The TRUE Origins of the Genestealer Cults | Building Warhammer Armies

hello there is an Insidious faction in 40K who worship the for armed Emperor they Herald the coming of the high fleets lurk in the shadows of the Imperium and they love a fancy set of wheels though they date back to Rogue Trader these Gene Steeler worshiping cultists have had a murky history having dipped from View for the better part of 20 years but now they've reemerged as a major force in the 40 setting so what exactly is the development history of these dangerous deviants I'm Jordan This is Jordan sorcery and today we're building Warhammer Army's Jean Steeler [Music] Cults building Warhammer armies is my series that looks at the development history of a single fact from 40K Warhammer fantasy and maybe even in the future age of Sigma I like to try and find out when they first emerged how they developed and changed who was involved and what factors contributed to making them the way they are today we're looking at the 40K faction the genan stealer Cults when did they first appear in the game who develop them and how did they become the creepy guys that we know and love and fear to today but just to make sure that we don't succumb to Imperial propaganda let's make sure we're all on the same page about exactly what the gene stealer cult is Gene Steelers are an ancient xenos threat possessed of claws capable of tearing through Terminator armor the gene stealer Cults exist in the shadows of the Imperium a network of Agents operating under the sway of a venerable and long-lived Gene stealer patriarch they are intent on propagating their race and they do so by infecting humanoids using psychic powers to hypnotize their followers and growing generations of hybrid children who can help them take power over the populace of an entire planet and though they don't always realize it their religious Zeal operates in service of the tyranid high fleets longing for the final Day of Reckoning when the tendrils of death will reach their Planet okay now we all know exactly what we're talking about why don't we get into the origins of these purple Devils but whilst we do that don't forget to use one of your four arms to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel the gene stealer is a creature as old as 40K itself first appearing in Rick priestley's Rogue Trader as something a little more slimy than we're used to very much inspired by HR Gyer and Ridley Scott's alien from the very beginning Rick priestley's writing makes it clear that these are an Insidious parasitic Force this enigmatic monster originates from one of the moons of imal but has spread throughout space and is threatening to become a real Menace what makes the genan stealer truly unique is its deadly and extremely rapid reproductive cycle a gene stealer implants its own genetic material in the form of an egg capsule which is forced into the body of the host and though there's no such thing as a specific Gene Steeler cult in the law at this point the building blocks for its future biological hierarchy have already been laid down interestingly enough newly born creatures although fundamentally genan Stealers will have characteristics inherited from the host parent thus a genan stealer human may have a vaguely humanoid head or only two arms instead of the usual four and perhaps its tail will be shortened or missing a genan stealer of four or more Generations consistent human parentage would pass for a human on a cursory inspection although a closer look would reveal a bluish skin sharp pointed teeth and rather disturbing stare in a 2016 interview with Baron bifford on Reddit Rick Priestley spoke about that early genan stealer concept I think we called them genan Steelers because that's what they do they mix their genetic structure with another race and their offspring are hybrids so they steal genes it's inspired by the Gyer alien concept really when the film Alien came out there was a making of book that went with it in which Gyer explained his ideas behind the alien which was essentially that with the release in 1989 of Richard hell spacehulk the Jean dealer was redesigned by Bob naith and jez Goodwin with new sculpts included in the Box these new Jean dealers were arguably closer in appearance to Geer xenos with a Slicker and more fluid elegant form plus their claws have grown all the better to slash you with and as well as being the villains of the new spacehall game they would receive some metal jez Goodwin models to go with them one of the Curiosities that accompanied these pure strain Jean dealers were the Jean dealer hybrids a range of miniat that took advantage of that early Road Trader law about unusual looking younger generations of Jean Steeler Offspring to provide some very fun and quite Sinister looking models these new Citadel Metals would be accompanied by a series of detailed articles in white dwarf that would expand on the nature of the genan Steelers and introduce the concept of the genan stealer Cults Rick Priestley in that same Reddit interview explained a little bit more about what was happening behind the scenes I started it off by creating and naming the genan