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asimo77 wrote:It seems most people who liked the old fluff miss the unending tide of life hating robots. However, I'm not seeing anywhere in the new fluff where this is invalidated. There's no reason you can't have a Necron Overlord go on an extermination spree like the good old days.

Also the Necrons were never really a cosmic horror in the Lovecraftian sense. I mean it's pretty simple: they kill everything and hate life, nothing unknowable there. The dark, mytserious, terrifying stuff is still intact, whether it's killing people on a mass scale, making crop circles, or abducting people to "probe" them.

My favorite part of the Necrons were how they had that real-world alien conspiracy slant to them. Like there was one story about a boy who had some organs and glands removed with immense surgical precision. It was like something you'd hear about alien grays on Coast to Coast. And all that can still exist, the fluff seems flexible.

The Lovecraftian horror aspect was the C'tan. Now that they just fragments of themselves that are enslaved to their own machines that should have had loyalty programmed into them, the 40k setting has lost this horror. What will happen to the Void Dragon, the Outcast trapped in the Dyson Sphere, the pariah gene, the Nightbringer bestowing the fear of death in all of the Old Ones' races (besides the Orks), or the C'tan's plot to sever the Immaterium from the Materium entirely? Not only Necron players have lost all of this; the entire 40k setting has. It was completely possible to make the Necrons more 'interesting' to the people who didn't like them without completely crushing the C'tan.

Well... The old fluff is not totally invalidated but it lose most of its charme... You can still imagine a Lord acting in the old-fashioned way but it will be something limited to your lord... the official fluff is different... You can say what you want but the shroud of mistery that used to be one of the necron trademarks is gone... But I'll wait for the dex to make my final opinion

Brother Coa wrote:People are already starting to Rage. On our Facebook page is a real fight because of Trazyn the Infinite. Because MAtt said that he in his collection have "a giant man clad in baroque power armour". Half of people are arguing that he have a Primarch in his possession, I don't believe that but knowing Matt I wouldn't be surprised if that was true.

Once more, from WD shorts, he hints that he's after nicking Guilliman from Macragge too... so it's probably true.

asimo77 wrote:Why is any of that stuff gone now? A lot of people keep saying this but to me it seems the new fluff is flexible enough to allow old crons to exist with newcrons.

None of it is gone. I think-- and this has only been my personal impression, from here and other places I've been too-- most people are simply angry that something they consider to be a cheapening or "declawing" of their grimdark monsters is even a legitimate option. Before, something like these new Necrons as some green teenage player's fanmade idea on the other end of the table could be dismissed out of hand as a dumb kid not doing it right. Now, all of those things have been made true, part an official release and thus canonical.

It doesn't seem to matter if they can have the old stuff along with the new; the insult to their classic has already been levied. In all sincerity, maybe I simply don't take the setting seriously enough to be properly bothered about it. Maybe, in order to be a true fan of the game, I should be bothered. But I'm not, and it requires me to bend over backwards to rationalize everyone else's hate.

While I reserve any true hate until I have actually read the codex, I will say now that I am very nervous about this supposed ret con.

I for one, did like the Lovecraftian element to them, the horror and lack of humanity, and while I would have been ok with some changes (especially to the C'Tan) - I think Ward's taken it too far from reading the comments and rumors.

It appears to me as though he is almost trying to cookie cutter all the races into some kind of similarity, with all true "alien"ness taken away.

I will be modelling my Necrons the same as ever and will treat them the same as well - the C'Tan will be treated almost like "avatars" of sorts in my mind.

I want my old C'tan back already... I miss them... :(

When you look at, say, the Nightbringer... You are supposed to see a herald of death and darkness. He is supposed to look dark and majectic. He is supposed to rise above the battle field and darken the skies while he swings his massive scythe with inhuman ease, cutting in twain everything in its path. His is supposed to point at a inferior space marine chapter master and say "DESPAIR for I am the end of days!"

Now its kinda like the space marine jas a rebuttal... Well, you know what you're not all that great anymore, Im sure if I got some good hits in I could kill you, foul xeno!

Just no... Me no likey...

