Dark Pattern - A Cosmic Horror: So portentous were the circumstances of the appearance of the Derleth Lexicon that it was decided immediately that only the most learned of scholars and strongest of minds should attempt to scry its secrets, and then only under the strictest of precautions.The Dead Cabal took an immediate interest in the tome, and so it is this secretive brotherhood that has come to serve as the sole custodian within the Deathwatch and the Ordo Xenos of the terrible claims found to lurk within. It is not known if any outside of the Dead Cabal know of the Lexicon 's contents, though given their nature, it must be assumed that some do.The writer of the Lexicon appeared to be a man of an age long, long passed, and one in possession of unutterably dark wisdom he felt compelled to consign to future generations. Whether this individual was mad or genuinely blessed of a unique perspective on the events of the far future will in all likelihood never be known.The very fact that his collected writings came to be interred within the Omega Vault must surely mark them out as uniquely portentous. It was this fact alone that led the Dead Cabal to take the contents of the Derleth Lexicon very seriously indeed.The Derleth Lexicon is a description written in ages past of a region of space that most members of the Dead Cabal are certain to be the Jericho Reach.Though it speaks in riddle and allegory, the list seems to refer to the alignment of various star systems and other stellar phenomena that bear a startling, though not total, resemblance to key systems and locations within the region guarded by the Deathwatch.The text speaks of "men of metal," and "men of stone," and a great war between beings birthed in the outer darkness at the very dawn of creation.It speaks of a time of awakening triggered by the alignment of certain distant stars, and of a cataclysmic release of power that will mask the heralds of the end of all things even as it sweeps away the "watchers." After years of study, these riddles have rendered up several potential interpretations, the direst of which is as follows.The "men of metal," who most agree can only be the Necrons, are described by the Lexicon as emerging from a timeless slumber in cold tombs scattered across the stars.The "crippled king" -- surely a phaeron -- of the men of metal is the architect of a great scheme, for he long ago foresaw that upon his own awakening a mighty font of power would be unleashed, and this would be visible to all who stood vigil.In order to dissipate this release and thus maintain his secrecy, the crippled king built a vast network of arcane nodes, his intention being that when he and all of his legions are fully awakened, the power that will mark his arrival will be unleashed through the network.The crippled king's capital will remain hidden, because the power unleashed by its awakening will surge forth from a hundred valves and in so doing overwhelm all.If it is indeed true that, as the Derleth Lexicon asserts, the Dark Pattern represents a network of worlds that will each be utterly destroyed by the raw release of energy of a hidden Necron capital awakening, then the current wars of the Jericho Reach must surely pale into utter insignificance compared to the devastation soon to befall the region.Scarce Ordo Xenos data confirms that when a Necron Tomb World fully awakens, such a staggering amount of energy is unleashed that those suitably equipped to detect such things can do so from many light years in all directions. Such a method of dispersal as the Lexicon hints at would certainly blind any watchers to the Tomb World's location and make a response impossible.Of late, the Deathwatch has fought more and more battles against the Necrons, and so those of the Dead Cabal concerned with the interpretation of the Derleth Lexicon grow ever more certain that the time of awakening is at hand.They have placed great store in identifying each of the supposed nodes in the Dark Pattern, so that they can at least prepare for a time when those worlds might be destroyed.It can surely be no coincidence that many of the worlds of the Dark Pattern are already well and truly under the scrutiny of the Deathwatch, a fact that serves to many to confirm the awful accuracy of the dreadful text.