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Xenobiologis: The Kroot (Warhammer 40,000 Lore)
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- Опубліковано 14 вер 2022
- Being a record on the mysterious and barbaric alien kroot, with divers discussions upon the nature of their blasphemous biology.
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Music: Missa Sicut lilium inter spinas by the Tudor Consort
This video is a non-profit fan-made lore discussion. Games Workshop, Forge World, Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer, Space Marine etc are all trademarks of Games Workshop Ltd. Games Workshop does not endorse or support fan-made "lore" videos. All views and opinions expressed in this video belong to Oculus Imperia and in no way reflect the views or opinions of Games Workshop Ltd or it's employees.
All works used in this video belong to their respective authors and corporations. Oculus Imperia holds no claim or propriety interest, either wholly or in part, in any of the work displayed here, with the exception of the audio commentary recorded for this video.
One day, the Occulus is going to chronicle a Xenos race which keeps excellent written records, that are relatively free from propaganda, and which aren't structured mythologically, and I don't think he'll know how to cope.
He’s gonna get his hands on some dark elder haemonculus records post fall and panic
Votaan, maybe?
@@LordButtersI Votann Squat: "...An' das why I gave the Tau those Railguns and Ion weapons, and nae the Imperium. Because my battle-kindred shouted: "The Umgi are dumbgi! I wish to see what dat Blue do!" So we said "Chuf it, let's see what that blue do." For ya see, laddo; this is the way of The Golden Age of Man-- if it rhymes, we do it. All costs.
Remembrancer: **Actively purging heretical knowledge in endless internal scream.**
Hopefully not his presentation as an Imperial citizen is fantastic and is the best part of his channel in my opinion, between that and the background chorus exalting the Emperor is perfect for immersion lol.
@@stonedwalljack9276 yes, but also no.
I hope that we get to see the Occulus's fall to Chaos eventually. Not soon, but eventually.
He did so well in his pieces on the nature of Chaos and Daemons, inching up to the edge of madness. Eventually, I want to see him go gleefully over that cliff, cackling and cursing the corpse Emperor as he goes!
Imagine if, somehow, a Kroot managed to get a hold of a small amount of Primach DNA...
The God-Birdperor of Krootkind would be a sight to behold.
That's basically just Magnus now.
"Im GrootAlpharius!"
honestly, i think that dna would overwhelm the kroot that ate it.
The primarch of the kroot fort builder kron
That would make a kroot the size of a titan
Always loved that the kroot could keep up in a world ruled by otherworldly magic and planet shattering technology, by just eating stuff.
And that they are just generally very chill. They aren't crazed zealots. As long as they get food and money, they're happy.
@@blender7 *A kroot, lifting beak up from dead cat the Tau let him eat.* Wait, paid in money? The fuck have I been eating all of these house cats for?
Tau: We said our army needed cay boys, and we're going to get them. _for the greater good_
@@attemptedunkindness3632 kroot: Arent there any Felinid's in any of the human worlds you took over?
Tau: NOT ENOUGH!!!
>luv me rifle
>Luv hunting blokes
>Luv eating them blokes
>Simple as
Only three generations away from being a different species. I never knew this particular bit of trivia. I'm strongly reminded of the Oankali from Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis books.
That's a sci-fi deep cut
My pet theory is that the Kroot are actually survivors of the Rangdan xenocides, but because of the censorship of the events no-one in the imperium has realised.
One ate a primarch and killed another before being put down by the emperor or something how much you wanna bet
If the Kroot were the Rangdan then they would not have forgotten about the Imperium though. There's no way that the Kroot would see no problem doing mercenary for that same Imperium and yet the Kroot commonly do just that.
It would be similar to another minor xenos: the Stryxis. The Stryxis are all obsessed with the act of trading. They will trade with anything for anything valuable with anyone. If a Stryxi crosses paths with a slavering Khorne berserker the Stryxi will at least try to trade wifh him but there is one species that the Stryxi will never trade with and instead will put his own life on the line to try to kill as many of them as possible: the Eldar. Considering they also never talk about their homeworld even though they love selling secrets I think that the Stryxi's homeworld was one of the worlds that was destroyed when the Eldar manifested the Eye of Terror.
The point I'm trying to make here is that such massive destruction is not something that any sapient, non-insane species will ever forgive lightly.
