User blog:Monkey Doctor 33/Monstrous Generals of Death! Swarmlord (40K) vs Mannoroth (Warcraft)

Within fiction, there are always some of those monstrous hordes from Hell who invade and raze countless worlds. Some do so for the sake of evil, while some others actually kill billions just to ensure the continuation of their existence. No matter, these legions can swarm planets within seconds just by their numbers, annihilating all who stands against them. But sometimes, numbers won't just work and there are beings greater than mere 'grunts' who work both behind and on the scenes to ensure victory's attainment. Today, we will see a clash of titanic proportions from two brutish tacticians from two universes of war! From one corner, we have the Swarmlord of the Tyranids! When simply Zerg-rushing doesn't work, the Hive Mind produces this legendary organism to not just break the lines with strength, but to break the enemy's entire ranks with its wits. The Swarmlord is as ancient as the Tyranids themselves, and daemons are nothing uncommon for them. However, the Burning Legion is nothing like the Ruinous Powers, and Mannoroth seeks to prove the superiority of the Twisting Nether over the Hive Mind! Without further ado, let's get into the battle! Swarmlord, the strongest synapse creature bred from the Hive Mind's fleets wielding four nasty blades in combination with impossible psychic powers and intelligence! VS Mannoroth, the unstoppable Pit Lord engine of destruction who won many victories for the Burning Legion, many of which have lasting repercussions upon Azeroth! In this battle between death-dealing murder-monsters... Who is Deadliest?

Swarmlord
Biography= "The Swarmlord is a legendary Tyranid creature created by the Hive Mind with the purpose of out-thinking the enemy and developing new strategies when standard Tyranid strategies of physical and biological adaption fail. It has destroyed empires and driven civilisations to extinction, and now it is the foremost Tyranid threat to the Galaxy."

- Excerpt from Lexicanum.

The Swarmlord is a unique bioform among the multitude of killer organisms within the Tyranid race. It is conventional for the Great Devourer's tactics to involve constant adaptation mid-battle and overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers. But even then, there are often times when such things are naught but folly, prompting the spawning of the Swarmlord. This powerful synapse creature is as old as the Tyranids themselves, and has fought on many battlegrounds within and without the Milky Way, leading hordes of alien monsters in the consumption of hundreds of planets. If it dies, the Swarmlord's essence is recollected and it can be re-spawned by another Hive Fleet. Memories of past victories and defeats are recorded within its genes, as does newer tactics and strengths. Its many deaths imply of its impotency, but it is no easy task to bring down the Swarmlord once it is summoned on to the battlefield. Boneswords= The Swarmlord uses a quartet of gigantic Boneswords, a form of biomorphs common among Tyranid bioforms. Due to its larger size, it is obviously more devastating than the regular ones used by Tyranid Warriors, the only difference being its crystalline protrusions throughout its blades. These swords are actually sentient and the organisms' brains are located in the weapons' hilts. Each brain's rudimentary sentience allows the continuous growth of the blades' length and repair any damage they suffer in-battle, at the user's will. No, they can't extend to the length of Sun Wukong's staff.

The weapon is composed of Tyranid chitin and crackles with psychic energies gathering throughout the blades' nerves tendrils, effectively creating a biological Force weapon. What is a Force weapon, you ask? Remember how there are Power weapons throughout 40K, among which are basically lightsabers? Force weapons are psychic versions of those stuffs and draw power upon the power of the mind. Considering the Swarmlord's mind is the Tyranid Hive Mind, the Boneswords are insanely destructive and can cut through 40K's adamantium, nearly all kinds of Power Armour the Imperium of Man possesses, and even enduring battle tanks made to endure plasma bolts with the power of a little sun. Don't even think force fields even have a chance against these.

The Swarmlord is known to be capable of parrying other melee attacks with these swords and they seem to be poisonous, considering Chapter Master Dante was left poisoned after the Tyranid rammed a Bonesword through his Power Armor and spine. Can demons be affected? You actually want to try to poison a guy whose blood is also another type of poison that corrupts barbaric badasses? Yeah sure, let's see if that works: no.

No, 40K adamantium isn't as tough as Marvel's. Tyranid Psychic Powers= Like its lesser Hive Tyrant brethren and the Zoanthropes, the Swarmlord has a multitude of psychic powers to unleash upon its enemies, and they are a frightening addition to its lethal power set. Tabletop-wise, it is a set rule that this Tyranid lifeform can only unleash two psychic powers the Hive Mind knows in addition to the Smite power every Psyker in 40K knows. We are not playing by the rules, seeing how gameplay and lore contradict one another differently. Besides, why would the Hive Mind itself limit its most powerful organism (discounting the Bio-Titans, ahem) to a few psychic attacks while victory is what they wish to be guaranteed of?

