Old Ones (Warhammer 40,000)
The Old Ones are a species that feature in Warhammer 40,000.
Contents |
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.
Terrible wars were known to have followed this chain of events but all ended with the Necrontyr's inability to vanquish their foes. Despite their advanced technology, they found themselves constantly outmaneuvered by the Old Ones due to their mastery of Webway portals. Eventually, the Necrontyr were pushed back to such an extent that they were considered little more than an irritation to the Old Ones and forced back to the outer dark of the halo stars where they were forgotten. This imprisonment lasted for centuries. As they sought to find a suitable weapon to unleash against their foes, the Necrontyr began to study their sun, whereupon they discovered ancient entities that resided on them. These they made manifest and named C'tan, or star-gods in their language, and used them as their new weapon against the Old Ones. Through the C'tan, the Necrontyr were transformed into a cold machine race of beings that became known as the Necrons. They were now free to pursue their vengeance against their ancient foes. This time, the conflict was far different from the previous wars as the Old Ones' mastery of the Warp was now countered by the C'tan's supremacy of the material universe. In time, the C'tan began to dominate the galaxy whilst the Old Ones' bastions were besieged and their nurtured races were fed upon like cattle by the eternal hunger of the star-gods. Entire worlds were razed, suns extinguished and entire star systems devoured whole by the terrible C'tan.
During the war, Necron legions are known to have breached the Webway and assaulted the Old Ones in every corner of the galaxy.[ Despite their legendary patience and implacability, the Old Ones began to grow desperate and began breeding new forms of life with an even stronger connection to the Warp, with the intention that these manipulated species would have the power to channel their psychic might to defend themselves. Many warrior races were created in this manner; it is believed that the Eldar, K'nib and Rashan ranked among their number. It took millennia before these new creations were ready and in that time, the C'tan along with their Necron armies extinguished even more life in the cosmos. According to Eldar legend, the paradise the Old Ones had created was now desecrated by the C'tan, whom the Eldar knew as the Yngir. Among their creations also were early Mankind, tree beasts that were part of their ecosystem but otherwise had no greater role defined for them by the Old Ones. This was the time that the Eldar referred to as the God War, fought between the C'tan-supported Necrons and the Old Ones aided by their successor races. During ancient times, the Eldar learnt a great many secrets of the Warp from the Old Ones. From this encounter, the Eldar learnt technologies that led to the eventual creation of the Webway.
By the time the Old Ones marshalled their forces, there were only four C'tan in existence, but much of life in the galaxy had already been extinguished. Eventually, the hot-blooded Young Races were unleashed, sending the Necrons reeling as the power of the Warp was an anathema to them and they struggled to contain the advance of this new offensive. In response, the C'tan unified for the first time in millions of years and began the great warding, which was to seal the Empyrean from the material universe forever, thus countering the magicks of the Old Ones. However, a seemingly unforeseen side effect of the Old Ones began to manifest in this era as the Young Races' growing pains disturbed the Warp itself with this formless energy coalescing and older warp entities become predatory as the Empyrean began to become a more hostile environment. From cracks in reality, the denizens of the warp sought entry into the material universe which forced the Old Ones to bring about the emergence of new species to defend their last strongholds. Among their creations included the green-skinned, hardy Krork and the technology-mimicking Jokaero. However, it was too late by this point with their intergalactic network being breached with their greatest works and places of power being overrun by the horrors of the warp created by their own creations. Among the most insidious of these entities were the Enslavers, who dominated the minds of the Young Races in order to create portals for more of their kind. The Enslaver Plague became the final blow for the reign of the Old Ones who scattered and forever broke their power 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
They were noted for being the the original crafters of the Webway.
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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