Warpshadow.com

I had the feeling that this stuff should be maintained in a sticky post, so here it is!

NOTE: This material has been found on various websites and compiled here. I am not 100% certain as to the original sources those websites used. Neither I, nor any member of the Gestalt, make any claim to owning or having produced this material; we have just located it and brought it here for your enjoyment so that it may live on for future Tyranid players.

EDIT: Now with photos of the older models as well as added material found here. I am also working on a Tyranid Archive featuring photos of all the old and OOP models. If you have good pictures of an old/oop Nid model that I don't have in the archive, please PM me.

TYRANIDS
from Advanced Space Crusade

In the 41st Millennium. the rule of humanity encompasses almost the entire galaxy, a glittering circle of stars ninety thousand light years from rim to rim. This is the Imperium of Man, the largest and most populous empire of all time, an empire of more than a million worlds and untold billions of human beings. The Imperium is ruled by the ancient and immeasurably powerful Emperor. Once he was a living mm but he has long since ceased to live in any normal sense. His body is dead, yet for ten thousand years the Emperor has controlled the destiny of die Imperium, thanks to a complex life-support system which preserves his spirit. His wishes are enacted by means of the Adeptus Administratum, a colossal bureaucratic organisation based upon Earth but with the authority and means to rule the entire galaxy.

Despite the power of the lmperium, the human race remains under constant threat from the many hostile aliens which seek to destroy or enslave mankind. The enemies of humanity are strong, but man has so far proved stronger, more resourceful and ultimately more enduring. This is largely due to the armed forces of the Imperium. Human fleets travel the star clusters of the galactic core and the outer rim. Human armies wage war on planets fifty thousand light years from Earth.

Most important of all, the Space Marines stand ready to combat any threat to the Imperium. They are humanity's finest warriors, bio-adapted to survive on the toughest battlefields, trained as the ultimate fighting men, equipped with the most advanced power armour and the most potent armament from the weaponshops of Mars. In ten thousand years of battle, the Space Marines have served humanity well so that today, despite the relentless pressure of hostile foes, mankind thrives under the beneficent rule of the Emperor and the vigilance of the Space Marines.
Beyond the human galaxy, beyond the range of human space craft and astrotelepathy, lies the unspeakable cold void of intergalactic space. This is a realm into which few men have ventured and from which no-one has ever returned. It is the great barrier which divides galaxy from galaxy. Yet the void is not empty. Through it moves an intelligence, a great creature that is formed from countless billions of creatures, a mind that is many inter-linked minds. This entity, this race, is the Tyranid hive mind, and it has come from a galaxy unimaginably distant. Now its advanced forces have reached the Imperium, and the fate of mankind and every living thing in the galaxy hangs in the balance.

The Tyranids have travelled to the Imperium in a hive fleet consisting of a great dark swarm of many millions of individual spacecraft. Each spacecraft is a gigantic living being, a creature fashioned from organic tissue by means of sophisticated genetic manipulation. 'Re journey across the void has taken cons and during that time the Tyranids have slumbered in a state of frozen hibernation. As the edge of the love fleet approached the Imperium the spacecraft stirred from sleep and their inhabitants slowly began to thaw. However, the hive fleet is so large that its trailing edge still slumbers beyond the galaxy's outer rim. The eternally slow thought processes of the hive mind are gathering pace as more Tyranids wake and recall the age-old purpose of their kind.
The Tyranid hive mind hungers for fresh genetic material, gene-stocks that can be used to create new bio-construct creatures and organic-machines. Their own galaxy is exhausted, its creatures long since absorbed into the hive mind, their flesh turned to machine-like purposes or discarded as useless. The Imperium with its billions of humans and countless other creatures offers the Tyranids an almost inexhaustible stock of flesh and genes which will invigorate the hive mind and enable it to embody itself in new forms.

Humanity will be absorbed, broken into strands of DNA to be used to create a new generation of bio-technology. It will be the death of the human race, but to die Tyranid hive mind it is no more than the mining of a precious mineral or the harvesting of a field of wheat. For the Tyranids have no sense of pity or compassion. they are as utterly beyond human understanding as humans are beyond their comprehension. Where a man sees life. the hive mind sees only something to be consumed. Such has been the fate of a thousand galaxies, of millions of intelligent species, since time immemorial.