So all indicators point towards Matt Ward having butchered another codex. Is anyone really surprised by this? I realize that the codex isn't even released yet, but experience shows us that Matt Ward writes worse fluff then my 11 year old sister could. As a former grey knights player, I wish all 'cron players good luck. Hopefully Ward wasn't given such free reign as to totally destroy why you liked them in the first place. Do you think he draws a silhouette of each codex he's killed on the side of his computer or something similar?

thank you for listening to another Matt Ward sucks rant

We know that it wasn't Matt Ward who wrote the entire codex. There were rumours that he asked for help with the Necron background, and the design team told us at Games Day that it isn't only one person writing the codex; others contribute a large portion, but the main developer is the only person credited as the author.

That may be so but judging from his previous works id say it is entirely possible that the entire retcon was his work with a few noters on the side on some bits that he couldnt quite make is mind up on.

On a slightly different note, while reading the new Necron background in the new Codex, I can't help but be struck by what seems to be Ward's biases exerting themselves. Does he have something against the Eldar (Alaitoc in particular?)? After the whole Avatar incident in the SM Codex, in the new Necron Codex, the Alaitoc Eldar seem to show up only to be defeated over and over again as the whipping boys for the Necrons. While all races suffer setbacks, it is also noticeable that the Space Marines seem to be the only faction that come off better (and we all know what group Ward favors). For example, the White Scar Khan is the one that impresses a Necron Lord so much that he is let go, dragging away an Eldar fellow escapee who serves merely as victim to be rescued. The Black Templars despite an earlier defeat, end up destroying the flagship of Imotekh (the all new seemingly unstoppably strategic Mary Sue Necron Lord).

Yes.

Ward favors Necrons. It hasn't exactly been a secret either, as he and Jervis played through "the Fall of Damnos" when the new plastic Terminators released.

If the internet is to be believed, Ward has actually been playing Necrons longer than he has been playing Ultramarines.

Considering how the latest WD battle report is used to make the Ultramarines look good, the Necrons look honorable and gracious even in defeat, and the Eldar look bad (and incidentally delivering up the Eldar Farseer mentioned in the Codex, Eldorath, to the Ultramarines), the claim Ward's favorites are Necrons is laughable. For those that don't know the report, in it, the Eldar and UM ally to defeat the Necrons, but then the Eldar have their Farseer captured by the Necrons and sent to the UM for betraying the UM. So in other words, when the Eldar win, they still lose and shown as backstabbing, when the UM win, they win and are honorable, and when the Necrons lose, they still end up being shown to be honorable and thus gain the consolation prize of a "moral victory".

Certainly at the least, he seems to have something against Eldar as it seems he makes a point of making them the whipping boys of what he writes. I am not even being a particular advocate of Eldar being all powerful or anything, but simply between the Avatar's Worf effect and the new Necron Codex showing the incompetent Eldar Farseer it is rather glaring that one faction seems to be taking the fall more often than others. Having 2 elder races fight it out while humanity is caught in the crossfire can work, but only if one side isn't shown as being incompetent.

Today is D-Day guys, good luck to all of us and may the New Necrons became what we want them to become.

I have no problems with the new fluff, i've read it, i've interpreted it and it looks to be a massive improvement. All they did to the fluff was make it accessible to a wider audience, now that each tomb world is bound under an overlord and as such has different styles of operating necrons can be moulded into any form a player wants. If you want mindless tin zombies, you can still have them, if you want an honourable, medieval type necron army then you can have them! Matthew Ward really didn't take anything away from the fluff, he just opened up new routes in what we already had. The amount of hate he's gotten is appauling really considering he did a GOOD JOB in balancing the requirements of older players and expectations of newer ones. Personally, I feel people made conclusions based on rumours that didn't give the full story and judged him on those rumours, he's done well and it was unfair for people to write him out as an 'idiot' before the codex even came out. Yeah, he messed up the Grey Knight codex, unfortunate, but that was in the past give people credit for the present.

Some people adored the old fluff and it was the reason they started 'crons, I know I loved it too but the fact that not all necrons are now bound to act in this manner doesn't mean GW has killed the way necron players played their armies. Seriously, if people are genuinely angry that necrons aren't as one dimensional as they once were and have the option of being different then they can decide to play as one of the tomb worlds that still have no individualism and follow the C'tan but for those who wanted flavour, they've now got it. It's a win, win situation I really don't see why anyone shouldn't play by the new fluff. We take what we get, and we've gotten a whole lot to mess around with.

