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I know the lore says they are coming from another galaxy, could they be coming from say a remaining old one to wipe our galaxy clean so he can later rebuild there civilization? Makes them a bio weapon that they already are.

Just a Theory

Yes. Thats the fun about having something that is unexplainable. You can fill the gap with any theories that tickle your fancy

You're free to make up pretty much whatever you want when it comes to 40K. There is no canon to the setting, after all.

Just remember that, if you're going to debate fluff on the forums, don't argue your own head-canon. Use published sources to cite references.

I believe it's been said that they've eaten a dozen galaxies, so unless the Old Ones designed an extremely scattershot weapon or just plain forgot where the Milky Way was then I think it's unlikely.

My personal headcanon theory is that they're actually native to the Milky Way, having fled it about sixty five million years ago after losing the War in Heaven. In the millions of years since, they've managed to bioengineer their way into godhood, and are now coming back for revenge...

 Psienesis wrote:
You're free to make up pretty much whatever you want when it comes to 40K. There is no canon to the setting, after all.

Just remember that, if you're going to debate fluff on the forums, don't argue your own head-canon. Use published sources to cite references.

The problem with this is the lack of actual canon surrounding the nids.

I love the nids. I think they're incredible. And they're the first army I'm building now as I'm getting back into the game after a long long time. I'm also trying to get into the lore and the canon of the universe, as well as coming up with my own ideas and theories about things. But there's just so little we know about the nids.Hell, we don't even know their actual name. Just the one the IoM gave them.

I've read all the fluff parts of the nid dex,but other than that, genuinely, what is there? There's a mention of a battle or two against them in some books. Something I found said that one of the Ultramar books goes on about them quite a bit, but obviously not from their point of view. I haven't read the Ultramar series yet so I can't say for definite, but it still doesn't add a lot to their narrative.

This turns most discussion on their lore into "well my headcanon is..." vs "well mine is..."

I just wish we could have some actual, solid lore for these guys

They could have been designed by any major ancient power. Don't they stay away from the Necrons? Maybe they were made by a C'tan at some point and were scattered by the Old Ones making their slow journey back.

Or they could just be an evolved race of bugs that happened to have arrived to add a bit of extra-galactic flavour to 40k

Eladar wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
You're free to make up pretty much whatever you want when it comes to 40K. There is no canon to the setting, after all.

Just remember that, if you're going to debate fluff on the forums, don't argue your own head-canon. Use published sources to cite references.

The problem with this is the lack of actual canon surrounding the nids.

I love the nids. I think they're incredible. And they're the first army I'm building now as I'm getting back into the game after a long long time. I'm also trying to get into the lore and the canon of the universe, as well as coming up with my own ideas and theories about things. But there's just so little we know about the nids.Hell, we don't even know their actual name. Just the one the IoM gave them.

I've read all the fluff parts of the nid dex,but other than that, genuinely, what is there? There's a mention of a battle or two against them in some books. Something I found said that one of the Ultramar books goes on about them quite a bit, but obviously not from their point of view. I haven't read the Ultramar series yet so I can't say for definite, but it still doesn't add a lot to their narrative.

This turns most discussion on their lore into "well my headcanon is..." vs "well mine is..."

I just wish we could have some actual, solid lore for these guys

There has been loads of it in the last few years.

The Rising Leviathan and Shield of Baal stories go into extreme depth on how the Tyranids invade worlds (updating a lot of older fluff along the way).

There are also several Black Library short stories and novels set around the coming of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Some of these are actually really very good (Valedor and the Last Days of Ector in particular). Deathstorm is interesting too, because it has a Broodlord POV (which is better than you'd expect).

