History Characters / Warhammer40000XenoRaces

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChaptersFirstFounding First Founding Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Other Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\

* CaptainErsatz: The Umbra are basically smaller versions of [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Leliel]].
* CastingAShadow: The mysterious, spherical beings known as the Umbra are able to manipulate any shadows in their vicinity, forming blades, fanged maws and crushing tentacles to attack their enemies.

* SnakePeople:
** The Sslyth are a race of four-armed alien mercenaries with snake-like bodies. Strong and tough, yet relatively slow-witted and easily manipulated, they are generally found acting as bodyguards for Dark Eldar Archons.
** Prior to the Literature/HorusHeresy, the Emperor's Children Space Marine legion exterminated the Slaanesh-worshiping Laer, a four-armed snake-like alien race. The Laer practiced extensive bioengineering so that every member of their race was perfectly adapted to their role in society, leading to a number of different types of snake people including winged and aquatic versions.

* WeakenedByTheLight: The Umbra depend on shadows to express their powers, and avoid bright light if at all possible. Sufficiently intense and comprehensive illumination can kill them.

!!Sapient Races
[[folder:The Old Ones]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/old_ones_40k.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:One of the only known depictions of the Old Ones.]]
%%
Little is known with certainty of the ancient people known to a few scholars and savants as the Old Ones, but ancient legends and fragmentary artifacts describe them as having been the first sapient beings to ever exist in the galaxy. Their mastery of technology and Warp-lore eclipsed those of all modern races and cultures, making them into beings that, from the perspective of everyone else, were functionally gods. The Old Ones are also believed to have experimented freely on the lifeforms they encountered -- the Aeldari, Orks and Jokaero are all thought to have been their creations.\\
\\
In time, the Old Ones came into conflict with an alien race called the Necrontyr. While the Necrontyr were a powerful force themselves, they were not a match for the Old Ones and were easily confined to their world. However, unknown to the Old Ones, the Necrontyr managed to strike a terrible pact with an entity living inside their sun, turning themselves into soulless machines in exchange for power and the aid of its godlike kin. The resulting conflict shook the galaxy, and when the dust settled the Old Ones were no more and the galaxy lay in tattered ruins.

* TheGhost: The Old Ones are mentioned often, and their effects on the galaxy -- ranging from their surviving created races to remnant artifacts and super weapons -- turn up with some regularity, but the Old Ones themselves have never been seen or described in any detail.
* {{Gotterdammerung}}: The godlike Old Ones and their empire were destroyed in the a cataclysmic, galaxy-sundering conflict with the Necrons and their C'tan masters, remembered in the lore of a few particularly ancient cultures as the War in Heaven.
* {{Precursors}}: The Old Ones are believed to have been the first sapient creatures to evolve in the galaxy. They created and guided many of the younger races of the galaxy such as the Aeldari, Orks and Jokaero, but were wiped out in a war against the Necrontyr and their C'tan masters.
* ShroudedInMyth: While the basic outline of the Old Ones and their history -- they existed a long time ago, wielded incredible power, made the Aeldari, Orks and some others, and were destroyed by the C'tan and Necrontyr -- is well-established, much else about them is deliberately obscure. Their precise nature, appearance and powers were never made clear, and background material often presents in-universe information about them as hopelessly mired in hundreds of millennia's worth of allegory, mistranscribing, and mythologizing. To modern galactics, little is known of their godlike predecessors, and every lead on their true nature simply obfuscates the picture and raises further questions.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien: In theory, the Old Ones were simply a physical, mortal race like all others, and their powers were simply the fruit of technology and of Warp manipulation -- which, while supernatural in nature, is in theory accessible to most sapient beings. However, their mastery of both fields was immense, and has never been equaled by anybody else. The Old Ones could and did shape worlds, create sapient species, and build machines and weapons capable of cataclysmic destruction; from the point of view of even the ancient Aeldari, they might as well have been gods.

!!The Slann
[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slann_40k.jpg]]

An ancient amphibious species who claim to be the most ancient sapient species in the galaxy. The Old Slann once ruled the stars, seeding worlds with life and teaching much of technology and Warp-lore to younger species, but have since faded and dwindled into only a few lingering holdouts that still wield terribly power from their days of glory.\\
\\
The Slann were a feature of the game's first edition, when it was still called ''Rogue Trader'', and served as a space-age version of the Slann as they then existed in ''Fantasy''. Out-of-universe, they're the earliest iteration of the Old Ones; as the setting changed as the editions went by, the Old Slann were reworked into the modern game's precursor race, while the modern holdouts ceased to be mentioned.
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* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The Slann featured fairly prominently in the first few editions of the game, but ceased to appear as the setting evolved.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Slann are very representative of the earliest incarnations of ''Warhammer 40,000'', when it was more strictly ''Fantasy'' in space, the Gods of Chaos didn't yet exist, and background lore often differed significantly from its modern iterations, and represent the older incarnation of the ''Fantasy'' Slann as a wider species with strong martial traditions instead of a small number of sterile, barely mobile archwizards. As both settings evolved, the Slann ceased to either resemble their ''Fantasy'' counterparts or fit into the ''40k'' setting, the Old Slann of both worlds were renamed the Old Ones and moved firmly into the ancient past, and ''40k''[='s=] modern Slann remnants were quietly dropped.
* FrogMen: Physically, the Slann resemble large humanoid frogs, and retain a preference for warm, damp environments.
* ProudWarriorRace: The Slann are a highly martial race, and place a great deal of value on military service in their warbands. They fight for love of fighting, and value gallant defeats as much as victories, and most see a death in pitched battle as a perfectly honorable and desirable way to die.
* VestigialEmpire: In contrast to the modern Old Ones, which were utterly destroyed in a cataclysmic war, the Old Slann simply faded and declined over time, eventually becoming reduced to a small number of surviving colonies and outposts clinging to tattered remnants of their ancient power and glory.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Hrud]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hrud.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A hrud as depicted in ''Xenology''.]]

