Tyranid

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The Tyranids (often shortened to simply 'nids) are a race of extragalactic beings in Warhammer 40k that seemingly exist only to devour biomass and grow their numbers. They are extremely adaptable, and frequently genetically engineer traits and characteristics from the unfortunates they devour into their own species in order to improve their combat effectiveness; as a result, they are constantly evolving and becoming more dangerous. The Tyranids are most commonly seen in the galaxy in the form of Hive Fleets, large collections of spacefaring organisms that are capable of transporting and growing the smaller strains of the species, as they travel from world to world, attacking them and consuming all the available resources of the planet.

The 'nids as a species are powerful psykers and are psychically linked to form a gigantic hive mind of impressive vastness, allowing their forces and armies to move with a unity of purpose and cohesion that makes them extremely dangerous. The individual intelligence of different strains of the species is variable, however, and many of the smaller species lack the psychic power to communicate over long distances, and so the swarm relies on larger so-called "synapse" creatures to act as relays and nodes in the psychic communication network. Outside of the range of a synapse creature such as a Tyranid Warrior, smaller varieties such as those found within the Gaunt genus revert to animalistic behaviour. However, certain strains, such as the Genestealer or the Lictor, are intended to spend long periods of time beyond the reach of the Hive Mind, and are consequently considerably more intelligent and autonomous than other varieties.

The normal Tyranid modus operandi is to locate a delicious looking planet, usually by following the psychic emanations of vanguard organisms like the Genestealers, who are sent ahead as scouts to infiltrate and form cults, drawing the fleet towards a viable target. The Tyranids are capable of non-Warp-based FTL travel, which they achieve by using gravity to manipulate space and travel extremely quickly towards large gravity wells such as stars; once they are relatively close, they must rely on STL travel to close the gap with their target, but the power of the Hive Mind is such that it casts a stifling influence over the Warp in the area, rendering warp-based travel and communication almost impossible. Hence it is that a world that finds itself the target of a hive fleet is unable to call for help or receive reinforcements by the time it realises the Hive Fleet is there. Once they reach the world, vast swarms of creatures are sent down to the surface, to overcome all resistance and consume the planet's resources, in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a Korean StarCraft champion playing the Zerg. In the later stages of the invasion, the Fleet manipulates the planet's environment and seeds it with plant life engineered to grow extremely rapidly and absorb nigh-on all the nutrition available in the planet's soil, which is then consumed by the creatures of the swarm and hence conveyed to the Hive Fleet.

This makes the Tyranids very dangerous foes to fight; they are almost impossible to beat in a war of attrition, as individual losses are meaningless to them. As long as they are able to recover the biomass of their slain, it is simply recycled into new warriors and ships. It's worth nothing this ability is bullshit of the highest magnitude since it goes against the law of conservation of energy. No way in hell are you getting enough calories and mass to 'rebuid' an organic lifeform from the shredded corpse of one, but hey, it's 40k. The universe is powered by B.S. and that's why we love it. Even a Hive Fleet that has taken terrible losses and forced to retreat may soon return to terrorise strong worlds, as capturing and consuming a few poorly defended backwater planets is all that is required for them to replenish their forces. Even Hive Fleets considered defeated by the Imperium may still have splinter elements that survived and continue to attack worlds in the region. It is worth noting that, in the rare event that two different Tyranid fleets encounter each other, they are apt to attack each other. This is generally believed to be some sort of selection mechanism to compare the effectiveness of the traits the individual fleets have absorbed, with the victorious fleet consuming the other, absorbing their best traits, and becoming a deadly hybrid of both.

So far, only a few Tyranid Hive Fleets have made it to this galaxy, and they were given names like "Behemoth" and "Leviathan" and ate untold numbers of planets before finally destroyed or stalled. It's also known that these are merely scouting fleets for the unimaginably large swarm that has yet to arrive, still currently in transit from another galaxy (Imperial scholars suppose them to be either en route from a galaxy they successfully scoured of all life, or retreating from some force even nastier than they are). Noted Imperial scholars believe that the only possible plan that stands any chance against the arrival of this force involves giving a lasgun to everyone that has hands and hoping for the best. They have been expected to arrive on Terra's doorstep any day now for years, being stalled by a force even more malicious then they are: GW's reluctance to move the story forward.

Some fa/tg/uys masturbate furiously to anthropomorphized versions of Tyranids. These people are miserable deviants who must be consigned to the loving and understanding care of a mental institution.

Tyranids are no longer in the starter set for 40k. They've been replaced by Orks, encouraging a new generation of gamers to speak like normal Liverpudlians and think this makes them funny. What the fuck, GW? What the fuck?

Seriously, don't you people even ever get a bit disgusted by all this porn?

Also, Tyranids suck in the Computer Games. Seriously, just chain target the synapse creatures and you've already won.

This now concludes the awesome part of all things Tyranid. If you look at the gallery below, you will require a mind scrubbing. No exceptions.