The Death of the Squats....

[Xisor]

Good works going on here!

Some thoughts on the vehicles:
- Corian Humanity: STC Rollers (Baneblades, but perhaps rather than treads, lot sof those massive wheels?)
- Tau & Eldar: Slow & Fast anti-grav respectfully
- Orks: Fast Cars!
- Imperial Humanity: STC Tracked
- Demiurg: Walkers(generally[A term I sued was "Stompy Ambulators", think War of the Worlds and Tripods]) & AG-jet-tech to get from A to B when A to B is very big
- Tyranids: Leg and Wing!
- Necrons: They don't go from A to B, they skip the intervening distance and arrive at B as they leave A.

Gives each a distinct 'imagery', but leaves Corian and Imperial Humanity very close.

I also appreciate the wording of Corian as an 'alternative' to Imperial. The Imperial Humans and derivatives come from The Imperium of Mankind, whilst the Corian Humans and derivatives(have them have a fair few variants) come from the Corian League of Humanity(The League settled in the Deep Core)

A question on Corian relations

Will you all press to use the 'Brotherhood' as a 'unit' of force for the Corians? It just seems to be supremely emphasised with the Demiurg, yet it's not been mentioned once here...

Zzarchov's Stone Men Proposal

Whilst it's a neat idea, would you put any additional 'reasoning' for the Corians actually settling in the Core rather than randomly across the Galaxy? Or just a 'That's where the resources were, gotta live near that scrumtious tiberium...' style thinking?

Khaine's Messenger

I *highly* doubt GW could ever allow themselves to have a Gnostic League who go on to create their own Demiurge, neat as it may be.

[Hellebore]

Good works going on here!

Gives each a distinct 'imagery', but leaves Corian and Imperial Humanity very close.

Something I don't mind, considering the Corians are STC enslaved humans anyway. Hmmm, big tires.....MONSTER TRUCKS!!

I also appreciate the wording of Corian as an 'alternative' to Imperial. The Imperial Humans and derivatives come from The Imperium of Mankind, whilst the Corian Humans and derivatives(have them have a fair few variants) come from the Corian League of Humanity(The League settled in the Deep Core)

Exactly. When you think about it though, it does raise questions about the other 'abhumans'. Do ratlings see themselves as a different race/species, and thus take the perjorative term Ratling as a title? Or do they think they are humans that are simply being prejudiced against? Ogryns probably don't care.... but any other 'mutant' thinks of themselves as human (albiet cursed for perceived failings of the parents if they happen to live on an overtly Imperial planet).

A question on Corian relations

Will you all press to use the 'Brotherhood' as a 'unit' of force for the Corians? It just seems to be supremely emphasised with the Demiurg, yet it's not been mentioned once here...

At the moment I have almost finished writing an army list (bare bones) and have stuck to using modernistic terms for things. Whilst I can appreciate the way Dwarfs name things (grudgethrower, gyrocopter) a technologically advanced irreligious section of humanity (excepting of course the all important veneration of ancestors) I doubt very much would name their vehicles so ah, colourfully.

In my mind, the names for the vehicles would be acronymal manufacturing designations (hence a return to the rhino's original RH1-N0 and my creation of the RA1-D3R and RU-55 names). Of course there would be slang terms used (like Big Bertha etc).

The Brotherhood would be a sort of soldiers club rather than an official designation. At the moment I'm working with 'Sections': CnC Section, GI Section etc.

It would be similar to the platoon of the Imperium, but different enough to (hopefully) emphasise the clannish 'brotherhood' aspect as well. The Brotherhood is as far as I am concerned, a purely Demiurg 'thing' now (unless you want to make Demiurg Corians too ) and so it would only play a roll as the name for the 'club' one gets initiated into when becoming a Hearthguard.

Zzarchov's Stone Men Proposal

Whilst it's a neat idea, would you put any additional 'reasoning' for the Corians actually settling in the Core rather than randomly across the Galaxy? Or just a 'That's where the resources were, gotta live near that scrumtious tiberium...' style thinking?

