Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters
Speaker 2: in time. On this special omnibus episode, we'll be sharing
Speaker 2: the three previous Monster Fact episodes dealing with the Great
Speaker 2: Zenos threat to the imperium of man, the Tyrannis. Now.
Speaker 2: I want to stress that since these were originally published,
Speaker 2: Games Workshop has put out a new edition of Warhammer
Speaker 2: forty thousand and some new lure regarding the Tyrannic Wars.
Speaker 2: The new material is not reflected in what's to follow,
Speaker 2: but I believe most of what is discussed here still
Speaker 2: holds true, so please enjoy, especially if you're currently painting
Speaker 2: up your new Leviathan miniatures or simply awaiting the release
Speaker 2: of the new video game Space Marine two upburst. Let's
Speaker 2: cover Tyrannid basics. In the fictional world of Warhammer forty thousand,
Speaker 2: the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy is consumed by warfare, destruction,
Speaker 2: and decline everywhere you look. Militant spacefaring civilizations wage crusades
Speaker 2: of brutal expansion while fighting off doom and corruption from
Speaker 2: without and within. With war raging on every front, one
Speaker 2: final threat presents itself an invasion from beyond the galaxy itself,
Speaker 2: the Tyrannid high Fleets. As related in Games Workshop's ninth
Speaker 2: edition of the Tyrannid's Codex, the Tyrannids are an entirely
Speaker 2: biological threat. They take many physical forms, ranging from foot
Speaker 2: soldiers and walking tanks to enormous hive ships and biotitans,
Speaker 2: all of it under the sway of the unified hive mind.
Speaker 2: Their weapons, too, are biological. They cleave into their enemies
Speaker 2: with sights and bone swords, and their ranged weapons blast
Speaker 2: a vast array of squirming, writhing, and piercing bio munitions
Speaker 2: in addition to venom and bioplasma. High Fleet after high
Speaker 2: Fleet enters into the galaxy were told conquering planets and
Speaker 2: harvesting the entirety of each planet's biomass, which is then
Speaker 2: incorporated into the next generation of Tyrannid Hordes. They advance
Speaker 2: continuously like a viral infection of the Milky Way itself.
Speaker 2: In the forty first millennium, a time of interplanetary fascist empires,
Speaker 2: chaos gods, and robotic resurgencies. The Tyrannids seem to pose
Speaker 2: the greatest and most monstrous threat of all. But why
Speaker 2: is this? Author Ben Woodard explos the question in his
Speaker 2: twenty twelve biological philosophy books Slime Dynamics, Generation, Mutation, and
Speaker 2: The Creek of Life. The answer, he explains, may be
Speaker 2: found in the entirely biological nature of the Tyrannids. Widard
Speaker 2: argues that, unlike with human beings of our world and
Speaker 2: most of the civilizations of the forty K universe, the
Speaker 2: Tyrannids have no separation between technology and the body. He writes, quote,
Speaker 2: the horrible extended internalness of the tyrannid, that is, the
Speaker 2: revolting extension of the biological to the level of what
Speaker 2: is commonly thought of as removed from US technology, war machines, etc.
Speaker 2: Becomes only a natural extension unquote. So while the robotic
Speaker 2: necrons of forty K have lost all organic being, all
Speaker 2: organic drive, and organic origin to technology, the Tyrannids are
Speaker 2: the reverse. The Tyrannids are the advancement of the biological
Speaker 2: beyond all perceived limits, while the factions of the Milky
Speaker 2: Way are driven by nationalistic, xenophobic, religious, and expansionist ideologies.
Speaker 2: The Tyrannids seem driven by sheer biological hunger, divorced from
Speaker 2: any semblance of rational intent. They lack all individuality, save
Speaker 2: the unfathomable individuality of the extragalactic or perhaps transgalactic hive
Speaker 2: mind itself that commands its every movement. It is pure
Speaker 2: organic impulse, unchecked by individual free will, culture, or traditional technology.
Speaker 2: And for the strife ridden denizens of forty K's Milky
Speaker 2: Way galaxy, the Tyrannids are something else, entirely alien. They
Speaker 2: are absolute unity. Their home universe is conceivably a realm
Speaker 2: of absolute peace and order, albeit an entirely inhuman one. Next,
Speaker 2: let's take a deeper book at the Tyrannic wars themselves.
