Imperium of Man: Founders, The Primarchs, Adeptus Astartes (First Founding Chapters, Other Chapters, Characters, Primaris Marines), Astra Militarum, Adepta Sororitas, Inquisition, Mechanicus, Other factions
Forces of Chaos: Chaos Gods, Chaos Primarchs, Chaos Marines
Xeno Races: Aeldari (Asuryani, Drukhari) | Leagues of Votann | Necrons | Orks (Characters) | T'au Empire | Tyranids (Genestealer Cults)
Genestealers (behind) with a Genestealer Cult (foreground).
"In the name of the Star Children we are charged with conquering worlds. We must overthrow the oppressive regimes of the Imperium. We must crush the vile alien invaders and the worshippers of false gods who seek to steal our prizes from us. All this we must do through our own strength, guile and determination. In such an endeavour, there is no room for weakness or failure."
— Magus Rheng of the Cult of the Fanged Deliverer
Vanguard organisms of the Hive Fleets, Genestealers are deployed well ahead of the fleet's advance to undermine potential prey worlds. Once a Genestealer arrives on a world, it will introduce its genetic material into portions of the populace. This drives them to breed and spread the infection, creating a cult of hybrids that slowly but surely undermines the world's social structure, military, and government while creating a psychic beacon that draws a Hive Fleet to the world to harvest its biomass.
Because of this mission, Genestealers are bred to be much more independent than the Hive Fleets, a Genestealer brood being almost a separate hive intelligence unto itself. Capable of hibernating in wait for centuries, Genestealers were likely by far the first Tyranid organisms in our galaxy, their numbers maintained and expanded via their parasitic preying on other species for reproduction. With great strength packed into a compact body and claws capable of rending through even the toughest armor, Genestealers are deadly whether they are acting subtle or overt.
Genestealers have been a part of Warhammer 40,000 since the 1st Edition of the game, where they were an alien race originally unrelated to the Tyranids, and have appeared in a number of spin-off games such as Space Hulk and Advanced Space Crusade. Later lore made Genestealers a vanguard organism of the Tyranid Hive Fleets and they have been inseparable from the forces of the Great Devourer ever since. Genestealer Cults were initially introduced in Space Hulk before being introduced to the 1st Edition of Warhammer 40,000. The Genestealer Cults were included as an appendix army list in the 2nd Edition Codex: Tyranids but, although they received a few unofficial and fan made army lists, they were relegated to a background-only faction until February 2016's board game Deathwatch: Overkill saw them face off against the alien hunters of the Deathwatch. The Genestealer Cults were reintroduced into the core Warhammer 40,000 game in October 2016 with the release of their first codex sourcebook and a full range of models. The 8th Edition Warhammer 40,000 version of Codex: Genestealer Cults was released in February 2019 with additional rules published in the February 2020 sourcebook Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good.
By and large, Genestealer Cults reside primarily within human societies, as a combination of immense numbers, genetic pliability, and repressive society makes Imperial humanity an ideal host species for the aliens. Nonetheless, Genestealer infestations are known to occur among xenos species from time to time. Most of these struggle to establish themselves due to one factor or another, such as the Orks' bellicose and chaotic society or the Kroot's ability to smell genetic deviance, but some have become large and successful, such as the cult that overtook and corrupted the Craftworld Zaisuthra.
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Pureblood & Hive Fleet Genestealers
In General
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Genestealer claws are Absurdly Sharp, even by the standards of the setting, and the muscles on their limbs are much more powerful than they look. Stories abound about Genestealers able to rip open the armor of a Space Marine Terminator like it was a tin can (though in practice the Genestealer can only do that if it gets a really lucky grip on the victim.)
- Destined Bystander: The Genestealers were introduced early into the setting as a small piece of background lore. Once the Tyranids arrived, their role in the narrative was greatly expanded as being early elements of the Hive Fleet seeded into our galaxy. This was most likely a Revision, which involved a few minor Retcons which relegated the original Genestealer conception with a minor offshoot of the race as a whole.
- Face Full of Alien Wing-Wong: Genestealers reproduce via the "Genestealer's Kiss", an injection of their genetic material into a target via a long, diamond-hard "tongue." Depending on which bit of fluff you read, this is either via a literal, face-biting parody of a kiss, or a slightly less disturbing injection into the torso, under the ribcage. The Ciaphas Cain novels use the latter method.
