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 in on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time. Over the past two weeks, we've looked at the Tyrannid invaders of the Warhammer forty K universe, biological armies and high fleets from beyond the limits of the Milky Way on an inhuman quest to
consume all biomass in their path. They constitute an outer threat to the imperium of man unlike none other, but they also pose a terrifying inner threat as well. As described in the ninth edition Gene Steeler Colts Codex from Games Workshop, the Tyrannids have a means of corrupting a host world ahead of a high fleet's arrival, ripening it
for the plucking. We're told that a form of Tyrannid known as a gene stealer initiates this corruption, stealthily stowing away in cargo or aboard derelic spacecraft in order to reach a new human occupied world. Once there, the creature will begin to infect members of a planet's agricultural or industrial workforce with its genetic material via an ovipositor in its tongue. This act initiates a multigenerational process that introduces
a variety of human tyrannid hybrids. While initial generations are monstrous and remain below ground, later generations are essentially humanoid in appearance and can actively infiltrate different segments of the human society, collectively the gene Stealer hybrid stage and underground resistance and eventual violent rebellion against imperial planetary rule, all of which is time to converge with the arrival of an invading high fleet, which is drawn to the gene
Steeler cult like a beacon in the vast night. This darkly fantastic scenario invokes various accounts of natural world parasitism and mimicry, but I think it especially mirrors the manipulation of youth social insect communities by certain organisms. Aunt colonies and bee hives, after all, aren't too different from the notion of an imperial forge world, where vast populations toil to supply the imperium with its armor and its weaponry.
For Aunts, especially their warlike nature is also reminiscent of the forty k setting, But at heart, the main comparison is that we have a complex social order within one species that is deceived and manipulated by another organism for its own ends. For example, there's the death's head hawk moth, a genus of moth famous for both its skull like markings and its ability to infiltrate and raid honeybee lives
by mimicking their smell. For a similar ant world example, certain spiders also use chemical mimicry to enter the colony unopposed and eat whatever larvae they desire. But these are both cases of rating and predation. What about bending the system to the outsiders? Will? I think we might well compare the gene steeler colt to many forms of brood parasitism.
The classic example we're all familiar with is, of course, the cuckoo bird, which doesn't care for its own egg, but rather places its egg in the nest of another bird species, an act that is both stealthy and violent. The gene steeler colts certainly grows within a civilization on a given host planet, but it's of course a bit more complicated than that, so they also remind one of particular examples of social parasitism in the world of ants,
termites and bumblebees. The bumble bee Bombus bohemicus, for example, the species neither builds its own nest nor produces its own works. Instead, a queen invades a host nest of another bombas species and defeats the existing queen. Afterwards, the workers identify her as the queen and they raise her young. This is an example of nest usurpation, which is at least thematically fitting when compared to the revolutionary gene Steeler cults.
But here's another thing to think about. As the Gene Steeler Codex points out, the whole gene Steeler hybrid enterprise might begin with monster attacks and end with the arrival of a world consuming high fleet. But before the uprising and the so called day of ascension, third and fourth generation gene Steeler hybrids, who again are humanoid enough in appearance to fully infiltrate human societies, may contribute greatly to
the host civilization. They work hard, and they perform their duties to the imperium quite well, at least until it's time to rise up. During that pre revolutionary period, we might be tempted to think of the gene Stealer hybrids as in Kline parasites, and that they're not actively harming the host civilization while residing within it. Again, members of the cult might well be beneficial to the host civilization, at least in the short term, though I think we'd
be pushing it to call his mutualism. After all, if the Gene Steeler Cult has its way, the rebellion will be bloody and the arriving high fleet will consume everything, including the hybrids themselves. Biologist E. O. Wilson famously described parasites as quote predators that eat prey in units of less than one unquote. The colts desired end meal is somewhat larger. For a more thematic introduction to the Gene Steeler Colts, I highly recommend the short story The Child
Foretold by Nicholas Kaufman. It's a mild spoiler to reveal that it's a gene stealer story, but it still packs a horrific punch. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always, you can email us at contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. H Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.