Speaker 2: Last week on the Monster Fact, I discussed the Tyrannids
Speaker 2: of the fictional Warhammer forty K universe, an extra galactic
Speaker 2: invasion fleet of biological horror and hunger that seems posed
Speaker 2: to consume all the biomass in the Milky Way galaxy. Indeed,
Speaker 2: this might well be the ultimate doom awaiting the various
Speaker 2: civilizations in forty K. But that doesn't mean they're going
Speaker 2: to go down without a fight. Heck, as Game's Workshop
Speaker 2: is quick to remind us, quote, in the grim darkness
Speaker 2: of the far future, there is only war. The Imperium
Speaker 2: of Man is especially well suited for such a conflict.
Speaker 2: This interstellar human empire covers a great deal of territory
Speaker 2: in the Milky Way and commands vast legions of military
Speaker 2: might the Imperial Guard, a powerful imperial navy of starships,
Speaker 2: the Almighty Space Marines, and various other militant orders and
Speaker 2: planetary defense forces. By the time of the forty K
Speaker 2: game setting, the Imperium has fended off two separate high
Speaker 2: fleet incursions and are struggling with a third. The Imperium's
Speaker 2: tactics are worth discussing here, especially as they reference real
Speaker 2: world military tactics and scenarios. Both examples I'm going to
Speaker 2: discuss here involved. According to the forty K lore in
Speaker 2: Games Workshop's ninth edition Tyranids Codex, the Machinations of Imperial
Speaker 2: Inquisitor fight as Cryptman during the Third Tyrannic War against
Speaker 2: high Fleet Leviathan. The authors of the codex tell us
Speaker 2: that Cryptman, understanding the needs and aims of the Tyrannids
Speaker 2: devised a horrific means of slowing them down and weakening
Speaker 2: their invasion fleet. Since the Tyrannids required living worlds to
Speaker 2: harvest in their path of conquest, Kryptman ordered the eradication
Speaker 2: of life on multiple occupied planets in the enemy Fletat's path.
Speaker 2: If the Imperium was able to keep these planets devoid
Speaker 2: of biomass, Kryptman realized the enemy would have nothing to
Speaker 2: grow on in, no fresh biomass out of which to
Speaker 2: rebuild its forces. But of course this strategy doomed trillions
Speaker 2: of innocent people on those unlucky worlds. It was apparently
Speaker 2: even too harsh for the Imperium, resulting in Encryptman's excommunication.
Speaker 2: The Tyranids, again, are entirely organic, and while they seem
Speaker 2: to boast amazing hibernation abilities, their voyages across the intergalactic
Speaker 2: void must leave them in a hungry state upon arrival
Speaker 2: in the Milky Way. Even if, according to the lore,
Speaker 2: they benefit from some manner of space folding travel during
Speaker 2: intergalactic travel, they're still traveling at the very least tens
Speaker 2: of thousands of light years to get here, and then
Speaker 2: tens of thousands more within the galaxy proper without the
Speaker 2: aid of space folding or faster than light travel. One
Speaker 2: is reminded of real world accounts of invading Western during
Speaker 2: the Age of Sails. Upon arrival in new Lands and
Speaker 2: the New World, nourishment might not be forthcoming, and even
Speaker 2: if it could be stolen, scavenged, or bartered for it
Speaker 2: was likely somewhat different from what they were accustomed to.
Speaker 2: While the concept of eradicating worlds ahead of the Tyrannet
Speaker 2: advance is a whole new sort of hardor the basic
Speaker 2: scorched earth strategy here has been used throughout the history
Speaker 2: of war. In general, it is the punitive destruction of
Speaker 2: enemy resources, and in particular it generally entails something like
Speaker 2: the wholesale destruction of agriculture, the destruction of homes, and
Speaker 2: the poisoning of wells. Anything to prevent an advancing army
Speaker 2: from successfully foraging for resources, even if it means decimating
Speaker 2: your own territory in the process. The Gauls used this
Speaker 2: tactic against the Romans during the Great Gallic War, and
Speaker 2: the Romans use this tactic against the Carthaginians during the
Speaker 2: Second Punic War. As ancient warfare expert doctor Devereaux discusses
Speaker 2: on his excellent A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry blog the
Speaker 2: availability of food and water greatly influenced where pre industrial
Speaker 2: armies could go and how long they could tarry in
Speaker 2: a given region. He also points out that while an
Speaker 2: army famously marches on its stomach, other resources were sought
Speaker 2: after as well, including fodder for animals and firewood. Timber
Speaker 2: might also be desired in general in order to construct
Speaker 2: siege machinery upon reaching a fortified destination. Deny the advancing
Speaker 2: army this timber, and you might deny them their more
Speaker 2: ferocious siege engines. For the Tyrannids, biomass provides everything their sustenance,
Speaker 2: as well as the material out of which their living
Speaker 2: war engines are born. Within the narrative of Warhammer forty
Speaker 2: k Kryptman's choice was horrifying, but perhaps strategically sound. Prevent
Speaker 2: an army, even a weird extragalactic one, from feeding and
Speaker 2: fueling itself, and you limit where and if it can go. Still,
Speaker 2: while the Tyrannid high fleet slowed, we are told it
Speaker 2: kept coming. Gripman's excommunication didn't stop him from fighting the war.
