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Here's a theory that's pretty out-there, but it sounds pretty cool at the same time.

So, it has been established that the Nids don't feed the Chaos gods, because their minds and souls are of a different nature compared to the other races native to the Milky Way.

What if the Nids' collective souls created a Tyranid God of the Warp. Like one of the Big 4 Chaos Gods, but a Tyranid version.


Then, what if this god saw the Big 4 as a threat, and wanted to destroy them? And it aims to do that by sending the Tyranids to the Milky Way to destroy all life, as such life feeds and enables the Big 4 Chaos Gods.

So it would not be just a quest for food, but an epic struggle between gods.


I think it'd be cool for the mighty Chaos gods to be challenged. Gods can fall. The Eldar Gods got pwned. The C'tan got pwned too. Gork & Mork are still going strong though.

The Tyranid God should use the colour yellow. We already have red for Khorne, Blue for Tzeentch, Green for Nurgle and Pink for Slaanesh.

Problems in this theory.

For one, Tyranids don't have behind tons of bodies or organisms. As soon as the battle is over, everything jumps into the disgestion pools to be turned back into biomass for future work. There's very little in the way of a consistent and large collective. Certainly it can spike to huge numbers, but that is only for a short burst.

Second of all, hive mind. It's doubtful that most Tyranids even have an active set of desires and emotions (necessary for the formation of Warp entities), they are all a gestalt consciousness.

 curran12 wrote:
Problems in this theory.

For one, Tyranids don't have behind tons of bodies or organisms. As soon as the battle is over, everything jumps into the disgestion pools to be turned back into biomass for future work. There's very little in the way of a consistent and large collective. Certainly it can spike to huge numbers, but that is only for a short burst.

Second of all, hive mind. It's doubtful that most Tyranids even have an active set of desires and emotions (necessary for the formation of Warp entities), they are all a gestalt consciousness.

But think about it, digestion pools. Those high death rates stir the waters of the Warp.

Desires? Well, the Tyranids probably experience a burning hunger.

Istn't the Hive Mind already kinda what you are describing? It's a very powerful presence in the warp fueled by gestalt consciousness of the entire Tyranid species. It's able to even block out psychic powers, even for greater demons. It's also very single minded, like the Ruinous Powers.

kaszak wrote:
Istn't the Hive Mind already kinda what you are describing? It's a very powerful presence in the warp fueled by gestalt consciousness of the entire Tyranid species. It's able to even block out psychic powers, even for greater demons. It's also very single minded, like the Ruinous Powers.

Maybe. If it were to become a God, it might decide to challenge the Ruinous Powers for supremacy of the Warp.

Maximus Bitch wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
Problems in this theory.

For one, Tyranids don't have behind tons of bodies or organisms. As soon as the battle is over, everything jumps into the disgestion pools to be turned back into biomass for future work. There's very little in the way of a consistent and large collective. Certainly it can spike to huge numbers, but that is only for a short burst.

Second of all, hive mind. It's doubtful that most Tyranids even have an active set of desires and emotions (necessary for the formation of Warp entities), they are all a gestalt consciousness.

But think about it, digestion pools. Those high death rates stir the waters of the Warp.

Desires? Well, the Tyranids probably experience a burning hunger.

Honestly, not so much. Since the Tyranids are all, in a broad sense, part of the same organism, calling a digestion pool a bunch of deaths would be calling the bacteria in your gut a ton of deaths. Not really the same thing that fuels the warp.

Yeah, The Tyranids themselves don't really have souls..

A Prime fluff example of that is during one piece.. where the Tyranids attack a shrine world, that holds a ancient Daemon Artifact guarded by Grey Knights.. the blood shed causes the device to activate and 4 Greater Daemons of the powers are born onto the world with their legions of minions, excepting cause all sorts of havoc.. instead they find bugs chewing on everything..

Big battle ensues and the Deamons lose, as they are not getting any fuel from the bugs to keep them going (and the bugs keep countering them)

Maximus Bitch wrote:

But think about it, digestion pools. Those high death rates stir the waters of the Warp.

No more than animals do.

There is only 1 Tyranid in terms of sentience. The Hive Mind itself. The individual tyranid bio-forms are nothing more than individual cells making up the larger biomass of a single super organism. The Hive Mind itself is far above even what we could call sentience anyway. Its an utterly unfathomable being.

GodDamUser wrote:
Yeah, The Tyranids themselves don't really have souls..

