Ogryns

Ogryns are a mutant offshoot of humanity, classified as Homo sapiens gigantus, evolved on cold, barren, high-gravity worlds such as Anark Zeta. Many of these were once prison colonies, cut off from the rest of Mankind by the warp storms of the Age of Strife, where brutal gravity and harsher still conditions bred a subspecies of enormous size and resilience.

A fully grown Ogryn stands around three metres tall, and its hide is so thick that it can shrug off injuries that would kill an ordinary Guardsman several times over. They are prodigiously strong and utterly, childishly loyal, but their intellect is so limited that their role in war must be kept simple and direct: to charge, to smash, and to endure.

In Imperial service they are issued the ripper gun, an oversized automatic shotgun rugged enough to survive an Ogryn's handling and fitted with a burst limiter to stop its bearer from happily emptying it in one endless salvo. The weapon serves equally as a firearm and a bludgeon. Deployed as shock troops of the Militarum Auxilla, Ogryns are hurled at enemy strongpoints and lines to break them by main force. Their simple courage and devotion to the officers who lead them make them living battering rams, and steadying anchors for the mortal soldiers who fight alongside them.