Tyranids. The warhammer 40k universe is filled with a vast array of alien species, some more
relevant than others, and they represent a multitude of science fiction tropes and concepts.
Perhaps none of these are stranger and more alien than the tyranids, a species that doesn't
deal with diplomacy, doesn't work with technology, and has no interest in controlling territory
or demonstrating power over others. The tyranids are easily amongst the most fearsome species
to exist in 40k, representing an incredibly grave threat to every other form of life in
the galaxy. In this video, we'll look at what we know about the tyranids, their unique biology,
and their methods of war.
True to their utterly foreign nature, the Tyranids actually originated from outside
of the milky way galaxy. It's unknown exactly where they came from or how long they've been
around, but some sources guess that they've passed through hundreds of galaxies. It's
believed that the tyranids were first alerted to life in the milky way when a psychic beacon
was overloaded during the days of the horus heresy. This burst of psychic energy reached
out through the warp far enough to wherever the tyranid horde was located at the time,
and they began moving towards the milky way. This problem would be exacerbated by the presence
of the emperor of mankind's astronomicon, another psychic beacon the imperium of man
uses to navigate through the warp. It's believed by the imperial inquisition that the imperium
first encountered tyranid lifeforms around the 35th millenium, but the first official
encounter was in the 41st millenium, on the planet Tyran. Tyran was an ocean world on
the eastern fringe of the galaxy, a largely unexplored region. The techpriests on Tyran
learned of a rash of dead planets in systems around Tyran, but they were ultimately caught
unaware by the tyranid hive fleet. Tyran possessed standard defenses for an imperial outpost,
capable of withstanding most any alien threat, but the tyranids blockaded the planet, physically
and psychically. It wasn't long after that the planet was overrun and consumed, although
the head of the mechanicus on the planet managed to send out a warning to the rest of mankind.
The warning read, "We cannot live through this. Mankind cannot live through this. In
a single day they have covered this planet with a flood of living blades and needle-fanged
mouths. Kill one, and ten take its place. If they are truly without number, then our
race is doomed to a violent death before every shred of our civilization is scoured away
by a force more voracious than the fires of hell themselves. Death! By the Machine God,
Death is here!"
The hostile alien force were dubbed the tyranids after the name of the planet, and the hive
fleet that had consumed tyran continued sweeping through the galaxy towards its center. This
conflict, later known as the first tyrannic war, seemed to be rather hopeless, as the
tyranid hive fleet consumed everything they touched. The Ultramarines chapter of the adeptus
astartes were brought in to end the war, although their first encounter with the aliens was
a bloodbath due to them being completely unprepared for the tyranid's biology and combat tactics.
The war came to a climax on the ultramarine homeworld of Macragge, where a nearly unequaled
battle took place. Both sides suffered massive casualties, and it's said that the soldiers
walked on tyranid corpses instead of the ground. Ultimately the battle was only won when an
emperor-class battleship, a vessel kilometers in length, sacrificed itself to create a warp
vortex that destroyed the tyranid fleet.
The milky way was given a couple centuries to recoup and recover, but the tyranids eventually
returned. Before we move on to the tyranid's second incursion into the milky way however,
let's discuss the tyranids themselves. Ravenous hordes of bloodthirsty monsters are dangerous
enough, but what truly makes the tyranids a threat above others is the hive mind. The
hive mind is not a single consciousness, nor is it the collective minds of the tyranids
controlled by a single consciousness, but instead is the connected network of every
single tyranid creature working in tandemn towards a singular goal. That is to say, there
isn't one big tyranid at the top that gives commands to all others psychically, but rather
all of the tyranids communicate with one another psychically to achieve one goal, to consume.
This allows the countless trillions of tyranids to function as if they were a single organism.
This psychic connection is accomplished through specific tyranids that function as pyschic
conduits, connecting nearby tyranids to the hive mind. Most tyranids left without access
to the hive mind will revert to a feral state, still dangerous but not nearly as coordinated.
A side effect of the hive mind's psychic field is that it distorts the warp around a hive
fleet, preventing other telepathic communication and interfering with spacecraft in the warp.
It also tends to drive nearby sapient creatures mad with visions of the warp.
Tyranids possess a dizzying degree of biological variations, from the smallest of insect-like
creatures to the hulking behemoths the size of imperial titans, to even the massive bio-ships
that the hive fleets use to navigate the galaxy. The most numerous of the tyranids come in
a maggot-like form called rippers, and serve as the primary means by which the tyranids
consume biomass from any form of life they encounter. After a planet has been invaded,
rippers will scour the world and consume everything they touch, leaving it a desolate wasteland.
