vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Necrons - Gheden, Planet of Shadow, Crownworld of the Nihilakh Dynasty: Due to a devastating fault in a dimensional stabiliser array, the crownworld of Gheden is half-phased into a pocket dimension for all but a few solar hours of its stellar orbit.What was first thought of as a catastrophe has since proved to be a great boon to the Necrons of Gheden, as their world is now almost entirely impervious to assault.Deep beneath Gheden's surface lies the Oracle Chamber, where the bulbous head of an ancient alien prophet gifted with psychic precognition is kept alive through a combination of stasis field technology and temporal stabilisers.The prophet's thoughts are projected as multifaceted holographic images which, in theory, show events yet to unfurl.That said, the creature continually rails against his ghoulish imprisonment and obfuscates the images so that they mislead his captors as often as they are truthful.
Necrons - Thanatos and the Celestial Orrery: The Tomb World of Thanatos is a hollow planet, and hidden at its heart is one of the galaxy's greatest treasures -- the Celestial Orrery.Crafted by artisans of the Oruscar Dynasty long before the onset of the War in Heaven, this web of hologram and living metal is beyond price for its artistic value alone.Yet the Celestial Orrery is far more than mere decorative finery. The tiny pinpricks of glowing light suspended within the impossibly intricate holographic matrix record the positions of every star in the galaxy.Snuff out one of these lights and its physical counterpart in the real galaxy will go supernova long millennia before its destined time, bringing fiery oblivion to all nearby worlds through the use of technology far beyond the understanding of Mankind.Such an act cannot be performed without consideration, however, as each star destroyed in this fashion upsets the fundamental forces of the galaxy, setting off a catastrophic chain reaction of events.Only with further manipulation of the Celestial Orrery can these forces be returned to their proper balance, and this invariably takes many thousands of Terran years of constant and precise micromanagement. With so much power at their fingertips, it is well that the Royal Court of Thanatos is not given to maniacal displays.Rather, they see themselves as the gardeners of Creation and dispassionately use the Orrery in a precise and sparing manner, pruning the galaxy only out of need to prevent it from becoming wild and overgrown.Alas, this restraint is not something universally respected. Unending war rages across Thanatos' barren continents and in the skies above, as the armies and fleets of the Oruscar Dynasty seek to prevent the Celestial Orrery from falling into the incautious hands of aliens and other Necron dynasties alike.
Necrons - Bone Kingdom of Drazak: In the extreme northeast of the galaxy lies the region known as the Ghoul Stars. Here, on worlds lit by cold rays of dying suns, tread creatures out of primal nightmares: Cythor Fiends, Togoran Bloodreeks and other creatures so alien as to seem born out of the supernatural. Yet even here, one horror outpaces all others -- the Bone Kingdom of Drazak.Drazak is a world that serves as a haunt for the Flayed Ones, those cursed Necrons blighted by a terrible disease that has given them an irrational hunger for organic flesh. They stalk Drazak's desolate streets, fighting over gobbets of rotting meat and shards of bone, desperate to sate the clamour of their deluded senses.Only one amongst Drazak's entire population of Necrons is proof from the Flayer Virus' pervading madness -- Valgul, the Fallen Lord. Fron his throne of splintered bone and tanned skin, Valgul rules over this charnel kingdom, his one good eye ever fixed upon retaining what small measure of order he can.Seemingly, Valgul remains untouched by the Flayer Virus that has consumed his people, but what truly sane creature would willingly live amongst gibbering Flayed Ones? Perhaps he remains from a sense of duty, or maybe his personal madness merely takes another, more subtle, form.Valgul's rule is not founded on reason -- the devolved nature of his subjects makes such notions laughable -- but is grounded in his ability to provide the gory bounty in which his subjects delight.Every few solar months, when no more meat remains -- whether because it has been torn into fragments too tiny to scrabble over or simply due to inexorable rot -- Valgul announces a new Time of Bounty, and despatches the fleets of Drazak to raid nearby worlds.These reavers of Drazak seek not riches nor conventional plunder -- only "red harvests" of gore and cooling blood.
Necrons - Trantis, the Raider's Moon: Though nominally a Tomb World, Trantis is, in truth, but a Necron fringeworld, and the satellite of the much larger and resource-rich Imperial world of Mandal.Since revival, the Necrons of Trantis have been a terror on Mandal's Human farming and mining communities. Striking always in the hours of darkness, low-flying squadrons of Night Scythes flit over the landscape, deploying small forces of Necron raiders to plunder and pillage.It is not uncommon for entire Human settlements to be overwhelmed and harvested within a single night with only a large and barren crater to show where people once lived and worked.Mandal's communes are so far apart that whole solar days can pass before a disappearance is noted, and certainly too distant for help to be dispatched once a raid begins.The inhabitants of Mandal have thus learnt to dread the onset of dusk. As darkness descends, a curfew begins, blast doors are sealed and sentries set. Yet every few nights another Human settlement vanishes without warning and without trace.Ironically, Trantis was only ever intended as a Necron way station for resources and raw materials. It lacks the ability to use more than a fraction of the plunder taken from the planet below and was to ship the excess to other nearby coreworlds.Since the Great Sleep, however, Trantis' portion of the Webway has become sundered from all others, effectively isolating it from those Necron worlds it used to supply through a Dolmen Gate.Accordingly, Trantis is slowly drowning in plundered resources for which it has little use. Yet still the raids on Mandal continue...