TYRANID WARRIORS

The Tyranids are the undisputed masters of genetic manipulation and bioengineering. By means of the Great Tyranid Norn-Queens, vast living factory-creatures whose role is to make other creatures, the Tyranids have created the countless bio-constructs that make up the hive fleets.
The Tyranids themselves have six limbs and stand twice the height of a man. Their bodies are covered with thick bony plates which overlap forming a tough natural armour. Pores between their plates exude a colourless slime which oozes over their bodies and drips from their talons. This slime lubricates the inflexible bony plates and prevents friction from gradually wearing away their surfaces.

The Tyranid's lower pair of limbs act as legs, enabling it to move, and end in hard bony hooves - although not primarily intended as weapons a kick from a hoof can easily crush a man's skull. The middle pair of limbs are incredibly strong and end in razor sharp talons - these limbs are used to rip apart an enemy in close combat. The upper limbs are more delicate and end in jointed talons which serve the Tyranid as hands and fingers - these are used to carry weapons and other devices, to operate delicate bio-machines, and for other subtle manipulative tasks.

The limbs are held together by a perforated bony girdle which protects the creature's spine and soft organs from damage. Above the upper arms is a bony neck and the Tyranid's fearsome head equipped with powerful jaws. This basic six-limbed layout is common to many Tyranid bio-engineered creatures, such as Genestealers, and it is quite likely that these creatures are derived from Tyranid gene material or a closely related species from some long forgotten planet of origin.

THE TYRANID HIVE MIND

The Tyranid hive mind is a single co-ordinating will that directs the entire hive fleet. The hive mind is formed from untold billions of individual consciousness, each of which is a Tyranid or some other living creature in the hive fleet. Some of these minds are capable of individual rational thought; some are capable of making only limited decisions; and others are mere automatons whose minds perform only basic motor functions. The extent of this ability to act and think freely varies and depends upon the creature's role in the hive fleet.

As all Tyranid technology is based upon biological engineering, even the most simple functions are performed by genetically tailored bio-constructs which have a rudimentary consciousness and so form part of the hive mind. The Tyranid spacecraft are living creatures, and even individual components such as sphincter doors, food hatcheries and teleportation cysts are also highly modified living things. Even the most simple Tyranid devices have their origins as living tissue and have a thread of the hive mind within them.

Tyranids also use gene-manipulation to create new races of servant creatures from captives. These advanced bioconstructs are artificial races bred by the Tyranids. Their minds form part of the hive mind but they can still diink and act for themselves and can make and act upon decisions within the limits engineered into them. There are many hundreds of these races, amongst them the destructive Genestealers, the ponderous Zoats, and the murderous Grabber-Slashers. Although these awesome creatures may look improbable and horrific to human eyes, they are all designed to fulfil some specific role in Tyranid society: for example as advance fighters and infiltrators in the case of Genestealers, ambassador-conquerors in the case of Zoats, and warrior assassins in the cue of Grabber-Slashers.

THE SHADOW IN THE WARP

In order to move from planet to planet, human spacecraft travel through an alternate dimension known as warpspace. Warpspace is the medium through which human Astrotelepaths send psychic messages enabling the million worlds of the hnperium to communicate with each other. The Tyranid hive fleet also moves through the warp. Normally any space-craft moving through the warp sets up vibrations which can be detected by a human Astropath, but the hive fleet is so unimaginably vast that it creates an impenetrable disturbance like a huge blocking shadow in the warp. This shadow is the dark, impenetrable will of the hive mind itself, before which the astral spirit of a puny psyker is about as safe as a candle in a hurricane.

Once the Tyranid hive fleet arrives, the shadow cast by the hive mind presents an impenetrable block which prevents Astropaths from sending or receiving telepathic messages, stops spacecraft entering the warp and forces spacecraft already in the warp wildly off-course. As the Tyranid hive fleet advances, the area of the Imperium swallowed up by it simply stops communicating, giving almost no clues as to what has happened.