A secretive species about whom little is known. The hrud make their homes in the shadow of others, lurking unseen within cities and spacecraft, and project entropic auras that cause objects around themselves to rapidly decay.
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[[folder:Stryxis]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stryxis_40k.png]]

A race of merchants, wanderers and traders, the Stryxis can be met in the Koronus Expanse. They are infamous for their unpredictable nature, equally willing to partake in both mutually beneficial trade and piracy or slavery.

!!Warp Entities

[[folder:Enslavers]]
[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/enslaver_40k.png]]

Among the few major Warp entities not associated with Chaos, the enslavers are strange and dangerous beings that feed on the mental energies of psykers. As it feeds, the enslaver transforms its victim into a living portal to the Empyrean, through which dozens more Enslavers emerge to repeat the cycle. The enslavers first appeared in the aftermath of the War in Heaven, spreading across the galaxy in plagues that wiped out the last remnants of the Old Ones and forced the Necrons into hiding.

* AbstractEater: Enslavers feed on the mental energies of psykers.
* ArtEvolution: The enslavers' first depiction in the ''Rogue Trader'' core book depicted them as roughly pear-shaped, wrinkled things with a single huge eye on their upper lobe and a cluster of short tentacles dangling from their lower body, in addition to a pair of longer, squid-like arms. From 3rd Edition on, they're instead shown as floating sac-like beings, with a small, chitin-covered head on their front bearing many small eyes and a distinct mouth.
* LivingGasbag: Downplayed. Modern artwork of enslavers typically depicts their bodies as distended fleshy bags hovering in midair, but whether they float through lighter-than-air gases or their incorporeal nature isn't especially clear.
* NonIndicativeName: Despite their name, they don't do a whole lot of enslaving or domination of other beings -- they're primarily psychic parasitoids, and their interactions with corporeal beings tend to revolve around eating and killing them.
* SmallRoleBigImpact: The enslavers are only mentioned rarely in official material, and are mostly relegated to side games. However, they played a crucial role in the setting's backstory -- the first enslavers arose as a result of the psychic turmoil created by the War in Heaven and swarmed across in the galaxy in huge numbers, destroying what few remnants of civilization survived. In so doing, the enslavers killed off the last of the Old Ones, forced the necrons into hiding, and set the stage for the rise of the Aeldari Empire once their plague burned itself out.
* StarfishAliens: Enslavers are strange, bloated, floating creatures with multiple slender tentacles, and feed on the minds of other beings.

!!Animals and Monsters
[[folder:Ambulls]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ambull.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:An ambull with borewyrm larvae.]]

Ambulls are large, burrowing arthropod predators that were spread throughout the Imperium in a failed attempt at domestication and established large populations on multiple worlds. Ambulls debuted in the game's first edition, and have since appeared sporadically in side material.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: They resemble arthropods with the size and build of gorillas.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Ambulls are primarily carnivores, but at need can feed on anything, up to and including plasma.
* FantasticLivestock: They're a failed attempt at this. Their flesh is edible and they thrive in barren environments, so they were spread through the Imperium with the idea of using them as livestock on desert planets. However, their extreme aggressiveness and predatory habits made them very difficult to control, while their ability to dig through nearly any substance made keeping them corralled impossible. Consequently, these projects were eventually discontinued, although not before enough ambulls escaped into the wild to establish large feral populations throughout the galaxy.
* FastTunnelling: Ambulls can dig rapidly enough to use this as a method to pursue prey on the surface.
* FullConversionCyborg: Ambots are created by taking the central nervous systems of ambulls, implanting them with neural controllers, and wiring them in mechanical shells modeled after the ambulls' natural bodies; the resulting cyborg is then mainly used for excavation. This allows ambots to retain their natural digging instincts while benefiting from greater mechanical strength, endurance and built-in tools. Like servitors, this process also allows their Mechanicum creators to circumvent the Imperium's ban on AI.
* IntroducedSpeciesCalamity: Ambulls have been spread to many worlds as potential livestock. Their tunneling habits, aggression and physical strength made them impossible to contain, however, and they have since become established as pernicious, dangerous exotics across the galaxy.

