A bioship is a type of spacecraft or starship described in science fiction as either predominantly or totally composed of biological components , rather than being constructed from manufactured materials. Because of this, they nearly always have a distinctively organic look.
127-515: Bioships are usually quite powerful, and can often regenerate or heal damaged parts. Some bioships are intelligent or sentient, and some are considered to be lifeforms. Like most organic beings, many bioships contain large amounts of "scaffolding" materials to keep their shape, such as the xylem in trees or bone and chitin in animals. In the science fiction short story " Specialist " by Robert Sheckley , published in 1953 in Galaxy magazine, it
254-439: A "point value" which roughly corresponds to how powerful the model is; for example, a Tactical Space Marine is valued at 13 points, whereas a Land Raider tank is valued at 240 points. The sum of the point values of a player's models must not exceed the agreed limit. If the point values of the players' respective armies both add up to the limit, they are assumed to be balanced. 500 to 2,000 points are common point limits. Although
381-517: A bad tactical decision or even unlucky dice rolls, while successful gameplay can involve outnumbered Aeldari units that outmanoeuvre the opponent and kill entire units/squads before they have a chance to retaliate. Aeldari vehicles, unlike their infantry counterparts, are very tough and hard to kill because of many evasive and shielding benefits. With the exception of walkers, all Aeldari vehicles are skimmers which allow them to move freely across difficult terrain, and with upgrades, at speeds only matched by
508-413: A certain standard. The composition of the players' armies must fit the rivalries and alliances depicted in the setting. All models listed in the rulebooks have keywords that divide them into factions . In a matched game, a player may only use models in their army that are all loyal to a common faction. Thus, a player cannot, for example, use a mixture of Aeldari and Necron models in their army, because in
635-892: A city hidden within the Webway and must inflict pain on others to survive. There are a number of minor subfactions too: the Harlequins, followers of the Laughing God Cegorach; and the Ynnari, followers of the death god Ynnead. Although it has been 10,000 years since their empire's fall, the Aeldari have never recovered, due to their low fertility and aggression by other races. Craftworld Aeldari infantry tend to be highly specialised and relatively frail, often described as "glass cannons" because of their lack of staying power and flexibility, Aeldari armies can suffer severe losses after
762-488: A fabric with small spaces. In small passages, such as that between the plant cell walls (or in tracheids), a column of water behaves like rubber – when molecules evaporate from one end, they pull the molecules behind them along the channels. Therefore, transpiration alone provided the driving force for water transport in early plants. However, without dedicated transport vessels, the cohesion-tension mechanism cannot transport water more than about 2 cm, severely limiting
889-556: A film of surface moisture, enabling them to grow to much greater size. As a result of their independence from their surroundings, they lost their ability to survive desiccation – a costly trait to retain. During the Devonian, maximum xylem diameter increased with time, with the minimum diameter remaining pretty constant. By the middle Devonian, the tracheid diameter of some plant lineages ( Zosterophyllophytes ) had plateaued. Wider tracheids allow water to be transported faster, but
1016-420: A fixed playing field. Players construct their own custom-made battlefield using modular terrain models. Games Workshop sells a variety of proprietary terrain models, but players often use generic or homemade ones. Unlike certain other miniature wargames such as BattleTech , Warhammer 40,000 does not use a grid system, so players must use a measuring tape to measure distances, which are measured in inches. All
1143-434: A fleet of highly resilient bioengineered vessels during their invasion of the galaxy, ranging from fighter sized "coralskippers" to titanic worldships that house their entire population. These ships often function on par with their technological counterparts and are difficult to combat, using highly unconventional weaponry and means of propulsion. In the fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000 , an extragalactic race known as
1270-504: A genestealer cult within their host human society, steadily expanding their numbers and political influence. When a Tyranid fleet approaches their planet, they will launch an uprising to weaken the planet's defences so that the Tyranids may more easily conquer it and consume its biomass. In earlier editions of the game, Genestealer Cults could only be used as auxiliaries to a regular Tyranid army, but since 8th edition, they can be played as
1397-423: A great deal of resistance on flow; vessel members have perforated end walls, and are arranged in series to operate as if they were one continuous vessel. The function of end walls, which were the default state in the Devonian, was probably to avoid embolisms . An embolism is where an air bubble is created in a tracheid. This may happen as a result of freezing, or by gases dissolving out of solution. Once an embolism
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#17327983716391524-400: A hundred meters from ground level to a tree 's highest branches. Transpirational pull requires that the vessels transporting the water be very small in diameter; otherwise, cavitation would break the water column. And as water evaporates from leaves, more is drawn up through the plant to replace it. When the water pressure within the xylem reaches extreme levels due to low water input from
1651-530: A living sentient bio-mechanical space ship, who was once captured by the Peacekeepers . She escaped captivity along with the people imprisoned on her by the Peacekeepers. She has given birth to one offspring, a male by the name of Talyn . The series Lexx centers around the titular bioship, The Lexx: 'the most powerful weapon of destruction in the two universes.' In the last three installments of
1778-455: A million times more conductive than the inter-cell method, giving the potential for transport over longer distances, and higher CO 2 diffusion rates. The earliest macrofossils to bear water-transport tubes are Silurian plants placed in the genus Cooksonia . The early Devonian pretracheophytes Aglaophyton and Horneophyton have structures very similar to the hydroids of modern mosses. Plants continued to innovate new ways of reducing
1905-599: A model of a Space Marine armed with a "boltgun" can shoot any enemy unit within 24 inches. Most of the races in the game have units with psychic powers. Prior to the release of the 10th edition of the game, Psyker units had the ability to cause unusual effects, such as rendering allied units invulnerable or teleporting units across the battlefield. The 10th Edition rules no longer use this feature. After ranged weapons are used, each unit can charge into melee range against enemy units. Units engaged in melee combat then take turns attacking each other until they all have fought. When it