THE ADVANCE OF THE TYRANIDS

The hive fleet has now reached the outer part of the Imperiurn and the entire southeastern spiral arm lies under its dominion. Only now has the full extent of the danger been realised, as fleeing refugees struggle back into free space. Only by tremendous luck have any victims survived at all, their spacecraft pushed thousands of light years through the warp by the advancing edge of the Tyranid hive fleet. A thousand human worlds have already fallen to the invader. Their populations have been consumed or imprisoned by the Tyranids. Even after so short a time new races of human-based bio-constructs are ready to join the hive mind.

Only the vaguest details of the fighting have reached the Imperium. Millions of human warriors have died. Entire chapters of the Imperium's finest Space Marines have vanished without trace with no clue as to their fate. The Lamenters chapter is presumed to have been destroyed and the Scythes of the Emperor chapter has been reduced to a few scattered remnants.

But these human warriors have not died in vain. During the fiercest fighting Space Marine spacecraft engaged ships of the Tyranid fleet. Boarding parties entered the vitals of the immense alien craft, gathering information about the Tyranids and successfully destroying untold thousands of aliens. The information gained by these brave Space Marines is essential if the'ryranids are going to be driven back.

Armed with this precious information the Imperium prepares for open war against the enemy it has called Hive Fleet Kraken after the mythical monster of Earth's ancient past. The weaponshops of Mars turn out new and more potent machineries of war, gleaming new spacecraft pour from the shipyards of Necromunda, the vast resources of the Imperial Guard gradually swing into action as millions of men prepare to embark on a war for humanity's very survival.

But the Imperium needs time - time which only the remaining Space Marine chapters can give them. The most famous chapters of all, the Dark Angels, the Space Wolves, the Blood Angels and the Ultramarines together with remnants of the Scythes of the Emperor, head towards the hive fleet. Other Space Marine chapters from all over the human galaxy prepare ships to follow in their wake.

TYRANID STARSHIPS

Tyranid starships are great living leviathans swimming through the hidden currents of space. Between solar systems, they dive into the warp, naturally adapted to survive the tides of the immaterium. surfacing once again in realspace to feed. They consume the cosmic detritus, the comets and asteroids left by the creation of solar systems. A ship grows as it travels, adapting itself to each new source of food, creating new digestive systems to break down the different "s of matter. The old stomachs atrophy and harden so that an ancient Tyranid starship is a mass of stony growths, often forming a fantastic whorl of armour around the still-growing body.

As a ship moves slowly through the depths of space, the Tyranids hibernate. In the smaller starships, hibernating Tyranids are gathered in small chambers, contained within pods that feed them vital nutrients. In the largest ships there are great halls packed with hibernating Tyranids - in their hundreds and thousands they pass the long years of travel in a dreamless sleep. 'Me only creatures moving around the miles of passages and tubes within a ship are the countless bioconstructs that perform the mindless, repetitive duties necessary to keep the ship healthy.

When a starship approaches a star system, the Tyranids begin to wake. The chemistry of the hive ship itself changes and new hormones are secreted, bringing the Tyranids back from their long sleep. As the ship moves through the outer edges of a star system the hive mind prepares for war.

It is at this point in its journey that the Tyranid ship is most vulnerable. Tyranid Warriors are just beginning to awaken but the ship is as yet lightly defended. A lightning assault can punch its way through the weak defences to sabotage the ship's vital organs. If the ship dies, so does its cargo of Tyranid Warriors and bio-constructs. Those still in hibernation never awaken as the supply of life-sustaining fluids dries up. Those who are awake and survive the attack are doomed to drift on the dying spaceship as it floats out into the cold of interstellar space.

It is generally the smaller Tyranid ships that are attacked in this way. The largest ships are unimaginably vast and are better left as targets for the battlecruisers of the Imperial Navy. But the Navy can't patrol every star system - sometimes there isn't time for a message to be sent before the shadow in the warp cuts the system off. At these times, the Irnperiun must depend upon the loyalty and heroism of whatever forces are available. If the system is lucky there will be Space Marines stationed there, for their bravery is beyond question, their skill as warriors beyond compare.

