Squats are a race of humanoids who colonized the
worlds close to the centre of the galaxy. They are part of the earliest
human expansions into space, long before the emergence of the Emperor. Each
of the planets colonised bears a striking resemblance to the next; dark,
bleak and with high gravity. The planets are rocky and barren with little (if
any) animal or planet life. The atmospheres are either thin or non-existant,
and those planets with atmospheres are blasted by tremendous storms. The
main attraction of these planets is their rich mineral wealth. The heavy
mining and violent storms caused the populations to develop an underground
society and culture centred around the machines they use to work the mines
and keep them alive. They soon found that a compact build and stocky
appearance was best for the job. This was where the similarites between the
humans and Squats ended, for they quickly became short with a powerful build
and an aptitude for mechanics. Some say the real history of the Squats
begins in the Age of Strife when the worlds were cut off from Terra by
violent storms, but their history begins much earlier during the Dark Age of
Technology, or as the Squats call it, the Age of Founding.