Necrons - Zapennec, the Reaveworld: In the final hours of the War in Heaven, one of its greatest battles occurred above Zapennec, the crownworld of the Sarnekh Dynasty. There, Zapennec's royal fleet fought valiantly to repel an Aeldari assault of almost incalculable size.The battle was a brief one, but no less deadly for all that. Whilst the surviving Aeldari retreated, leaving the planet itself unharmed, its orbit was, from that moment, clogged with the spiralling and blackened wreckage of the once-proud fleets.So soon after the battle did the Great Sleep descend, that the Necrons of Zapennec had no time to clear their skies. Thus did they enter hibernation with their planet shielded by a spinning shroud of wraithbone and living metal necrodermis wreckage.So would things remain until the 41st Millennium and the return of the Sarnekh Dynasty's most notorious outcast, the self-styled pirate king Thaszar the Invincible.Awakening on Athonos, the Tomb World to which he had been exiled, and driven by some urge he could not identify, Thaszar returned to Zapennec. Finding its people deep in hibernation, he inveigled his way into the Tomb World's master control program, its Tomb Mind.In short order he convinced the Tomb Mind that he, Thazar the Invincible, was no dishonoured noble returned from exile, but in fact the rightful phaeron of the Sarnekh Dynasty!For good measure, he then ordered that this updated status be engrammatically encoded into the minds of the Tomb World's slumbering Necrons. So did the outcast of Zapennec become its ruler, and those who had banished him become his servants.Under Thaszar's command, the ancient and noble crownworld of the Sarnekh Dynasty has been made over into the Reaveworld.In the shroud of orbital wreckage surrounding the planet, Thaszar has access to all the raw materials he will ever need to build a Necron pirate fleet the scale of which has not been seen for 60 million Terran years; in the reprogrammed Necrons of Zapennec, he has crews and captains of unfailing loyalty.Thaszar's vessels have already begun to prowl both the Webway and realspace, and the galaxy will surely come to rue the day he awakened.
Necrons - Empire of the Severed: When electromagnetic radiation storms ravaged the Tomb World of Sarkon, they destroyed forever the memory engrams of every Necron interred within its stasis-tombs. With its charges thus rendered mindless, the complex's Tomb Mind took charge of their living metal bodies.Little realising that its own logic systems had also been damaged by the radiation storms, the artificially intelligent Tomb Mind observed the quiet order it had brought to Sarkon and resolved to bring this same order to other worlds far and wide.Searching its databases, the Tomb Mind sent its mindless Necron legions of "the Severed" to invade Takarak, a slumbering Tomb World located nearby.Takarak's defences were swiftly overwhelmed, and the "Sarkoni Emperor" (for this was how the Sarkoni Tomb Mind now thought of itself as its madness deepened) erased the minds of Takarak's slumbering inhabitants and claimed their bodies for itself.As of 967.M41, another three Tomb Worlds have been overcome in this same manner, and the Sarkoni Emperor has begun to extend its will across other, non-Necron worlds, using Mindshackle Scarabs to bring any unruly organic creatures under its direct control just like its Severed servants.
Necrons - Moebius, the Twisted Catacomb, Crownworld of the Nekthyst Dynasty: The Necron nobles of the Nekthyst Dynasty ever had a talent for deception, and their crownworld of Moebius stands as an enduring testament to that devious mindset.The extradimensional hyperspace corridors connecting Moebius' countless crypts take the form of an ever-shifting maze, ensuring that no journey through the catacombs is ever the same twice -- as at least one Deathwatch Kill-team has found out to its cost.
Necrons - Stasis Docks of Seidon: In ancient times, Seidon lay at the heart of Necrontyr expansion. It was from this coreworld's stardocks 60 million standard years ago that the first Necrontyr antimatter-fueled torch-ships set out into the stars, carrying colonists beyond the boundaries of Necrontyr space.Throughout the War in Heaven, the wharves of Seidon continued to ply their trade, but instead sent expeditionary forces in search of fresh worlds to conquer.Every thirty-three solar weeks, another vast stasis-ship would launch from the dockyards of Seidon, carrying a legion of Immortals to some distant planet.When the Great Sleep ended and Seidon woke once again to full function, its rulers decided that they could best serve their final orders by continuing on their mission of conquest.Alas, unbeknownst to the Tomb World's Necron Overlord, Seidon's Tomb Mind master program suffered corruption during the Great Sleep and many records were destroyed or inexplicably altered.No longer are the great ships set forth on courses that intersect with planetary systems. Instead, each vessel is launched on a random heading, as likely to plunge it into the blazing heart of a star or into the tendriled maw of a Tyranid hive fleet as it is to result in safe planetfall.Yet as Seidon's Necron nobility have no need to query the Tomb Mind, the fault continues to go unnoticed. Thus, for every thirty-three solar weeks that pass, another legion of Immortals depart on their perilous journey into the unknown...