Here is a link to the Warpshadow Tyranid Archive for Battlefleet Gothic ships.

THE GREAT TYRANID NORN-QUEENS

Within some of the spacecraft of the Tyranid hive fleet are huge chambers many hundreds of metres high. Widiin each chamber is a creature so vast that its great, pulsing bulk almost fills the entire structure. This is a Nom-Queen, also known as a Splicer-Beast, a creature whose function is to make other creatures. Every living creature in the

Tyranid hive fleet owes its ultimate origins to the Nom-Queen, including the Tyranids themselves. Long ago the Tyranids gave up whatever primitive form of reproduction afflicted their kind, and adopted genetic cloning as their sole form of reproduction. A Nom-Queen is a huge biological machine, a factory whose only concern is to produce other creatures.

BIO-CONSTRUCTS

All the weird creatures that live in the hive fleet, including the Tyranids themselves. are created by means of the Norn-Queens. Genetic material in dw form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Nom-Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Nom-Queens.

The many kinds of bio-construct emerge in different ways from different parts of the huge Splicer Beasts. Clusters of eggs spill from rows of ovipository orifices along its flanks, fluid filled depressions on its upper surface writhe with maggot-like larvae, foetal sacs hang like ripe fruit from umbilical branches, and huge larval Teleporter Worms burst from incubator pouches on the Nom-Queen's sides. Simpler bio-constructs may emerge already in their adult form to be gathered and directed by the horde of creatures which feed and serve the Nom-Queen. Most bio-constructs are born as tiny wriggling larvae or may begin life as eggs which must be nurtured further before they hatch and develop into adults.

The ships of the hive fleets swarm with thousands of different kinds of bio-constructed creatures. For example, tiny multiarmed creatures roam the innards sucking up detritus and processing it into a sickly nutrient which they store in their swollen bodies and then feed to other creatures.

CoffinCrawlers consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they are ready to return to the Nom-Queen, carrying their swollen bodies back to feed the Nom-Queen itself. Another kind of bio-construct is the globe-like creature which hangs from the upper surfaces of the ship's tunnels; these creatures synthesise a huninous chemical inside their own bodies proving a dim green light for others to see by.

These are just a few bio-constructs but there are many others which maintain the ship in good working order, provide food and guard vulnerable areas. The ship's various controls and facilities are themselves bio-constructs, although they are immobile and function much like biological versions of teleporters, air recycling systems and communications networks.

Small bio-constructs tend not to be very bright They go about their genetically-determined tasks with a satisfyingly singleminded persistence, largely untroubled by the higher purposes of the hive mind. Far more dangerous to intruders are the larger bio-constructed races such as the Genestealers, Zoats and Grabber Slashers. There are many others too, some of which are relatively rare whilst others are very common. No matter how large or how intelligent they are, all bio-constructs form part of the hive mind and are an integral part of the hive fleet and Tyranid society.

Here is one of the earliest Tyranid models, a ProtoNid.

GENESTEALERS

The Genestealer is one of the most deadly of all die Tyranid bio-construct creatures. It is very likely that the Genestealer was created from the genetic structure of the Tyranids themselves, or if not then a very closely related species. Like Tyranids, Genestealers have six limbs, including ferocious, taloned mid-limbs which are used to tear enemies apart in hand-to-hand fighting. Genestealers are the shock and infiltration troops of the Tyranids. They are fast and deadly but they can also hide in alien societies for years, interbreeding with the native creatures and producing generations of Hybrid Genestealer creatures ready to join a full-scale invasion.

