Do the forces of the imperium eat xenos?

[Lord of War]

Could they? Like if they were low on supplies or just what something besides the rations.

[Poncho160]

Im sure they eat lots of xenos breeds. Grox being the one most talked about.

Here is a picture of one:

[aim]

Could they? Like if they were low on supplies or just what something besides the rations.

One could imagine that some space marines do (Besides the ones that are noted for doing it because their gene-seed is a bit wonky or they are just straight up nuts), if for no other reason to make use of their funky eat-you-to-learn-what-you-know-organ...

As for guard... You never know, maybe barbequed nids legs are scrummy!

[Lord of War]

By Xenos I mean orks, eldar, and the like.

[Gorbad Ironclaw]

What exactly do you mean by Xenos here? If you mean non-earth species in general then yes, of course they do. It would have been all but impossible to expand into the galaxy and not eat anything you found out there.

If you mean other intelligent races I'd be much more doubtful. While it's not quite cannibalism eating members of other technical civilizations could be seen as coming dangerously close. Now it's really difficult to imagine the exact attitude attitude towards such races as we haven't meet any yet so maybe they won't have an issue with eating them, but I'd imagine they would.

[de Selby]

The Imperium has a religious terror of non-human intelligent species, so I think they would view the idea with revulsion. They more likely shovel the bodies into a pit and ask the Emperor's forgiveness for even touching them. In fact in extremis there might be an interesting conflict between the different taboos on eating humans and eating vile xenos.

It's the kind of thing that decadent Spyrers might get up to but it would fall under 'contact with aliens is a crime' and be the subject of inquisitorial attention.

[Bonzai]

Get a man hungry enough and he will eat about anything. That being said, I imagine that eating any intelligent Xeno species would be repelant to most humans. Concidering their relgious views, I imagine that they wouldn't want to taint themselves with filthy xeno flesh.

[agurus1]

space marines can ingest the flesh of their enemies in order to absorb their local knowledge or some of their memories, does that count?

[The Devourer]

Depends on the humans- they won't be any universal rules against it. While cannibalism isn't going to be a problem, since they aren't human and the imperium puts a lot of work into teaching people that all xenos are sub human, many people won't each them because they may find the idea of eating something as dirty as a xenos repulsive. Having said that it isn't going to be that uncommon among normal humans as cultural taboos will vary greatly. It isn't too much of a stretch to imagine people from a world with harsh conditions or savage worlds are going to be happy with eating xenos if it comes. Given the range of cultures it's very likely some humans go out of their way to eat enemies like many historical cultures. Marines are likely to do it since they put praticallity above individual desires and often spend prolonged periods with much support.

[Askil the Undecided]

The only novel I've recall reading that a Space Marine actually used the neuroglottis's ability to learn by eating was in Ian Watson's Space Marine (and thus questionably sound as canon.)

The space marines in that novel drew the line at eating abhumans due to the idea of being tainted by it.

Curiously they saw no problem in eating chaos tainted humans however.

[Iron_Lord]

The only novel I've recall reading that a Space Marine actually used the neuroglottis's ability to learn by eating was in Ian Watson's Space Marine (and thus questionably sound as canon.)

Barrington J. Bayley's Eye of Terror also used it.

[Askil the Undecided]

Barrington J. Bayley's Eye of Terror also used it.

Awesome, any more to add to that?

Personally I think that being taught from birth to believe that xenos are living filth most imperials would happily barbeque and eat their own friends/relatives/extremities before dining on the flesh of broadly humanoid xenos like Eldar, Orks and Tau.

[Theocracity]

Remember, you are what you eat. So if you eat xenos scum....

That being said I think the idea of a deviant cult who ritually eats a particular xenos is a cool plot hook. I could see it happening on the Eastern Fringe, originating among desperate rebels fighting against Tau domination. Or among Slaanesh-influenced pleasure cults that eat Eldar, possibly instigating an otherwise inexplicable Craftworld attack on a planet. Or perhaps eating pieces of Ork is a hazing ritual among Guardsmen garrisoned on a world under heavy Orkish assault.

All of these cases would be likely to attract the eye of the =I=, of course.

[Iron_Lord]

The space marines in that novel drew the line at eating abhumans due to the idea of being tainted by it.

Curiously they saw no problem in eating chaos tainted humans however.

in the prologue to the Bloodquest comic, the Blood Angel Cloten, after going into the Black Rage, and being overcome by the Red Thirst, kills and eats the Chaos cultists who have imprisoned him- since their taint makes their flesh and blood weak and unsatisfying, he needs a lot to slake his hunger.

Awesome, any more to add to that?

On Eye of Terror, it's a bit of an odd novel- published back around 1999, and some things don't exactly fit modern 40k- like the Imperials having Brute class ram ships.

The guy whose brain the Dark Angel ate was a Fallen Angel- who, after the Dark Angel had arrived on his planet after 10000 years floating in space (lost after his ship was destroyed around him in an early Heresy battle against the World Eaters) tried to convince the Dark Angel that it was only a few centuries after the Heresy and Chaos now rules the whole galaxy.

Eventually he got suspicious, was told by others that the Fallen Angel was lying, just before the Dark Angel would have sworn loyalty to the Chaos God Khorne. He fought the Fallen Angel, and, with the words "forgive me, brother, but I must know the truth" ate his living brain. On realising it was all a lie, the Imperium still controls most of the galaxy and the Emperor is still alive, albeit on the Throne, he chose to return to the Imperium.

Only to be imprisoned due to the Chaos markings that had appeared on his armour even before he would have sworn loyalty, handed over to the Dark Angels chapter, and executed for having turned to Chaos, even if it was momentarily and he rejected it later.

[Lord Damocles]

The first Soul Drinkers novel has Sarpedon nom-noming a mutant's brain.

[Scalebug]

...and the Alpha Legion infiltrators in Deliverance Lost (not a major spoiler, as it comes up early in the book, it is not a twist) eat pieces of the Ravenguard they are going to replace, though it is kept more believably low-key, with vague memories that they are not pinning their entire plan to, rather than as in Watsons book learning how to control a Titan...

[alamandrix]

I'm pretty sure one of the Ultramarines (Learchus?) in Graham McNeil's Courage and Honour eats a Tau pilot's brain so that he can fly one of their vehicles.

[Fluxeor]

In the Black Reach companion novel Telion eats the brains of a Gretchin to filter through the experiences of its last few hours to locate the Orks main lair.

[stormblade]

I thought tha Armaggedon ork hunters ate orks- or am I missremembering?

[Monospot]

With a nice butter sauce, fungus can taste delicious.