Let's Read: Warhammer 40,000 Codexes and Star Wars RPG Sourcebooks (Dark Eldar Reviewer)

InquisitionAI · Aug 5, 2023

RiverDelta said:
Was the Imperium always so odd?

The Imperium? No.

Primarchs? Yeah.

It seems that, once you get to a certain level of Power, you just get *strange*. Magos Maxima, Rogue Traders, Inquisitors, Primarchs, they're all really weird to the average person.

RiverDelta · Aug 5, 2023

FreePeriphery said:
Ynathe I owe you explanation on the Deathwatch yes. Well here it is, in most cases Loyalist and some Renegade Space Marines are organized into semi-independent units of 1000 Astartes not counting special officers and noted positions outside the Chapters primary function. In most cases with a few exceptions these chapters will act as independent military orders with varying degrees of faith and variety in what they believe. Enter the Deathwatch officially the Deathwatch has no upper limit on the amount of astartes can join it rather it is limited by the amount space any Watch-Fortress as open. The Deathwatch do not take recruits from traditional sources rather they ask for volunteers from the Chapters. The process of how a brother becomes members varies by the chapter from honor to punishment. What is typically universal is that being part of the Deathwatch is that it is not a for life assignment rather one goes learns what they can from other cousins who have also joined spend perhaps a decade or two then return to the chapter usually gaining a promotion depending on the chapter. I'm unsure if this has changed with these new Primaris Marines I have been hearing of.

OoC: I trying to both be vague but informative has to not step on you Narrative toes short to speak as I figure that would be rather rude. Beyond that at risk of repeating my self im liking this AU more more with each entry, it feels more down to earth in away. The factions still have their grime but it feels more believable I guess like I could be sold this is the actual state of the 40K Universe. I admit I have some personal thoughts on the various heist review like character essay type stuff I am finding them all entertaining though.

Worry not, you are not particularly late. On the subject of the Deathwatch, I am unsur eof what the Deathwatch specifically does?

OOC: Well, if the personal thoughts aren't too negative/unconstructive, I'd love to hear them. Regardless, I very much appreciate the compliments, and I'm glad you're enjoying the AU!

InquisitionAI said:
The Imperium? No.

Primarchs? Yeah.

It seems that, once you get to a certain level of Power, you just get *strange*. Magos Maxima, Rogue Traders, Inquisitors, Primarchs, they're all really weird to the average person.

...Is it merely Imperium people? Vect and many of the highest-ranking Chaos leaders can be a bit...mad, too. The T'au have avoided that, but I suppose the Ethereals are just somewhat...mundane in comparison.

FreePeriphery · Aug 5, 2023

RiverDelta said:
Worry not, you are not particularly late. On the subject of the Deathwatch, I am unsur eof what the Deathwatch specifically does?

IC: The Deathwatch fights Xenos exclusively they have been noted as being the Militant Wing of the Ordo Xenos. They are a specialized formation within the Adeptus Astartes. I just released I had been explaining it's organization rather then function, for the record how often they fight anything other than Tyranids I'm unsure my mentor had only fought Tyranids during his two decades in the Deathwatch. T

InquisitionAI · Aug 5, 2023

IC:

RiverDelta said:
Is it merely Imperium people?

I mean, probably not, but I try not to talk outside my experiences if I can avoid it.

Wouldn't want to spew a bunch of conspiracy theories and treat them as fact, after all.

Though, yeah, Chaos Peeps tend to go full Vox Villain versus the Imperial Giant Ham.

RiverDelta · Aug 5, 2023

InquisitionAI said:
IC:

I mean, probably not, but I try not to talk outside my experiences if I can avoid it.

Wouldn't want to spew a bunch of conspiracy theories and treat them as fact, after all.

Very witty, Mr. Witt-Meister O'Wittingham. Try not to sprain your toe with all that wit.

InquisitionAI · Aug 5, 2023

IC:

RiverDelta said:
Very witty, Mr. Witt-Meister O'Wittingham. Try not to sprain your toe with all that wit.

I mean, you did all the set-up.

I just hit the ball.

OoC:
No hard feelings, but the set-up was *Right There*, and I just *had* to take it.

SolarFlare · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
(Sister Vandire: ...Sisters of Battle were trying to kill you?)

...So, long story short, some nobles decided they didn't like the inquisition poking around and framed the team as heretics. A bunch of arbites and a pair of sororitas with flamers showed up, the Arbites tackled the others, and the sisters opened up on me. Because obviously as the psyker, it was my fault. I panicked and pulled and didn't die by being on fire even harder, and then the snakes showed up, and the daemon took the wheel... things get kinda hazy after that.

N: Daemon then ripped its way out of her, apparently. C found her, healed her up, changed her, then I found her shortly after that trying to track C.

RiverDelta · Aug 6, 2023

SolarFlare said:
...So, long story short, some nobles decided they didn't like the inquisition poking around and framed the team as heretics. A bunch of arbites and a pair of sororitas with flamers showed up, the Arbites tackled the others, and the sisters opened up on me. Because obviously as the psyker, it was my fault. I panicked and pulled and didn't die by being on fire even harder, and then the snakes showed up, and the daemon took the wheel... things get kinda hazy after that.

N: Daemon then ripped its way out of her, apparently. C found her, healed her up, changed her, then I found her shortly after that trying to track C.

Ah. That is...unsettling. Is there anything I can do?

(Sister Vandire: ...Oh. Yeah, that'd do it. That's...That's a big problem. Glad you're OK after that. You haven't been possessed again, have you?)

Balmung1 · Aug 6, 2023

SolarFlare said:
...So, long story short, some nobles decided they didn't like the inquisition poking around and framed the team as heretics. A bunch of arbites and a pair of sororitas with flamers showed up, the Arbites tackled the others, and the sisters opened up on me. Because obviously as the psyker, it was my fault. I panicked and pulled and didn't die by being on fire even harder, and then the snakes showed up, and the daemon took the wheel... things get kinda hazy after that.

