40K: Lifecycle Of A Genestealer Cult
In 8th Edition, Genestealer Cultists have a much richer and more complicated lifecycle than ever. With ranks swelling with Kelermorphs, Clamavi, and Sanctus Assassins (oh my), the time has come to answer the age-old question: Mom, Dad, where do Genestealer Cultists come from?
You see Timmy, when the Tyranid swarm loves a planet very much, they send an infection vector down to the world and the first Genestealer to infect a life-form begins to evolve into a Genestealer Patriarch, while their corrupted brood spreads across the face of the world. And, contrary to what you might have heard in school, Susie, it’s a complicated process that carries with it many risks–but it can also be rewarding for those of us who love the Four-Armed Emperor.
The latest edition of the game brings in a suite of new characters, all with sweet new miniatures. Whether it’s mysterious Locus bodyguards, Skavenesque Sanctus Assassins, strategic and cunning Nexos or the vox-amplified Clamavus calling for all to join the cult–the Genestealer Cults are full of a rich tapestry of specialists who will doubtless provide buffs to those around them, while helping the Genestealer Cultists to strike at lynchpins of your opponents’ armies.
But how do these new figures fit into the existence of the Cult? When does a Kelermorph show up as a Genestealer Cult infects the planet? What circumstances are necessary to bring about the rise of a Nexos? Or a Biophagus? Where once it was easy to say “and in times of war you get a Primus and in times of Preparation you get a Magus” that just doesn’t cut it anymore. Well don’t you worry little Krimothy, there’s a handy diagram that, much like Clarissa, explains it all.
Yes this updated lifecycle includes everything, like the “heroic” Kelermorph that shows up in the third generation and is weirdly–and specifically–proficient with pistols. Always. Look I know that Tyranids are aliens from outside the galaxy and that human DNA gets weird, but this seems like a very specific morph. Maybe it’s just that they’re quick and dextrous and their three arms are only really suited to pistols? At any rate, you also see that the conditions of a world really shape the evolution of a Cult.
It’s an interesting insight into how the Tyranids have been adapting themselves to the galaxy as well, with more and more specialized biomorphs expressing themselves in the biomass that Genestealer cults invariably bring back to the Hive Ships. Makes you wonder if that change isn’t working its way through the Hive as well, with more and more worlds somehow making the Tyranids…more human? We’ll have to wait and see what other lore snippets are in the book, but for now that’s an interesting prospect to think about. After all, you are what you eat.
What do you think of the new expansion for the Cults? Do you think the Tyranids notice they’re eating more and more specialized biomorphs when GSC worlds fall?