[[folder:Clawed Fiends]]
[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/clawed_fiend.png]]%%Images goes to 450 px

Apelike predators with six eyes, blade-tipped tails, claws sharper than knives, and tendency towards berserk rages. Originally native to the Donorian System, they entered the Webway when an on-planet portal collapsed during a Warp storm and established a growing population in the local tunnels. They quickly became popular gladiatorial subjects and war animals among the Dark Eldar, whose use of the fiends in realspace raids has established thriving populations across the galaxy.
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* TheBerserker: Clawed fiends enter states of frenzied berserk fury when they smell their own blood.
* BewareMyStingerTail: Their long tails end in sharp bony spikes, which they can whip through groups of opponents to wound and maim them.
* ExtraEyes: They have six eyes in two clusters of three.
* IntroducedSpeciesCalamity: The fiends, ferocious, powerful, and indiscriminately carnivorous, have spread to a multitude of worlds across the galaxy, and their effect on foreign ecosystems is always devastating.
* SuperSenses: Due to a complex arrangement of photosensitive cells in their six eyes, they have extremely sensitive vision and can perceive colors outside of the spectrum that humans see. They also have very perceptive hearing.

[[folder:Gyrinx]]
[[quoteright:275:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gyrinx.png]]
[[caption-width-right:275:Depiction of a gyrinx from the original ''Rogue Trader'' rulebook.]]

Feline beings with innate psychic powers, gyrinx often form strong bonds with psykers and travel alongside them.

* AlienAnimals: They're essentially psychic alien cats somewhere between a lynx and a housecat in appearance, although they've never been stated to have any particular connection to Earth cats or, indeed, to terrestrial life of any sort.
* BondCreatures: Gyrinx are feline creatures who tend to be drawn to sapient psykers, with whom they form strong lifelong bonds.
* CatsAreMagic: Gyrinx are alien felines with minor psychic powers and the innate ability to form {{Familiar}} bonds with psykers.
* {{Familiar}}: Gyrinx often form mental bonds with aeldari and human psykers, enhancing the psyker's mental abilities from their PsychicPowers to their basic speed of thought and sharing perceptions and information.
* UncattyResemblance: Gyrinx who become bonded to psykers tend to adopt their masters' behavioral quirks, eventually coming to closely mimic their movements, gaits and expressions.

[[folder:Jokaero]]
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jokaero_weaponsmith.png]]

Apelike creatures with a mysterious affinity for technology, the Jokaero are otherwise seemingly normal, if fairly intelligent, animals. This status has allowed them to skirt around the Imperium's xenophobia, and the tinkering apes are often kept among the retinues of powerful people for their skill in making and repairing technological artifacts.

* AlienAnimals: They're almost identical to orangutans. Aside from their knowledge of technology, they're pretty much just apes, even though they were created millennia before earth apes by the [[AbusivePrecursors Old Ones]].
* BunnyEarsLawyer: While their exact depiction [[DependingOnTheWriter varies depending on the background material]], the Jokaero most commonly shown to be amazing artisans with peerless technical knowledge, creating incredible devices for the Imperium (most famously the powerful digital weapons used by some Inquisitors), yet many xenobiologists believe that they aren't even sapient with everything they create [[GeneticMemory coded directly into their genes]].
* EldritchStarship: Jokaero-made vessels tend to resemble polyhedral, open-frame lattices of metal that move as a result of their shape directly interacting with galaxy-spanning currents of energy that only the jokaero seem able to perceive. Their jokaero crews steer them by making physical alterations to the vessel's shape.
* FingerFirearms: Jokaero weapons, such as lasguns, plasma guns or needle weapons, are often miniaturized and intended to be worn as rings. They're often indistinguishable from normal jewelry until fired.
* GadgeteerGenius: Despite being, to all external appearances, cyborg orangutans, the Jokaero can create amazing technological marvels and there is no problem that they cannot solve by analyzing it long enough. Unfortunately, they also act like monkeys as well, so there's no telling whether they will cobble together a ring that doubles as an anti-matter gun capable of leveling a city block, or a [[MundaneUtility nuclear-powered banana peeler]]. They also happen to be natural escape artists, which can lead to a somewhat comical situation should anyone try to imprison them as their Gadgeteer Genius nature conflicts with their desire for freedom -- it's fairly common for a Jokaero to escape a prison cell, tinker with the cell to fix its technical shortcomings, and then become trapped by their own improved prison.
* GeneticMemory: The dominant line of thinking among Imperial scholars is that the jokaero don't truly, consciously understand the processes they use or the things they make; rather, the Old Ones coded their technological affinity into their genes, and all of their modern knowledge and aptitude is purely instinctual.
* GlassCannon: Jokaero have no natural armor, but the digital weapons they carry pack the firepower of a Lascannon, Multi-Melta, and Heavy Flamer.
* IdiotSavant: Despite being thought to have nothing more than animal intelligence, the Jokaero have an instinctive understanding of technology that is thought to be encoded into their biology at a genetic level. Their prestigious technical abilities coupled with this limited intelligence has led to the Jokaero being barely tolerated by Imperial authorities with a number of more liberal Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos recruiting the aliens into their retinues to provide them with advanced equipment. The LighterAndSofter ''Literature/WarhammerAdventures'' series presents them as smart enough to understand Gothic (and a chapter from that individual's perspective shows that he thinks humans are the stupid ones), but can't speak it; he does manage to talk to the local Tech Priest via what's essentially Bluetooth, though.
* ImpossibleGenius: Jokaero can take the most rudimentary of technological salvage and turn it into frighteningly effective pieces of functional technology that may not even resemble the bits it's cobbled together from. Left to their own devices, a group of Jokaero can turn a pile of junk and broken machinery into anything from a working starship to a laser cannon.