N: Daemon then ripped its way out of her, apparently. C found her, healed her up, changed her, then I found her shortly after that trying to track C.

IC: My offers of the steady income and Certificate of Terran Sanctioning(including but not limited too genuine Terran vellum,psi-seal of a few major members of the Telepathica,a few letters of recommendation from various Chartist Captains,highly expedited delivery and a container of of genuine Terran soil to seal the deal on authenticity or if you want someone to die screaming).Before you ask as to why the full set it's because according to the Telapathica Bigwig and the I bribed with my tram ticket to Eternity Gate and the Custodian I work on if it was just a Certificate it would look like I was doing something super illegal like Genestealer shit so that's why I had to add in all the other stuff so it would be equivalent to it's worth.

RiverDelta · Aug 6, 2023

Settling like a vast and terrible pall across countless worlds, the Shadow in the Warp heralds the coming of the Tyranid hive fleets. It is a nightmarish phenomenon that - whether by accident or design - has proved a cripplingly effective weapon against many of the galaxy's sentient races.

The warp is a strange dimension of ever-shifting energies that lies behind the skin of realspace. It is a churning and mysterious infinity amidst whose currents the passions, obsessions, sorrows and joys of all living things find reflection. The warp has been both boon and bane to the galaxy's sentient races. It is a source of near-limitless power for those who can harness it; it is the ocean from which flows the gifts of all Psykers. It is also the means by which Humanity spread out across the stars, and by which the...

(Ashlee Viola: Gaddammit, I'm here to learn about what the Imps think of the Nids, not to get this Basic Fuckin' Guide to Imperium Bullshit.)

(Vior Or'es: May I change the subject?)

(Ashlee Viola: Sure.)

(Vior Or'es: Have you ever read the Sophont Domestication Guide books?)

(Ashlee Viola: I've given one a look, yeah.)

(Vior Or'es: Oh, how lovely! I find them to be both reassuring and wholesome tales of various sophonts finding a proper home under the eyes of the Ethereals! Their tales of poor sophonts struggling to take care of themselves being given a place and happiness are some of my favorite comfort stories!)

(Ashlee Viola: Ain't those servile game fetish stories?)

(Vior Or'es: ...Humans are aroused by the thought of having wise, all-knowing, comforting authority figures dictate their lives for their own good?)

(Ashlee Viola: Ain't you always wondered why the Ethereals in those are "mommy" types?)

(Vior Or'es: We generally see Ethereals as nurturing figures, that is not out of the ordinary.)

(Ashlee Viola: So, uh, anyway, the Shadow in the Warp is a kinda psychic entity created by the Tyranid Hive Mind, one that fucks with Psykers an' shit.)

Or'es? You also read Sophont Domestication Guide?

(Vior Or'es: Oh, yes, Ynathe! It is a very good series of books! Every author who has worked on them are supremely talented and worthy of much praise!)

Oh, yes, they are very good, even if they're a bit formulaic.

(Vior Or'es: I like the formula, as I find it comforting. It is nice to know that the rebellious sophont will always find ways to overcome their dysfunction and fear with the T'au'va.)

It is amongst psychically attuned beings, however, that the Shadow in the Warp is felt the worst. Human psykers, Ork Weirdboyz, and virtually the entire Aeldari race are amongst such unfortunates, their psychic sensitivity rendering them dangerously vulnerable to the Shadow's insidious effects.

For me, it feels as though the world ceases to exist for a moment. I see color but the world is painted in black and white, and I feel this disconnect as though my brain has been severed from my body. It was a passing if painful sensation the few times it happened, but that complete and unreal isolation was dreadful nonetheless. Ever since Ashlee Viola began to modify herself, I've tried to keep our correspondences distant. Otherwise, I feel it.

Only truly psychically inactive races, such as the T'au or Necrons, have less to fear from the Shadow, but even then the insidious Hive Mind has weapons by which it can weaponise its gestalt will against them to claim victory...

(Ashlee: "Insidious". Tarnation, what crap. It's beautiful, a masterful survivor, an apex predator.)

(Vior Or'es: Might is not necessarily beautiful, only might used in service of a righteous cause can be it. Besides, might is not right, might must be used for right.)

Behemoth was the first hive fleet recognized by the Imperium of Man. After annihilating the outpost at Tyran Primus, it thundered on through settled space, carving a direct line towards the Ultramarines' stellar empire of Ultramar. Driven on by a primal hunger it seemed unable to fully control, the hive fleet appeared as unstoppable as it was bestially unsubtle.

(Ashlee: Ya want my opinion? The Blue Baby Boys deserved it. Smug Ultramarine cockbites.)

...I find your eagerness to cheer on the deaths of others deeply uncomfortable.

(Ashlee: Hey, they wanted to be "genetically superior"? Well, that's a privilege, not a right. They better earn it.)

...Why am I friends with you?

(Ashlee: Because ya've got good taste?)

(Vior Or'es: Ynathe, I would suggest trying to find some personal strength. Those with harmful ideas are often best kept out of one's life.)

I suppose.

...it was at Macragge itself that the fate of the First Tyrannic War would be decided. Here, Chapter Master Marneus Calgar led his warriors in a masterful campaign...Calgar himself was sorely wounded by the monstrous bioform known as the Swarmlord during the battle of Cold Steel Ridge...the Tyranid swarms were finally defeated by the unyielding resistance of the Ultramarines.

(Ashlee: Ah, what bullcrap. Sick of Imps rantin' on about the honor of battle.)

(Vior Or'es: I am unsure as to the difference between the glory of battle and the glory of survival.)

(Ashlee: Well, uh, shut up.)

Lictors and Genestealers act as saboteurs and assassins, disrupting command channels and supply chains with their attacks or spreading terror amongst the prey populace. At the same time, waves of biological invasion craft rain down from. on high. Many are inevitably shot down by battery fire and combat aircraft, but more hit the planet's surface and split open to disgorge expendable invasion swarms. Driven on by synapse creatures such as Tyranid Warriors, Tervigons and Hive Tyrants, chitinous tides of Termagants and Hormagaunts fling themselves at the enemy's defences.

