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Bugs/Reptiles/Birds/Large Viruses?

I lean toward 'virus', but then I also consider humanity to be a virus.

Also, with Tyranids being an extra-galactic 'race', why should they fall into one of our premade classifications? Our classifications are based upon the natural world as we see it. Tyranids are not a part of that world (in reality or in game terms), they instead are from outside of that world. Its kind of like asking, "a rock is what type of fruit?"

The most appropriate classification would probably be "genetic-construct", or "chimera".

They are kind of like the dragon myth, created by combining all of humanity's deepest and most primal fears (fire + predatory cats + snakes) into one form. The tyranid/alien is simply the updated version of this myth (plague + mutation + the unknown + mortality).

Basically, the Tyranid does not fall into any one known category. It is instead a combination and adaptation of many.


All of that being said, somewhere along the line GW made reference to dinosaurs.

I don't know about virus as a classification of the organisms. You could say that they behave on a macro level as a virus. The constant genetic modification makes them really difficult to pin a classification on as well. Just on a single miniature you will see hooves, chitin carapace, six limbs, wings, spiracles (breathing holes in the body), carniverous dinosaur teeth and jaws, etc... All familiar structures that have never in reality existed on a single creature (thankfully?)

The chimera example is a good one. Just imagine the current tyranids as some vanilla 6 legged vertebrate alien, then start slapping on scarey stuff until you can't take it anymore.

Anyone remember the Yuuzhan Vong from Star Wars? Thats all I could think about when I first got into 40k and read about tyranids.

I think of 'nids as bioweapons from a distant galaxy that got out of control, killed their creators and then began rampaging through, first their home galaxy, then others, now including ours, all the while evolving new and more deadly abilities.

those had to be some very big testing tubes.

Depends on what level you look at them at. On the broadest level, I see them as working just like an army ant colony. They go off at random, places where there's food attract more attention and then that's where they just sort of "go". I don't really buy the idea of a huge maleficent Hive Mind that's anything even remotely similar to human consciousness. On an individual level they're more like huge dinobugmonsters. On a planetary scale, they're an unstoppable force of nature. You can stop them on a macro level, like Kryptmann did by misdirecting them, and you can stop them on an individual level by blowing the living hell out of them, but on that planetary level they're just unstoppable.

maybe we are the virus and they are the galactic antibodies.

Darkchild

To me, tyranids SCREAM zeeeerrrrrrrrg!!! Or maybbe Zerg scream tyyyyrrrraaaanids!...... whichever came first, but they are both very similar*

*Starcraft for those with... sheltered lives...

Considering Tyranids date back to 1987, I think it's safe to say that particular chicken game first. Tyranids themselves were certainly inspired by many sources themselves, but there's no question that Blizzard borrowed elements from Tyranids when designing the Zerg. One look at the Ultralisk's arms can tell you that.

However, while Starcraft was a great game, it really bugs me (pun intended) how people try to twist the Tyranid fluff into something Zerg-like. Tyranids weren't created by the (blank), they represent the alien, the unknown, the "here there be monsters" on the map, as blue loki explained. Furthermore, they also represent nature (specifically evolution) gone out of control. Seen in this context, Darkchild may be right...the Tyranids may represent the universe's answer to US.

Back to the original point, Tyranids are Tyranids. They're not quite like any form of life we have here on Earth. That's what makes them the quintessential alien.

Blizzard said that the Zerg are inspired by GW.
my Guess is: Nids are a hungry Alien race who ate everything up in their own galaxy and now need more food.
a bit like Galactus. just much MUCH cooler.

Since I really am tired of the 'oh noes, our faces have been eaten by our own bio-weapon! Teh IRONIES!!!' cliche, I thought a really interesting explanation for the Tyranids might be that they were originally created as a kind of ark organism, sent out into the universe to sample, catalogue, and store data about every living thing it encounters.  That'd lay down the basis for an organism able to cross intergalactic voids, repair and reproduce, and alter itself(s) as needed to overcome whatever dangers it encounters, and have an exceptional ability to breakdown and analyze other life forms.