[[folder:Razorwings]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/razorwing_40k.png]]
%%
Razorwings are predatory birds infamous for their coordinated hunting flocks, razor-sharp feathers, keen intelligence and taste for the bones of their prey. They are favored animals of Dark Eldar beastmasters and a common sight in Commorrite gladiatorial arenas and raiding parties. Wild populations are also widespread and found on many Imperial and xenos worlds, including Chogoris and several planets in the Koronous expanse. Their true homeworld is unknown, and their widespread present range is believed to have been created from populations being seeded across the galaxy by escaped or deliberately released pets and hunting animals.

* FeatheredFiend: Razorwings are large, hostile, predatory birds that hunt by swarming other animals, sapient or otherwise, and rapidly stripping them to bloody skeletons with their RazorWings.
* GiantFlyer: A full-grown razorwing can have a wingspan of up to thirteen feet.
* IntroducedSpeciesCalamity: Razorwings have been introduced to many worlds, where their intelligence, aggression and wide array of natural weapons make them a dangerous invasive species. They can easily slaughter most prey animals they set their sights on, often culling herbivore populations to a degree that causes serious problems for ranches and meat exporters, and few native predators can meaningfully compete with them once their become established.
* ItCanThink: Officially, Razorwings are animals. However, they often display worryingly intelligent behavior, such as complex coordination and tactics during hunts, usually paired with what are clearly verbal and visual signals, and a tendency to elaborately parade the fruits of their kills to each other. One incident in the ''Liber Xenologis'' suggests that they may be smart enough to deliberately play human factions against each other for their own benefit.
* PickyPeopleEater: Razorwings live almost exclusively off of bone, which they get by flaying off the entirety of their prey's musculature and organs in order to get at its skeleton.
* RazorWings: Razorwing feathers as sharp as monomolecular blades. During hunts, they use use rapid flybys to slice their prey to pieces, rapidly skeletonizing it in order to feed on its bones.

'''Xeno Races:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000LeaguesOfVotann Leagues of Votann]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000OrksCharacters Characters]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000TauEmpire T'au Empire]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Tyranids Tyranids]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000GenestealerCults Genestealer Cults]])]]-]]]

Of the countless alien races in ''Warhammer 40000'', only five present enough of a threat to Imperial power to get their own codexes:

* HollywoodTactics: The Thyrrus do this literally in-universe. Their main military goal is always sheer spectacle, with huge casualties on both sides being the ideal. This makes them incredibly difficult to predict, especially since only one or two Inquisitors actually know that's what they're doing. Who the audience is meant to be for these performances is unknown.

'''Xeno Races:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000LeaguesOfVotann Leagues of Votann]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000OrksCharacters Characters]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000TauEmpire T'au Empire]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Tyranids Tyranids]]]]-]]]

* BewareMyStingerTail: Their long tails end in sharp bony spikes, which they can whip through through groups of opponents to wound and maim them.

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChaptersFirstFounding Chapters of the First Founding]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\

'''[[Characters/Warhammer40000Imperium Imperium of Man]]:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialFounders Founders]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Astartes Adeptus Astartes]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesChapters Chapters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000AstartesCharacters Characters]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000PrimarisSpaceMarines Primaris Marines]]), [[Characters/Warhammer40000ImperialGuard Astra Militarum]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Sororitas Adepta Sororitas]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Inquisition Inquisition]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000Mechanicus Mechanicus]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000CurrentImperialFactions Other factions]]\\

Predatory birds infamous for their coordinated hunting flocks, razor-sharp feathers, keen intelligence and taste for the bones of their prey. Razorwings are favored animals of Dark Eldar beastmasters and a common sight in Commorrite gladiatorial arenas and raiding parties. Wild populations are also widespread and found on many Imperial and xenos worlds, including Chogoris and several planets in the Koronous expanse. Their true homeworld is unknown, and their widespread present range is believed to have been created from populations being seeded across the galaxy by escaped or deliberately released pets and hunting animals.

** Subverted with the Q'orl. Despite having an empire the size of the Eye of Terror, they don't really do much evil.

* LogicalWeakness: Temporal stasis fields disable their entropic abilities, putting them in agony and causing their technology to malfunction. Prolonged time in stasis drives them completely insane. Unfortunately for the Imperium, this is a DangerousForbiddenTechnique based on poorly understood Dark Age technology, and risks [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing up the entire planet]] if not done carefully.

* TimeCrash: They can create a temporary one via "temporal shockwave" as a last-ditch move in a losing battle. The effects are completely random: one person might age to death while the person next to them de-ages into an infant, pieces of a ship get shifted back and forth while moving and explode when they end up occupying the same space, and most memorably, a Servitor turns back into a human when its timeline is "rewound" to before he was lobotomized and modified.