Speaker 2: According to the Codex. His next act was to intentionally
Speaker 2: ceed a Tyrannid presence in Orc occupied space, drawing the
Speaker 2: Tyrannids into what would be known as the Octarius War.
Speaker 2: This was also a decision that at best only bought
Speaker 2: the Imperium time and at worst made both enemies, the
Speaker 2: Orcs and the Tyrannids stronger due to quirks of their
Speaker 2: individual biologies. Now, since the Imperium did not actually aid
Speaker 2: the Orcs in their war with the Tyrannids, I don't
Speaker 2: think this would constitute a true proxy war, but there
Speaker 2: do seem to be examples from Warhammer fiction in which
Speaker 2: Orcs and say the Imperial Guard find themselves in a
Speaker 2: shaky alliance against the Tyrannids. So perhaps either way, the
Speaker 2: Octarious War eventually overflows and drags in army of the
Speaker 2: Imperium and other enemy factions. It is, after all, a
Speaker 2: dark millennium. In closing, I think the Third Tyrannic War
Speaker 2: is a very smartly constructed Sci fi military scenario. I
Speaker 2: do appreciate it when an author takes a fantastic warfare
Speaker 2: scenario seriously, and as long as they involve monsters, I
Speaker 2: would be happy to discuss them on future episodes of
Speaker 2: The Monster Fact. We have one more episode next week
Speaker 2: dealing with the Tyrannids on the Monster Fact, so tune
Speaker 2: in for that. Also, if you want to hear Brett
Speaker 2: Devereaux weigh in on the imperium of man itself, he
Speaker 2: was a guest on the February twenty twenty one episode
Speaker 2: of Chapter Tactics number one ninety four how the imperium
Speaker 2: of Man compares to other empires in history. This is
Speaker 2: a fun podcast. It's quite a good listen if you
Speaker 2: are into either ancient warfare or Warhammer forty thousand. Finally,
Speaker 2: let's consider the infiltration efforts of the Tyrannic menace the
Speaker 2: Gene Stealer cults. Over the past two weeks, we've looked
Speaker 2: at the Tyrannid invaders of the Warhammer forty k universe,
Speaker 2: biological armies and high fleets from beyond the limits of
Speaker 2: the Milky Way on an inhuman quest to consume all
Speaker 2: biomass in their path. They constitute an outer threat to
Speaker 2: the imperium of Man like none other, but they also
Speaker 2: pose a terrifying inner threat as well, as described in
Speaker 2: the ninth edition Gene Stealer cults codex from Games Workshop.
Speaker 2: The Tyrannids have a means of corrupting a host world
Speaker 2: ahead of a high fleet's arrival, ripening it for the plucking.
Speaker 2: We're told that a form of tyrannid known as a
Speaker 2: gene stealer initiates this corruption, stealthily stowing away in cargo
Speaker 2: or aboard darylic spacecraft in order to reach a new
Speaker 2: human occupied world. Once there, the creature will begin to
Speaker 2: infect members of a planet's agricultural or industrial workforce with
Speaker 2: its genetic material via an ovipositor in its tongue. This
Speaker 2: act initiates a multi generational process that introduces a variety
Speaker 2: of human Tyrannid hybrids. While initial generations are monstrous and
Speaker 2: remain below ground, later generations are essentially humanoid in appearance
Speaker 2: and can actively infiltrate different segments of the human society.