Necrons - Trakonn of Ten Thousand Spires, Crownworld of the Dyvanakh Dynasty: The Necrons of Trakonn originally awoke in the early 41st Millennium, but were not to shake off their hibernation-induced disorientation for nearly five hundred standard years.This proved sufficient time for their Tomb World to draw the attention of the Tech-priests of a neighbouring Forge World of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and the internal battle to regain consciousness swiftly overlapped with a series of wars against the forces of the Imperium of Man.Now the siege has finally ended, and Trakonn's armies have finally cast the upstart Humans from their planet and begun the search for the other Tomb Worlds of their dynasty.Alas, they have been unable to make contact with even a single one, and must now assume that the records of old no longer match the reality of the present-day galaxy.In this they are, at best, only tangentially correct. The missing Dyvanakh Tomb Worlds were actually engulfed and destroyed by a Warp Storm thousands of Terran years before Trakonn ever emerged from the Great Sleep.Ignorant of this fact, the nobles of Trakonn continue their hopeless search to this day.
Necrons - Blood Vats of Zantragora: The Necron nobles of the Tomb World of Zantragora have but one overriding goal. Their aim is apotheosis, the undoing of biotransference's curse of soullessness by transferring their consciousnesses into the organic bodies of other sentient beings.Their belief that such a thing is possible is rooted both in the final command of the Silent King, and in prophecies made at the time of the Great Sleep.These, while predicting that apotheosis would come to pass, lacked much in the way of detail, and it has ever been unclear whether the Necrons need to take over other organic bodies, or clone new ones drawn from the original Necrontyr genetic material for their eternal minds to reinhabit.To this end, the legions and fleets of Zantragora scour the galaxy for fresh subjects, following strict search patterns lest they somehow miss a world whose inhabitants hold the key to their transformation.Hundreds of thousands of such "samples," both living and dead, are taken from every inhabited planet in the search pattern.Sealed in stasis-sleep, these individuals are conveyed back to Zantragora to feed the never-ending series of autopsies, gene-splicing, tissue mutation and molecular deconstruction that typifies the Necron quest for apotheosis.Progress has proved excruciatingly slow, and every step is marked in the blood of the "lesser" species.
Necrons - Nodal Command: Necron Tomb Worlds appear to have no permanent organisation or command structure, nor is the interaction of the various forces altogether clear to the savants of the Imperium.The Necrons' form of warfare could best be described as a continuous process of causality, as each battle, campaign and "Harvest" produces preordained responses from the controlling program of the Tomb World.This evolving structure is made possible by a system similar to that used in the most complex assemblies of the Adeptus Mechanicus, which is known as "Nodal Command."Nodal Command organisation allocates a strict hierarchy to all of the elements within it. This system grants greater operational and decision-making capacity to certain "nodes" whilst slaving the rest of the system to these nodes' autonomous command decisions.Necron Overlords and Lords form the nodes of the command structure, allowing each noble an allocated hierarchical value at any given time.Though the Adeptus Mechanicus can only guess at how this Nodal Command system truly operates, they have determined that there are at least four levels of hierarchy within the Nodal Command, which the Tech-priests have designated Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum levels, in ascending order of command priority.The Nodal Command system is also a communications structure and forms the basis for how intelligence information is gathered and orders issued to the necessary Necron units. The system is often likened to the ancient flow charts once used to design cogitator algorithms during the Age of Technology.The decisions taken by a higher-level Necron Overlord (such as a Gold-level), give a single, quick response. All relevant data and orders are then automatically disseminated to any subservient Lords -- the Silver-and Bronze-level Lords slaved to the Gold-level commander.In situations where speed is less important than processing all of the relevant information, decision-making defers across several Bronze or Silver-level Lords, and can even devolve down to the individual Necron Warriors at specific times during combat.This system allows for a great deal of coordination when required, but also still leaves room for independent action by distant combat groups should the need arise.A Platinum-level Necron Lord has not yet been encountered by Imperial forces. Savant speculation indicates that this level of Necron Lord would command massive Necron fleets intended to conquer entire swathes of the galaxy.Such a Necron force might prove unstoppable.
Necrons - Escalation: After multiple encounters with the Necrons, it has become obvious to Imperial savants that as a conflict worsens, a Tomb World will temporarily withdraw its existing forces from combat before releasing a new, more potent army led by an extended Nodal Command.Essentially, the more a foe escalates its response to Necron forces, the more devastating will become the Necron offensive.In most situations, only a few Necron Warriors and specialist support units like Destroyers or Wraiths are deployed to defeat an emerging threat.But as resistance grows, so does the strength of the forces that will be released by the Tomb World's autonomic systems to the Nodal Command structure for use by the commanding Necron Lord or Lords.Combat escalation with the Necrons of a specific Tomb World will grow in this exponential fashion until the forces that are capable of being deployed by the Necrons represent a level of destructive power that can surpass that of any other enemy Humanity has ever faced, including the Tyranids and even Chaos.Seemingly endless ranks of Necron Warriors will be transported into combat by armadas of newly-awakened Monoliths, while Immortals and Destroyers by the hundreds will be released in relentless waves against enemy troops.Scores of horrific Flayed Ones and Wraiths will terrorise civilian populations and destroy morale behind the front lines.It is believed by many Imperial savants that some Tomb Worlds still maintain a wide variety of units more powerful and destructive than the massed phalanxes of Necron Warriors and Monoliths that have been encountered by the defenders of the Imperium to date.All that is required for these unseen units to be committed to the fight is for the combat to escalate to a level that has not yet been attained. The mind reels from imagining what kinds of horrific machines the Necrons may yet unleash upon an unsuspecting galaxy when this unknown line is finally crossed in the not-too-distant future.The Dead Worlds that have been found close to many present Tomb Worlds scoured of all life are perhaps testaments to the true fate of those who oppose the undying Necrons.
