# why were the Tyranid made for?



## Cpt. Loken (Sep 7, 2008)

i have herd alot of thing about what tyranids are but why? Were they just a failed experiment of the old ones or were they the back up plan made to get rid of all living thing in the Universe so the old ones can start over again and make a new Universe or did they just come out of nowhere.


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## admiraldick (Sep 9, 2008)

i believe the inferance is that they are not from this galaxy, so they are nothing to do with the Old Ones.

i personally would ascribe to the idea that they were a biological weapon, a war machine if you will, designed by a race from another galaxy that we will never see. but once unleashed upon their opponents the genie could not be put back in its bottle and quickly overwhelmed their former masters. i doubt their is much left of their true home, and their over-riding compultion to subjugate and destroy has caused the to develope far beyond what they were orginially intended for, and to navigate their way to other galaxies. perhaps this is the first they have invaded, perhaps in is just one of many, perhaps it is the last galaxy to be devoured. who knows?

the only thing that is certain is that they will not stop, and its unlikely that they ever ever can be.

(as a side not, i have always loved the idea that the Tyranids are being drawn to this galaxy because of the Eye of Terror, which provides a universally unique bridge between our world and the warp. and Chaos and the Tyranids are both set to gain immeasurably if ever they were to unite.)


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## Lord of Rebirth (Jun 7, 2008)

I'd say nids are a representation of a penultimate predator mass organism. Some time an predator organism came to the point of evolving a hive mind and ability to control lesser organisms and over time they all meshed together to form the nid race which at some time out grew it's home world and evolved beyond that even.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

I dont think the Tyranid race/biology suggests an intelligent designer (unlike the Orks) - in my opinion they naturally evolved.

:good:

But i suppose its plausable that they were created to consume all life for one reason or another :scare:


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## Huffy (Nov 25, 2008)

the nids were created to give the orks an ultimate enemy to fight for all eternity, humanity just isn't cutting the bill


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## cafel (Dec 21, 2008)

I like to imagine that they were a species very similar to the Kroot, but some horrible catasrophe or some cultural falling out caused them to fall into canabalim till their ability to absorb DNA was amplified to the point that they lost all intellect and simply became beings totally speciallized to absorb DNA.


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## Cpt. Loken (Sep 7, 2008)

I put the old ones thing in beacaue it was very interesting and why not maybe a rouge old one got the Idear that he could become a god in the eyes of his race that he created and got as far as he could and got out the galaxy and found a planet start the new but in the end he failed completely and was killed and absorb his DNA and become the Hive Mind.


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## Fang127 (Jan 6, 2009)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> I dont think the Tyranid race/biology suggests an intelligent designer (unlike the Orks) - in my opinion they naturally evolved.
> 
> :good:
> 
> But i suppose its plausable that they were created to consume all life for one reason or another :scare:


The Orks show proof of an intelligent designer but not the Tyranids? I don't get the logic...

The Orks have nothing on growing your cannons out of your wrists, advanced strength beyond the Orks, and your ships being a part of your species. Breaking down the dead of your enemies and your own soldiers, making them into soup and using that to regain your numbers doesn't seem like something a species can gain through evolution, either.

I believe the Orks were designed for one reason or another by a highly advanced race, yes, but the Tyranids seem to be in the same boat as well.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Cpt. Loken said:


> I put the old ones thing in beacaue it was very interesting and why not maybe a rouge old one got the Idear that he could become a god in the eyes of his race that he created and got as far as he could and got out the galaxy and found a planet start the new but in the end he failed completely and was killed and absorb his DNA and become the Hive Mind.


Its possible i suppose although he wouldn't have become the Hive Mind, more like he created/nurtured it.

The Hive Mind is the collected conscious of the Tyranid species, linked together by some unknown psychic means. It is plausable that an amazingly powerful Psyker could 'tap into' the hive mind and essentially order Tyranids around! Tigurius of the Ultramarines is said to have "some form of relationship" with the Hive mind, and has used his power to misdirect a tyranid fleet. However although Tigurius is a powerful librarian there are a lot more powerful Psykers in the galaxy. In Order to withstand the sheer weight of the Tyranids numbers reflected in the hive mind, you'll need to be a Psyker of The Emperors skills or maybe Magnus' - (leading to speculation that the Emperor was acting through/guiding Tigurius)

"The Hive Mind, formed from untold trillions of individual consciousnesses, is a single coordinating will that directs the hive fleets. Mankind still searches vainly for the higher beings they suppose control the hive fleets, and though such mighty creatures exist they no more control the hive mind than single brain cells control a man's body. It is the sum of the hive mind which motivates it, not its constituent parts."

