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Bear with me here. We know that the Hive Mind has a nice habit of rejecting any beasts that have been outside the synapse for way too long (ymgarl stealers and Old One Eye). And we know the DE love having some sort of tool to do their work so they can run off with the goods (like using orks to bombard an imperial world then grab the goods). And the DE are rather evil as it is. So I wouldn't put it past the DE to have one rather manic archon that wants a tyranid pet or a small horde of them to hit first before the main DE army hit home.

So, assuming they can, how could they obtain them and control them? Could they breed them artificially using nid DNA and have their own mini horde? Or could they just make a rather suicidal run to grab some nids from a hive fleet and hold them away from the hive mind?
As for control, could they perhaps generate an artificial snyapse? Or null the current synapse from the nids to revert them to a feral state?

Discuss

Assuming it's not a synapse creature and not within synapse any 'Nid creature is no more then just a very savage predator so I can see no reason why not. For junk that Is synapse or within synapse then there's not a snowball's chance in hell of that going over well for the DE.

For controlling them, I imagine it's no harder then any other sort of predator: show who's on top and beat down anything who tries to challenge that.

Yeah the synapse was the one thing that bugs me most. I mean is there any way the DE could bypass it or create their own version that's just as good as the Hive Mind? It'd be hellish difficult, but is it possible?

IIRC, there is a mention in the DE codex of Tyranids abducting Tyranids to fight in their arenas for sport. So I guess it's not a fantastic jump to them keeping them as pets.

I guess they can have it. They have Humans, Eldar, Orks...
There is no point of not having Tyranid as a pet, best house guard

Seeing as we've no idea How the synapse works I'd say it's about as feasible as it is impossible. They just haven't given us enough info aside from "these guys tell everyone what to do, if they die everything falls apart".

DE seem to have developed the most advanced technology in the galaxy, apart from the necrons maybe. I guess replacing the Hive Mind by some sort of mind control link in the brains of a nid creature would be possible for them. If you create a nice background, you could even use some nid creature as a "count as" for the brand new DE warp creatures that have just been released by GW (a carnifex for the clawed fiend, some raveners as khymeras, etc)

In late M41, the Wych Cult of the Seventh Woe rose to power in the arena districts after mounting a series of daring realspace raids and returning with a clutch of chitinous monsters never before seen in Commorragh....the Cult of the Seventh Woe captured many of the alien monsters with runic hexcages before disapperaing into the webway.

The whole section is about Wyches capturing Tyranids for the arena. Page 23 of the codex.

I guess that it is totally possible. Of course, if a synapse Tyranid get's around, I'm sure that it'll tske control of the pet, joining it to the swarm.

Looks like my DE mate is getting some pet nids then

... and then more ... and more and .... ARRRGH
omnomnom
Even when you are able to travel undetected with your stolen pet through all the Hive Mind range, keep in mind that those little things evolve and adapt. Most attempts to keep tyranids under control have gone terribly wrong. And then, what can you teach a grown up Termagant?

Kroothawk wrote: And then, what can you teach a grown up Termagant?

Fetch your slippers when you return home after a raid with your Kabal?

If those aren't the cutest little things...

It would be possible as long as it's not a synapse creature or a Genestealer/Broodlord. It is also very likely that if these "domesticated" Tyranids ever got back within synapse, they would immediately revert to the will of the Hive Mind.

I wouldn't see breeding them being a possibility, so wouldn't be viable for an army. They would be valuable as arena entertainment, pets and torture techniques.

If the Dark Eldar have the technology to bring a warrior back to life from something as small as a hand then I'd guess replicating the DNA of the smaller Nids wouldn't be out of the question.

Considering some of the things the haemonculi are capable of I would say breaking the synapse bond or rewiring the tyranids dna to accept the commands of a dark eldar owner would be childs play to them.

^ What I was about to say.

I'd expect Haemonculi do it a fair bit. You want the fighting animals to have a bit of spirit, not just instinct (makes them predictable.)

Although to be fair to Tyranids they may well be the pinnacle of bio-engineering, maybe even more sophisicated than even the Dark eldar can unravel,afterall they are from another Galaxy. I always had a sneaky suspicion that every nid, from the biggest to the smallest was a weapon in everyway, from the obvious teeth, claws and bio-plasma, to it even giving off bio-weapon virus, from their own bodies, that would also constantly try to adapt and infect and evolve in live hosts, kinda like a FU charlie, not saying these viruses would have battlefield potential but in long term could evolve into some truly nasty stuff.
And these bio weapon processes could be vital to the nids life processes, so removing them and you just end up with a dead nid....well thats what I would do if I was Hivemind at least.

Aren't the rank and file nids made without a digestive tract?

Luke_Prowler wrote:Aren't the rank and file nids made without a digestive tract?

Good point: Yes I think so, even if rippers eat biomass (but don't digest it). They certainly don't mate and usually end in the digestion pool.

And for non-psykers like Dark Eldar it is not easy to perceive and manipulate a psychic link to something as strong as the hive mind. Though as a Tyranid player I hope Dark Eldar try

Yeah the only mind powerful enough to thwart the hiveminds hold over its nids would be the Emperor, but I can't see him wanting one of those nasty gribblies for a pet...

This is more how I picture him



Nobody would mess with that pug!

Luke_Prowler wrote:Aren't the rank and file nids made without a digestive tract?

Actually, if I recall correctly, none of them do, those with metabolisms simply employ Tyranid phage cells in their body to digest whatever they eat.

The biggest problem I can see is the ones who don't usually eat (termagaunts, gargoyles) don't breed, and Hormagaunts (which do both) do so at such incredibly fast rates that they'd be impossible to control. Raveners and Mawlocs might live long enough have probably have the necessary lengevity to be useful.

Yes because in the codex it says the wych cult of the seventh woe captured loads of nids to fight in the areana.
So I think the beastmasters would have some and maybe some high ranking archon could have bought the strongest.

Model-wise, you could use some old genestealer hybrid familliars as some kind of pet/slave I guess...

There's a big difference between a pet and "Something you throw in an arena to fight to the death". You can't domesticate a 'Nid but you can capture one and have it kill things.

considering haemonculi have found ways to replace their own blood stream with acidic and ichor, recreate new dark eldar duplicates using only a hand and bring people back from the dead, I'm pretty sure they could just create a digestive system for the tyranid creature and modify it in whatever ways they wish. I don't think the haemonculi know any limits when it comes to biological science. whether they WOULD do it is another question entirely but I am quite certain the could if they felt the need.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:There's a big difference between a pet and "Something you throw in an arena to fight to the death". You can't domesticate a 'Nid but you can capture one and have it kill things.

Pet is a relative term, it could be pet as in something on a leash to show off, like this.

As a player of both armies this is a fairly interesting topic but my one problem is, What would this pet do apart from going around your home attacking anything and everything. next personly i wouldn't trust a living weapon (all tyranids are weapons that we see) that will turn on me the moment that its friend tell its minds back. inless they just released a butch of nids on to imperial planets to make them fall and in the choas steal as many slaves as you can .

oldone wrote:As a player of both armies this is a fairly interesting topic but my one problem is, What would this pet do apart from going around your home attacking anything and everything. next personly i wouldn't trust a living weapon (all tyranids are weapons that we see) that will turn on me the moment that its friend tell its minds back.

But that's the point, from a Dark Eldar perspective. Dangerous pets are just so much more THRILLING, and handling one makes a statement about your power and badass-itude.