2032-463: A model of a Tactical Space Marine has a "Move" range of 6 inches and a "Toughness" rating of 4 and is armed with a "boltgun" with a range of 24 inches. Both players must declare which models they will play with before the match starts, and once the match is underway, they cannot add any new models to their armies. In official tournaments, it is mandatory for players to only use Games Workshop's models, and those models must be properly assembled to match
2159-468: A model suffers more points of damage than its "Wound characteristic" permits, it dies. Dead models are removed from the playing field. Most models have only one Wound point, but certain models such as "hero characters", vehicles and elite troops have multiple Wound points, so the damage they accumulate must be recorded. At the end of each turn, dice are rolled to determine if units who have lost models "lose morale" and become Battleshocked. Then play passes to
2286-487: A number of specialist units with abilities such as psychic powers or vehicle repair, but typically Ork warfare is about brute force and attrition. Ork gameplay is seen as fairly forgiving of tactical errors and bad die rolls. The Tyranids are a mysterious alien race from another galaxy. They migrate from planet to planet, devouring all life in their path. Tyranids are linked by a psychic hive mind and individual Tyranids become feral when separated from it. Tyranid "technology"
2413-460: A particular Chaos God, which focuses the style of play. For instance, an army themed around Nurgle will consist of slow-moving but tough troops. Likewise, a Chaos army themed around Khorne will lean towards melee combat and eschew psykers. The Necrons are an ancient race of skeleton-like androids. Millions of years ago, they were flesh-and-blood beings, but then they transferred their minds into android bodies, thereby achieving immortality. However,
2540-495: A plant's leaves causes water to move through its xylem. By 1891, the Polish-German botanist Eduard Strasburger had shown that the transport of water in plants did not require the xylem cells to be alive. Warhammer 40,000 Warhammer 40,000 (sometimes colloquially called Warhammer 40K , WH40K or 40k ) is a miniature wargame produced by Games Workshop . It is the most popular miniature wargame in
2667-426: A plant's vascular system based on the classical research of Dixon-Joly (1894), Eugen Askenasy (1845–1903) (1895), and Dixon (1914,1924). Water is a polar molecule . When two water molecules approach one another, the slightly negatively charged oxygen atom of one forms a hydrogen bond with a slightly positively charged hydrogen atom in the other. This attractive force, along with other intermolecular forces ,
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#17327983716392794-560: A player can only use units from the same faction in their army. The Imperium of Man is described as an authoritarian human empire that comprises approximately 1 million worlds and has existed for over 10,000 years. The faction abhors aliens to the point that associating with aliens is a capital offence . The state religion of the Imperium is centred around its founder, the Emperor of Mankind, who united humanity millennia earlier. Although
2921-422: A range of mechanisms to contain the damage. Small pits link adjacent conduits to allow fluid to flow between them, but not air – although these pits, which prevent the spread of embolism, are also a major cause of them. These pitted surfaces further reduce the flow of water through the xylem by as much as 30%. The diversification of xylem strand shapes with tracheid network topologies increasingly resistant to
3048-646: A regular game, and the armies that appear in tournaments can be many times more. Games Workshop sells a large variety of gaming models for Warhammer 40,000 , but no ready-to-play models. Rather, it sells boxes of model parts, which players are expected to assemble and paint themselves. Each miniature model represents an individual soldier, vehicle, or monster. Most Warhammer 40,000 models are made of polystyrene but certain models, which are made and sold in small volumes, are made of lead-free pewter or epoxy resin . Games Workshop also sells glue, tools, and acrylic paints for finishing models. The assembly and painting of
3175-501: A religious taboo on scientific inquiry and innovation. Most Warhammer 40,000 fiction is written from the perspective of the Imperium, often with humans as protagonists. Of all the factions, the Imperium has the largest catalogue of models, which gives Imperium players the flexibility to design their army for any style of play. That said, players tend to build their armies around specific sub-factions which have more focused playstyles. For instance, an army of Space Marines will consist of
3302-549: A robust internal structure that held long narrow channels for transporting water from the soil to all the different parts of the above-soil plant, especially to the parts where photosynthesis occurred. During the Silurian, CO 2 was readily available, so little water needed expending to acquire it. By the end of the Carboniferous, when CO 2 levels had lowered to something approaching today's, around 17 times more water
3429-594: A separate army. Although there is a dedicated line of Genestealer Cult models, a player can also use models from the Imperial Guard (a sub-faction of the Imperium) in their Genestealer Cult army. This is an exception to the common-faction rule and is based on the logic that these "human" models are actually genestealer hybrids who look perfectly human. Like other Tyranids, Genestealers are fast and hard-hitting but fragile. All Genestealer Cult infantry and bikers have
3556-450: A single unmoving cloud and deactivating any electronics with its an electromagnetic field. However, over time, protagonists OJ and Emerald discover that the UFO is not a ship, but an actual independent alien organism, or a unique terrestrial flying cryptid , whom they dub Jean Jacket. Despite its resemblance to a flying saucer, Jean Jacket is not an actual ship and hosts no alien crew but instead
3683-693: A small number of powerful infantry, whereas an Imperial Guard army will have weak but plentiful infantry combined with strong artillery and vehicles. Chaos represents the myriad servants of the Chaos Gods, malevolent and depraved entities and daemons who formed from the base thoughts and emotions of all mortal sentients. Those exposed to the influence of the Chaos are twisted in both mind and body and perform sordid acts of devotion to their dark gods, who in turn reward them with "gifts" such as physical mutations, psychic power, and mystical artefacts. Like their gods,
3810-446: A stem or root is elongating. Later, 'metaxylem' develops in the strands of xylem. Metaxylem vessels and cells are usually larger; the cells have thickenings typically either in the form of ladderlike transverse bars (scalariform) or continuous sheets except for holes or pits (pitted). Functionally, metaxylem completes its development after elongation ceases when the cells no longer need to grow in size. There are four primary patterns to