* TimeCrash: They can create a temporary one via "temporal shockwave" as a last-ditch move in a losing battle. The effects are completely random: one person might age to death while the person next to them de-ages into an infant, pieces of the ship get shifted back and forth while moving and explode when they end up occupying the same space, and a Servitor turns back into a human when its timeline is "rewound" to before he was lobotomized and modified.
* TimeMaster: ''Perturabo: The Hammer of Olympia'' implies they have more control over their entropic fields than was previously thought, able to accelerate or even reverse the temporal effects. They and their ships are also implied to be able to move through time as easily as humans move through space, explaining their apparent OffscreenTeleportation by having them shift to a near-future point where their relative position in space has changed.
* TranshumanAliens: Maybe. Some of the Mechanicum's Biologis cadre theorize that they're future humans, severely transformed by evolution and/or modification, coming back in time as refugees from some future catastrophe. There isn't much evidence for it, however; Perturabo finds the theory interesting, but dismisses it.

* PowerSource: Their [[PlanetOfHats hat]] as a race is usage of nuclear-powered everything. They widely use rad-beams as portable weapon, their ships fly on {{Orion Drive}}s, their [[EnergyWeapon lance]] equivalent, Roaring Beam, is ship-sized rad-beam, and they even have nuclear-powered ''melee weapons''. It helps that they are either immune to radiation, or are sturdy enough to ignore it.

* ILoveNuclearPower: Their [[PlanetOfHats hat]] as a race is usage of nuclear-powered everything. They widely use rad-beams as portable weapon, their ships fly on {{Orion Drive}}s, their [[EnergyWeapon lance]] equivalent, Roaring Beam, is ship-sized rad-beam, and they even have nuclear-powered ''melee weapons''. It helps that they are either immune to radiation, or are sturdy enough to ignore it.

'''Xeno Races:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000OrksCharacters Characters]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000TauEmpire T'au Empire]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Tyranids Tyranids]]]]-]]]

In keeping with this general theme, very few stories from the Black Library have been told from an alien perspective. [[Literature/ThePathOfTheEldar A trilogy of Craftworld Eldar-centered books]] concluded in late 2012, and a trilogy of Dark Eldar-centered books concluded in 2014. The short story collection ''Fear the Alien'' contains two stories which feature sections from the points of view of an Ork warboss and an Eldar Harlequin as well. The video game ''VideoGame/FireWarrior'' and its novelization follow the adventures of a T'au [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Fire Warrior]]. In addition, the sixth and seventh edition of the game's basic rulebook featured various ways for Imperial and xenos races to team up in combat, although these came with their own conditions and drawbacks.

'''Xeno Races:''' [[Characters/Warhammer40000Eldar Aeldari]] ([[Characters/Warhammer40000CraftworldEldar Asuryani]], [[Characters/Warhammer40000DarkEldar Drukhari]]) | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Necrons Necrons]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Orks Orks]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000TauEmpire T'au Empire]] | [[Characters/Warhammer40000Tyranids Tyranids]]]]-]]]

A secretive species about whom little is know. The hrud make their homes in the shadow of others, lurking unseen within cities and spacecraft, and project entropic auras that cause objects around themselves to rapidly decay.

* RatMen: In the original Third Edition appearance, the hrud resemble hunched, humanoid rats covered in hooded cloaks. Later editions alter their appearance to be something much more alien.

* ArtEvolution: The Enslavers' first depiction in the ''Rogue Trader'' core book depicted them as roughly pear-shaped, wrinkled things with a single huge eye on their upper lobe and a cluster of short tentacles dangling from their lower body, in addition to a pair of longer, squid-like arms. From 3rd Edition on, they're instead shown as floating sac-like beings, with a small, chitin-covered head on their front bearing many small eyes and a distinct mouth.
* AxCrazy:
** [[EveryoneHasStandards Even in this universe]], the Barghesi are considered so ferocious that "hyper-violent" almost always precedes a mention of their name. The only things we know about them are that they have several Space Marine chapters dedicated to fighting them, they live in the Grendel Stars, and judging by the name, they may have something to do with the legendary Barghests of North England, malevolent and gigantic spectral black dogs.
** The Rak'Gol[[note]]from the ''TabletopGame/RogueTrader'' licensed RPG[[/note]] are a piratical race said to have a society built almost entirely around hunting and killing, who have no interest in other species beyond their brutal and bloody raids.
* BatPeople:
** The khrave resemble humanoid carnivorous bats, with faces framed by winglike ears and mouths filled with fangs. Most are flightless, simply having two sets of humanoid arms, but some possess large wings as an additional pair of limbs.
** Vampires from early editions resemble giant bats the size of a human, which walk upright and possess three free fingers on each wing.

* DivergentCharacterEvolution: In third edition, the Hrud were rough expies of the Skaven from ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'', being a race of rat-men. By fourth edition, they had been retconned into creatures with large eyes and exoskeletons, and later editions would expand their background in ways that make them very thematically distinct from the Skaven. They still retain the aspect of sentient vermin, being closely associated with trash and decay.

* {{Expy}}:
** In third edition, the Hrud were rough expies of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'''s Skaven, a race of RatMen. In later editions, they are much more alien in appearance.
** The Rak'Gol (whose name reminds one of the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Rakghouls]]). They resemble Tyranids by quite a bit, sans their penchant for eating DNA.

* PeeveGoblins: Popular folklore in Imperial hive cities and spaceship crews attributes "the bendies" (a common name for the Hrud, a species of highly secretive, diminutive aliens who often secretly inhabit other species' structures) with whatever goes wrong. Missing item? The bendies took it. A machine breaks? The bendies did it. Someone vanishes? The bendies took him.
* PeopleFarms: Khrave raiders have been known to herd the populations of worlds they overrun into enclosed spaces such as mines, providing them with food and water to keep them alive while periodically taking out prisoners to eat.

