Corpse-Starch (also rendered Corpse Starch or Starch-of-Man) is a artificial ration produced from the processed remains of the dead across countless Hive Worlds of the Imperium of Man. Though first made infamous by the forges and vaults of Necromunda, similar methods have been employed on any world where population density and famine make the recycling of the dead a grim necessity.
Overview
In the Imperium’s endless hives, where billions crowd in eternal twilight, food scarcity is a permanent condition. Conventional agriculture cannot sustain such masses, and so the Departmento Munitorum and the Merchant Guilds sanction the reclamation of organic material from the dead. These remains are rendered down into a grey, protein-dense paste known as Corpse-Starch, later pressed into loaves, biscuits, or nutrient blocks.
To most citizens of the Underhive, Corpse-Starch is simply food. Its taste is described as flat, saline, faintly metallic—a flavor so universal that to complain of it is considered near-heresy. On many worlds, open disgust toward the rations is punishable by consignment to penal servitude, for to reject the Imperium ’s bounty, no matter its form, is to reject the God-Emperor himself.
The rations are distributed to the lower classes of Hive Cities, to penal battalions, and even to the Astra Militarum in sieges or long campaigns. In many manufactoria, “starch rations” are synonymous with “meal,” and the line between sustenance and sacrament blurs: consuming the flesh of Imperial citizens becomes a literal act of communal survival.
Collection and Processing
The Corpse Guilds (Mercator Pallidus in High Gothic) maintain monopoly over the reclamation of the dead. On Necromunda and other hives, their Corpse Harvesting Parties scour mass graves, battlefields, plague zones, and mortuary vaults under the supervision of Pale Consorts and their Bone Scrivener attendants.
Once bodies are deemed suitable, they are stripped of valuables, tagged with purity seals, and delivered to Corpse-Starch Manufactoria. The process typically follows these stages:
- Separation:
At the site of collection, the Grinders cleanse and section the corpses using portable mechanical augers. Viscera and bodily fluids are diverted into sealed processing vats, while skeletal remains are kept intact for later recovery. This field-level disassembly reduces contamination and eases transport from plague-ridden zones. - Enzymatic Reduction:
Within the manufactoria, the collected organic matter is subjected to catalytic enzyme baths that dissolve soft tissues while leaving the bones whole for recycling. The result is a nutrient-rich slurry—sterilized, filtered, and stripped of biological identity. - Refinement:
The slurry is dehydrated and sterilised through heat and radiation, removing pathogens and excess moisture. - Conversion:
The dried residue is ground into powder and compressed into tinned paste, loaves, or ration biscuits—collectively termed Corpse-Starch. - By-products:
- Intact bones are bleached and consigned to Mortuary Cults and Ecclesiarchal temples for relic-making and devotional statuary.
- Extracted fats and oils become a soap or votive candles.
- Remaining mineral residue is returned to nutrient vats, sustaining the fungal and micro-life masses that form the starch’s bulk filler.
Derivative Products and Mutations
In the lower levels of Necromunda and other ancient hives, forgotten stores of Corpse-Starch can decay or become infested by mutagenic spores. Over centuries, the material ferments into a green, powdery scum known colloquially as Raw Spook. When dissolved into intoxicants, this substance enhances latent psychic potential—creating unstable Wyrds or burning out the minds of the untrained.
Mad Hiver Disease
Mad Hiver Disease (designated Spongiform Consumption Syndrome, or SCS-HXV-98 in Munitorum archives) is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder endemic to several Hive Worlds of the Imperium of Man. It is caused by consumption of Corpse-Starch contaminated with malformed prion proteins—biochemical structures that resist destruction by conventional enzymatic or heat-based sterilization.
First documented on Necromunda, the disease has since been observed on numerous overpopulated hive planets where corpse-recycling is practiced, earning it the common name Mad Hiver Disease.
Overview
Mad Hiver Disease manifests as a slow, progressive degeneration of the brain and nervous system. Victims exhibit memory decay, tremors, hallucinations, and compulsive aggression. In its terminal stages, the sufferer experiences violent spasms, self-mutilation, and cannibalistic impulses—often resulting in their death at the hands of enforcers or kin.
The disease is incurable, invariably fatal, and can remain latent for decades before symptoms appear. Its true cause—corrupted prion proteins derived from inadequately purified Corpse-Starch—is officially suppressed by many planetary authorities to prevent unrest.
