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This is a big question mark for me. The current storyline they have very much centers around the threat of Chaos. This embroils the Imperium and both strands of Eldar. But so far a lot of the xenos races have not been primed to be included.

I think that during the Time of Ending there will be two major antagonists. Every other faction will essentially be a mutual ally, however mistrustful and with varying degrees of co-operation.

So, one will obviously involve the Imperium and Eldar versus Chaos.


But I think the second will be the Tyranids.


Few reasons pointing towards this:

1) At the end of Mont Ka we have a blurb of Farsight ominously saying that the Tyranids have arrived. This implies that the next Tau Campaign will heavily involve Nids. Also the Tau storyline isn't even remotely connected to Chaos.

2) They are currently threatening Baal.

3) They have been established as the primary antagonist of the Necrons. The Necrons are stated as being immune to Chaos and could not care less about its predations. So its hard to see Necrons fitting into a story arc of Chaos being the big bad.

4) The Ork storyline has Ghasgull uniting Ork Bosses around the galaxy and specifically travelling to the Octarius Sector. Here, the Tyranids are engaged in an alien vs predator struggle. Whoever wins we lose. I know they could do what they did in the End Times and have da Orks realize the threat of Chaos. But again nothing is pointing towards this yet,

5) Although I could see a justification for the Tyranids trying to stop Chaos. "The Gods will not be denied their prize". The Hive Mind is not stupid. If it believes it can consume more biomass in the long term by stopping the Warp subsuming the Galaxy they will make that decision. But again, this is extremely unlikely and I think would only happen at the 11th hour. Also, the Nids are too powerful and could with the Shadow of the Warp stop Chaos. So keeping them as a secondary antagonist makes sense.


So, Imperium, Eldar, Dark Eldar vs Chaos

Imperium,Tau, Orks, Necrons vs Nids

So I don't think Orks will get involved with Chaos. Or Eldar involved with the Nids. etc etc. Only the Imperium will be embroiled against both.

Do you think the Nids are a secondary antagonist or an ally? Do you think Orks should be up there as a third antagonist? Personally I do think Orks will end up finding common cause in their own Orky way with the other races. They would be pretty stupid not to.

They eat whatever is left.

Tyranids are sideshow. The clash between Chaos and the Imperium is the main event.

Well, I am sure they said that Fall of Cadia sets up a continuous story for 18 months. So, if that's the case I am guessing the releases will mostly be for Imperium, Eldar and Chaos.

So maybe this means the xenos races won't be getting very many models and as a result less love in the lore?

I mean this year we're probably going to get:

- Sisters of Battle
- Loyalist Primarchs and Demon Primarchs.
- Possibly one of te God specific Traitor Legions. Death Guard were rumored.
- Maybe Dark Eldar. Vect and Malys?
- ELdar stuff with them making that new god. Sure I saw a ton of stuff rumored not long ago about this.

With a very active Age of Sigmar and a sprinkling of other things that's probably going to cover the next year and a half for GW. We only just had big releases for Orks, Nids and Tau' so perhaps we aren't coming back to them for a while. But when they do then we will see a Nid focused part of the End Times.

The Eldar's predictions of the future "apocalypse" have the following chain of events

1) Massive Chaos incursion across the galaxy ravaging the Imperium, Eldar and other races like a wildfire, before spluttering and fading away like any fire

2) The Tyranids 'wither the galaxy to desert' over hundreds of years, wiping out most of the survivors before moving on to a new galaxy

3) The Necrons finish off who is left and rule a silent empire of dust until the stars die



I don't expect the Tyranids to play their main hand (claw?) as such in the coming events. They are the gradual demise of life in the galaxy, and are in no rush; they will just keep coming until there is nothing left, but it will take time. Expect to see the latest (and greatest yet) tendrils smash into the Tau, the Orks and the Baal system.

Kill everyone. Chaos is largely irrelevant since Necrons and Tyranids exist.

Okay... I feel like I should offer a little something here in regards to the Nids. For instance, when it comes to 40K we think of A) Grimdark B) Space Marines C) Doomsday. So for me, the Tyranids represent one of two things; the inevitable doom of everything or a grand foe to unify everyone. Take Earth for instance, it's often stated that an alien threat to our planet would unify us. So lets apply that logic to the Tyranids since they're invading our galaxy.