* RatMen: In the original Third Edition appearance, the Hrud resembled hunched, humanoid rats covered in hooded cloaks. Later editions altered their appearance to be something much more alien.

* SmallRoleBigImpact:
** The enslavers are only mentioned rarely in official material, and are mostly relegated to side games. However, they played a crucial role in the setting's backstory -- the first enslavers arose as a result of the psychic turmoil created by the War in Heaven and swarmed across in the galaxy in huge numbers, destroying what few remnants of civilization survived. In so doing, the enslavers killed off the last of the Old Ones, forced the necrons into hiding, and set the stage for the rise of the Aeldari Empire once their plague burned itself out.
** The Rangda are barely mentioned in modern day ''40K'' lore and even in the ''30K'' Great Crusade/Horus Heresy narrative, on account of all information about the Rangdan Xenocides being sealed, but they were a big deal back in the day and had a major impact in events afterwards. For one thing, they were so nightmarishly powerful, advanced and dangerous that during the conflict against the Rangda, the Xenos nearly wiped out half the Imperium, badly decimated at least three Space Marine legions (notably the Dark Angels and the Space Wolves), and is implied to have done ''something'' to two other Legions (the Second and Eleventh) and their Primarchs that both had to be purged down to the very memories of their existence for the sake of Humanity. Even after the Rangda were defeated, the fallout from the conflict would have varying level of consequences for everyone -- the Dark Angels for example lost their status as the most numerous and notable Legion due to the heavy losses they sustained, allowing their numbers to be surpassed by the likes of the Ultramarines and the Luna Wolves, and the expunging of the two lost Legions would plant seeds of doubt in some Primarchs that led to them turning traitor against the Imperium in the Horus Heresy.

* SpikeShooter: The khrave use guns that shoot shards of razor-sharp metal that dissolve the viscera of their targets.

** Under a Hrud's tattered clothing they look sort of like several human spines fused to an equally bony torso. They also have in effect by default an entropic field, meaning that anything which comes in contact with them is rapidly aged.

** An Umbra is literally a sphere that floats around and creates {{Living Shadow}}s.
** Enslavers, one of the few non-Chaotic warp entities, appear as strange [[LivingGasbag bloated and floating]] creatures with multiple tentacle limbs. Some images of Enslavers meanwhile show them as resembling giant floating brains.

* VertebrateWithExtraLimbs: The khrave are BatPeople with either six or eight lims. All individuals have two legs and four arms, while some also have two wings.

[[folder:Rak'Gol]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rak_gol_marauder.png]]

A race of pirates and raiders, Rak'Gol populate the Koronus Expanse. These creatures attack unprovoked, and seem to care for nothing but slaughter. They are a relatively new threat, believed to originate from uncharted space.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: The only inter-race interaction that Rak'Gol care about is combat. They make no effort to communicate, and attack everyone on sight.
* TheBattlestar: Two of their ship classes, ''Mangler'' and ''Butcher'', house launch bays for assault boats.
* BoardingParty: They ''love'' boarding. Their ships launch exclusively boarding torpedoes, and their hangars carry only assault boats. They almost never flee, and will continue to send boarders until either they or their enemies are all dead.
* {{Cyborg}}: Most Rak'Gol use crude bionic implants to enhance their performance. The higher the creature's rank, the more augmentations it typically will have.
* ILoveNuclearPower: Their [[PlanetOfHats hat]] as a race is usage of nuclear-powered everything. They widely use rad-beams as portable weapon, their ships fly on {{Orion Drive}}s, their [[EnergyWeapon lance]] equivalent, Roaring Beam, is ship-sized rad-beam, and they even have nuclear-powered ''melee weapons''. It helps that they are either immune to radiation, or are sturdy enough to ignore it.
* InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien: They can travel through warp, sure, but all of their other technology is primitive at best. Their most advanced non-warp technology are rad-beams, that no other race would use due to the massive radiation pollution[[note]]Imperium used these during the Great Crusade, but only as GodzillaThreshold[[/note]]. It's implied that they got these warp drives from someone else.
* LizardFolk: They are reptilian in appearance, and said to have lizard-like skin.
* MoreDakka: Batteries of so-called Howler Cannons are their warships' main weapons. They are relatively small, but numerous and fast-firing guns, highly effective on short range. There is a hand-held variant, called "howler rifle". They also employ an incredible number of turrets on their warships, making their light cruisers better protected from small crafts than other races' ''battleships''.
* MultiArmedAndDangerous: They have eight limbs in total, with four being used for movement.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Their starships classes include ''Mangler'', ''Mauler'', and ''[[TheButcher Butcher]]''.
* OrionDrive: Their ships use "fission-pulse" drives, powered by atomic reactors. As such, Rak'Gol ships have high speed, but their maneuverability leaves much to be desired. Also, these drives irradiate the ship so much that other races can't stay inside of them for too long.
* RunningOnAllFours: They can run on all... eight, when chasing a prey.
* StarfishLanguage: Unlike almost every other race in the setting, Rak'Gol speak in rasps and screeches, and show no interest in communicating with anyone else.
* XenomorphXerox: Black chitin-like "skin"; check. A prehensile bladed tail; check. An eyeless face and maw filled with sharp teeth; check.

