Necron (Warhammer 40,000)

The Necrons are a machine race that appear in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

History

The Necrons were an ancient race that inhabited the galaxy where they first arose around sixty million years ago. During this time, an organic race emerged known as the Necrontyr who were noted for being great builders, learned artisans and powerful rulers. However, they lived on a harsh desert planet that was plagued by constant lethal radiation from a dying sun which led to their race suffering from short and painful lifespans.

Sixty million years prior to the events of the 41st Millennium, before the evolution of mankind, the Necrontyr were a flesh and blood race of great builders, learned artisans, and powerful rulers. Their homeworld was a harsh desert planet continuously bombarded with lethal radiation from their dying sun, giving their people short and painful lifespans. The conditions of their world forced the Necrontyr to advance rapidly in scientific development, discovering space flight and FTL travel far sooner than most other life in their galactic epoch. It was not long before the Necrontyr escaped the confines of their solar system and began to colonise the stars, eventually building a colossal, galaxy-spanning empire. As time passed, the Necrontyr were able to unlock many mysteries of the known universe. Their unlimited scientific progression gave rise to technologies far beyond the understanding of most races of their time period, having the ability to build structures that could relocate across continents in mere moments, vast engines of destruction that could destroy whole worlds with a single stroke of a hand, and pocket dimensions that could transverse the very fabric of reality itself.

But as advanced as the Necrontyr were, theirs was not a utopian civilisation. Already a prideful people, the Necrontyr became more and more fractious as their empire grew, with many wars fought against those wishing to gain independence. Great interstellar civil wars were waged across countless star systems, as in-fighting between Necrontyr nobles escalated into battles of supremacy that could no longer be mediated. The Necrontyr's infighting became so intense that as time ground on, the Triarch, the supposed rulers of the Empire, led by their Silent King Szarekh, in increasing desperation continued to seek a means to unify their people once more. Finally deciding that no means of self-unification could be achieved, the Triarchs believed that only the use of an external "threat" would accomplish what scientific enlightenment could not. To that end, the Necrontyr turned their covetous eyes towards a race called the Old Ones, the only race strong enough to hold the Necrons together as a common foe.

The Old Ones were a race that had evolved even earlier than the Necrontyr, but along substantially different lines. Where the Necrontyr developed purely on science and technology, leaving spirituality and mysticism in the dark annals of their history, the Old Ones embraced both science and their spirituality. In their alternate philosophies and mystic practices, the Old Ones eventually gained access to the primordial Warp, but not the Warp as it is known in the 41st Millennium. In the days of the Old Ones, the Warp was a shining parallel reality where emotions, thoughts, and even dreams were intensely reflected and molded together. Through natural fluency and masterful concentration, the Old Ones used the Warp to become a civilisation of powerful psykers, with supernatural abilities far exceeding any other sentient race in the galaxy. These abilities gave the Old Ones a harmonious bond with (as well as control over) great cosmic forces, bestowing onto them the gift of immortality and near-omniscience. It is not known why the Old Ones refused to trade or even interact with the expanding Necrontyr empire at the time, however their continual refusal to share their knowledge, most especially on the secrets of immortality, would eventually garner the enmity of the short-lived Necrontyr. This simmering hatred was used as a basis by the Triarchs to wage war with the Old Ones.

To this end, all rebel dynasties were given the chance to share in the spoils of the war and be cleared of their crimes by rejoining the empire. The plan actually succeeded, and for the first time in their interstellar history, the Necrontyr were finally united. A galactic war the likes of which had never been seen before or since then erupted across the stars. It was a conflict that would last for centuries, consuming whole planets and even stars, the Necrontyr using their supremacy over science and technology, and the Old Ones their mastery of the Warp. So unimaginable and powerful were the weapons used by both sides during the war that for less developed races close enough to watch it unfold, it appeared as if the very gods themselves were fighting one another, earning it the name "The War In Heaven".

