Necromunda High - Why Necromunda is a teen comedy.

With the release of the new edition of Necromunda, many of us have got back into the lore, wondering how to approach this new immersion in the underhive.

On a saturday morning (in the old world that is), some of us were discussing the basic psychology of the main houses (which started with what kind of marine chapter you'd most likely expect in the underhive and how Imperial fists suck)[Editors note: you suck].

Then the revelation that the major houses in Necromunda are just the archetypes of teen comedies just fell on us.

Now just play that song and follow us...

Just as a bit of a reminder, you guys probably know the 6 main houses ruling the Necromunda underhive :

Now these houses each have their very own identity and style. They're archetypes and archetypes are universal. Now we're not judging the validity of such archetypes (especially those associated with male and female psyche) here but just how they can be transposed from a setting to another.

- House orlocks are leather and denim wearing rebels with a huge respect for strength and all sorts of High moral value. Rebels, outcasts, hard working, brave, that's the kind of attributes you want to associate them with.

- House Cawdor are blind keepers of the faith. They're the system and its will to stay in place. Zealots, fanatics, the system.

- House Goliath is essentially the embodiment of male domination, relying on power, physical strength, blunt force. They're alphas, blokes, muscles over brains.

- House Van Saar is he house trying to find its way out of the system by using technology. They're the ones in the box trying to think outside of it. Techs, nerds, g33ks or whatever.

- House Escher is composed of amazons, they're the embodiment of female strength relying (according to the lore once again) on beauty, agility, cunning, poison and disobedience.

- House Delaque is a house of people living in the dark, living outside the box but trying to fit in it. They're weirdos, creeps, nolifes.

That got to really think about how Necromunda is so much like a teen comedy :

Necromunda High was the best

The Van Saars all sitting around drinking their own piss.

Orlocks spending all day in machine shop acing all Tech class tests.

The Ratskins smoking behind the toilets. 

And going to the toilet behind the toilets.
And eating lunch behind the toilet.
And basically just living there.

The scavvies living IN the toilet.

Delaques spend all their time sitting on the same stairs listening to the Cure.
The Delaques dealing drugs to the Goliath jocks.

The Eshers chewing bubblegum and hanging around the water bubblers listening to Jem and the Holograms. Remember that time an escher changed the Delaque sunscreen cream for tan and they all looked like Guidos for a month ?

Goliaths listen exclusive to Warrant and Twisted Sister and beat up anyone who mentions the makeup and cross dressing.

All of them play quarterback.
It's a really shit team.
The Cawdors all spend their lunchbreaks in the library quietly borrowing offensive books for their older brothers to set fire to after school. Cawdors spend a lot of librarius time looking up rude words in the dictionorium to get cross about.
The look of frozen indignation when the find the definition of 'fart'
"They actually wrote... anus!"
"That's one of the naughtiest bits!"
"Let's forbid the use of those 4 letters !"

OK now, we've very broadly brushed the archetypes for the 6 house, let's just take a look at some iconic teen movies/comedies/series from the 80's to the 90's...

Everyone loves the Breakfast club right ? Well of course, if you guys love Necromunda, that film is basically an end of campaign multi player battle :

Top : Orlock
Middle : Delaque, Vansaar, Goliath
bottom : Escher

Can you see where this is going ? You can notice the Cawdor kid isn't on the picture simply because he wasn't grounded (he's part of the system right ?) almost proving the point...

Now who's been saved by the bell ? Well all the major houses have :

Van Saar back to back with a Cawdor
Goliath, Escher, Orlock
Delaque.

Parker Lewis cannot lose right ? Of course he can't, Bounty hunters get to side with any house depending on circumstances...

A goliath hugging his Vansaar, Bounty Hunter and Orlockfriends/victims.

Helmawr leader accompanied by a Cawdor Juve

Bit more complicated now, can you tell who's from what house in Degrassi ?

Even harder in Heartbreak High (with all the characters over the seasons)

You can still make them fall into a box or another. That's the beauty and horror of archetypes !

Now of course, you'll always have people pushing it to 11 on some point. If you REALLY REALLY love Orlocks for examples :

Orlocks just Orlockin'

Or if you're REALLY into Eschers (you naughty you) :

Now if we were to push things even further, we've (mostly) all been to high school and we (mostly) all have fallen into one archetype or at least have been assigned one wether we liked it or not. So what's our designated house ?