So the original tyranid organism(s) didn't devour entire planets, and it's cataloging process might not even have been fatal in the first place (or it would only need a few samples of each species, so it would be a very low impact encounter for the world to be sampled).  However, somewhere in the intergalactic voids, after who knows how many galaxies had been explored, it encountered something...

The fact is, there are just as many stars and planets in between galaxies as in them.  However, the space is so vast, the concentration of matter so low that they are completly lost in the void, and to live in such a system, the night sky would be completly black, showing no evidence that there is anything else out there at all.  There might be a handful of stars, light reflected from other planets in the system, but that would be it.

In one such system, something savage arose, something, that as it expanded across the only system it knew, became the ultimate recycler, because though it ravened, it knew that there existed no resources beyond what it had, and those were inexorably being depleted.

And then, the ark organisms arrived, and the ravener being more fierce and unrelenting than the ark's designer's had ever imagined, overcame it, assimilated it, taking all of it's abilities for itself, as well as it's knowledge.  It now knew that the universe spilled over with feasts unimaginable, and where, in the unbroken veil of darkness, it should go to reach the overflowing bounty of galaxies, and now thousands, or millions of years later, the ark organisms, now the tyranids we know and fear, have reached our own galaxy.

as nids take the best gene samples of all the living organisms they encounter i would say... they are well all of them and even more but there is something i wonder about... why wouldt the nids live like plants, its way more effective and they should be able too and still be able to protect theirselves

Because a game where "Weed Man" has thier own army list would be lame :p

I prefer the "you cannot really know what they are" theorie. As my favorite Inquisitor Kryptman (may his fellow Inquisitors hunt him down) the Tyranid Hive Fleets humanity encountered till now are just a claw of a even huger beast.
And what can you say about a Tyranid by only seeing a claw from him ?
"It is a crushing claw only Carnifexes can get equipped with that !"
I hope you know what I mean.
The antibody theorie reminds me of the "Glimmer Rats" comics published by 2000AD very nice stuff.

Posted By Symbio Joe on 04/15/2006 8:44 AM
I prefer the "you cannot really know what they are" theorie. As my favorite Inquisitor Kryptman (may his fellow Inquisitors hunt him down) the Tyranid Hive Fleets humanity encountered till now are just a claw of a even huger beast.
And what can you say about a Tyranid by only seeing a claw from him ?
"It is a crushing claw only Carnifexes can get equipped with that !"
I hope you know what I mean.
The antibody theorie reminds me of the "Glimmer Rats" comics published by 2000AD very nice stuff.

By sheer coincidence last week i inherited my uncles entire 2000ad collection from prog 844 (early 1993) to present which cheered me up no end because my own collection was destroyed in a garage flood a couple of years ago. 

I haven't reached glimmer rats yet as im about half way through 1996. :S

 

Darkchild

The "Anti-body theory" was also done more recently in the first run of The Ultimates by Marvel(think the Avengers, but cooler and more adult oriented) when they re-imagined the Skrulls as the anti-body to "correct" other races in the universe. However, they used subversion and other humans to do it, much like Genestealer Cults. Apparently the Nazis and WW2 were because of the Skrull. The death camps however were an "eccentricy" that Skrulls allowed Hitler.

"I thought a really interesting explanation for the Tyranids might be that they were originally created as a kind of ark organism, sent out into the universe to sample, catalogue, and store data about every living thing it encounters. "  --Bookwrack

Tyranids as Nomad/V'ger?  Sounds like a real long-shot to me.

Tyranids are not evil think of them as will with a terrible but simple purpose. They are what happen when the hive surpasses the ground and eventually surpasses orbit.