:good:



Fang127 said:


> The Orks show proof of an intelligent designer but not the Tyranids? I don't get the logic...
> 
> The Orks have nothing on growing your cannons out of your wrists, advanced strength beyond the Orks, and your ships being a part of your species. Breaking down the dead of your enemies and your own soldiers, making them into soup and using that to regain your numbers doesn't seem like something a species can gain through evolution, either.
> 
> I believe the Orks were designed for one reason or another by a highly advanced race, yes, but the Tyranids seem to be in the same boat as well.


The Orks are a moving eco-system. They have innate knowledge of everything they need to know. There Off-spring is produced by Spores. There immediatly ready for war. The Waaagh is also evidence for them being engineerd. 

The Tyranids may have just biologically evolved (or they could have been created), but point being; the Orks were almost certainly created, whilst the Tyranids werent necessarily.

These 2 links may elaborate more: Link, Link.


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## Fang127 (Jan 6, 2009)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> The Orks are a moving eco-system. They have innate knowledge of everything they need to know. There Off-spring is produced by Spores. There immediatly ready for war. The Waaagh is also evidence for them being engineerd.
> 
> The Tyranids may have just biologically evolved (or they could have been created), but point being; the Orks were almost certainly created, whilst the Tyranids werent necessarily.
> 
> These 2 links may elaborate more: Link, Link.


The Tyranids are made with everything they need to know, and they grow their weapons out of their wrists. The Tyranids kill things, then turn it into a soup and suck it through a straw and a Tyranid comes out of the other end. They're a moving ecosystem destroyer - In a way they're the exact opposite of the Orks...


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Fang127 said:


> The Tyranids are made with everything they need to know, and they grow their weapons out of their wrists. The Tyranids kill things, then turn it into a soup and suck it through a straw and a Tyranid comes out of the other end. They're a moving ecosystem destroyer - In a way they're the exact opposite of the Orks...


Maybe so  But at the end of the day fluff states that the Orks were created but no such fluff exists on the Tyranids.

I suppose it is possible for a race like the Tyranids to evolve naturally, but as you said there are some prominent arguments for them having been designed :victory:


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## Wraithian (Jul 23, 2008)

Older fluff states that the Orks were created by the Old Ones. 'Nids, on the otherhand, there is no such blunt statement. They just sorta showed up to the galactic party and started to crash it. I say, "Older fluff," because I'm not sure if it's been retconned yet (as with so much other stuff).

Now, whether or not tyranids were engineered by some other race outside of the galaxy, or simply evolved outside the galaxy, there's no way to say (definitively) for sure. The only thing that we are certain of is that they are, indeed, from another galaxy.

It's reasons like this that I really wish GW would advance the timeline a bit, or atleast flesh out the races that have been around for years.


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## Fang127 (Jan 6, 2009)

The Orks have much more fluff than the Tyranids. The Tyranids haven't been explored to nearly the extent of the Orks. The Tyranids suffer from the fact that they have hardly any fluff of their own, outside their various incursions. 

I'm not saying it has to be true, but the 'Nids definitely have some adaptations that I find hard to believe were gained through natural evolution...


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Wraithian said:


> Older fluff states that the Orks were created by the Old Ones.


Didn't the original fluff state the Orks evolved by eating special mushrooms? The Snotlings found and eat these mushrooms (on their home world) and became vastly more intelligent than their Ork cousins and started bossing them around, eventually the Orks found and consumed the rest of the Mushrooms pushing the Snotlings down to their true place at the bottom of the hierarchy! It was something along those lines! (imo more of a joke than a serious bit of fluff, thats why they changed it i guess :good

I thought it was the newer fluff which stated the Orks were created by the Old Ones?


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## BLvice (Mar 20, 2009)

What interests me if the fact the Tyranids deliberately avoid tomb worlds. Now, before I go on, a tomb world is a world with Necrons housed below the surfaces crust. This doesn't mean tomb worlds are dead. In fact many have healthy ecosystems and relatively high populations. That being said, why would the Tyranids avoid a tomb world filled with dormant Necrons if they have never encountered them before. The Tyranids evolve and learn by coming into contact with things. If they have never fought a Necron force how would they know to avoid a tomb world?

Also, this may be a bit off topic but a Necron army would absolutely slaughter a Nid invasion that wasn't of epic proportions.


