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 --> 00:00:11,119 Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:13,880 Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas, 5 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:26,360 Speaker 1: and monsters in time. In the fictional world of Warhammer 6 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:29,960 Speaker 1: forty thousand, the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy is 7 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:36,960 Speaker 1: consumed by warfare, destruction, and decline everywhere you look. Militant 8 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: space faring civilization's wage crusades of brutal expansion while fighting 9 00:00:42,120 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: off doom and corruption from without and within. With war 10 00:00:47,479 --> 00:00:52,800 Speaker 1: raging on every front, one final threat presents itself an 11 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:57,920 Speaker 1: invasion from beyond the galaxy itself, the Tyrannid high Fleets, 12 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: as related in Games Workshops ninth edition of the Tyrannids Codex. 13 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:09,800 Speaker 1: The Tyrannids are an entirely biological threat. They take many 14 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:14,120 Speaker 1: physical forms, ranging from foot soldiers and walking tanks to 15 00:01:14,400 --> 00:01:18,320 Speaker 1: enormous hive ships and biotitans, all of it under the 16 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:23,080 Speaker 1: sway of the unified Hive mind. Their weapons, too, are biological. 17 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:27,400 Speaker 1: They cleave into their enemies with sites and bone swords, 18 00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: and their ranged weapons blast a vast array of squirming, writhing, 19 00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: and piercing bio munitions, in addition to venom and bioplasma. 20 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:41,959 Speaker 1: High Fleet. After high Fleet enters into the galaxy, we're 21 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:47,319 Speaker 1: told conquering planets and harvesting the entirety of each planet's biomass, 22 00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:51,360 Speaker 1: which is then incorporated into the next generation of Tyrannid hordes. 23 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:55,680 Speaker 1: They advanced continuously like a viral infection of the Milky 24 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:00,440 Speaker 1: Way itself. In the forty one millennium ati i'm of 25 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:07,040 Speaker 1: interplanetary fascist empires, chaos gods, and robotic resurgencies. The Tyrannids 26 00:02:07,080 --> 00:02:10,640 Speaker 1: seem to pose the greatest and most monstrous threat of all. 27 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:16,560 Speaker 1: But why is this? Author Ben Woodard explored the question 28 00:02:16,600 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: in his twelve biological philosophy books Slime Dynamics, Generation, Mutation, 29 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,320 Speaker 1: and The Creep of Life. The answer, he explains, may 30 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: be found in the entirely biological nature of the Tyrannids. 31 00:02:31,800 --> 00:02:35,480 Speaker 1: Wouldard argues that, unlike with human beings of our world 32 00:02:35,800 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: and most of the civilizations of the forty k universe, 33 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:43,919 Speaker 1: the Tyrannids have no separation between technology and the body. 34 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: He writes, quote the horrible, extended internalness of the Tyrannid 35 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:52,920 Speaker 1: that is the revolting extension of the biological to the 36 00:02:53,040 --> 00:02:56,360 Speaker 1: level of what is commonly thought of as removed from 37 00:02:56,440 --> 00:03:01,040 Speaker 1: US technology, war machines, et cetera, becomes only a natural 38 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: extension unquote. So while the robotic necrons of forty K 39 00:03:07,240 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: have lost all organic being, all organic drive and organic 40 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:15,920 Speaker 1: origin to technology, the Tyrannids are the reverse. The Tyrannids 41 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: are the advancement of the biological beyond all perceived limits. 42 00:03:21,160 --> 00:03:26,200 Speaker 1: While the factions of the Milky Way are driven by nationalistic, xenophobic, religious, 43 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:31,440 Speaker 1: and expansionist ideologies, the Tyrannids seem driven by sheer biological hunger, 44 00:03:31,800 --> 00:03:36,240 Speaker 1: divorced from any semblance of rational intent. They lack all 45 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:41,640 Speaker 1: individuality save the unfathomable individuality of the extra galactic or 46 00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: perhaps transgalactic hive mind itself, the commands its every movement. 47 00:03:47,200 --> 00:03:52,520 Speaker 1: It is pure organic impulse, unchecked by individual free will, culture, 48 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:57,080 Speaker 1: or traditional technology. And for the strife written denizens of 49 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:00,120 Speaker 1: forty ks Milky Way galaxy, the Tyrannids or some thing 50 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:05,480 Speaker 1: else entirely alien. They are absolute unity. Their home universe 51 00:04:05,640 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: is conceivably a realm of absolute peace and order, albeit 52 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:15,000 Speaker 1: an entirely Inhuman one. We'll have more to discuss concerning 53 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:17,919 Speaker 1: the tyran nets over the next couple of weeks of 54 00:04:17,960 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 1: the Monster Fact, but feel free to write in with 55 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,960 Speaker 1: your own thoughts on rampaging biolarmies in science fiction, as 56 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,400 Speaker 1: well as the perceived threat of sliminess in general. As always, 57 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,560 Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 58 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is 59 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:45,880 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for 60 00:04:45,960 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 61 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:50,839 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.