3937-606: A trait called "Cult Ambush" that allows them to be set up off table and later be set up on the table, instead of being set up in the designated starting zones at the start of the game (similar to the Space Marines' "Deep Strike" ability). The visual design of the Tyranids was inspired by the art of H. R. Giger , with the genestealer sub-race being further inspired by the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise . The T'au are
Bioship - Misplaced Pages Continue
4064-406: A unit. All models in a unit must stay close to each other. Each model in a unit must finish a turn within two inches of another model from the unit. If there are more than five models in a unit, each model must be within two inches of two other models. After moving, each model can attack any enemy unit within range and line-of-fire of whatever weapons and psychic powers its models have. For instance,
4191-458: A vascular bundle will contain primary xylem only. The branching pattern exhibited by xylem follows Murray's law . Primary xylem is formed during primary growth from procambium . It includes protoxylem and metaxylem. Metaxylem develops after the protoxylem but before secondary xylem. Metaxylem has wider vessels and tracheids than protoxylem. Secondary xylem is formed during secondary growth from vascular cambium . Although secondary xylem
4318-415: A young vascular plant grows, one or more strands of primary xylem form in its stems and roots. The first xylem to develop is called 'protoxylem'. In appearance, protoxylem is usually distinguished by narrower vessels formed of smaller cells. Some of these cells have walls that contain thickenings in the form of rings or helices. Functionally, protoxylem can extend: the cells can grow in size and develop while
4445-471: A young race of blue-skinned humanoid aliens inhabiting a relatively small but growing empire located on the fringe of the Imperium of Man. The T'au Empire is the only playable faction in the setting that integrates different alien species into their society. They seek to unite all other races under an ideology they call "the Greater Good". Some human worlds have willingly defected from the Imperium to join
4572-437: Is a lot lighter, thus cheaper to make, as vessels need to be much more reinforced to avoid cavitation. Xylem development can be described by four terms: centrarch, exarch, endarch and mesarch . As it develops in young plants, its nature changes from protoxylem to metaxylem (i.e. from first xylem to after xylem ). The patterns in which protoxylem and metaxylem are arranged are essential in studying plant morphology. As
4699-499: Is also found in members of the gymnosperm groups Gnetophyta and Ginkgophyta and to a lesser extent in members of the Cycadophyta , the two main groups in which secondary xylem can be found are: The xylem, vessels and tracheids of the roots, stems and leaves are interconnected to form a continuous system of water-conducting channels reaching all parts of the plants. The system transports water and soluble mineral nutrients from
4826-449: Is eating all the creatures it "abducts" and regurgitating anything like metal or wood or inorganic, including the liquefied prey if it is unable to process it. Also, near the end of the movie, it unfurls into a flimsy but massive jellyfish -esque shape with a single square camera shutter -esque eye. Xylem Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants , the other being phloem ; both of these are part of
4953-466: Is entirely biological, all ships and weapons being purpose-bred living creatures. Tyranids have a preference for melee combat. Their infantry models tend to be numerous and fast but frail. They have low point costs, meaning Tyranid armies in the game are relatively large (many cheap weak models, as opposed to armies with few expensive powerful models such as the Space Marines ). Tyranids also have
5080-474: Is formed, it usually cannot be removed (but see later); the affected cell cannot pull water up, and is rendered useless. End walls excluded, the tracheids of prevascular plants were able to operate under the same hydraulic conductivity as those of the first vascular plant, Cooksonia . The size of tracheids is limited as they comprise a single cell; this limits their length, which in turn limits their maximum useful diameter to 80 μm. Conductivity grows with
5207-468: Is in their interest, Orks recklessly start unnecessary conflicts for the pleasure of a good fight. Orks do not fear death, and combat is the only thing that gives them emotional fulfillment. Ork technology consists of dashed-together scrap that by all logic should be unreliable if even functional, but Orks generate a psychic field that makes their ramshackle technology work properly or more effectively (for example, vehicles painted red are faster, simply because
Bioship - Misplaced Pages Continue
5334-597: Is lost much faster than CO 2 is absorbed, so plants need to replace it, and have developed systems to transport water from the moist soil to the site of photosynthesis. Early plants sucked water between the walls of their cells, then evolved the ability to control water loss (and CO 2 acquisition) through the use of stomata. Specialized water transport tissues soon evolved in the form of hydroids, tracheids, then secondary xylem, followed by an endodermis and ultimately vessels. The high CO 2 levels of Silurian-Devonian times, when plants were first colonizing land, meant that
5461-435: Is one of the principal factors responsible for the occurrence of surface tension in liquid water. It also allows plants to draw water from the root through the xylem to the leaf. Water is constantly lost through transpiration from the leaf. When one water molecule is lost another is pulled along by the processes of cohesion and tension. Transpiration pull, utilizing capillary action and the inherent surface tension of water,
5588-479: Is perhaps the first mention of a bioship in science fiction. In the 1966 short story "Jonah" ("Jonas" in French) by Gérard Klein , humanity uses massive (half a billion tons each) bioships called ubionasts (Units of Biological Navigation over Starways). The protagonist, a microgravity-born human named Richard Mecca, makes a living by taming " snarks ", ubionasts that went out of control for some reason. Volume 322 of
5715-459: Is revealed that many galactic races are actually capable of symbiotic cooperation to become bioships, with each race forming a different part. Earth, apparently, is one of the planets inhabited by creatures that are supposed to function as FTL (faster than light) drives (Pushers), and, it is stated that all the conflicts and discontent of humanity are due to the fact that, while they have matured, they have nowhere to apply their true purpose. This story
5842-616: Is set around 40,000 AD. Though Warhammer 40,000 is mostly a scifi setting, it adapts a number of tropes from fantasy fiction , such as magic, supernatural beings, daemonic possession, and fantasy races such as orcs and elves; "psykers" fill the role of wizards in the setting. The setting of this game inherits many fantasy tropes from Warhammer Fantasy (a similar wargame from Games Workshop ), and by extension from Dungeons & Dragons . Games Workshop used to make miniature models for use in Dungeons & Dragons , and Warhammer Fantasy
