Tyranids
Tyranids are a species that feature in Warhammer 40,000.
Contents |
History
The Tyranids were an extraterrestrial species composed of varying bio-forms that were united by their collective consciousness and came from outside the known galaxy. (Codex: Tyranids (2nd Edition))
Upon arriving in the galaxy, the Great Devourer proceeded with ravaging the ecosystems of numerous worlds that were left barren uninhabitable ruins in their wake. First recorded with the Imperium of Man occurred on the isolated planet Tyran that was located on the south-eastern fringes of the galaxy. The site served as a waystation for the Adeptus Mechanicus who used it as a site to launch Exploration expeditions in studying the virtually unknown sectors on the galaxy's edge.
Hivefleet Kraken came to reach the outer part of the Imperium and the entire south-eastern spiral arm lies under its dominion. It was then that the full extent of the danger had been realised by mankind, as fleeing refugees struggled back into free space. It was tremendously lucky that any people have survived at all, as their spacecraft have been pushed thousands of light years through the warp by the advancing edge of the Tyranid hive fleet. A thousand human worlds had already fallen to the invader, their populations consumed or imprisoned by the Tyranids. Even after so short a time, new races of human-based bioconstructed creatures swell the armies of the hive mind. Only the vaguest details of the fighting had reached the Imperium as millions of human warriors had died in the struggle. Entire Chapters of the Imperium’s Space Marines had vanished without trace leaving no clue to their fate. The Lamenters Chapter was presumed to had been destroyed and the Scythes of the Emperor had been reduced to a few scattered remnants. However, these human warriors had not died in vain as during the fiercest fighting Space Marine spacecraft came to engage the ships of the Tyranid fleet. Boarding parties entered the vitals of the immense alien craft, gathering information about the Tyranids and successfully destroying untold thousands of aliens. The information gained by these brave Space Marines was essential if the Tyranids were going to be driven back. (WD 145 UK)
Imperium efforts initially led to the scouting of 13 Hive Fleets being revealed that were scattered throughout the western part of the galaxy. (Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader)
Overview
In appearance, the form of the Tyranids varied depending on the breed and type of creature with the main unifying features were their reptilian along with insectoid characteristics. (Codex: Tyranids (2nd Edition))
All Tyranids were united by the psychic imperatives of the shared hive mind. Some of the larger more intelligent organisms had vastly expanded synapse networks within their cortex which acted as a psychic conduit for the directives of the hive mind allowing them to overrule the natural instincts of nearby Tyranid creatures. (Codex: Tyranids (3rd Edition))
Outside the hive mind's reach, lesser Tyranid creatures tended to revert to their basic and often animalistic instincts. (Codex: Tyranids (3rd Edition))
A central organism within the Tyranids were the Norn-Queens who resided deep within the hive fleets in huge chambers that were many hundreds of meters high. These creatures were also known as Splicer-Beasts that was so vast and great that its pulsing bulk almost filled the structure. Their sole function was to make other creatures where every living creature in a hive fleet owing their existence to the Norn-Queen. Long ago, the Tyranids were said to had giving up any primitive form of reproduction and adopted genetic cloning. Norn-Queens were akin to huge biological machines and acted as a factory whose sole concern was to produce other creatures. Many kinds of bio-constructs emerged in different parts of the huge Splicer-Beasts. Clusters of eggs spilled forth from rows of ovipository orifices along its flanks where fluid filled depression on its upper surface writhed within maggot-like larvae whilst foetal sacs hung like ripe fruit from umbilical branches with huge larval Teleporter Warms burst from incubator pouches on the Norn-Queens sides. Simpler bio-constructs could emerge already in their adult form to be gathered and directed by the horde of creatures that feed and serve the Norn-Queen. Most organisms were born as tiny wriggling larvae or started as eggs that needed to be nurtured until they hatched the bio-construct into a developed adult form. (Advanced Space Crusade)
Among the warrior breeds included:
- Gaunts :
- Hormagaunts :
- Termagaunts :
- Barbgaunts :
- Neurogaunt :
- Tyranid Warriors :
- Tyranid Primes :
- Raveners :
- Genestealer :
- Von Ryan’s Leapers : swift, agile Tyranid bioforms, cunning hunters and stealth ambushers that are especially lethal when fighting in dense terrain. Packs of Leapers lie in wait like living mines, lurking at the optimum locations to cause as much damage as possible. When they sense the perfect time to strike, they burst forth to butcher all around in a murderous frenzy.