That or the inevitable self destruction of everyone. Whether we like it or not, it would take the Tyranids quite sometime to devour our entire galaxy. That being said, there exist a lot of our own predators, two notable ones being Chaos and Necrons. Both can't be converted to Biomass and as it's stated quite frequently, Tyranids avoid Necrons. So invading our galaxy may eventually lead to their own destruction as they may very well be biting off more then they can chew.

I honestly doubt the Time of Ending would be an onslaught of Tyranids but either an incredibly loose unification or ultimate destruction of everything. Personally I'd like to see the ultimate end of everything and anything since, well, it'd be rather unique.

The orks already won Kryptmann''s gambit and wiped out the tyranid tendril at Octaria. The planet is filling up with billion and billions of orks getting ready because apparently Ghazzy knows another tendril is coming but Ghazzy isn't staying he's making plans to move on and create another perpetual war somewhere else. Orks 1 Nids 0

Best lore/theory for them is that they are the natural orders way to reset the universe.

In effect they are natures and the galaxies way of maintaining and dealing with chaos. Since the nids have not presence in the warp/don't effect it, they eat and destroy everything that does, then, die off since they ate it all, chaos then starves and the universe starts all over again.

The cabal would be proud of the nids

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Best lore/theory for them is that they are the natural orders way to reset the universe.

In effect they are natures and the galaxies way of maintaining and dealing with chaos. Since the nids have not presence in the warp/don't effect it, they eat and destroy everything that does, then, die off since they ate it all, chaos then starves and the universe starts all over again.

Tyranids have a presence in the warp, they even have several psyker genotypes.

 Orblivion wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Best lore/theory for them is that they are the natural orders way to reset the universe.

In effect they are natures and the galaxies way of maintaining and dealing with chaos. Since the nids have not presence in the warp/don't effect it, they eat and destroy everything that does, then, die off since they ate it all, chaos then starves and the universe starts all over again.

Tyranids have a presence in the warp, they even have several psyker genotypes.

Tyranids' psy beasts do not get theirs powers through the Warp but throug the Hive Mind. It is stated in the codex. I think it is bs but I don't write codex...

They're going to be in the middle of nomming on IoM, and whatever drove them from their old universe is going to come and devour them. Then the reborn emperor will drive the pursuer off, or the Necrons will invent the equivalent of Raid and give it to the Imperium to distribute because of reasons (because only Space Marines can save the galaxy).

40K will be left with remnants of Tyranid tendrils that went into hiding (like what happened with the moons of Ymargl). They'll come out to eat a system or two that fall to genestealer cults, but the universe will no longer be in danger of being devoured.

krakentendrilswarm wrote:
The Eldar's predictions of the future "apocalypse" have the following chain of events

1) Massive Chaos incursion across the galaxy ravaging the Imperium, Eldar and other races like a wildfire, before spluttering and fading away like any fire

2) The Tyranids 'wither the galaxy to desert' over hundreds of years, wiping out most of the survivors before moving on to a new galaxy

3) The Necrons finish off who is left and rule a silent empire of dust until the stars die



I don't expect the Tyranids to play their main hand (claw?) as such in the coming events. They are the gradual demise of life in the galaxy, and are in no rush; they will just keep coming until there is nothing left, but it will take time. Expect to see the latest (and greatest yet) tendrils smash into the Tau, the Orks and the Baal system.

This is very plausible. The Tyranids will ignore Necrons as there is no biomass to collect. Unless the Necrons directly attack a Hive Fleet, they can lay low and finish off what ever is left after the Tyranids move through.

 Stormonu wrote:
They're going to be in the middle of nomming on IoM, and whatever drove them from their old universe is going to come and devour them. Then the reborn emperor will drive the pursuer off, or the Necrons will invent the equivalent of Raid and give it to the Imperium to distribute because of reasons (because only Space Marines can save the galaxy).

40K will be left with remnants of Tyranid tendrils that went into hiding (like what happened with the moons of Ymargl). They'll come out to eat a system or two that fall to genestealer cults, but the universe will no longer be in danger of being devoured.

No, the whole "tyranids are running from something" idea was just thrown out there to hype the sense of danger as much as possible, if something is actually following the Tyranids it would have to be some sort of natural disaster, like some kind of galaxy on a collision cour-ANDROMEDA! They're running from Andromeda! I've cracked the code!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
*ahem* but as I was saying, the Tyranids are already as over the top as they could possibly be in the whole "extra-galactic threat" category, so as far as anything actually resembling living thing is concerned... it'd be so over the top it would literally parody what already exists in 40k. It'd be a super-god. It'd be super-Tyranids. It'd be Super-Necrons.