The way I see this concept is basically the 'Stone Men' where the specialised engineered 'labourer' castes sent out to specific areas. The astronomers of today can make a good guess about what type of planets are at the centre of the galaxy, so I am sure the instigators of the colony ships would have too. Whether they knew precisely or not, they sent colony ships with that 'kind' of 'stone man' on board, hoping they would be the correct type for setting up the initial colony phases (or just living their and mining). Maybe they sent equal contingents of each type of Stone man, and contented themselves with at least ONE type having the necessary abilities.
This would be a God perspective, "At the dawn of time" sort of thing though, not something that would appear in the background of the Corians, but there nontheless as an explanation of their existence.

Khaine's Messenger

I *highly* doubt GW could ever allow themselves to have a Gnostic League who go on to create their own Demiurge, neat as it may be.

I vaguely remember the joke about this, but the specifics escape me.

Hellebore

[Xisor]

On all points: Excellent, parallel yet complementary ideas!

With Demiurge-Gnostic thing: Gnostics (a branch of Christians, rather different from Agnostics) believe (IIRC) that 'God' hired a secondary deity, called the Demiurge, to create the material universe for him. In doing so, the Demiurge also added in the malevolence/darkness of his own nature as well as the specifics of the Universe requested to be created. It explains why the Universe isn't quite as perfect as God...I think.

Thus it'd be quite amusing to have the gnostics create their own God(or Demi-God)...

Xisor

[Karasu]

As an aside, can anyone think of a term fitting to call the 'squats', that ISN'T squat?

Khaine's Messenger has 'Gnostic League'
Easy E advocates the use of Stronghold names
I came up with Corian (for Core -ian)
Or Leaguer

Any other ideas that don't suck?

Hellebore

They're human variants, right? If they know that they are gentically engineered, how about Homo Sapiens Durientsis (Hardy Humans). This could then be Durients as the common form.

Another option would be Patientis (Enduring) but that would make the Patients..

[Zzarchov]

I wasn't thinking about any kind of "core worlds" mentality, though you could spin one if you wanted. I was thinking more of a way to "re-write them back in" in the same way they were written out in the first place, I literal Muligan for the race.

By not building one empire but have them be drifting inside space hulks (often unaware they are even in space) or in deep underground archeo-tech facilities spread all over the galaxy you have a plausible reason for them to be absolutely anywhere from the eastern fringe, to core, to the western fringe. And you can always write in a small "Squat" empire to be near whatever GW campaign is up this summer.

As for why make them a labourer caste, its to get away from the technologically innovate bit. Not degrading is good, but if they were innovative as humans were..and had no reason to hate technology then it would stand to reason after 20,000 years they would have lept past the imperium in technology to scientific sorcery.. which is quite different from a tanks and bullets army. So I figured while not religious about science, they would be pragmatic about it but not innovative. Like someone who just ate a bland but nutritious meal every day. They didn't start worshipping food spirits and knew exactly why the meal was nutritous..they just had no urge to learn to cook something better...If that makes any sense?

Thats just my take anyways.

[scwolf]

The Russ is the RU-55 Support tank (actually based on a demolisher).

The Leman Russ tank got its name because there were commanders in the Imperial Guard ranks who admired the ferocity and tactical prowess of the Space Wolves' Primarch Leman Russ.

This is a nice bit of fluff on several levels. One, it speaks of the working relationship between the Space Marine Legions and the Guard in the pre-Heresy era that they would name their main battle tank after a Primarch; and two, it says something about Russ in particular that he was the only Primarch to be given such a widespread honor. I'm not saying that there aren't other pieces of IG equipment that weren't named after other Primarchs, but none has the visibility of the Leman Russ tanks.

To turn around and say that the tank that they picked to honor this Hero of the Imperium with already had a model number of RU-55, really seems to cheapen the gesture.

I'm all for your other model numbers, but given the historical importance of this particular piece of fluff, I'd urge you to drop this one.

[Easy E]

Did I mention that I love this topic? Here are some of my thoughts, that hopefully piggy back onto some of your ideas.