Most recently, GW have been quietly and subtly expanding on the nature of the Hive Mind itself and how it is finally starting to look at our galaxy a bit more closely, giving the impression that Behemoth and Kraken really were little more than probing tendrils, not particularly smart and absolutely nothing compared to what is to come. There are some great scenes in which powerful psykers encounter Tyranids and can actually feel the Hive Mind looking back at them, with predictably painful results. In all cases the Hive Mind is depicted as unimaginably vast, ancient and completely "other" (at once point an Eldar Spirit Seer looks deep into the Hive Mind and realises that such power could drive off Slaanesh forever and free the Eldar from their curse... then decides that there's no hope of ever co-existing with the Hive Mind because it is just too different to life as we know it, so it was a pointless thought).

If you're looking for Tyranid fiction that's up to date and useful for fleshing out the race, look for the following:

- Rising Leviathan parts 1, 2 and 3
- Valedor (Eldar POV)
- The Last Days of Ector
- Shield of Baal: Leviathan
- Shield of Baal: Exterminatus
- Shield of Baal: Collection (8 stories of varying lengths, all of them pretty entertaining)

I'm reading The Unremembered Empire : Imperium Secundus
and (spoilers Rowboat just lit up Maccragge with a xenotech empathic astronomicon of sorts...I have a feeling that it's old an old tyranid biodevice (its described as being organic and chambered (and huge) and functions independantly to the warp).
Anyways I wonder if it wasn't him switching it on and shining it at Maccragge that didn't bring the Nids toward our galaxy some 30000 years later.

 mekugi wrote:
I'm reading The Unremembered Empire : Imperium Secundus
and (spoilers Rowboat just lit up Maccragge with a xenotech empathic astronomicon of sorts...I have a feeling that it's old an old tyranid biodevice (its described as being organic and chambered (and huge) and functions independantly to the warp).
Anyways I wonder if it wasn't him switching it on and shining it at Maccragge that didn't bring the Nids toward our galaxy some 30000 years later.

Speaking of, did they ever tell us what happened to that device? Because that's a Primarch-sanctioned bit of Xenotech, and part of a network of identical devices, no less. That should be used by Imperials 24/7

Xyptc wrote:


There has been loads of it in the last few years.

The Rising Leviathan and Shield of Baal stories go into extreme depth on how the Tyranids invade worlds (updating a lot of older fluff along the way).

There are also several Black Library short stories and novels set around the coming of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Some of these are actually really very good (Valedor and the Last Days of Ector in particular). Deathstorm is interesting too, because it has a Broodlord POV (which is better than you'd expect).

Most recently, GW have been quietly and subtly expanding on the nature of the Hive Mind itself and how it is finally starting to look at our galaxy a bit more closely, giving the impression that Behemoth and Kraken really were little more than probing tendrils, not particularly smart and absolutely nothing compared to what is to come. There are some great scenes in which powerful psykers encounter Tyranids and can actually feel the Hive Mind looking back at them, with predictably painful results. In all cases the Hive Mind is depicted as unimaginably vast, ancient and completely "other" (at once point an Eldar Spirit Seer looks deep into the Hive Mind and realises that such power could drive off Slaanesh forever and free the Eldar from their curse... then decides that there's no hope of ever co-existing with the Hive Mind because it is just too different to life as we know it, so it was a pointless thought).

If you're looking for Tyranid fiction that's up to date and useful for fleshing out the race, look for the following:

- Rising Leviathan parts 1, 2 and 3
- Valedor (Eldar POV)
- The Last Days of Ector
- Shield of Baal: Leviathan
- Shield of Baal: Exterminatus
- Shield of Baal: Collection (8 stories of varying lengths, all of them pretty entertaining)

That's awesome! I definitely didn't know there'd been that much, and should be looking into it! I especially like the sound of the Broodlord POV. However, to get Deathstorm will I actually need to buy the SoB box? Or at least all of the books and whatnot from it? Or is it it's own thing?

Thanks for the list at the end, I shall definitely be checking it out!!

Tyranids:
Biological superweapons which after hundreds of thousands of years of refinement and perfection... are slightly less effective than men with flashlights :/

). Deathstorm is interesting too, because it has a Broodlord POV (which is better than you'd expect).

Fascinating. Worth picking up?

