Tyranids are chaos antibodies?

[hiveelysium]

Stolen from a Facebook group:

Question time: as we know, most life in the 40K universe has a warp signature of some kind and it's mere existance tend to agitate the Immaterium, giving birth of things like the Chaos Gods. We also know that Hive Fleets with a strong enought Shadow in the Warp can, with their mere presence, force Warp Portals to close and mend the fractures between realspace and the Warp.

What if the Tyranids are actually some sort of antibodies of the universe, with the universal purpose to murder sentien life so there's never too much of it and the Warp can never be too agitated and give birth to hideous nightmare creations hellbend on merging immaterium and realspace?

Fact in support of the thesis:
- Tyranids seems to be immune to the influence of the Warp (with that narrative segment with the bioships emerging from the warp in the segmentum solar, the warp trying to cling to the organic hull, unable to mutate it or touch it)
- Kronos hive fleet actively search and destroy planets plagued by chaos and has the ability to mend the veil between the warp and realspace
- As far as we know, emotions stirr and agitate the immaterium, so if there's no life, there's no emotion, no nightmarish chaos gods

[Overread]

At the same time Khronos didn't appear first in the Galaxy, which is what you'd expect if they were specifically an anti-body reaction to Chaos. Furthermore Tyranids don't show any bias in attacking Chaos in general terms, if anything most of their strikes of core hive fleets have gone after Space Marine Chapter Worlds. The Tyranids are very clearly aiming to target the most major power blocks in the Galaxy and destroy them. Which makes sense, destroy the most powerful threats, shatter the unity of empires and then things like Genestealer Cults can spread more freely and the fleets can focus on consumption rather than production for war.

Tyranids also lose out on Chaos conflicts in terms of biomass. Indeed there's another hive fleet (I forget its name) which has to predigest and feed biomass to Kronos to enable it to keep attacking worlds which ultimately don't give a net gain in biomass because Chaos demons just vanish into the warp.


So I don't think its an anti-chaos force of the Galaxy. Instead its simply a happenstance that the tyranids project an aura of negativity into the Warp. There's also theories that its not so much a negative space, but the sheer weight and influence of the Hive Mind itself. Whatever it is the Shadow in the Warp pushes the Chaos warp elements back; but that's only a bonus, its not their prime function. Of course Tyranids wiping out all life in the Galaxy will remove Chaos from the Galaxy as there will be nothing left alive to corrupt, but it also removes everything else also. Leaving behind a wasteland. IF they even consume the energy in suns and the matter in gas giants then they really would leave behind so little to restart life.



I don't think its the anti-body, its a totally different force entirely.

[naviedzony]

... and I'm gonna copy my comment from the same FB group:

I like this theory a lot. What further supports it is the fact, that Tyranids do not feel emotions like other races, they do not sin and are unable to have real desires, that satisfy gods of Chaos. They really are the perfect counter to Chaos.

[hiveelysium]

it could be lime this analogy.

The best way to prevent radiation poisoning is to remove the radiation, not treat the radiation poising symptoms.

Chaos is the radiation poisoning, the demons are just symptoms of the poisoning. Removing the radiation removes the poisoning and the symptoms. Also removing the space marine chapters first still fits as it allows for a quicker long term removal of the radiation...

[Hive Bahamut]

I always wondered about this idea but I think it is more of a predator keeping their food supply from spoiling, than an actual act of being righteous.

Sort of how Orkz are like 40k white blood cells. They themselves have no larger agenda but keep everyone else in check. Happy to fight themselves which is not, but it keeps them from getting too strong.


There is also the idea that Nids are a last hope to collect the genetic material of the galaxy to reseed (Old ones, fight with Necrons) and this is further backed by Genestealers. Each one has a plethora of genetic coding unique to it and obviously a makeshift "Noah's Arc"

[acehilator]

Not anti-chaos. The overall Hive Mind only created Hive Fleet Kronos and set it to task when the Chaos influence on the galaxy became threatening to the Tyranid armadas moving through it. Before the Great Rift, Nids just ignored smaller areas of demonic/warp influences. There is also no Hive Fleet helping Kronos (at least not in current lore), it's just Leviathan leaving biomass-rich worlds to Kronos even though Leviathan got nearly wiped out.

[kazetanade]

It's "half digested" from the codex IIRC. There's an obvious symbiosis between Kronos and other fleets that wasn't present before the fall of cadia, as the fleets used to do survival of the fittest.

The theory doesn't fit the initial Tyranid contact with Chaos on the world of shadow*something*, as Nids ignored the chaos elements until they realized they were corrupting the biomass and went SAVE THE FOOD!!!!! Literally.