5969-497: Is the primary mechanism of water movement in plants. However, it is not the only mechanism involved. Any use of water in leaves forces water to move into them. Transpiration in leaves creates tension (differential pressure) in the cell walls of mesophyll cells. Because of this tension, water is being pulled up from the roots into the leaves, helped by cohesion (the pull between individual water molecules, due to hydrogen bonds) and adhesion (the stickiness between water molecules and
6096-417: Is their turn to attack, the player declares to their opponent whichever of the models is attacking whichever enemy unit, and rolls dice to determine how much damage their models inflict upon their targets. The attacking player cannot target individual models within an enemy unit. If an enemy unit receives damage, the enemy player chooses which model in the unit suffers injury. Damage is measured in points, and if
6223-428: Is well worth plants' while to avoid cavitation occurring. For this reason, pits in tracheid walls have very small diameters, to prevent air entering and allowing bubbles to nucleate. Freeze-thaw cycles are a major cause of cavitation. Damage to a tracheid's wall almost inevitably leads to air leaking in and cavitation, hence the importance of many tracheids working in parallel. Once cavitation has occurred, plants have
6350-710: The Silurian (more than 400 million years ago), and trace fossils resembling individual xylem cells may be found in earlier Ordovician rocks. The earliest true and recognizable xylem consists of tracheids with a helical-annular reinforcing layer added to the cell wall . This is the only type of xylem found in the earliest vascular plants, and this type of cell continues to be found in the protoxylem (first-formed xylem) of all living groups of vascular plants. Several groups of plants later developed pitted tracheid cells independently through convergent evolution . In living plants, pitted tracheids do not appear in development until
6477-603: The hydrophilic cell walls of plants). This mechanism of water flow works because of water potential (water flows from high to low potential), and the rules of simple diffusion . Over the past century, there has been a great deal of research regarding the mechanism of xylem sap transport; today, most plant scientists continue to agree that the cohesion-tension theory best explains this process, but multiforce theories that hypothesize several alternative mechanisms have been suggested, including longitudinal cellular and xylem osmotic pressure gradients , axial potential gradients in
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#17327983716396604-464: The tyranids (who swarm entire planets and consume all available biomass to reproduce and further spread to other planets) travel through the galaxy using giant organic bioships known as hive ships that transport the various types of the race inside. These ships travel in large numbers known as hive fleets and are often described as "tendrils" weaving into the galaxy from other galaxies they had previously devoured. Numerous hive fleets have been recorded in
6731-518: The vascular bundle . The basic function of the xylem is to transport water upward from the roots to parts of the plants such as stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients . The word xylem is derived from the Ancient Greek word, ξύλον ( xylon ), meaning "wood"; the best-known xylem tissue is wood , though it is found throughout a plant. The term was introduced by Carl Nägeli in 1858. The most distinctive xylem cells are
6858-402: The "next generation" of transport cell design, have a more rigid structure than hydroids, allowing them to cope with higher levels of water pressure. Tracheids may have a single evolutionary origin, possibly within the hornworts, uniting all tracheophytes (but they may have evolved more than once). Water transport requires regulation, and dynamic control is provided by stomata . By adjusting
6985-418: The 10th edition of the rules. The rulebooks and miniature models required to play Warhammer 40,000 are copyrighted and sold exclusively by Games Workshop and its subsidiaries. These miniatures, in combination with other materials (dice, measuring tools, glue, paints, etc.), are generally more expensive than other tabletop games. A new player can expect to spend at least £200 to assemble enough materials for
7112-424: The 40K universe and have even been named, with the first recorded fleet designated as Hive Fleet Behemoth. The hive ships are described as serving their race as a whole and the individuals within a hive ship serving it as a single entity. The Zerg alien race in the video game StarCraft traverse space via sentient, organic vessels called "Leviathan". Farscape ' s Moya is a female Leviathan transport vessel;
7239-584: The Blackhawk matures. In the first novel of Julian May 's Pliocene series , The Many-Colored Land (1982), the backstory of two races of alien refugees living in the Earth 's Pliocene epoch describes their hard landing in a bioship. The bioship was emotionally bonded to one of the aliens (the "shipspouse") and sacrificed its own life to safely deliver its passengers to the planet surface. In J. Michael Straczynski 's sci-fi TV show Babylon 5 , many of
7366-498: The Dark Aeldari and the T'au armies. Dark Aeldari are similar to Craftworld Aeldari, with the major difference being that they have no psykers. The Orks are green-skinned aliens based on the traditional orcs of high fantasy. Orks are a comical species, with crude personalities, ramshackle weaponry, and Cockney accents. Their culture revolves around war for the sake of it. Unlike other races who generally only go to war when it
7493-817: The Earth Caste, who are scientists, engineers, and labourers. The T'au are oriented towards ranged combat and generally shun melee. They have some of the most powerful firearms in the game in terms of both range and stopping power. For instance, their pulse rifle surpasses the firepower of the Space Marine boltgun, and the railgun on their main battle tank (the Hammerhead) is more powerful than its Imperium counterparts. The T'au do not have any psykers. Most T'au vehicles are classified as flyers or skimmers, meaning they can move swiftly over difficult terrain. The T'au also incorporate alien auxiliaries into their army:
7620-502: The Edenist Voidhawk and Mercenary Blackhawk are both advanced bioships (the latter being a genetic tailoring for combat of the former). Both types employ mental bonding to the captain. In the case of Voidhawks this is done by both the craft and captain gestating together and maintaining mental contact during their formative years. Blackhawks however are purchased as eggs and are bonded to the buyer who will become captain when
7747-624: The Emperor is its nominal ruler, he was mortally wounded in battle and is unable to actually rule, and is now sustained by a massive cybernetic life-support system dubbed the Golden Throne. Despite his condition, his mind still generates a "psychic beacon" called the Astronomican by which starships navigate through space which is vital to the Imperium's infrastructure. Although the Imperium has highly advanced technology, most of its technologies have not improved for thousands of years due to
