Ash Waste Nomads

Beware the stalkers of the wastes — pitiless warriors who see all others on Necromunda as their hated foe. The Ash Waste Nomads are as numerous as they are hostile, and throughout Necromunda’s long history have struck terror into any who dared travel the wastelands unprepared. Just as many of their foes have been cut down fleeing in panic as have chosen to stand and fight. The nomads craft their weapons from the reclaimed equipment scavenged from their enemies and clad themselves in robes and rebreathers so not an inch of their skin is visible, and no one truly knows what lies beneath. These could be a lost, ancient line of people; yet the nomads could just as easily have shed the remains of their humanity millennia ago — assuming they were ever human to begin with…

Rarely do the prey of the Ash Waste Nomads see them coming. These hunters will lie for hours even in harsh ash storms, cloaked in their flowing ‘haaz’arn’ robes that grant both protection and camouflage. Once an ill-fated road gang, mercator convoy or caravan troupe rolls close enough, the nomads strike seemingly from nowhere with rifles, knives and toxins. Should their own number fall, their bodies are never discovered — it is unclear if dead nomads are reclaimed, or whether they ever truly die in the first place.

The Ash Waste Nomads will ruthlessly target anything and anyone within the expanses of the wastes. It is clear that they view everything on the planet’s surface as their own — the only reason they have rarely, if ever, terrorised uphive territories is likely only due to them being out of easy reach. Those traders moving between hives and duster settlements must always carry enough firepower to gun down an entire company, and only travel in good weather. Nomad raiders, however, appear unperturbed by even the most ferocious of storms and use the cover they provide to strike suddenly and pick off gangs many times their size, often with no casualties of their own. The tribes of the wastelands have been studied as much as is possible, with several works created about them. However, little is verifiable and much is mere speculation — but there are known to be large groups within the Great Equatorial Wastes between Hive Primus and Cinderak City, as well as within the toxic desolation stretching between the Palatine and Mynerva Clusters.

There is nothing more nightmarish to a duster than a tribe of Ash Waste Nomads. Though this is partially due to the latter’s prowess at fighting within Necromunda’s unfavourable atmosphere, it is also in no small part due to the near total lack of proven knowledge about them, despite their existence stretching back millennia. They wear clothes so thick that whatever lies beneath is obfuscated, and many believe that even if they were once human, they may have since transformed into something entirely different. Paired with a mixture of scavenged weapons and those of a far more deadly, unknowable design, the nomads are formidable foes that can break enemy morale just by appearing on the horizon.

There is so little information available about the nomads that every iteration of their origin is pure speculation. The only proven fact is that the nomads predate the rise of the first Helmawrs, and have been around at least since the Imperium first blasted Necromunda to ash and brought it into their fold. One of the most popular theories holds they were a slave caste of the Iron Lords, broken from their bonds upon the fall of the first Aranthians at the Imperium’s hands, and that they now stalk the wastes, filled with hatred for all that came after. Another casts the nomads as the descendants of Necromunda’s original citizens, and the Iron Lords as their rulers, rather than their masters. In this story, their hatred is primarily for Lord Helmawr, and they will stop at nothing to cripple his power and slaughter his subjects in revenge. One thing is for certain — the nomads show hostility to all but their own.

The major tribes of the Ash Waste Nomads often have two recorded names: one overheard in what historians can only assume is their native tongue; and a rough translation into Low Gothic, the standard language of the Imperium. The Tsun’ghar are the largest tribe to have been sighted, and are named in Enforcer reports as the Grey Waste Walkers. Others include the Baak’hau, known colloquially as the Oilrun Stalkers, or the Urh’nag, also called the Dustwall Crawlers for their prowling of the Secundus Exclusion Zone.

The power structure of a tribe is not fully understood. However, each one is theorised to have a leader who embodies the spirit the tribe worships. There is a different spirit — and therefore leader — of each tribe, which personifies different elements of the dead planet’s landscape. More strangely, each spirit demonstrates a strange power over the element they represent. No one truly knows whether this is a psychic phenomenon or if some ancient technology is at work. The Baak’hau, for example, dwell near the Poison Sea and have been sighted following a figure known as the Sump Spirit, who drips with poisonous slag and can manipulate the slick filth of the sea. The Ka’toka, or Leadsky Seers, reside on the edge of the Irradium Oceanus, where great storms are common and frequently devastating. Their Great Spirit is the Storm Dancer, a warrior clad in fluttering rags and robes who can control the savage winds of Necromunda. Very few have gone up against an ash waste spirit and have lived to tell the tale.