Origin and Transmission
The Corpse Guilds purify organic matter from the dead through enzyme digestion and radiation sterilization before pressing it into ration paste. Under ideal conditions, this process destroys all biological contaminants. However, the malformed starch prions are exceptionally stable: they survive digestion, acidification, and high temperatures.
Over centuries of consumption and re-processing, these distorted proteins have undergone adaptive hardening. Each generation of reclamation and re-ingestion selects for more resilient forms, resulting in prion strains that can persist through countless cycles of human consumption and reconstitution.
Thus, the very efficiency of hive recycling ensures the immortality of the infection—an endless cannibalistic loop in which hivers consume the corrupted echoes of their ancestors.
Symptoms and Progression
| Stage | Duration | Symptoms |
|---|---|---|
| Latent Phase | 5–30 years | No symptoms; minor tremors and anxiety may appear. |
| Cognitive Decay | 6–12 months | Memory loss, insomnia, repetitive motion, auditory hallucinations (“the grinder’s hum”). |
| Aggressive Phase | 1–3 months | Psychotic rage, flesh-biting, vocal distortion, attacks on coworkers or kin. |
| Terminal Phase | 1–2 weeks | Complete neural collapse; muscles seize into spasmodic rigidity; victim often dies in frenzy or self-asphyxiation. |
Autopsy reveals spongiform lesions in cerebral tissue and dense protein plaques resistant to all known solvents and acids. The brain resembles desiccated starch—hence the underhive nickname “grey-loaf sickness.”
Imperial Response
Official reaction to Mad Hiver Disease varies across the Imperium, but the pattern is grimly consistent. Outbreaks are seldom acknowledged as medical phenomena; instead, they are reclassified under more acceptable designations such as “Mass Hysterical Incidents,” “Nutrient Contamination Events,” or “Reclamation Deviancies.”
Local Enforcer cadres or planetary defence forces are typically deployed to contain the infected population. Entire habitation sectors are sealed, purged, or quietly recycled, with the dead transferred under Guild supervision to Corpse-Starch reclamation facilities—ensuring that no resource, however diseased, goes to waste.
To the Ecclesiarchy, Mad Hiver Disease serves as divine proof that corruption begins within the flesh itself. Victims are declared unclean, their bodies forbidden from cremation lest impurity be released to the air. Instead, their remains are ritually consigned to the Corpse Guilds, sanctified with incense and scripture before being ground once more into the paste that feeds the hive—thus perpetuating the very cycle of decay that birthed the affliction.
The Lurking Danger
Although officially treated as a mere biochemical anomaly, Mad Hiver Disease has long provoked whispers of deeper corruption. Among the more superstitious of the medicae orders and the Ordo Sepulturum, the affliction is seen as a harbinger—a symptom not only of biological decay but of spiritual rot within the Imperium itself.
The Hand of the Plague God
While Imperial scholars insist that Mad Hiver Disease originates from defective Corpse-Starch sterilisation, certain Inquisitors have noted that the prions appear to behave as if aware of destruction. Exposure to enzyme catalytics or radiation often results not in denaturation, but in further stabilization—an unholy resilience reminiscent of the regenerative corruption associated with Nurgle, the Lord of Decay.
Reports from the hive-moons of Stygia, Daedalon, and Malfi’s lower tiers describe victims who, before death, emitted a sweet, fungal odor and spoke in delirious reverence of “the Father of Renewal.” Their remains frequently exhibited spore growth and necrotic cysts, yet none showed trace of daemonic possession or warp incursion.
Such evidence has led to a heretical theory: that repeated cycles of corpse consumption, despair, and resignation have created a psychic echo within the hive—an unconscious call to the Plague God. Whether the disease is a mutation born of natural entropy or a subtle spiritual infection, it embodies Nurgle’s creed perfectly: persistence through decay.
Portents of a Failing Age
The late 41st Millennium is an age of stagnation. Warp storms lengthen, tithes falter, and many Hive Worlds have endured decades without fresh biomass importation. As each generation consumes the remains of the last, Mad Hiver Disease spreads quietly through the veins of the Imperium’s most loyal workers.
Medicae statisticae from the Drusus Marches, Golgenna Reach, and Scintillan Sub-Sector show increasing occurrences of “neuro-degenerative reclamation syndrome” among underhivers—always correlated with famine, ration dilution, and overreliance on corpse-starch.
Ignis Aeternus WH 40K campaign notes 