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Old One Eye is a unique Carnifex that can regenerate from wounds that would kill other creatures. It has become a legend among the Ultramarines and the people of Calth.
It is larger and more aggressive than any normal Carnifex, and its regeneration lets it shrug off wounds that would kill other creatures. When it is separated from the Hive Mind, it reverts to a primal, predatory intelligence. Other Tyranids are drawn to it as a natural leader. Old One Eye is a unique Carnifex that regenerates from wounds that should be fatal. It spearheaded Hive Fleet Behemoth's assault on Calth, batting Leman Russ tanks aside. A forgotten hero brought it down with a plasma pistol shot through the eye. Decades later it was thawed out of Calth's ice. Its regeneration was once thought a mutation the Hive Mind had abandoned, but with Leviathan the trait has become almost standard on Carnifexes.
Old One Eye has existed as a named model since 3rd edition and was given a new sculpt in the 5th-edition era. The core of its story, from the Calth invasion and the frozen body to the smugglers and Telion's shot, comes from Codex: Tyranids (5th edition), p. 57. Each later codex has added rumours rather than resolving them, which suits a monster defined by refusing to stay dead.
Origins
It spearheaded Hive Fleet Behemoth's attack on Calth, swatting aside Leman Russ tanks.
During the Battle of Calth against Hive Fleet Behemoth, it led attacks that broke through Imperial lines. It was eventually stopped by frozen conditions and left trapped in the ice for decades. When it was thawed by accident, it gathered the Tyranid survivors and began a new campaign of destruction.
Key events
- Led Behemoth's attack on Calth.
- Was left frozen in Calth's ice-packs after Behemoth was driven off.
- Was found by smugglers decades later and thawed, then launched raids with leftover Tyranid creatures.
- Was hunted by Scout Sergeant Telion, who shot it through its ruined eye-socket.
- Its body was never recovered.
The Tyranid codex for 8th edition (p. 61) adds a sighting that may be Old One Eye's latest. On Tartoros, during Hive Fleet Leviathan's attack on the Cryptus System, an alpha Carnifex matching the Beast of Calth's description ignored heavy weapons fire from Cadian teams that spattered off its scarred carapace. It smashed several of the void shield generators that protected Tartoros from its system's savage solar storms. When the shields failed, not a single Imperial soldier on the surface survived the storm that followed. Nobody knows how a creature trapped on Calth could have reached Cryptus, or whether it is the same beast at all.
Battles & campaigns
- Calth (Behemoth): It led the assault until shot through the eye.
- Calth, decades later: It went on a rampage until Sergeant Telion's one-in-a-million shot.
- Sightings across Ultramar: It has been reported killed more than a dozen times.
Personality
Old One Eye is primal, relentless and unusually cunning when cut off from the Hive Mind.
It is a primal hunter, guided by instinct and an unusual degree of cunning. It is aggressive and relentless, leading from the front. Its survival against all odds has made it a legend, and Imperial soldiers fear its return.
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Connections
Characters (3)
Deathleaper fellow Tyranid · TyranidsBoth are among the few individual Tyranids the Imperium tracks by name.
Factions
- Tyranids primary faction
Related units (5)
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Old One Eye is a living legend among Ultramarines and Imperial Guard alike, a monstrous Carnifex that has survived wounds that would kill any lesser creature. Its ability to regenerate from almost any injury, and to lead other Tyranids when cut off from the Hive Mind, makes it one of the few Tyranids the Imperium knows by name. Its body was never found, so its return is always possible. Guardsmen trade stories of it the way sailors trade sea monster tales, and the Ultramarines treat each sighting with deadly seriousness. Old One Eye is the Tyranid nightmare that will not stay dead.
Its most important legacy may be biological. Imperial analysts once thought its regeneration was an unstable mutation, an experiment in rapid cell regrowth that the Hive Mind had abandoned. When Hive Fleet Leviathan arrived, however, the same trait had become close to standard on its Carnifexes. If the Hive Mind did learn from the Beast of Calth, then every regenerating Carnifex in Leviathan's broods is in some sense its offspring.
Appearances & sources
- Codex: Tyranids