For this battle, the Swarmlord will be able to access all the powers available for the Hive Tyrant, seeing how they're of the same breed.
 * Smite: The most common psychic ability in 40K. The user unleashes a stream of bioelectric lightning from his/her fingertips. We never see how the Swarmlord shoots these things out, seeing how his hands are never relieved of the Boneswords. For this battle, he will be able to shoot them out of his clenched fists.
 * Paroxysm: Triggers every single nerve and pain receptors within the enemy's body, crippling them and overtaking their senses with nothing but agonizing pain. Ineffective against beings with high pain tolerance or toughness.
 * Psychic Scream: The Swarmlord unleashes a horrifying scream which outright disables the weak-willed. Even those with strong minds find themselves distracted, afraid, and even driven to insanity by this ability. Not effective against beings who are already insane to an extent.
 * Leech Essence : Feed upon the enemy's life force to regenerate the user's own flesh. Cannot be used indefinitely, seeing how the Swarmlord can't just continue feeding upon its enemy's corrupted energies while he's screaming around making hellstorms to kick its ass.
 * Warp Blast: The Swarmlord focuses the Hive Mind's energy and unleashes it as a powerful explosion of Warp energy.
 * The Horror: Emit a psychic aura that invades the minds of enemies with a terrifying sentience so alien all they can do to respond to it is by screaming in terror and panic.

Mannoroth
Biography= "Stupid, pitiful creature. I am the rage in your heart. I am the fury of your thoughts. I alone empowered you to bring chaos to this world, and by the endless void, you shall!"

- Mannoroth

Mannoroth was a powerful Pit Lord in service to the Burning Legion and the leader of the Pit Lord race entire. When Kil'jaeden recruited him and his race into Sargeras' army, his brutality and bloodthirst was recognized and the Man'ari made him his second-in-command. His powers in both might and magic are immense, and his participation within the War of the Ancients shows. He massacred entire Night Elf regiments with ease and even engaged the demigod, Cenarius, in battle. Mannoroth was defeated in the First Invasion of Azeroth, but in the preparations preceding the second one, he managed to corrupt the orcs of Draenor through the Warlock, Gul'dan. The orcs failed in their intended task, however, and Mannoroth soon found himself killed by the first orc who drunk his blood, Grommash Hellscream. Xu'tenash= Xu'tenash, the Glaive of Ruin is Mannoroth's fearsome primary weapon that is a double-bladed glaive capable of channeling the power of Mannoroth's magic while cutting through buildings and harming magical beings with its edges. Mannoroth's personal weapon has immense power, though most of its properties, such as blasting energies, come from Mannoroth himself instead of the weapon. Nevertheless, its large size and length means that it can keep even other beings similar to him at bay in combat. Unfortunately, this thing can be broken, as Grommash did so with the Gorehowl. That does not mean it's weak, however. Mannoroth once made an earth-shattering shockwave that sent both Thrall and Grom flying, knocking out the former and dazing the latter. Fel Magic= For his girth and muscles, Mannoroth's greatest power lies in his mastery of Fel magic. When the Burning Legion came face to face with the Night Elves, an entire race of super-powerful mages and other magic users alike, Mannoroth proved himself more than capable to contend and even nearly eclipse the magics of the likes of Xavius (the most powerful magic user during the War of the Ancients, discounting Queen Azshara). His power was compared to Archimonde of all the beings out there and Azeroth's Red Dragonflight (dragons, a'ight) see him as a threat to their own might. The Red Dragonflight's leader, Alexstrasza, the Life-Binder, wasn't even sure if she could beat out his spellwork.

