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Greetings.

This is my very first message here, I was seeking information about Genestealer cults and this site caught my eyes several times, people here seem to be very knowledgeable about 40K fluff.

I have a couple of questions about these cults, because apparently it used to be a thing, got pretty much forgotten, and now resurfaced in another form. You could say the same thing for me, because I sold recently all my armies that I accumulated since my teen years, only to get started all over again with a Genestealer cult band. Bloody hell.

So first question, are Ymgarl genestealers from the Tiamet Hive? I read that somewhere, but could not find more occurrences of it.
Can these specific genestealers create cults?
It says that these genestealers stay rather than flee when a hive comes to eat a world, but in the GSC lore it also says that patriarchs stay and turn on its own cult and is reintegrated into the hive when the invasion comes *confusion of the highest orda*.
The Magus seems to be the second in command after the Patriarch. Does he have some level of autonomy? Could he rebel, or fight back the psychic link that he has with its Patriarch since he has powers on his own?
If the Patriarch dies, it says that the next oldest purebred genestealer takes its place. But what if the cult is recent and for now, there hasn't been a fourth generation yet, so no new genestealers to take its place?
I'm interested in the Tiamet hive specifically obviously because they don't seem to devour everything in their path, and even allow cult pilgrims to visit the weird pillar building thing on Ziaphoria.

Ymgarl Genestealers seem to be the first Tyranid life encountered by the Imperium, and quite a while before. They were believed to be a native life form of the moon Ymgarl.

Tyranids take their name from the Tyran System, where the first Hive Fleet properly arrived/was noticed/documented.

In theory, there’s nothing to prevent Ymgarl Genestealers from beginning a Cult.

That being said, the Hive Fleets themselves show no interest in reabsorbing Ymgarl broods. Indeed they’ll go to some effort to avoid just that. Why remains an open question, but the lore theory is something to do with their unstable genetics.

Now. That Ymgarl Genestealers have spread beyond Ymgarl is highly suggestive they can do what all other Genestealers can do, but I’m not personally aware of specific examples.

It could also be argued the Ymgarl are just an expression of an underlying genetic quirk of all Genestealers. If so, what are called Ymgarl Genestealers could just be a widespread genetic variant any and all Broods could come to express.

Now. Onto Cult Structure.

The Magus does have autonomy. As do most if not all members of the Brood. However, the Patriarch can still override that via the Broodmind as and when necessary.

As for establishing a Cult? There is by no means just a single Purestrain involved. Indeed it would be in the nascent Cult’s interest to get as many Purestrain planetside as they can get away with. Not only are they useful bodyguards for the new Patrirach, but they’re also redundancy in waiting should the Patriarch be slain.

Hive Fleet Tiamat I’m afraid I don’t know much about, so shan’t comment