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#17327983716397874-517: The Emperor is that you don't know whether he's alive or dead. The whole Imperium might be running on superstition. There's no guarantee that the Emperor is anything other than a corpse with a residual mental ability to direct spacecraft. It's got some parallels with religious beliefs and principles, and I think a lot of that got missed and overwritten. Models available for play in Warhammer 40,000 are divided into "factions". Under normal circumstances,
8001-521: The First Ones used organic ships, like the Vorlon and Shadows races. Use of organic technology by these races signified their significant advancement over the younger races since their ships are very resilient, generate their own power, very maneuverable, have devastatingly powerful weapons (including variants that are capable of destroying planets), regenerate, and have a measure of intelligence. In
8128-627: The German Perry Rhodan magazine series, first published in November 1967, marks another very early appearance of the bioship concept in science fiction. The Dolans are powerful bioengineered combat spaceships that are grown from the same synthetic genetic material as their extraterrestrial commanders. Different types of bioships are a recurrent feature in later stages of the Perry Rhodan universe. The Night's Dawn Trilogy :
8255-595: The Imperium). This comes from the Dune novels. As in the Dune setting, the prohibition on artificial intelligence was passed after an ancient war against malevolent androids. To me the background to 40K was always intended to be ironic. [...] The fact that the Space Marines were lauded as heroes within Games Workshop always amused me, because they're brutal, but they're also completely self-deceiving. The whole idea of
8382-463: The Kroot provide melee support and the insectoid Vespids serve as fast-attack infantry. The Leagues of Votann are a confederation of abhumans known interchangeably as Squats and Kin, which are based on the dwarves of fantasy fiction. They are a spiritual successor to an earlier Squat faction that was removed from the setting for not fitting in aesthetically. Though Squats are a subspecies of humanity,
8509-623: The Leagues of Votann stand independent of the Imperium of Man. Unlike the Imperium, the Leagues of Votann have no qualms about using artificial intelligence , treating their androids as fellow Kin. Kin culture is centred around the Votann, extremely powerful supercomputers responsible for managing the majority of Kin society and keeping records. The Kin are extremely competitive and capitalistic , with powerful corporations (referred to as Guilds) regularly strip-mining entire planets for resources. While
8636-517: The Orks believe it to be so). If a non-Ork tries to use an Ork gadget, it would likely malfunction. Ork infantry models are slow-moving and tough. The Orks are oriented towards melee combat. Infantry models are cheap (by point cost), so a favourite strategy of Ork players is "the Green tide": they field a large horde of Ork infantry and march them across the playing field to swarm the opponent. Orks do have
8763-633: The T'au Empire. Such humans tend to have a better quality of life than Imperial citizens because the T'au practise humane ethics and encourage scientific progress. The T'au are divided into five endogamous castes : the Ethereals, who are the spiritual leaders; the Fire Caste, who form the T'au military; the Air Caste, who operate starships; the Water Caste, who are merchants and diplomats; and
8890-484: The Warp, but certain individuals called "psykers" have an especially strong link and can manipulate the Warp's energy to work magic. Psykers are generally feared and mistrusted by humans. Psykers may have many dangerous abilities such as mind control, clairvoyance , and pyrokinesis . Moreover, the Warp is full of predatory creatures that may use a psyker's link to the Warp as a conduit by which to invade realspace. But for all
9017-473: The amount of gas exchange, they can restrict the amount of water lost through transpiration. This is an important role where water supply is not constant, and indeed stomata appear to have evolved before tracheids, being present in the non-vascular hornworts. An endodermis probably evolved during the Silu-Devonian, but the first fossil evidence for such a structure is Carboniferous. This structure in
9144-502: The arrangement of protoxylem and metaxylem in stems and roots. The other three terms are used where there is more than one strand of primary xylem. In his book De plantis libri XVI (On Plants, in 16 books) (1583), the Italian physician and botanist Andrea Cesalpino proposed that plants draw water from soil not by magnetism ( ut magnes ferrum trahit , as magnetic iron attracts) nor by suction ( vacuum ), but by absorption, as occurs in
9271-418: The battlefield and fighting their opponent's warriors. These fights are resolved using dice and simple arithmetic. Warhammer 40,000 is set in the distant future, where a stagnant human civilisation is beset by hostile aliens and supernatural creatures. The models in the game are a mixture of humans, aliens, and supernatural monsters wielding futuristic weaponry and supernatural powers. The fictional setting of
9398-463: The case of linen, sponges, or powders. The Italian biologist Marcello Malpighi was the first person to describe and illustrate xylem vessels, which he did in his book Anatome plantarum ... (1675). Although Malpighi believed that xylem contained only air, the British physician and botanist Nehemiah Grew , who was Malpighi's contemporary, believed that sap ascended both through the bark and through
9525-484: The dangers that psykers pose, human civilisation cannot do without them: their telepathic powers provide faster-than-light communication and they are the best counter to supernatural foes on the battlefield. For this reason, the Imperium rounds up any psykers it finds and trains them to control their abilities and resist Warp predators. Those who fail or reject this training are executed for the safety of all. Those who pass their training are pressed into life-long servitude to
9652-405: The disc is sucked into the pore on that side, and blocks further flow. Other plants simply tolerate cavitation. For instance, oaks grow a ring of wide vessels at the start of each spring, none of which survive the winter frosts. Maples use root pressure each spring to force sap upwards from the roots, squeezing out any air bubbles. Growing to height also employed another trait of tracheids –
9779-462: The dying of the light". Through constant sacrifice and toil, the Imperium delays its inevitable doom. The tone of the game's setting, exemplified by its slogan "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war", shaped the " grimdark " subgenre of scifi, which is particularly amoral, dystopian or violent. As the setting is based on a wargame, the spin-off novels and comic books are often war dramas with protagonists being warriors of some sort,
9906-459: The embodiment of human nightmares and dark emotion, given physical form and sentience by the Warp—this idea comes from the 1956 movie Forbidden Planet . Chaos carries a lot of influences from H. P. Lovecraft, such as mystical artefacts that drive people insane and secretive cults dedicated to evil gods. The Emperor of Man was inspired by various fictional god-kings, such as Leto Atreides II from
