Ironhead Squats

Necromunda has been a carcass of a planet for millennia, stripped of its life, resources and even its waste run-off. Yet still toil the Squats of the Ironhead Mining Clans, who seem to have a knack for finding rare deposits within even the barest excavation sites. These are hardy abhumans that have long lived outside Imperial rule, instead bound by Charters penned millennia ago. They travel where they please in their great land trains, solely focused on accumulating wealth and resources. Whether their convoys are heading to pastures new or back to their ancestral holds, the Squats meet any who stand in their way with heavy gunfire, lasers and mining tools. It is rare to see the Squats take to the hives, for they eschew the cities of Man in favour of their long-held freedoms — yet where their Ironhead expeditions can be found in the underhive, treasures of great interest are undoubtedly nearby.

To face the Ironhead Clans of the Squats is akin to facing down a solid wall of impenetrable armour. They move with disciplined practice to meet the threats Necromunda offers, laying down gunfire with heavy bolters and cannon until their opponents are ash at their feet. Rarely are these sturdy miners seen within the confines of the hive cities, for they make their homes within the punishing atmosphere of the ash wastes.

Squat Prospectors are renowned for their mining prowess — so much so that they are more readily tolerated than other abhumans on Necromunda due to the output of their industry. Having come to Necromunda millennia ago, shortly after the planet was reduced to ash and dust, they brought with them invaluable off-world skills and the determination to unlock the planet’s potential. Their mining techniques produce outputs rivalling that of House Orlock, and are able to syphon valuable chemicals from run-off slurry located kilometres below the earth. Their ability to find these ancient deposits is unmatched and allows the Squats a seemingly endless source of wealth. On the rare occasion they are challenged by other mining gangs over their excavation sites, they are quick to brandish their Charters: ancient contracts, conceived upon the race’s arrival, that grant them exclusive ownership over the seams of refuse they find.

The first Squats forged the Great Charters with the Imperium, offering great aid to Necromunda’s development. Whilst Squats can be found throughout the planets of the Imperium, those who settled upon Necromunda were originally known as the Urlish. It is not fully known why their leader, Oryith Ironeye, chose to take the Confederation of Urlish to Necromunda, but a popular Squat tale tells of a bet made against her by the leaders of another confederation — that even her expert miners could not turn a profit on the dying planet of Necromunda.

Whether wanting to prove a point or just sensing untapped wealth, the Urlish, aboard thirteen clan vessels, crossed the galaxy to Necromunda and met with the then Planetary Governor Lord Vargas, seeking permission to mine. Luckily for Oryith, Necromunda was desperately trying to rebuild after orbital bombardments had destroyed its land following a xenos invasion and the Imperium’s civil war. Lord Vargas wished to establish himself as the hero that rebuilt the planet and issued exclusive mining rites in the form of the Great Charters to the Urlish, in exchange for their terraforming services. Thus did the Squats settle on the planet, taking apart their vessels and reforming them into what would become their ancestral holds, to serve as their bases of operation.

Though the Squats of the 41st Millennium are miners by trade, those who arrived with the first of their number were also engineers and inventors. It was they who erected the poles capable of syphoning high quantities of carbon dioxide from Necromunda’s toxic atmosphere, allowing the ash wastes to be traversed with a degree of safety and reducing the frequency of ash storms on the planet’s surface. Hive Primus doubled in size during these early centuries as the Squats expanded Lord Vargas’ seat of power. Other wonders of their creation include the ancient mag-lev railways and the Great Ash Road, the latter of which is still, to this day, a vital trade route between the hives.

In total there are twelve ancestral holds upon Necromunda. For reasons lost to time, those who had boarded the thirteenth Urlish ship departed, possibly due to friction with the Squats’ first leader. The other holds became sprawling underground bastions formed of both ancient ships and carved rock. Each is ruled by a Charter Lord, named for the Great Charters bestowed by Necromunda’s Planetary Governor Vargas. However, the Squats rarely dwell for too long in these holds — time spent inside is time wasted that could be used to ply their trade. They return to their holds only during the worst storms of the Season of Ash and spend the rest of their time travelling in great land trains, snaking across the continent in search of rich refuse seams. When the Squats are not on the move, their vehicles circle quarries in formations known as laagers, creating a defensive wall to allow their inhabitants to work the ground below.

Though most duster gangs are kept at bay by the legal claims of the Squats’ Charters — or, more accurately, the heavy firepower lurking behind them — the Squats have found no enemy so tenacious as the lawless Ash Waste Nomads. These mysterious raiders considered the wastes their home long before the Squats arrived, and their fury at the miners’ presence is matched only by the Squats’ determination to evict them. War frequently breaks out between the Squats and nomads, leaving battlefields in the wastes scarred by explosives, gunfire and impenetrable toxic fog.