Technology- Since they use STC I assume that the majority of weapons would be based on the STC designs. The Corians/Clansmen would have inovated with them over time so they may have a slightly different appearance, but I imagine that a Lasgun still uses the same stats as a lasgun. The difference can't really be portrayed in 40K, but can be more so in Inquisitor (see the different Lasgun patterns). So a Clan made lasgun would be lighter, hold a slightly larger charge, and have improved integral iron sights, but would still be essentially the same as an Imperial lasgun.

I really like the idea of the model numbers as the designation of the STC template used to create them.

Name- I would simply call them Clansmen.

Genetic Engineering- This part could be a mystery even to the Clansmen themselves. All they know is that they landed as humans similar to Imperials, and are now a very different. Some could attribute this to natural adaption, while other learned souls could hint at darker , more nefarious origins.

Military Organization- Each Stronghold has one Warlord who is appointed by the Stronghold's Lord. Usually they are relatives, but not always. The Warlord then chooses a certain number of subordinates based on the number of military eligible Clansmen in the Stronghold. So, 1 BattleMaster for every 10,000 militarily eligible clansmen. The Battlemaster controls a single Brotherhood, and the Warlord controls all the Brotherhoods.

The only professional military force is the Hearthguard, who are always considered on active duty. They represent 10% of the military capacity of the Stronghold. A Battlemaster is assigned a portion of Hearthguard to form the officer corp of his Brotherhood. The Hearthguard are divided equally among the number of Battlemasters and a portion is provided to the Warlord as well.

All Clansmen are eligible for military service for a period of their life cycle. They maybe called upon as needed. Normally, they only gather for short periods of training until called upon to deploy by the Warlord. They are essentially conscript soldiers, who are led by the Hearthguard/Battlemasters.

Tyranid Invasion- How did they survive the Tyranid Invasion? There are two potential solutions to this problem:

1. They holed up inside their Strongholds deep underground. The Nids stripped the surface of their world's and left them barren rocks. However, the Stronghold's deep underground were impervious to this and simply re-emerged after the threat passed.

2. The Tyranids expended so much energy and Bio-mass trying to dig out the Strongholds and strip the relatively lifeless planets that they could not re-coop the energy used in the process. This led to a slow degradation of the Hive Fleets capabilities allowing them to finally be defeated in battle and scattered.

Depending on which version you like better will help dictate how many Clansmen currently exist, how they view the Galaxy, how they view themselves, and what their galactic goals will be post-Tyranid wars.

I could talk about the little blighters for a long time, but I will stop now.

[Easy E]

On all points: Excellent, parallel yet complementary ideas!

With Demiurge-Gnostic thing: Gnostics (a branch of Christians, rather different from Agnostics) believe (IIRC) that 'God' hired a secondary deity, called the Demiurge, to create the material universe for him. In doing so, the Demiurge also added in the malevolence/darkness of his own nature as well as the specifics of the Universe requested to be created. It explains why the Universe isn't quite as perfect as God...I think.

Thus it'd be quite amusing to have the gnostics create their own God(or Demi-God)...

Xisor

To add on to this IIRC the reason the Gnostics believed that God had used a secondary Diety was to help them solve the problem of Evil. The reasoning was, if God was all powerful and Knowing why would he create an imperfect world? The answer was that if the world was imperfect, then the creator must also be imperfect. Therefore, God could not have created the world since he is perfect.

In order for the world to be created imperfectly, then God must have sub-contracted creating of said world to a secondary being who was itself imperfect. Since this secondary being was imperfect, it could not create a perfect world. Hence, we have the world as it is; and why Evil can exist in our world despite God being all knowing and powerful.

Convoluted I know.

[Hellebore]

The Leman Russ tank got its name because there were commanders in the Imperial Guard ranks who admired the ferocity and tactical prowess of the Space Wolves' Primarch Leman Russ.

This is a nice bit of fluff on several levels. One, it speaks of the working relationship between the Space Marine Legions and the Guard in the pre-Heresy era that they would name their main battle tank after a Primarch; and two, it says something about Russ in particular that he was the only Primarch to be given such a widespread honor. I'm not saying that there aren't other pieces of IG equipment that weren't named after other Primarchs, but none has the visibility of the Leman Russ tanks.

