#malstrain

first project of the new year is this freakshow, the Malstrain Patriarch. started with wire armature and tinfoil to build up the basic shape, first go at this kind of thing.

A genestealer cult got its claws into a Hive city and the rebellion was successful, but they got quarantined and there's no incoming Tyranid fleet. The cult is locked in, no one's answering the Call home, the rebellion is stuck on Necromunda. Nothing ever goes right on Necromunda.

Somehow, evolution found a way to exploit a new niche: genestealers. Malstrain genestealers are those cordyceps fungi that turn ants into automatons who infect the whole nest. Creepy as hell, I think it was The Last of Us that used the idea. The malstrain models have similar protrusions to a cordyceps infected insect. Malstrains are very explicitly NOT a regular genestealer but something else. Malstrains are a contagious disease that predates on Tyranids.

This is not supposed to happen, Tyranids are a super evolved predator that adapts to and devours everything in their path. The whole fungus/disease aspect would point to one of Nurgle's machinations, wouldn't it? But no, there's no evidence of Chaos corruption in the Malstrain and the existing Chaos cults have no genestealers. Tyranid biology blocks out the Warp, so Chaos may not even know the Malstrain exists. If they did, the Death Guard would be on their way to pick up their successful new bioweapon. There's just no overlap where Tyranid poxwalkers would slot in perfectly.

Something on Necromunda simply evolved to consume the deadliest xeno threat, but it's just chilling with the Gym Bros(who have the real deal Space Marine physique) and the Lesbian Separatists(who do quite well as feudal lords).

Now THAT is a very interesting metamorphosis for the Hermaphage Magos.

The Malstrain is a great idea. A mutated version of a genestealer cult.

But I want to know more. How does the brood cycle work? Genestealers are spawned after the fourth generation, so what do the other generations look like? Are there abhorrents? Necromunda gangs usually have a big guy, so they would fit.

How do they maintain their population? There are other settlements inside the dust wall, so I'm guessing people go missing, never to be seen again.

The magus, the kellermorph, what are their malstrain equivalents?

cw for mild trypophobia below cut