- Ghost Ship: The Hive Fleets are fond of leaving first generation Genestealer broods on space hulks, where they will go dormant and wait. Eventually the space hulk will arrive in a populated system, or it will be investigated by explorers, and there the brood will find their hosts.
- Hive Mind: Like the Hive Fleets, the Genestealers have a hive mind. This mind is generally independent of the Hive Fleet, and is specific to particular broods, which is necessary considering that they often operate far from any other Tyranid organism and thus need to better think for themselves. However, when the Hive Fleets are inevitably drawn to a location where Genestealers have been reproducing successfully, those Genestealers will begin to become affected by the Hive Mind of the fleet, and will be spurred into more overt and aggressive action against their host populations. By the time the Hive Fleet arrives, the Genestealer brood will have been mentally re-absorbed into the Hive Mind of the fleet and function as their elite shock troops when overcoming its defense.
- Hypnotic Eyes: A characteristic of Genestealers is an ability to pacify potential prey by maintaining eye contact and moving slowly, though the fluff varies on how much this is used.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: As per the other Tyranid creatures, Genestealers have six limbs. Two for standing upright, two for fine manipulation, and two as rending claws.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The first recorded contact with Genestealers came from the moons of the planet Ymgarl. Originally though to be native to there, it was only later revealed that they were a specific mutation of the wider Genestealer species and a vanguard of the Tyranids. Instead of the maw found on other Genestealers, they have lamprey-like feeder tendrils that they use to drain blood of victims. They are able to conceal themselves with limited shape-shifting abilities, but this requires them to feed often to maintain. Though their shape shifting is powerful, the Hive Fleets display no desire to re-absorb them, leading to speculation that the mutation might be unstable if assimilated back into the hive.
- Overly-Long Tongue: A genestealer's tongue is in fact an ovipositor it uses to infect prey, and is consequently very long to facilitate this. It's often seen hanging out of a genestealer's mouth in combat, giving it a hungry or taunting appearance.
- Power Creep, Power Seep: Possibly moreso than any other specific example in 40K, the power of a Broodlord as a psyker. In the fluff he's a supernatural powerhouse rivaling even the best Space Marine Librarians, as strong in the ways of the Warp as he is with his claws and muscles. On the tabletop he's one of the weakest psykers available to any faction (level one, with only one actual power he can use).
- Put on a Bus:
- The Ymgarl Genestealers became a "special character unit" in 5th edition's codex, but were removed in the 6th edition codex.
- The introduction of the Broodlord in 4th edition was supposed to make all-Genestealer armies a possibility. 5th edition instead made Broodlords into unit sergeants, once again making you unable to field pure-Genestealer armies. 6th and 7th edition has flipflopped on this, retaining the Broodlord as a unit commander but also releasing several independent formations that can be composed entirely of Genestealers, making it possible to field legal armies of them again (with the release of Shield of Baal, there is now a Genestealer that can take a Warlord trait, coming full circle again).
- Suspiciously Stealthy Predator: Because Genestealers are actually as intelligent as most sentient species, and are psychically connected both to each other and to the members of the host species they prey on, they tend to have a pretty good idea of the technological means by which others might identify or track their presence. Since they exist to infiltrate and spread as widely as possible before they are detected, they tend to be very good at this.
- Xeno Nucleic Acid: Genestealers infest people by injecting small nodules into the target and releasing it into the population (the target doesn't remember what happened, but sees their wounds and assumes they got in a fight). From then on, every generation starting from that individual is entirely devoted to the Hive Mind and acquires ever more Tyranid traits such as needle teeth or extra arms until they give birth to purestrain genestealers, who cannot pass for human and are hidden by the cults.
Patriarchs
- The Ageless: Patriarchs are known to live for hundreds of years, and unless killed they are practically immortal.
- Art Evolution: When originally introduced, the Patriarch looked like a big fat bastard sitting on his chair. With the revamped and revived Genestealer Cults in 2016, it now looks like a regular old Genestealer, albeit bigger and more robust.
- Large and in Charge: Mature Patriarchs grow to immense sizes, reaching twice the height of a typical Space Marine and towering over every member of their brood save the vary largest Abominants.
- Magic Knight: In all their incarnations, Genestealer Patriarchs are both terrifyingly powerful combatants, with a close combat-orientated stat line that allows them to go toe-to-toe with Astartes leaders, and the psychic hub for their entire Cult's gestalt consciousness, giving them the ability to take multiple psychic powers.
