Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
Speaker 1: this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas,
Speaker 1: and monsters in time. In the fictional world of Warhammer
Speaker 1: forty thousand, the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy is
Speaker 1: consumed by warfare, destruction, and decline everywhere you look. Militant
Speaker 1: space faring civilization's wage crusades of brutal expansion while fighting
Speaker 1: off doom and corruption from without and within. With war
Speaker 1: raging on every front, one final threat presents itself an
Speaker 1: invasion from beyond the galaxy itself, the Tyrannid high Fleets,
Speaker 1: as related in Games Workshops ninth edition of the Tyrannids Codex.
Speaker 1: The Tyrannids are an entirely biological threat. They take many
Speaker 1: physical forms, ranging from foot soldiers and walking tanks to
Speaker 1: enormous hive ships and biotitans, all of it under the
Speaker 1: sway of the unified Hive mind. Their weapons, too, are biological.
Speaker 1: They cleave into their enemies with sites and bone swords,
Speaker 1: and their ranged weapons blast a vast array of squirming, writhing,
Speaker 1: and piercing bio munitions, in addition to venom and bioplasma.
Speaker 1: High Fleet. After high Fleet enters into the galaxy, we're
Speaker 1: told conquering planets and harvesting the entirety of each planet's biomass,
Speaker 1: which is then incorporated into the next generation of Tyrannid hordes.
Speaker 1: They advanced continuously like a viral infection of the Milky
Speaker 1: Way itself. In the forty one millennium ati i'm of
Speaker 1: interplanetary fascist empires, chaos gods, and robotic resurgencies. The Tyrannids
Speaker 1: seem to pose the greatest and most monstrous threat of all.
Speaker 1: But why is this? Author Ben Woodard explored the question
Speaker 1: in his twelve biological philosophy books Slime Dynamics, Generation, Mutation,
Speaker 1: and The Creep of Life. The answer, he explains, may
Speaker 1: be found in the entirely biological nature of the Tyrannids.
Speaker 1: Wouldard argues that, unlike with human beings of our world
Speaker 1: and most of the civilizations of the forty k universe,
Speaker 1: the Tyrannids have no separation between technology and the body.
Speaker 1: He writes, quote the horrible, extended internalness of the Tyrannid
Speaker 1: that is the revolting extension of the biological to the
Speaker 1: level of what is commonly thought of as removed from
Speaker 1: US technology, war machines, et cetera, becomes only a natural
Speaker 1: extension unquote. So while the robotic necrons of forty K
Speaker 1: have lost all organic being, all organic drive and organic
Speaker 1: origin to technology, the Tyrannids are the reverse. The Tyrannids
Speaker 1: are the advancement of the biological beyond all perceived limits.
Speaker 1: While the factions of the Milky Way are driven by nationalistic, xenophobic, religious,
Speaker 1: and expansionist ideologies, the Tyrannids seem driven by sheer biological hunger,
Speaker 1: divorced from any semblance of rational intent. They lack all
Speaker 1: individuality save the unfathomable individuality of the extra galactic or
Speaker 1: perhaps transgalactic hive mind itself, the commands its every movement.
Speaker 1: It is pure organic impulse, unchecked by individual free will, culture,
Speaker 1: or traditional technology. And for the strife written denizens of
Speaker 1: forty ks Milky Way galaxy, the Tyrannids or some thing
Speaker 1: else entirely alien. They are absolute unity. Their home universe
Speaker 1: is conceivably a realm of absolute peace and order, albeit
Speaker 1: an entirely Inhuman one. We'll have more to discuss concerning
Speaker 1: the tyran nets over the next couple of weeks of
Speaker 1: the Monster Fact, but feel free to write in with
Speaker 1: your own thoughts on rampaging biolarmies in science fiction, as
Speaker 1: well as the perceived threat of sliminess in general. As always,
Speaker 1: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
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