[[folder:Q'orl]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dissected_qorl.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:A dissected Q'orl corpse.]]

A race of intelligent, advanced InsectoidAliens that are native to the Swarmworld Loqiit. Much about them is unknown due to them not having an actual army or any models. However, background fluff makes them stand out from other aliens in significant ways.

* AchillesHeel: Warp technology remains outside of their grasp.
* TheGhost: They have no models, no rules, and no playbooks, and aren't mentioned in most modern media.
* InsectoidAliens: The Q'orl are large, eight-legged arthropods with probosces instead of hinged mouths, and live in a society divided between many biological castes and led by queens.
* MinorMajorCharacter: They don't have models or rules, and barely appear in ''[=WH40K=]'' media, but they are described in background fluff as having a powerful, organized empire in the Segmentum Pacificus the size of the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Eye of Terror]], just a couple light-years from Holy Terra.
* StarfishLanguage: The Q'orl communicate primarily through pheromones released from pits on their shoulders.

[[folder:Stryxis]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stryxis_40k.png]]

A race of merchants, wanderers and traders, the Stryxis can be met in the Koronus Expanse. They are infamous for their unpredictable nature, equally willing to partake in both mutually beneficial trade and piracy or slavery.

* ArchEnemy: They hate the Eldar with a passion, for a reason known only to these two races.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Betrayal seems to be the norm for their society. They will gladly backstab a long-time partner for a greater momentary gain.
* DeathRay: Their "ghost-light" ship weapons are not particularly strong and cannot penetrate active void shields, but can kill a ship's crew without leaving a mark on their bodies. Their effect is described as filling quarters with pale light that instantly kills anyone it touches.
* HumanoidAliens: They are described as resembling giant, four-eyed dog embryos that walk upright.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: They have a penchant for calling humans "bipeds". This is odd, given that they are bipedal themselves. Slaves, meanwhile, are all "meat" for them, no matter the race.
* ProudMerchantRace: Commerce is their main occupation, which is a rarity in this universe.
* ResurrectTheWreck: Their caravan ships consist of several scavenged hulls, chained together and towed by one that was repaired enough to work.
* SlaveMooks: They employ slave soldiers from a number of races, controlling them with a variety of methods, from {{Bomb Collar}}s to {{Brainwashing}}. If a slave does well, they may even be liberated, to encourage the others to fight harder.
* WorthlessYellowRocks: It's mentioned that they have little understanding of value, and as such may see no difference between platinum ingots and worthless baubles.

!!Animals and Monsters
[[folder:Ambulls]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ambull.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:An ambull with borewyrm larvae.]]

Ambulls are large, burrowing arthropod predators that were spread throughout the Imperium in a failed attempt at domestication and established large populations on multiple worlds. Ambulls debuted in the game's first edition, and have since appeared sporadically in side material.

* BigCreepyCrawlies: They resemble arthropods with the size and build of gorillas.
* ExtremeOmnivore: Ambulls are primarily carnivores, but at need can feed on anything, up to and including plasma.
* FantasticLivestock: They're a failed attempt at this. Their flesh is edible and they thrive in barren environments, so they were spread through the Imperium with the idea of using them as livestock on desert planets. However, their extreme aggressiveness and predatory habits made them very difficult to control, while their ability to dig through nearly any substance made keeping them corralled impossible. Consequently, these projects were eventually discontinued, although not before enough ambulls escaped into the wild to establish large feral populations throughout the galaxy.
* FastTunnelling: Ambulls can dig rapidly enough to use this as a method to pursue prey on the surface.
* FullConversionCyborg: Ambots are created by taking the central nervous systems of ambulls, implanting them with neural controllers, and wiring them in mechanical shells modeled after the ambulls' natural bodies; the resulting cyborg is then mainly used for excavation. This allows ambots to retain their natural digging instincts while benefiting from greater mechanical strength, endurance and built-in tools. Like servitors, this process also allows their Mechanicum creators to circumvent the Imperium's ban on AI.

[[folder:Gyrinx]]
[[quoteright:275:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gyrinx.png]]
[[caption-width-right:275:Depiction of a gyrinx from the original ''Rogue Trader'' rulebook.]]
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Feline beings with innate psychic powers, gyrinx often form strong bonds with psykers and travel alongside them.

* AlienAnimals: They're essentially psychic alien cats somewhere between a lynx and a housecat in appearance, although they've never been stated to have any particular connection to Earth cats or, indeed, to terrestrial life of any sort.
* BondCreatures: Gyrinx are feline creatures who tend to be drawn to sapient psykers, with whom they form strong lifelong bonds.
* CatsAreMagic: Gyrinx are alien felines with minor psychic powers and the innate ability to form {{Familiar}} bonds with psykers.
* {{Familiar}}: Gyrinx often form mental bonds with aeldari and human psykers, enhancing the psyker's mental abilities from their PsychicPowers to their basic speed of thought and sharing perceptions and information.
* UncattyResemblance: Gyrinx who become bonded to psykers tend to adopt their masters' behavioral quirks, eventually coming to closely mimic their movements, gaits and expressions.

