Remove ads

Warhammer 40k General thread

It's worth noting that the Lexicanum describes the Life Eater Virus in these terms:

The Life-Eater Virus, as used on Isstvan III and Stalinvast, is terrifyingly voracious, capable of spreading across the entire surface of a planet in a matter of minutes. The virus can penetrate power armour and rebreathers. The virus quickly rots and breaks down anything of biological origin, reducing it to sludge. Jungles and forests quickly rot into lakes of sludge. The rapid breakdown of organic matter releases tremendous amounts of flammable gas. The gas eventually ignites, either on its own or with the intentional insertion of an incendiary device, into an apocalyptic, planet-wide firestorm, searing the planet's entire surface to bare rock, as well as burning the atmosphere of all oxygen.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That follows the language convention I mentioned, the virus is rather unambiguously described in singular terms. There's no mention of a cocktail or multiple pathogen strains. It has citations so I'm willing to trust it (the 40k wiki is much more explicit that it's a single virus but it gives zero citations and thus is worth nothing). I don't have any particular objection to the cocktail hypothesis but it doesn't seem supported by canon. At least as far as I can tell.
 
Another thingy that confuses me is unfortunately a space marine question... during the Indomitus Crusade you had lots of the new prmaris mariens working together as Greysheilds.

Marines from different genestock working together for a century plus suggests that having more diverse warriors together provides some benefit in terms of tactical flexibility at least...


As far as I know this system was completely scuttled after the crusade ended. I mean yes various chapters needed the reinforcment, but why only send reinforcements of the same genestock out to those of the same stock?

At minimum why not keep some sort of core of diverse seeds together, a la the inquisition at its very begining? Or Is my memmory off on that affair also?

Or am I misunderstanding this particular aspect of the newer lore?

Was it an internal policking thing, a distrust between certain loyalist chapters for each other thing or something else?
 
16 characters said:
Another thingy that confuses me is unfortunately a space marine question... during the Indomitus Crusade you had lots of the new prmaris mariens working together as Greysheilds.

Marines from different genestock working together for a century plus suggests that having more diverse warriors together provides some benefit in terms of tactical flexibility at least...


As far as I know this system was completely scuttled after the crusade ended. I mean yes various chapters needed the reinforcment, but why only send reinforcements of the same genestock out to those of the same stock?

At minimum why not keep some sort of core of diverse seeds together, a la the inquisition at its very begining? Or Is my memmory off on that affair also?

Or am I misunderstanding this particular aspect of the newer lore?

Was it an internal policking thing, a distrust between certain loyalist chapters for each other thing or something else?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well, there's a few overlapping answers to those questions, but first and foremost it's important to remember that 40k is a setting that exists to service the tabletop game and not the other way around; and the tabletop game primarily consists of armies with easily recognizable color schemes and character archetypes to them. "Yellow armor -> siege dudes" or "wolf decals -> viking dudes" is a lot easier to explain to prospective players than having to explain how every space marine army is a slightly different version of the Deathwatch and who every primarch is all at once.

Applying that same logic to in-universe matters, it's easier for chapters to maintain one consistent geneseed rather than an amalgam of several different types, especially when one considers how warp travel is precarious at the best of times and chapters can be isolated or out of contact for long periods. Also because 40k is the grimdark far future, geneseed is of course volatile and dangerous and barely understood even by most of the people who handle it on a regular basis so the KISS principal applies. Thematically it also keeps the chapters as distinct brotherhoods a la the old knightly orders, which ties back to the tabletop design.
 
Last edited:
Also adapting to the life eater inherently requires at least some of the local swarm to survive getting hit with the life eater. Not impossible but a very tall order even for the Nids.
 
The Hive Mind might've just decided that it's not worth it. From its perspective why bother using microorganisms when the macro organisms it uses are already more then up to the task? More mundane diseases may take enough time to cull a populace that just swarming them might be faster. Not to mention that even the Imperium is capable of handling a disease outbreak, it might genuinely just be less effective then their normal attrition strategies.

Also the life eater virus specifically is infamous for causing a planetwide firestorm, that's... not the best for the Nids' goals. Barbecue is all well and good but I suspect even they might have trouble getting something useful from that :V
 
Fourthspartan56 said:
The Hive Mind might've just decided that it's not worth it. From its perspective why bother using microorganisms when the macro organisms it uses are already more then up to the task? More mundane diseases may take enough time to cull a populace that just swarming them might be faster. Not to mention that even the Imperium is capable of handling a disease outbreak, it might genuinely just be less effective then their normal attrition strategies.

Also the life eater virus specifically is infamous for causing a planetwide firestorm, that's... not the best for the Nids' goals. Barbecue is all well and good but I suspect even they might have trouble getting something useful from that :V
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I agree with this assessment. At least broadly, on why it actually usually holds them off especially if done before they even arrive but there are some caveats.
Firstly matter turned into ashes and biochar shouldn't cease to be able to be turned into biomass.
The carbon and trace elements are still there if anything it *could* be easier to get due to not fighting back...but I could see the idea of pausing to adapt bioforms to remove all the extra oxydiation as not worth it resource wise.

Secondly, I could just be not remembering correctly...but aren't microscopic tyranids a thing, isn't that how the digestion pools work? Or are flesh borers actually the smallest they tend to get?