Speaker 2: Collectively the gene stealer hybrid stage and underground resistance and
Speaker 2: eventual violent rebellion against imperial planetary rule, all of which
Speaker 2: is time to converge with the arrival of an invading
Speaker 2: high fleet, which is drawn to the gene stealer cult
Speaker 2: like a beacon in the vast night. This darkly fantastic
Speaker 2: scenario invokes various accounts of natural world parasitism and mimicry,
Speaker 2: but I think it especially mirrors the manipulation of use
Speaker 2: social insect communities by certain organisms. Ant colonies and beehives,
Speaker 2: after all, aren't too different from the notion of an
Speaker 2: imperial forage world, where vast populations toil to supply the
Speaker 2: imperium with its armor and its weaponry. For ants, especially,
Speaker 2: their warlike nature is also reminiscent of the forty K setting.
Speaker 2: But at heart, the main comparison is that we have
Speaker 2: a complex social order within one species that is deceived
Speaker 2: and manipulated by another organism for its own ends. For example,
Speaker 2: there's the death's head hawk moth, a genus of moth
Speaker 2: famous for both its skull like markings and its ability
Speaker 2: to infiltrate and raid honeybee hives by mimicking their smell.
Speaker 2: For a similar ant world example, certain spiders also use
Speaker 2: chemical mimicry to enter the colony unopposed and eat whatever
Speaker 2: larvae they desire. But these are both cases of rating
Speaker 2: and predation. What about bending the system to the outsider's will?
Speaker 2: I think we might well compare the gene stealer cult
Speaker 2: to many forms of brood parasitism. The classic example we're
Speaker 2: all familiar with is, of course, the cuckoo bird, which
Speaker 2: doesn't care for its own egg, but rather places its
Speaker 2: egg in the nest of another bird species, an act
Speaker 2: that is both stealthy and violent. The gene stealer cult
Speaker 2: certainly grows within a civilization on a given host planet,
Speaker 2: but it's of course a bit more complicated than that,
Speaker 2: so they also remind one of particular examples of social
Speaker 2: parasitism in the world of ants, termites, and bumblebees. The
Speaker 2: bumblebee Bombas bohemchis, for example, the species neither builds its
Speaker 2: own nest nor produces its own workers. Instead, a queen
Speaker 2: invades a host nest of another Bombas species and defeats
Speaker 2: the existing queen. Afterwards, the workers identify her as the
Speaker 2: queen and they raise her young. This is an example
Speaker 2: of mass usurpation, which is at least thematically fitting when
Speaker 2: compared to the revolutionary gene stealer cults. But here's another
Speaker 2: thing to think about. As the gene Stealer Codex points out,
Speaker 2: the whole gene stealer hybrid enterprise might begin with monster
Speaker 2: attacks and end with the arrival of a world consuming
Speaker 2: high fleet. But before the uprising and the so called
Speaker 2: Day of ascension, third and fourth generation gene stealer hybrids,
Speaker 2: who again are humanoid enough in appearance to fully infiltrate
Speaker 2: human societies, may contribute greatly to the host's civilization. They
Speaker 2: work hard, and they perform their duties to the imperium
Speaker 2: quite well, at least until it's time to rise up.
Speaker 2: During that pre revolutionary period, we might be tempted to
Speaker 2: think of the gene stealer hybrids as inkoline parasites, in
Speaker 2: that they're not actively harming the host civilization while residing
Speaker 2: within it. Again, members of the cult might well be
Speaker 2: beneficial to the host civilization, at least in the short term,
Speaker 2: though I think we'd be pushing it to call his mutualism.
Speaker 2: After all, if the gene Stealer Cult has its way,
Speaker 2: the rebellion will be bloody and the arriving high fleet
Speaker 2: will consume everything, including the hybrids themselves. Biologist EO. Wilson
Speaker 2: famously described parasites as quote predators that eat prey in
Speaker 2: units of less than one quote. The cult's desired end
Speaker 2: meal is somewhat larger. For a more thematic introduction to
Speaker 2: the gene stealer cults, I highly recommend the short story
Speaker 2: The Child Foretold by Nicholas Kaufman. It's a mild spoiler
Speaker 2: to reveal that it's a gene stealer story, but it
Speaker 2: still packs a horrific punch. Tune in for additional episodes
Speaker 2: of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you can
Speaker 2: email us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind
Speaker 2: dot com.
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