10033-435: The fourth power of diameter, so increased diameter has huge rewards; vessel elements , consisting of a number of cells, joined at their ends, overcame this limit and allowed larger tubes to form, reaching diameters of up to 500 μm, and lengths of up to 10 m. Vessels first evolved during the dry, low CO 2 periods of the late Permian, in the horsetails, ferns and Selaginellales independently, and later appeared in
10160-459: The galaxy via a network of magical tunnels called "the Webway", to which they have exclusive access. In the distant past, the Aeldari ruled an empire that dominated much of the galaxy, but it was destroyed in a magical cataclysm along with most of the population. The surviving Aeldari are divided into two major subfactions: the ascetic inhabitants of massive starships called Craftworlds; and the sadistic Drukhari (also known as "Dark Eldar"), who inhabit
10287-464: The game has been developed through a large body of novels published by Black Library (Games Workshop's publishing division). Warhammer 40,000 was initially conceived as a scifi counterpart to Warhammer Fantasy Battle , a medieval fantasy wargame also produced by Games Workshop. Warhammer Fantasy shares some themes and characters with Warhammer 40,000 but the two settings are independent of each other. The game has received widespread praise for
10414-418: The game's fictional setting, Aeldari and Necrons are mortal enemies and would never fight alongside each other. The game uses a point system to ensure that the match will be "balanced", i.e., the armies will be of comparable overall strength. The players must agree as to what "points limit" they will play at, which roughly determines how big and powerful their respective armies will be. Each model and weapon has
10541-470: The height of a plant increases and upwards transport of water by xylem is considered to limit the maximum height of trees. Three phenomena cause xylem sap to flow: The primary force that creates the capillary action movement of water upwards in plants is the adhesion between the water and the surface of the xylem conduits. Capillary action provides the force that establishes an equilibrium configuration, balancing gravity. When transpiration removes water at
10668-506: The initial deployment zones at opposite ends of the playing field. The players roll dice to determine who takes the first turn. At the start of their turn, a player moves each model in their army by hand across the field. A model can be moved no farther than its listed "Move characteristic". For instance, a Space Marine model can be moved no farther than six inches per turn. If a model cannot fly, it must go around obstacles such as walls and trees. Models are grouped into "units". They move as
10795-413: The key innovations that led to the success of the angiosperms . However, the occurrence of vessel elements is not restricted to angiosperms, and they are absent in some archaic or "basal" lineages of the angiosperms: (e.g., Amborellaceae , Tetracentraceae , Trochodendraceae , and Winteraceae ), and their secondary xylem is described by Arthur Cronquist as "primitively vesselless". Cronquist considered
10922-405: The likelihood of cavitation. Cavitation occurs when a bubble of air forms within a vessel, breaking the bonds between chains of water molecules and preventing them from pulling more water up with their cohesive tension. A tracheid, once cavitated, cannot have its embolism removed and return to service (except in a few advanced angiosperms which have developed a mechanism of doing so). Therefore, it
11049-444: The long tracheary elements that transport water. Tracheids and vessel elements are distinguished by their shape; vessel elements are shorter, and are connected together into long tubes that are called vessels . Xylem also contains two other type of cells: parenchyma and fibers . Xylem can be found: In transitional stages of plants with secondary growth , the first two categories are not mutually exclusive, although usually
11176-408: The maturation of the metaxylem (following the protoxylem ). In most plants, pitted tracheids function as the primary transport cells. The other type of vascular element, found in angiosperms, is the vessel element . Vessel elements are joined end to end to form vessels in which water flows unimpeded, as in a pipe. The presence of xylem vessels (also called trachea ) is considered to be one of
11303-493: The mechanics and scale of the base game to simulate unique situations, as with Space Hulk or Kill Team , and wargames simulating vastly different scales and aspects of warfare within the same fictional setting, as with Battlefleet Gothic , Adeptus Titanicus or Warhammer Epic . Video game spin-offs, such as Dawn of War and the Space Marine series, have also been released. Note: The overview here refers to
11430-403: The mid Cretaceous in angiosperms and gnetophytes. Vessels allow the same cross-sectional area of wood to transport around a hundred times more water than tracheids! This allowed plants to fill more of their stems with structural fibers, and also opened a new niche to vines , which could transport water without being as thick as the tree they grew on. Despite these advantages, tracheid-based wood
11557-450: The models is a major aspect of the hobby, and many customers of Games Workshop buy models simply to paint and display them. A player might spend weeks assembling and painting models before they have a playable army. The current official rulebook recommends a table width of 44 inches (1.1 m), and table length varies based on the size of the armies being used (discussed below). In contrast to board games, Warhammer 40,000 does not have
11684-478: The models that a player has selected to use in a match are collectively termed an "army." In Warhammer 40,000 , players are not restricted to playing with a fixed and symmetrical combination of game pieces, such as in chess. They get to choose which models they will fight with from a catalogue of "datasheets" presented in the rulebooks. Each datasheet corresponds to a particular model and contains any relevant gameplay statistics and permissible attachments. For instance,
11811-424: The most popular being the Space Marines . Otherwise, they tend be aristocrats of some sort such as Inquisitors, Rogue Traders, or Eldar princes, because only such people have the resources and liberty to have a meaningful impact on a galaxy-spanning setting whose civilisations are mostly autocratic. The source of magic is a parallel universe of supernatural energy, "the Warp". All living things with souls are tied to
11938-471: The most powerful countermeasure against Battleshock called Synapse. The Synaptic network is an aura around powerful leader beasts that compels Tyranids to fight on. There is a sub-species of the Tyranid race called "genestealers". When a human is infected by a genestealer, they are psychically enslaved and will sire children who are human-genestealer hybrids. These hybrids will form a secret society known as
12065-433: The need for water was relatively low. As CO 2 was withdrawn from the atmosphere by plants, more water was lost in its capture, and more elegant transport mechanisms evolved. As water transport mechanisms, and waterproof cuticles, evolved, plants could survive without being continually covered by a film of water. This transition from poikilohydry to homoiohydry opened up new potential for colonization. Plants then needed
