Editing Hive Mind (section)

== Warhammer 40,000 ==
In Warhammer 40k, the "Hive Mind" is the ultimate, supreme grand master awesome badass overlord of all [[Tyranids]] (let's put a pin in that thought for now). It blots out all psychic signals, including the [[Astronomican]], [[Astropath]] communications, and even the [[Warp]]. The latter is very upsetting to anyone that isn't a Tyranid (or a Necron, but the majority of them don't care either way).

The Hive Mind is made of literally every Tyranid creature, and the hive fleets are merely appendages of the Hive Mind. This means it is very, very, very big. Fucking huge, and some theorize that the Hive Mind is a new god of ''Order'': its capacity for violence and reach is far beyond that of [[Khorne]]'s while denying him any actual bloodlust, renders [[Tzeentch]]'s plans impotent (individual Tyranids have no minds to outsmart), the immortality offered as part of a greater whole is beyond the shambling eternity of [[Nurgle]], and no temptation nor depravity of [[Slaanesh]]'s can sway a Tyranid away from the Hive Mind any more than you or I could cajole a liver cell into acting like a kidney cell. The Emperor himself probably cannot penetrate the will of an entire spacefaring species acting as one, probably because the Hive Mind is essentially an individual acting through a "species" rather than a collective of minds.

If you want to know its full brilliance: it once outwitted the [[Ultramarines]]. There you go.

There are only two recorded cases of the Hive Mind being in any way foiled: Varro Tigurius (in a story written by [[Matt Ward]], natch), and one case when a besieged [[Eldar|Craftworld]] managed to get a distress call out past the Hive Mind to the [[Eldar]] pirate prince [[Yriel]] (this fleshing out of lore was also written by [[Matt Ward]], but here it was a concentrated effort by an entire planet of highly psychic aliens, and more than one of their best died from the strain).

When facing a Tyranid in battle it is not the individual before you that you fight, but the Hive Mind as a whole operating through the body of said critter. Now this actually is as bad as it sounds, but luckily for the other races of the galaxy the Hive Mind is not flawless. Its largest weakness is that it is pretty much a gestalt, its power and aptitude to influence events growing with the amount of individual bodies in a given place at a given time. There are [[Lictor|exceptions]] [[Genestealer Patriarch|to this rule]], but generally speaking a single isolated Tyranid organism isn't any more dangerous then, say, a hippo or a wolf. Sure, it can fuck you up; but without higher level thought it can't make a plan other than stampede, gore you and then stomp on the paste. It can't think beyond basic predator hunting tactics and forget about strategic thought. Even a large mass of Hormagaunts, while dangerous, has no ability to form tactics or act with forethought beyond that you would expect from a wolf pack, a wolf pack with swords instead of forelimbs mind you, but wolf pack none the less. But when expressed through the synapse creatures designed to channel it, the Hive Mind can express its full power through its otherwise stupid minions and the Tyranids can become a nigh-on unstoppable unless checked by an equal force, as happened on Octarius against the Orks. <s>Fun fact, that one actually ended up resulting in an Ork victory, which was kinda refreshing.</s> Nevermind, the Tyranids actually won this one.

Another weakness of the Hive Mind is that even when present in overwhelming numbers, it is neither omniscient nor omnipotent and it still can be tricked, outsmarted or even beaten into submission by sheer [[Necrons|resilience]] and/or [[Tau|firepower]]. This said: while the Hive Mind does make mistakes and can be outsmarted, you can fool it with the same trick only once; losses are anticipated and are useful either to cull the genepool, as fuel expended to ensure victory and/or simply to gather knowledge about a given lifeform to better adapt against it for the next time a Hive Fleet encounters said lifeform. The Tyranid Codex reminds us that even defeats anywhere may serve to ensure a victory somewhere else -- pray that you are at "anywhere" and not "somewhere else." Again though, for all its power, don't mistake the Hive Mind as more powerful than it actually is. A particularly interesting example of the Hive Mind outright failing can be found during the Devastation of Baal, when, at the height of the battle, the Great Rift opened across the galaxy, and severed Leviathan's connection to the Hive Mind. As in ALL of it. All of Hive Fleet Leviathan cut off from the Greater Hive Mind. And boy, the book makes it clear that the Space-Locusts were NOT ready for this. Even with the deployment of the Swarmlord, it was all the Tyranids could do not to completely lose any remaining cohesion. Then Ka'Bandha and his brodies manifested on one of Baal's moons, utterly upending a critical component of the Tyranids order of battle. And Guilliman's massive fuckoff War Fleets arrived in orbit. And the Legion of the Damned led by the Sanguinor appeared inside the 'Nids ranks to attack them. And Dante killed the Swarmlord. So the Hive Mind regaining some composure didn't quite work out, and, frankly their situation hasn't improved much since due to the impact and fallout of the Great Rift.

Despite the presence of Synapse creatures and [[Norn Queen]]s, the Hive Mind is much closer to Type B than Type A. You can separate individual Tyranids from the Hive Mind just like a stroke can separate brain cells, but those brain cells don't consider themselves "freed" and will do what they can to link back up.

Now remember that pin we use earlier? Let's pull it out now. The fluff is a little uncertain on if there is '''''A''''' Hive Mind or Multiple Hive Minds with one for each Hive Fleet. If there was a singular Hive Intelligence it would not explain why Tyranid hive fleets fight each other so often. It's theorized that this is a method of self improvement, throw two hive fleets at each other and the one with the best biomorphs wins and takes the losers biomass. That is what happens but if there was a central intelligence you think both hive fleets could improve with a horizontal gene transfer of useful information like how bacteria do rather then needing to fight and from that transfer compare the various biomorphs. Additionally a fight only proves who has the best biomorphs to fight other Tyranids not any other threat in the galaxy. It's also double strange when you compare Tyranids to Ants. Army ants are the most immediate comparison to a Hive Fleet with the whole colony always on the march looking for foot, and Army Ants specifically '''Do not''' fight other members of the same species. Most other ants do fight members of the same species but Army Ants and few others do not, thus implying that Hive Fleets are seen as more divergent then a species, as if other Hive Fleets were a different faction they are competing with rather then them all being on team Hive Mind. On the other rending claw there is case of [[Hive Fleet Kronos]] which often is ignored by other hive fleets with those fleets often leaving a planet half eaten for Kronos to get a free meal which is unheard of among Tyranids and does suggest a Full on all Tyranid Hive Mind working to keep Kronos, the anti demon specialists of the Tyranids in top fighting form. But the Kronos case also calls out just how bizarre this behavior as Hive Fleets never work together outside this case. There is also the Swarmlord which is seen among multiple hive fleets, but Tyranids are Tyranids and it's 100% possible the Swarmlord is just a swarmlord, a particularly powerful synapse used in the basel hive fleet that all hive fleets have the genetemplate to birth.

In any case, singular intelligence or many, it does not really matter much. Either way when you fight the Tyranids your fighting an army with perfect psychic wi-fi, connecting all aspects of it together at all times into a single command and control that can perfectly attack, defend, coordinate or strike with each part having zero self preservation or will.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Tyranid]]