To turn around and say that the tank that they picked to honor this Hero of the Imperium with already had a model number of RU-55, really seems to cheapen the gesture.

I'm all for your other model numbers, but given the historical importance of this particular piece of fluff, I'd urge you to drop this one.

It was more of a "land" speeder/raider type name (that is, the raider/speeder has always been called a Land raider/speeder, but about 5 years ago GW printed an article that explained their names from the discoveries of one Arhkan Land - thus making the name less about function and more about honourary titles).

Funnily enough, I find RU-55 less contrived than the other model numbers - it actually sounds like a modern tank name.

But yes, I do agree regarding Leman Russ (although similarly to the Land issue, there is some contention over whether it was named for him because of gratitude, or because he discovered the forge world that had the STC for the tank - one being meaningful, and the other being an ego trip) he is after all the Primarch of my favourite marine chapter.

However, that leaves me with the problem of coming up with a namethe tank was given BEFORE it was named for Leman Russ (maybe it was called the Lion El'Jonson - man would that piss off Russ!!)

Hellebore

[Brother Smith]

@hellebore- Your always going to get some one thats going to try to shoot you down for being creative.

"Sounds dumb" Yeah! Thats constructive criticism.

Avoiding the Strongholds as a name will help seperate these guys from the old squats. Most everything of the old Strongholds has been destroyed or abandoned.

I hate that attitude that if someone disagrees, then they must only be doing it because the other person is being creative, it's impossible for someone not to like a suggestion!

Well thanks for appreciating my opinion.

I disliked Corian because it doesn't sound right to me. So shoot me.

As for strongholds, we are talking pre-ingestion.

The Galactic core is HUGE. The Squat terrirtories were not significant enough to merit the moniker of 'Corian'.

[Brother Smith]

And squat sounds better? *snip*

I agree, I just dislike the sound of Corian. My humble opinion.

[Hellebore]

I agree, I just dislike the sound of Corian. My humble opinion.

Hey, no, thats fine

I wasn't trying to sound all huffy. Do you have any ideas (or support ones that already exist) for a replacement name?

All ideas that don't suck are welcome

Hellebore

[Brother Smith]

Hey, no, thats fine

I wasn't trying to sound all huffy. Do you have any ideas (or support ones that already exist) for a replacement name?

All ideas that don't suck are welcome

Hellebore

Clansmen would seem too anarchic and traditional to me, when we are trying to promote a technological and civlised culture in our redesign.

Corian seems out of place because the Leagues only took up at most 0.0001 of core space.

I would suggest an entirely new name, seperate from any older fluff or squat reference, as we are mving away from the extremely short nature of squats/dwarves. Something more human.

[MadDoc]

I've been watching this with interest and thought I might throw my opinion into the mix.

Let me preface this by stating, quite clearly, any criticism contained within the following opinions is directed at ideas, NOT their creators and any imagined offence taken by anyone is unintentional, in their head, and therefore their own problem.

First off, I don't like the name Corians either. It feels overly contrived, thats just how it feels to me.

Next I think if we're going to re-imagine the Squats, another name which I don't particularly like, then we need to at least try and embrace what GW has done to the Strongholds.

To address just what has supposedly happened:
The Tyranids have eaten them... Ok, so the Squat homeworlds were ravaged by Tyranid Hivefleets, that doesn't mean that they were all wiped out.

So what of the remnants... The Sqauts were always hard headed, stubborn little buggers. Some of the archetypes used for the good ol' Squats were ill concidered to say the least, I still shudder at the memories of Squat bikers and trikes. But the 'nids broke all the trikes and the bikers were left as a decoy so that the other (non flawed concept) Squats could scarper, at least thats the idea that helps stop my nightmares.