Of course, such magical prowess and its competency against other form of magics have nothing to do with its effectiveness against an adversary that essentially recognizes no magics whatsoever. Even so, Mannoroth's spells and magic powers are more than enough to level entire armies and they are surprisingly versatile.
 * Felseeker: Mannoroth fires a bolt of fel energy that can damage catapults (as seen above) and generate small explosions upon contact. Requires a little charging before usage and Mannoroth usually blasts Felseekers through the Xu'tenash. Though it needs a small set-up, the Flayer can shoot out these big energy bolts in rapid successions.
 * Fel Hellstorm: From the skies, Mannoroth calls down a barrage of meteor strikes that can hit any target, anywhere on the battlefield. The meteors (more like magical fireballs, but yeah) do not home on enemies and they have the explosion radius of 27 meters. They can burn enemies, but only through direct contact or when they're within five meters of their impact point. As a comparison, an M67 frag grenade has an injury radius of 15 meters and a fatality radius of five meters. Mannoroth's meteors blow up bigger than grenades, and they definitely are more lethal than them. This ability has another variation called Fel Firestorm, but aside from that, they're more or less the same thing.
 * Mannoroth's Gaze: A badass move/spell where Mannoroth looks into the enemy's eyes, terrifies him/her/them, and once such fear expires, the target explodes in a burst of shadow energy. Does fear matter to a being who also instills its own form of alien terror?
 * Shadowforce: Mannoroth pushes away his enemies using shadow energy after channeling for some seconds. Just a semi-telekinesis move that can be used while attacking the enemy, too.
 * Fel Drain: Mannoroth drains the life energy of his target. Weaker beings, such as Varo'then, a Night Elf Captain, are killed the moment their souls are extracted from their bodies to restore Mannoroth.
 * Mannoroth is capable of creating race-specific barriers/force fields that are so powerful not even powerful magic beings like Alexstrasza can penetrate one of them with her own power. These things are attuned to the beings' race, but that doesn't mean it is impenetrable.
 * Mannoroth can teleport from continent to continent with a single whim. His teleportation leaves nothing of mark, both in initiation and exitation, so he can actually ambush enemies with this, in theory.
 * Aside from the Fel moves mentioned before, Mannoroth is capable of manipulating Fel energies in other ways, manifesting them through fire. He can enhance the Xu'tenash with Fel fire to increase its strength, blast out waves of fire from around his body, and blast a prolonged stream of unholy fire from his glaive to decimate his opponents.
 * Upon death, Mannoroth violently explode in an infernal blaze of fire.

Experience
Swarmlord= As frequently mentioned, the Swarlord is as old as the Tyranid race and has fought, bled, and eaten alongside its brethren for over five millennia. The first Tyranid encounter the Imperium of Man had happened in the 36th Millennium in the form of the Legion of Ouroboris, and as much as how unlikely the Swarmlord may not be summoned by the Hive Fleet, this unique being is said to have destroyed empires and civilizations to extinction, and we're talking about the ones that are unknown to us and the Imperium of Man. Add with the implication that the Tyranids have been doing the whole galaxy-consuming business thing since their beginning, which must happen over five millennia ago, means that the Swarmlord is damn old.

The Swarmlord is summoned just as how Bruce Banner brings the Hulk into the scene: by stress. Should the Hive Fleet fail to overwhelm its enemies with sheer numbers and the usual eat-and-run tactic, then this Hive Tyrant is deployed to out-think, out-maneuver, and outclass whoever the hell's kicking the 'nids' asses. Problem? The Swarmlord's combat record is awful. Nearly on par with the Avatar of Khaine, the Swarmlord has lost a crap ton of one-on-one battles with some of 40K's most notorious 'heroes'. Marneus Calgar, the Chapter Master of the Ultramarines, lost his four limbs to the Swarmlord and his bodyguard but in the same battle recovered from his injuries and kicked the crap out of the Swarmlord. Another Chapter Master, Commander Dante of the Blood Angels, was nearly killed by the Swarmlord after the Tyranid tore one of his hearts out, but the Tyranid failed again and got his face annihilated by a powerful plasma pistol that does not fire miniature suns: Dante's pistol fires literal suns.

Despite his failures, the Swarmlord is a creature who has fought across thousands of battlefields from one galaxy to another. He led the invasion of Craftworld Iyanden, Tyran, the first planet they consumed of the Imperium of Man in the 41st Millennium and the source of their current name, the Hodur Sector, where Hive Fleet Leviathan ate 24 worlds (among them a Space Marine Chapter World) in less than two months, and battled legions of Orks both inside and outside the Octarius War. Oh, and remember Dawn of War II: Retribution? Yeah, he's there too, and fought the Eldar, Black Legion, Blood Ravens, the Imperial Guard, and the Orks (again)... and failed. Mannoroth= The Leader of the Pit Lords was the greatest warrior within the Burning Legion in the ten millennia preceding the events of Warcraft 3, and his exploits sure shows. Upon his induction into the Burning Legion, Mannoroth fought many battles against whoever's not alongside his master. When the Legion first arrived on Azeroth, Mannoroth slaughtered entire regiments of Night Elf warriors and mages, and it took the direct intervention of their demigod, Cenarius, to actually drive away the Pit Lord. He battled against Illidan and World of Warcraft's adventurers, who we all know are basically us with a bunch of mystic mumbo jumbo, even during the War of the Ancients.

