant both protection and camouflage. Once an ill-fated road gang, mercator convoy or caravan troupe rolls close enough, the nomads strike seemingly from nowhere with rifles, knives and toxins. Should their own number fall, their bodies are never discovered - it is unclear if dead nomads are reclaimed, or whether they ever truly die in the first place.
The Ash Waste Nomads will ruthlessly target anything and anyone within the expanses of the wastes. It is clear that they view everything on the planet's surface as their own - the only reason they have rarely, if ever, terrorised uphive territories is likely only due to them being out of easy reach. Those traders moving between hives and duster settlements must always carry enough firepower to gun down an entire company, and only travel in good weather. Nomad raiders, however, appear unperturbed by even the most ferocious of storms and use the cover they provide to strike suddenly and pick off gangs many times their size, often with no casualties of their own. The tribes of the wastelands have been studied as much as is possible, with several works created about them. However, little is verifiable and much is mere speculation - but there are known to be large groups within the Great Equatorial Wastes between Hive Primus and Cinderak City, as well as within the toxic desolation stretching between the Palatine and Mynerva Clusters.
There is nothing more nightmarish to a duster than a tribe of Ash Waste Nomads. Though this is partially due to the latter's prowess at fighting within Necromunda's unfavourable atmosphere, it is also in no small part due to the near total lack of proven knowledge about them, despite their existence stretching back millennia. They wear clothes so thick that whatever lies beneath is obfuscated, and many believe that even if they were once human, they may have transformed into something entirely different. Paired with a mixture of scavenged weapons and those of a far more deadly, unknowable design, the nomads are formidable foes that can break enemy morale just by appearing on the horizon.
There is so little information available about the nomads that every iteration of their origin is pure speculation. The only proven fact is that the nomads predate the rise of the first Helmawrs, and have been around at least since the Imperium first blasted to ash and brought it into their fold. One of the most popular theories holds they were a slave caste of the lron Lords, broken from their bonds upon the fall of the first Aranthians at the Imperium's hands, and that they now stalk the wastes, filled with hatred for all that came after. Another casts the nomads as the descendants of Necromunda's original citizens, and lron Lords as their rulers, rather than their masters. In this story, their is primarily for Lord Helmawr, and they will stop at nothing to cripple his and slaughter his subjects in revenge. One thing is for certain - the nomads show hostility to all but their own.
The major tribes of the Ash Waste Nomads often have two recorded names: one overheard in what historians can only assume is their native tongue; and a rough translation into Low Gothic, the standard language of the Imperium. The Tsun'ghar are the largest tribe to have been sighted, and are named in Enforcer reports as the Grey Waste Walkers. Others include the Baak'hau, known colloquially as the Oilrun Stalkers, or the Urh'nag, also called the Dustwall Crawlers for their prowling of the Secundus Exclusion Zone.
The power structure of a tribe is not fully understood. However, each one is theorised to have a leader who embodies the spirit the tribe worships. There is a different spirit - and therefore leader - of each tribe, which personifies different elements of the dead planet's landscape. More strangely, each spirit demonstrates a strange power over the element they represent. No one truly knows whether this is a psychic phenomenon or if some ancient technology is at work. The Baak'hau, for example, dwell near the Poison Sea and have been sighted following a figure known as the Sump Spirit, who drips with poisonous slag and can manipulate the slick filth of the sea. The Ka'toka, or Leadsky Seers, reside on the edge of the Irradium Oceanus, where great storms are common and frequently devastating. Their Great Spirit is the Storm Dancer, a warrior clad in fluttering rags and robes who can control the savage winds of Necromunda. Very few have gone up against an ash waste spirit and have lived to tell the tale.
HELAMITES
For millennia, Necromundans believed that the Helamites were simply a wild, untameable menace. These insectoid beasts are huge and mutated, having grown fat feeding off slag mounds and irradiated soil. Yet the Ash Waste Nomads are capable of commanding many different subspecies of Helamite to obey their will - meekly and without protest, at that. In large-scale attacks, the nomads will direct Helamites to devour and rip their foes apart. The creatures are also used in place of bikes Or grav-cutters in order to cross the wastes at speed, or to serve as a mobile perch for an Opportunistic sniper.
That the nomads have tamed these insectoids where all others have failed is further proof to the people of Necromunda that they have lost their humanity. No house has ever managed to break the creatures' will, never mind ride them into battle.