Lore question: Cult vs cult!

[Ulfast]

So, I got a lore question. Would cult vs cult fight each other? Say a cult from Kraken would fly by ship, crash on a planet and starting a new cult. But they are allready a cult there, from Hydra. Would they fight each other or join each other to throw down the planet? What do you think?

[N1SB]

Good question.  I know of 1 possibility, for sure.  It was the crux for a Dark Heresy/Total War RPG campaign our GM made.

 

It was the Ymgarl Genestealers and their Cult offspring.  The Ymgarl, among Tyranids, are seen as a mutant or obsolete strain.  Normally, as you well know, Genestealers are the vanguard of a Hive Fleet and soften up a world to be consumed.  However, the Tyranids don't want to consume the Ymgarl...there's some corruption with them, that the Tyranids don't want mixing back with their genepool.

 

With that in mind, I believe if another Genestealer Cult came across a Ymgarl one, they might clash.  The "normal" Genestealer Cult would try to purge their tainted brethren and burn their bodies to prevent any chance of contamination with an incoming Tyranid fleet.  It might not be aware that's what it's doing, as it just instinctively feels the Ymgarl are diseased and want to destroy them due to their genetic programming.  The Ymgarl Cult would fight back to defend itself.

 

That is just the scenario that most obviously comes to mind and offers some concrete lore reasons as to why.

 

(In case you are curious, in our RPG campaign mentioned at the start, the idea was an Inquisitor wanted to forcibly deliver Ymgarl Hybrids into a Hive Fleet, trying to infect the Tyranids with whatever it is that they're so afraid of in the Ymgarl.)

[Xenith]

It's a big universe, why not.

 

Actually, with two cults fighting, and both with their own "four armed emperor" it would be the horus heresy on a smaller scale. The Four armed Emperor vs the Warmaster Fourus.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Xenith

[Ulfast]

Lol, that would actually make a very cool campagin to do :)  The four-armed emperor heresy!

[Closet Skeleton]

Genestealer Cults are independent of the Hive Mind so they're basically just human organisations and would be in conflict just like any human groups would. Just because a Behemoth Genestealer starts the Cult off doesn't mean that the Cult is in any way tied to Hive Fleet Behemoth.

 

Its only when the Hive Fleets draw close enough that the Purestrains fall under synapse control and the hybrids become food for their own children.

[DaBoiKyknos]

It's a big universe, why not.

 

Actually, with two cults fighting, and both with their own "four armed emperor" it would be the horus heresy on a smaller scale. The Four armed Emperor vs the Warmaster Fourus.

 

:D or  "the Fourmaster"...