Now of course, they obviously just tagged that on at the end for hype without actually meaning it, I think we should disregard it, or if we have to regard it, just regard it as a black hole or something.

It was a bit of an in-joke....

https://www.fanfiction.net/story/story_preview.php?storyid=11484158&chapter=1

In all honesty, I think for the 40K end times the Tyranids will play little to no part in what happens. At best, they'll be blunted by Necrons, possibly tied up with the Orcs, but it will all be off-stage for the Imperium vs. Chaos main show (with a harlequin half-time show?)

Tyranids are the Skaven. Due to the parallels between the running up the the fantasy End Times and the current way 40K is headed, I'd say it's fair to make such comparisons.

Skaven were used as a plot device to narrow the field. They destroyed most of Brettonia off screen, they destroyed Estalia and Tilea off screen, they butchered Cathay and most of the Dwarves off screen. They devastated the Lizard Men to the point where they literally flew off into space instead of staying and helping in the final battle. The idea being anything the Skaven left standing was the people important to the final battle. It was a plot device so people wouldn't say ''Hey, what happened to X? Why weren't they there?''. This is the role I imagine Tyranids to take up, eating quite a lot of major players in the universe but being defeated by the only ''major players'' that the End Times will focus on.

For example, I see Tau as the Brettonia of 40K. A similar but contrary way of life to the main faction (Empire = Imperium) who are interesting on their own but rarely have a hand in world changing events. With this in mind, I predict Tyranids will destroy the entire Tau empire before being defeated last minute by Farsight, who whisks in and saves the surviving Tau and reunites the Farsight enclaves to the last Tau/ Cue Tau going off and doing something important after a big reveal that their entire culture was an experiment by one of the last surviving Gods of the Eldar/Elf race. (Lileth = Cegorarch).

Are you starting to see the parallels as well?

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
Tyranids are the Skaven. Due to the parallels between the running up the the fantasy End Times and the current way 40K is headed, I'd say it's fair to make such comparisons.

Skaven were used as a plot device to narrow the field. They destroyed most of Brettonia off screen, they destroyed Estalia and Tilea off screen, they butchered Cathay and most of the Dwarves off screen. They devastated the Lizard Men to the point where they literally flew off into space instead of staying and helping in the final battle. The idea being anything the Skaven left standing was the people important to the final battle. It was a plot device so people wouldn't say ''Hey, what happened to X? Why weren't they there?''. This is the role I imagine Tyranids to take up, eating quite a lot of major players in the universe but being defeated by the only ''major players'' that the End Times will focus on.

For example, I see Tau as the Brettonia of 40K. A similar but contrary way of life to the main faction (Empire = Imperium) who are interesting on their own but rarely have a hand in world changing events. With this in mind, I predict Tyranids will destroy the entire Tau empire before being defeated last minute by Farsight, who whisks in and saves the surviving Tau and reunites the Farsight enclaves to the last Tau/ Cue Tau going off and doing something important after a big reveal that their entire culture was an experiment by one of the last surviving Gods of the Eldar/Elf race. (Lileth = Cegorarch).

Are you starting to see the parallels as well?

Yeah but the Tau are a massively popular army. I can't see them dispensing with them as a faction.

In fact there really isn't a Brettonnia in 40k. All of the armies are doing really well. The only doe doe was Sisters of Battle but it looks almost certain they are getting a re-release this year.

You're talking about the army, I'm talking about the role they fill in the lore.

A small rival empire compared to the protagonist faction, this army relies on mobile well armoured support and mooks buffed up by their quasi-religious figure heads when they periodically expand from their empire to impose their morality upon others. A mortality that is rumoured to be a construct of a machiavellian God of an dying race.

Which army am I describing? I haven't once said that they will despence with Tau as a faction, I suggested the Tau empire will be drastically reduced in size by the Tyranids to the point that GW can shine the spotlight on one or two Tau characters (Shadowsun and Farsight are my guesse). This will have no effect or their ability to be played as a faction, all it does is reduces the scope of the Tau empire that GW has to cover. But You are right, Tau are a popular army and because of this at least there struggle with the OM NOM NOM will probably be written about, in a similar way that Lizardmen got 1/2 of a book dedicated to their dying.