@@zigzag1630 that's applying human psychology to a distinctly inhuman race, though. Given their obsession with evolution, they could regard the dead portion of their race as having deserved it for being weak, it could exist only as myth without the details required to recognise the Imperium, or they could just recognise that it's in their best interests not to tip the imperials off that they've encountered them before so they don't investigate!
Pretty sure the Slaught maggot men were the Rangda.
@@TheJoshman01Rangda are implied to be a slave race to Slaugth
Best part is there is a fifth edition “White Dwarf” army list. Allowing kindreds to select genetic traits as upgrades. This even included winged Vulture Kroot. Easily one of the most interesting minor xenos in the setting.
I like the mercenary/outgoing minor xenos. They get around a lot for their size sometimes. A kroot war-sphere could always show up to another fight.
I has a 2000pt chapter approved army in 3rd edition (4th maybe?) I had to order all the wings separately over the telephone from my local store plus the multitude of other parts. Even got the forge world Knarloc before the rules even came out at Warhammer world in Nottingham, must of been about 14 at this time. Kroot are still my favourite “faction" in 40k.
Horrible army by the way, you'd just die. Unless you was fighting on a jungle board, but no one in their right mind fought you on a jungle board 😅
@@FRAAANKYSUUUPER the article suggested using dark elf harpy wings. I only ever built a few models of them. It was definitely fifth. Shadowsun was not part of the original Tau army list. In third edition vortex grenades were still a thing and Eldar D cannons were just broken.
@@mikewaterfield3599 my shaper leader had Tyranid gargoyle wings to set him apart, had to convert, trim and weight his base so the model wouldn't flop over, but I had about 20 harpy wing Kroot.
I only ever played during 3rd and 4th.
@@FRAAANKYSUUUPER color me shocked
That magic digestive system has more implications than just consumption of corpses. You can tell much about a critter and it's environment from it's feces. The Kroot digestive system would run wild with that. Take it a step further and imagine a Kroot returning to his kindred with important information. He lets out a chirp to alert the others and proceeds to produce a "memory dump" for the others to consume. Minutes later all members present share the relevant memories and experiences of the returning scout.
The current fluff has all the revulsion about eating the dead, but neither the culture of the Imperium or Tau holds eating the dead as taboo. The Imperium makes widespread use of corpse starch and you better believe for the Tau "Every citizens final duty is to go into the tanks and become one with all the people."
The revulsion directed at the Kroot for their dietary habits isn't about the consumption of the dead. Even Greenskins find Kroot practices distasteful. Everyone is creeped out by they way kroot kindreds work for what amounts to raw sewage. If the Kroot eat you they can become like you, but if they've eaten what you've eaten, then they know what your thinking.
It would explain why the Kroot love the Tau so much and why they're so effective as mercenaries. The Kroot know in an intimate fashion how much the Tau buy into the greater good and it's precepts of interspecies equality. The kindreds have all made a point to "share" and "reshare" the memory, down through the generations, of when the Tau empire saved their species from extinction at the hands of the Greenskins on Pech. This is why kindreds that haven't interacted with Tau for centuries respond with instant friendship, and once they get a fresh "taste" of the greater good they're fanatically loyal to the empire again.
The Kroot often hire themselves out as what amounts to expendable muscle to species other than the Tau. The price they demand is strange and unpleasant, but cheap for the efficacy. Insight into their employer's intentions thus gained allows Kroot kindreds to prosper in this line of work. More than one tyrant has found the Krootstys empty when it came time to downsize their workforce.
As a note, I always thought that GW misses a trick on this species, they have Tyranid like abilities, yet they all just look and act like Kroot.
Granted they have the kroot-ox and Kroot-hound, but the regular troops would surely have a bunch of very cool specialisation for combat, not just a copy paste design for millions.
Bring on the spider-kroot, wielding 6 blades or pistols
I'd buy those models for sure
There's art of amphibious kroot with frog-like skin, fins and webbed feet, green muscular half-Ork Kroot, armoured Kroot covered in spikes like the Thorny Devil lizard and blue Kroot that fly with bat wings.
Spider kroot, spider kroot🎶
@@adamhunter1223 does what ever a spider-kroot does
Its not part of the greater good
I would posit that we are already suffering the shadow of just such a terrifying spectre.