What resistance they can overwhelm they do, tearing apart armoured columns fleeing for safety and butchering garrisons trapped behind their own defence lines. Yet this is not the primary purpose of the first waves. Supported from above by thousands-strong flocks of Gargoyles, the first waves allow the Hive Mind to corral the prey, to exhaust their ammunition and spirit, and to test where their defences are staunchest. With battle lines firmly drawn, the nature of the next invasion swarms adapts dependant on the resistance the Hive Mind has met thus far.

If the prey hide within fortified compounds or have taken to subterranean complexes, the follow-up waves include vast tunnelling swarms of Raveners, Trygons and Mawlocs. They may also see an upsurge in the numbers of living-tank analogues, such as Carnifexes or Exocrines, ready to pummel especially formidable defences into ruin. Should the prey prove resistant in the air, the Hive Mind hurls in flocks of Harpies, Hive Crones and monstrous Harridans to smash the foe from the skies. Prey who seek to fight a more metaphysical war may be met with waves of Neurothropes and monstrous Maleceptors, while those able to shrug off more direct assaults may be undermined by the toxic emanations of Venomthropes and Toxicrenes.

(Vior Or'es: How anyone could believe the Ugly Monsters are anything but evil is anyone's guess. Wait...Do the smart Ugly Monsters always think like this? Are there dissident Ugly Monsters?)

(Ashlee: ...Kinda, but even the ones with the most autonomy and the most human-ness are still sympathetic to the Swarm. They might spare someone or come to believe in some cause, but it's very rare and they have the Hive Mind in 'em keepin' 'em on the right track.)

(Vior Or'es: So...Would it be possible to cut a Tyranid off from the Hive Mind? Perhaps even the Tyranids could be brought to the Greater Good this way?)

(Ashlee: Good luck.)

Tyranid weaponry and wargear is entirely organic. Some examples such as heavy carapaces of chitinous armour, chameleonic flesh or spore-spewing gas bladders are integral to the warrior organisms that employ them on the hunt. The rest appear to be grown in the churning innards of the hive ships and symbiotically grafted to the bioforms that will wield them.

(Vior Or'es: I think I hate you.)

(Ashlee: Go on, puppy. Hate away! Hate me in your little collar as you sit in your crate and eat the kibble the real sophonts give you.)

(Vior Or'es: I really hate you.)

(Ashlee: We established that. Ya know what? I dunno if I like you much either! Yer an uppity li'l shit who ain't earned a damn thing in her entire life!)

(Vior Or'es: Oh? Well, then, what are you going to do, Viola? Eat me?)

(Ashlee: I ain't makin' any threats.)

(Vior Or'es: Your entire "natural selection" Tyranid Ugly Monster ideology is one large threat!)

(Ashlee: ...What?)

(Vior Or'es: By following that, you are threatening the entire galaxy! It is a declaration that you will kill anyone if you think it will keep you alive! I know you do not believe in anything, and that your entire ideology is one big self-justification to be a selfish weirdo trying to murder the part of herself that still cares for her family, but you are pathetic! You are turning yourself into vermin, into one of the Ugly Monsters, and nobody will ever love you for it! Keep regressing into an animal, Ashlee, you're already not human anymore!)

(Ashlee: This is the last thing I'll ever say to you, puppy. I wanna see what yer skin tastes like.)

...Um...Is everything alright?

(Vior Or'es: No. It is not.)

"As I looked into its dead black eyes, I saw the terrible sentience it had in place of a soul. Behind that was the steel will of its leader. Further still, I could feel its primogenitor coldly assessing me from the void. And looking back from the deepest recesses of the alien's mind, I perceived what I can only describe as an immortal hunger. We can slay the Tyranids on our worlds, blast their fleets from space, grind their armies to tom and ruined fragments. But their hunger? That is beyond our ability to slay."

Ashlee, are you okay?

(Ashlee: How could she say that to me?)

...I think she was just agitated.

(Ashlee: It was cruel.)

You...You said you wanted to eat her skin.

(Ashlee: That's nature.)

Just because something's natural, it doesn't make it good.

(Ashlee: What?)

She's...She's right. You're jerking off to this caveman fantasy.

(Ashlee: You too?)

I hope you aren't too far gone. I hope you can undo what you've done to yourself. I hope you can be a person again and not a monster. I hope you can be happy with what you have.

(Ashlee: ...Yer a moral coward too. Back me up, Vandire.)

(Sister Vandire: No. Your ideas are circular and just a big, dumb fantasy. People are good because they survive, and surviving is good because good entities do it. You can be stuck in prehistory with your evolutionary crap. The rest of us have civilizations to build.)

(Ashlee: Look, yer gonna want me for the other Codexes. I've experimented on an Ork or two, an' yer gonna need me for the Genestealer Cult Codex at the very least.)

...I know, but...You need to get better, or I'll find someone else. We're here to debunk bias, not to insert it, and you're more biased than the Codex writers sometimes.

Following the defeat of Hive Fleet Behemoth, some Imperial observers believed the Tyranid threat over. Humanity has outlived countless such xenos threats, they pointed out, each destructive in their own right yet ultimately minor in the grand scheme of the wider Imperium. Several centuries passed before this assumption was proved the worst sort of foolish optimism.

(Ashlee Viola: ...Hey, y'all. It's been a few hours later, an' I talked to the Water Caste guy that someone in the comments mentioned. I'm...a lil uncomfortable with how persuasive he was, but returnin' to the Codex review I'll say that this Tyranids codex is painfully Imperium-centric.)

(Vior Or'es: ...Was it like a Sophont Domestication Guide novel?)

(Ashlee Viola: Well, first, those books are fiction an' the Tau Empire's a cult.)

(Vior Or'es: Was it like a platonic and non-questionable Sophont Domestication Guide novel?)

