# Tyranids and the warp?



## Beezy (Jan 25, 2011)

Could somebody shed some light on the relationship between Tyranids and the warp? I've read that the 'Nids don't use warp travel, but can they exist in the warp? 

Could part of a Hive Fleet get caught in a warp storm and ripped through space, maybe even dumped on the Imperium's doorstep? 

Does the shadow of the warp nullify the warp entirely? How does this affect Chaos armies under Tyranid attack?


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

The tyranids and the warp is tricky, yes they are connected to it but not in the same manner as humans or eldar. 

The gestalt conciousness of the tyranids, the Hive Mind, is encompassed within the warp and exists between the Hive Fleets and the various organisms of the swarm. As you can imagine, the constant chatter and communion flowing constantly between them over these distances results in a lot of warp activity. 

Psykers caught under this influence are basically driven mad by its effects, its description being likened to a shadow, hence Shadow in the Warp. 

The best way to think of it is to imagine the tyranids as not having individual souls, but rather sharing one collective "soul," which is spread between them. This presence is what tyranid psykers cannel when they use their powers, rather than risking drawing directly from the daemon infested warp directly. 

As for warp travel, no tyranid Hive ships do not travel through the warp likely for reasons of endurance. It is difficult to imagine any biological organism, no matter how well adapted, being able to traverse the warp safely. Instead, they use the narvhal, a fleet organism able to harness the target world`s gravity and create a gravity tunnel which draws the Hive ships through at incredible speeds. 

So basically, tyranids are connected to the warp, no they cannot block it completely, and no they don`t use it to travel.


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## Beezy (Jan 25, 2011)

Thanks for the great explantions.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Not a problem.


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## Maidel (Jun 28, 2009)

But they can end up inside the warp. Various space hulk era bits of fluff go on about space hulks being lost in the warp and turning up infested with genestealers.

So either they are on the ship first and killed the crew which is why the ship goes haywire and ends up in the warp, or they infest it straight after it respirate from the warp. It's never really made clear.


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

Serpion5 said:


> It is difficult to imagine any biological organism, no matter how well adapted, being able to traverse the warp safely.


cough, Draigo, cough


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## Dogbeard (Apr 15, 2011)

Great explanation Serpion. :goodpost:


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Maidel said:


> But they can end up inside the warp. Various space hulk era bits of fluff go on about space hulks being lost in the warp and turning up infested with genestealers.
> 
> So either they are on the ship first and killed the crew which is why the ship goes haywire and ends up in the warp, or they infest it straight after it respirate from the warp. It's never really made clear.


In much the same way as orks use space hulks to travel, genestealers also make use of them. Typically a genestealer cult will steal aboard a boarding crew vessel or hijack one of their own to begin with. 

Space hulks are drawn to planets that hold life, making them ideal for genestealer or ork purposes. There are instances of the two races clashing aboard space hulks. 



Warlock in Training said:


> cough, Draigo, cough


I did say _*safely,*_ Warlock. Draigo is almost constantly fighting and has protection that the tyranids don`t.  

@Dogbeard, Thank you. :so_happy:


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## Giant Fossil Penguin (Apr 11, 2009)

Tyranids use the Narwhal to travel quickly through space. This beastie is incredibly sensitive to gravity and can pick out the gravity well of a system/world from a hell of a long way away. Using some biological process it creates a gravitational lens, basically using this gravity to pull it along quicker and quicker; because it is basically falling towards its target, it doesn't require any energy to move. The rest of the Hive Fleet is enveloped within the lens and travels along with the Narwhal.
This method must allow them to move almost as quickly as Warp travel, otherwise the entire 'Nid invasion would never be a problem, certainly not how it is in the 40K 'verse. Even travelling at light speed it would take hundreds of thousands of years to get from the edge of the galaxy to us (I think, it might be thousands but that seems too small) and they would be expending more energy speeding-up and slowing-down than they could ever regain by absorbing worlds. At sub-light speeds then they would be no threat at all. The Imperium would have all the time in the world to work out a strategy to stop them, if it even bothered in the first place. And Humanity's Warp drives would allow them to run rings around the gribbly fleets. All in all, as the 'Nids can't access the Warp by themselves the the Narwhal is the most elegant solution to get them up to speed.