Being a little more serious for a second though, the Squats if they exist still would exist as little more than small mobile warbands. Imagine coterie of grizzled hard-bitten veterans following their tough as nails Leader. They hate aliens and all gribblies just like their Father, his Father, his Father's Father and his Father's Father's Father before him, stinking savage Orks, effete untrustworthy Eldar, but most of all those damn ravenous 'nids that broke the Strongholds wide open and scattered the Clans. Their lives a constant struggle to hold the remnants of their former lives together and get some payback on those damn gribblies.

I see the remnants of the Squats as being groups of disparate, bitter individuals clinging to the last remnants of their Society, too Stubborn to give up and angry at the Universe for the position they're now in. These newly formed Kindreds setting out to avenge themselves against the 'nids and anybody else stupid enough to get in their way.

For me this darker image is more in tune with the more Gothic re-imagining of 40k, "The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future" and all that.

We all want to move away from the cartoon/comic feel of the former Squats and the overt Dwarves in Space image.

Anyway thats my take on things... which turned into some what of a rant. My apologies.

[Easy E]

To address just what has supposedly happened:
The Tyranids have eaten them... Ok, so the Squat homeworlds were ravaged by Tyranid Hivefleets, that doesn't mean that they were all wiped out.

So what of the remnants... The Sqauts were always hard headed, stubborn little buggers.

I totally agree. The question was how did they survive? Did they survive by bundling up in their Strongholds and waiting for the Nids to leave? Did they drive them off in battle? This will determine how the survivors perceive themselves.

Some of the archetypes used for the good ol' Squats were ill concidered to say the least, I still shudder at the memories of Squat bikers and trikes. But the 'nids broke all the trikes and the bikers were left as a decoy so that the other (non flawed concept) Squats could scarper, at least thats the idea that helps stop my nightmares. .

I don't think the Bikes were so bad, as long as you put them in the proper context. Not every Squat rode a Bike or Trike. Only the Nobles and the Guild. To break that down further, I really only seeing Guildsman using Bikes, and mostly to travel the great wastes between Strongholds/Mines on the same world. The common squat had to ride in a Land Train. However, the Guild was suppose to be seperate, from the Stronghold culture. That leads me to wonder how the Guilds fare post Tyrannic Invasion?

Being a little more serious for a second though, the Squats if they exist still would exist as little more than small mobile warbands. Imagine coterie of grizzled hard-bitten veterans following their tough as nails Leader. They hate aliens and all gribblies just like their Father, his Father, his Father's Father and his Father's Father's Father before him, stinking savage Orks, effete untrustworthy Eldar, but most of all those damn ravenous 'nids that broke the Strongholds wide open and scattered the Clans. Their lives a constant struggle to hold the remnants of their former lives together and get some payback on those damn gribblies.

I see the remnants of the Squats as being groups of disparate, bitter individuals clinging to the last remnants of their Society, to Stubborn to give up and angry at the Universe for the position they're now in. These newly formed Kindreds setting out to avenge themselves against the 'nids and anybody else stupid enough to get in their way.

For me this darker image is more in tune with the more Gothic re-imagining of 40k, "The Grim Darkness Of The Far Future" and all that.

We all want to move away from the cartoon/comic feel of the former Squats and the overt Dwarves in Space image.

Anyway thats my take on things... which turned into some what of a rant. My apologies

I agree totally with this aspect. They would be rather bitter that no one tried to help them, and essentially left them for dead. Especially their erstwhile allies, the Imperium. That would mean that they had been betrayed by almost every major race at some point in their history. I would imagine they would be rather Xenophobic.

[Khaine's Messenger]

Will you all press to use the 'Brotherhood' as a 'unit' of force for the Corians? It just seems to be supremely emphasised with the Demiurg, yet it's not been mentioned once here...

The main problem, as I see it here, is that one reaches the problem one has with, say, the Dark Eldar and the Tau (and others)--the armylist becomes a portal to their society rather than serving as a representation of a mere facet of it, and a facet that isn't even a complete representation of their warmaking capabilities. In that sense, one must be careful of concentrating on "units of force."

True, since getting the tar beat out of them during the Great Betrayal (har-har), they'll probably be operating in small, autonomous groups more to 40k scale than any other society...but it's still something to keep in mind.