(Ashlee Viola: It was sorta like that, yeah. He told me that I was under the impression that they wanted to subjugate me, like an animal in a zoo. It...It ain't like that, he said. I thought about what Vandire said, what y'all said about me bein' like an animal. This Water Caste guy, he said that the Greater Good's more like...a survival mechanism. It ain't like bein' a workin' dog, or, at least, that ain't how it is for the people who don't find that nice. It's like bein' an ant or a bee, all workin' together to make a big anthill so everyone gets to survive. He told me somethin' I knew but hadn't really thought about, that ants had existed before tigers an' savage wolves and they'll pro'lly exist after. Survival isn't about bein' the biggest predator, it's about buildin' structures. It seems like...Well, I'm already a cultist. It seems like a better cult. Maybe total freedom just ain't optimal for survival.)

(Vior Or'es: Oh my! That's wonderful!)

(Ashlee Viola: Yeah, I guess I just saw that Ynathe's friends—an' I do respect Ynathe—couldn't stand me, so I started to think about it. There were, uh, some conditions. First, I gotta have an Ethereal look over me directly to "ensure my integration into the Tau'va". She's just a young Ethereal, the kind you'd find on a village council. They were, uh...concerned about me, my mind, my body, my whole dubious shit life. I'm...I'm movin' in near my siblin', too. Not in, near. Basically, they just don't see me as a human, they see me as a weird hybrid Nid thing that's gotta be handled...special.)

The onset of the second Tyranid invasion - which would subsequently be named Hive Fleet Kraken - was subtle and insidious. This new hive fleet divided its strength amongst many separate tendrils. This allowed Kraken to assail many planetary systems at once, and also spread the Shadow in the Warp across a much wider area of space. As a result, it took a long while for word of the invasion to reach Imperial authorities. Many worlds were devoured during that delay.

Once the Imperial counter-attack began and the Second Tyrannic War was officially declared, Humanity discovered the true nature of this new threat. Hive Fleet Kraken was a wily ambush predator that sought ever to encircle, outflank, and surprise its prey....A number of Space Marine Chapters sprung to the fore during this desperate fighting retreat. Their valour was undeniable, as was their success in wounding and slowing the advancing threat of the hive fleet.

(Ashlee Viola: I swear to the fuckin' Emperor, everythin's about battlefield valour an' mythmakin' ta these fuckin' Codex bullshit books.)

Yet their defiance cost the Space Marines dear. The Scythes of the Emperor and the Lamenters were both mauled terribly, driven to the brink of extinction, while the Knights of Eternity Chapter was wiped out altogether.

Well, I suppose we had to learn about what happened to the Space Marines in this Tyranid Codex. Are all Imperial citizens so reverent of them?

(Ashlee Viola: I ain't.)

(Sister Vandire: Most of them are noble people, unstoppable in their virtue.)

...it was Chapter Master Marneus Calgar who led the fight-back, arriving on Ichar IV at the head of a mighty Ultramarines force and coordinating a masterful defence that finally saw the xenos scoured from the planet's surface and the surrounding void. Hive Fleet Kraken had been decisively defeated...yet with dozens of splinter fleets and lesser tendrils still scattered, it was far from a spent force.

(Sister Vandire: I don't get the hatred for the Ultramarines. They're good people who use necessary force to solve real problems. They make an effort to follow the laws of war, and faith's important to them.)

(Ashlee Viola: They're gaddamn borin', all sacred duty and heroic martial valor.)

(Sister Vandire: Right. You don't feel duty for anything. The only reason you're turning to the Tau is because they convinced you it was good for you.)

(Ashlee Viola: Hey, I'm honest.)

My lady Inquisitor, when many months ago you set me to this endeavor I truly believed it to be a rare honour. And yet as I come at least to deliver my findings to you I must question how I so angered you as to be assigned this duty. So unnatural, so enigmatic and unclean are the mysteries of this Tyranid that I consider both my faith and, yes, even my sanity to have been sorely tried. You ask me to provide you with insights that you might exploit in the slaying of these creatures, but I tell you I have precious few to offer. These so-called 'Parasites' appear to diverge almost wilfully from each archetype we attempt to fit to them. As to the matter of genealogical speculations upon subspecies linkage and the implicit weaknesses therein, like so many before me, my lady, I am at an utter loss. One might posit counter-empyric measures as being at least partially efficacious; perhaps all-enclosing personal protective equipment the better to prevent parasitization? But frankly, as Humanity has done since first these xenoform abominations set themselves against us, I would counsel the use of overwhelming firepower coupled with staunch faith in the God-Emeperor almighty. In short, their weakness could best be described as 'bullets', and in that field, my lady, you are far more the expert than I.

(Ashlee Viola: Rank amateur. When ya don't understand somethin' you run more tests. Ya don't give in an' cry about it.)

Only years after the defeat of Hive Fleet Kraken at Ichar IV, Hive Fleet Leviathan drove its tendrils up through the galactic plane. The largest and most widespread hive fleet to date, Leviathan showed clear signs of having learnt from the fates of Behemoth and Kraken. Its swarms continue to pose an all-pervading threat to the galaxy.

(Ashlee Viola: ...Ain't ya gonna tell us about other nations gettin' pulverized by the Nids?)

Amongst the first Imperial war-leaders to take the fight to Hive Fleet Leviathan was Inquisitor Kryptman. Believing the ends justified any means, the aged Inquisitor employed every resource he had amassed in his long and bloody career. He unleashed a wave of Exterminatus strikes upon worlds in the path of Leviathan's tendrils.

(Sister Vandire: He was a butcher.)

He was a monster.

(Vior Or'es: He had no right.)

(Ashlee Viola: He knew what he was doing. Lives are cheap. Spend 'em early so you don't gotta spend more later.)

(Vior Or'es: ...You really are a sociopath, aren't you?)

(Ashlee Viola: You don't gotta be a sociopath to get that calculus. If anything, I'm a low-empathy narcissist or somethin'. I dunno, I ain't a psychologist.)

