Where do Space Wolf recruit from now?

[NightHowler]

Wow. I never realized how bad the fluff was on SW recruitment. 3.5 million people is not enough to recruit from, especially when you consider the distance, the failure rates, and the extremely small percentage that would make viable candidates anyways. Also, in such a small population the constant extraction of the most viable people from the breeding population would nullify any chance of recruitment within a few generations.

As caldersson said, we have a higher success rate, although I don't think it's quit as high as 12 out of 15.  

 

Additionally, it may seem counter intuitive, but we don't remove the most viable people.  Our Wolf Priests watch the battles that the tribes of Fenris fight over land and resources, and the collect those who fought well but were mortally wounded in battle.  Their wounds are healed and they are allowed to fully recover before the initiation.  So we really only remove candidates who had effectively died in battle and the population remains the same.  Somewhat reminiscent of the viking idea that those who die in combat going to Valhalla.  

 

The fight for resources typically happen in the brief summers when the seascape of Fenris changes, new islands are made, old islands sink, and battles break out over the remaining resources.  Given the orbit of Fenris, the winter is long and the summer is comparatively short, but I don't think we are given exact times.  I imagine in the minds of the original authors, the idea was that in the winters new children were born at a rate that the number of those who die in the battles of summer were replenished, giving the population a kind of homeostasis, but again exact numbers are never given as far as I know but we are told that Fenrisian children are taught to fight at a very young age (deathworld and all that).

 

The bottom line is that it is a work of fiction.  Debating whether or not the population can sustain recruitment is like arguing whether or not Gandalf's fireball could do enough damage to kill an Orc chieftain...   it's kind of silly really.  If the authors imply that the population can sustain it, then through fantasy/sci-fi magic it can.  At this point, I think the implication is that Fenris endures.

[Petitioner's City]

 

Wow. I never realized how bad the fluff was on SW recruitment. 3.5 million people is not enough to recruit from, especially when you consider the distance, the failure rates, and the extremely small percentage that would make viable candidates anyways. Also, in such a small population the constant extraction of the most viable people from the breeding population would nullify any chance of recruitment within a few generations.

 

Well math or logistics have never been a strong suit of GW's. 

 

 

But this was also a great point in one of Thorpe's DA novels in the heresy - Luther and Astelan are right about how the Imperium is stealing away the best of the genetic pool of their planet. It's nice when the setting addresses this somewhat self-harming act. 

[MaveriK]

A more interesting question would be, would Logan and Bjorn hold Crawl accountable for abducting Fenrisians in all that time. Would they even care? I just ask this since previous fluff always indicated SW to be highly protective of its own people...

[Jarl Caldersson]

A more interesting question would be, would Logan and Bjorn hold Crawl accountable for abducting Fenrisians in all that time. Would they even care? I just ask this since previous fluff always indicated SW to be highly protective of its own people...

 

They took recruits not natives. For all we know Russ authorized the project seeing them as a new weapon. Since when have we denied the use of better weapons? Sure the Primaris are codex bound with the UM's, but it doesn't mean SW primaris are codex bound. 

[MaveriK]

 

 

A more interesting question would be, would Logan and Bjorn hold Crawl accountable for abducting Fenrisians in all that time. Would they even care? I just ask this since previous fluff always indicated SW to be highly protective of its own people...

They took recruits not natives. For all we know Russ authorized the project seeing them as a new weapon. Since when have we denied the use of better weapons? Sure the Primaris are codex bound with the UM's, but it doesn't mean SW primaris are codex bound.

Huh interesting! I did not know they were recruited. So how many exactly (roughly)? Did it happen during the scourging or right after? From what I remember, we took heavy losses during the scourging. You'd think those recruits would have been a priority and needed for the chapter itself, instead of this crawl thing... yet nobody questioned where or what happened to all those recruits back then?

[Jarl Caldersson]

 

 

A more interesting question would be, would Logan and Bjorn hold Crawl accountable for abducting Fenrisians in all that time. Would they even care? I just ask this since previous fluff always indicated SW to be highly protective of its own people...

They took recruits not natives. For all we know Russ authorized the project seeing them as a new weapon. Since when have we denied the use of better weapons? Sure the Primaris are codex bound with the UM's, but it doesn't mean SW primaris are codex bound.

Huh interesting! I did not know they were recruited. So how many exactly (roughly)? Did it happen during the scourging or right after? From what I remember, we took heavy losses during the scourging. You'd think those recruits would have been a priority and needed for the chapter itself, instead of this crawl thing... yet nobody questioned where or what happened to all those recruits back then?

 

 

At the end of Dark Imperium it talks about how Felix had just graduated his recruitment school and was about to be sent to become a legionaire. Cawl then stops the ships and takes only Felix of the 15 boys. This would have taken place before girlyman had become a meatcicle and on his orders.

 

As for SW recruiting percentages in Leman Russ it talks about how Haldor pack graduated with 9 members, so much more decent than the BA where 500 selected and less than 50 survived the recruitment and even more killed during their implant process over a year.