Despite the might of their incalculable warfleets, armies, and unmatched technology, the Necrontyr's defeat was a foregone conclusion, their very advantage being countered by the Old Ones' Webway, the crisscrossing network of focused psychic tunnels fashioned by the Old Ones within the Warp. The Webway granted the psykers an insurmountable advantage in stealth and speed. Battle after battle, the Necrontyr would respond with overwhelming force, but the Old Ones would simply strike without warning, win a decisive victory, and then quickly vanish without a trace back into their Webway portals. Or, if cornered beyond retreat, the forces of the Old Ones would unleash the totality of their psychic mastery and exact a heavy price on enemy armies before the Necrontyr could declare a victory. It was not long before the Triarch forces were pushed back to the far corners of the galaxy. With defeat imminent, the once-great empire was gripped by another wave of secessionist wars, fracturing their already fragile unity.

The Triarchs again desperately searched for a unifying force, and their prayers were answered by the ancient and godlike C'tan, who were drawn to the Necrontyr by the beacon of their raw hatred for the Old Ones. Seeking the aid of these all-powerful star gods, the Necrontyr sought the favour of the C'tan and constructed bodies of living metal to contain their essence.[15]The Silent King and his fellow lords eagerly agreed to an alliance, and in so doing, forever doomed their race. The Triarch ordered their greatest scientists to fashion the bodies that the C'tan requested. These would be made of a nearly-indestructible metallic material called necrodermis, devised using an advanced form of rapidly self-replicating, self-repairing nanotechnology. As the Necrontyr opened portals that allowed the C'tan to enter their new necrodermis bodies, the Star Gods executed the first phase of their great betrayal. They taught the Necrontyr the secret of biotransference: the ability to transfer a mind from a flesh body to one made of the same material as the C'tan's new corporeal skin, and the desperate Necrontyr eagerly committed all their resources into building the enormous bioforges that would allow them to do so en masse.

Yet, even as the Necrontyr changed their bodies, the C'tan's final plan was revealed, as they feasted upon the race's souls, given to them with each transference. Too late did the Silent King Szarekh, now himself within a robotic body, realise that he had made a terrible mistake. As promised by the star gods, the Necrontyr were indeed immortal and unified, but they had lost their very souls in the process. Those Necrontyr leaders who had earlier allowed themselves to be consumed willingly, such as the Triarchs, were allowed to keep their sentience and personalities, but those that did not were turned into nothing more than emotionless, unthinking labourers and warriors for the new Necron race, and the leaders of the once-proud Necrontyr both rejoiced and despaired.

Together, the C'tan and the newly transformed Necrons eventually defeated the Old Ones. In their new forms, the C'tan were nigh-invulnerable and able to twist reality to their will; without fear of death and strengthened by machine bodies, the Necrons could now absorb any loss of military force as their metal legions marched across countless battlefields. Eventually, even the mighty Webway, the final refuge of the Old Ones, was breached by the deathless Necrons. This forced the surviving Old Ones to seed planets with species capable of helping them to fight the C'tan. The most prominent of the races they had created were the early Orks, designed to be the very epitome of the fury of life itself; ever growing, ever wanting to fight for its existence. However, even these ferocious creatures could only slow the tide of the oncoming Necrons, so the Old Ones created a race more equal to their image, the first Eldar. Yet still, this was not enough. However, there was another event that occurred in the Old Ones' favour: the rebellion of the Necrons against the Star Gods.