- Lictor :
- Neurolictor :
- Deathleaper : a rare and advanced development of the Lictor strain, perfectly evolved to act as a terror weapon. This apex Lictor possesses an instinctive understanding of how to spread fear through hostile forces and prey populations alike, using its skills in stealth, infiltration, and assassination to sow paranoia and dread before the hive fleet attacks en masse.
- Zoanthropes :
- Neurothrope :
- Hive Guard :
- Tyrant Guard :
- Hive Tyrant :
- Winged Tyrant :
- Neurotyrant :
- Swarmlord : Swarmlords were as old as the Tyranid race itself, the very pinnacle of the Hive Tyrant bioform. It was a monster of darkest nightmare that has preyed on empires and overseen the extinction of entire civilisations.
- Norn Emissary :
- Norn Assimilator :
- Norn-Queen :
- Broodlord :
- Tervigon :
- Harpy :
- Carnifex :
- Maleceptor : living vessels for the Hive Mind with warp energy spearing from its eyeless cranium to vaporise anything in its path, and those with minds strong enough to survive its keening psychic screams are laid low by its powerful talons.
- Mawlocs :
- Hive Crone :
Creatures captured by the Tyranids were not always consumed or processed by the Norn-Queen. Some were placed in temporary storage where they were wrapped in a fine cocoon by Shroud-Spinners where the material hardened into a glistening fibrous pod. Some of these captives had been kept paralysed for so long that they had died in the process whilst others become hosts to offsprings of a bio-construct where the pod contains a swarm of writhing larvae. Only a few were found to be alive though their minds and bodies were altered by the time in captivity by the Tyranids. (Advanced Space Crusade) Some creatures that were captured by the Tyranids were not used as food or were broken down for their genetic material. Instead, they became the hosts for immature grubs of various Tyranid creatures. One such creature was the Mind Slaver that were crab-like bio-devices which took control of other creatures when they were damaged or malfunctioned. Immature Mind Slavers burrowed into captives and sought the brainstem. Once there, they curled around the medulla and took over the hosts higher brain functions. As the Mind Slaver matured, it lived on nutrients and vitamins from the host's body until it eventually outgrew the cranial cavity and destroyed its victim. Prior to that moment though, the hive mind was in full control of the host's body and in some occasions used the fighting skills of these warrior-hosts. These Mind Slaves could come from any species and fielded at random by the Tyranids. The Hive Mind was reluctant to field large armies of Mind Slaves in case the hosts regained control and switched sides. (WD 145 UK)
The Tyranid hive mind hungered for fresh genetic material with these gene-stocks being used to create new bio-construct creatures and organic machine-slaves. Their own galaxy was exhausted with its creatures long since absorbed into the hive mind and their flesh turned to unfathomable purposes or discarded as useless. In a new galaxy, billions of living beings offered the Tyranids an almost inexhaustible stock of flesh and genes which will invigorate the hive mind and enable it to embody itself in new forms. Prey species were broken into strands of DNA that was used to create a new generation of bio-technology. Thus, the predations of the Tyranids meant the death of a species but to the Tyranid hive mind this was of no more consequence than the mining of ores or the harvesting of crops. For the Tyranids had no sense of pity or compassion with them being utterly beyond human understanding as humans were beyond their comprehension. To them, other species were just an inefficient and primitive lifeform that were something to be consumed and tamed to a higher purpose. Such had been the fate of a thousand galaxies, of millions of intelligent species, since time immemorial. (WD 145 UK)
The Tyranid hive mind was a single co-ordinating will that directs the entire hive fleet. It was formed from untold billions of individual consciousnesses, each of which was a living creature in the hive fleet. Some of these minds were capable of individual rational thought, some were capable of making only limited decisions, and others were mere automatons whose minds perform only basic motor functions. The extent of this ability to act and think freely varied and depended upon the creature’s role in the hive fleet. Such an evolved consciousness was impossible for humans to comprehend. The billions of creatures in the hive fleet all act in concert, serving as individual cells in the single creature that was the hive mind. Mankind still searched vainly for the higher beings they suppose control the hive fleets, and though such mighty creatures existed they no more control the hive mind than single brain cells control a man’s body. It was the sum of the hive mind which motivated it, not its constituent parts. (WD 145 UK)
They had no use for the worlds they ravaged with the Tyranids making no permanent settlements. Worlds were nothing more than resources for the Hive Fleets that were harvested of minerals, fuel and biological material. (Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader)