stealer in Rogue Trader but for some reason it got picked up as the monster for spacehulk by Richard halwell and Brian anel came up with the whole Jee stealer cult thing although I invented and named the tyranids again the concept got rolled up into other games and Brian came up with the idea of turning them all into the race we all know and the backstory and rolled them into the genan Steelers in the background the whole Jean stealer cult and tyranid Shadow in the warp reinterpretation was Brian anel's contribution Brian didn't write directly he would dictate notes that would get typed up by a secretary and given to one of the staff writers to flesh out and write up the rules and so on I don't remember who landed that job at the time but it wasn't me Brian anel was the co-founder of Citadel and eventual owner of Games Workshop and it's thanks to him and his obsession with things like Michael moro's Eternal Champion that ideas like the chaos gods and their Cults would find their way into the Warhammer worlds it seems that he was interested in that kind of cultish shadowy faction and for probably similar reasons he was Keen to introduce the Jean stealer Cults into the 40K Universe the writer who would actually pick up that job and run with it was Paul Murphy Murphy joined Games Workshop in the late ' 80s and one of his first assignments was helping Richard hell to play test and complete the first edition of spacehulk shortly following the release of the Bas game in 1989 there were a series of articles in white dwarf that would pressage the supplements soon to be released in issue 114 you could find rules for the Grey Knight a force of demon hunting psychically attuned Space Marines the grey Knights alongside the cover stars of the same issue would feature as additions to spacehulk in the expansion Jean stealer released the following year and those cover stars were illustrated by David Gallagher and it would become an iconic image of a new threat in the 40K Universe the genan stealer Cults in an extensive article Paul Murphy delivered to Brian anel's original brief providing a detailed description of the evolved Gene stealer background a gene stealer cult usually masquerades as a new religion with the Steelers thrall as a titular head in outward appearance the religion is completely harmless and often laudable promoting hard work cherishing the young and respecting the old the religious message is simple usually foretelling the coming arrival of the Blessed children who will lead their parents to Eternal Bliss the children in question would be a bit less blessing and a might more biting though the parents may not even care perhaps the most horrifying part of the entire reproductive cycle is that the human hosts appear not to notice or care that their children are monsters the parents love and cherish the creatures above and beyond even normal parental affection whether this is because of some power of the child or because the parents are psychically dominated by the pure strain jeans dealer is unknown this new conception of jeans Cults has often drawn parallels with the work of HP Lovecraft particularly the Shadows over insouth and it's not hard to see why in that story a secretive cult has taken rote in the desolate New England sea port of insouth leading a visiting antiquarian to discover that the strange aspects and behaviors of the local populace are related to their relations with Immortal fishmen known as the Deep ones forbidden Secrets profane Cults and an entire population physically and mentally corrupted by ancient alieno intellects yep there's definitely something in the comparison the second and third parts of the gene Steeler cult introduction would appear in white dwarf 115 and 116 written by Brian anel himself along with Nigel Stillman and in them they would provide new Army lists for creating your own Gene stealer Cults to battle on the tabletop these articles would detail further background on the gene Steelers physiomer Invasion Force Army list and then a distinct list for creating genan stealer Cults and that's because in the Rogue Trader era the gene stealer Clan represented the Insidious network of hybrids and pure strains that are under the sway of the patriarch and Magus that's essentially what we would consider a gene stealer cult today but then it was the genan stealer Clan at the same time you could create a gene de a cult but that would only occur if the patriarch had turned to chaos in search of more power it was possible to create armies like a cornate genan Steeler cult that featured Steelers hybrids mutant bombs and brood Brothers marching into battle alongside chaos spawn beastmen demonic familiars and even any number of horses and there would also be another classic option introduced for the genan stealer Cults a 40K vehicle that has never since been equaled in terms of style Swagger and fuel efficiency this was the coven limousine the coven transport was described as some kind of exclusive limousine like vehicle so it didn't have to be a literal limousine but it was also about creating the appropriate Prestige within the community for the Magus and the patriarch plus the blacked out