[MadDoc]

I totally agree. The question was how did they survive? Did they survive by bundling up in their Strongholds and waiting for the Nids to leave? Did they drive them off in battle? This will determine how the survivors perceive themselves.

The way I had envisioned things, I saw the defenders of the Strongholds fighting a desperate, and losing, rearguard action, the survivors being ultimately forced to flee. Thus further enhancing their bitterness and more deeply entrenching their natural unwillingness to give ground, or retreat.

I don't think the Bikes were so bad, as long as you put them in the proper context. Not every Squat rode a Bike or Trike. Only the Nobles and the Guild. To break that down further, I really only seeing Guildsman using Bikes, and mostly to travel the great wastes between Strongholds/Mines on the same world. The common squat had to ride in a Land Train. However, the Guild was suppose to be seperate, from the Stronghold culture. That leads me to wonder how the Guilds fare post Tyrannic Invasion?

Oh, don't get me wrong, its not the bikes and trikes I had a problem with its how they were imagined/implemented that bothered me. The whole Hells Angels Dwarves thing just didn't sit right with me. Rogue Trader had so many good things, and yet so many bad...

The Guilds would more than likely have faired well, having had the most direct access to the best tech and the ships to use to scarper. I would imagine that each new kindred would therefore have a reasonably strong Guild presence, it can't hurt to have in house Engineers and Traders to barter what you can't beat out of someone.

I agree totally with this aspect. They would be rather bitter that no one tried to help them, and essentially left them for dead. Especially their erstwhile allies, the Imperium. That would mean that they had been betrayed by almost every major race at some point in their history. I would imagine they would be rather Xenophobic.

Spot on. Thats exactly what I was picturing, as a result of what they've been through they've developed a rather magnanimous attitude towards the other races, they hate them all equally.

[Hellebore]

One thing though, is that you can't really ignore their culture 'pre-nids'.

That is, whilst they exist a certain way NOW, they didn't always. Basically what I'm saying is that what I envisage is a total reboot of the 'squats' - not just a "Well, all the dodgy stuff was around before the nids, but it sort of disappeared and this is what they are like now" type of reaction.

Thus whilst they would exist in a certain way NOW (depending on the parameters Easy E has set), you still have to create a society that produced the new paradigm.

So at the moment I've been mainly concentrating on PRE-nid 'squats'. But more than that, I want to actually reboot them in new 'vision' rather than just stick them back together like they used to be.

Easy E has in his signature a link to a thread he made about squats, but the one thing that stuck out the most was that they weren't really that different - the units, formations, and names were really just a 4th edition version of squats (this isn't necessarily BAD, but isn't what I want to do).

So I suppose I'm approaching this from GW's perspective - we've removed the squats because we failed to do the dwarfen archetype justice through perceived notions like biker dwarfs etal. So how do we reintroduce the SQUATS, without them BEING everything we decided sucked about squats?

This is how I'm looking at it; previous ideas and concepts didn't work, so how do you take those concepts, and mould them until they DO work, or throw them away and make new ones?

I've downloaded alot of squat fanlists on the internet, but they all seem to simply stick squats back into 40k as if they never left (a sort of "GW never got around to updating them to 40k, so here's a list" type mentality).

GW killed them off, and thus bringing them back unchanged or with slight changes isn't enough to 'GW' (me) that they deserve to be stuck back in.

So basically, I'm taking the major archetypes from the original squats and that's it.

Here's a list of the things I think are important, but don't convey biker dwarf syndrome (BDS):

• Human colonists
• Developed/engineered to be compact/tougher, more resilient
• Live in the Core on hunks of rock rich in minerals
• Economy dependent on mining
• Live in enclosed enclaves/stronholds/havens
• Are fairly clannish and insular
• Still possess alot of STC technology the Imperium lost
• Understand the workings of technology
• Have a professional soldiery (hearthguard)
• Possess more esoteric weaponry (quad launcher, mole mortar etc)
• All troops are conscripted/militia
• Use vehicles based on both marine and guard designs
• Have been constantly defending themselves against ork raids
• Unusual genetic anomally where psykers only present in old age
• Are fairly irreligious, but respect their ancestors, and honour them
• Was allied with the Imperium

These are fairly core to the design of the original squats, but they can easily be manipulated in such a way that the squats themselves don't turn out the same as their previous incarnation.