In the events of Warcraft 3, Mannoroth battled the Alliance and the Horde with his fellow servants of Sargeras. His last battle in his first life ended in his death when Grommash Hellscream cut the Pit Lord with his axe to his torso. It should be noted that Hellscream himself was empowered by Mannoroth's own blood, so he's the only one at the time of battle that could kill him. Cue Warlords of Draenor and Gul'dan resurrected the Pit Lord in the Hellfire Citadel to fight a raid from Azeroth's defenders, unfortunately dying after getting repeatedly blasted by magical energies, holy powers, and blesed/unholy swords, axes, and hammers.

Physicality
Swarmlord= The Swarmlord is a terrifying close quarters combatant not just due to his swords, but also the muscles that move the blades with insane speed that exceeds veteran Space Marines, who can run so fast humans basically suffer critical existence failure upon witnessing their movement and react in microseconds, the enduring plate armor-like chitin that can easily take Bolter, artillery, plasma, laser fire, as well as the equivalent of lightsabers without any hassle. It is to a Hive Tyrant what the Tyrant is to a Termagant: the Swarmlord is far superior than the Tyranids' usual commander organism, who are capable of breaking ceramite (Space Marine Armor material) and ferrocrete (futuristic concrete) with ease. Seeing how Hive Tyrants themselves are also superior to Genestealers and Carnifexes, this means that the Swarmlord is also more than capable of tearing apart Terminator Armor with their bare hands without much effort and overturn tanks (take the Leman Russ for example, which weighs 60 tons) and APCs (the Space Marine Rhino, which weighs 30 tons).

Though powerful, the Swarmlord is still susceptible to mighty energy attacks. Chapter Master Dante managed to kill the Swarmlord by blasting his face with his Perdition Pistol, which is strong enough to penetrate the armor of a Land Raider, which weighs 72 tons and has a hull as thick as 95 millimetres. This creature may be robust, but often times, his physicality cannot save him from even the assault of other heroes. Ortan Cassius, the Ultramarines Master of Sanctity and a guy whose strength is leagues below the Swarmlord (he's more or less Lemartes), managed to somehow defeat it. Mannoroth= Befitting to a member of a race of destructive demons, Mannoroth is an imposing creature of muscles whose very footsteps actually leave craters. His wings may be too weak to truly give him the benefit of flight, but his strength is more than enough to decimate any foolish enough to battle him face-to-face. When a powerful magical wind swept aside Mannoroth and his cronies, heavily armored demons were lifted up and blown away as if they're feathers. Mannoroth simply stood his ground and managed to briefly power through the wind and create a shield. In a fit of rage, Mannoroth casually creates a small quake with a ground punch that brought down a nearby building, even when he's not facing it. He also freed himself using both his glaive and strength from chains big enough to restrain his mid-section and killed a Furbolg in one mere punch. It should be noted that Furbolgs are far below Mannoroth in terms of natural strength, however. They're large bear-men, but none of them are building-level creatures.

His durability allows him to tank getting smashed repeatedly by chunks of stone larger than himself without discomfort and a lightning-charged Doomhammer thrown at him by Thrall, which simply seared a part of his wing. Last but not least, Mannoroth, even when he's just a skeleton, was still durable enough to tank getting attacked by a horde of adventurers wielding potent magical relics, powers, and weapons.

Intelligence
Swarmlord= The Swarmlord is the Tyranids' tactical genius and an organism so smart it can formulate plans even in the heat of battle. This thing led the consumption of over a dozen worlds and it's pragmatic enough to summon reinforcements in one-on-one battle against certain 'equals', such as when an Avatar of Khaine goaded him to single combat, but the Swarmlord decided to simply ignore the war god's challenge and brought in twelve Carnifexes to kill it. When Marneus Calgar first fought it, it wisely attacked the Chapter Master with its bodyguards, leaving the Ultramarine dying without his limbs. Mannoroth= Mannoroth is more known for his strength and magical mastery rather than his intellect. His corruption of the orcs wasn't exactly his idea: it was Kil'jaeden's and it's executed by Gul'dan. Despite his relative ego, temperament, and power, Mannoroth is willing to summon back-up from the Twisting Nether when the going gets tough, like when he was resurrected by Gul'dan in Hellfire Citadel. Other than that, he's not that much of a tactician.