windows would probably keep the patriarch and any of their sins hidden from View there has never been an official miniature produced for the coven limousine but converted examples appeared in white dwarf and these marvelous scratchbuilt monstrosities remained part of Brian anel's permanent collection displayed at Foundry war games for many many years the coven limo was always an unusual idea but a fun one I think but if you think there is a stronger example of eccentric transport in 40K why not leave it in a comment below I love this kind of stuff besides lacking that appropriate ride the rest of the Miniatures range that was released at this time was great and I think was all sculpted by jez Goodwin the metal pure strain Jean Steelers were in keeping with the plastic sculpts from spacehulk with their chitus carapace and bulous sort of humanoid head plus that Venom esque tongue the hybrids did a terrific job of finding the uncomfortable Middle Ground between the pure strains and a regular human with a range of extra appendages different equipment loadouts and their Sinister hunched forms the Magus had the look of a classic Rogue Trader ERA pyer with a high collar and a bald head and true to the law there was essentially a human appearance to them but then there is the Big Daddy the gene stealer patriarch the furthest thing from Human you can imagine as befits an ancient malevolent son of the eldrich this guy is sat upon his mighty Throne issuing forth psychic Whispers to those in his Thal and no doubt plotting his revolting Rebellion as well as those white dwarf articles on Jean Steeler Cults being reprinted in the Rogue Trader supplement Warhammer 40,000 compilation there would be another collaborative effort from Brian anel working with writer William King anel wrote a short story called Deathwing that would be published in both the manual for the spacehulk expansion of the same name and the GW books 40K fiction Anthology that also had the same name sewing a perfect bit of confusion to help the secretive cult stay underground in the story we get the original background for the Dark Angels Deathwing as well as seeing how a gene stealer cult can wipe out an entire planet's worth of people in just a couple of generations and then in 1991 there would be another 40K Rogue Trader supplement one of the final projects that Brian anel would work on whilst he was still at Games Workshop and this one would heavily feed feature Jean stealer hybrids of a different Hue green free booters was part of a series of Rogue Trader supplements dedicated to all things orcish providing a wide range of army lists and concepts for the Intrepid green skin fan to build from one such list was the orc Jean stealer hybrid Army a fortunately rare occurrence that could pose little threats to Orcs or the Galaxy at large because of just how unsuitable Orcs were for Jean Steeler infestations and yet it could still make for a pretty fun modeling project and the book also had things like warp heads and Chaos orc mutant lists it may not have been longlasting but this book is a fun time in Rogue Trader the gene Steelers were described more or less like any other zenos threat just a creature that was encountered on presumably its home world and caused a relatively localized problem but in time that would change and they would become part of a far larger threat the tyranids had been included in Rogue Trader as well but the only miniature design for them was mostly a turant and there wasn't really a great deal of law or investment in this alieno creature then in 1990 the arrival of Jervis Johnson's sequel to space Crusade Advanced space Crusade would bring with it a great deal more focus on these space aliens and their tyranid Warriors I'm not entirely certain that it would was the first but there is certainly an early reference in the advanced space Crusade manual that ties together the background of the tyranids and the gene Stealers tyranids also use Gene manipulation to create new races of servant creatures from captives these Advanced bio constructs are artificial races bred by the tyranids their minds form part of the hive mind but they can still think and act for themselves and can make and act upon decisions within the limits engine neared into them there are many hundreds of these races amongst them the destructive Gene Steelers the ponderous zotes and the murderous Grabber slashers although these awesome creatures may look improbable and horrific to human eyes they are all designed to fulfill some specific role in tyranid society for example as advanced Fighters and infiltrators in the case of the gene Steelers Ambassador conquerors in the case of zotes and Warrior assassins in the case of Grabber slashers and if you're thinking that Grabber slasher is just a description of a genan stealer well you would be right but this is also a creature that's very much a genan stealer that's been turned up to 11 pretty sure we had an infestation of these in the kitchen cupboards of my student flat this updated law would be further expanded upon as the genan Steelers very clearly became the Vanguard race of the tyranids dispersed ahead of the high fleets