As the Old Ones were nearing defeat, the C'tan began to celebrate their victory to come, and that was when the Silent King used his command protocols over his people to turn and strike at all the C'Tan simultaneously. While feinting deference and gratitude for many decades, Szarekh had been secretly planning to overthrow the treacherous otherworldly beings, waiting for the moment they would be most vulnerable. Then, in a succession of climactic battles at the cost of billions of converted lives, the Necrons finally slew their own gods. Of course, the C'tan could not truly be "killed" in the traditional sense, so using his people's most advanced technologies, Silent King Szarekh ordered that all the C'Tan were to be shattered into hundreds of pieces and imprisoned in multi-dimensional stasis cells called Tesseract Vaults, as revenge for what they had done to his people. Though successful, the rebellion inflicted catastrophic casualties on the Necrons. The Silent King realized that in their weakened state the Necrons would be unable to defeat the combined forces of the Eldar, the Orks, and the remaining Old Ones. As the Eldar-led counterattacks fiercely increased, the Silent King and the Triarchs decided upon a bold plan. The Necrons would retreat back into their ancient homeworlds, now called Tombworlds, where the Silent King's people would stay in stasis and slumber deep within highly fortified subterranean chambers until a time when the galaxy would be once more ripe for reclamation. For Szarekh knew that, as with all flesh and blood civilisations, the Old Ones would soon die off, and the Eldar and their ilk could not last forever. Thus, as the Eldar assumed the mantle of guardianship against the return of the Necrons from the last of the Old Ones, the Necrons resolved to wait out countless millennia for the day they would rise again. The Silent King Szarekh, himself, would take a ship and depart the galaxy to places unknown.

Millions of years later, in the 41st millennium, the Eldar have fallen and long-dead Necron beacons begin to flash back online (in some cases due to human mishandling), ancient reanimation protocols have started to cycle through hundreds of Tombworlds, and the Necrons have finally started to wake. However, due to equipment malfunctions, some protocols have stalled or never triggered. In many cases, the programs designed to keep the Necron personalities intact have failed due to the long aeons of wear and tear, creating ranks of insane destructive versions of the standard Necrons. Only the aristocracy, who were given more robust care upon entombment, survived with their minds intact. As the Necron Lords stir to wakefulness and the Silent King finally makes his way back to the galaxy, Necron armies erupt out of the barren earth of their worlds to a galaxy once more rich with life and now ripe for the reaping.

Overview

One group within the Necron hierarchy were the Crypteks who were scientific geniuses that were responsible for maintaining and developing Necron technology. They served a privileged role on a tomb world and were equipped with a variety of unusual equipment that aided them in performing their duties.

Types of Necrons included:

• Warriors :
• Flayed Ones :

At the height of their empire, the Necrontyr civilisation was composed of an alliance of powerful autocratic dynasties. Each dynasty was virtually self-sufficient and autonomous, made up of planetary systems that were each ruled by a Necrontyr lord, each planetary system having a capital world called a Crownworld. A Phaeron was a Necrontyr overlord that ruled over an entire dynasty, encompassing dozens or hundreds of lords and their systems. The collective planetary systems of a single dynasty was called a Crown Cluster. Each dynasty was capable of fielding fleets of warships and raising armies numbering in the tens to hundreds of millions, each possessing enough economic and military power to be a small empire in its own right.

Rulership of all the Phaerons fell to the Triarch, a council of three of the most powerful Phaerons, two of which spoke for their leader, a central figure called the Silent King. The last of the Silent Kings was Szarekh. This governmental system was eventually carried over to the Necrons, as the Dynasty Lords retained enough self-identity to effectively rule their mindless people, and the Phaerons possessed control protocols over all the lesser aristocrats, and the Silent King in turn controlled all the other Phaerons. As it was in the time of the Necrontyr, the Triarch's commands were enforced by a powerful cadre composed of both cunning diplomats and unrelenting elite guards collectively called the Triarch Praetorians. These still served to administer to Necron overlords who stepped outside their authority and openly disobeyed the Triarch, though even they could not prevent the eruption of the First Secessionist Wars.

Under the Necron system, all lords follow without question their overlords, who adhered completely to the will of the Silent King. The Crownworlds, though still called such by their Necron populations, became known as Tombworlds by other races; places where the Necrons had retreated deep within to await the time when the Eldar and their allies no longer patrolled the galaxy.