EDIT: I admit I actually have no idea how effectively the imperium usually contains disease or not.

EDIT, Merge Post to avoid doubleposting:
Arashi Zaros said:
Didn't know there are alternative universe fanfic story here
:V

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DQgcPYVr-78
and the design for Necro space marine version good quite good ?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

There are actually more than one Alternative universe fan made fictions for Rouge Trader: Warhammer 40,000.

The guy who wrote Prince Of The Eye seems pretty good at writing them and you may enjoy some of his work.
There are of course others but I don't want to reccommend what I have not yet read.
POTE is basically about a what if wherethrough some aditional shenanigans Horus won the duel with big E but is heavily wounded and had to retreat.
forums.spacebattles.com

[Warhammer 40000] Prince of the Eye : What if Horus had survived the Heresy ?

AN : Hello everyone ! So ... yeah. This is a thing. In truth, I have had this story going on...
forums.spacebattles.com forums.spacebattles.com

forums.spacebattles.com

Search results for query: *

forums.spacebattles.com forums.spacebattles.com
 
Last edited:
16 characters said:
I agree with this assessment. At least broadly, on why it actually usually holds them off especially if done before they even arrive but there are some caveats.
Firstly matter turned into ashes and biochar shouldn't cease to be able to be turned into biomass.
The carbon and trace elements are still there if anything it *could* be easier to get due to not fighting back...but I could see the idea of pausing to adapt bioforms to remove all the extra oxydiation as not worth it resource wise.

Secondly, I could just be not remembering correctly...but aren't microscopic tyranids a thing, isn't that how the digestion pools work? Or are flesh borers actually the smallest they tend to get?

EDIT: I admit I actually have no idea how effectively the imperium usually contains disease or not.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

For the Nids its probably entirely an eficiency thing for them.

The Nids want 2 things from a planet, biomass and a chance to refine its biomass aquisition methods.

It takes energy to built biomass into more complex forms, and the biomass thats attacking you generally only consitutes less than 1/1000th of the biomass you plan to acquire. Moreover, for nids to lose, they have to lose in space first then get cleared out so the ground battle is rarely more than a minor point.

You're tanking the resource gain of the planet significantly just to make digestion a bit easier, and denying yourself a chance to field test some new adaptions to validate their continued usage which may prove critical in a future conflict.
 
Eliar said:
Probably a combo of pathogen and curse, since it seems to actively seek out life and not stop until everything alive becomes dead. Especially concorted so the planet remains for future exploitation by the Mechanicus more likely.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My understanding was that it was a virus designed to 1. Infect all biology on a planet and 2. Reduce said life into short chain hydrocarbons and free oxygen that, once the concentration is high enough, turns the entire atmosphere of a planet into a fuel air explosive to be sparked by orbital fire or nature itself.
 
Telvos said:
My understanding was that it was a virus designed to 1. Infect all biology on a planet and 2. Reduce said life into short chain hydrocarbons and free oxygen that, once the concentration is high enough, turns the entire atmosphere of a planet into a fuel air explosive to be sparked by orbital fire or nature itself.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yea but that does not explain how it was able to eat through full NBC suits, Space Marine armor included.

So there must be something else in the mix as well.
 
Man, we already have Phospex being basically magic napalm without invoking Warp bullshittery, why can't something called Life-Eater Virus just be magical supervirus without invoking the Warp?
 
Generally you should assume stuff that's pre-Heresy isn't particularly warpy in nature, just on a thematic level. Phosphex is generally the exception in that even the folks handling it were kind of freaked out by how it worked.
 
Eliar said:
Yea but that does not explain how it was able to eat through full NBC suits, Space Marine armor included.

So there must be something else in the mix as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Must there be? Canonically the Tyranids are not primarily sorcerous or Warp related, they're "just" hyper-evolved monstrosities. It's just a part of 40k canon that biology can pushed a hell of a lot further then OTL laws of physics suggest. There's no reason to assume it must have an in-universe occult aspect when canon makes it clear that bioengineering can create some really fucking scary things.
 
I just want to clarify that I do not think the warp is required as an explanation for the life eater Virus, just that I'm not convinced that it is just one virus despite the name.

More than just X does not equal X + warp.

That being said I do think many biological wonders in the 40k setting are probably tied with the warp one way or another.
Like the Primarchs and by exentesion space marines are all at least a little warp touched as far as I can tell.

Polymorphine maybe has no warp connection but probably has some real funky origins.

The idea that the tyrannids could be the way they are (hypereveloving, always in communication.)

That way...without the warp though, I'm not convinced.

The shadow in the warp is very obviously the same sort of effect as necron pylons but made biological.
I could be misunderstanding '' the Tyranids are not primarily sorcerous or Warp related, they're "just" hyper-evolved monstrosities. It'.

Yes I did see the word primarily. My thesis is they wouldn't be evolving the way they are without the hive mind and the Hive Mind is also blatant psychic phenomenon even if not much else is known of it.
 
Last edited:
Unrelated to the backstory of that post but that custodian should know better than to ask for numbers. Numbers are the most unreliable thing in the entire setting.
 
>tfw you thought "Harvest" was referring to the Nids
>tfw Custodes show up and you realize how royally fucked those Psykers are no matter what
 
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top