Also, yes, the 'Ultramarines' did win in the BATTLE REPORT. It was a consequence of the actual players meeting on the table top and certainly not of Ward's design. Had the necrons won the game the fluff would probably had resulted in the annihaltion of the marines and Eldar much to the delight of all of those who liked the zombie aspect of the necrons, but they didn't. As such, the fluff written with it was done to illustrate the possiblities that necron players now had abvaliable to them fluff wise. Never before would a necron player capture and return a farseer as an act of honour, but now, it's possible IF YOU WANT TO. That doesn't mean he favours Ultramarines and intends to show the Eldar as an evil race it's just the way things panned out considering the Necrons destroyed the old ones (with the help of the C'tan) and as such are sworn enemies of the Eldar who seek to abolish them for doing just that. So, whilst the necrons could have killed the farseer upon capture, the overlord of that particular tomb-world that had gone to war decided to hand him over because the lord himself was honourable. Again, that's just one of the hundreds of overlords and as a consequence hundreds of opporunities for unique fluff.

I'll give it a couple of months before everyone either forgets about the change in fluff or quits necrons entirely before setting up any of my own fluff for fear of an up-roar with how dis-similar it is from the previous dex's background story.

I personly hate the new fluff it makes the necrons seem like they're not that evil

I'm amazed in the difference of opinion displayed here and in the N&R thread.

Here, people criticise the new fluff and Mat Ward.

There, people welcome the new fluff as a much needed and largely well-done change, whilst acknowledging that Mat Ward didn't write the Codex by himself and therefore much hatred directed at him is redundant. There's no way that one guy would or could change the back ground for an entire army; he would and did have help from the design team as a whole.

KsTracer wrote:who wanted flavour, they've now got it. It's a win, win situation I really don't see why anyone shouldn't play by the new fluff. We take what we get, and we've gotten a whole lot to mess around with.

Also, yes, the 'Ultramarines' did win in the BATTLE REPORT. It was a consequence of the actual players meeting on the table top and certainly not of Ward's design. Had the necrons won the game the fluff would probably had resulted in the annihaltion of the marines and Eldar much to the delight of all of those who liked the zombie aspect of the necrons, but they didn't. As such, the fluff written with it was done to illustrate the possiblities that necron players now had abvaliable to them fluff wise. Never before would a necron player capture and return a farseer as an act of honour, but now, it's possible IF YOU WANT TO. That doesn't mean he favours Ultramarines and intends to show the Eldar as an evil race it's just the way things panned out considering the Necrons destroyed the old ones (with the help of the C'tan) and as such are sworn enemies of the Eldar who seek to abolish them for doing just that. So, whilst the necrons could have killed the farseer upon capture, the overlord of that particular tomb-world that had gone to war decided to hand him over because the lord himself was honourable. Again, that's just one of the hundreds of overlords and as a consequence hundreds of opporunities for unique fluff.

Yes the UM did win and I have no problems with that or with the possibility of the Necrons exterminating the two allied forces if the Necrons had won. What is dubious is how despite the Eldar also being on the winning side, they are then written up to be a partial loss. If they win a battle, let them enjoy the spoils of victory instead of trying to dampen things by inflicting losses on them. It is like the old Eye of Terror campaign where Eldrad died and the Eldar failed to recover any Talismans of Vaul despite doing well as a faction in the campaign, and the Medusa V campaign where the Autarch is killed off despite the Eldar being in the top 3 factions and achieving their strategic objective. When one looks further at all the times Avatars have been bumped off (no Avatar has had a clear cut victory for literally several editions now), and it almost looks like GW can't seem to bear the thought of the Eldar actually winning something in a clear cut fashion for once.

The basic point is if a side wins, let them win. If they lose, then yes they take losses in background, but if they win let them enjoy victory.

Iracundus wrote:Considering how the latest WD battle report is used to make the Ultramarines look good, the Necrons look honorable and gracious even in defeat, and the Eldar look bad (and incidentally delivering up the Eldar Farseer mentioned in the Codex, Eldorath, to the Ultramarines), the claim Ward's favorites are Necrons is laughable. For those that don't know the report, in it, the Eldar and UM ally to defeat the Necrons, but then the Eldar have their Farseer captured by the Necrons and sent to the UM for betraying the UM. So in other words, when the Eldar win, they still lose and shown as backstabbing, when the UM win, they win and are honorable, and when the Necrons lose, they still end up being shown to be honorable and thus gain the consolation prize of a "moral victory".

Certainly at the least, he seems to have something against Eldar as it seems he makes a point of making them the whipping boys of what he writes. I am not even being a particular advocate of Eldar being all powerful or anything, but simply between the Avatar's Worf effect and the new Necron Codex showing the incompetent Eldar Farseer it is rather glaring that one faction seems to be taking the fall more often than others. Having 2 elder races fight it out while humanity is caught in the crossfire can work, but only if one side isn't shown as being incompetent.