There were different Necron dynasties that had been formed by their civilisation with these including the:

• Szarekhan Dynasty :
• Sautekh Dynasty :
• Mephrit Dynasty :
• Novokh Dynasty :
• Nephrekh Dynasty :
• Nihilakh Dynasty :

Necron society during the time of the C'tan came to form Destroyer Cults that were hate-fuelled harvesters of the living who were obsessed with the eradication of all sentient beings. Its members had their bodies modify to become more optimised to be killing machines with a murderous insanity dominating their every thought. At first, few in number but over time this 'flaw' came to develop on all Tomb Worlds and grew in frequency among their kind. Members of the cult answered to no one an thus were kept apart from the rest of the Necron forces but served as brutal shock troops. There existed four different subsets of Destroyers with these including; the blade-wielding Skorpekhs, the subterranean segmented Ophydians, the gunfighting Hexmarks, and the floating weapons platforms called the Lokhusts.

In terms of vehicles, the Necrons had created a number of craft that included:

• Monolith :
• Ghost Ark : a transport vehicle that conveyed reinforcements to vial locations or allowed the Necrons to attack from an unexpected side.
• Tesseract Vault : they were known to sometimes field the Tesseract Vault onto the battlefield where they imprisoned Transcendent C'tan were forced to unleash their great powers against their enemies thus either aging them to dust, setting fields on fire or even triggering seismic shifts on the planetary crust.
• Seraptek Heavy Construct : a multi-legged insectile construct that was armed with heavy weapons allowing them to disintegrate both organic and machine matter.
• Canoptek Tomb Sentinel :
• Abattoir :
• Æonic Orb :

Members

• Ahhotekh :
• Ahmontekh :
• Anrakyr the Traveller :
• Imotekh the Stormlord :
• Vargard Obyron :
• Orikan the Diviner :
• Szarekh :
• Illuminor Szeras :
• Trazyn the Infinite :
• Nemesor Zahndrekh :

Notes

• The Necrons were a playable faction in the setting of Warhammer 40,000.
• Initially, they appeared as a minor faction referred to as Necron Raiders with rules for these being first published in White Dwarf Issue 216.
• They received their first full sourcebook in Codex: Necrons in August 2002.

In other media

Video games

• In Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Winter Assault, the Necrons appeared as a non-playable faction that emerged in the final stage of the real-time strategy video game expansion.
• In Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade, the Necrons appeared as a playable faction in the setting of the real-time strategy video game expansion. Players took control of a Necron faction that had been dormant underneath the sands of Koronus.
• In Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III, the Necrons made a cameo appearance in the epilogue scene of the campaign of the real-time strategy video game. It was shown that they had taken an interest in the events of the defeat of the Daemon that was imprisoned on the lost wandering world of Acheron.
• In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2, the Necrons appeared as a playable faction in the setting of the real-time strategy video game. During the campaign, it was revealed that the Nepheru Dynasty was the Necron faction operating in this time where its Phaeron Kephrekh dispatched his Nemesor Amarkun to deal with the intrusions in their territory after awakening from their slumber during the 13th Black Crusade. Trazyn the Infinite also worked to stop the expansion of the Eye of Terror where he helped the Adeptus Mechanicus in understanding the functioning of the Necron pillars that contained the giant warp rift.
• In Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus, the Necrons appeared as antagonists in the setting of the turn-based strategy video game. A Tomb World resided on the planet Silva Tenebris that was under the control of Overlord Szaregon. It was awakened by the time of the Great Divide by Adeptus Mechanicus Explorators causing an expedition to be dispatched to prevent the Necrons from fully activating.
• In Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War, the Necrons appeared as a playable faction in the setting of the video game. A Necron dynasty was based on the world later designated as Gladius Prime that had fought against the Old Ones long ago during the War in Heaven until they went into a slumber after being trapped in a warp storm. It awoke the 41st millennium where it battled the Imperial Guard, Space Marines and the Orks that now inhabited the planet. They were joined by the Triarch Praetorian Eystan whilst the Cryptek Ptanotek determined that the warp storm was created by Old One technology located on the planet which they attempted to shut down.

Appearances

• Warhammer 40,000:
• Codex: Necrons: (2002)

External Links

• Lexicanum Entry
• Warhammer 40K Wiki Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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