Afterall, convergent evolution is a well-documented phenomenon, even among the trifling number of biomes present on but a single planet.
But across hundreds, if not thousands, of Galaxies filled with millions of worlds? It would seem to me that the inevitable fate of an Awakened Kroot is precisely that same inscrutable swarm of biological monstrosities which now descends upon the Galaxy...
Great content. Kroot, Tau allies and Xenos deserve more attention.
My favorite part of 40K is the Imperium vs the various aliens in the galaxy. Love that you continue to cover the lesser known xenos!
But nothing is as Xenos to Man as Man, from reaching out to Chaos to reaching back to their lost Golden Age. The true grimdark of 40k is that the most alien thing to mankind in the 41rst Millennium is humanity.
Love the Xenobiologis series and, of course, Oculus himself! Praise be to the Emperor
The Emperor is pleased with this outstanding record. You may live another day.
OCULUS,
Sorry, I either don't know or haven't remembered your first name if you've said it. I've been listening and appreciating your videos for a bit now. You've gotten better, your delivery and your pacing, as well as your verbiage, and it's been a pleasure to follow along as your skills and content have improved.
'The balkanization of Kroot organs' is an example of the heightened level of quality of vocabulary I'm talking about, not only because it's a word that only someone like historitor or archivist would use in the Imperium of M42, but because it shows the regard in which you hold your viewership, even if that might be a bit inflated. (Meaning, at least in the States over here, that word and its import to the context here we'd expect that nearly only college graduates with a historical or political science inclination would even have a hope of understanding that sentence without having to turn on captions and then breaking out the dictionary and/or thesaurus, either for an introduction or a refresher on what the term even means and how it would apply, well and artfully, to the subject under discussion in the video).
This video was a great joy to watch. Keep rocking over whatever part of the British Isles you're in, and I really hope there's a Kroot part 2 from you.
Oculus resides in Ronto hive (Idsct YYZ) to the west of the Ontario Basin upon Holy Terra.
@@CK-xs3vq yeah, I was thinking he was American it Canadian.
Man, if I didn't want a Kroot codex before.... Anyway, as always, most excellent work from Oculus!
there was a kroot mercenary codex for awhile, introduced as a chapter approved article in white dwarf. it got pretty much ignored when the edition changed to 5th.
At least we got a cool kill team
@@DarrinSK Which, while not super-powerful stat wise, are really fun to play.
Well aren't you in luck! While they may be tecnically still part of Codex: Tau, they now have as many kits as Votann and World Eaters and an entire Detachment designed to run them exclusively.
Basically as much of a faction as Harlequins, if not a bit more.
Request: Legion of the Damned
I second this request
Yes! I concur. We definitely need to investigate the Legion of The Dammed at some point. So many theories about their origin, so much potential.
The Kroot, Xoxtl, who advanced himself into a hyper-intelligent amphibian…. Was he starting to become an Old One?
This is awesome but the Kroot already had a small empire, a string of planets that the Tau helped them to reclaim. They had space travel before they encountered the orks.
This was fantastic! The Kroot are my favourite 40k race by far and I'm so glad they finally got a Xenobiologis video. :D I really hope we get more 40k stories featuring Kroot.
In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future... the Chickens eat you! ;p
I'm so happy about the new Kroot models. Still holding out hope for models for Tarellians and maybe even those weird maggots-in-robes things. I know there are at least two Tarellian 3rd-party 3d printing model kits, but I'd love to see them get the GW treatment.
There is a veritable rogues gallery of Halloween monsters still clinging to the fringes. From Rak'goul to space slaan, they could make an army to contest imperial holdings out of a dozen or so named species. Most of those are more relevant than Tau in terms of territory size.
@@jipowap And I genuinely think that there should be a more hodge podge, rag tag Xenos-Soup for people who want interesting minis in their army, perhaps led by Farsight, or even another Xenos HQ altogether. Let the insular Tau have their inner space, and be a force and faction unto themselves...
_United, our will is greater than any other force. We shall inherit the stars, even if we must first cleanse them in blood_ -Commander Farsight
@@jipowap isn't there something just to the west of the Imperium that could cause trouble whenever GW wants them to? Plus the votann are the runners up for largest territory (even with Nihilis) and probably push the competition on who has the best tech.