Necrons - Null Field Matrices: As creatures long without any kind of spiritual essence, the Necrons cannot project their minds into the Warp or harness its power to any degree.They are unable to use the Warp to journey across the galaxy and are thoroughly bereft of any native psykers.In many ways, this is a boon, for the Empyrean is always a fickle servant, given to wreaking havoc on those who seek to claim its power.Yet this absence of psychic ability enforces its own limitations, particularly when combating creatures to whom sorcery is as much a part of war as conventional munitions, as there is no surer defence against a psyker than another, more powerful, psyker.To compensate, many Necron Tomb Worlds are shielded from psychic disturbance by vast Null Field Matrices.Developed during the War in Heaven, these networks of anti-psychic field emitters generate an unknown energy field that destabilises a psyker's connection to the Warp, rendering him unable to utilise his full power.Similarly, Daemons in the presence of Null Field Matrices have a tendency to flicker in and out of existence, as if unable to maintain a solid foothold in reality.In the 41st Millennium, the Null Field Matrix has also proven to have a deleterious effect upon the Tyranids. The vassals of the Hive Mind are not immune to the unsettling soulessness of the Necrons, and the Null Field Matrix only serves to exacerbate this effect on the normally inviolate Hive Mind.Alas for the Necrons, such defences are far from complete. A Null Field Matrix requires incredible amounts of power to function properly and is a fragile device that must be hidden away at a Tomb World's very heart to prevent its destruction.Nonetheless, they stand as testaments to the Necrons' ability to create a technological defence against any form of attack, no matter its genesis.Additionally, it was a further extension of this same technology that led to the Necrons' uncompleted Great Work, the creation of the network of anti-psychic blackstone pylons erected on Cadia and many other worlds across the galaxy that were intended to cut off access to the Warp by all inhabitants of realspace forever.Luckily for the psykers of the galaxy, the Necrons entered the Great Sleep before this project could be completed, though it is possible that the phaerons of the more active dynasties might like to see it begun once more.
Necrons - Forces of the Necrons: All Necrons are tall, skeletal figures made of a living metal called Necrodermis that provides excellent protection in battle and is able to repair itself if damaged, allowing even heavily damaged Necrons to rise up and do battle once more.An interesting phenomenon of the Necrons is that when a battle has turned strongly against them, their entire army will simply vanish from the battlefield using unknown phase technology. This includes even 'dead' Necrons (those who have not yet repaired themselves) and those already engaged in close combat. Because of this, enemy forces like the Imperium have had great difficulty in obtaining Necron artifacts or "corpses" to study.
Necrons - Necron Overlord: Of all Necron Lords, a Necron Overlord is by far the most powerful and dangerous. At his command are uncountable legions of Necron Warriors, terrifying war machines and a vast array of devastating weaponry that could shatter entire worlds given half the chance. When he marches to war, the Necron Overlord does so with the surety of victory -- he has cogitated and calculated every possible outcome in the ensuing conflict and formulated strategies to ensure that everything goes to plan.Only the most unlikely situations can outfox him and only the most potent foes have any chance of beating him in combat. Weapons glance off his armour or simply pass straight through him as he shifts in and out of reality using the Necrons phase shifting technology. In return, his own attacks are brutally meticulous as he severs heads, shatters armour and pulverises his foes with every swing of his ancient blade. Should a Necron Overlord rise to the position of Phaeron, and ruler of an entire sector, then few will have the strength to stand before his might.
Necrons - Necron Lord: A Necron Lord is the most sophisticated of the ancient race of soulless xenos known as the Necrons. A Necron Lord serves as the commander and energy supply for the much larger Necron armies composed of the standard Necron Warriors. When the Necrontyr gave up their organic bodies to serve the C'tan, they transferred their consciousnesses into bodies made of the living metal "Necrodermis". However, they soon discovered that over an extended period of time, their new robotic bodies dulled their minds and their ability to feel any type of emotion or pleasure.Over many millennia, the ultimate outcome of this process of gradual desensitisation was that the Necrons became the soulless warrior-slaves of the C'tan, harvesting intelligent life from across the galaxy to feed these souls to their insatiable masters. Only the most powerful and strong-willed of the Necron nobility, referred to as Necron Lords, managed to gain access to Necrodermis bodies following biotransference that were sophisticated enough to allow them to maintain their full sentience in the face of the growing dullness of their minds. A Necron Lord is a high-ranking member of a Necron dynasty's noble hierarchy and is usually placed by the dynasty's Phaeron or his own Overlord in control of a legion of Necrons.Clad in crumbling vestments and wielding ancient, arcane staff weapons, the Necron Lord is a chilling sight to behold on the battlefield as they direct their Necron Warriors in unnatural silence. Their ancient metallic bodies are marred by the patina of age and they wear the accumulated power of millennia like a robe. With every silent gesture, glittering arcs of viridian energy surround them as their empty eye sockets burn with soulless fire.