Kryptman reasoned that, if enough planets could be rendered lifeless in the path of the swarm, the Tyranids would be starved and their onslaught slowed. His horrific methods met with some success, but they were too much even for his Machiavellian peers. Trillions of Imperial lives had been lost to Kryptman's purge. He was accused of heretical arrogance and declared Excommunicate Traitoris.

Yet Kryptman was not done. He next engineered the release of a brood of captured Genestealers within the bounds of the Ork empire of Octarius. Sure enough, a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan was drawn after the synaptic signal of the brood, ploughing into the greenskins' empire and igniting a ferocious war. Kryptman had hoped the xenos would annihilate one another; however, he was mistaken. Untold numbers of greenskins provided the Tyranids with a nigh-inexhaustible supply of biomass that saw their swarms grow daily. The Orks, meanwhile, thrive upon battle. In the Tyranids they found the fight of their lives. Larger and more belligerent greenskins were reported all the time by the outmatched Imperial forces caught up amidst the alien war. Soon enough, the fighting in the Octarian Empire threatened to spill out across neighbouring Imperial sectors.

(Ashlee: Ah, so he wasn't makin' the hard calls. He just was a fuckin' idiot!)

...What horrible, bloody, stupid ignorance. What an avoidable catastrophe. What was wrong with him?

(Sister Vandire: Heresy.)

Battlefleet Ultima lost more ships than they could afford during the Battle of Bloodstar, their captains discovering too late that the Hive Mind had learned much of ambush tactics since last they had battled its swarms. The mighty forge world of Gryphonne IV also fell to the tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan, al of its precious knowledge lost to the devouring maws of unthinking beasts. The systems of Pyrehaven, Ninth Gift, Josmire's Rest and Abdralla al fell silent and dark, their last cries warning of Tyranids attacking from the far reaches...

(Ashlee Viola: I still find that beautiful, though, uh...I guess my beliefs are changin' a bit. Lots of things are beautiful. The ocean's beautiful. The T'au'va's beautiful. The human heart is beautiful. Mutations are beautiful. That kinda thing.)

...How did you manage to phrase my own beliefs in a way that even I find unsettling?

No other hive fleet has been documented to possess the swift and insidious adaptability of Hive Fleet Gorgon. Its broods have been observed to hyperadapt even between one attack wave and the next, outwitting and outpacing even the most strategicially flexible prey to their eventual, hideous doom.

(Ashlee Viola: I gotta lay my cards on the table. I...don't see other people as being people. I never have, I was born like this. I've always been totally unable to, uh, see other people as being complicated and real in the same way I can. Yer all, like, comic book characters to me. For me, me has always been the most important thing. So, Vior, can I ask ya a favor? What was facin' Hive Fleet Gorgon like, but can ya describe it in the second person?)

(Vior Or'es: ...I admire your willingness to strive for others even if you clearly don't understand them except as extensions of you. That said, I do not want to regurgitate my trauma at being hunted by a rapid-changing threat of murderous horrors and spores.)

(Ashlee Viola: Aw, I get that. You OK?)

(Sister Vandire: Why do you care?)

(Ashlee Viola: I can't, but I'm tryin' to be nice.)

(Vior Or'es: Well, I do care. I care about everyone, all of the time, and I care so much for them that it hurts even if I don't really show that I do.)

(Ashlee Viola: You've got your species' version of autism, right? Makes sense. It's different.)

(Vior Or'es: Anyway, they used plagues and bioweapons. Imagine a quarantine where you are also being hunted, and that is if you are lucky.)

...I am very familiar with quarantine. We Drukhari enjoy our poisons and diseases.

Hive Fleet Jormungandr, sometimes referred to as simply the Great Serpent, hunts in a most unusual fashion. Favouring subterranean movement and sudden, shocking assaults, it stays out of sight and keeps its prey guessing. Many are the armed hosts that believed Hive Fleet Jormungandr defeated, shortly before they were swallowed up from below.

(Ashlee Viola: Shir B'kak, the local Ethereal who has made contact with me while the Water Caste member organizes things, has informed me that the fact that the Tyranid hive fleets each use only one strategy is a failure of adaptability and shows 'em as imperfect survivors unable to strategize for distinct means. That kinda thing. I might've been projectin' a li'l on them, I'll cop to that. Still, I ain't changed my mind, just evolved it.)

Faced with the sudden upsurge in daemonic incursions caused by the Great Rift, the Hive Mind has been forced to adapt swiftly. Hive Fleet Kronos is an example of its newly refined strategy for doing battle with ethereal enemies that provide no biomass to replenish that expended in driving them back...The swarms of Hive Fleet Kronos fight with unusual strategic caution...Kronos' Shadow actively drains the life from psychically capable prey, syphoning their energies to fortify the swarm, leaving them as nothing but crumbling husks...Kronos' tendrils have slowly worked their way along the fringes of the Great Rift, focusing on Chaos-corrupted systems with the potential to threaten the progress of other hive fleets.

...May I never encounter a creature from that fleet. Ashlee, what sort of Tyranid are you?

(Ashlee: I'm half-Tyranid, but most of my parts come from Leviathan.)

You grafted them on?

(Ashlee: Hey, survival of the basest, right?)

I do not think that is how the saying goes.

At first glance, Hive Fleet Hydra presents as amongst the smaller and less perilous of its kind. This impression is only reinforced by its hive ships' seeming contentment to lurk in the wake of larger swarms and feed on their scraps. It is only when Hydra surgers suddenly forward to attack that the illusion is shattered.

Oh, yes, this is the fleet that creates entire experienced armies out of thin-air, isn't it? Something about retaining sense-memories and storing up biomass?

(Ashlee: That's the one.)