The Tyranids were the undisputed masters of genetic manipulation and bio-engineering. Great factory-creatures called the Tyranid Norn-Queens ingested genetic materials and churn out countless types of creatures that go to make up the hive fleet. Tyranid technology was based upon biological engineering. All functions were performed by genetically tailored bioconstructed creatures that had a rudimentary consciousness and formed part of the hive mind. Tyranid spacecraft in fact were living creatures, and individual components such as sphincter doors, food hatcheries and teleportation cysts were highly modified living things. Even the most basic Tyranid devices had their origins as living tissue and had a thread of the hive mind within them. Tyranids also used gene-manipulation to create new races of servant creatures from captives. These advanced bioconstructs were artificial races bred by the Tyranids. Their minds formed part of the hive mind but some of them could still think and act for themselves and can make and act upon decisions within the limits engineered into them. Among these races were the likes of the Genestealers and the Zoats. Although these awesome creatures may look monstrous and horrific, they were all designed to fulfil some specific role (WD 145 UK)
Similar to their other bio-technological devices, Tyranid weapons were created through advanced genetic manipulation. Each were made of a creature or a group of parasitical creatures bred specifically to act as weapons. (Advanced Space Crusade) Tyranid ranged bio-weapons were symbiote organisms that were a part of their bodies which were melded into them since their birth. (Codex: Tyranids (3rd Edition))
As such, there were many breeds of weapons used by the Tyranids. (Advanced Space Crusade) These included:
- Deathspitters :
- Boneswords :
- Fleshborers :
The most gigantic and monstrous of the organisms of the hive fleets were unleashed during planetary assaults with them being brought into action against the most determined defences. These were the Bio-Titans who were giant multi-legged creatures that typically had four legs for locomotion whilst two arms carried a range of giant symbiote weapons. (Epic: Hive War)
The larger Bio-Titans included the following breeds:
- Dactylis :
- Dominatrix :
- Exocrine :
- Malefactor :
- Gargoyles :
- Harridan :
- Haruspex :
- Trygon :
Each fleet comprised of millions of craft making the Tyranids appear as a huge cloud of cosmic locusts. No one knew how many Hive Fleets exited within the depths of interstellar space. (Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader)
Among known Hive Fleets included:
- Hive Fleet Ouroboros :
- Hive Fleet Behemoth :
- Hive Fleet Naga :
- Hive Fleet Gorgon :
- Hive Fleet Kraken :
- Hive Fleet Jormungandr :
- Hive Fleet Leviathan :
- Hive Fleet Hydra :
- Hive Fleet Kronos :
A Hive fleet consisted of great dark swarm of millions of individual spacecraft. Each spacecraft was a gigantic living beast, a creature fashioned from organic tissue by means of sophisticated genetic manipulation. During the aeons-long journey across the void, the Tyranids slumbered in a state of frozen hibernation. (WD 145 UK)
Known types of bio-ships included:
- Hive Ships :
- Devourers :
- Void Prowlers :
- Razorfiends :
- Krakens :
- Escort Drones :
- Vanguard Drone Ships :
- Narvhals :
In space combat, hive fleets made extensive use of thousands of huge floating pod-like spores to protect their motherships of the swarm or seed planetary systems before their approach. These drifting pods were deadly mines that moved seemingly random until detonation where they were triggered by proximity to a non-Tyranid object. The detonation was noted for its explosive power with some speculating that they utilised a thermonuclear reaction that not only dealt considerable damage from he resultant shockwave but also from the impact of shell fragments hundreds of feet across. In addition, these spore mines discharges were accompanied by a shower of virulent viruses, acids, algae and infectious parasites causing extensive secondary damage to their target. (Epic: Hive War)
Tyrannocytes could be launched from the orifices of hive ships in low orbit where the living organisms served to transport hosts of Tyranid organisms onto a planet's surface upon its landing.
Members
- Doom of Malan'tai :
- Parasite of Mortrex :
- Nephilim King :
- Old One-Eye :
- Red Terror :
Notes
- The Tyranids were created by Games Workshop and featured in the setting of the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
In other media
Television
Video games
- In Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, the Tyranids were introduced as the primary antagonists in the real-time strategy video game and were added in as a playable faction.
- In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II, the Tyranids appeared as a playable faction within the setting of the real-time strategy video game.
- In Warhammer 40,000: Gladius, the Tyranids appeared as a playable faction within the setting of the strategy video game.
- In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II, the Tyranids appeared as antagonists in the setting of the third-person action video game.
Appearances
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader:
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Codex: Tyranids (2nd Edition):
External Links
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