AtraUnam wrote:
Tyranids:
Biological superweapons which after hundreds of thousands of years of refinement and perfection... are slightly less effective than men with flashlights :/

In fairness, it's pretty strongly established that so far the Tyranids' efforts have been the extra-galactic, highly bloody equivalent of a dog sniffing something to see if it smells okay to eat. Given that, it seems likely that the poor ol' Imperial Guard and their respective allies are about to have an even nastier time of it than usual when the hive mind finally decides to stop playing around and go for the jugular, so to speak.

There is an old (like 2nd edition old) short story called Hive Fleet Horror.

According to that story, the Tyranids are old, older than the Necrons and the Chaos Gods and are spread through all the universe.

 Ratius wrote:

). Deathstorm is interesting too, because it has a Broodlord POV (which is better than you'd expect).

Fascinating. Worth picking up?

I thought so, but opinions may vary. There's a nice collection of novellas and short stories available from the Black Library depicting what Leviathan is currently up to (other than the Ork meatgrinder of course), and I found each of the stories oddly charming. Some are very simple, others a bit more complicated and (in one case, very far-reaching in implication). If nothing else, it's nice to see BL giving the Tyranids some face time and exploring them outside of "swarm descends on planet, either beaten back with huge cost or world is lost".

You can pick up the whole e-buundle here: http://www.blacklibrary.com/warhammer-40000/shield-of-baal-collection-ebook.html

When I first realised what was happening (Broodlord POV) I was a bit worried that it was going to be terribly done (Tyranids are, by definition, really difficult to understand, let alone write from their POV...) but the author came up with a clever way of justifying it, which not only allows for an alien POV grounded in "our" way of thinking, but also explores how a Genestealer infestation works (something that GW has shied away from lately).

Cool. thanks.

Mellow wrote:
They could have been designed by any major ancient power. Don't they stay away from the Necrons? Maybe they were made by a C'tan at some point and were scattered by the Old Ones making their slow journey back.

It said in the old necron codex that the Tyranids avoid some necron tomb worlds because they have null field matrices, which also block out the warp, daemons, and psychic activity.

Anrakyr-the-Traveller wrote:

Mellow wrote:
They could have been designed by any major ancient power. Don't they stay away from the Necrons? Maybe they were made by a C'tan at some point and were scattered by the Old Ones making their slow journey back.

It said in the old necron codex that the Tyranids avoid some necron tomb worlds because they have null field matrices, which also block out the warp, daemons, and psychic activity.

Not to mention the even simpler (and not mutually exclusive) explanation that a lot of the hardcore Necron worlds are dead planets, with no life and as such no means to support a large vanguard population of Tyranids to draw in a major fleet.

I loved the idea of some psycher reaching out and suddenly catching a glimpse of the hive mind consciousness. Then he hears a subliminal voice: "See all the stars above you, prey? They are not there any more. What you see is merely a last flicker of illusion. My children have eaten those already, as they are going to eat yours as well. Your galaxy shall die and be fed to me, just like the previous one before and the next one after. You think that stars die of old age or explode to nothingness but it is not so. I am that which erases the stars. I am that which ends life. I am that which happens when time itself is over. I am that which devours the universe. Pray to your emperor. Prey to me."

Anrakyr-the-Traveller wrote:

Mellow wrote:
They could have been designed by any major ancient power. Don't they stay away from the Necrons? Maybe they were made by a C'tan at some point and were scattered by the Old Ones making their slow journey back.

It said in the old necron codex that the Tyranids avoid some necron tomb worlds because they have null field matrices, which also block out the warp, daemons, and psychic activity.

While useful, they don't completely block the warp nor the hive mind, as Necron Tomb Worlds have fallen to both the Tyranids and the Demons.

topaxygouroun i wrote:
I loved the idea of some psycher reaching out and suddenly catching a glimpse of the hive mind consciousness. Then he hears a subliminal voice: "See all the stars above you, prey? They are not there any more. What you see is merely a last flicker of illusion. My children have eaten those already, as they are going to eat yours as well. Your galaxy shall die and be fed to me, just like the previous one before and the next one after. You think that stars die of old age or explode to nothingness but it is not so. I am that which erases the stars. I am that which ends life. I am that which happens when time itself is over. I am that which devours the universe. Pray to your emperor. Prey to me."