Necrons - Necron Cryptek: A Cryptek is one of the technologists and engineers of the Necron race, and they are responsible for studying and maintaining the technology of the Necron dynasties. A Cryptek's powers mirror that of the psykers found amongst the other intelligent species of the galaxy. However, while psykers channel the energies of the Warp to accomplish their seemingly supernatural feats, a Cryptek uses his highly advanced knowledge of science and technology to manipulate the universe's fundamental forces and produce many of the same seemingly magical effects.They are masters of dimensional dissonance, singularity manipulation, atomic transmutation, elemental transmogrification and countless other reason-defying technologies. What a Cryptek often accomplishes with his technology is nothing short of magical to the eyes of the lesser intelligent races.With his knowledge of arcane sciences, a Cryptek can transmute a foe into liquid adamantium, turn him into a speck of dwarf star matter, set the air ablaze, call down eldritch bolts of lightning and other equally impressive feats of technological arcana. Such technological aptitude and power is highly sought after by Necron Overlords, who will try to meet whatever demands are made by the Crypteks in exchange for their services.
Necrons - Destroyer Lord: A Necron Destroyer Lord is a sentient member of the Necron elite, a former Necron Lord or Overlord, who has fallen prey to the madness of the Necron Destroyers. Even the Necron nobility are not safe from the madness that consumes the Destroyers. When a Necron Lord or Overlord succumbs, a great threat to all life is born.Ironically, the only reason the Imperium is not aware of the extent of this threat is precisely because these Destroyer Lords are so aptly named. No one has borne witness to the atrocities committed by these steel harbingers of apocalypse and lived, and so it can only be guessed at the threat stirring on barren worlds scattered across the galaxy.While many Necron Lords and Overlords are afflicted by "eccentricities," the insanity that consumes the mind of a Destroyer Lord is something else entirely. Like other Destroyers, Destroyer Lords modify their bodies and minds, so that they might be better suited to their overarching purpose, to cleanse the stars of all life. While this most often includes the attachment of an anti-gravitic suspensor platform in place of legs, Destroyer Lords tend to forgo the ranged weaponry favoured by other Destroyers in favour of melee weapons. The Warscythe is a particular favourite, as a Destroyer Lord hovering above the heads of his enemies can take full advantage of the reach afforded by these massive melee weapons.Curiously, Destroyer Lords forgo the decorative finery commonly worn by Necron royalty. Whether this is representative of their single-minded obsession, an intentional statement, or a simple matter of practicality, none can say, for the Destroyer Lords are avoided by their former peers as much as the other Destroyers, and are not keen to engage in conversation (except to learn the location of potential targets).
Necrons - Deathmarks: Necron Deathmarks are the highly-skilled snipers and assassins of the Necron forces, appearing from apparently nowhere and striking with terrible precision. The name is fitting: once given the "hunter's mark," a Deathmark's targets are almost certain to meet their deaths scant moments later. Like most Necrons, the Deathmarks' technology lies far beyond the realm of human comprehension and they can effectively phase in and out of normal space-time at will. Their victims will assume that they have been ambushed, that the Deathmarks teleported onto the battlefield.The reality is that they were already there, waiting out of phase for just the right moment to slaughter their victims. Few enemy commanders encounter Deathmarks and live to tell the tale. In appearance, Deathmarks are more akin to Necron Immortals in the craftsmanship of their mechanical bodies. They are distinguished by a single, large green-glowing eye, and the arcane orbs projecting from their spines. These orbs flare with an unnatural light as a Deathmark utilises its occult powers to mark their targets.In keeping with their role, Deathmarks display a propensity for stealth that is all but unique amongst the Necron ranks. Moving as they do with the eerie silence that is the hallmark of the Necron legions, Deathmarks can be surprisingly stealthy in their slow, deliberate movements.
Necrons - Triarch Praetorians: Triarch Praetorians hold a great responsibility -- to ensure that the ruling Necron dynasties never fall. The Praetorians held the responsibility of maintaining the Triarch's rule, to ensure that wars and politics alike were pursued according to ancient codes. As such, they acted outside the political structures, and held both the right and the means to enforce their will should a Lord, Overlord or even a Phaeron's behaviour contravene the edicts of old.During the War in Heaven the Triarch Praetorians fought at the forefront of that cataclysm, but their efforts were all for naught. When the Necron race entered hibernation after the end of the War in Heaven over 60 million Terran years ago, the Triarch Praetorians chose to remain awake. Now, as the Necrons awaken once more into a strife-torn galaxy, the Triarch Praetorians have also re-emerged to serve the Necron Lords' dynastic legions.They will rarely join a battle immediately, preferring to hover above the fray on Gravity Displacement Packs before launching themselves right into the heart of the enemy army. With the devastating weapon known as a Rod of Covenant at their disposal there is very little that can survive the assault of a Triarch Praetorian.
