Starfleet Jedi

Let's consider a hypothetical scenario. An Inquisitor is dispatched to investigate the loss of a merchant ship. After an unusually long trip through the Warp, his craft is forced out of the Warp by a Warp storm.

Just outside the Warp Storm, he finds the remains of the merchant ship crashed on a planet.

Searching for survivors, he finds... Klingons! Regressed technologically to the Iron Age, but culturally similar to "modern Trek" Klingons. He is trapped for several months on the planet by a spur of the warp storm, forcing him to make a complete investigation. He eventually finds the descendants of the merchant ship.

Upon completing his investigation, he logs the following facts:

• Morphological differences between of the natives and purebreed humans include the following:
  • Characteristic forehead ridges.
  • Increased bone and muscle density.
  • Redundant vital organs that resist damage.
  • A third lung.
  • Slightly decreased gestation times (~7 months).
  • Faster physical maturation (reaching full adult height at approximately 8 years.
  • Noticably reduced aging effects, with combat abilities little impaired until death.
  • High levels of aggression.
  • Decreased tolerance for cold.
• Genetic characteristics of the natives appear to include the following:
  • Genetic similarity is close enough for natives and purebreeds from the ship to interbreed.
  • Scans for particular sequences used in early genetic enhancement of humans test positive in a small fraction of the population ("The Augments.")
  • Native features appear dominant. The inquisitor cannot distinguish between first generation hybrids and natives by appearance.
  • Second and third generation hybrids with only one Klingon ancestor are in many cases nearly indistinguishable from purebreed humans, except for a tendency towards increased aggression and strength.
  • There are no signs of any native psykers.
• The natives have a most peculiar and disturbing culture. The Inquisitor finds the following elements interesting:
  • The native culture is focused upon warriors, tolerance of pain, and ritual combat as well as less ritual forms of violence, and has an intent focus on martial honor, reminiscent of Khorne worshippers.
  • A strong disdain for "softness" similar to that found in Khorne worshippers.
  • In spite of these similarities, the natives do not recognize the name "Khorne," although both "Kurn" and "Kornan" are reasonably common native names for male babies. The natives claim, in fact, to have slain their gods for causing too much trouble.
  • An immortal Emperor named "Kahless" figures prominently in their mythology and is widely venerated.
  • A certain number of natives outright worship Kahless as divine and claim that he will return to lead them in their hour of greatest need.
• Ancient artefacts and craters found on the surface suggest the natives did not come from this planet originally.
• Although the inquisitor is unable to identify the food crops and animals used by the Klingons, they are strongly genetically dissimilar with the truly native flora and fauna, and edible by humans with no complications.

What are the Inquisitor's conclusions as to the true nature of Klingons? Are these aliens, or simply some variety of previously unknown abhumans - and are they of use to the Imperium? (For those of you unfamiliar with abhumans in Warhammer, abhumans refer to mutant strains of humans, such as beastmen, Ogryn, Navigators, Squats, et cetera.)

They are a stable mutation and can breed with humans, abhuman.

I suppose the more interesting question may be this:

What would he recommend the Imperium do to, or with, the Klingons?

Jedi Master Spock wrote:I suppose the more interesting question may be this:

What would he recommend the Imperium do to, or with, the Klingons?

Integrate them into Imperium society, probably. They could be used as a cannon-fodder Ogryn-lite substitute in the IG, for example.

Jedi Master Spock wrote:I suppose the more interesting question may be this:

What would he recommend the Imperium do to, or with, the Klingons?

The eventual goal would probably be to bring them into the Guard as kind of a poor mans Ogryn. They'd probably have to kill a large portion of the population to bring them into compliance though. And there'd have to be an extensive campaign to purge their quasi-religious beliefs.

Of course they could just draft them and put them in a penal legion with explosive collars. Send them on every shitty job that comes up.

Cpl Kendall wrote:

Jedi Master Spock wrote:I suppose the more interesting question may be this:

What would he recommend the Imperium do to, or with, the Klingons?

The eventual goal would probably be to bring them into the Guard as kind of a poor mans Ogryn. They'd probably have to kill a large portion of the population to bring them into compliance though. And there'd have to be an extensive campaign to purge their quasi-religious beliefs.

Purge, or just tell them that "Kahless" is the Klingon name for the God-Emperor and that they've gotten some details wrong? How good at sales and marketing are they?

Jedi Master Spock wrote: Purge, or just tell them that "Kahless" is the Klingon name for the God-Emperor and that they've gotten some details wrong? How good at sales and marketing are they?