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## primarch-angron (Mar 12, 2009)

*I heard that .....*

I heard that the tyranids origanal came from the necron Kertans
What happened was the Desever tricked the Forgotten one in to eatting the other Kertan. He ate all but 4 of them (The nightbringer, The mecana drangon, The Desever and himself). But they didn't truely die. They started talking in his head and this drove him made. He then turned himself in to a ball (a.k.a. the Hive Mind) and started sprouting off tyranids. And this is why the tyranids only attack the army of necrons that aren't led bye the Desever, not because there scared of them but because they are on the same side. 
Peace out:victory:


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

primarch-angron said:


> I heard that the tyranids origanal came from the necron Kertans
> What happened was the Desever tricked the Forgotten one in to eatting the other Kertan. He ate all but 4 of them (The nightbringer, The mecana drangon, The Desever and himself). But they didn't truely die. They started talking in his head and this drove him made. He then turned himself in to a ball (a.k.a. the Hive Mind) and started sprouting off tyranids. And this is why the tyranids only attack the army of necrons that aren't led bye the Desever, not because there scared of them but because they are on the same side.
> Peace out:victory:


You mean the Outsider? And your theory is that after he consumed several other C'tan and went insane he became the Hive Mind and created the Tyranids? 

Hmmm.. :good:

In my opinion i dont think so, The Hive Mind is not some individual power, its the collective conscious of the Tyranid Species:

"The Hive Mind, formed from untold billions of individual consciousnesses, is a single coordinating will that directs the entire hive fleet. Mankind still searches vainly for the higher beings they suppose control the hive fleets, and though such mighty creatures exist they no more control the hive mind than single brain cells control a man's body. It is the sum of the hive mind which motivates it, not its constituent parts."

Also the C'tan arn't necessarily allied or on the same side. I imagine their followers would be likely to fight each other.


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## your master (Jun 14, 2008)

primarch-angron said:


> I heard that the tyranids origanal came from the necron Kertans
> What happened was the Desever tricked the Forgotten one in to eatting the other Kertan. He ate all but 4 of them (The nightbringer, The mecana drangon, The Desever and himself). But they didn't truely die. They started talking in his head and this drove him made. He then turned himself in to a ball (a.k.a. the Hive Mind) and started sprouting off tyranids. And this is why the tyranids only attack the army of necrons that aren't led bye the Desever, not because there scared of them but because they are on the same side.
> Peace out:victory:


where the hell did you get that from:no:


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

sounds interesting. Besides from Tigirus, I heard of Cypher to be able to do this. He is also a pyscher, its called "the whisper."
The only reason why this makes sense to me bout the Ctan and the tyranids kind of being allies is that they are both scarred/weak against the warp influence. Tyranids can get manipulated and C'tan have always been afraid of he warp powers.

But if you could Primarch-Angron show me statement of this. I don't care if its your opinion or anything, im just interested if its a gw piece of fluff or just a good theory


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## Winst0n (Mar 12, 2009)

i think they were made to eat biomass and continue on their merry way.


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## Winst0n (Mar 12, 2009)

primarch-angron said:


> I heard that the tyranids origanal came from the necron Kertans
> What happened was the Desever tricked the Forgotten one in to eatting the other Kertan. He ate all but 4 of them (The nightbringer, The mecana drangon, The Desever and himself). But they didn't truely die. They started talking in his head and this drove him made. He then turned himself in to a ball (a.k.a. the Hive Mind) and started sprouting off tyranids. And this is why the tyranids only attack the army of necrons that aren't led bye the Desever, not because there scared of them but because they are on the same side.
> Peace out:victory:


why would they attack necrons ever. all necrons are servants to the ctan even the forgotten one.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

ckcrawford said:


> sounds interesting. Besides from Tigirus, I heard of Cypher to be able to do this. He is also a pyscher, its called "the whisper."
> The only reason why this makes sense to me bout the Ctan and the tyranids kind of being allies is that they are both scarred/weak against the warp influence. Tyranids can get manipulated and C'tan have always been afraid of he warp powers.
> 
> But if you could Primarch-Angron show me statement of this. I don't care if its your opinion or anything, im just interested if its a gw piece of fluff or just a good theory


Where did you hear that about Cypher? 

Tyranids arn't scared of the warp, if the Hive Mind has been manipulated by a Psyker (Tigirus for example) the Tyranids certainly wouldn't have been aware of it. 

And Also yes the C'tan's only weakness seems to be the Warp. But also remember the Warp Powers (Chaos Gods) didn't exist when the C'tan were originally around, the Warp was calm back then. The reason they may have slightly feared the Warp back then was because the Old Ones harnessed the warp like humanity harness material technology now. 