- My Brain Is Big: A Patriarch's cranium becomes visibly engorged and distended as its telepathic powers grow.
- The Patriarch: The actual title of the first Genestealer to found a brood among a host species. As the brood of hybrids grow, the Patriarch will slowly grow progressively larger and more physically powerful. By the time the fourth generation of hybrids comes about and new Genestealers are being born, the Patriarch will be a massive beast. As every member of the brood is psychically connected with the Patriarch, the more the brood grows in number the more the Patriarch's psychic potential grows to accommodate them, eventually becoming a fantastically powerful psyker in its own right.
- Position of Literal Power: Patriarchs grow bigger and stronger as their cult develops, in a manner compared to the leader of a troop of apes becoming visibly tougher than the others to mark its ascendant status. Eventually, a Patriarch becomes by far the largest and most dangerous member of its cult.
Hybrids & Cults
In General
- Aliens Made Them Do It: Literally in the case of those subjected to the Genestealer's Kiss. Their altered hormones will drive them to find a partner to mate with and produce offspring. Said offspring will incorporate the genetic code of the Genestealer who administered the kiss and will be horribly misshapen hybrids of the two species.
- Apocalypse Cult: The Genestealer cults, who prepare the planet for the Tyranid invasion. Their apocalypse involves the Tyranids devouring anything that offers resistance, then turning everything alive on the planet (including the Tyranid forces and surviving Genestealers) into soup so it can be absorbed by the hive fleet.
- Assimilation Plot: The modus operandi of a Genestealer cult, though downplayed to the extent that they do not necessarily want to get everyone in. The early stages of a Genestealer population infiltration will have the brood lurk around the outskirts of society, careful to avoid detection and "kissing" a few lone individuals who will not be missed. As the cult adds new generations and grows in size, they will start fronts to allow them more freedom of movement and resources, becoming more selective as they go about who they bring into the "family" to groom themselves for more influence and avoid discovery. Eventually as a Hive Fleet approaches, they are driven to be more aggressive and will try to stage a coup, which may or may not be successful, but either way will divert attention and resources away from the oncoming threat.
- Awesome Personnel Carrier: For what counts as a civilian vehicle, the Goliath Truck is packed with firepower and can tag along several Genestealer Cult members. It is like a beefed up Ork Trukk for just less than double the points, but with more armour and bigger guns.
- Badass Biker: The fourth generation hybrids known as Jackals ride rugged Atalan bikes, acting as scouts and outriders for their Cult. Jackals use their xenos-enhanced senses and reactions to perform serpent-fast manoeuvres to dodge enemy fire before getting in close to attack their foes in close combat. Their Skilled Outriders ability makes them harder to hit with Shooting attacks.
- Bald of Evil: Genestealer hybrids have a tendency toward baldness (as Genestealers themselves are hairless), though this may or may not be present depending on which traits are inherited from which parent species.
- Battle Trophy: Cults often fashion their standards from, or at least adorn them with, trophies taken from defeated enemies. The Cult of the Bladed Cog, for instance, adorns its primary war-banner with the skeleton of the Tech-Priest Dominus Ovid Thrension, the ruler of their homeworld before the cult's revolt overthrew him, while the Cult of the Rusted Claw fashioned its banner from the cloak of one their world's primary mine overseers and decorate it with coins taken from the bodies of those who opposed the cult.
- Beware My Stinger Tail: The Locus bodyguards of the Genestealer Cults conceal a Prehensile Tail tipped with a deadly toxinspike beneath their flowing robes. The 8th Edition rules allow the Locus to make an extra attack with this hypermorph tail every time it fights in close combat.
- Breeding Cult: The goal of Genestealer cults is to propagate more Genestealers in secret, gathering higher influence to better hide their growing numbers.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: Aberrants and Abominants are mutant Genestealer hybrids characterized by immense strength, aggression and stupidity, and tend to fight with heavy hammers, mining equipment and uprooted street signs used as improvised mauls.
- The Bus Came Back: Genestealer cults, introduced during the earliest days of the game, were removed as playable units in 4th edition. In February 2016 they were re-released as part of the board game Deathwatch: Overkill, with an accompanying dataslate containing rules for the very specific Ghosar Quintus cult featured in the board game. The release of Codex: Genestealer Cults brought them back in full.
