Site editor · September 30, 2026
Corrected the Old Ones/Aeldari confusion, the timing of soul loss, and the claim that the Silent King's return had not happened.
lore+18-8
| Long before humanity crawled from its cradle world, before even the eldar strode among the stars in glory, the beings called the necrontyr ruled a scatter of harsh, radiation-blasted worlds. They were a proud but dying species, their bodies withering under the light of their own sun, and their envy of the long-lived eldar curdled into a hatred that would shape the rest of their history. Desperate for permanence, the necrontyr struck a pact with the star-devouring c'tan, entities of near-godlike power that promised deliverance from death itself. |
| The Necrons are the surviving dynasties of a civilization transferred from organic bodies into living metal. Their rulers awaken from tomb complexes to find their territories occupied by younger civilizations. Behind the similar appearance of their warriors lie competing dynasties, damaged minds and differing ambitions.[1](#reference-1) |
| ··· |
| That deliverance was a lie wrapped in a gift. The necrontyr were stripped of their organic bodies and poured into immortal frames of living metal, becoming the necrons. In exchange, they became slave soldiers for their new c'tan masters, and in the millennia of war that followed, the necrons' minds and souls were eroded until only cold fragments of personality remained. Their empire crushed the nascent eldar civilization in the War in Heaven, but the cost was the near-total loss of what had once made the necrontyr people rather than machines. |
| ## The Necrontyr and biotransference |
| ··· |
| ## The Great Sleep and the Silent King |
| Before their transformation, the Necrontyr suffered short lives and disease. Their rulers sought unity and resented the longevity of the Old Ones. The C'tan offered the knowledge that enabled biotransference, and the Silent King accepted the bargain. Illuminor Szeras was instrumental in making the process possible.[2](#reference-2) |
| ··· |
| Fearing betrayal from their own creations, the necron nobility turned upon the c'tan, shattering the star gods into fragments and binding the shards into weapons and prisons. This treachery was orchestrated in part by the Silent King, Szarekh, who then led his broken people into a self-imposed hibernation lasting more than sixty million years, hidden within tomb worlds scattered across the galaxy, waiting for a signal that never came from their king, who had fled into the void in shame. |
| Biotransference replaced flesh with metal while the C'tan consumed the victims' souls. Rank affected what survived: common warriors lost most individuality, while nobles and Crypteks retained more of their minds, although command protocols constrained them.[2](#reference-2) |
| ··· |
| That sleep has now ended. Across a thousand thousand worlds, tomb complexes are stirring, their dynastic overlords rising from stasis to find their once-glorious empire fallen to ruin, overrun by the very younger races the necrons once considered vermin. Some dynasties wake with clear purpose and cold, calculating patience. Others emerge with minds corroded by the ages, their personalities reduced to little more than echoes and obsessive fragments of the beings they once were. |
| ## War, rebellion and sleep |
| ··· |
| ## An Empire Divided Against Itself |
| The conflict involved the Necrons and C'tan fighting the Old Ones and their created races. The Necrons eventually rebelled against the star gods and shattered them. The Silent King then ordered the Great Sleep as a means of outlasting their enemies.[2](#reference-2) |
| ··· |
| The necrons are not a single unified force but a fractious galaxy of independent dynasties, each ruled by its own Phaeron or overlord and each nursing its own ambitions, grudges, and doctrines of war. Some dynasties favor overwhelming firepower and technological supremacy, others prize honor and ancient ritual, and still others have embraced a savage, almost feral hunger for battle that unsettles even their own kin. This disunity is both a weakness the younger races might exploit and, perversely, a reminder of the individuality the necrontyr fought so hard to preserve. |
| This sequence separates three events that can otherwise become confused: the creation of the Necrons, their war against the Old Ones, and their revolt against the C'tan. The Old Ones and the Aeldari are not interchangeable names for the same opponent. |
| ··· |
| What unites them is an unshakeable belief that the galaxy belongs to them by ancient right, and a species-wide dread of the c'tan shards that still slumber in stellar tombs, waiting to be reawakened or exploited by whichever dynasty is bold or foolish enough to try. As the tomb worlds empty and the legions of the dead march again beneath the void, the younger empires of the galaxy are only beginning to understand what it means to fight an enemy that cannot truly die, only be inconvenienced. |
| ## Dynasties and the returning king |
| Awakened Necron society retains a hierarchy of rulers and servants. Dynastic armies include ranks of Warriors, specialist fighters and war machines such as Ghost Arks and Monoliths. Their technology combines destructive weaponry with the ability to repair bodies that other armies would count as destroyed.[1](#reference-1) |
| The 2020 *Codex Show* announcement establishes that the Silent King has returned from exile, while also explaining that his reception is contested. His return does not make every dynasty a willing participant in one unified project. The announcement introduces the Szarekhan as his own dynasty and frames the reaction of other rulers as a source of conflict.[3](#reference-3) |
| ## Reading individual Necrons |
| Personal identity survives unevenly. The biotransference account uses Nemesor Zahndrekh, who still believes himself organic, as an example of altered perception.[2](#reference-2) A named noble's motives therefore deserve their own source rather than being inferred from the appearance of a Necron Warrior. |
| The character and dynasty directories below are the next step for a more specific subject. When moving from background to a game, use the [current-rules guide](/guides/check-current-warhammer-rules): repair mechanics, equipment options and points belong to a particular rules release. |