This is a hot one! GW just teased what may be the return of Squats in 40k Psychic Awakening’s Pariah. Could this be a red herring or is it happening?
Spotted on Imgur, we’ve got a snapshot of the Squat’s story in Psychic Awakening. We’ll be taking a look at that first and then weighing some past moves GW has done with teasers in the Echoes of Awakening short stories in Psychic Awakening. Could there be something to it?
Reset the Clock: GW Just Teased Squats in Pariah!
Be sure to read this excerpt for yourself. Essentially, there’s some kind of Imperial ship that is getting pulled in by a weaponized gravitational field. Note that they’re in a sector called 47-Grendel and oddly enough, we’ve seen a Necromunda Squat model named Grendl Grendlsen (this may or may not be a coincidence).
Now, talking about the gravitational field, we know that Squats (while they were canon) lived in worlds that had gravitational pulls two-to-three times stronger than that of Earth’s. While Squats have been considered extinct by Imperial scholars- you’ll find that in the lore a few Squats still inhabit Terra and other Imperial worlds. But for the most part, a planet purely inhabited by Squats is thought to be non-existent. The guy in the story is having his mind blown by the fact of what he’s seeing because the Imperium taught him that there’s no way Squats could be alive with their own planet, much less a whole starship.
Finally, this biggest cliff hanger of all ends with “That (v)essel belongs to Squa(ts)…”
You can read even more about the Squats on the 40k Wiki, but some more interesting talking points are the fact that the Mechanicus would routinely test new wargear ideas on them. They also had their own STCs dating back to the times of the Horus Heresy. Last but not least, some even turned Chaos.
So is This a Red Herring or Could There Be Something More?
Gw’s name-dropping of characters and factions in Psychic Awakening has been all over the place. Names that ARE mentioned have actually turned up later in the form of rules or models. With that said, we also saw GW tease the Death Guard in Psychic Awakening’s The Greater Good which turned out to be a complete Red Herring that the community roasted them for.
HOWEVER, we’ve also seen plenty of other stories mentioned characters early on, which did release with their own model.
We saw an Emperor’s Children fleet mentioned interacting with the Aeldari. We later saw Fabius Bile’s model and rules support drop.
Daemonifuge
Spotted back in Blood of the Phoenix was a female in black power armor with a white shock of hair, who was accompanied by an Eldar with two long blades on his back. The female was said to possess a psychic aura so powerful it stung the mind, which is a perfect description of the old duo which we have since seen get models in Pariah.
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The Silent King
Even the return of the Silent king was teased in the Echoes of Awakening back in PA: Faith and Fury.
The interrogation of an Astropath looks to have led to the small poem in bold at the bottom. The King on his Throne, Gold, Old & Bold sound like he could be the Emperor.
But this is probably a teaser for the Silent King Szarekh coming to 40k. He is also old as dirt, and when Dante met the Silent King a long time ago, he saw the Silent King wearing a golden mask to pay ode to Sanguinius. The Silent King also said he knew Sanguinius, which is neat.
The Jury Is Still Out on Fulgrim
Spotted in multiple books and excerpts from the Psychic Awakening series, there has been a winged serpentine horror stalking the shadows of space and cutting Imperial forces down. It describes Fulgrim right down to his weapons. Although we’ve seen him pop up here and there for a while, we still don’t know if this is a slow build-up to his eventual release or if this is just throwing Emperor’s Children players a lore bone.
If that description sounds familiar it may be because you may remember the last (small) Daemon Fulgrim model from the 1990s. Modeled on a 25mm base, this epic scale mini’s four arms were equipped with three swords and a whip.
Epic Scale Fulgrim miniature on 25mm base (circa 1992).
This is at least the second time we’ve seen Fulgrim, or a creature matching his description, wantonly slaughtering guardsmen in 8th edition 40k lore:
What we’re trying to say here is that it’s a toss-up if GW will give support to the characters and factions that are teased in short stories. While Death Guard turned up in one book, they didn’t actually get their support until a few books later. On top of that, Ephrael was mentioned in the first book of Psychic Awakening and didn’t make an appearance until the very last one.
Overall, only time will tell if any weight is behind this Squats story…
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Would you like to see Squats make a big splash back into the 40k scene? Could the Necromunda model be a “test” for a full army range of Squats? If GW brings back Sisters in the way that they did, could Squats also get the same treatment?
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About the Author: Rob Baer