Although it seems unlikely that a creature so terrifying as a Genestealer could hide in human society, they achieve this by implanting their genetic structure inside unsuspecting humans. This genetic material is passed down to the offspring of the infected humans, creating a generation which includes monstrous Genestealer Hybrids as well as seemingly normal children. The Hybrids are genetic time bombs whose own descendants will eventually become fully-developed Purestrain Genestealers. The effect is quite horrifying suddenly for no apparent reason monstrous Genestealers start to appear all over the world, destroying and enslaving humans in preparation for the arrival of the Tyranid hive fleet. Mature Genestealers, called Patriarchs act as psychic beacons which attract the Tyranid hive fleets, signalling that their world is ready for invasion. Genestealers are also ideal warrior-guardians, so the spacecraft of the hive fleet contain many of these creatures to defend against infiltrators and invaders.

ZOATS

Zoats are probably a very ancient strain of bio-construct because they share the same six-limbed structure as Tyranids and Genestealers. It is quite likely that this sextrupedal form is derived from the native creatures of the lost Tyranid homeworld in whatever remote galaxy they originally came from. Zoats are robust creatures with thick powerful limbs. Only their upper arms are used to hold or carry things; the lower two pairs are used for movement and have horny toes rather like a rhino.

Zoats have been specially developed so that they can communicate with alien creatures. Their minds are capable of tremendous leaps of logic and they are able to master new languages with astonishing speed. This enables Zoats to act as ambassadors to races taken over by the Tyranids and it also enables the Tyranids to find out about the races they have conquered. No matter how strange or mentally incompatible a race might be, the Zoats can learn how they think and act, and thereby access their true value to the Tyranids. Zoats are also tremendously strong and have thick horny skins. When they unleash their warrior skills they can destroy many times their own number of humans or other races, a feat which may serve to impress upon the defeated creatures just how superior the Tyranids are.

HUNTER-SLAYERS

Of all the Tyranid bio-constructs, the Hunter-Slayer most closely resembles the Tyranid Warriors. The most apparent different is only size, for the Hunter-Slayers are much smaller than a Tyranid at only two metres tall. Hunter-Slayers are incredibly fast and ferocious creatures so that although they don't have the strength or resilience of a Tyranid they're far more mobile.

Hunter-Slayers move quickly through the small arterial tubeways in the hive ships, exploiting their size and speed by wriggling through narrow ventricles and soft constricted passages. Their role is to protect the hive ships from intruders, moving swiftly from one part of the craft to another in search of their foes. When enemies are discovered, whole swamis of Hunter-Slayers burst from the narrow orifices and vents in the tunnel walls, dropping on their foes from above and wreaking havoc with their sharp talons and deadly bio-weapons.

Given the similarity between Hunter-Slayers and Tyranids, it is likely that the Hunter-Slayers are a very ancient kind of bio-construct developed from Tyranids genes, possibly as a sort of fast attack warrior

GRABBER-SLASHERS

The Grabber-Slasher is a destructive warrior assassin which has certain biological traits in common with Orks, including blood containing symbiotic algae which enables the creature to digest its prey. Indeed, it is possible that the Grabber-Slasher has been created from Ork captives, in which case it heralds the birth of new bio-constructs based upon creatures from the human galaxy. The algae in the Grabber-Slasher's bloodstream synthesises the genetic material of its victims which is then absorbed into the Grabber-Slasher's body enabling it to gradually mutate its own form. However, the Grabber-Slasher can always revert to its basic GrabberSlasher shape. although the change may take a day or so to complete.

Its powerful body is very muscular and it can propel itself along by its tail. A single flick of its tail sends it bounding through the air towards its chosen target. The target is then grabbed by the clawed hand-like organ on top, and immediately disembowelled by means of the razor-sharp protrusion underneath. Grabber-Slashers are very single-minded creatures: if instructed to assassinate a particular individual they will stop at nothing until the target is dead, ignoring all other threats to themselves entirely.

MIND SLAVES

The Tyranids have come to the human galaxy in search of fresh genetic material to feed their Nom-Queen and revitalise the hive fleet after its long journey through space. However, not all captives are fed to the Nom-Queen; some are useful simply as food for the Tyranid bio-construcu. And some are sacrificed to the breeding programs of other creatures; it is their grisly fate to become hosts for immature grubs or the larvae of a bio-construct.

