40K Lore: Dangers Of The Warp – Bugs In The Immaterium
Greetings Loremasters. It’s come to our attention that some of our less experienced Loremasters have been neglecting to show proper terror when handling tomes related to the Immaterium–today’s lecture is on one of the many ways everything in the Warp wants you dead or worse.
The Immaterium or “Warp” if you prefer is a realm of unimaginable horrors. A roiling inferno of light and fire and utter Chaos. It is the home of Daemons and monsters, which, yes will fall before the Emperor’s will as all enemies of humanities must–but they can still tear you limb from limb before humanity’s champions arrive to bathe the planet in purging fire.
But daemons are only the most popular of terrors from the Warp. Today we are going to discuss one of the lesser-known Warp Entities, the insectile psychneuein.
The psychneuein is a warp creature similar to a large, spindly wasp, approximately 2,5 metres long. There are two known genii of psychneuein, native to Mara and Prospero. They are also found in the Webway, which may possibly be their place of origin, explaining their existence on multiple worlds.
These strange creatures prey upon psykers, implanting them with their brood, only to be infected, driven insane, and devoured from the inside out. As mentioned there are two known varieties, each preying upon the unprotected mind in their own fashion.
The Prosperan psychneuein are drawn to unprotected psykers and psychically project their eggs into the target’s brain. No larger than grains of sand, the eggs hatch after one day of gestation and rapidly grow as they consume their host’s brain. The maggots, which resemble spiny slugs, pupate by nightfall and hatch the next morning.
The psychneuein infesting Prospero almost caused the downfall of civilisation there until the inhabitants learned to control their psychic abilities. Even then, swarms of psychneuein still haunted the wilderness and the ruins of ancient cities.
The psychneuein hailng from Mara on the other hand are sensitive to the presence of psykers and reproduce by planting eggs in their brains. Once infected, the psyker slowly loses intelligence and their appearance slowly changes until they either are killed or suffer from the Perils of the Warp, whereupon multiple psychneuein will erupt from the corpse. Psychneuein have three well-known phases – the larval phase, the adult phase and the “infected” phase.
Larval psychneuein are typically puny creatures, whose main strength is their ability to infect others. Injuries can trigger a sudden metamorphosis to its adult form. Their small size makes them easy to kill but they usually occur in large numbers, making an infestation of psychneuein difficult to control, particularly if there are any latent psykers around for them to infect.
Adult psychneuein are much more dangerous than their larval brethren: they are stronger, faster, tougher, and more perceptive than humans and capable of flight, turning insubstantial, and detecting minds. A single adult psychneuein is a significant threat to any and every nearby sentient being.
So consider that the next time you wonder just how important it is to ward of the Immaterium with a litany, sacred inscription, or other task that you might think ‘unnecessary.’ It might just save your brain from being devoured by Warp insects.
In the meantime Loremasters, consider–is that headache *just* a headache?