- Car Fu: The Goliath Rockgrinder, a Goliath Truck with a Drilldozer Blade shoved up front, is designed to ram other vehicles into oblivion and hopefully turn enemy infantry into meaty chunks.
- Co-Dragons: In a Genestealer Cult, if the Magus is the chief psyker and manipulator of a Patriarch then the Primus is the Patriarch's warmaster and chief lieutenant. While the Magus' role is to corrupt, the Primus serves to lead the cult into war.
- A Commander Is You: The tabletop army straddles the line between Ranger and Espionage, having many abilites that allow them to deploy from hiding, mess with terrain features, pin down opponents with suppressive fire from multiple angles, and utilize Hit-and-Run Tactics to always try and catch their opponents flat-footed and off-guard for when the Day of Ascension comes. They have relatively little staying power in their base rules, and the rules for taking cult-infested Astra Militarum units puts a limit on how many of their larger and more durable units a cult can take, meaning that the best way to play Genestealer Cults is to be constantly moving, utilize your stratagems well, and always try to think two steps ahead of your opponent.
- Construction Vehicle Rampage: Being rebellious Imperial citizens, Genestealer cults repurpose heavy mining loaders and mining equipment into military vehicles. They also turned a heavy mining drill into a device to create localized earthquakes for military purposes.
- Cool Car: The Genestealer Cult army from the 1st Edition of Warhammer 40,000 included a gothic-styled limousine for the Cult leaders to ride in incognito. Although the Coven Limo hasn't been a part of the game since then, many veteran Genestealer Cult players still hope for its return.
- Cult: When Genestealers infiltrate a population, they will go underground and look for isolated victims to "kiss". These individuals will reproduce Genestealer Hybrids and love them like their own. In order to maintain their "family" they will often find some kind of front or cover story to keep the nature of their children concealed. Such will usually adopt certain aspects of the host culture, twisting it around to center about the Genestealers, creating a secretive sect devoted to spreading their seed.
- Dumb Muscle: Genestealer Aberrants are massively muscled creatures capable of wielding heavy weaponry with ease. Though dim-witted, their instinctive need to defend their brood makes them valuable assets to the cult. Abominants, Aberrants further mutated by the Patriarch, are a more extreme case of this — they're even bigger and stronger than aberrants, but have at best the intellects of infants and are mostly useful to the cult as something to throw at particularly tough enemy emplacements.
- Earthquake Machine: The Tectonic Fragdrills employed by the Genestealer Cults create localised earthquakes by way of localised assaults on the most volatile parts of the planet's crust.
- Exposition Beam: The 8th Edition background material for the Nexos Hybrid mentions that their unique connection to their Cult's Brood Mind allows them to absorb the memories of any Cult member with nothing more than a touch, allowing them to instantly gain knowledge of an ongoing battle and the overall strategic situation.
- Face–Heel Turn: Once someone is infected by a Genestealer, they are completely under the control of the cult, though they'll generally still act normally to hide their infection until it is time to spread. Nonetheless, an infected individual will immediately turn on their allies with no warning if it means protecting the cult.
- Familiar: High-ranking Cult members are often accompanied by a Genestealer Familiar, small alien creatures created from the solidified psychic residue of a Patriarch or Magus. These Familiars perform a variety of functions, depending on the type of familiar, including enhancing their master's psychic abilitiesnote or defending them from enemy attacksnote .
- Healing Factor: The process that turns an Aberrant into an Abominant increases the monstrous creature's already rugged constitution considerably, so that its flesh can regenerate all but the most serious of injuries. In 8th Edition, the Abominant's Regenerative Flesh ability heals its wounds every turn.
- Improvised Weapon: A few of the Genestealer Cults' weapons are originally mining equipment appropriated for use in the battlefield.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: Genestealer Cultists, tragically, are not actually aware the Tyranids view them as useful but temporary tools that will be eaten once they have sabotaged their world's defenses. To them, they're the servants of an enlightened and angelic race that will bring salvation to the universe, and see all the Genestealer traits as angelic features. This lasts until the Hive Mind re-assimilates the Patriarch and Purestrains, at which point it is no longer efficient to keep the cult around and the Cultists have just enough time to scream. However, on some occasions, certain cults are aware of and accept this fate.
