Brontian Longknives

A typical Brontian, loaded with more than a hundred pounds of blades and about 10 pounds of armor. Reenactments of the "No, THIS is a knife" scene of Crocodile Dundee can go back and forth for hours between Brontians.

"I am not anti-gun. I'm pro-knife. Consider the merits of the knife. In the first place, you have to catch up with someone in order to stab him. A general substitution of knives for guns would promote physical fitness. We'd turn into a whole nation of great runners. Plus, knives don't ricochet. And people are seldom killed while cleaning their knives."

– Molly Ivins

"Yeah, little bit of pain never hurt anybody. Also, I think knives are a good idea. Big, fuck-off shiny ones. Ones that look like they could skin a crocodile. Knives are good, because they don't make any noise, and the less noise they make, the more likely we are to use them. Shit 'em right up. Makes it look like we're serious. Guns for show, knives for a pro."

– Soap from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.

An Imperial Guard legion with lots of knives, who originate from the RPG Only War. They come from the Hive World of Bront, located within the Golgenna Reach Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. Not that that means anything, to be honest. Even though it's a hive-world with loads of violence, they're pretty self-disciplined. If you couldn't tell by their name, they really, really like knives. Like, a fucking LOT. They prefer to use knives over their flashlights, like...really fuckhuge 'knives' that can give a Catachan's Devil's Claw a run for its money, and they give themselves ritual scars and shit and wear them proudly.

History

Bront is, as most worlds of its ilk, extremely violent, though it possesses a level of order and discipline that is unusual for a Hive World. Bront was founded a decade after the end of the Angevin Crusade as a reward for the 33rd Army Group, which was the final force to demobilize. While they didn't start off as a Hive World, Bront was swiftly industrialized and became one within a thousand or so years of its founding. Bront's populace is made up of the descendants of countless thousands of Imperial Guardsmen and their families who were drawn from dozens of different worlds, who had been brought together by the shared experience of conflict. Aww.

It is worth noting that the Imperium bothered bringing their families to Bront from the Guardsmen's many homeworlds. Quite shocking and possibly the most impressive thing about this world, really.

Culture

The population of Bront has strong traditions of military discipline and ancestral ties to the Imperial Guard, with old regimental groups forming a system similar to clans. These clans form the heart of Brontian society, maintaining ancient traditions from their ancestors' distant homeworlds and giving them a deep sense of loyalty and duty to the God-Emperor and its people. The military tradition of Brontian culture also ensures that the clans work damn hard to be ready to defend the Imperium as their ancestors once did. Disputes between clans are resolved through ritualized mass battles, favoring an assortment of blades over pistols, rifles, and other ranged weapons. These blades can range from conventional knives to fuckhuge broadswords. They could be compared to Scots or Celts with the aesthetic of a mall-ninja knife collector's self-image.

Take a close look at what type of planet Bront is again, that's right, it's not feral, it's not tribal, it's a hive world. Brontians may look like savages but in fact they're quite civilized, they just can't resist any opportunity to say either "now this is a knife" or "wanna know how I got these scars?" Brontians are highly disciplined and thanks to clan/gang conflicts on their homeworld they have a solid understanding of urban warfare.