Necrons - Lychguard: The Necron Lychguard are the elite protectors and emissaries of the Necron nobility. In order to serve as a bulwark against those who would harm their charge, Lychguards were gifted with the highest quality of living metal bodies, equal in resilience and power to those inhabited by the Lords and Overlords they protect. In addition to serving as wardens, Lychguards often act as messengers and envoys for their masters. In order to better serve in this capacity, the personality and intellect of the Lychguards was preserved through the process of bio-transference to a much greater extent than the rank and file.As with other Necrons, Lychguards fulfil the same roles in undeath as they did in life, and, as with other Necrons, the capability for disobedience has been removed. The Necron Lords and Overlords of the 41st millennium need never worry about a treacherous knife in the back from a supposedly loyal guardian, making the Lychguards the last defence against the machinations of rival nobles. Owing to their powerful frames, Lychguards are taller and broader than Necron Warriors, with broad shoulder blades and a pronounced spine that extends above their heads.Reflecting their status and, perhaps, their individual preferences, Lychguards are often adorned with decorative headgear and segmented metal tabards. Lychguards are typically armed with warscythes, massive polearms with blades sheathed in a highly advanced and devastating power field. Backed up by the formidable strength of a Lychguard, a warscythe can split even an armoured warrior of the Adeptus Astartes nearly in two. Some will also carry Hyperphase Swords and Dispersion Shields, which are marginally less powerful, but offer increased protection.
Necrons - Pariah: Pariahs are crafted from a terrible symbiosis of Necron technology and human evolution. They are created from human victims abducted by the Necrons who bear the "Pariah Gene" that severs the bearer's psyche completely from the Warp, effectively making them both soulless creatures and immune to the effects of all psychic abilities.However, despite this psychic immunity, Pariahs tend to not live long as the feelings of hatred and distaste they generate among others due to their soulless state means they have few friends and many enemies. Pariahs are very rare in the galaxy since perhaps only one person on an entire world will be a carrier of the gene in every human generation. Pariahs are often used by the Inquisition and the Ordo Hereticus against the witches and renegade psykers. Also, due to their soullessness, human Pariahs are completely without fear.Necron Pariahs are former human bearers of the Pariah Gene who have been encased within new cybernetic bodies forged from the living metal called necrodermis by the Necrons and their minds are soon enslaved to the will of the Necron noble caste in a manner similar to the standard Necron Warriors as their new bodies drain their abilities to feel any emotion or pleasure. The Pariah Gene is extremely rare and confined solely to Mankind, meaning that Pariahs are quite rare in the galaxy, and there are very few even amongst the Necrons.Pariahs have an extreme detrimental effect on the psychic powers of any psykers they come into contact with. Pariahs wield spear-like Warscythes that are also outfitted with built-in Gauss Blasters that make them extremely dangerous opponents. Pariahs also radiate an unnatural aura as a result of their soullessness that has a terribly unnerving effect upon their enemies, but especially for psykers who can become incapacitated by their sheer presence.
Necrons - Flayed One: Flayed Ones are twisted and ghoulish terrors afflicted by an ancient infection that act as specialised close combat troops who appear from an unknown pocket dimension of their hideous kind to join the Necron armies in battle, though never by invitation from the Necrons themselves. These loathsome creatures were once Necrontyr who managed to retain some of their original consciousness when they were transferred into their living metallic bodies of necrodermis, but were cursed with a terrible disease, manifesting a hunger for flesh that cannot be satisfied and that eventually drove them to madness.Advancing before a Necron force, these stooped yet terrifyingly agile automatons excel at infiltrating and spreading terror like a plague within the ranks of their foes. They are quite capable melee fighters, and make use of flensing blades that extend from their fingers and can flay a man alive in seconds. Thin and wiry, they habitually adorn themselves with the still-wet pieces of skin and hide they have stripped from their victims, leaving behind the skinned corpses to sow fear and confusion.In such a state they are a terrifying sight to behold, so much so that enemy combatants lose their nerve when they see pieces of old squadmates hanging from the undying machines approaching their lines. In addition to their wicked claws, some Flayed Ones utilise Necron Disruption Field technology that allows them to rip even armoured vehicles apart.
Necrons - Tomb Stalker: The Tomb Stalker is a massive Necron robotic construct that serves as a guardian on Necron Tomb Worlds. The Tomb Stalker is the Necron equivalent of a small Imperial Battle Titan. During their long periods of dormancy the Necrons left their sepulchres guarded by silent, tireless machines. Of these powerful constructs, the most fearsome known to Mankind is the Tomb Stalker. The Tomb Stalker is an enormous mass of living-metal carapace teeming with flashing legs and possessed of a murderous will. Easily the size of a dozen men, this centipede-like robotic construct makes use of arcane Phase Generators, allowing it to stalk the Tomb World of its slumbering Necron lords, burrowing through solid ground.It uses its powerful senses to trail its prey from kilometres away and can sense the frenzied rhythm of a panicked man's heartbeat through hundreds of metres of solid stone. The Stalker's immense size combined with its natural capacity for regeneration as a result of its Necrodermis carapace creates a nearly indestructible creature.Even beyond the more common warriors of the undying Necron legions, these insectoid constructs continue to thrash and fight with deadly ferocity despite damage or dismemberment. The individual segments of the insect-like machine seem drawn to one another and will reconstitute themselves to reform the whole mechanical nightmare should they come back into contact.
