The Beastmen are a bestial abhuman strain, marked by coarse fur, cloven hooves, and jutting horns that betray the mutant blood in their veins. Born of human stock warped by radiation, mutation, or the taint of far-flung worlds, they occupy the very lowest and most despised rung of Imperial society. Where the Ogryn and Ratling are grudgingly sanctioned, the Beastmen are widely reviled as abominations, tolerated only because their savagery has its uses.
Strong, aggressive, and fierce in close combat, Beastmen have historically been raised into penal legions and expendable auxiliary units, hurled into the deadliest fighting of the Astra Militarum with little regard for their survival. They fight with brutal ferocity, and an officer willing to endure their stench and unruliness gains a unit that revels in slaughter. Yet they are watched always with suspicion, for the line between sanctioned abhuman and damnable mutant is perilously thin.
Many Beastmen, cast out and persecuted, turn instead to the ruinous embrace of Chaos, and Beastmen herds are a common sight among the warbands of the Dark Gods. This only deepens the hatred the Imperium bears them, a self-fulfilling cycle of contempt and rebellion. Whether serving the Emperor as brutal shock troops or howling in the ranks of the damned, the Beastmen endure as an unwanted reminder of how easily humanity can slip its own shape.
The bestiary continues