12192-519: The novel God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert , and King Huon from the Runestaff novels by Michael Moorcock . The Emperor's suffering on the Golden Throne for the sake of humanity mirrors the sacrifice of Jesus . Humans fear artificial intelligence and creating or protecting an artificial intelligence (or 'abominable intelligence' ) is a capital offence (though most 'crimes' such as petty theft or adjusting machinery are also capital offences in
12319-576: The novel series The Expanse the Laconian Empire uses powerful combat spaceships, that are grown rather than built. Unlike other bioships however, they are not fully alive but based on self-replicating technology that results in similar shapes as biological life. In Jordan Peele 's sci-fi horror comedy film Nope (2022), a flying saucer -shaped UFO has been plaguing the prairies of Los Angeles County, California and abducting several horses and ejecting anything inorganic, disguising itself in
12446-416: The opponent's turn. A game of Warhammer 40,000 lasts until each player has taken five turns. A player wins the game when the turn limit ends and they have the most victory points. How players score victory points depends on what kind of "mission" was selected for the game. The most common way for players to score victory points is by controlling objective markers. Objective markers are 40mm markers placed on
12573-480: The overall transport rate depends also on the overall cross-sectional area of the xylem bundle itself. The increase in vascular bundle thickness further seems to correlate with the width of plant axes, and plant height; it is also closely related to the appearance of leaves and increased stomatal density, both of which would increase the demand for water. While wider tracheids with robust walls make it possible to achieve higher water transport tensions, this increases
12700-582: The player's army roster; substitute models are forbidden. For example, if a player wants to use an Ork Weirdboy in their army, they must use an Ork Weirdboy model from Games Workshop. Games Workshop has also banned the use of 3D-printed miniatures in official tournaments. Public tournaments organised by independent groups might permit third-party models so long as the models are clearly identifiable as to which Warhammer 40,000 model they are meant to represent. Tournaments might also have rules regarding whether armies are permitted to be unpainted or must be painted to
12827-408: The playing field, positioned in accordance with the mission rules. Players score victory points on their turns when their allied models outnumber the enemy models positioned near the objective markers. Players might also have faction-specific ways to gain victory points, such as exterminating the enemy or retaining possession of a holy relic for a certain length of time. Most Warhammer 40,000 fiction
12954-598: The popular science fiction franchise Star Trek several bioships appear. The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Tin Man " features a bioship as the main part of the plot. Species 8472 also has an enormous fleet of bioships which are able to go toe to toe with arguably the Federation's most malignant enemy, The Borg. The Yuuzhan Vong race in the Star Wars Legends ' New Jedi Order book series use
13081-415: The resistance to flow within their cells, thereby increasing the efficiency of their water transport. Bands on the walls of tubes, in fact apparent from the early Silurian onwards, are an early improvisation to aid the easy flow of water. Banded tubes, as well as tubes with pitted ornamentation on their walls, were lignified and, when they form single celled conduits, are considered to be tracheids . These,
13208-416: The roots (if, for example, the soil is dry), then the gases come out of solution and form a bubble – an embolism forms, which will spread quickly to other adjacent cells, unless bordered pits are present (these have a plug-like structure called a torus, that seals off the opening between adjacent cells and stops the embolism from spreading). Even after an embolism has occurred, plants are able to refill
13335-472: The roots covers the water transport tissue and regulates ion exchange (and prevents unwanted pathogens etc. from entering the water transport system). The endodermis can also provide an upwards pressure, forcing water out of the roots when transpiration is not enough of a driver. Once plants had evolved this level of controlled water transport, they were truly homoiohydric, able to extract water from their environment through root-like organs rather than relying on
13462-445: The roots throughout the plant. It is also used to replace water lost during transpiration and photosynthesis. Xylem sap consists mainly of water and inorganic ions, although it can also contain a number of organic chemicals as well. The transport is passive, not powered by energy spent by the tracheary elements themselves, which are dead by maturity and no longer have living contents. Transporting sap upwards becomes more difficult as
13589-432: The rules place no limit on how big an army can be, players tend to use armies comprising between a few dozen to a hundred models, depending on its faction. A large army will slow down the pace of the match as the players must physically handle many more models and consider each strategically. Larger armies also cost more money and take more work to paint and assemble. At the start of a game, each player places their models in
13716-420: The servants of Chaos are malevolent and insane, adopting the aesthetics of body horror and cosmic horror in the design of their models and story details. The struggle against Chaos is central to the setting of Warhammer 40,000 . As with the Imperium, Chaos players have access to a large variety of models, allowing them to design their army for any style of play. That said, players may theme their army around
13843-470: The size of the earliest plants. This process demands a steady supply of water from one end, to maintain the chains; to avoid exhausting it, plants developed a waterproof cuticle . Early cuticle may not have had pores but did not cover the entire plant surface, so that gas exchange could continue. However, dehydration at times was inevitable; early plants cope with this by having a lot of water stored between their cell walls, and when it comes to it sticking out
13970-536: The spread of embolism likely facilitated increases in plant size and the colonization of drier habitats during the Devonian radiation . Conifers, by the Jurassic, developed bordered pits had valve-like structures to isolate cavitated elements. These torus-margo structures have an impermeable disc (torus) suspended by a permeable membrane (margo) between two adjacent pores. When a tracheid on one side depressurizes,
14097-483: The start of the player's turn. All Necron models have a Leadership score of 10 (the maximum possible), so Necrons rarely suffer from morale failure. Necrons do not have any psykers, but they possess units called "C'tan shards" which are psyker-like. The Aeldari (formerly called the Eldar) are based on High Elves of fantasy fiction. Aeldari have very long lifespans and all of them have some psychic ability. The Aeldari travel