They are then broken down along with the biomass they consumed, which is taken back to the
hive fleet to be utilized by the tyranid hordes. Gaunts come in a wide variety of subspecies,
from hormagaunts that resemble monstrous velociraptors to termagaunts, that use a weapon which essentially
shoots beetles that burrow into an individuals body on contact. Lictors are specialist tyranids
far more capable of stealth that are used as forward scouts. Their skin can adapt to
its surroundings, rendering them practically invisible to the naked eye, and they are adept
at stalking and ambushing prey. Tyranid Warriors are among the more formidable threats the
tyranids can bring to a battlefield, each one potentially a match for a space marine.
Warriors are twice as tall as a man, strong, fast, and unflinching in combat. Hive Tyrants
serve as essentially commanders for tyranid hordes, acting as the primary conduit to the
hive mind. Additionally, hive tyrants are extremely capable themselves, larger, stronger,
and more deadly than a warrior, incredibly intelligent, and capable of manifesting powerful
psychic abilities. Many additional forms and variations exist, including many larger than
a hive tyrant, as well as the tyranid's technology and their living ships. Among the most important
of tyranids are the norn-queens, which live in the ships at the centers of the hive fleets,
and use the collected biomass from planets to continually produce additional tyranids.
Arguably the most notable of tyranids subspecies however are the genestealers, unique aliens
that operate in a much more subtle way than other tyranids, and yet are crucial to their
operations. Genestealers are highly mutatable, but generally they are bipedal, possessing
two sets of arms, one ending with human-like hands and the other with claws. They are typically
very intelligent, and their bodies can survive for centuries, even when exposed to the vaccuum
of space. Although purestrain genestealers are born from the norn-queens like all other
tyranids, most genestealers reproduce independentaly from the rest of the hive fleet, allowing
them to spread across the galaxy. Genestealers reproduce by inserting an embryo into a host
through a tube-like tongue, passing on their genetic material. This is generally done by
small groups that sneak onto a planet or groups that hide out on empty ships in space, called
space hulks, waiting for rescue teams. The embryo will slowly rewrite the host's genetic
code, and replace their consciousness with one controlled by a local psychic connection
possessed by the genestealers. Genestealers will then force these hosts to seek out reproduction,
and the offspring will be a genestealer hybrid. Hybrids will then go out and continue to reproduce,
creating more hybrids among a population. Although a first generation hybrid will generally
resemble a genestealer, by the fourth generation, they are much harder to tell apart from the
host species at first glance. These hybrids will all follow the instincts of a genestealer,
thus will continue to spread among the population as a genestealer cult. The growing psychic
connection within the genestealer cult on a planet will serve as a beacon for a tyranid
hive fleet, drawing them in and letting them know the planet is ready to be invaded. By
the time the hive fleet has arrived, the planet is typically already in disarray due to a
large portion of the population being in the genestealer cult. After the planet is conquered,
the genestealer cult turns on itself, massacring the hybrids for biomass and starting the cycle
anew.
These genestealer cults were at the forefront of the tyranid's second invasion into the
milky way. The imperium had bolstered their defenses in the region of the galaxy where
the tyranid's had first invaded, but eventually numerous rebellions began breaking out on
planets in the area. A number of beauracrats in the imperium claimed that the rebellions
were simply because people were upset at living in armed camps. The imperial inquisition raised
an eyebrow at their downplaying of the situation, and launched an investigation. The only connection
that could be found among all of these officials was that they had all been to that region
of the galaxy at some point in their lives. The imperial guard and space marines were
sent in to snuff out the rebellions, eventually discovering the genestealers at the heart
of the cult. Although they assumed that they wiped them all out, hundreds of genestealers
would later pop out of the ground as a hive fleet approached the region. The Ultramarines
once again came to the imperium's defense, carrying their experiences and knowledge from
the first war. Once again, the losses were drastic, but the tyranids were defeated a
second time, although a split force had also done severe damaged to an eldar craftworld.
It would only be a few years later when the third tyrannic wars would begin, with the
tyrannids launching their greatest offensive yet. The massive tyrannid hive fleet decided
to split its forces around the galaxy and invade from multiple directions. Planetery
defence forces, imperial guard, imperial navy, space marines, inquisitors, and others have
come to the defense of the imperium during the galactic war. Entire planets have been
torched by the navy to prevent the tyrannids from gaining their much needed biomass and
the losses have been great on both sides. So far, the war continues, and the question
remains if the imperium will be victorious for the third time, or if an even larger tyranid
force is on the way.
Tyranids borrow a lot of concepts from other science-fiction stories, and they themselves
have lended inspiration to other tales. Mankind in 40k has no shortage of enemies, but there
aren't many that compare in sheer horror to the tyranids. The concern that any given moment,
there might be secretive genestealer hybrids lurking among a populace or beneath their
feet. The unflinching violence and carnage that a tyranid horde brings to a planet, and
their utter lack of fear as trillions of fully coordinated killing machines spread across
the galaxy. Ultimately, the tyranids tend to lose wars due to things like plot armor,
but they still remain an incomparable threat.