@@MrSwordJ Q'orl if I remember the spelling. Hive mind space damselflies with slight chaotic bent.
@@attemptedunkindness3632 If they wanted to introduce that concept without it being too similar to the Tau, maybe they could expand on the lore of the Diasporex. They're sort of like nomadic multi-species Craftworld-like fleets that supposedly got entirely wiped out during the Horus Heresy. The lore could be that the surviving fleets have been doing just fine out in the Halo Stars, and, now, due to warp storms, they've once again been forced to migrate to areas of space with an Imperium presence.
Love this series! Been wanting more Kroot lore and this was a great dive into it!
Love the whole concept of a Mercenary species. Great faction, the Kroot.
WEZE FREEBOOTERZ TAKE UMBAGE GAINST THA MONOLITHIC DEPIKSHUN OF MERKANARY KULTUR. WEZE BEEN TRADIN DAKKA FER TEEF BEFORE DEM CHIKINS HAD BEEKS. ALSO, PAAAAAARGHLAY!
Great work Oculus Imperia, love this series. I can't wait for the Drukhari entry.
I know it's an artifact of the crowded wireless space where I am, but the way my Bluetooth earbuds would intermittently lose signal *independent of each other* while I listened really gave this the right 40k feel.
Need a Xenos wars series, like the Damocles Gulf Crusade, Third Sphere Expansion or Second and Third War of Armaggedon or the Orphean War, or the Tyrannic Wars. Dang Traitor Legions hogging all the spotlight with their stupid Heresy :p
Just what I need right now, thank you, Oculus.
Dude, such a great 40k channel, ur an amazing narrator. Thank you!
The Emperor & the Oculus be praised
Battlefleet Gothic let you play with a few minor xenos ships. Usually as part of mercenary additions or tau allies. They had kroot war-spheres in there. Demiurge ships, nikassar ships, a few others.
"Orks as any who have parsed my records are aware..." For a moment, I thought you were referring to any and all ORKS who had parsed your records, as opposed to just imperial citizens who had reviewed your research about orks. And I will admit, I found the mental image to be extremely amusing.
This episode is as terrifying as the Tyranid one, just in a more subtle way.
I love this channel!
Awesome to get some insight into the Kroot. They're very interesting critters.
Right on time for me to fall asleep. I am creaming my jorts rn
Ah yes, you are of the mythical line of Jort Creamers. A majestic creature, led by the legendary Johnus Cenarium.
This is what I have been missing in my life. Thanks for yet another interesting and well produced video.
Surprised you didn't go a bit deeper into their kindreds, from eldari to poison dart frog.
Still, good to hear a new take
yesss another xenobiologis. I could watch so many of these...
I would love to hear a record of the oculus’ daily activities and a tour of his study. I also want him to have a support animal to keep him company. I just want him to be okay
In his talk with an inquisitor, the inquisitor presented a small description of Oculus' daily routine, though it wasn't particularly detailed ;)
I feel like it would be something unexpected, like a lazy jokaroe that only tends hydroponics and makes him pumpkin spiced mango lattes. No other flavours, he's learned to tolerate it.
KROOT KROOT KROOT KROOT!
To the most high Emporer be the glory for this new morsel of knowledge.
The emperor and the algorithm be praised.
Ah yes, the Kroot. The original *Hungery Boi* race before the Tyranids muscled their way in.
The Kroot really were too good of an idea to trailer hitch to the Tau. Somebody, however, in GW marketing needed the Xenomorphs, but the closest candidate faction were space samurai.
Years later, we got what we got.
@@attemptedunkindness3632 I'm interested in all the other tau client races. The main ones we got was the vespid and the kroot. A lot of them are just doing their stuff in the background but a few get around. Battlefleet Gothic had a bunch of nikassar ships I think.
One thing I appreciate in the ongoing narrative of The Oculus character is that his utter disdain with what the Imperium has become, and learning how the sausage was made in the halcyon days of the Great Crusade, it has not shaken his utterly logical and necessary fear/hatred/disgust for all xenos bioforms.
More Tau content please! I would love to see a series on the Damocles Gulf Crusade.
Seconded!
Are Kroot still considered T'au any more? Just mechs mechs mechs as far as I can see for a very long time now.
