The Monstrefact: The Tyranids of Warhammer 40K

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the extragalactic threat of the alien Tyranids from the Warhammer 40K universe…

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and
this is the Monster Fact, a short form series from
Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas,
and monsters in time. In the fictional world of Warhammer

(00:26):
forty thousand, the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy is
consumed by warfare, destruction, and decline everywhere you look. Militant
space faring civilization's wage crusades of brutal expansion while fighting
off doom and corruption from without and within. With war

(00:47):
raging on every front, one final threat presents itself an
invasion from beyond the galaxy itself, the Tyrannid high Fleets,
as related in Games Workshops ninth edition of the Tyrannids Codex.
The Tyrannids are an entirely biological threat. They take many

(01:09):
physical forms, ranging from foot soldiers and walking tanks to
enormous hive ships and biotitans, all of it under the
sway of the unified Hive mind. Their weapons, too, are biological.
They cleave into their enemies with sites and bone swords,
and their ranged weapons blast a vast array of squirming, writhing,

(01:32):
and piercing bio munitions, in addition to venom and bioplasma.
High Fleet. After high Fleet enters into the galaxy, we're
told conquering planets and harvesting the entirety of each planet's biomass,
which is then incorporated into the next generation of Tyrannid hordes.
They advanced continuously like a viral infection of the Milky

(01:55):
Way itself. In the forty one millennium ati i'm of
interplanetary fascist empires, chaos gods, and robotic resurgencies. The Tyrannids
seem to pose the greatest and most monstrous threat of all.
But why is this? Author Ben Woodard explored the question

(02:16):
in his twelve biological philosophy books Slime Dynamics, Generation, Mutation,
and The Creep of Life. The answer, he explains, may
be found in the entirely biological nature of the Tyrannids.
Wouldard argues that, unlike with human beings of our world
and most of the civilizations of the forty k universe,

(02:39):
the Tyrannids have no separation between technology and the body.
He writes, quote the horrible, extended internalness of the Tyrannid
that is the revolting extension of the biological to the
level of what is commonly thought of as removed from
US technology, war machines, et cetera, becomes only a natural

(03:01):
extension unquote. So while the robotic necrons of forty K
have lost all organic being, all organic drive and organic
origin to technology, the Tyrannids are the reverse. The Tyrannids
are the advancement of the biological beyond all perceived limits.
While the factions of the Milky Way are driven by nationalistic, xenophobic, religious,

(03:26):
and expansionist ideologies, the Tyrannids seem driven by sheer biological hunger,
divorced from any semblance of rational intent. They lack all
individuality save the unfathomable individuality of the extra galactic or
perhaps transgalactic hive mind itself, the commands its every movement.

(03:47):
It is pure organic impulse, unchecked by individual free will, culture,
or traditional technology. And for the strife written denizens of
forty ks Milky Way galaxy, the Tyrannids or some thing
else entirely alien. They are absolute unity. Their home universe
is conceivably a realm of absolute peace and order, albeit

(04:10):
an entirely Inhuman one. We'll have more to discuss concerning
the tyran nets over the next couple of weeks of
the Monster Fact, but feel free to write in with
your own thoughts on rampaging biolarmies in science fiction, as
well as the perceived threat of sliminess in general. As always,
you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

(04:32):
your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is
a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for
my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.