Imagine if ants had become the dominant species instead of us, but sustained the way in which their society functions and expanded it ten-fold. The queen who runs the hive eventually evolves into some kind of telepathic creature, that then continues to evolve to reach out over the thousands of worlds the Tyranids have decimated to guide her flock. I imagine the hive mind is a super-queen maybe one or maybe the hive mind consists of thousands of such creatures.

As to the Tyranid organisms them self, each one is simply hyper evolved to its purpose within the hive. If you read any 40k novel involving Tyranids when they get deeper into them they are still the same but simply evolved to different purposes. From massive hive ships that guide the swarm to the micro-organisms that live brief lives to clean the chambers inside such behemoths. But regardless of each creatures role they all work for the hive seeking food, conquering territory and strengthening the hive.

Then again I might be totally wrong. But I think it?s a close perspective.

Usiel - "They got into his mind!"

Edit: But to answer your original question (heh), Tyranids can be defined by what they do not what they are. They are not of any earthly creature they are truly alien.

today I was reading in my brother's Necron Codex, and I found something very interesting: Tyranids are avoiding Necrontyr Tombworlds. they absorb almost everything , even empty moons and asteroids and stuff. but they actually evade Necron Worlds. It seems that there is mor to this Hive Mind then we thought

Consider that Tyranids are highly psychic, and navigate psychically. Meanwhile, all across the galaxy, Necrons are harvesting lifeforms with the pariah gene to use as anti-psykers against the psychic races created by the Old Ones. So perhaps the presence of Pariahs in large numbers cloaks the Necrons or just kinda poisons the water, so to speak.

I've seen plenty of speculation that it's because the Necrons created or control the Tyranids, blah blah. The problem with that is Necrons aren't psychic creatures, HATE all others who are and generally don't want anything to do with them. Never mind that the Tyranids come from outside this galaxy and the timelines don't really match up. The Necrons were pretty much all asleep when the first vanguard organisms and protofleets first entered the galaxy.

Also, the Tyranids don't literally eat entire planets...they just remove the life and any resources that might be valuable. There's still a planet there afterwards...it's just a barren rock now. This also describes a Necron tomb world.

Ok first of the Nids are riipped off from the bugs in Starship troopers... and b4 anyone goes but the film is fairly recent...
the book ain't its from 1940s so meh.

IN alll honesty i agree with the adaptive genetic weapon gone haywire idea.... or the one where they are the revenge of the old ones..

Also Gorgon the NEcron tomb worlds are like that to discourage anyone intefering with the stasis tombs... and the resources are not always completely depleted in that case..

Yes, everyone knows that Starship Troopers is to Sci-Fi as LotR is to Fantasy.
Yes, Heinlein's ideas concerning 'Bug' Aliens and Power Armour are possibly the earliest sources on the subect (1958-59 not '40).
Yes, everyone knows that GW has not an original bone in its corporate body.

So what? How many works of Sci Fi or Fantasy are truly original these days?

EVERYONE builds on the shoulder's of giants. That's simply the way the world works.

James Cameron had the actors portraying the Colonial Marines in Aliens read Starship Troopers before filming.
Every piece of anime mecha you have seen has its origins in the Mobile Infantry's powered battle suits.

Watch how you use the term "Ripped off". If you spread it too thin, it loses its meaning.

Posted By LordOfTheSloths on 04/16/2006 2:10 AM

"I thought a really interesting explanation for the Tyranids might be that they were originally created as a kind of ark organism, sent out into the universe to sample, catalogue, and store data about every living thing it encounters. "  --Bookwrack

Tyranids as Nomad/V'ger?  Sounds like a real long-shot to me.

It's as likely as anything else, and like I said, more interesting than the cliched, "Our unstoppable bioweapons won us the war, but now they're eating us too! Oh noes!"

It would also be more correct to say 'were Nomad/V'ger.'  The collection mission is over.

 

I've also never seen any instances of Tyranids consuming lifeliss planets.  They want the sweet, sweet, biomass. Hunks of rock don't interest them very much.