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Can someone who knows about Tyranids please explain to me how they were created? i know that in the books it is relatively unclear, but as i have only read the previous two codexes i was wondering if it had ever been properly explained.. any input is welcome thanks

No, their origins are unknown other than they're not from this galaxy.

Not really.
One day some guys on a planet in the Tyran system got attacked by a load of buglike aliens.
They were very scary.
They eventually got defeated.
It turns out the come frome outside of the galaxy.
Some say that a Necron C'Tan called The Outsider created them.
Who knows?
I don't.
And neither does anyone else...
Or do they?

The Alpha Legion.

Mr Nobody wrote:No, their origins are unknown other than they're not from this galaxy.

I think they're supposed to be like the xenomorphs from aliens in this regard. IMHO quite a bit of their menace would be lost if their origins were known.

There's no hard evidence. All we do know is that they are from outside our galaxy. With some of the possibilities being argued in various codex's saying they could be the vanguard of a much stronger army ( like a shock troop sent to soften a target up ). Or the hive mind is actually running from some sort of predator that was SO dangerous it caused it to mass migrate and take its chances in our galaxy. Or that its simply exhausted all biomass in its home galaxy and were next on the menu.

I also agree. The fact their origins are unknown make them more threatening.

Lexx wrote:Or the hive mind is actually running from some sort of predator that was SO dangerous it caused it to mass migrate and take its chances in our galaxy...

That's exactly what I thought

My theory on this matter is that a super advanced race in another galaxy created them to be a biological weapon. However they went out of control, killed their masters and are eating everything they can. Who knows how many galaxies have been eaten before hand?

vodo40k wrote:My theory on this matter is that a super advanced race in another galaxy created them to be a biological weapon. However they went out of control, killed their masters and are eating everything they can. Who knows how many galaxies have been eaten before hand?

That is what i thought... well one of my thoughts.
The other is faintly absurd so i won't bother.

When a Mummy Tyranid and a Daddy Tyranid love each other very much, they give each other a special hug. Then a beautiful white bird comes down from heaven and gives the Mummy and Daddy Tyranid their baby. Only logical explanation.......

Definitely the Alpha Legion.

Mr Nobody wrote:No, their origins are unknown other than they're not from this galaxy.

kravus master of Horus wrote:When a Mummy Tyranid and a Daddy Tyranid love each other very much, they give each other a special hug. Then a beautiful white bird comes down from heaven and gives the Mummy and Daddy Tyranid their baby. Only logical explanation.......

One of these answers

I've no idea where I heard this, or whether I just dreamed it or something, but I figured I'd share it anyway:
Somewhere the notion reached me that the nids were once Eldar pets (obviously a let less hungry back then) and were not the galactic threat they are now, then thanks to the fall they were all sucked into the warp ala eye of terror, mutated into what they are now and gained their psychic abilities and connection to the hive mind through this. And now, just like in Homeward Bound (a film for those who don't know) they just want to get home to their eldar owners-not knowing the Eldar Empire doesn't exist anymore.

Still, the strangest theory I ever heard, and I just wish I remember where I heard it...

I hope they simply evolved into the apex organism. Being created and turning on their masters is lame and overused. It's much more interesting if mother nature one day went "How can I ruin everyone's day?" And lo! A few natural selections later the tyranids were born.

Without a creative force behind the tyranids they are a lot more awe inspiring much like natural disaters: terrifying and mystifying.

asimo77 wrote:I hope they simply evolved into the apex organism. Being created and turning on their masters is lame and overused. It's much more interesting if mother nature one day went "How can I ruin everyone's day?" And lo! A few natural selections later the tyranids were born.

Without a creative force behind the tyranids they are a lot moe awe inspiring much like natural disaters: terrifying and mystifying.

Indeed, I quite like the idea that over millions of years of evolution, one day a race on a distant world essentially decided that they would begin to engineer their species to suit whatever tasks they needed to perform, and that this process gradually became more and more heavily automated and "normal" that eventually the original race was lost and all that was left was the concept of this race that becomes whatever it needs to be in order to continue to survive. The ultimate adaptive, expansionistic ecosystem gone out on the prowl.

Someone mentioned a few posts up that it is rumoured the Outsider created them - this is eh... decidedly not the case. It is never mentioned, even loosely, anywhere. The closest people come to it is the link between the Outsider being "that which lies outside", and the Tyranids coming from "outside this galaxy". To call the link tenuous is being extremely generous :p

Storm Lord wrote:I've no idea where I heard this, or whether I just dreamed it or something, but I figured I'd share it anyway:
Somewhere the notion reached me that the nids were once Eldar pets (obviously a let less hungry back then) and were not the galactic threat they are now, then thanks to the fall they were all sucked into the warp ala eye of terror, mutated into what they are now and gained their psychic abilities and connection to the hive mind through this. And now, just like in Homeward Bound (a film for those who don't know) they just want to get home to their eldar owners-not knowing the Eldar Empire doesn't exist anymore.

Still, the strangest theory I ever heard, and I just wish I remember where I heard it...

sounds like you fell asleep, tyranid model in one hand AVP playing in the background

Yeah, they're definitely not from this galaxy.

Well, unless they're kind of like what the "Reapers" are in Mass Effect. But with completely rendering a planet sterile and barren when they leave, I can't see this being the case.