Hive Fleet Tiamet is heavily adapted for defensive warfare. This alone has been enough to draw puzzled and alarmed scrutiny from many prey races, for the fleet's behavior seems atypical of the usual, never-ending predatory onslaught. The more that groups like Humanity's Ordo Xenos or the seers of Craftworld Iyanden learn of Tiamet, the deeper grows their dread...At least one faction within the Ordo Xenos has come to believe that Tiamet's vanguard organisms may have been present in the galaxy from as early as M35 and that - working slowly and steadily - these Tyranids have been labouring to fashion some dreadful bioconstruct ever since.
...
Tales abound of a Genestealer Cult calling itself the Choir of the Void, whose adherents have arisen on many worlds only to take ship en masse once their uprisings have succeeded. The Choir leave abandoned worlds in their wake, sailing unmolested into the heart of Tiamet territory and bringing great feasts of biomass to their supposed dieties. Meanwhile, records resurface of a terrible biostructure upon the world of Ziaphoria in the Tiamet system. As more and more psykers complain of a building psychic scream emanating from that world, those in power begin to ask what fell purpose the Tyranids' biostructure might serve, and what nightmare might befall the galaxy should it reach completion.

(Ashlee: I didn't know there was a Fleet Tiamat. I didn't know it was doing that. I hadn't heard of any of this.)

Well, I have, and it's all very real.

(Ashlee: What could it possibly want? This ain't Nid.)

(Vior Or'es: ...Civilization. It is advancing beyond animalistic life, just as the Eldar and the humans and the Tau did. It is building structures, stockpiling biomass, evolving into a living empire.)

(Ashlee: How do ya know?)

(Vior Or'es: It seemed inevitable that at least one of the fleets would seek to compete with sophonts on their own terms. This seems the most likely one.)

(Ashlee: Well, that...that kinda kicks the shit out of "survival of the fittest", huh?)

(Vior Or'es: Eusociality wins. I might even speculate that this is the nucleus of a second stage of Tyranid development.)

Does that not seem a bit...presumptive? Perhaps you are imposing your own ideals on the creatures.

(Vior Or'es: Maybe, but I want to think I know the Ugly Monsters.)

The swarms of Hive Fleet Ouroboris bring death on dark wings. Striking swiftly and in great numbers, their warrior organisms fill the skies of the prey world and descend with piercing shrieks to rend and tear.

Ah, even I know that the Legion of Ouroboris is the oldest and simplest of its kind. They are also one of the weaker hive fleets, as shown by their frequent defeats by Orks. They are a living fossil, nothing more.

(Ashlee: Well, maybe the T'au'll let me study one of theirs. Doubt it, though.)

Welcome to the rules section of Codex: Tyranids. On the following pages you will find all the rules content you need to bring every aspect of the Tyranids hive fleets on your tabletop battlefields...On top of this, the Tyranids are the only faction in Warhammer 40,000 with access to the Synaptic Imperative and Synaptic Link rules, through which you can adapt and overcome your foes using the powers of the Hive Mind. You will find everything you need on the following pages to include these rules in your games of Warhammer 40,000, not to mention bespoke content for your Tyranids force, including a system allowing you to devour the worlds of the galaxy one by one!

I must say, I do not think the term "bespoke" can apply to rules for a miniatures wargame. It reminds me of a well-tailored suit or a zero-grav dress, not some game of plastic toys.

(Vior Or'es: Thank you, Ashlee.)

(Ashlee: For what?)

(Vior Or'es: For allowing yourself to improve.)

Balmung1 · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
For me, it feels as though the world ceases to exist for a moment. I see color but the world is painted in black and white, and I feel this disconnect as though my brain has been severed from my body. It was a passing if painful sensation the few times it happened, but that complete and unreal isolation was dreadful nonetheless. Ever since Ashlee Viola began to modify herself, I've tried to keep our correspondences distant. Otherwise, I feel it.

IC:That's what happens if I forget to take the various medicines once or twice around the Left Hand but honestly it's worse for some of my coworkers who son't have the same gene-mods Artisians do,they just go absolutely insane(It reminds me of the ancient Terran horror classic Birdbox).

RiverDelta said:
Ah, even I know that the Legion of Ouroboris is the oldest and simplest of its kind. They are also one of the weaker hive fleets, as shown by their frequent defeats by Orks. They are a living fossil, nothing more.

IC:Never underestimate Orks,Thraka has maneuvered fainted,encircled far to many imperial task forces(even a few Custodian assassination forces nearly got destroyed but most just got humiliated).There was also the Beast(s)?(I've heard that it was one Beast and I have heard that it was a triumvrate of Orks calling themselves Beasts) who successfully put the entire Solar System under a blockade and fought a Primarch.

Mithrill · Aug 6, 2023

Balmung1 said:
IC: My offers of the steady income and Certificate of Terran Sanctioning(including but not limited too genuine Terran vellum,psi-seal of a few major members of the Telepathica,a few letters of recommendation from various Chartist Captains,highly expedited delivery and a container of of genuine Terran soil to seal the deal on authenticity or if you want someone to die screaming).Before you ask as to why the full set it's because according to the Telapathica Bigwig and the I bribed with my tram ticket to Eternity Gate and the Custodian I work on if it was just a Certificate it would look like I was doing something super illegal like Genestealer shit so that's why I had to add in all the other stuff so it would be equivalent to it's worth.

IC: Are you... offering T. a Sanctioning Letter of Scholastica Psykana? How in Warp have you got an inside men so deep at Astra Telepathica?! Their complex is, like, third best-guarded place on Terra, behind Imperial Palace and Navigator District!
...
I guess if you're decided, let's at least hope this scheme won't pull down too many innocent people. Patch that thing through me, I'll make sure it's recorded in the papers. T, if you happen to be passing near Sub-Sector Marassa, chime in. I'll do my best to get that letter somewhere you can pick up.

RiverDelta said:
(Sister Vandire: I don't get the hatred for the Ultramarines. They're good people who use necessary force to solve real problems. They make an effort to follow the laws of war, and faith's important to them.)