@@KarmaSpaz12 They are, but the balancing still sucks, so they aren't particularly viable. Mechs are simply too good to spend points on much else.
Gloria in excelsis Oculus Imperia
Great synopsis and info Chronicler. One of the most fascinating species in 40K.
A perfect video to listen to while putting together some Kroot minis! I'm more interested in them now knowing their potential!
Very creative! Keep up the great work, Oculus!
It says a lot that the Kroot were able to consume Orks and retain their own identity/culture. I wonder how they'd fare against Tyranids?
I believe, as far as any source can be canon in 40k, the answer is 'They don't.' Tyranid/Genestealer meat tastes 'tainted', and is thus avoided.
@@diestormlie Non zero chance it just creates some kinda genetic fallacy cancer that kills the consumer either way. Like putting a bag of holding inside of a bag of holding on a biological level.
That said, we should feed the Kroot to the Nids, just to be sure...
@@attemptedunkindness3632 Pls no hurt my Mercbirbs Dx.
Maybe the Nids -are- Kroot or vice versa
There's a bunch of beings who are just ungodly monstrosities they avoid. An important job for shapers is to restrain the kin-band from consuming stuff they shouldn't eat. Both things they think would lead into a genetic dead end and creatures that would only degrade things.
I recall that most tyranids have simple DNA. An individual tyranid is made out of relatively simple building blocks. Like some designer took only the most basic parts necessary for a biological walking gun and put them together.
God I fucking love these Xenosbiologist videos so much
Personally, I am glad that the Kroot have what seems to be an instinctual hatred, or even fear, of Tyrannids and especially of their genestealers.
Thank you for continuing this project
As always Oculus, many thanks. Please continue your work. Ave Imperator.
Thank you for the fine work once again
I love you, Occulus Imperia. I was dreading today, but this is what I needed to get my mind off the badness. Thank you.
Love your work. Keep it up!
I know there’s not much on them but the Ioxatl would be neat to hear your take on.
"When in doubt, take a bite"
Is this aquatic Kroot the one from the story where an Inquisitor manages to capture a grot and interrogates it about Ghazkull? And it turns out that the grot is actually Makari, Ghaz's banner grot and personal lucky charm?
A superb analysis as always, Oculus.
Kroot and Tau stand as one.
Until one goes rogue at dinner time 😂
I fucking love the kroot. Long time Eldar fan and player but they are by far one of my favorite factions!
Hey man I love your videos!
We're 50 seconds in, and already 80% of what came out of this man's mouth is heresy.
Amazing
The lore is he is slowly slipping into chaos. I, for one, welcome this arc.
YES! Love the Kroot!
3rd video in a row I've not got a notification for
Nice 👍. The Kroot species is Awesome
Could the Kroot be an even match for the Hive mind? This is under the assumption that they have awaken as a species. I think it is an interesting idea.
Have the Tyranids ever gotten ahold of a Kroot that we know of? Cuz boy howdy that'd be an absolute disaster.
worth noting that the Tau actually do eat meat, we have mentions of abattoir districts in their cities, as well as fisheries. however the only references we have for meat consumption seem limited to the Fire caste, and the water and air castes at the least have been depicted as vegetarian (or perhaps even Vegan) in diet, presumably due to culture rather than biology. as the fire warriors are the descendants of pre-unification Tau nomadic hunter/warrior tribes, this makes some sense, as they likely have retained cultural elements from those origins, much like the water and air castes retained elements from their origins as ocean going and mountain dwelling societies respectively.
All of that and my immediate takeaway is "They don't have butts?".
The strangest part still being that the blood analogue being circulated to the lungs is the copper based one. Ferrous proteins generally excel at gas exchange, maybe this is a conscious tradeoff to bypass the action of certain toxins?
Thank you as always.
Oculus,
It is so good to hear further from you on the subject of those unclean denizens of the rightful domain of Humanity. Despite the more... Application-Driven reason for my study of these creatures, your missives give a better general understanding than the "Shoot Here" focus of my organization's analysts.
While most of those in my charge only need the latter, the Leadership Cadre needs the former to be able to anticipate the actions of all foes of the Imperium. Accept my thanks for your work, as it forms (in a highly filtered manner) much of the additional material given to those withdrawal the discernment to use it properly.
