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I read the lore for Necrontyr race and there is one thing that interested me the most...

In fluff, we all know that "their number is legion". That there are so many Necrons that some suggest that they even outnumber Humanity.
In fluff regarding to Necrontyr, I read that they were defeated by the Old Ones ( in their original war, before the discovery of C'Tan ). And thaht they were "pushed back to merely an annoyance in the outer regions among the Halo Stars." Witch probably means that Old Ones left them to keep their homeword and maybe some few colonies in few closest star systems ( since they have space travel that was fast like our Voyager 10 probe ).

It is logical to assume that their numbers can't be that great for holding so little space. And then we read about legions that literally stomped the galaxy with their numbers.
Any guess on how many Necrons can be out there ( every theory is taken into discussion ).

They are in massive numbers.


once the C'tan showed up, not all the Crons immediatly became the necrons of today. it took time for them all to become the Living metal monsters they are now so their numbers would have had time to grow again.

the first Necrons to make the change are now the Lords and Immortals(and by extension Destroyers)


the necrons which transformed later are the simple mindless warriors.


there are likely billions upon billions of Necrons. its just that 95% of them are sleeping on undiscovered tomb worlds, 4% are on known, but undisturbed, tomb worlds, and 1% are wakeing/have woken up.

Grey Templar wrote:once the C'tan showed up, not all the Crons immediatly became the necrons of today.

Where did you get this from?

As for the topic of the thread, the Necrons are only starting to wake up, and even then, Tomb Worlds each house tens of thousands of Necrons or more, the World Engine housed that many at least.

The Necrons were at one point the dominant faction in the galaxy, under the C'tan.

So, not sure if their numbers rival the IoM, but certainly they outstrip the Tau, or the Eldar (Dark Eldar included).

I take it from the Necron codex saying that the Immortals and Necron Lords were the first of the necrons, and as such retained some of their previous personality.

it implies that the Necrons weren't created all at once, but over time.

Grey Templar wrote:I take it from the Necron codex saying that the Immortals and Necron Lords were the first of the necrons, and as such retained some of their previous personality.

it implies that the Necrons weren't created all at once, but over time.

They are the first to have been given their Necrodermis bodies, yes, but it was not as slow a process as you seemed to imply.

Also, originally, all Necrons had minds and personalities, but the Warriors tend to die more often, and with their less sophisticated bodies their was damage to their minds.

Thats also a possability.


The other explaination for billions of Crons would be that the C'tan were able to resurrect the necrontyr who had ever died or been interred in the Tomb cities the Necrontyr built.

it fits in with them being basically undead.

Grey Templar wrote:Thats also a possability.


The other explaination for billions of Crons would be that the C'tan were able to resurrect the necrontyr who had ever died or been interred in the Tomb cities the Necrontyr built.

it fits in with them being basically undead.

It has been hinted that no Necron has died yet, actually.

Whether this is due to the C'tan directly having a hand in their resurrection, or simply due to technology that may as well be magical, I do not think has been elaborated.

It may be that there has yet to be anyone who has used means to permanently put down a Necron.

well, they do say that if you destroy the main power matrix on a Tomb World you can actually prevent the forces associated with it from Phasing out.

each Necron construct is linked to its Tomb World. so if you were able to completely destroy the Tomb World, like say with Clyclotronic Torpedos, you could, in theory, kill the Necrons there permanantly.


But the forces could just as easily link up with another Tomb World somewhere else after that happens. No one has documented what happens if you destroy a Tomb World like this(although it has been done often enough)

Grey Templar wrote:well, they do say that if you destroy the main power matrix on a Tomb World you can actually prevent the forces associated with it from Phasing out.

each Necron construct is linked to its Tomb World. so if you were able to completely destroy the Tomb World, like say with Clyclotronic Torpedos, you could, in theory, kill the Necrons there permanantly.


But the forces could just as easily link up with another Tomb World somewhere else after that happens. No one has documented what happens if you destroy a Tomb World like this(although it has been done often enough)

That is basically what I meant.

The Necrons have their consciousness (Or lack of) implanted into another Living Metal body.

Though, the top part, where is that from? Cannot recall.

I can't remember from where it was from.

might have been the DoW games, but I don't think so.

So from what you are telling me: when Space Marine kill Necron on the field, his "mind" is then transferred in another body?

That can easily mean that there are billions of them but millions of minds.

Pretty much.

The body is teleported to a tomb world for repair while the mind is downloaded to another waiting body.

Ascalam wrote:Pretty much.

The body is teleported to a tomb world for repair while the mind is downloaded to another waiting body.

Yeesh...

Orignaly when the C'Tan gave the Necrontyr the option to become immortal in a way and the high nobles who wanted to become immortal were made into lords, the willing became immortals and the rest became basic necron warriors.

The Necron army are a legiona and is based of the quote " we are legion, for we are many".

The only way a necron can be destroyed is if you disrupt or damage their phase generator and the only race that have that ability is the Eldar. The marines have been able to capture one when its phase generator was destroyed but the complex was destroyed soon after by a unknown force.

Their are a large number of necron's in the galaxy but they are waiting to be awakend by either their lords or by other means such as accident from other races.

Too many.

Hrm, don't species that have a short life span usually have a high reproductive rate?

That could certainly explain why there'd be so many of them.

Another thing to remember.

There aren't likely to be millions of them.

There's likely to be trillions of them

A whole galaxy-spanning empire (or at least a good wodge of the galaxy) were converted: man, woman and child.