- Mad Scientist: Biophaguses are cult members trained in medicine and genetic manipulation. Because they need to pass as sufficiently like their host species to receive training from them, they tend to only be found in the later generations of cult development. Their education becomes extremely useful to the cult, as many of the random Mix And Match Critter traits of the cult's hybrids benefit from someone who can surgically and chemically alter them to better suit the cult's needs, particularly the Aberrants.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Genestealer hybrids, particularly first-generation ones, will mix an equal amount of characteristics from the genestealer and the host species. Later generations will downplay the Genestealer traits further with each generation, until around the fifth or sixth generation purestrain Genestealers are born to them.
- The Mole: Genestealer cults fill this role on a strategic level for the Tyranid Hive Fleets.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Genestealers themselves have six limbs and this trait is occasionally inherited by genestealer hybrids, who will have anywhere between four to six limbs themselves. They keep these concealed beneath loose clothing and stay out of sight of non-cult members while the cult is still growing, but let their limbs act freely when committed to insurrection. As these extra limbs are often tipped with sharp claws, they can be an asset in close-quarters battle.
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: Half any-sentient-species hybrid. Genestealers have a curious reproductive cycle, where only a few early broods are birthed directly by the Hive Fleets, and all later members of the brood are born to host species that the Genestealers prey on. After infecting a host organism, that organism will be driven to reproduce, but any such offspring will be half the host species and half Genestealer. Naturally, such a creature is usually very misshapen as it combines traits of both species freely. However, later generations of hybrids will look progressively more like the host species, until by about the fifth or six generation they are completely indistinguishable from them. The children of that generation will then be more "pure" Genestealers and the cycle begins again.
- Paranoia Fuel:
- Invoked by the Genestealers. Their infiltration of planets has the primary effect of destabilizing them militarily from within so they cannot effectively mount a defense, but secondarily by making it difficult for the planetary authorities to conclusively determine which individuals have been subverted by the Genestealers or not, continuing to make it difficult to mount a unified defense as the population and chain of command falls into a pattern of distrust and fear.
- Their 2016 playstyle invokes this, with many units having the ability to drop back into Ongoing Reserves and using the "Cult Ambush" rules to appear literally anywhere on a good dice roll. With many of them being armed with demo charges or incredibly powerful short ranged weapons, spamming this ability can induce the same paranoia in your opponent. In addition their Broodmind Psychic Discipline is also focused on playing mindgames with the enemy, from weakening the opponent to outright taking control of them (one of the powers is literally "Mind Control").
- Their 8th edition codex reveals that the cults have now found a way to spread their corrupting taint even without any actual Genestealers on hand to perform the Kiss. All they have to do is introduce certain chemical contagions into the water supply, then sit back and wait.
- Perception Filter:
- The Amulet of the Voidwyrm allows its bearer to tap into the Shadow in the Warp of the wider Tyranid race, allowing them to conceal themselves from the minds of their enemies. In the 8th Edition rules this is represented by a bonus to the bearer's saving throw and immunity to Overwatch fire.
- The genestealer cultists themselves suffer from one of these. After being brainwashed by the Patriarch's broodmind, the cultists perceive Tyranids as angelic, superior beings. This only lasts until the Patriarch is subsumed back into the overall hive mind, whereupon the local broodmind breaks down and the illusion dies with it. The remaining cultists usually have just enough time to fall into a horrified panic before their "gods" find and devour them.
- Portent of Doom: If a Genestealer cult has grown to the point of open insurrection, a Hive Fleet is not far away...
- Puppeteer Parasite: The "Genestealer's Kiss" initially causes confusion and amnesia in the host organism, which renders them placid and can take several hours to resolve fully. However, after that time it brings the host under the thrall of the Genestealer brood, altering their hormones and perceptions so that they come to love the Genestealers and any children they have by them. Some puppets may not even realize that they are being influenced by an external intelligence, becoming Manchurian Agents for the brood.
- Rogue Drone: Somewhat downplayed, but not all Genestealers are as willing as other Tyranid morphs to be recycled into bio-matter, and many will flee infected planets just before the hive fleet arrives. In an odd twist, Ymgarl Genestealers are forced to be this against their will — their shapeshifting abilities are too unstable for the Hive Mind to want them back in its gene pool, so they are abandoned after their use is over. Despite this, they still want to rejoin the Hive Mind, so they keep rejoining the swarms, just to always be ejected later. Presumably, this is what's happening if the Patriarch fights against the Tyranids — he is, after all, a pure Genestealer himself, so by all rights he should just be letting himself be recycled after eating his share of biomass. If he's fighting to defend his cult, then something has gone very wrong for the Hive Fleet.
- Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Many genestealer hybrids look like a bald human with odd proportions and rigged protrusions on their forehead. When operating covertly, they'll keep this covered up, but when going into open rebellion they'll display their foreheads proudly.
- Sigil Spam: An early sign of a Cult is the distinct Tyranid "wyrm", a curled representation of a limbless Tyranid bioform that resembles an Ouroboros. Inquisitors are thankful that all Cults seem to have it as a sacred symbol, and they emblazon it on everything they own.
- Smash Mook: Aberrants and Abominants are mutant hybrids characterized by immense strength, aggression and stupidity. In battle they're equipped with giant hammers, mining equipment or uprooted street signs and used as shock troops and linebreakers, relying on their armor and tough flesh to soak up incoming fire and their immense strength to break apart enemy formations, fortifications and armored vehicles with crude, sweeping blows of their weapons.
- The Strategist: A Nexos is a late generation hybrid specifically adapted with psychometric powers and a portion of the Patriarch's otherworldly intellect to act as a rear echelon general, coordinating the numberless members of the Cult so that the uprising succeeds. In 8th Edition, a Nexos can redeploy Cult Ambush markers and regenerate the Command Points used to purchase Stratagems during battle.
- Super-Reflexes: The Locus bodyguards of the Genestealer Cults have inherited the preternatural reflexes and combat speed of their gene-father, reacting with blistering speed to defend their charges. In 8th and 9th Editions, Loci can attack enemies before they are attacked themselves and dodge enemy attacks.
- Taking the Bullet: All Cultists (especially Cult Loci) are more than willing to throw themselves in front of attacks, receiving wounds and giving their lives so that the Cult's leadership can live. The Cult of the Pauper Prince take this dedication to the extreme, willing to create barricades with their own bodies so that their leaders have even the smallest of chances of surviving.
- Target Spotter: The bike-mounted snipers known as Jackal Alphuses will relay the position of any enemy that they cannot handle themselves to better equipped Cultist forces. The 8th Edition rules represent this with the 'Priority Target Sighted' ability that grants a nearby Cultist unit a to hit bonus against an enemy unit that the Alphus can see.
- Telephone Polearm: One Aberrant model uses a road sign torn from the ground (with the concrete still stuck to the base) as a blunt instrument.
- Throw Down the Bomblet: Those Cults that infiltrate munition factories have ready access to explosives and grenades, becoming extremely skilled in their use. The late 8th Edition Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned sourcebook allows such Cults to take the Munitions Experts Cult Creed that boosts the Strength characteristic of any Grenade type weapons their units are equipped with.
- Unwitting Pawn: Even if they don't know it, after their planet comes to the Hive Fleet's notice, the destiny of a Genestealer Cult is sealed, because all surviving members will become food like the rest of the planet. Some stories indicate that at least some cults are aware of this, though, and accept it.
- Weaponized Car: The Genestealer Cults' vehicles (Dirtcycles, Achilles and Goliaths) were manufactured by the Imperium for civilian purposes, but in their hands are modified and upgraded to ad hoc military vehicles — outside of the Genestealer Cults army list, they only show up as generic vehicles available to the gangs of Necromunda, and are not used by any part of the Imperial military.
- Wolverine Claws: Genestealer Cult Primuses are often armed with toxin injector claws. These viciously sharp metal blades fitted to the Primus' fingers inject those they cut with powerful toxins distilled from the blood of the Primus and, in the 8th Edition rules, are able to wound almost any living enemy.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Once the Genestealer cults have fulfilled their purpose and attracted the Tyranids at large, the cultists become food for the Hive Mind just like all other living things. Averted on at least one occasion, though, where the victorious Tyranids consumed the planet but spared the Genestealer Cult. The cultists then piled onto bulk transports and aided the Hive Fleet in conquering the remainder of the solar system. It's speculated in-universe that it might be some sort of psychic imperative from the cult's Patriarch.
- Zombie Infectee: The Imperium and other factions learned the hard way to carefully inspect anyone who survived an encounter with a Genestealer cult, especially those who somehow miraculously survived overwhelming odds. Quite often the survivors of a battle with such cults were covertly infected and left to "escape" and spread the cult elsewhere.
Sects
Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor
Third-generation Neophyte of the Four-Armed Emperor.
