What Are Hruds?

[The_Giant_Mantis]

The creatures in the second photo aren't Hrud. That is just a piece of artwork Giant_Mantis really liked from the same book.

Yeah.. Sorry.. That's the floating ball thingies which attack people with psychically conjured darkness. Forget the name.. I just like the sense of motion in that one.

Doesn't look like the sort of alien that would develop advanced technology, let alone space travel, or even use it at all. They look very brutal and mindless, like some kind of death-world monster or like some type of Tyranid.

Why associate ugliness with stupidity? Sure, it won't be winning any beauty contests, but why should that hinder its ability to develop and use technology?.

Why assume highly advanced races would be aesthetically pleasing? Hrud are scavengers.. They live in the cast off wreckage of other civilizations. They've got to be tough and resiliant creatures to survive, if just because some of the environments they might have to live in would kill humans rapidly.

I am a person who prefers the old picture of Hrud. Little jawas, with thin tails, crazy weapons, and you could never see it's face. The new picture looks quite... dumb. Sorry, but that 'thing' is never going to sneak on an Imperial ship and become a nomad.

To be honest.. I think space rats have far less chance of doing that. What are they going to do, cover their faces and pretend to be humans.

The point with that version of the Hrud is that they aren't just sneaky, they're virtually invisible except as a strange ripple effect in the air or patch of ambient darkness in the wrong place. Since Imperial ships tend to be dark and oppressive places, you'd probably never spot such a creature even if it moved through the living spaces rather than hiding in the ventilation et al.

I agree it looks slightly.. wierd.. but wierder than space rats?

[Calixtus]

I have recently created a blog to display the fluff and rules I have created for the Hruds. Please visit it and comment on it.

Codex: Warhammer

[Zarak]

Yeah.. Sorry.. That's the floating ball thingies which attack people with psychically conjured darkness. Forget the name.. I just like the sense of motion in that one.

They are the Umbra, which is an appropriate name for them, since umbra is the word for the darkest and most complete part of shadows. Was an awesome picture, I agree, and not just because those Space Marines are about to be in a world of hurt (though Space Marines in trouble is always a good thing). Brilliant contrast.

As for Hrud, I worry that if they become space rats, they will always kinda live in the shadow of, and be compared to, their WFB counterparts. The Xenology Hrud at least have the unique feel about them.

[Jaffar_Hasad]

I have recently created a blog to display the fluff and rules I have created for the Hruds. Please visit it and comment on it.

Codex: Warhammer

Please please please stop thread hijacking and advertising. We get it, you wrote a codex, we knew from your first post. Your stuff is rules development, which was ok, but your second post was the same thing + a link to your page. We get it, now stop that and start being useful.

I could see rats in cloaks with light bending, but not grotesque piles of crap with a spine bending light. The art is cool, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather see it on another race, not a stealthy one.

[The_Giant_Mantis]

I could see rats in cloaks with light bending, but not grotesque piles of crap with a spine bending light. The art is cool, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather see it on another race, not a stealthy one.

Explain.. Why does a race have to be ratlike to remain stealthy?

Two components to stealth.

1. Not being seen.

2. Moving quietly

Both races have number one.. Rats actually don't have number 2, as you'll know if you've ever lived in a house with them.

[Calixtus]

Well the least you could do is actually respond, so that I know you heard me the first time. Anyway I came to post on this blog just to get ppl like you who are interested in the Hruds to read my fluff and rules and comment on them. SO PLEASE go ahead to my blog and do that. You will know what sort of Hruds I prefer once you go and see for yourselves, and maybe it will convince you that the Hruds of my liking is the one to be.

[Zarak]

I personally didn't reply to your posts on this topic, because while your codexes do have a lot of fluff in them, and would not be derailing the topic, you already have them being discussed in several topics on the rules development forum. I felt that it would have been redundant to reply here, when your fluff and rules were posted elsewhere (I was slowly reading through your thorough fluff and rules in my spare time, and was planning on replying when I finished).

I have no problem with you actually bringing up points that you make in your codexes about how and why Hrud do this or that. However, simply pointing people in the direction of your codexes isn't going to make them think about responding here. You want them to respond here, you have to give them something HERE to respond to, in my opinion.

[Dawnrunner]

Why associate ugliness with stupidity? Sure, it won't be winning any beauty contests, but why should that hinder its ability to develop and use technology?.

Why assume highly advanced races would be aesthetically pleasing? Hrud are scavengers.. They live in the cast off wreckage of other civilizations. They've got to be tough and resiliant creatures to survive, if just because some of the environments they might have to live in would kill humans rapidly.

It's not aesthetics, it's biology. First off, if I were to judge the two proposed Hrud appearances on attractiveness, neither of them would be getting any prizes. Second, that so-called Hrud in the picture has massive claws for hands, clearly built for nothing but ripping, tearing, and killing. I severely doubt that something like that could manipulate minute circuitry or connect small wires or whatever with such massive claws. Think about it: all the races that develop technology, like humans, Tau, and Eldar, have appendages that are dextrous and proportioned so that they can piece together delicate and complex components. Even an Ork's hands are not built solely for warmaking. But would you ask a Genestealer to tinker with the innter workings of a plasma pistol or reconfigure an auspex? Such a bestial thing wouldn't be able to develop technology. Evolution grants either size and physical power, or intelligence and adaptibility; usually not both.

And besides, when that thing is as big and powerful as it is, why in the world would it need technology for anything? At least with the "Space Skaven" idea there's an excuse for the use of technology. They're weak and puny, so they use guns and technological weapons to help them survive and get the jump on bigger and stronger opponents. They might even use the technology to aid them in being so sneaky--shadow fields, sound dampeners, and suchlike. But I really don't think that the creature in that picture would care about or even know how to use anything more advanced than a huge rock. It wouldn't even have to. As I said, it's too bestial.

[Wolf Lord Herby]

An assassin-brood of three Slaan is mentioned in Dan Abnett's Gaunt's Ghosts series, and there's quite a good picture of one in the 4th ed. rulebook (gotta get used to referring to it like that, it's gonna be old news all too soon...and I liked the cover so much, too!). They use a type of powerful flechette shotgun built into a rudimentary servo-harness, with poison on the flechettes. Their clammy skin changes color to reflect their emotions, and they use their keen sense of smell to hunt their prey. They're described as smelling like a nauseating combination of crushed mint and old milk.

I'm sure they're the Loxatl, and I'm fairly sure they're different to Slaani as in the Xenos section of the 4th Gen. Rulebook, there's a picture of a Slaani and then a box-out for the Loxatl.

[Calixtus]

Well put Dawnrunner. That thing doesn't look Hrud in the first place. A Hrud would be much cooler if it was an intelligent rodent-like species that appeared like rats. Just imagine in your head. In fact the picture of that thing makes me wonder how it even could stand up on two legs. It looks like it will fall apart any minute.