A Prime fluff example of that is during one piece.. where the Tyranids attack a shrine world, that holds a ancient Daemon Artifact guarded by Grey Knights.. the blood shed causes the device to activate and 4 Greater Daemons of the powers are born onto the world with their legions of minions, excepting cause all sorts of havoc.. instead they find bugs chewing on everything..

Big battle ensues and the Deamons lose, as they are not getting any fuel from the bugs to keep them going (and the bugs keep countering them)

Actually, that's the reason I wrote this:

Maximus Bitch wrote:

So, it has been established that the Nids don't feed the Chaos gods, because their minds and souls are of a different nature compared to the other races native to the Milky Way.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 curran12 wrote:

Maximus Bitch wrote:

 curran12 wrote:
Problems in this theory.

For one, Tyranids don't have behind tons of bodies or organisms. As soon as the battle is over, everything jumps into the disgestion pools to be turned back into biomass for future work. There's very little in the way of a consistent and large collective. Certainly it can spike to huge numbers, but that is only for a short burst.

Second of all, hive mind. It's doubtful that most Tyranids even have an active set of desires and emotions (necessary for the formation of Warp entities), they are all a gestalt consciousness.

But think about it, digestion pools. Those high death rates stir the waters of the Warp.

Desires? Well, the Tyranids probably experience a burning hunger.

Honestly, not so much. Since the Tyranids are all, in a broad sense, part of the same organism, calling a digestion pool a bunch of deaths would be calling the bacteria in your gut a ton of deaths. Not really the same thing that fuels the warp.

But each of them has a brain (even if tiny) that experiences that hunger. Plus, they're like way bigger than bugs, presumably their brains are too.

Of course, GW has never specified enough for us to know for sure, but what do you think of the idea of a God war?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Grey Templar wrote:

Maximus Bitch wrote:

But think about it, digestion pools. Those high death rates stir the waters of the Warp.

No more than animals do.

There is only 1 Tyranid in terms of sentience. The Hive Mind itself. The individual tyranid bio-forms are nothing more than individual cells making up the larger biomass of a single super organism. The Hive Mind itself is far above even what we could call sentience anyway. Its an utterly unfathomable being.

But with untold trillions of those animals? And some Tyranids are shown to have pretty high intellect as well. Genestealer Patriarchs can even show "love & affection".

In this case I'm talking about a Tyranid Warp god. What do you think of the idea of a god war?

If I remember correctly, Tyranids have kind of a null effect on the warp. They can't enter the warp and as such manipulate gravity to travel, and wherever their fleets go the warp goes totally silent and still. So it seems they're kind of an anti-warp race with little or no presence there. It's very possible that their goals and motivations are still connected to the warp and the sentient races that influence it in some way, but most likely only to blot it all out entirely as opposed to becoming a major warp power.

 Luciferian wrote:
If I remember correctly, Tyranids have kind of a null effect on the warp. They can't enter the warp and as such manipulate gravity to travel, and wherever their fleets go the warp goes totally silent and still. So it seems they're kind of an anti-warp race with little or no presence there. It's very possible that their goals and motivations are still connected to the warp and the sentient races that influence it in some way, but most likely only to blot it all out entirely as opposed to becoming a major warp power.

See this is where Tyranid fluff gets kinda inconsistent

It doesn't actually calm the warp, every Tyranid is 'Souless' but still has a presence in the warp.. Fundamentally the Shadow is the Warp, is that region of the warp being 'Flooded' by too many presences at once. With this it becomes impossible to get a message through, and very dangerous to travel. Psykers will go mad from the chitterling 'voices' their minds get flooded with.

Every single Tyranid, while cannot be considered wholly Sentient is still an individual and psychic at a base level (same as Orks) but are connected to each other, with Synapes Creatures being node points for the sentence that is the Hive Mind

The next big issue is that they don't Warp Travel, but manage to reach stupidly impossible speeds while moving between star systems (biggest flaw in their fluff)

 Luciferian wrote:
If I remember correctly, Tyranids have kind of a null effect on the warp. They can't enter the warp and as such manipulate gravity to travel, and wherever their fleets go the warp goes totally silent and still. So it seems they're kind of an anti-warp race with little or no presence there. It's very possible that their goals and motivations are still connected to the warp and the sentient races that influence it in some way, but most likely only to blot it all out entirely as opposed to becoming a major warp power.