Of these, I am pushing the human and technology aspect the most. Corian was a national term used by themselves to differentiate between themselves and Imperials ie "I'm a human from the Core, he's a human from the Imperium."

Another term I came up with at Brother Smith's instigation was "Leaguer", someone from "The League".

So, I wish to redescribe the entire history of the leaguers, how they developed, their appearance, and their society right up until "The Age of Devestation" when the nids scoured their homeworlds.


As an aside, the whole nids thing, whilst GW canon, doesn't make much sense. NONE of the League worlds possessed any flora, fauna or any biological entities except the squats themselves.

So one must ask the question "How much of the League was actually destroyed?" This comes back to Easy E's two questions regarding the squat survival, but I'm looking at it from the nid perspective.

Why would you waste valuable resources attacking planets with a negligable biota when the costs far outweighed the gains?

The way I'm heading, the nids probably made a half hearted attack into the Core once they got there, but realising the slim pickings, they just left. This would have still caused a huge amount of damage and all the aforementioned bitterness, but it wouldn't have left them wandering vagabonds.

It would be another defeat in a long line of defeats ranging back to the Age of Strife. No wonder the leaguers dislike everyone

Hellebore

[Sgt Biffo]

I hate that attitude that if someone disagrees, then they must onlyI disliked Corian because it doesn't sound right to me. So shoot me.

As for strongholds, we are talking pre-ingestion.

The Galactic core is HUGE. The Squat terrirtories were not significant enough to merit the moniker of 'Corian'.

At the risk of starting a flame war;

I did appericiate you opinion, and this post shows that you had more to say in better words than just "sounds dumb". So why didn't you? Using such limited vocabulary and not giving reasons for your opinion (other than they "sound dumb") reflect poorly on yourself.

It is little suprise that you do not feel your gaining the respect you deserve when you do not express your opinion well.

[IncubiLord]

Random appearance by IncubiLord...

I will now offer another take on the whole thing:

Q: The Tyranids showed up and wiped out the Squats. Why?
A: Because Genestealer cults drew the Hive Fleet there, and once they've travelled such a great distance they must feed - even if the located biomass is only a snack.

By the time a Hive Fleet is in-system, it has to have a certain amount of attack-creatures up and ready in case there's resistance. Simply reabsorbing them is a considerable loss of energy, so they need to add some biomass.

Q: How did the Squats survive being swarmed by the 'Nids?
A: First of all, the Squats have not been as restricted to the core as some think. They have sent out expeditions of their own to find colony worlds, and many of these vessels were out of the area when the Tyranids ate the center of their society.

Secondly, when the Squats knew their fate was sealed they bundled up their children and Ancients onto whatever ships they could, sending them out to ensure the survival of the species. A group of these vessels disappeared in the Warp, but most made it out to new locales unscathed.

The Ancients and the children developed a different society with the removal of many formative elements this caused, but the core virtues remain.

Q: Why is the name Corians bad?
A: Because it just feels off, and when you say it out loud you may as well be saying Koreans.

You want to avoid anything that could be even mistakenly connected to a RL nationality when creating a fake one.

I'd be more interested in seeing something along the lines of Calirans, going off a shortened version of the suggested calx vir.

Q: Since the race is near extinction, what are they doing about this?
A: Being a group of abhumans, the Squats are likely to take in other humans and try to "breed true" so to speak, with a mixture of adding hi-grav-world humans (these are not squats, but they're closer than you and I) and ratlings to their genepool to maintain a their basic physiology.

Ogryn are probably welcome with the other heavy-worlders, and there may even be some experiments into combining Squat and Ogryn genetics (obviously a female Ogryn would have to be the surrogate if the two subspecies are compatible).

Now that I have stirred the pot, I shall sit back and see what boils to the surface...