to sew destruction and Insurrection across the gap Galaxy by 1995 there was a second edition of 40K and to support the continued expansion of each faction there was a series of new dedicated faction books released the codexes and one of those was codex tyranids in the pages of Andy chambers's wonderful work you would find full rules for the genan Steelers their Magus hybrids and Patriarchs all of which had been included in the second edition core book the codec imperialis there was also an army list for running genan stealer Cults with entries for neophytes acolytes brood brothers and plenty of stolen Imperial tanks and equipment the book was clear though that even despite the genan Steeler Cults being a part of the tyranid modus operandi the cultists themselves were rarely if ever aware of their ultimate end game that when the tyranids arrived they would be consumed along with all of the other planetary biomass and that is under understandably why the Cults and the tyranids could not Ally on the battlefield there were other changes as well along with losing their awesome limos the updated Cults seemingly also lost the potential to be tainted by chaos but they could still drive stolen land Raiders so you win some you lose some in the law section of the book there is also a few pages given over to the genan stealer contributions to a pretty significant event the start of the second Ty anic War the Battle of iar 4 iar 4 was an important industrial world that became radicalized and riotous due to the Insidious actions of a religious order known as the Brotherhood the Inquisition and later the ultramarines would discover that the Brotherhood was in fact a gene stealer cult working to destabilize the planet ahead of the arrival of a hive Fleet and when the high Fleet Kraken did enter the system that Invasion would be fought at gaming tables in the real world as the First Games Workshop Global campaign devised by Jervis Johnson this iar 4 campaign would dominate The Summer of 1995 with countless battles fought between the tyranids on one side and the combined forces of Space Marines Imperial Guard and lar on the other as the beginning of a lineage of awesome Global campaigns iar 4 was a momentous undertaking one which I will no doubt return to here on the channel to talk about in more detail in the future the Third Edition of 40K and the tyranids Codex would Mark the end of an era with the genan Steeler Cults being emitted entirely fortunately they wouldn't miss out on the entirety of Third Edition though because there was sort of official support from The Citadel journal in issues 40 and 41 of the Citadel Journal Tim Huckleberry did the Yan's job of hoisting the entire faction onto his shoulders making sure that they they could be played in the Third Edition of the game he provided a fully updated Army list for genan Steeler Cults with new scenarios special characters like the arch Magus yanos armistad The Traveler new Squad choices like brood Brothers on bikes a non psychic fourth generation Champion called a hierarch an alternative Invasion Force list inspired by the original white dwarf one reprinted in the 40K compilation and of course an updated listing for the coven limousines the army list had apparently even been refined by the games development team and so was considered balanced enough that unlike most other Journal content you wouldn't need to ask for your opponent's permission in order to use it though it wasn't tournament legal apparently and that was the end of the genan stealer Cults they would never be seen again all of the limousines were trashed all of the Cults were overthrown this was it at least for a while because eventually the old friend of the Jean stealer the thing that had made them one of the major villains of the 40K Universe in the first place the thing that had made them part of the tyranids that would come back and save the day once again and that thing was a board game in 2016 Death Watch Overkill marked the return of the genan stealer Cults to the world of 40K designed by a sadly Anonymous team at gwq the game came with nine missions that that allowed players to recreate the Space Marine Death Watch investigation into suspicious activity on the Dela world of goar quintus one player took on the role of the death watch trying to make their way through the industrial boards whilst the other took on the Jean Steeler cult role trying to stop them the game appears to be one of a series of strategic releases by Games Workshop that would see new armies and kits premiered in discounted game boxes before going on General release a strategy that gave us great models like the stunning new patriarch and the hulking Jean dealer aberant but it also saw the awkward inclusion of for example just one Space Marine on a bike in this Close Quarters Tactical Squad game most importantly for many death watch Overkill would give something to the gene stealer players that they'd been missing for the better part of 20 years new genetic material as well as the aforementioned aberant the oversized three armed monstrosities who were clearly design based on Dave Gallagher's classic Jean Steeler cols image