Necrons - Necron Warriors: Necron Warriors are the primary infantry troops of the soulless, robotic Necrons. They were created from the majority of the Necrontyr people who agreed to be bound to the will of their Star Gods, the terrible entities known as the C'tan. The Necrontyr's consciousnesses were transferred into robotic bodies made of the living metal called Necrodermis. Over a long period of time, the new unliving bodies dulled the Necrontyr's minds and their abilities to feel emotion or pleasure.Across many millennia, the ultimate outcome of this process of gradual desensitization was that the Necrontyr became little more than souless automatons, the warrior-slaves of the C'tan who scour the galaxy for souls to feed their insatiable masters' appetities for living energy. In battle, their massive numbers and superior firepower overwhelm their enemies before they retreat back to their Tomb complexes, awaiting the next call to battle from their Necron Lord.The skeletal forms of Necron Warriors are a spine-chilling sight to behold; kinetic projectiles and lasblasts bounce harmlessly from their metallic limbs. The Gauss Flayer which they wield is no less terrifying, as it strips its targets to atoms, dissolving skin and muscle in a heartbeat and then disintegrating bone until nothing remains.
Necrons - Immortal: The Necron Immortals are those favoured Necrontyr who were among the first to give up their flesh and embrace the necrodermis and their C'tan gods. For this, they were rewarded by being turned into Immortals. In life, Immortals were the professional soldiery of the Necrontyr empire. In death, they surpass the Warriors in nearly every way.Possessed of even more resilient frames, Necron Immortals prove almost impervious to small arms. Their training and experience in combat survived the process of bio-transference undiminished, and Immortals seem to have retained a brighter spark of intellect than their less favoured brethren, although only in regard to the practice of war.Outside of combat, Immortals display about as much personality as a Monotask Servitor. Immortals are typically armed with gauss blasters, weapons even deadlier than the Gauss Flayers used by Warriors.
Necrons - Canoptek Wraith: A Canoptek Wraith is one of the more sophisticated units employed by the forces of the Necrons. Canoptek Wraiths prowl the corridors of slumbering tombs of a Necron Tomb World, gliding silently through the cyclopean corridors, guarding against intrusion and ensuring the safety of its slumbering occupants. These grotesque floating killers lack legs or body except for a serpentine spinal column, and float over the battlefield using anti-gravity technology like ghosts.Their wide, hunched shoulders support a leering, skull face and long, whip-like arms that wield Necrodermis scalpel blades for fingers and a nightmare array of surgical implements. Moving with unnatural fluidity, Canoptek Wraiths are fearsome in close combat, but what makes a Wraith such a fearful combatant, however, is the advanced Phase Shifter housed within its durable frame. This Dimensional Destabilisation Matrix allows a Canoptek Wraith to selectively phase parts of itself, whether that be momentarily phasing its body to avoid a strike, or even phasing its vicious claws in order to bypass armour and rip into the flesh of enemies.Thus, they have been granted the Imperial sobriquet of "Wraiths." This phase shifting ability which is based on the standard Necron phasing technology that they use to travel across the galaxy allows Wraiths to avoid physical damage from weapons or to even move through solid objects. It has been suggested by certain Imperial savants that in ancient days before the War in Heaven the Wraiths were once Necrontyr murderers and psychopaths before their eternal entombment within their cold, metallic husks.
Necrons - Destroyer: Necron Destroyers are deranged agents of annihilation whose sole reason for existence is centred around an unshakeable yearning to quench the flames of life. A Destroyer cares not for borders or dynasty allegiance, nor does he make any distinction between the innocent and the damned -- all life is his enemy, and all living creatures are his prey.A Destroyer is a heavily altered variant of the Necron Immortal. Their torso is fused to a skimming anti-gravity flyer that enables them to attack faster and further than the standard Immortals. Destroyers are equally broad with a more pronounced spine from which their terrible weapons draw their power. Ferociously quick, the most common use for Destroyers is as mobile fire support platforms.Remaining at the forefront of the Necron force's bloody harvest, they reap a heavy toll on the enemy, the speed and ferocity of their attacks undiminished by their antiquity. Destroyers are equipped with a Gauss Cannon that reaps a heavy toll on their enemies and is especially effective against light infantry forces. Destroyers are even capable of reliably damaging light armoured vehicles. With their superior anti-gravity technology their mobility equals that of an Aeldari Jetbike.