14224-400: The state and are closely monitored for misconduct and spiritual corruption. Rick Priestley cites J. R. R. Tolkien , H. P. Lovecraft , Dune , Paradise Lost , and 2000 AD as major influences on the setting. The Chaos Gods were added to the setting by Bryan Ansell and developed further by Priestley. Priestley felt that Warhammer ' s concept of Chaos, as detailed by Ansell in
14351-400: The supernatural exists, is powerful and is usually untrustworthy if not outright malevolent. There are effectively no benevolent gods or spirits in the cosmos, only daemons and evil gods, and the cults dedicated to them are proliferating. In the long run, the Imperium of Man cannot hope to defeat its enemies, so the heroes of the Imperium are not fighting for a brighter future but "raging against
14478-534: The supplement Realms of Chaos , was too simplistic and too similar to the works of Michael Moorcock , so he developed it further, taking inspiration from Paradise Lost . The story of the Emperor's favoured sons succumbing to the temptations of Chaos deliberately parallels the fall of Satan in Paradise Lost . The religious themes are primarily inspired by the early history of Christianity. Daemons in WH40K are
14605-462: The support offered by their lignified walls. Defunct tracheids were retained to form a strong, woody stem, produced in most instances by a secondary xylem. However, in early plants, tracheids were too mechanically vulnerable, and retained a central position, with a layer of tough sclerenchyma on the outer rim of the stems. Even when tracheids do take a structural role, they are supported by sclerenchymatic tissue. Tracheids end with walls, which impose
14732-425: The tone and depth of its setting, and is considered the foundational work of the grimdark genre of speculative fiction , the word grimdark itself derived from the series' tagline: "In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war". Warhammer 40,000 has spawned many spin-off media. Games Workshop has produced a number of other tabletop or board games connected to the brand, including both extrapolations of
14859-450: The top, the flow is needed to return to the equilibrium. Transpirational pull results from the evaporation of water from the surfaces of cells in the leaves . This evaporation causes the surface of the water to recess into the pores of the cell wall . By capillary action , the water forms concave menisci inside the pores. The high surface tension of water pulls the concavity outwards, generating enough force to lift water as high as
14986-543: The tough times by putting life "on hold" until more water is supplied. To be free from the constraints of small size and constant moisture that the parenchymatic transport system inflicted, plants needed a more efficient water transport system. During the early Silurian , they developed specialized cells, which were lignified (or bore similar chemical compounds) to avoid implosion; this process coincided with cell death, allowing their innards to be emptied and water to be passed through them. These wider, dead, empty cells were
15113-610: The transference process was flawed, as they all lost their souls and all but the highest-ranking ones became mindless as well. They are waking up from millions of years of hibernation in underground vaults on planets across the galaxy and seek to rebuild their old empire. Necron designs evoke ancient Egypt in their design, although they are not based on the Tomb Kings of Warhammer Fantasy . Necron infantry have strong ranged firepower, tough armour, and slow movement. Necron units can rapidly regenerate wounds or "reanimate" killed models at
15240-471: The vessels of Gnetum to be convergent with those of angiosperms. Whether the absence of vessels in basal angiosperms is a primitive condition is contested, the alternative hypothesis states that vessel elements originated in a precursor to the angiosperms and were subsequently lost. To photosynthesize, plants must absorb CO 2 from the atmosphere. However, this comes at a price: while stomata are open to allow CO 2 to enter, water can evaporate. Water
15367-408: The vessels, and gel- and gas-bubble-supported interfacial gradients. Until recently, the differential pressure (suction) of transpirational pull could only be measured indirectly, by applying external pressure with a pressure bomb to counteract it. When the technology to perform direct measurements with a pressure probe was developed, there was initially some doubt about whether the classic theory
15494-669: The world, and is particularly popular in the United Kingdom. The first edition of the rulebook was published in September 1987, and the tenth and current edition was released in June 2023. As in other miniature wargames, players enact battles using miniature models of warriors and fighting vehicles. The playing area is a tabletop model of a battlefield, comprising models of buildings, hills, trees, and other terrain features. Each player takes turns moving their model warriors around
15621-400: The xylem and restore the functionality. The cohesion-tension theory is a theory of intermolecular attraction that explains the process of water flow upwards (against the force of gravity ) through the xylem of plants. It was proposed in 1894 by John Joly and Henry Horatio Dixon . Despite numerous objections, this is the most widely accepted theory for the transport of water through
15748-406: The xylem. However, according to Grew, capillary action in the xylem would raise the sap by only a few inches; to raise the sap to the top of a tree, Grew proposed that the parenchymal cells become turgid and thereby not only squeeze the sap in the tracheids but force some sap from the parenchyma into the tracheids. In 1727, English clergyman and botanist Stephen Hales showed that transpiration by
15875-468: Was correct, because some workers were unable to demonstrate negative pressures. More recent measurements do tend to validate the classic theory, for the most part. Xylem transport is driven by a combination of transpirational pull from above and root pressure from below, which makes the interpretation of measurements more complicated. Xylem appeared early in the history of terrestrial plant life. Fossil plants with anatomically preserved xylem are known from
16002-412: Was lost per unit of CO 2 uptake. However, even in these "easy" early days, water was at a premium, and had to be transported to parts of the plant from the wet soil to avoid desiccation . This early water transport took advantage of the cohesion-tension mechanism inherent in water. Water has a tendency to diffuse to areas that are drier, and this process is accelerated when water can be wicked along
16129-449: Was originally meant to encourage customers to buy more miniature models. Warhammer 40,000 was originally conceived as a science-fiction spin-off of Warhammer Fantasy . Though the games share some characters and tropes, their settings are separate. The setting of Warhammer 40,000 is violent and pessimistic: human scientific and social progress have ceased; humanity is in a state of total war with hostile alien races and occult forces; and
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