The C'tan have taken steps in an attempt to seal off the warp or at least destroy Chaos making the warp calm again (there being no-one left who could truely master the warp in a calm state like the Old Ones did)

- They have seeded the Pariah Gene in humanity (if everyone were blanks, Chaos would cease to exist and the Warp would become calm again.)
- They are attempting (havn't got a clue how, or if its even possible) to seal off the warp. Thereby damning all mortals to eternal servitude. Without the Warp the mortals races have no means by which to damage/destroy a C'tan. 

Also without the Warp: 

1) the Webway wouldnt exist (As the Webway is part of both the warp and Material plane) screwing the Eldar.
2) No Warp travel would be possible, screwing the Imperium and others
3) No Psykers (also meaning the Emperor has no chance of reviving, and if he did he would be powerless.)
4) Mortals (without long range travel) would be merely scattered and isolated, and anarchy would follow (similar to the age of strife when Warp Storms screwed the Imperium), merely becoming prey for the C'tan.


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## Black Crusader (Mar 17, 2008)

The tyranids were made because at some point people started getting tired of playing space marines and orks. GW saw that their profits had somewhat slowed. They then hired someone (the hive mind) to create a new army with little fluff behind it to boost sales. The same can be said for the Tau.
Who the hell knows? Just roll the fricking dice:grin:


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## vacantghost (Feb 16, 2008)

I really think the tyranids are nothing but a spec in the "galaxy" because there is always going to be something bigger, more bizzare and more voracious. They to me are like any other race in the 40k universe we know of today but share more similarities with the orks than others. they are a warlike race bent on the destruction of the universe and no nothing but chaos. But what keeps me wondering is when they do kill of the universe, will they be feeding on themselves?


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## thomas2 (Nov 4, 2007)

vacantghost said:


> But what keeps me wondering is when they do kill of the universe, will they be feeding on themselves?


If the Hive Mind remains unified, no. But the various problems with having a fleet comprising most of the matter in the entire universe and future evolution means they could split into parts.

I've heard a lot of people mentioning 'nids avoiding Tomb Worlds in this thread, but I've never seen any evidence for this. Is there evidence or is it just speculation and confusion with the avoidance of the Outsiders dyson sphere?


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## primarch-angron (Mar 12, 2009)

Winst0n said:


> why would they attack necrons ever. all necrons are servants to the ctan even the forgotten one.


Thats what i mean there on the same side.
Apart from the ctan desiver he's just evil
peace out:victory:


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

primarch-angron said:


> Thats what i mean there on the same side.
> Apart from the ctan desiver he's just evil
> peace out:victory:


If you can claim the 'Deceiver' is evil, surely the other C'tan are aswell!

And there not necessarily on the same side, each C'tan can have seperate followers. its perfectly plausable that the C'tan could fight amongst each other. 

I mean they did consume each each other until there were only 4 left!


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## KarlFranz40k (Jan 30, 2009)

Heres the truth.....long before the tyranids were sighted in the galaxy....there was a race of biological predators....called the ZERG.








True story, ask any starcraft fan as they play dawn of war 2 and they'll say "they so copied the zerg Blizzard should sue them!"

Ignorant punks.

Anyway I thought up the C'tan idea myself a year or two back when my friend started playing necrons and he told me about the C'tan who left the galaxy or something like that. It's wierd how in the tyranid codex its mostly seen from an observers point of veiw while the necrons they just tell you the history straight off. I like the idea that nids have been encountered in the imperium millenia before Maccrage. 

Maybe they'll make something up for it next codex when it comes out in 2-4 years time, or maybe not.


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## Winst0n (Mar 12, 2009)

KarlFranz40k said:


> Heres the truth.....long before the tyranids were sighted in the galaxy....there was a race of biological predators....called the ZERG.


you mean i could put a ultralisk in my nid army. alright.:biggrin: lol


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## Cpt. Loken (Sep 7, 2008)

no no no Blizzard copied the Tyranid. Tyranids were first described in Rick Priestley's Rogue Trader, the first edition of the Warhammer 40,000.At that time they were not an emphasised race in the game, instead representing a limited number of occasionally-encountered alien antagonists. Early Board Game Incarnations: Genestealers were introduced in the 1980s with Space Hulk, and later featured in Space Crusade, along with the short-lived Genestealer Magus. The first recognisable incarnation of Tyranid warriors appeared in Advanced Space Crusade in 1990, featuring biological weaponry such as boneswords and deathspitters.