If the hive mind had a voice I would picture it like DoW II's interpretation of it. The female voice just makes sense to me, something strangely human coming from a breed of insanity inducing bugs that quite literally only live for their next meal.

Also, despite how ludicrous my next idea is, I certainly think it's interesting: Has anyone else noticed a similarity to the nids and Malal, both want to destroy everything else, (including the other chaos gods) and when the nids are done with their work their is nothing left in the universe, and in turn the nids would eventually starve to death, having nothing left to nom on.

and when the nids are done with their work their is nothing left in the universe, and in turn the nids would eventually starve to death, having nothing left to nom on.

Its an interesting point. If they keep going as they are they'll have 3 options, enter permenant hibernation, turn on themselves or hike it off to yet another Galaxy.
What heppens after they have gone through them all?
They are sort of weirdly anti-darwinian in that sense.
As the Agent says in the Matrix, most life forms find a balance with their ecosystem. Nids just eat theirs.

 Ratius wrote:

and when the nids are done with their work their is nothing left in the universe, and in turn the nids would eventually starve to death, having nothing left to nom on.

Its an interesting point. If they keep going as they are they'll have 3 options, enter permenant hibernation, turn on themselves or hike it off to yet another Galaxy.
What heppens after they have gone through them all?
They are sort of weirdly anti-darwinian in that sense.
As the Agent says in the Matrix, most life forms find a balance with their ecosystem. Nids just eat theirs.

The unknown variable would be the size of the universe. It is possible, even likely, that when the Tyranids have finished eating the universe, the "first" part of the universe will have recovered and will be once again ready for harvest.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
My personal headcanon theory is that they're actually native to the Milky Way, having fled it about sixty five million years ago after losing the War in Heaven. In the millions of years since, they've managed to bioengineer their way into godhood, and are now coming back for revenge...

If they were coming back to our galaxy, and participated in the War In Heaven, wouldn't they have figured out an adaption to processing Necrons before making their move against the Milky Way?

While some Tomb Worlds have been eaten, others have put quite a hurting on the Hive Fleets that have attacked them, since Necrons leave no bio-mass to consume, either of their own fallen or the Tyranids they kill, and their worlds can easily be lifeless rocks that offer little anyway.

 Psienesis wrote:
While some Tomb Worlds have been eaten, others have put quite a hurting on the Hive Fleets that have attacked them, since Necrons leave no bio-mass to consume, either of their own fallen or the Tyranids they kill, and their worlds can easily be lifeless rocks that offer little anyway.

Not all the Tomb Worlds are lifeless rocks. It is highly unlikely that the Tyranids attacked Tomb Worlds that lack anything of value for them.

 Tyran wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:
While some Tomb Worlds have been eaten, others have put quite a hurting on the Hive Fleets that have attacked them, since Necrons leave no bio-mass to consume, either of their own fallen or the Tyranids they kill, and their worlds can easily be lifeless rocks that offer little anyway.

Not all the Tomb Worlds are lifeless rocks. It is highly unlikely that the Tyranids attacked Tomb Worlds that lack anything of value for them.

Furthermore, the latest fluff starts to depict Tyranids going after more than just "flesh and plants". In the Cryptus system they went to a gas giant with every intention of draining out useful elements from the atmosphere there, despite there being minimal organic life present. It's very possible that as larger and more advanced feeder fleets move into the galaxy they will start stripping more and more from the systems they attack. Imagine enormous creatures the size of moons with solar wings thousands of kilometers across that camp out around stars absorbing the various outputs of those stars, even manipulating the reactions within the stars to speed up the process. Entirely speculative, but this is 40k and nothing is off limits!