Whole Zoats

By Graeme Davis

Dave Rohrbach wondered:

Just out of curiosity, have Zoats been used in any of the WRPG books? They seem to be the "forgotten race".

I'd call them more the "stricken from memory race." Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin...

One day, when WFRP was very, very young, Bryan Ansell came into the office with a pencil sketch of this new race he'd created, which he called Zoats. The idea, he said, was to give Warhammer a race which was distinctively its own, and characterized the game as much as the Broo had characterized Runequest. None of us really like Zoats, so he challenged us to come up with something else that would do the job. Jes Goodwin and I came up with Fimir, but Zoats still had to stay. It's good to own the company.

Zoats were briefly introduced in WFB (3rd ed, I think) and 40K (as slaves of the Tyranids, IIRC), but somehow, they never really stuck. I can't recall them being used in any published material apart from army lists, and I doubt they'll be in any future edition of any of the three games.

Just put it down to natural selection - or at least, commercial selection.

Graeme

Claycle's Comments It's a pity about the Zoats, though I can understand why they failed to be identified with WFRP like RQ Ducks or Broos (although, WFRP Beastman are pretty much sexually-neutralized Broo). I asked Herr Nitpicker about Zoats and he said, though he has never encountered them, they do, or did, exist. He further supported the ideas stated on the list that Zoats are the longest living natural race on the Old World, with lifespans measured in thousands of years, making them seem practically immortal. They are also only fertile for a very short period of their lifespan, and thus do not reproduce rapidly. Herr Nitpicker estimates that only a few thousand Zoats are alive in the entire Old World today.

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