The burrowers beneath, they who shall rise as one
The Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor are cunning, wily, and endlessly patient. The are the masters of the subterranean assault. Whenever one of their devoted walks in the open, a thousand more lurk beneath, ready to surge up for the kill.
- Dishing Out Dirt: The Undermine psychic power, made available to Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor psykers by the late 8th Edition sourcebook Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good, allows the caster to open holes beneath the feet of an enemy unit, reducing their Movement as they carefully pick their way through the changing terrain.
- Tunnel King: The Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor specializes in subterranean operations. They base their infestations in underground lairs, and excavate extensive tunnel systems to hide their movements, enter and literally undermine targets, and circumvent and ambush enemy positions.
The Hivecult
First-generation Acolyte of the Hivecult.
They who take up the gun against the tyrant
The Hivecult are militant, organized, and hierarchical. They infiltrate not only the criminal underworlds and hive gangs of their host planets, but also the Astra Militarum regiments that recruit from them. To the Hivecult, it is a divine duty to be armed and dangerous.
- Psi Blast: The psykers of the Hivecult can collect the psychic residue released by their brothers and unleash it in a powerful blast of energy. Known as a Synaptic Blast, this psychic powernote can cause numerous mortal wounds against enemy units depending on the number of Hivecult members close to the psyche when they manifest it.
- Serial Killer: The background material for the Hivecult mentions that when they were first establishing themselves in the hive cities of New Gidlam the cult's Magus, Vockor Mai, posed as a serial killer known as the White Creeper to kill those that stood in the way of the cult's rise to power.
- Sigil Spam: Hivecult cells tend to display their bladed wyrm symbol as much as they can. Every member carries at least one cult icon on their person, and weapons such as knuckle dusters, throwing stars and daggers are often fashioned in its image.
Cult of the Bladed Cog
Fourth-generation Neophyte of the Bladed Cog.
Man, machine, and alien in glorious unity
The Cult of the Bladed Cog is born as much of metal as it is of human stock, and is further augmented by the extra-galactic anatomies of the Tyranids. This great blend of human, xenos beast, and war machine is a deadly threat to its Adeptus Mechanicus hosts.
- Battle Trophy: The Cult of the Bladed Cog's primary war-banner is adorned with the cybernetics-laden skeleton of the Tech-Priest Dominus Ovid Thrension, the ruler of their homeworld before the cult's revolt overthrew him.
- Cyborg: The Bladed Cog's theology exalts the blending of mechanical and organic entities, which it views as superior to pure examples of either type, and counts a great number of corrupted Skitarii, subverted servitors, and cybernetically enhanced hybrids among its ranks.
- Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Many members of the Bladed Cog are Cyborgs who view the blending of the machine in their ranks to be sacred, much like the Cult Mechanicus, going so far as to have painful surgeries in order to demonstrate the extent of their faith. Many in their ranks are even members of the Adeptus Mechanicus' own armies, the Skitarii. They worship the Clawed Omnissiah, a twisted cyborg Patriarch with mechanical limbs and cyborg enhancements interwoven into its body.
Cult of the Rusted Claw
Second-generation Acolyte of the Rusted Claw.
When all else rots, the cult alone will survive
The weather-beaten, rugged survivalists of the Rusted Claw are more at home on the open wastes than they are in the claustrophobic confines of an Imperial underhive. They are the pioneers, the nomads, and the prospectors of their kind.
- Battle Trophy: The Cult of the Rusted Claw fashioned its banner from the cloak of one their world's primary mine overseers and decorates it with coins taken from the bodies of those who opposed the cult.
- Make Them Rot: The leaders of the Cult of the Rusted Claw are host to numerous metallophagic nano-organisms that cause any metal, including adamantium, to instantly rust with the lightest of touches. Their Entropic Touch Warlord Trait in 8th Edition increases the chance of attacks penetrating a nearby enemy's armour.
- Power Tattoo: The Mark of the Clawed Omnissiah is a rare electoo used by the Cult of the Bladed Cog. This electronic tattoo surrounds the bearer with a force field of static electricity that protects the wearer from harm (taking the form of an invulnerable save) and can electrocute nearby enemy models, inflicting mortal wounds.
- Straw Nihilist: Members of the Cult of the Rusted Claw are described as extreme nihilists, thinking that all creatures in the universe are nothing but moving scraps of flesh destined to decay into the nothingness of the void. The Cult believe that they can only be saved when they are absorbed and remade by their unknowable gods.