If the Tyranids want to store a captive so that he can be eaten, genetically shredded or used as a breeder host at a later date, then a special biocontruct called a Shroud-Spinner weaves an anaesthetising cocoon round the victim to keep him alive and fresh. This is the reason why traps assaulting a Tyranid ship sometimes find whole chambers of these cocooned victims.

One particular creature which feeds upon a captive during its larval stage is the parasitic Mind-Slaver. The mature MindSlaver is a crab-like bio-device which is used by the Tyranids to gain temporary control over another bio-machine which has malfunctioned or been damaged. As such, the Mind-Slaver takes over the individual mind of the bio-machine and allows the hive mind to control its mechanical functions.

The larval form of the creature is about the size of a pea or small pebble. When the egg laid by the Nom-Queen hatches, the creature is introduced to a living captive. It burrows into the captive's skull and searches out the brain stem. Here it clasps in place with its legs and attaches itself to the base of the medulla.

At first the immature creature is not powerful enough to influence its host but, as it feeds from the host's blood stream it becomes stronger, allowing the hive mind to seep into the host's brain and eventually take over and direct all of the creatures higher brain functions. These victims are known as mind slaves. Although they're captives, their actions and thoughts are completely controlled by the Tyranid hive mind.
Eventually the Mind-Slaver outgrows and destroys its host but, until it does so, the mind slave moves about the ship and performs tasks under the direction of the hive mind.

If the ship is attacked, the mind slaves will be amongst the first to move to its defence, especially if they belong to an armed warrior race whose fighting skills may be usefully employed by the Tyranids. As the Space Marines move through the spacecraft they may meet mind slaves controlled by the Tyranid hive mind and will recognise many of the creatures of the Warhammer 40,000 galaxy including Chaos Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks and Eldar.

The ultimate fate of a mind slave is to be sacrificed to the next part of the life cycle of a mind slaver. When it is quite large and almost fills the cranial cavity of its host, the Mind-Slaver exudes a chemical which encysts the host, dissolves him from the inside and ~ his body into nutritious soup. The MindSlaver feeds off this soup and grows into its adult form

HIVE FLEET BEHEMOTH

The first contact the Imperium of mankind had with the alien menace of the Tyranids took place on a little-known Imperial outpost in the Tyran system located on the south-eastern fringes of the galaxy. The planet Tyran was an Adeptus Mechanicus way-station for Explorator expeditions studying the virtually unknown sectors at the edge of the galaxy. Because of its isolation the base was well protected despite its small size and boasted an Astropath for communication with the Earth, over 60,000 light years away.

The first disquieting reports from Tyran told of a number of ravaged worlds which lay at the very edge of intergalactic space. In ancient surveys these particular planets had been logged as supporting life but more recent expeditions reported them to be bare, airless rocks. At first nothing untoward was apparent: the earlier surveys were hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years old and inaccuracies were not uncommon.

As time passed the Technomagi found that worlds which were known to have thriving ecosystems had been transformed into barren planetoids. Investigation teams could find no discernible cause for the phenomena and the reports filed with the Explorator General received little attention. The planets in question had supported no sentient life forms and lay thousands of light years from the nearest human-colonised systems. In a galaxy of a billion worlds such mysteries abounded, so for a time the information languished in the hundreds of miles of databanks that form the archives of the Administratum on Earth.

As the Tyran outpost dutifully continued to file reports of dead worlds the growing body of evidence attracted the attention of an organisation that abhors mysteries and unexplained phenomena: the Inquisition. Inquisitor Kryptman, well-respected for his far-sighted condemnation of the Macharlan Heresies, began to ask probing questions about events in the distant south-east. The Adepts of the Explorator's office could offer little additional information but as soon as Inquisitor Kryptman compiled and analysed the reports on the extinct worlds it became apparent that the phenomenon exhibited a distinct pattern, and was encroaching ever deeper into the galactic rim.

The Inquisitor presented his findings to the council of the Inquisition and received dispensation to commandeer a ship to travel to the eastern fringe and uncover more data. But even as the Inquisitor's ship was churning through the warp Tyran came under attack.