Tyranid Character Guide The Ymgarl Genestealer Strain Table of Contents Chapter 1: Tyranid Genestealers 3 Chapter 2: Ymgarl Genestealer Characters 22 Tyranid Physiology 3 Creating Ymgarl Genestealer Explorers 22 Genestealer Reproduction 4 Genetic Legacy 23 Brood Mind 4 Ymgarl Genestealer Career Path 24 Infiltration 4 New Skills 29 Tyranid Genestealer Generations 5 New Talents 30 Hive Fleet Invasion 6 New Traits 33 Ymgarl Genestealers 6 Chapter 3: Tyranid Armory 34 Ymgarl 6 Ranged Weapons 35 Ymgarl in the Koronus Expanse 7 Melee Weapons 36 Methodology and Goals 7 Armory Table 37 Koronus Ymgarl Physiology 7 Chapter 4: Tyranid Psychic Powers 38 Other Tyranid Bioforms 8 Tyranid Psychic Powers Chart 38 Carnifex 8 Tyranid Psychic Power Descriptions 38 Gargoyle 10 Chapter 5: Tyranid Starships 40 Hive Tyrant 11 Tyranid Starship Special Rules 43 Hormagaunt 11 Creating Tyranid Starships 44 Lictor 12 Tyranid Starship Hulls 46 Ravener 13 Chapter 6: Alternate Career Ranks 48 Ripper Swarm 14 Ymgarl Fleetmaster 50 Termagant 15 Ymgarl Genestealer Magus 52 Trygon 15 Ymgarl Impersonator 54 Tyranid Warrior 17 Ymgarl Scavenger 56 Tyranid Warrior Prime 17 Ymgarl Splicer 58 Tyrant Guard 18 Venomthrope 20 A Note from the Author 60 Zoanthrope 21 2 Tyranid Genestealers “I can think of few greater xenos threats to the Their olfactory organ is linked at its base to the Imperium than that of the Genestealer. An apex rear of their palate, combining their scent and taste for predator possessed of intelligence and cunning that possible use as a sophisticated air-analysis method. rival our own, they exist for the sole purpose of They also display respiratory gill systems along the reproducing in vast numbers and sowing utter chaos dermis/valves between their fused exo-ribs. This in their wake.” system is then somehow linked to breathing holes on –Inquisitor Kalistradi from "The Nature of the Beast" their limbs and cranium. However these characteristics may not be general Genestealers were the first Tyranid species to be across all Genestealers, as they are one of the most encountered by the Imperium. But before the mutable Tyranid species and often exhibit a wide and Imperium had knowledge of the Tyranids as a species, varying range of different traits. It has been they believed Genestealers were a separate species hypothesised that these traits manifest depending on indigenous to the moons of Ymgarl which spread to the particular host species the infection discovers; but other planets by infiltrating passing cargo ships and this theory has been disregarded by some experts, derelict Space Hulks. It is believed Genestealers were citing that the traits are more likely different introduced to the moons of Ymgarl in M35 from Hive Genestealer subspecies altogether, which are separate Fleet Tiamet in the Tiamet System, carried inside the from the host. Imperial vessels that were sent to destroy the system. Purestrain Genestealers are Genestealers which When the Battle for Macragge with Hive Fleet have been spawned not through the process of Behemoth took place, Technomagi spent years infecting hosts but rather by the hive ships themselves classifying the left-behind bodies, including in great bio-factories and birthing vats. Not polluted or Genestealers used as Tyranid shock troops. Further altered by “inferior” genetic material, they are investigation confirmed that all Genestealers were in markedly stronger and faster than a normal fact Tyranids. Genestealer and possess a wider variety of adaptive The truth is that infiltrating Genestealers had been biomorphs. This is intentional, as Purestrain working their way into the galaxy for thousands of Genestealers are the creatures from which all other years prior to the invasion of the Hive Fleets proper. Genestealers are born, and even a single Purestrain Genestealer can create a vast brood from a local Tyranid Physiology population given time and enough raw material. Genestealers are stronger and hardier than Humans, able to withstand even the most hostile environments unprotected, including hard vacuum, and are capable of living for centuries. They are a highly intelligent species with a disproportionately large and adaptive brain that is housed in a bulbous head. They combine extraordinary intelligence and subtlety of mind with remarkable strength and quickness of body. Genestealers are bipedal, standing in a perpetual crouch, and have two sets of arms, one equipped with Human-like hands, one with powerful ripping claws. Their dense musculature and the distending hinge of their jaw allows the generation of incredible bite- pressure. 