Algae
Algae can be found all across the worlds of the Imperium. Huge quantities of sludgy plant-matter is commonly grown in industrial-scale vats. Once processed, algae provides a plentiful - if foul-tasting - source of nutrition for the burgeoning Imperium.[1]
Overview
Industrial algae farms can be found on a variety of different world classifications, mostly notably on Agri Worlds or worlds with hive cities. Juves who grow up in algae farms spend most of their formative years cleaning out foul smelling algae vats and pipes, rarely seeing the world outside of their vast synthi-complexes.[1]
Algae slop rations are primarily eaten by lower classes, such as hive labourers and menials. It is generally unpalatable, but the right recipes or flavouring can make it almost enticing.[2a] In the putrid swamps of algae fields on some worlds, enormous tardigrades thrive and are farmed for their meat.[2b]
Some hive cities use algae scrubbers to clean air, ensuring the respective hive has breathable air. These could be tall structures have pipes stretching throughout the hive. Clean air is sent upwards throughout the hive while chemical waste rains on the hive's lower levels.[2c]
Some Ice Worlds, such as Arrajian II, have glacial seas thick with algae where mile-wide blocks are las-cut from the frozen expanses and transported to other worlds for sustenance.[3] Other ice worlds, like Perborea, have red algae blooms from the little sunlight that reaches its surface.[4]
Trivia
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Algae is an informal term for any photosynthetic organisms that are not land plants. The term algae includes species from multiple distinct clades.
Sources
- 1: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide: Character Creation, Homeworlds: Rocyria & Pavane, Childhood: Algae Farmer
- 2: Imperium Maledictum: Rokarth:
- 3: Codex: Genestealer Cults (9th Edition), pg. 14
- 4: Adeptus Mechanicus: Skitarius (Novel), 0001