[[folder:Jokaero]]
[[quoteright:310:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jokaero_weaponsmith.png]]
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Apelike creatures with a mysterious affinity for technology, the Jokaero are otherwise seemingly normal, if fairly intelligent, animals. This status has allowed them to skirt around the Imperium's xenophobia, and the tinkering apes are often kept among the retinues of powerful people for their skill in making and repairing technological artifacts.

* AlienAnimals: They're almost identical to orangutans. Aside from their knowledge of technology, they're pretty much just apes, even though they were created millennia before earth apes by the [[AbusivePrecursors Old Ones]].
* BunnyEarsLawyer: While their exact depiction [[DependingOnTheWriter varies depending on the background material]], the Jokaero most commonly shown to be amazing artisans with peerless technical knowledge, creating incredible devices for the Imperium (most famously the powerful digital weapons used by some Inquisitors), yet many xenobiologists believe that they aren't even sapient with everything they create [[GeneticMemory coded directly into their genes]].
* EldritchStarship: Jokaero-made vessels tend to resemble polyhedral, open-frame lattices of metal that move as a result of their shape directly interacting with galaxy-spanning currents of energy that only the jokaero seem able to perceive. Their jokaero crews steer them by making physical alterations to the vessel's shape.
* FingerFirearms: Jokaero weapons, such as lasguns, plasma guns or needle weapons, are often miniaturized and intended to be worn as rings. They're often indistinguishable from normal jewelry until fired.
* GadgeteerGenius: Despite being, to all external appearances, cyborg orangutans, the Jokaero can create amazing technological marvels and there is no problem that they cannot solve by analyzing it long enough. Unfortunately, they also act like monkeys as well, so there's no telling whether they will cobble together a ring that doubles as an anti-matter gun capable of leveling a city block, or a [[MundaneUtility nuclear-powered banana peeler]]. They also happen to be natural escape artists, which can lead to a somewhat comical situation should anyone try to imprison them as their Gadgeteer Genius nature conflicts with their desire for freedom -- it's fairly common for a Jokaero to escape a prison cell, tinker with the cell to fix its technical shortcomings, and then become trapped by their own improved prison.
* GeneticMemory: The dominant line of thinking among Imperial scholars is that the jokaero don't truly, consciously understand the processes they use or the things they make; rather, the Old Ones coded their technological affinity into their genes, and all of their modern knowledge and aptitude is purely instinctual.
* IdiotSavant: Despite being thought to have nothing more than animal intelligence, the Jokaero have an instinctive understanding of technology that is thought to be encoded into their biology at a genetic level. Their prestigious technical abilities coupled with this limited intelligence has led to the Jokaero being barely tolerated by Imperial authorities with a number of more liberal Inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos recruiting the aliens into their retinues to provide them with advanced equipment. The LighterAndSofter ''Literature/WarhammerAdventures'' series presents them as smart enough to understand Gothic (and a chapter from that individual's perspective shows that he thinks humans are the stupid ones), but can't speak it; he does manage to talk to the local Tech Priest via what's essentially Bluetooth, though.
* ImpossibleGenius: Jokaero can take the most rudimentary of technological salvage and turn it into frighteningly effective pieces of functional technology that may not even resemble the bits it's cobbled together from. Left to their own devices, a group of Jokaero can turn a pile of junk and broken machinery into anything from a working starship to a laser cannon.

** There is one xenos threat, sealed within a device known as the "Echoing Vault," which was so nightmarish and powerful that all records of it were expunged. All that is really known about it was that it was some terrifying EldritchAbomination that destroyed thousands of worlds, broke the laws of physics by existing, drove people to madness from proximity, and it required the Imperium and Adeptus Mechanicus to use forbidden archeotech and psychic weapons to seal it away. When a Chaos warband threatened to unleash it again, [[GodzillaThreshold a massive army of the Adeptus Custodes showed up]] to [[CurbstompBattle utterly annihilate the Chaos warband to prevent the Echoing Vault from being opened again.]]

* HonorBeforeReason: The Viskeons[[note]]a race briefely mentioned in the background material and who had a character in the ''TabletopGame/{{Inquisitor}}'' game[[/note]], were all but wiped out by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Kraken due to their insistence on sticking to a strict martial code that focused on elaborate duels between individual warriors that was unsuited to fighting against a HordeOfAlienLocusts.

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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/773598722009075bdfdb9a0bb9b.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:An old Rogue Trader depiction]]

* ArchEnemy: They hate the Eldar with a passion for a reason, known only to these two races.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Betrayal seems to be the norm for theis society. They will gladly backstab a long-time partner for a greater momentary gain.
* DeathRay: Their "ghost-light" ship weapons are not particularly strong, but can kill the crew inside without leaving a mark on their bodies. Its effect is described as filling quarters with pale light, that instantly kills anyone it touches. Thankfully, it doesn't work if the ship's void shields are up.
* HumanoidAliens: They are described as resembling a giant, four-eyed dog embryo, that walks upright.
* HumansByAnyOtherName: They have a penchant for calling humans "bipeds". Kinda weird, given that they are bipedal themselves. Slaves, meanwhile, are all "meat" for them, no matter the race.
* ProudMerchantRace: Сommerce is their main occupation, which is a rarity in this universe.

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