1 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,600 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:11,920 Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and 3 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from 4 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing in on mythical creatures, 5 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:25,599 Speaker 1: ideas and monsters in time. Over the past two weeks, 6 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: we've looked at the Tyrannid invaders of the Warhammer forty 7 00:00:28,760 --> 00:00:33,080 Speaker 1: K universe, biological armies and high fleets from beyond the 8 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:35,839 Speaker 1: limits of the Milky Way on an inhuman quest to 9 00:00:35,880 --> 00:00:40,480 Speaker 1: consume all biomass in their path. They constitute an outer 10 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,800 Speaker 1: threat to the imperium of man unlike none other, but 11 00:00:43,840 --> 00:00:49,240 Speaker 1: they also pose a terrifying inner threat as well. As 12 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: described in the ninth edition Gene Steeler Colts Codex from 13 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,240 Speaker 1: Games Workshop, the Tyrannids have a means of corrupting a 14 00:00:56,320 --> 00:01:00,080 Speaker 1: host world ahead of a high fleet's arrival, ripening it 15 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:04,000 Speaker 1: for the plucking. We're told that a form of Tyrannid 16 00:01:04,120 --> 00:01:09,040 Speaker 1: known as a gene stealer initiates this corruption, stealthily stowing 17 00:01:09,080 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: away in cargo or aboard derelic spacecraft in order to 18 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:18,919 Speaker 1: reach a new human occupied world. Once there, the creature 19 00:01:18,920 --> 00:01:22,600 Speaker 1: will begin to infect members of a planet's agricultural or 20 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:27,840 Speaker 1: industrial workforce with its genetic material via an ovipositor in 21 00:01:27,880 --> 00:01:33,759 Speaker 1: its tongue. This act initiates a multigenerational process that introduces 22 00:01:33,800 --> 00:01:39,679 Speaker 1: a variety of human tyrannid hybrids. While initial generations are 23 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:44,640 Speaker 1: monstrous and remain below ground, later generations are essentially humanoid 24 00:01:44,680 --> 00:01:48,640 Speaker 1: in appearance and can actively infiltrate different segments of the 25 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: human society, collectively the gene Stealer hybrid stage and underground 26 00:01:54,400 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: resistance and eventual violent rebellion against imperial planetary rule, all 27 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,480 Speaker 1: of which is time to converge with the arrival of 28 00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:06,880 Speaker 1: an invading high fleet, which is drawn to the gene 29 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:11,000 Speaker 1: Steeler cult like a beacon in the vast night. This 30 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: darkly fantastic scenario invokes various accounts of natural world parasitism 31 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,679 Speaker 1: and mimicry, but I think it especially mirrors the manipulation 32 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:24,200 Speaker 1: of youth social insect communities by certain organisms. Aunt colonies 33 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:26,720 Speaker 1: and bee hives, after all, aren't too different from the 34 00:02:26,760 --> 00:02:30,840 Speaker 1: notion of an imperial forge world, where vast populations toil 35 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:33,680 Speaker 1: to supply the imperium with its armor and its weaponry. 36 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:38,040 Speaker 1: For Aunts, especially their warlike nature is also reminiscent of 37 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:41,520 Speaker 1: the forty k setting, But at heart, the main comparison 38 00:02:41,760 --> 00:02:44,880 Speaker 1: is that we have a complex social order within one 39 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:49,120 Speaker 1: species that is deceived and manipulated by another organism for 40 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:53,120 Speaker 1: its own ends. For example, there's the death's head hawk moth, 41 00:02:53,520 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: a genus of moth famous for both its skull like 42 00:02:56,520 --> 00:03:00,320 Speaker 1: markings and its ability to infiltrate and raid honeybee lives 43 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:04,320 Speaker 1: by mimicking their smell. For a similar ant world example, 44 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:08,000 Speaker 1: certain spiders also use chemical mimicry to enter the colony 45 00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:12,360 Speaker 1: unopposed and eat whatever larvae they desire. But these are 46 00:03:12,400 --> 00:03:15,960 Speaker 1: both cases of rating and predation. What about bending the 47 00:03:16,080 --> 00:03:20,359 Speaker 1: system to the outsiders? Will? I think we might well 48 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: compare the gene steeler colt to many forms of brood parasitism. 