Necrons - Canoptek Spyders: Canoptek Spyders are huge metal constructs, their immense weight effortlessly propelled by sophisticated anti-gravitic engines. Their bodies are large and rounded in order to accommodate the internal systems that construct the smaller constructs known as Canoptek Scarabs as needed. This, combined with their multiple limbs and compound visual sensors, give an arachnoid aspect that enhances the fearful appearance of these monstrous robots.The fabricator claws that allow Canoptek Spyders to effect repairs on nearly any of the tomb's systems also make for frighteningly destructive weapons, and they sometimes sport additional weaponry. When the Necrons do rise from their crypts, Canoptek Spyders often accompany them in battle, both for their combat abilities and their capability for repairing damage that is beyond even the abilities of their Necron masters' advanced systems.
Necrons - Necron Fleets: While Necron forces are usually land-based, Necron space vessels are not unheard of, and they are quite possibly much more common than people realize, and simply not seen. This is supported by the Necrons' terrifying ability to appear anywhere using their phase technology.There are more than two dozen records of Necron contacts in space in Imperial archives, and accounts of other intelligent species like the Orks, Aeldari and T'au battling Necron fleets also exist.Necron technology is beyond anything the galaxy has ever seen, surpassing even that of the highly advanced Aeldari. Their voidships are stunningly fast and agile, equipped with propulsion systems which are capable of traveling interstellar distances without entering the Warp as well as by using the Dolmen Gates into the Webway.This is achieved, as far as is known, by somehow making their ships unbound by inertia or mass, allowing them to accelerate almost instantly and infinitely, which explains why Necron voidships are often seen to be visibly decelerating upon reaching the site of battle.This also protects them from many of the practical problems and dangers of Warp travel. All Necron starships are well-armored in necrodermis, equipped with self-repair systems and utilize some sort of advanced stealth technology which makes them difficult to detect for enemy targeting systems, granting Necron vessels surprising staying power.Although still devastating, Necron naval weaponry does not seem to match the raw power of some Imperial designs. However, the Necrons weaponry is known to bypass many conventional defense systems, such as void shields and even Aeldari holofields, and strike with an unearthly accuracy.In every battle so far the Necrons could only be defeated by superior numbers, and engaging Necrons on even terms proved to be suicidal. Fortunately, all of the Necron fleets encountered so far were small task forces that usually disengaged and phased out like their land-based counterparts, rather than putting up a full fight.But their frequency seems to be increasing and the possibility of a massive Necron attack is dreaded by the Imperium as well as other sentient races.Even as a raiding force, they are a serious threat because they are fully capable of outmaneuvering most other fleets (probably with the exception of the Asuryani and their dark Drukhari kin) to pick fights on an even footing.This often leads to catastrophic losses for enemy fleets and forces them to somehow stall with an utterly inferior fighting force for overwhelming reinforcements to arrive, at which point the Necrons simply disengage and phase away.
Necrons - Necrodermis: Necrodermis is the xenos material created millions of years ago by the Necrontyr species that is often described as "living metal."  The name literally means "corpse skin" (from Greek νεκρος and δερμις, or dermis). It was originally used by the Necrontyr to construct their massive sub-light starships that explored and settled the Milky Way Galaxy millions of years ago.It was later adapted to create the robotic bodies possessed by the C'tan and inhabited by the Necrontyr after they agreed to have their consciousnesses transferred from their short-lived organic forms. This process transformed the Necrontyr into the undying Necrons.Necrodermis is a material of unknown origin and chemical or molecular structure that possesses the extraordinary ability to regenerate almost all damage instantaneously, "flowing" back together as if it were a liquid while closing bullet holes, mending gashes and tears, or even reattaching severed pieces with little delay.The material is also adaptive in some unknown fashion and can "learn" to repair itself given enough time from nearly any form of damage, even a blast powerful enough to reduce it to its constituent molecules or atoms.In addition to the bodies of the C'tan and the Necrons themselves, all Necron vehicles and starships are made from necrodermis, including Monoliths and Gauss Pylons.The Imperium's C'tan Phase Weapons are also crafted from necrodermis. It should be noted that necrodermis is not an alloy of other metals but a fundamentally new material created by the Necrontyr.Necrodermis is unbelievably resilient, and can absorb incredible amounts of damage and then reform all tears or punctures over a period of time.
Necropolis (Novel) - Necropolis (Novel): Necropolis is the third volume in the Gaunt's Ghosts series of novels by Dan Abnett.
Necropolis (Novel) - Synopsis: On the world of Verghast, a grinding war between two hive cities -- one loyal to the Imperium, the other fallen to the worship of the Dark Gods -- is bolstered by the forces of the Astra Militarum, spearheaded by the Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt and the Tanith First-and-Only. But bitter rivalries and treachery threaten to derail the defence of Vervunhive, and it falls to Gaunt to take command of the Imperial forces and forge victory from an almost certain defeat.
Necropolis Hawks - Necropolis Hawks: Necropolis HawksSpace MarineChapterPrimaris Space MarinesRaven GuardUltima FoundingTrained extensively in close-quarters warfare and veterans of a dozen close-fought city-fights, the Necropolis Hawks are stoic and efficient in their warfare.They bear their battlefield role insignia upon their backpacks so that their comrades can identify them even in the choking smoke and dust of urban war.Although a newer Chapter, the Necropolis Hawks have earned a reputation for pragmatic brutality and relentless, if carefully measured, aggression.