Necrons: A Fluffy Persepctive

So I purchased the new Necron book on Saturday because my wife has a Necron army gathering dust on one of the shelves of the closet in our office. No, really I bought it for her. Honestly (not really).

I got to sit down Saturday evening and do a good read through of the fluff because I knew it was going to be a departure from the 3rd edition fluff, and here is my summary of it.

60 Million-ish years ago the Necrontyr were on their home planet that had a very messed up star. This caused the life expectency of your average Necrontyr to be very veriable, but usually very short. So they developted this emo-like fetish with death and the afterlife.

As the Necrontyr empire spread out to occupy most of the galaxy they became very factious, and the ruler of the empire, known as the Silent King, decided that they needed a cause that the entire race could rally behind, so he picked a fight with the Old Ones. Bad idea.


While this had the desired effect of uniting all the dynasties of the Necrontyr, the Old Ones were curb-stomping the united Necrontyr. Enter the C'tan.

The C'tan known as The Deciver came to the Silent King and said, "We've fought an unseccessful war against the Old Ones as well, and we have a bone to pick with them. We'll help you out. Oh, and we'll give you immortality to boot!"

The Silent King took the deal and biotransference started. They moved the minds of the Silent King and his Overlords into some pretty snazzy living metal bodies. The Lords got some that weren't quite as snazzy, and by the time it down down to the warriors, we were looking at economy class. Thus the Necrons were born. All the while the C'tan were chowing down on the souls that were released when biotransference occured.

The Silent King was not exactly pleased at this, but he had a war to fight. He promptly kicked the Old Ones in what passed for their teeth and as everyone was cheering, launched a rebellion against the C'tan. The C'tan were sundered into "shards" that the Necrons could control.

The Silent King, a little bit distraught at what he had done to his "people" and to the galaxy at large decided it was nap time. All of the Necron worlds were transformed into Tomb Wolds and the Necrons were programmed to sleep for 60 million-ish years.

But a lot can happen in 60 million years. Stars exploded destroying some Tomb Worlds. Programming failed on others. And these pesky uncultivated life forms plundered still others. As the alarms started to go off, some Tomb Worlds started to wake up, and she what had become of the galaxy.

Unfortunately, quite a few of these early-risers were the Tomb Worlds with programming issues. Instead of a Lord or Overlord wakin up with his own thoughts and ambitions, many awoke mindless automotons. These were the Necrons we saw in 3rd edition.

I really like the fact that they are moving away from the mindless killing machines that want to destroy all life to give them some character even if they are anthropomophising and unimaginably old race of beings. I think GW made a good choice in the Ret-con of the Necrons.