49 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:27,160 Speaker 1: The classic example we're all familiar with is, of course, 50 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: the cuckoo bird, which doesn't care for its own egg, 51 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:32,359 Speaker 1: but rather places its egg in the nest of another 52 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:36,000 Speaker 1: bird species, an act that is both stealthy and violent. 53 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:40,080 Speaker 1: The gene steeler colts certainly grows within a civilization on 54 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: a given host planet, but it's of course a bit 55 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: more complicated than that, so they also remind one of 56 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:50,720 Speaker 1: particular examples of social parasitism in the world of ants, 57 00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: termites and bumblebees. The bumble bee Bombus bohemicus, for example, 58 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,520 Speaker 1: the species neither builds its own nest nor produces its 59 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: own works. Instead, a queen invades a host nest of 60 00:04:03,360 --> 00:04:08,720 Speaker 1: another bombas species and defeats the existing queen. Afterwards, the 61 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: workers identify her as the queen and they raise her young. 62 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,800 Speaker 1: This is an example of nest usurpation, which is at 63 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:21,880 Speaker 1: least thematically fitting when compared to the revolutionary gene Steeler cults. 64 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: But here's another thing to think about. As the Gene 65 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:28,760 Speaker 1: Steeler Codex points out, the whole gene Steeler hybrid enterprise 66 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:33,240 Speaker 1: might begin with monster attacks and end with the arrival 67 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:36,680 Speaker 1: of a world consuming high fleet. But before the uprising 68 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:39,840 Speaker 1: and the so called day of ascension, third and fourth 69 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 1: generation gene Steeler hybrids, who again are humanoid enough in 70 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:48,240 Speaker 1: appearance to fully infiltrate human societies, may contribute greatly to 71 00:04:48,360 --> 00:04:52,080 Speaker 1: the host civilization. They work hard, and they perform their 72 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,280 Speaker 1: duties to the imperium quite well, at least until it's 73 00:04:55,320 --> 00:04:59,920 Speaker 1: time to rise up. During that pre revolutionary period, we 74 00:05:00,080 --> 00:05:02,520 Speaker 1: might be tempted to think of the gene Stealer hybrids 75 00:05:02,760 --> 00:05:06,440 Speaker 1: as in Kline parasites, and that they're not actively harming 76 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:09,960 Speaker 1: the host civilization while residing within it. Again, members of 77 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:13,120 Speaker 1: the cult might well be beneficial to the host civilization, 78 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:16,040 Speaker 1: at least in the short term, though I think we'd 79 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: be pushing it to call his mutualism. After all, if 80 00:05:19,560 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: the Gene Steeler Cult has its way, the rebellion will 81 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:25,599 Speaker 1: be bloody and the arriving high fleet will consume everything, 82 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:31,680 Speaker 1: including the hybrids themselves. Biologist E. O. Wilson famously described 83 00:05:31,760 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 1: parasites as quote predators that eat prey in units of 84 00:05:35,240 --> 00:05:40,120 Speaker 1: less than one unquote. The colts desired end meal is 85 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,520 Speaker 1: somewhat larger. For a more thematic introduction to the Gene 86 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,640 Speaker 1: Steeler Colts, I highly recommend the short story The Child 87 00:05:47,800 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: Foretold by Nicholas Kaufman. It's a mild spoiler to reveal 88 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,839 Speaker 1: that it's a gene stealer story, but it still packs 89 00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,120 Speaker 1: a horrific punch. Tune in for additional episodes of The 90 00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 1: Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us 91 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:14,360 Speaker 1: at contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 92 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:16,120 Speaker 1: H Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of 93 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:18,800 Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, 94 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:21,680 Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever 95 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:23,080 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.