GFP


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

It is stated that the narvhal`s gravity well manipulation is not quite as fast as warp travel, but is infinitely more reliable. 

From what I remember during my studies of physics, the ability to manipulate gravity would have a direct influence on both inertia and relativity, so time from either perspective would not be dramatically affected. 

How`s about that fellas? Nids have FTL without using technology!


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## ThatOtherGuy (Apr 13, 2010)

Serpion5 said:


> How`s about that fellas? Nids have FTL without using technology!


Its not faster than light. If it was the tyranids would have gotten here earlier. They just manipulate gravity to their advantage thus creating a reliable source of travel of incredible speeds. Also according to Einsteins Theory, you really can't travel at the exact speed of light, only 99%. But at the same time, its 40k, anything can happen if GW allows it.


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

Serpion5 said:


> I did say _*safely,*_ Warlock. Draigo is almost constantly fighting and has protection that the tyranids don`t.


He walks around the Gods backyard and pisses on their house. BTs are kicked away like annoying poodles. Hes clearly safe in the warp and the Chaos forces are not.


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## Admiral_HACKbar (May 5, 2011)

I went on a stag do once, woke up in the warp. Very embarrassing.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

ThatOtherGuy said:


> Its not faster than light. If it was the tyranids would have gotten here earlier. They just manipulate gravity to their advantage thus creating a reliable source of travel of incredible speeds. Also according to Einsteins Theory, you really can't travel at the exact speed of light, only 99%. But at the same time, its 40k, anything can happen if GW allows it.


No. They can travel between star systems in matters of weeks and months. Given interstellar distances, their ships must be moving faster than light. 



Warlock in Training said:


> He walks around the Gods backyard and pisses on their house. BTs are kicked away like annoying poodles. Hes clearly safe in the warp and the Chaos forces are not.


I guess that`s one viewpoint.


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## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

Outside of it being filthy xenos tech, any idea why the Imperium doesn't develop/use this tech for their own purposes? It would be a good substitue to those nasty mutuant psychers and Navigators for any Emperor-lovin' purestrain human fanatical group.


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## Maidel (Jun 28, 2009)

Over Two Meters Tall! said:


> Outside of it being filthy xenos tech, any idea why the Imperium doesn't develop/use this tech for their own purposes? It would be a good substitue to those nasty mutuant psychers and Navigators for any Emperor-lovin' purestrain human fanatical group.


The imperium doesnt 'develop' anything any more. Techology has been stagnant or declining for the last 10,000 years +. (admittedly it appears to have been stagnant for the eldar, orks, dark eldar and necrons as well, only the tau appear to have been developing).


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## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

While the Imperium isn't developing new tech, they are still incorporating new tech they find elsewhere... in the Gaunt's Ghosts novel Necropolis they're after a STC, but mention that an increasing number of Astares chapters are utilizing new blade tech discovered as part of another STC some 100-200 years before. I suppose this is where I'm approaching the issue.

I'm also reading the Jaq Draco novels and a lot of Ian Watson's fluff is now being countermanded, but in those books the use of xenos tech by none other than the Inquisition is pretty rampant.


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

Maidel said:


> The imperium doesnt 'develop' anything any more. Techology has been stagnant or declining for the last 10,000 years +. (admittedly it appears to have been stagnant for the eldar, orks, dark eldar and necrons as well, only the tau appear to have been developing).


Tell that to Mat Ward, who has squeezed out half a dozen brand new designs merely by passing wind over the course of a few months! He even had the audacity to claim "they'd been there all along".


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Over Two Meters Tall! said:


> Outside of it being filthy xenos tech, any idea why the Imperium doesn't develop/use this tech for their own purposes? It would be a good substitue to those nasty mutuant psychers and Navigators for any Emperor-lovin' purestrain human fanatical group.


Well it technically isn`t a kind of tech the Imperium could easily learn to use. As far as I`m aware gravity manipulation on this level is exclusive to the tyranids. 

If anything, the necrons may have something similar, but I believe their FTL tech is far more advanced.


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