Either way, the Tyranids mysterious origins are what makes them what they are. They're a force of nature that came from nowhere and just about wiped one of the Imperiums strongest sectors off the galactic map. They're unknown, completely alien, and it's part of what makes them terrifying.

asimo77 wrote:I hope they simply evolved into the apex organism. Being created and turning on their masters is lame and overused. It's much more interesting if mother nature one day went "How can I ruin everyone's day?" And lo! A few natural selections later the tyranids were born.

Without a creative force behind the tyranids they are a lot more awe inspiring much like natural disaters: terrifying and mystifying.

Huh Huh, you said ORGAniSM

Actually I'm pretty sure it says that the Outsider could be the hive mind in the 4th ed. Necron codex. And even if it didn't, the Tyranids on their mission to consume all biomass in the known universe sounds very 'necron' to me... In fact, the end result is pretty similar to the red harvest.

The fluff also says that the Outsider was tricked into killing other C'tan, and was cast out, so that explains it being outside the Galaxy, who knows what a god could have cooked up during untold thousands of years exile?

On another note, I have also heard that the Void Dragon is meant to be on Mars. Can't remember where but I believe there is some fluff evidence for it, something to do with Necron ships trying to land on Mars or something...

kravus master of Horus wrote:

asimo77 wrote:I hope they simply evolved into the apex organism. Being created and turning on their masters is lame and overused. It's much more interesting if mother nature one day went "How can I ruin everyone's day?" And lo! A few natural selections later the tyranids were born.

Without a creative force behind the tyranids they are a lot more awe inspiring much like natural disaters: terrifying and mystifying.

Huh Huh, you said ORGAniSM

orgasm....yeah that just happened

Brutii11 wrote:Actually I'm pretty sure it says that the Outsider could be the hive mind in the 4th ed. Necron codex. And even if it didn't, the Tyranids on their mission to consume all biomass in the known universe sounds very 'necron' to me... In fact, the end result is pretty similar to the red harvest.

The fluff also says that the Outsider was tricked into killing other C'tan, and was cast out, so that explains it being outside the Galaxy, who knows what a god could have cooked up during untold thousands of years exile?

On another note, I have also heard that the Void Dragon is meant to be on Mars. Can't remember where but I believe there is some fluff evidence for it, something to do with Necron ships trying to land on Mars or something...

4th Edition Necron Codex? There has only ever been one Necron book, and that was the from 3rd Edition. Anyway, I digress.

I can assure you that there is absolutely nothing at all in the Necron Codex that even remotely points towards the Outsider being the Hive Mind.

Furthermore, it makes absolutely no sense at all. The Outsider is a sentient cloud of energy. The Tyranid Hive Mind is a sentience emerging from the Tyranid psychic communication network (sort of like Skynet being a sentience emerging from the internet in the Terminator franchise - it doesn't exist ina physical sense relative to our understanding, but rather is "life" on a scale above us, in much the same way that our "minds" emerge from the collected cells/elecritical impulses of our bodies).

As for the Tyranid "agenda" being similar to the Red Harvest... again, I'm afraid not. The Tyranids may leave lifeless worlds behind them, but they are themselves the ultimate expression of organic life - a fully sentient ecosystem that, worst of all, is incredibly psychic. The Tyranids are the Necrons' polar opposite.

I would like to know how a being with no psychic potential could be a hive mind, that takes a boatload of telepathy and mental communication.

Honestly the Outsider=Hive Mind theory needs to die, it's too ridiculous even for WH40k

I personally like to imagine them being a renegade Old ones End Game project, Done in another galaxy to keep secrecy during the height of the War in Heaven and released/escaped/ forgotten about/got loose until finally they reached the locus of the old War in Heaven. Just in time to meet the Necrons as they fully awaken.

Tyranids are, just too good to be natural (even including alien origins) They'e too perfect an army for that.

Imagine, the Tyranids having consumed all Ork (or most in the Orks case) and Eldar life (both of which having been manufactured/ heaviyl influenced by the Old Ones) and, rather than creating Organisms seperately based on the species, built as an agglomeration of both, With the relative psychic abilities of both speicies, combined into one, with the brute strength of the orks and the agility of the Eldar.

RayvenQ wrote:I personally like to imagine them being a renegade Old ones End Game project, Done in another galaxy to keep secrecy during the height of the War in Heaven and released/escaped/ forgotten about/got loose until finally they reached the locus of the old War in Heaven. Just in time to meet the Necrons as they fully awaken.

Tyranids are, just too good to be natural (even including alien origins) They'e too perfect an army for that.

You need to do a bit of research on eusociality, which is pretty much what Tyranids are. This happens all the time on earth already, naturally.

Basically, they're ants. The fertile queens (Norn Queens, Dominatrix, Tervigons, etc) produce sterile worker kin that are specialized in their roles (basically every other Tyranid creature). GW also threw in collective consciousness (the hive mind), which is focused through synapse creatures. The 'hive mind' is the collective consciousness of every Tyranid creature working to a unified goal. GW did alter a bit from eusociality, in that the workers are not always sterile, since there' mention in a couple of books about gaunts breeding by themselves. But the general idea is still the same.

Tyranids can basically be considered an ant colony that evolved to what it is now.

They're a little bit more than an evolved ant colony, the pace at which they evolve, the fact that biomass isn't just consumed but drawn upon for rapid evoloution, True, there are elements of Ant behaviour present within them, but they're beyond that.

Well, I did say an ant colony that evolved to what it is now. The basic social structure is an ant colony with a collective consciousness.

They just grow, adapt and evolve a lot faster, and instead of their nest being a static place, it's a fleet of space faring organic nests that brings them to their food.