Admittedly, a lot of kroot are mercenaries, and they really like finding new and useful genetics. “We pay you in exotic cloned flesh, and you’ll enthusiastically cooperate with and assist our bioengineers” seems a very likely outcome once the initial cultural and linguistic issues are sorted out. Given that kroot can read a lot of genetic data by taste, I predict at least one kroot shaper/esseli bioengineer friendship rapidly blooming to Mad Science levels enough for their allies to clear their throats pointedly.
Kroot culture does have some issues with empathy for non-kroot and aggression, but sophantologists may conclude a good chunk of that is the environment they’re stuck in. They have a well known sense of honour and when they make a bargain they stick to it, even to the point of killing their own kin for violations. So while they might not be immediate candidates for joining the Empire, they’d at least fit in just fine with the Worlds and honestly their planet of Pech may be one of the few suitable for a satrapy. Introduce them to the kaeth and give the memeticists some time to work and the kroot would likely be off the People Who Need To Be Dealt With list entirely.
Here’s the thing about the 40K universe that I keep trying to explain to critics.
It is fundamentally fucked up. Not “oh, we’re dealing in satire/irony” kind of fucked up (which it is, mind you), but “the very superstructure of reality is one bad day away from having a divide-by-zero error and collapsing into nothingness” kind of fucked up.
Earliest consistent history of the 40K universe is the War In Heaven. Which happened because the Old Ones were utter assholes to the Necrontir, who declared war against a force they could never beat, who later made a devil’s bargain with the Old Ones enemies…
…forcing the Old Ones to strain the very firmament of the Warp, and when the War In Heaven was over, the Eldar created gods to Do Things in the Warp and deal with the Three Chaos Powers.
Meanwhile, you have humanity at it’s height in the Dark Age of Technology. The only other races with the tech to be considered peers to DAoT humanity were the Eldar at their height, the Old Ones, and maybe the Necrons. When they considered Baneblades and Titans to be planetary defense weapons, their warships considered time-distorition weapons that would literally rewind time to ensure a round hit as a light weapon, there is an issue.
Unfortunately, the Eldar proceeded to squick a fourth Chaos God into existence, and in the process the DAoT humanity fell into the Age of Strife(1).
And Then The Master Of Mankind Happened.
Short version-the Master of Mankind thought he was playing three-D chess against opponents who were playing three-D poker with marked cards and cheating, destroying his plans utterly. Which resulted in the lovely universe that we have today, where there are parts of the Imperium where time itself is malfunctioning. Where if you build an AI powerful enough to recover anything along the lines of Dark Age of Technology capability, something from the Warp will get inside it sooner than later. You have to be ignorant, because it is entirely possible to be strong…but very fragile to the seduction of the Ruinous Powers, no matter how well they think they are protected(2). Your only defense on average is not knowing anything-and keeping others from knowing anything.
It’s great for a wargame, because there’s always a reason for everyone to trying to sincerely kill each other.
Progress? Improvements? Not going to happen, or it’s going to require divine-level intervention of some kind. And there are almost no friendly deitites in the 40K universe.
(1-Theory of mine that I’ve had is that the Men of Gold and Men of Silver and Men of Iron set things up to fail the way they did because they suspected what was going to happen, and gave humanity a deliberately crippled tool-set that could save them, but it wouldn’t destroy them. Other things might end them, but not their technology.)
(2-Every person can be seduced, if you know how to get to them. The world is full of marks to a well-trained con artists, and sometimes it is the kindest of things that will damn you…)
That really lets the dwellers therein off too easily.
The so-called Ruinous Powers are born from reflections of thoughts and emotions imprinted on the Warp. All thoughts and emotions. In theory, they have positive aspects. Tzeentch, god of hope and ambition, for example. Khorne, lord of honor and justice. Nurgle, who loves you just as you are. Etc. In theory.
So, why, in practice, are they so fuckin’ Ruinous?
Because within delta epsilon of every mortal organization in the entire 40K galaxy is set up to promote malevolent, backstabbing bags of dicks, and have been for the entire history of ever. The Ruinous Powers are only Ruinous because their emofood comes out of a giant awful-people cesspool. There may be a positive feedback loop involved, but it’s one that could still be choked off tomorrow by the Great Intra-Galactic Anti-Douchebaggery Accord. Instead, everyone thinks they can solve their problems by becoming even worse.
(And this is why the only people close to worth a damn therein are the bioweapon, the devouring swarm, the omnicidal maniacs, and the race with minimal warp presence.)