especially this guy there would be other neverbe seen additions to the force of the genan stealer Cults such as the Jean stealer Primus brand new Minis for hybrids to represent every generation and even the return of Jean Steeler cult creepy familiars to make use of all of these amazing models there would be finally a jean Steeler Cults codex released for the 40K 7th edition a range of new rules would support themed play with cult ambushes and infiltrations and the miniature range fully capitalized on the concept of the rebellious faction Scavenging and repurposing equipment like mining lasers and rock Grinders to use as offensive weapons there was even a new ride for the Colts to cruise The Hive cities in more cyber truck than limousine the Goliath was positioned as a mining vehicle one that could do some pretty serious damage to anyone who got in its way eventually there would be another more sporty vehicle as well the Achilles Ridge Runner a Recon Boogie featuring another bit of dangerous mining ordinance with a laser on top and completing the wield contingent of the Colts would be the eventual release of the atalan jackals a unit of dirt cycles and wolf quads that bring to mind The Brood brother bikes of Tim haury's Citadel Journal list alas we have yet to see The Return of the sweet ride the coven limousine but perhaps the 10th edition will have the courage to bring it back as designer Phil Kelly explained in a developer diary around the release of the seventh edition codex there was still an attempt to retain the love crafty and horror of the gene stealer Cults over time the cult will infest a planet to such a degree that their combined psychic energy is a beacon for the tyranid high Fleet the tyranids will be drawn like tendrils towards that planet by the psychic shadow of the gene Steeler cult they know the planet has got lots of people on it that it's rich in biomass and they're coming for the feast and that is the Day of Reckoning that the gene Steeler Cults are looking forward to they worship this God from Beyond this strange void intelligence that is the tyranid race even though they don't realize it when the tyranids descend and take over the planet and devour everything they can find that will also include the gene Steeler cultists so really they are worshiping their own doom and bringing their own death upon themselves the seventh edition codex is not the end of the story for the gene Steeler Cults far from it in fact but in terms of of a development history I'm going to draw the line there mostly because to me it seems like this is the point from which there have only been minor tweaks and changes the odd extra claw and no enormous overhauls and significant shifts but let me know if I'm wrong on that please leave a comment and tell me what I'm missing out on if I am because I love to learn more about this kind of stuff but one thing that definitely holds true from this point onwards is that the Jean stealer Cults have arrived they are a major faction in 40K no longer must they skull in the shadows now they can proudly take to the tabletops and plot the downfall of the Imperium they may not be the strongest faction in the law driving the narrative forwards but they are now an everpresent threat a proper supported faction with a codex for every Edition new models you can buy them on the shelves in the stores and I think that that is fantastic cuz these purple guys are really really fun fun and I hope that you had fun with this development history of the genan Steeler Colts I certainly feel like I learned a lot especially about this for armed Emperor chap he sounds interesting maybe I'll see if I can help him out and if you want to help me out then you can check out my patreon via the link in the description below it is enormously helpful to me it's the only way I'm able to continue doing this work so if you would like to support Jordan sorcery you can join either as a free member or as a paid member there's lots of different benefits on there for lots of different tiers so why not give it a check if you want to help me out I also greatly appreciate it if you are able to like this video to share it and to subscribe to the channel those are all enormously helpful as well so thank you if you're able to do any of those I would love to make more of these building Warhammer armies videos about 40K specific factions too so why not leave a comment to let me know which factions you would most like me to delve into the development histories of I want to thank you once again for watching I'm Jordan and this is Jordan sorcery [Music] listen I think that if anybody was here to just consume biomass and take control of the planet we'd know about it

Channel: Jordan Sorcery

Views: 10,195

Keywords: Warhammer, warhammer 40000, warhammer 40k, 40k, space marine, space hulk, advanced space crusade, space crusade, horus heresy, white dwarf, jervis johnson, rick priestley, rogue trader, games workshop, citadel miniatures, ttrpg, rpg, roleplaying, table top gaming, games, gaming, genestealers, genestealer cults, codex

Id: LnuIzPt6KEo

Length: 27min 7sec (1627 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 14 2024