Aren't those Necron-created blanks. Necrons themselves aren't blanks though. they have to capture their human experiments. Imagine if they kidnapped all the Silent Sisters. Or imagine if the Sisters found out that their extraordinary powers are due to Xenos!

Each fleet has its own "GOD" = mother hive ship.

 FeindusMaximus wrote:
Each fleet has its own "GOD" = mother hive ship.

Ehh.., I'm just thinking of one big god.

Maximus Bitch wrote:

 FeindusMaximus wrote:
Each fleet has its own "GOD" = mother hive ship.

Ehh.., I'm just thinking of one big god.

The Tyranids are ancient and have scoured other galaxies of life. If they were going to create a Warp god of some sort, I think it's reasonable to say that it would have happened by now. Instead, we have the Hive Mind, which objectively speaking is better than a Warp god; the Tyranids and their 'god' are one and the same, two aspects of a single being crossing into multiple dimensions (and who knows where else for that matter). Chaos, Eldar, even Orks... none of them have that unity with their 'greater power'.

Personally I prefer it this way as well; it's another facet of the 'alien'ness of the Tyranids. They have no god and for whatever reason don't appear to register very much on our own galaxy's Warp other than drowning it out/overloading it with their presence. What possible need could the Tyranids have of a god?

Patriarch Phyrx wrote:

Maximus Bitch wrote:

 FeindusMaximus wrote:
Each fleet has its own "GOD" = mother hive ship.

Ehh.., I'm just thinking of one big god.

The Tyranids are ancient and have scoured other galaxies of life. If they were going to create a Warp god of some sort, I think it's reasonable to say that it would have happened by now. Instead, we have the Hive Mind, which objectively speaking is better than a Warp god; the Tyranids and their 'god' are one and the same, two aspects of a single being crossing into multiple dimensions

It could be something that hasn't been mentioned yet. A hive mind's just an old concept of a shared mind though. Of course, the Tyranids have sheer numbers.

Patriarch Phyrx wrote:

Maximus Bitch wrote:

 FeindusMaximus wrote:
Each fleet has its own "GOD" = mother hive ship.

Ehh.., I'm just thinking of one big god.

Personally I prefer it this way as well; it's another facet of the 'alien'ness of the Tyranids. They have no god and for whatever reason don't appear to register very much on our own galaxy's Warp other than drowning it out/overloading it with their presence. What possible need could the Tyranids have of a god?

Well, for a god war of course. Gives a more sinister purpose to the Tyranids' actions too.

I think the other thing about Tyranids not having a God, is that they don't have a belief system..

They exists and fulfill their purpose, that is it.. no emotion, just following the task the hive requires of it

GodDamUser wrote:
I think the other thing about Tyranids not having a God, is that they don't have a belief system..

They exists and fulfill their purpose, that is it.. no emotion, just following the task the hive requires of it

The Imperials empower the Big 4 despite being unaware of them.

A Tyranid god would be like the Tyranids themselves, emotionless, vastly different from the Big 4.

Nid made god.

 koooaei wrote:
Nid made god.

??

Your caught up on thinking of nids on the wrong scale.

Individual nids are nothing. They are not animals. They are not individuals. When the nids are caught up in a battle with opposing forces it's not a fight between races.

Nids eat worlds. WORLDS. Entire planets are a single meal, What do the bacteria that live on the food mean to an entity like that?

Individual nids are closer to antibodies and digestive enzymes. A Hive Tyrant is not much different from the spores they dump into the atmosphere to begin terraforming the planet for digestion. They are all organs and systems for a entity that is built to devourer entire planets. The death of billions of "individual" nids is no different from the skin cells you shed every moment of your life.

When Macragge managed to fight off Behemoth it was nothing more than indigestion.

The nids don't need to create a warp god. The Great Devourer already rivals them simply by existing.

 Lance845 wrote:
Your caught up on thinking of nids on the wrong scale.

Individual nids are nothing. They are not animals. They are not individuals. When the nids are caught up in a battle with opposing forces it's not a fight between races.

Nids eat worlds. WORLDS. Entire planets are a single meal, What do the bacteria that live on the food mean to an entity like that?

Individual nids are closer to antibodies and digestive enzymes. A Hive Tyrant is not much different from the spores they dump into the atmosphere to begin terraforming the planet for digestion. They are all organs and systems for a entity that is built to devourer entire planets. The death of billions of "individual" nids is no different from the skin cells you shed every moment of your life.

When Macragge managed to fight off Behemoth it was nothing more than indigestion.