3 Genestealer Reproduction Infiltration Possibly the most terrifying aspect of Genestealers Genestealers form the first wave of a Tyranid is their insidious method of reproduction. invasion, either infiltrating a suitable world hundreds Genestealers reproduce completely separate from a of years before the actual invasion, or in the more Hive Fleet, unlike the majority of other Tyranid short term, where they are deployed onto a planet by creatures. Through the use of a tube-like tongue Mycetic Spores from the hive fleet. In both cases they called an Ovipositor, they insert a tiny embryonic pave the way for the invasion by weakening the organism containing their own genetic material into a planet's defences. host victim. Over time this organism alters the host's Once upon a new world, the Genestealers seek out genetic code, and their consciousness is also all forms of life, attempting to home in on species of a completely suppressed by a localised version of the highly organised nature. Genestealers at first Hive Mind, known as the Brood Mind, becoming a concentrate on infecting host victims, who go on to virtual slave. Any offspring born by the host will be breed Genestealer/host hybrids and begin a horrific Genestealer Hybrids, which the host will be generational cycle of new hybrids increasingly like the psychically mesmerised to care for, giving rise to the host species. Over decades, the hybrids will spread Genestealer Cults that grow in secret within human through a society and a hidden cult is established and other societies. within the host's society. All members of the Genestealer cult are psychically linked and controlled Brood Mind by the original Genestealer. The cult is totally devoted Genestealers have an interlinking telepathy to gaining political power within the society, often similar to the greater Hive Mind which is generated cloaking itself in the guise of a legitimate religion, by the entire Tyranid race. This Brood Mind is smaller while infecting suitable hosts, prospering and and more localised than the Hive Mind and is used to multiplying, and hiding their true nature from the exert complete control over their host victims and broader society also for communication. It also acts as a psychic beacon to draw a Hive Fleet towards the infestation in order to devour the planet. 4 Tyranid Genestealer Generations Purii (Purestrain) Genestealer Primacii (4th) Generation A full Genestealer starts the infection cycle by The fourth generation, the Primacii, are almost inserting their genetic material into a host victim. As indistinguishable from their host species, only with the infestation spreads and the cult grows, the first slight physical deformities. Some still sport give-away Genestealer takes the role of a Genestealer Patriarch signs such as being bald. They are able to blend in to and often grows larger into an obese and psychic the host society and work to lure, kidnap, or do monstrosity whatever it takes to provide more hosts. Some rare individuals of this generation have psychic powers Contagii (Infection) Generation and become a Genestealer Magus. The host victims, or Contagii, return to their own societies and begin to have an urgent need to find a Purii (5th) Generation mate and begin a family. This mate also becomes Paradoxically, the Genestealer's DNA reemerges in infected with Genestealer DNA. Contagii still the fifth generation, giving birth to a full Genestealer, physically resemble other members of their species, albeit one showing some physical characteristics of though they may have a slight blue or mauve pallor to the host species. Thus the cycle can begin anew, as their skin and can be psychically controlled by the the new Genestealers have the potential to infiltrate Patriach to become mindless slaves, making them the other worlds and become a Patriarch. perfect infiltrators. Maelignaci (1st) Generation As the contagii mate, the Genestealer genetic material passes onto their offspring, the Maelignaci. The Maelignaci are animals, slow, clumsy and moronic. Within the cult they generally regarded as expendable shock troops. They often possess three or even four arms, and are unable to use their host species technology or weaponry. Hybrid (2nd) Generation The Hybrid offspring of the Maelignaci are born unique with no two alike. However this generation can be selectively bred, using their parents like live- stock, and is often manipulated for traits such speed, strength or aggression. They bear more resemblance to their host species than a Genestealer, but are still unable to use their host's technology. True Hybrid (3rd) Generation The next generation are True Hybrids and can be mistaken for a member of their host species, if they wear disguising clothes, or stay in dark areas, etc. Some of this generation are capable of using weapons of their host species 5 Hive Fleet Invasion Unlike any other Tyranid creature, the Ymgarl The Brood Mind of a Genestealer infestation acts Genestealers are outcasts. The Hive Mind has no wish as a psychic beacon to draw in a Tyranid Hive Fleet. to reabsorb their genetic material in fear that the When a Hive Fleet comes within a few hundred light uncontrollable genetic instabilities that allow the years of an infected world, a sublimiminal reaction is Ymgarl Genestealers their formidable flesh-shaping triggered within the Brood Mind which forces the abilities might contaminate the Tyranid gene-pool.