There are upwards of 6 billion people on Earth today. That is one world. Now multiply that by the number of worlds...


As a comparison imagine rendering down every last person in the IOM and implanting them into metal bodies.

THAT's what you are dealing with, quite possibly. The whole race was 'upgraded'

Brother Coa wrote:So from what you are telling me: when Space Marine kill Necron on the field, his "mind" is then transferred in another body?

That can easily mean that there are billions of them but millions of minds.

More likely trillions of bodies with billions of minds.

That's the terrible thing about the Necrons in 40K, they beat a race that surpassed everyone on the three big levels.

Old Ones
-Psykers - Whole race was believed to be powerful psykers.
-Technology - They invented the webway, something the Emperor at the height of his power only managed to take baby steps into mimicking.
-Genetics - They invented races, not super soldiers, frickin races. One which became a dominant Empire that made a Chaos god, the other which is said to be capable of wiping out the galaxy if they ever united.

A wild guess would prolly put them at a couple billion with a war machine numbering in the trillions. Can't say much about the fleet, other than it must of been massive to of been capable of waging a successful war against an already established galactic empire.

Just one thing, if all of them finally wake up at a time, we're screwed
Probably they are the most numerous native species in this galaxy (excluding Tyranids), it seems they are almost everywhere. The only limiting fact is that sometimes a tomb world has technical issues that would prevent it to awake, caused by, for example, tectonic movements, young races' stealing... But even though this, they're too many

Also I recall reading somewhere that not all the Necrons are Necrontyr. They can also convert other species into Necrons. Can't for the life of me remember where I got that from though.

CoI wrote:Also I recall reading somewhere that not all the Necrons are Necrontyr. They can also convert other species into Necrons. Can't for the life of me remember where I got that from though.

Pariahs?

n0t_u wrote:

CoI wrote:Also I recall reading somewhere that not all the Necrons are Necrontyr. They can also convert other species into Necrons. Can't for the life of me remember where I got that from though.

Pariahs?

They will not exist anymore after new codex...

Yep, but stuff like that happens all the time. For now they're valid and exist.

People are forgetting that the Necrontyr were limited to just one small planetary system, likely just one planet at that. They did not have interstellar travel - hence their short lifespans due to the radiation from their sun.

The C'tan entombed them within the Necrodermis bodies but, here's the thing, they are, to the best of our knowledge, only Necrontyr within them.

The Pariahs do seem to be part human, but other than that, they can only have come from one world. There may be up to 10 billion Necrontyr or so, with some to all of them becoming Necrons, but that's it.

They're not going to outnumber the Imperium, not a chance. They do, however, seem to be able to regenerate from even catastrophic damage so it's likely that very few are ever permanently lost.

But, with the Necrontyr gone, it's possible that they cannot create any new ones.

Their numbers are not great. The World Engine, the largest Necron construct/a Tomb World which they moved somehow had just tens of thousands of warriors onboard. A standard Guard bulk troop ship can carry 50,000 and dozens if not hundreds of those will be dispatched to a war zone.

The Imperium is the must numerous race in the galaxy bar none. Followed by the Orks. Tyranids? Nobody knows how many are coming...

Perhaps when their minds were transferred into their new forms, the C'tan just copy/pasted them a lot to make up numbers?

Hmm possibly but the C'tan had to trick them into accepting the new bodies and the slavery they wanted. If they could replicate them they'd just have taken one and replicated them endlessly.

Miraclefish wrote:Hmm possibly but the C'tan had to trick them into accepting the new bodies and the slavery they wanted. If they could replicate them they'd just have taken one and replicated them endlessly.

Yeah but where's the fun in that?

The Necrontyr were at first contained to only a small system but eventually mastered space travel. With this technology they expanded outwards and eventually, while building their empire, came into contact with the Old Ones, with whom they began to war. The Old Ones beat them back to a small corner of the galaxy where they stayed for awhile until discovering the C'tan. With the C'tan they began again conquering and expanding. They did Not, once discovering the C'tan, immediately turn into Necrons. They had to first find and encase in Necrodermis the Deciever whose original location is not revealed, he could have been many star systems away from where they started. Even after finding him they did not immediately switch over as he did not decide to trick them just as soon as he adopted his new body, instead choosing to slowly gather a host of followers that would gradually convince the rest of the race that entombing themselves in Necrodermis was the best way to go about the war.

What all that would mean is that the Necrontyr, lead by C'tan, were able to conquer for a time and expand the empire greatly Before they became the Necrons we know today. Therefor, it is logical to assume that there are several star systems worth of Necrons still existing in the galaxy today

This.

They had long since left their planet, starting with slow-burning torch-ships (generation ships perhaps? ) and working up, expanding until they ran into the Old Ones.

The Ctan were worshipped as gods for a time before the Necrons were converted.

Where did you get the idea that they never left their planet, Miraclefish?


Also, the orks vastly outnumber the IOM. Everywhere the IOM sends a probe the orks are there first. Ork waaghs number in the billions. The IOM is far better organised, but when it comes to a tide of mindless violence that outnumbers you 2 or 3 to one the Orks have them beat

Also if you kill an ork a bunch more orks will spore from it's remains. Kill a human and the ground gets marginally more fertile. You do the math

The whole point of their anger was that their race was very short lived due to the catastrophic radiation of their home star causing cancers and other painful deaths.

The first C'tan they encountered lived within their own star. It's not until after this that they first created the Necrodermis for the C'tan and were then tricked by the Deciever into taking on their own metal forms.

It's at this point that the Necrons and C'tan began to enslave the galaxy.