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Another fairly tipsy taxi ride home question written on my mobile, please be patient all you grammar and spelling nazis out there..

We all know kroot can change their DNA by absorbing, eating, other species and gaining characteristics.... Is this purely physical appearance or can they also gain psychic powers or become blanks (psychic nulls) through the consumption or the relevant genes?

Taking this further... What if a kroot managed to eat LOADS of gene see? Would they take on the characteristics of say .... Magnus and become psychic or Russ and become Scandinavian or Mortarion and smell really bad?? Joking aside, you know what I'm getting at....

Is there any canon to any of this? What are your thoughts?

Kroot have had bad experiences in consuming some of the more unnatural races in the 40k universe, tyranids, and chaos tainted things, so their consumption and absorbtion may be kinda reluctant to absorb something as artifcial as the glands and organs that make a marine or primarch , otherwise it would be in the Kroots interest to start eating as many marines as they can nosh on .

But it has been established that they have gained traits from eating orks..(turning green and getting tougher), and orks are a artificial race, but one made a very long time ago...hmm maybe the Kroot need to go on a eldar eating binge and see if they can develop psychers..although I think the Eldar would not appreciate being put on a menu.

Kroot ate Eldar before, they where able to psychly change their appearance.

On an almost related note this has got me to thinking about modelling Kroot that have eaten Squats....

I shall call them....Saur Sqraut!

 RogueMage wrote:
On an almost related note this has got me to thinking about modelling Kroot that have eaten Squats....

I shall call them....Saur Sqraut!

Seems quite interesting...

The fluff for them has shown shapers choosing NOT to eat chaos tainted flesh OR tyranids.

There were Ork kroot hybrids in an old Chapter approved article.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
Kroot ate Eldar before, they where able to psychly change their appearance.

The Story with the Silver Skulls by Mrs Cawkwell maybe?
The Kroot who consumed the crash-landed Eldar were cleansed for the better of the Galaxy. On the ground and from Orbit just to make sure..

OtoH, the Kroot showing interest in UM would be infected with the smurf virus, turning blue and starting to babble about a "codex" and how it has to be followed.... Can you imagine the rage if the reality behind the "battlebrothers" mistake of the allies chart is ...

Shapers chose what was eaten depending on what way they wanted them to change and adapt.
Eating something thats allways mutating like chaos really isnt the best idea as they cant predict the outcome.

However, eating nids could be amusing, since both eat and absord DNA to evolve.
Between the 2, you could have kroot and nids turn into a super race if they just both keep evolving to fight each other.

 Jackal wrote:
Shapers chose what was eaten depending on what way they wanted them to change and adapt.
Eating something thats allways mutating like chaos really isnt the best idea as they cant predict the outcome.

However, eating nids could be amusing, since both eat and absord DNA to evolve.
Between the 2, you could have kroot and nids turn into a super race if they just both keep evolving to fight each other.

There is a bit of fluff about kroot mercenaries fighting tyranids and it ended with the Shaper worried what would happen if his group ate the dead tyranids.

Oh no.... If the kroot eat the SMurfs, another spiritual liege.... All kroot strive to be him. The aberrant kroot are slowly dwindling!

Dun dun dun!!!!

 BluntmanDC wrote:

 Jackal wrote:
Shapers chose what was eaten depending on what way they wanted them to change and adapt.
Eating something thats allways mutating like chaos really isnt the best idea as they cant predict the outcome.

However, eating nids could be amusing, since both eat and absord DNA to evolve.
Between the 2, you could have kroot and nids turn into a super race if they just both keep evolving to fight each other.

There is a bit of fluff about kroot mercenaries fighting tyranids and it ended with the Shaper worried what would happen if his group ate the dead tyranids.

Khibala yusa first born of the twin sun.
He basically fought nids as often as possible and ate them, same as his kindred, eating nids has no negative effect on kroot

(proceeds to tentacle and claw up kroot with green stuff)

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
as artifcial as the glands and organs that make a marine or primarch

OT:
Urhm... no?
Primarch were based on the Big E. DNA (they are not literally, but "biologically" his sons), and they haven't any artificial organs and co. like the marine nowadays.

LOL id like to see a shaper that has chowed on a couple primarchs to become a super shaper( brown quills turn bright yellow as he flies around lmao)

 PunkNeverDie110 wrote:

 Soo'Vah'Cha wrote:
as artifcial as the glands and organs that make a marine or primarch

OT:
Urhm... no?
Primarch were based on the Big E. DNA (they are not literally, but "biologically" his sons), and they haven't any artificial organs and co. like the marine nowadays.

Actually, in the short story The Reflection Crack'd, I think t's called, in The Primarchs


And also in Horus Rising


Know no Fear


And finally, we have the fact that the Gene Seed of the Legions were made from the genetic records of the Primarchs, and when each was found they were able to increase induction rates due to having the source on tap.

EDIT: One more I forgot, BA Sanguinary Priests carry a goblet containing Sanguinius' blood, all initiates drink from it to get the implants to start maturing and turn them into Space Marines.

Someone needs to make a custom model of a kroot primarch.

I have three things to say about Kroot evolution.

1. Kroot evolution is not based on a single specimen being devoured and is not instantaneous. Kroot evolution is just much quicker than evolution seen in other places, second only to the Tyranids. In the White dwarf Codex: Kroot Mercenaries, Kroot started to take on the traits of other specimens, after fighting them for just a couple generations.

2. Kroot DNA has open ends so that it can absorb DNA from the specimens they eat. After the specimen has been consumed, strands of DNA that represent certain traits are attached to the Kroot strand. This DNA is then activated after it has been passed on through procreation.

3. Shapers take the name because they literally shape the future of their kindred. Shapers do this with an extra sense that allows them to detect both advantages and flaws that can be obtained by allowing certain members of the kindred to eat certain specimens.