Old Ones (Warhammer 40,000)
The Old Ones are a species that feature in Warhammer 40,000.
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History
The Old Ones
One of the few races the Old Ones encountered that were already sentient without their intervention were the Necrontyr. Where the Old Ones were long-lived, with an average lifespan lasting for many Terran millennia, and had access to technology that allowed them to travel from settled world to world instantaneously through a network of Warpgates called the Webway, the Necrontyr were short-lived, and were bound to but one world. The Necrontyr grew increasingly jealous of the Old Ones, and eventually set about going to war with them to wipe them out and claim their technology. The Old Ones easily outmaneuvered these early, clumsy Necrontyr strikes by making use of their Webway, and the Necrontyr were soon defeated.
However, the Necrontyr then discovered that a C'tan, a member of a race of enigmatic energy beings who had come into existence not long after the act of Creation itself, was living within their home star, feeding on the sun's radiant power. In a short time, the Necrontyr managed to create a technology based on "living metal" or Necrodermis, that allowed the C'tan to manifest itself physically by enclosing itself within a construct made from Necrodermis. The Necrontyr soon began to view their C'tan and its fellows as gods. With the help of the C'tan, the Necrontyr were able to turn the tide of their war against the Old Ones, largely by transferring their own consciousness into robotic bodies forged of Necrodermis like their C'tan "Star Gods." Unfortunately, the process of conversion dampened the Necrontyr's emotions and intellects, turning them into little more than mindless, eternally anguished slaves for the C'tan, who discovered that feeding on the life energies of other intelligent beings was far more "tasty" than the bland energy given off by stars. After their transformation, the Necrontyr became known as the Necrons and began cleansing the worlds held by the Old Ones and their allied species, feeding whole planetary populations to the foul appetites of their C'tan masters.
In the conflict that followed, called the War In Heaven by the Eldar's lorekeepers, the Old Ones created and modified many new races to help them combat the Necrontyr. The C'tan had no ability to comprehend or manipulate the Immaterium, and thus the Old Ones came to the conclusion that they would create a series of races attuned to the Immaterium, in order to use the vast repository of energy present there against the C'tan. Of these races, a few survive today, such as the Eldar, Jokaero, Hrud, and the Krork.
The new psychically-attuned races' darker impulses had a devastating effect upon the Immaterium: their emotional emissions bled into it, twisting the once peaceful dimension into a violent realm, fueled by their strongest (and usually darkest) emotions, giving the Immaterium a new name, the Warp. The vast majority of the sentient beings that dwelled in the Immaterium, known as Daemons to the Imperium of Man, became malicious and dangerous, earning their daemonic moniker.
One such Daemonic race, called the Enslavers, managed to discover a way to force entry into the material realm, and began to psychically enslave huge numbers of sentient beings. This new invasion destroyed the Old Ones (all of whom were killed or fled) and forced the C'tan and their Necron minions into hibernation on the Necron's so-called "tomb worlds" across the galaxy some 60 million years ago, as the C'tan (who fed on the energy produced by the sentience of other beings) had their food supplies stolen from them. It is hinted in recent publications that some of the Old Ones did indeed survive the War In Heaven.
Overview
Notes
- The Old Ones were created by Games Workshop where they featured in the setting of Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Appearances
- Warhammer 40,000:
External Links
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