Tyranids were first mentioned under the heading Tyranids and the Hive Fleets, and were illustrated in a form not too different from their latest incarnation.

The first Tyranids used conventional, non-biological equipment such as lasguns and flak armour (although the rulebook stated that these represented organic equipment with similar capabilities).The principal unit available to the Tyranids was the Zoat, a centaur-like creature enslaved to fight on the behalf of their Tyranid masters.

Second Edition:

Second Edition Warhammer 40,000, released in 1993, featured the Tyranids in the supplemental books Wargear and Codex Imperialis, and then later in their own devoted army Codex. An extensive model range was released, representing most of the units described in these publications. The army was, however, very different from the factions previously seen in the game. Notable were the huge numbers of rank-and-file units a Tyranid player was able to deploy compared to most other armies due to their low points cost (second only to the Imperial Guard, according to many players) and the large and flamboyantly designed centre-piece models, very different from anything Citadel had released before.

The tyranid player now had access to a range of unit types roughly equivalent to that of the other factions, including:Hive Tyrant, Termagants, Hormagaunts, the main adversary in Space Hulk Genestealers, Gargoyles previously seen in Epic 40,000, Tyranid Warriors, the Carnifex, Zoanthropes (a Tyranid psyker in addition to the Hive Tyrant), Lictors, and the Biovore.


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

The Cypher thing I got from one of the Dark Angels fluffs, some guy was explaining it to me, he gave me the site for it, but i think its the one on cypher and his intentions. I dont feel like through it though. lol. too many posts.
I didn't actually say the tyranids were weak. I said the C'tan and the tyranids were scarred/weak against the warp. C'tan seemed to be more scarred about the warp I'm pretty sure they even use the word fear or scarred in that website you showed me once. The tyranids don't know fear but they are easily manipulated by the warp, and therefore weak


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## primarch-angron (Mar 12, 2009)

I heared it a long time ago from an old gw enploy called Matt but he had to leave dew to a argument over the who should take up command of the shop after the manger left.
peace out:victory:


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## primarch-angron (Mar 12, 2009)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> If you can claim the 'Deceiver' is evil, surely the other C'tan are aswell!
> 
> And there not necessarily on the same side, each C'tan can have seperate followers. its perfectly plausable that the C'tan could fight amongst each other.
> 
> I mean they did consume each each other until there were only 4 left!


The Deceiver tricked the other C'tan in to eatting the other C'tan and thats why it hates him and want to destory him.
Peace out:victory:


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

primarch-angron said:


> The Deceiver tricked the other C'tan in to eatting the other C'tan and thats why it hates him and want to destory him.
> Peace out:victory:


Thats why who hates him and wants to destroy him?


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

admiraldick said:


> i personally would ascribe to the idea that they were a biological weapon, a war machine if you will, designed by a race from another galaxy that we will never see. but once unleashed upon their opponents the genie could not be put back in its bottle and quickly overwhelmed their former masters. i doubt their is much left of their true home, and their over-riding compultion to subjugate and destroy has caused the to develope far beyond what they were orginially intended for, and to navigate their way to other galaxies.


Aliens, anyone? Those of us who've read the Earth Hive series have learned that the titular Aliens were indeed grown in vats by an ancient spacefaring civilization, much like Admiraldick's hypothesis.


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## Cpt. Loken (Sep 7, 2008)

ok how did this go from tyranids and WHY to the C'tan and Admiraldick's hypothesis.


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## primarch-angron (Mar 12, 2009)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Thats why who hates him and wants to destroy him?


The forgotteno one wants to destroy the Desiver
Peace out:victory:


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## admiraldick (Sep 9, 2008)

Captain Galus said:


> Aliens, anyone? Those of us who've read the Earth Hive series have learned that the titular Aliens were indeed grown in vats by an ancient spacefaring civilization, much like Admiraldick's hypothesis.


whilst i can claim no credit for the theory at all (its been hanging around since the 2nd Ed Codex: Tyranids was released), i think that they are probably even more manufactured than the Aliens from the movies (whom i believe are naturally occurring, but have been picked up and used as weapon. i'm afraid i'm not 100% certain of the facts because i don't really care for the movies much).



Cpt. Loken said:


> ok how did this go from tyranids and WHY to the C'tan and Admiraldick's hypothesis.


its a fairly short logical step. you asked 'why were Tyranids made?' and we have given a couple of answers about why they were made, that inevitably must contain some reference to who made them. some say 'C'tan did it' others say 'extra-galactic aliens did it' each for their own nefarious purposes.


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