Genestealer

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A creature in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Genestealers have undergone many fluff revisions since their inception.

Rogue Trader

In the first edition of Warhammer 40,000, Genestealers were simply one of many creatures encountered in space, spreading from the moon of Ymgarl; they could be extremely dangerous at close range, as each of their six strong limbs ended in sharp claws, and they had a gruesome lifestyle reminiscent of the Xenomorphs, but otherwise had little to distinguish themselves; notably, they were not connected with the Tyranids at all. Indeed, the core rulebook noted that Genestealers with human ancestry could be intelligent, and even friendly! Their natural form had an almost leech-like head, and they were specifically described as "vampirish."

Space Hulk

Genestealers received a significant bump in their threat level with the release of the Space Hulk board game. The game made it clear that the Genestealers were a much more virulent and widespread menace than their initial description, and their head was changed to have a much toothier mouth. In keeping with their "totally-not-Xenomorphs" theme, Genestealers would use stealth to approach the Marine player's Terminators as "blips" of some unknown number of Genestealers, and then come out of hiding once they had a good ambush prepared. They achieved a super-human level of coordination via a hive-mind, represented by the Genestealer player having unlimited time to move his pieces.

Later Editions

In later editions of Warhammer 40,000, the Genestealers were revealed to be (or retconned into, depending on your point of view) vanguard organisms for the Tyranid Hive Fleets.

Space Hulk-era Genestealers were re-designated "Purestrain Genestealers," created by the Hive Fleets themselves. They are sent to infest Space Hulks and spread among the stars. Their long tongues contain an ovipositor; when they encounter sentient humanoids, they use this ovipositor to insert a "seed" into a host's body. The seed acts alters the host so that it loses all memory of the infection and becomes subservient to the Purestrain's brood. The host is also driven to have children and to look after them; even though these children will be part-human monsters, the brood's psychic network will enforce a slavish devotion on the host's part.

As the family grows, they will isolate themselves from the normal humans so as to avoid discovery, founding a Genestealer Cult. Their psychic network lets them communicate with one another, even though some of the less-human hybrids (and the Purestrains) are incapable of speech, and when it becomes large enough, it will act as a beacon to Tyranid Hive Fleets. These fleets travel at sub-light speeds, which means it is impractical for them to travel blindly, so they home in on the signal created by a large Genestealer Cult. When their arrival is imminent, they will directly contact the Cult, which will then engage in a full rebellion, sabotaging their planet's defenses in preparation for the fleet. The fleet will consume the Cult along with everything else on the planet, but the Genestealers (and their hybrid servants) are just fine with that.

As a final note, Warhammer 40,000 fiction is very human-centric, and so most Genestealer infestations depicted have occurred among human populations, but the Ciaphas Cain novels have suggested that Tau and Orks are also susceptible to Genestealer infection. What, exactly, an Ork Genestealer Hybrid or a Tau Genestealer Hybridwould look like is the subject of much speculation.

Genestealer Variants

After the Purestrain infects a host, a Genestealer Cult will end up with members with various levels of Genestealer ancestry. In general, Genestealer Hybrids will breed with their non-Genestealer parent species, and their descendents will be more like that species, until (for some un-explained reason) the fourth hybrid generation, whose children will be Purestrain Genestealers capable of "founding" new Genestealer Cults.

The Rogue Trader-era Genestealers also get a special mention, in the form of "Ymgarl Genestealers," a strain that supposedly comes from a population of Genestealers that got isolated on the moons of Ymgarl. They have tentacular, lamprey-like mouths and the ability to partially transform themselves depending on the circumstances, at the cost of being genetically unstable and only being able to feed on blood.

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