That's pretty much what I meant. I doubt their going to actually exterminate them unless they become such a hassle that it's not worth keeping them around. But the Klingons would have to put in alot of effort to reach that point. This is a civilisation that responds to large scale heresy with ground actions.

Something else to consider. Given the Klingon emphasis on combat and bloodlust, there may be a huge risk of Chaos cults. Their basically Khorne cultists already just without the actual taint.

Cpl Kendall wrote:Something else to consider. Given the Klingon emphasis on combat and bloodlust, there may be a huge risk of Chaos cults. Their basically Khorne cultists already just without the actual taint.

No more so than other cultures in the Imperium, aggressive and violent cultures exist without becoming tainted.

Integrate them into Imperium society, probably. They could be used as a cannon-fodder Ogryn-lite substitute in the IG, for example.

We are talking diet-diet Ogryns here, those buggers can drag armoured personnel carriers.

Properly reeducated, equipped and train, Klingons would be just about as good as any feral world based regiment I imagine, their physical differences aren't enough to really distinguish them at all, ignoring their obvious outer differences.

Bestials/mutants are occasionally used/enslaved for the uses of the Guard, the Klingons external appearance isn't that bad, if I'm remembering Tactica Imperialis correctly, compared to a certain type of mutation that abounded in one system,. (freaky skin, teeth, tiny black eyes, as I recall)


The scenario is highly dependant on the real estate, and the personal feelings of the Inquisitor.

If the planet offers economic or military value, then its occupied, and its down to whether or not the Inquisitor is a reactionary arse, who then exterminates the tainted Xenos and the human population. otherwise the Klingons are possibly completely ignored, enslaved/indentured and re-educated etc.

It would take a long time, or extreme circumstances before a bunch of aliens were armed.

On reflection, the fact that humans can interbreed with the aliens would be a damning factor, racial purity is taken quite seriously, relative to the Imperiums perspective.

mutated/artificially altered/enviromentally altered humans are still humans in the eyes of the Imperium in general, they fight in its armies, they have trade agreements etc.

Human alien hybrids ? Not only is this fantastically rare in 40k, to the point of being reduced to myth and legend, but its probably the worst thing imaginable to an Inquisitor of almost any stripe.

They are dead meat assuming the Inquisitor doesn't somehow end up convinced they are humans, after all.

Jedi Master Spock wrote:

Cpl Kendall wrote:

Jedi Master Spock wrote:I suppose the more interesting question may be this:

What would he recommend the Imperium do to, or with, the Klingons?

The eventual goal would probably be to bring them into the Guard as kind of a poor mans Ogryn. They'd probably have to kill a large portion of the population to bring them into compliance though. And there'd have to be an extensive campaign to purge their quasi-religious beliefs.

Purge, or just tell them that "Kahless" is the Klingon name for the God-Emperor and that they've gotten some details wrong? How good at sales and marketing are they?

They'd probably declare Kahless as just one of the infinite aspects of the glorious Omnissiah and that they'v been worshiping the God Emperor all along, they just didn't know it.

Glory to the Emperor!

KILL YOUR PARENTS wrote: They'd probably declare Kahless as just one of the infinite aspects of the glorious Omnissiah and that they'v been worshiping the God Emperor all along, they just didn't know it.

Glory to the Emperor!

If the Imperium follows SOP then they would reveal (and indoctrinate) to the Klingons that indeed Kahless was the Emperor in another guise. They wouldn't use the Omnissah though, as that's the cogboys clockwork god. I have a hard time seeing the Klingons be willing to follow him around, technology doesn't seem to be their priority.

Cpl Kendall wrote:

KILL YOUR PARENTS wrote: They'd probably declare Kahless as just one of the infinite aspects of the glorious Omnissiah and that they'v been worshiping the God Emperor all along, they just didn't know it.

Glory to the Emperor!

If the Imperium follows SOP then they would reveal (and indoctrinate) to the Klingons that indeed Kahless was the Emperor in another guise. They wouldn't use the Omnissah though, as that's the cogboys clockwork god. I have a hard time seeing the Klingons be willing to follow him around, technology doesn't seem to be their priority.

Ah, really? I thought the Omnissiah was just a catch-all term for all of the Emperor's aspects, with the Machine God being just one. Oh well.

THE MORE YOU KNOW.

KILL YOUR PARENTS wrote: Ah, really? I thought the Omnissiah was just a catch-all term for all of the Emperor's aspects, with the Machine God being just one. Oh well.

THE MORE YOU KNOW.

Officially the Omnissiah is an aspect, after all the Emperor takes many forms. It was a reaction to the growing theocracy of the Imperium after the Heresy. A fair number of citizens (the IG for example) don't consider them the same.

Edit: reworded to hopefully make more sense.