IC: Well... ever since Primarch Gulliman became Regent Imperial, there was a flood of new material regarding their campaigns. They are lot more active, they are successful in spite of terrible odds and some new intel suggests that their past losses were less severe than it was thought. I know some Curators are joking that someone is embellishing their records to get in Gulliman's good graces. I wouldn't be surprised if someone less inclined to respect the Sons of Macragge noticed this change of pace, they would think of it as completely fake.
There was also that misshap with some madmen trying to push for giving Regent the title of Spiritual Liege of Adeptus Astartes. That was... I have no idea who would think it's a good idea, but the sour taste remained.

Oh, regarding Tyranids, I unfortunately don't have anything to add. All reports coming to us paint them as nothing more than walking and flying sea of hungry mouths and sharp claws, and even those reports are scarce - the Codex doesn't seem to talk much about it, but Shadow in the Warp is a death sentence to the world it covers, since it blocks astropathic communication (so you can't call for reinforcements or even report the hive fleet is coming) and if strong enough, it can actually disrupt Warp travel. Even if the Hive Mind is non-sapient and non-malicious, it's not much of a comfort to those on the recieving end of its attacks. To me, it makes it scarier - most other threats in the galaxy, even Orks or forces of Chaos, can be made to leave you alone. With Tyranids, if they decide they want whatever you have, then it's fight to the death.

OOC: Well, Ashlee took an interesting turn this update. And Or'es should really ask for transitioning to Water Caste, she's just so good at indentifying vulnerable points of a person's psyche :grin:

She was getting a bit annoying to read, I admit, but making her a narcissist/sociopath reframed a lot in a way that kinda makes her more enjoyable.

Balmung1 · Aug 6, 2023

Mithrill said:
IC: Are you... offering T. a Sanctioning Letter of Scholastica Psykana? How in Warp have you got an inside men so deep at Astra Telepathica?! Their complex is, like, third best-guarded place on Terra, behind Imperial Palace and Navigator District!

IC: I have to emergency work with the Telepathica from time to time fixing the parts of the Astronomican and Golden Throne that eat psykers when they break down to such a extent that the usual specialists can'r full handle it so I know a few people there.In return for allowing one of these people to use the Tram pass I usually use to get to the Eternity Gate district to see my extended family once a month he offered to create a Certificate with all the other add ons. The higher ups of almost every Adepta on Terra are corrupt in some way,you just have to bribe them with things they value.It'll suck not being able to see my extended family or go to any of the amenities district this month or possibly the next few months but hey it'll help someone at least.

Mithrill · Aug 6, 2023

Balmung1 said:
IC: I have to emergency work with the Telepathica from time to time fixing the parts of the Astronomican and Golden Throne that eat psykers when they break down to such a extent that the usual specialists can'r full handle it so I know a few people there.In return for allowing one of these people to use the Tram pass I usually use to get to the Eternity Gate district to see my extended family once a month he offered to create a Certificate with all the other add ons. The higher ups of almost every Adepta on Terra are corrupt in some way,you just have to bribe them with things they value.It'll suck not being able to see my extended family or go to any of the amenities district this month or possibly the next few months but hey it'll help someone at least.

IC: Normally, I'd ask you to report it to head of Telepathica or Militarum, because it's a ticking time bomb of security on one of the most important and destructive institution in the Imperium, but I get a feeling that it's not going to change much, does it? I guess there are some benefits of being middle-rank Adept on a relatively backwater world, it's right in the middle of being too poor to do anything and being too rich to have to deal with all that shit.

Balmung1 · Aug 6, 2023

Mithrill said:
IC: Normally, I'd ask you to report it to head of Telepathica or Militarum, because it's a ticking time bomb of security on one of the most important and destructive institution in the Imperium, but I get a feeling that it's not going to change much, does it? I guess there are some benefits of being middle-rank Adept on a relatively backwater world, it's right in the middle of being too poor to do anything and being too rich to have to deal with all that shit.

IC:Trust me when I say that this is little league shit compared to stuff you see in Terran political(I actually told the Custodes about it,and according to them it's honestly pretty normal for these things to happen.In fact the type of Certificate I acquired was for a big reason since it's used by Rogue Traders,Chartist Captains,high level nobility and other people like that who either want to get around certain restrictions on having militarized psykers for private use and/or(mostly and) have a psyker or two that's a wee bit too sociopathic,heretical powers that can't be easily concealed or might have been taken by them instead of being sent to a Black Ship that they want some sort of official veneer of explanation on why no you are not allowed to kill their pet mind artillery.

khan2012 · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
First, I gotta have an Ethereal look over me directly to "ensure my integration into the Tau'va". She's just a young Ethereal, the kind you'd find on a village council.

IC: Well, color me pleasantly surprised. I'm genuinely glad you were willing to engage in introspection like this, and I can safely say that if you're willing to think about stuff like this and evolve your views, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to fit into the Greater Good, and even thrive. I didn't expect this outcome based on our initial interactions, and I'm glad I was able to help you along your way. If you ever get the change to visit T'ros, ask for Vergil Slater. I'd be happy to give you a tour.

RiverDelta · Aug 6, 2023

Balmung1 said:
IC:That's what happens if I forget to take the various medicines once or twice around the Left Hand but honestly it's worse for some of my coworkers who son't have the same gene-mods Artisians do,they just go absolutely insane(It reminds me of the ancient Terran horror classic Birdbox).

IC:Never underestimate Orks,Thraka has maneuvered fainted,encircled far to many imperial task forces(even a few Custodian assassination forces nearly got destroyed but most just got humiliated).There was also the Beast(s)?(I've heard that it was one Beast and I have heard that it was a triumvrate of Orks calling themselves Beasts) who successfully put the entire Solar System under a blockade and fought a Primarch.

I often find Orks are easy to underestimate, merely just ignoble brutes lacking in tact or comp...Oh, dear, I'm beginning to sound like The Right Vainglorious Mx. Antimony Aphrodite-Thor Dangereux.