The nids don't need to create a warp god. The Great Devourer already rivals them simply by existing.

But with a god their motives become even more sinister.

I personally like to think of Nids as the antibodies/immune system of the Universe. When there is a disturbance from outside the body (ie warp powers/deamons ect) they are attracted to it and destroy it. Then they leave letting things grow again with a clean slate. If Tyranids had a God it would be the galaxy/reality trying to assert itself and get things back to normal.

Having a god doesn't make them more sinister as you seem obsessed with. It makes them mundane.

The horror of the tyranid menace is that they are unknowable. Creatures beyond desire. They exist for one purpose and that purpose is one we cannot understand.

They do not hate, nor love, nor despair. They are void of emotion. They exist to consume, endless hunger, that cannot be bought or bargained with.

That is the terror of the tyranid menace.

Turning them into 'Chaos Bugz' instantly shatters that. Now they have an understandable purpose, religious whorship, now they are relatable, like cultists.

Simply put its fething boring.

I'd much rather enjoy my sinister inhuman threat than be saddled with hormogaunts ringing the doorbell and asking if I've heard the good word of the Great Devourer.

lonestarr777 wrote:
Having a god doesn't make them more sinister as you seem obsessed with.

I'm not obsessed. I just have to repeat it to a different person each time.

lonestarr777 wrote:
Turning them into 'Chaos Bugz' instantly shatters that.

Why do you say Chaos Bugz? No Chaos here.

lonestarr777 wrote:
The horror of the tyranid menace is that they are unknowable. Creatures beyond desire. They exist for one purpose and that purpose is one we cannot understand.

They exist to consume, endless hunger, that cannot be bought or bargained with.

Well you just answered your own question.

lonestarr777 wrote:
It makes them mundane.

Now they have an understandable purpose, religious whorship, now they are relatable, like cultists.

Simply put its fething boring.

I'd much rather enjoy my sinister inhuman threat than be saddled with hormogaunts ringing the doorbell and asking if I've heard the good word of the Great Devourer.

Now obviously they're not gonna act like Mormons. They're one of a kind in the Milky Way so their god is for them only. Also, their god could be just as alien as them.

They don't worship like a human, they just oppose the Chaos Gods and will defeat them by om nomming all sentience which empowers Chaos.

Why this is more sinister is because before that, they were only trying to satisfy their hunger. Now they are on a mindless xenocidal mission. Not xenocidal cos they're fascists, just mindless purpose that cannot be bought or bargained with.

First, let me introduce you to sarcasm, he's a very good friend of mine and the only way I make it through the day.

Second, you are anthromorphising the nids. Their hunger is only a piece of the puzzle, the only piece we can see and understand. By making them whorship a entity they instead become knowable.

They aren't here on some holy crusade, something we can relate too, they are here because they are here. The theories on why the nids are here all have one thing in common. They are grasping at straws.

Are they a super bio weapon on the loose? Did they eat their whole solar system and are arriving starving for another? Or are they refugess from some other cosmic threat pursuing them.

Saying their here cause the hive mind thinks nurgle smells funny and wants to kick his ass is utterly boring garbage.

Cosmic horror, loses that edge when you can understand the motivation. It's the same thing people lament about Necrons. They went from unknowable horrors in the dark to 'TTTOOOMMMBBB KKKIIINNNGGGSSS IN SSSPPPAAACCCEEE!!!'.

If you want god on god violence go look up Malal the lost god. Putting this on nids is a diservice to what they are.

lonestarr777 wrote:
First, let me introduce you to sarcasm, he's a very good friend of mine and the only way I make it through the day.

Second, you are anthromorphising the nids. Their hunger is only a piece of the puzzle, the only piece we can see and understand. By making them whorship a entity they instead become knowable.

They aren't here on some holy crusade, something we can relate too, they are here because they are here. The theories on why the nids are here all have one thing in common. They are grasping at straws.

Are they a super bio weapon on the loose? Did they eat their whole solar system and are arriving starving for another? Or are they refugess from some other cosmic threat pursuing them.

Saying their here cause the hive mind thinks nurgle smells funny and wants to kick his ass is utterly boring garbage.

Cosmic horror, loses that edge when you can understand the motivation. It's the same thing people lament about Necrons. They went from unknowable horrors in the dark to 'TTTOOOMMMBBB KKKIIINNNGGGSSS IN SSSPPPAAACCCEEE!!!'.

If you want god on god violence go look up Malal the lost god. Putting this on nids is a diservice to what they are.

