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]
The Necrontyr and biotransference[edit]
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]
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]
War, rebellion and sleep[edit]
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]
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.
Dynasties and the returning king[edit]
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]
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]
Reading individual Necrons[edit]
Personal identity survives unevenly. The biotransference account uses Nemesor Zahndrekh, who still believes himself organic, as an example of altered perception.[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: repair mechanics, equipment options and points belong to a particular rules release.
Units
- Annihilation BargeHeavy Support · VehicleA low-slung antigravity gun-platform that drags a curtain of chain-lightning across the battlefield, immolating whole squads in a single searing arc.
- Canoptek DoomstalkerHeavy Support · WalkerA towering tripod-construct that stalks the tomb-perimeter, its doomsday blaster reducing distant enemies to drifting motes of unmade matter.
- Canoptek ReanimatorElites · WalkerA skeletal canoptek engine that walks among the fallen, bathing shattered warriors in reanimating light until they rise once more.
- Canoptek Scarab SwarmFast Attack · SwarmClouds of self-directed metal scarabs that strip enemy vehicles and infrastructure apart while quietly maintaining the necrons' ancient machinery.
- Canoptek SpyderHeavy Support · Monstrous ConstructA hulking anti-grav construct that maintains the tombs and spawns swarms of scarabs from within its own body to repair necrons or dismantle the foe.
- Canoptek WraithsFast Attack · BeastSerpentine canoptek constructs that phase through solid matter, gliding through tomb corridors as tireless wardens and lethal ambushers.
- Catacomb Command BargeHQ · VehicleA crescent war-throne on which an undying Overlord rides to battle, cleaving heads with a sweep of his warscythe as the craft screams overhead.
- ChronomancerHQ · InfantryA cryptek who bends time itself, hastening allied warriors to a blur while enemy blows slow, falter and age to rust before they land.
- DeathmarksElites · InfantryInterdimensional assassins who lurk in a pocket void between moments, marking their prey with a green halo before a single flawless killing shot.
- Doom ScytheFlyer · VehicleA crescent attack craft whose amplified howl drives the living mad, scything battle lines apart with a death ray that pierces rank after rank.
- Doomsday ArkHeavy Support · VehicleA hovering necron war platform mounting a single, catastrophic cannon capable of erasing armored formations in a blinding arc of energy.
- Flayed OnesElites · InfantryCursed necrons driven mad by an insatiable hunger for flesh, who drape themselves in the flayed skins of their victims and slaughter with rending claws.
Characters
- AnrakyrThe TravellerA wandering overlord who abandoned his own throne to roam the galaxy, waking dormant tombs and forging the scattered dynasties toward a reborn necron empire.
- Illuminor SzerasThe Flesh-SculptorA necron savant obsessed with perfecting the biotransference process, endlessly experimenting to refine the very technology that made his race immortal.
- Imotekh the StormlordThe StormlordThe cunning Phaeron of Sautekh, whose tactical brilliance and mastery of atmospheric weaponry have made his dynasty a dominant power among the awakened necrons.
- Nemesor ZahndrekhThe Deluded ConquerorA peerless necron general whose ruined mind believes he still leads flesh-and-blood armies in ancient wars, winning victory after victory from within his delusion.
- Orikan the DivinerThe DivinerThe greatest of necron astromancers, a chronomancer who walks backward through time to steer fate toward the moment of his ascension into a being of terrible light.
- SzarekhThe Silent KingThe last Silent King of the necrontyr, who doomed his people to undeath and now returns from exile to reunite the dynasties against the devourer from beyond the stars.
- The DeceiverThe MessengerThe trickster among the star gods, who lured the necrontyr into surrendering their souls and whose scattered shards may still walk free, scheming in the shadows.
- The NightbringerThe Reaper of SoulsA shard of the star god that taught every mortal race to fear death, unleashed only in dire need as a skeletal reaper wreathed in the cold of the grave.
Subfactions
- Mephrit DynastyA dynasty of master artificers and gunsmiths whose armies wield some of the most devastating annihilation weaponry in the necron arsenal.
- Nephrekh DynastyThe Golden Dynasty, whose warriors dissolve into beams of living light, teleporting across the battlefield in pursuit of transcendence.
- Nihilakh DynastyA dynasty of obsessive hoarders and stubborn defenders, whose overlords will wage millennia-long wars to reclaim a single stolen relic.
- Novokh DynastyA dynasty consumed by a savage, ritualized bloodlust that pushes its warriors toward close, merciless slaughter.
- Sautekh DynastyA militant dynasty built on conquest and ruthless strategy, famed for the storm-wreathed cunning of its greatest overlord.
- Szarekhan DynastyThe royal dynasty of the Silent King himself, foremost of all necron houses, masters of blackstone and bearers of the race's supreme authority.
Sources & further reading
- Starting a Necron Army in Warhammer 40,000. Warhammer Community, Necrons Explained: dynasties, awakening and battlefield technology. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
- What is Biotransference?. Warhammer Community, , The Beginning, Biotransference and The Great Reawakening. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
- The Codex Show. Warhammer Community, , Codex: Necrons lore preview: return of the Silent King and the Szarekhan. Accessed .Official source checked during the 2026-09-29 assisted audit; whole-page human review pending.
Discussion
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Subfactions
Mephrit DynastyNephrekh DynastyNihilakh DynastyNovokh DynastySautekh DynastySzarekhan Dynasty
Units
Annihilation BargeCanoptek DoomstalkerCanoptek ReanimatorCanoptek Scarab SwarmCanoptek SpyderCanoptek WraithsCatacomb Command BargeChronomancerDeathmarksDoom ScytheDoomsday ArkFlayed OnesGhost ArkImmortalsLokhust Heavy DestroyersLychguardMonolithNecron WarriorsNight ScytheOphydian DestroyersOverlordPlasmancerSkorpekh DestroyersTechnomancerTomb BladesTranscendent C'tanTriarch PraetoriansTriarch Stalker