Mithrill said:
IC: Are you... offering T. a Sanctioning Letter of Scholastica Psykana? How in Warp have you got an inside men so deep at Astra Telepathica?! Their complex is, like, third best-guarded place on Terra, behind Imperial Palace and Navigator District!
...
I guess if you're decided, let's at least hope this scheme won't pull down too many innocent people. Patch that thing through me, I'll make sure it's recorded in the papers. T, if you happen to be passing near Sub-Sector Marassa, chime in. I'll do my best to get that letter somewhere you can pick up.

IC: Well... ever since Primarch Gulliman became Regent Imperial, there was a flood of new material regarding their campaigns. They are lot more active, they are successful in spite of terrible odds and some new intel suggests that their past losses were less severe than it was thought. I know some Curators are joking that someone is embellishing their records to get in Gulliman's good graces. I wouldn't be surprised if someone less inclined to respect the Sons of Macragge noticed this change of pace, they would think of it as completely fake.
There was also that misshap with some madmen trying to push for giving Regent the title of Spiritual Liege of Adeptus Astartes. That was... I have no idea who would think it's a good idea, but the sour taste remained.

Oh, regarding Tyranids, I unfortunately don't have anything to add. All reports coming to us paint them as nothing more than walking and flying sea of hungry mouths and sharp claws, and even those reports are scarce - the Codex doesn't seem to talk much about it, but Shadow in the Warp is a death sentence to the world it covers, since it blocks astropathic communication (so you can't call for reinforcements or even report the hive fleet is coming) and if strong enough, it can actually disrupt Warp travel. Even if the Hive Mind is non-sapient and non-malicious, it's not much of a comfort to those on the recieving end of its attacks. To me, it makes it scarier - most other threats in the galaxy, even Orks or forces of Chaos, can be made to leave you alone. With Tyranids, if they decide they want whatever you have, then it's fight to the death.

OOC: Well, Ashlee took an interesting turn this update. And Or'es should really ask for transitioning to Water Caste, she's just so good at indentifying vulnerable points of a person's psyche She was getting a bit annoying to read, I admit, but making her a narcissist/sociopath reframed a lot in a way that kinda makes her more enjoyable.

OOC: That's fair, yeah. I don't know if it's her Social Darwinist views that were getting annoying to read or her thick Space Texan accent, but either way I can assure you and the rest of my readership that the next Codex's guest reviewer will not have an accent and will be very non-Darwinist in character.

IC: Somehow, I am skeptical that the Imperium's notoriously convoluted bureaucracy would allow for such a simple solution, but I will pray to Ynnead that it does go through.

OOC: Whether this works or not is up to @SolarFlare.

khan2012 said:
IC: Well, color me pleasantly surprised. I'm genuinely glad you were willing to engage in introspection like this, and I can safely say that if you're willing to think about stuff like this and evolve your views, I'm pretty sure you'll be able to fit into the Greater Good, and even thrive. I didn't expect this outcome based on our initial interactions, and I'm glad I was able to help you along your way. If you ever get the change to visit T'ros, ask for Vergil Slater. I'd be happy to give you a tour.

IC:

(Ashlee Viola: Eh, don't rub it in. It's just a more efficient strategy, buildin' shit together. I'll pro'lly never know the true glory of the T'au'va or whatever. I just don't think it's in me.)

OOC: I am very excited to introduce you all to The Right Vainglorious Mx. Antimony Aphrodite-Thor Dangereux.

khan2012 · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
OOC: I am very excited to introduce you all to The Right Vainglorious Mx. Antimony Aphrodite-Thor Dangereux.

OOC: PLEASE tell me this means the guard are next.

khan2012 · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
(Ashlee Viola: Eh, don't rub it in. It's just a more efficient strategy, buildin' shit together. I'll pro'lly never know the true glory of the T'au'va or whatever. I just don't think it's in me.)

IC: I genuinely was not trying to rub it in. I am genuinely happy for you, no matter your reasons.

RiverDelta · Aug 6, 2023

khan2012 said:
OOC: PLEASE tell me this means the guard are next.

OOC: Well, xe's a Rogue Trader, and there isn't a guard Codex, sadly.

khan2012 · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
OOC: Well, xe's a Rogue Trader, and there isn't a guard Codex, sadly.

OOC: there isn't? I am seriously out of date on tabletop 40k lol.

RiverDelta · Aug 6, 2023

khan2012 said:
OOC: there isn't? I am seriously out of date on tabletop 40k lol.

OOC: There isn't, I'd either have to find an 8th edition or earlier codex or have someone do/do myself a review of the Uplifting Primer. I was thinking the latter, but if people would rather I find a proper codex (however outdated), I can.

Mithrill · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
OOC: There isn't, I'd either have to find an 8th edition or earlier codex or have someone do/do myself a review of the Uplifting Primer. I was thinking the latter, but if people would rather I find a proper codex (however outdated), I can.

OOC: Because since 9th edition it's Astra Militarum, not Imperial Guard according to official GW materials. So look up under "astra militarum codex".
Source: Warhammer 40000: Codex Astra Militarum (9th Edition)

RiverDelta · Aug 6, 2023

Mithrill said:
OOC: Because since 9th edition it's Astra Militarum, not Imperial Guard according to official GW materials. So look up under "astra militarum codex".
Source: Warhammer 40000: Codex Astra Militarum (9th Edition)

OOC: I did look for it, but Warhammer Codex scans are rare and I couldn't find one under either name. Maybe there just aren't scans out yet?

khan2012 · Aug 6, 2023

RiverDelta said:
OOC: There isn't, I'd either have to find an 8th edition or earlier codex or have someone do/do myself a review of the Uplifting Primer. I was thinking the latter, but if people would rather I find a proper codex (however outdated), I can.

Oh no, I'm just surprised. Where are their rules then? Do they just not exist as an army anymore?

Let's Read: Warhammer 40,000 Codexes and Star Wars RPG Sourcebooks (Dark Eldar Reviewer)

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