On a personal note, please remember this my friend. Care, boldness in one's mission, and displaying the intellectual prowess of a lobotomized grox are just different loci on the same spectrum. Entering the facilities of those who are a law unto themselves without a formal invitation falls on the grox end of things my friend.
The Emperor Protects, but it is polite when you give him less to protect you from.
Ave Imperitor. Defensor Vindex
This guy ladies and gentlemen...
This oculus guy and his changers of DNA...
......
You do know this is a fictional lore video? And that he's playing a role for entertainment?
unless the Kroot are a primitive form of Tyranid. maybe they are the progenitors? Wrap travel could have sent some to the wrong place and time and they eat lunch and Tyranids are born. You got to admit there are some similarities in the DNA extraction. Maybe that's what happens when they go rogue.
My favorite race and the only reason I will ever give money to GW. Backrubs and belching at ambassadors, the best birbs to ever be.
For some reason I've only ever been interested in the kroot to any real degree for all the xenos races.
Once again an amazing video, my one question is where do you get the art for the thumbnails? I recently got into WH40k lore and all that it entails, but above all I love the art.
Thanks Oculus..
I am Kroot.
I'm hungry now.
The always remind me if mudokins who decided to fight back.
One could posit that it's not difficult identifying similarities between Kroot and Tyranids. It's not far-fetched to suggest the former could evolve into the later, if all it were to consume for a few generations, were hive minded insectoids. Worth considering.
These Tau Auxiliaries have been steadfast allies, and their digestive system allowing them to accept positive traits from their prey makes them some of the most deadliest enemies of mankind, and left unchecked they could rival the Tyranids.
I wonder how much fan fiction there is of a lucky as fuck Kroot with the Emperor’s DNA. What horrible shinanigans awaits such an overpowered Kroot.
"Humanity plays with its genes with no small amount of skill"
😂
After the last 3 years in real life, this is a tragically hilarious statement....
SOOOO MUCH untapped potential in the Kroot.
Great 👌 Thank You .
I have to wonder what would happen if a Kroot eats a few Callidus Assassins. Would we start getting shapeshifting Kroot? 🤔
‘The Orks either crashed or landed on the planet’ if anyone can tell the difference between the two, they are a better person than I 😬
How do you spell "Xot'yl"? I am looking for more information on that Kroot Shaper! So much potential for cool stories.
Kroot would be great energy in a game to be a Inquisition agent and fighting these stealthy hunters on a feral world or in close quarters of a building. Would be difficult and give you such a vast enemy pool to fight.
In Dark Heresy you get to tangle with a lot of minor xenos if you like. There's an adventure where a pair of the weird worm-face xenos are holed up in a windmill. The local forces (with muskets and napoleonic cannons) are busy fighting a war of succession so you have to deal with them.
@@SusCalvin ya I love Dark Heresy and Only War as its mainly as humans fighting Chaos and Xenos. I would love a video game like that though.
The Imperium invading Pech? Vietnam war, 40k style!
@MarquisLeary34 even if it's not Pech just a world with Kroot, Vespid, Tau firewarriors and humans. That would be cool and keep the Battlesuit spam out as they are far more rare then the books show as they are always on the main battlefield not the backworld garrisons.
The only thing here which disappoints me is the level of subs.
Lol wait so if a kroot cannibalizes too much it becomes a guild navigator?
Is there any way of getting scripts or your videos?
I'd like to read them whenever I don't have internet connection
Let's go! Space Marine tastes better
Where is the Vraks campaign, I’m here for kreig
The Kroot might give an insight into early stages, or a diverging path of, the same route of evolution the Tyranid ancestors went down, however the Kroot are not capable of combining and keeping active a large enough portion of thier DNA stores in active cellular functionality to the same degree as the Tyranids, therefor deadlocking thier potential to be more limited in mobility. Think of it as comparing a chimpanzee to a homo sapiens. Obviously not directly genetically linked, but through the lens of convergent evolution.
2nd favorite part of tau lore. The kroot
What's your favorite part?
@@angusmuir6180 The Tau ethereals being rad
@@Connordaboss45 Nice. Cool name, too.
I wonder what would happen of they at a psycher or marine
I've never found a source detailing how they reproduce. Is some of this from the Liber Xenologis?