Bro, I wasn't taking that door-knocking part seriously. I'm just saying that we can do that without anthropomorphising the Nids.

They could have an alien God and hence would not behave like people.


Bio weapons made by someone? Kind of like having a god. Hunger? That's been covered. That they could be like Xen fleeing the Combine sounds cool though.

Hates Nurgle's stink? It's not that mundane. An epic god war is a new kind of war. Not too many of those in 40k (although there are lots of gods in 40k).


But does everything have to be mystery horror? That's just like how every new TV series tries to hook its audience by starting off with a mystery.


I do actually like some aspects of the Newcrons. I like how they're trying to regain their lives' purpose after having lost it during the War in Heaven. I like that more character has been added to them.

And if you want a mystery angle, the existence of a Tyranid god could be another one of these mysteries.


And thanks for calling it garbage. There's nothing wrong with differences in opinion; I could think that your vehement disagreement is like piling on garbage, but I wouldn't say it.

A big part about Tyranids is that they are not like anyone else. They have no goals, no ambition, no desire beyond survival of the whole. They are less like soldiers of an army, and more like antibodies in an organism. And I don't know about you, but my white blood cells don't worship anything - they exist in pure biological function - not out of service to a deity.
Not everything needs religious justification. Sometimes, there simply are swarms that must feed. These swarms just happen to be planet sized and carrying bio-guns.

If they serve a God, they can be understood and nearly humanised. If they exist purely as antibodies, then they are distinctly alien and isolated. They can't be manipulated with worship, power, etc etc - they can only feed the Hive.

Every other race is defined by their worship or veneration - the Imperium to the God Emperor, Chaos to the Chaos Pantheon, Orks to Gork and Mork, Eldar (and to some extent, Dark Eldar) to their pantheon, Tau to the Greater Good and the AdMech to the Omnissiah. Only the Necrons come close, and that's from technological means, not to mention they did once worship/work for the C'Tan.

Only Tyranids would differ, and instead of homogenising them into the massive holy war that's going on now, a secular, uncaring force composed of mindless biological autonomy is a heck of a breath of fresh air. After all, it would be like rationalising a locust swarm not devouring crops to eat, but to spread the power of their Locust god in the real world.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
A big part about Tyranids is that they are not like anyone else. They have no goals, no ambition, no desire beyond survival of the whole. They are less like soldiers of an army, and more like antibodies in an organism. And I don't know about you, but my white blood cells don't worship anything - they exist in pure biological function - not out of service to a deity.

If they serve a God, they can be understood and nearly humanised. If they exist purely as antibodies, then they are distinctly alien and isolated. They can't be manipulated with worship, power, etc etc - they can only feed the Hive.

Every other race is defined by their worship or veneration - the Imperium to the God Emperor, Chaos to the Chaos Pantheon, Orks to Gork and Mork, Eldar (and to some extent, Dark Eldar) to their pantheon, Tau to the Greater Good and the AdMech to the Omnissiah. Only the Necrons come close, and that's from technological means, not to mention they did once worship/work for the C'Tan.

Only Tyranids would differ, and instead of homogenising them into the massive holy war that's going on now, a secular, uncaring force composed of mindless biological autonomy is a heck of a breath of fresh air. After all, it would be like rationalising a locust swarm not devouring crops to eat, but to spread the power of their Locust god in the real world.

I disagree that they would be humanised. We shouldn't think in such narrow terms.

Alien creatures with an alien god and an alien relationship with their god. Their relationship might be very different from a human relationship. They could have a god without being holier-than-thou like the other races.


And I kinda like the idea of a locust swarm having such of god. I find it boring that they're just having breakfast only.


Think about it, all the Gods are so humanoid. The Emprah and the Eldar and Ork gods no doubt. The Tau de-facto worship their Ethereals. The Star God C'tan still look humanoid. Khorne sits on a throne (which means he has an ass), Slaanesh is a pretty prince in a palace, Nurgle's a [MOD EDIT - Language! - Alpharius]. Tzeentch is more interesting though.

Ok, I don't meant that Khorne literally must have an ass.


But, don't you think it'd be cool to have an utterly alien god, one which might not even look like a giant Tyranid. Something described as so mind blowingly alien like a Lovecraftian being.

lonestarr777, I think that's something you'd like.

Maybe their god is so alien it's not even a god as you'd think of it.

Honestly them having a god coming to war with other gods is really really boring and an overdone concept to me.