Cult of the Pauper Princes
Third-generation Kelermorph of the Pauper Princes.
From great sacrifice comes immortality
The Pauper Princes believe that greatness can only be found in self-sacrifice and humility. Zealous to the point of mania, they bring the edifice of the Imperium low to ensure the new order can thrive — even if it costs every life save for the Primarch himself. The Pauper Princes hold the distinction of being the only known cult to have infested Terra itself.
- Arch-Enemy: The Pauper Princes have a particularly bitter hatred for the Imperial Guard due to the latter having attempted to assassinate its Patriarch with a sniper.
- Taking the Bullet: The Cult of the Pauper Princes take the cults' typical self-sacrificing dedication to their leadership to the extreme, and are willing to create barricades with their own bodies so that their leaders have even the smallest of chances of surviving.
Cult of the Twisted Helix
Second-generation Acolyte of the Twisted Helix.
They who swallowed the bitterest pill
The cultists of the Twisted Helix did not have the Genestealer Curse thrust upon them, but instead voluntarily took it into their society through extreme medical experimentation. They harbour unnumbered bio-horrors amongst their ranks.
- Evilutionary Biologist: The Cult of the Twisted Helix was created by the deliberate machinations of the scientists and researchers of the medical-industrial world Vejovium III, who were able to produce a serum from the dissection and study of captive Genestealers that they believed would allow them to achieve immortality and biological perfection. The original batches of the serum simply transformed their test subjects into Genestealer hybrids, but the cult's leadership, now long-since transformed into equivalents of magi and biophagi, continues to experiment and seek true perfection. Most of their experiments result in their test subjects becoming twisted monsters — aberrants, metamorphs and more unique horrors — that are put to use as shock troops to fuel the cult's hunger for resources and fresh guinea pigs.
- Psycho Serum: The Elixir of the Prime Specimen is one of the greatest achievements of the Cult of the Twisted Helix's Biophaguses. Created from the corpse of a powerful Tyranid organism, the Elixir boosts the muscle mass of those who ingest it (represented in the 8th Edition rules by a boost to the drinker's Attacks, Toughness and Wounds stats) but fills their mind with near uncontrollable bloodlustnote
Behemoid Undercult
A cult hiding on the fringes of Ultramar, the faithful of the Behemoid Undercult worship Old One-Eye, a legendary Carnifex entombed in ice.
- Giant Animal Worship: The Behemoid Undercult worships Old One Eye, a legendary and seemingly unkillable Carnifex, alongside its own Patriarch, having found it trapped in ice on the fringes of Ultramar space and believing it to be a prophet of a xenos god they call Behemoth.
- Self-Harm: Cultists of the Behemoid Undercult often ritually scar themselves around their right eye in honour of the infamous Carnifex Old One Eye, with the most devout even going so far as to gouge out their eye in imitation of the beast that they consider to be a prophet of their god.
Heroes of the Cults
The Kelermorph
- Bullet Time: The Kelermorph's accelerated metabolism allows it to live in this all the time, viewing normal humans as moving in constant slow motion, which makes a deadly gunfighter.
- Dual Wielding: The Kelermorph wields a gun in each of its two main hands.
- Folk Hero: The Kelermorph was created by the cults specifically to fit the image of a mysterious, elusive figure standing against oppression, appearing from nowhere to defy figures of power, coolly making mincemeat of his foes and then vanishing into the shadows. This is, however, all a ruse, and the Kelermorph is largely intended to trick the Imperium's oppressed masses into aiding the designs of the Cult without realizing what they're actually working for.
- The Gunslinger: The Kelermorph was specifically engineered to become a folk hero to attract the oppressed to the Cult, triple-wields Liberator Autostub revolvers. He's a mix between Vaporizer and Trick Shot, given his extremely high Ballistic Skill, six normal shots per turn and an extra shot for every one of those initial six that hits.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: The Kelermorph is a terrifyingly good shot, thanks to reflexes that allow it to calmly line up a dozen shots in the time it takes for its foes to unholster their own weapons, enhanced senses that allow it to fire with pinpoint accuracy in pitch darkness, and superhuman balance and coordination.
- More Dakka: Besides being a very good shot, the Kelermorph can also count on a combination of its reflexes and high-quality weapons to down scores of foes in a hail of bullets.