The Eldar ARE backstabbing. They have been for a loooooooooooooong time. They care not for humanity or its trials and tribulations, they care only that they and their kin survive.

Wow it has been a lot of time waiting for this. I just finished the Codex: Necrons.

The background of the Necrons had three main sources: killing machines, Eldritch abominations and space mummies.

The new codex focuses on the last, no way to go around that, but it gives the player the option to play a “Severed World” (page 8), old style killing machines Necrons, “other Necrons … loath and fear their inhabitants in equal measure”. We have lots of dark stuff. Destroyers, destroyer lords and the humble necron warrior have gone darker. So Necs can be scary… if you want. Or mummies, if that is your thing.

Major retcons:
1) Pariahs. No longer mentioned. It looks like the Necrons are not anymore recruiting among the humans, and they didn´t have a part in humanity evolution. There is no more a terrible crop to harvest. They didn´t alter the Old Ones creations, and they have not a master plan against the warp. The next step in the ideal of the C´Tan? Forget it. However, they are not specifically denied.
2) Enslavers. The hottest xenos ever to be created by GW are still alive and kicking, but they are no longer a major player in the War in Heaven. It is specifically said that it was the Eldar, not the Enslavers, who made the Necrons retreat. I think it makes no sense. Why did not the Eldar take advantage of their superior power and speed to destroy the Necrons when they went to sleep? Enslavers died by starvation. It made sense.
3) There are (perhaps) many C´Tan. It is unclear what they are, but they taste of Chaos with a little bit of Lovecraft love and Eldritch abomination. Nice creatures. Most of them / all of them (not sure) are now mindless slaves and have been broken into pieces. The Deceiver is a main character, and the Nightbringer (not the Night Bringer) is mentioned twice. The Void Dragon and the Outsider are not mentioned. There are some new C´tan, such as Llandu´gor The Flayer (a really nice dude) and Iash´uddra The Endless Swarm, who may be or may be not the tyranid Great Devourer.
4) Necrons are no longer a major thread. They have petty empires, waging an endless civil war. It is specifically said so. They will be a threat if they unite (just like Orks of Chaos), but their program has been modified to give them free will. And they are using this free will to fight one another. Some Necrons are trying to get them united though.
5) They have emotions. They brag, laugh, hate, loath, despair, fear, do stupid things out of emo feelings, ask for help, consort with space marines and mwahahahaha! when it all goes just as planned. Again, page 8 and destroyer lords allow the player to ignore this abomination.

New Fluff:
1) We have a new Draigo, phaeron Imotekh (not related to Imoteph, doctor and chancellor in ancient Egypt, and the bad guy in The Mummy). He is the awesomest awesome space mummy out there, so he has page after page of 12-year-old background really painful to read, scattered across the codex. Mat Ward at his finest.
2) Most of the fluff for the special characters is ridiculous. Really.
3) The background for the Flayed Ones has changed from something really dark to other thing really dark too. I am slighyly confused about them.
4) Trolls and haters will be happy: pages 24 to 27 are dedicated to them. Expect lots of threads full of ward-love.

Overall: it is good, it allows almost all Necron players to find a niche. I enjoyed reading (most of) it. It is not as bad as expected. I liked it. I think it is apparent that it was written by many persons. Some pages are really well written, other are... .

I miss my pariahs and more enslavers-love though. And the background of the special characters is… hard to stomach.

Kanluwen wrote:

Iracundus wrote:Considering how the latest WD battle report is used to make the Ultramarines look good, the Necrons look honorable and gracious even in defeat, and the Eldar look bad (and incidentally delivering up the Eldar Farseer mentioned in the Codex, Eldorath, to the Ultramarines), the claim Ward's favorites are Necrons is laughable. For those that don't know the report, in it, the Eldar and UM ally to defeat the Necrons, but then the Eldar have their Farseer captured by the Necrons and sent to the UM for betraying the UM. So in other words, when the Eldar win, they still lose and shown as backstabbing, when the UM win, they win and are honorable, and when the Necrons lose, they still end up being shown to be honorable and thus gain the consolation prize of a "moral victory".

Certainly at the least, he seems to have something against Eldar as it seems he makes a point of making them the whipping boys of what he writes. I am not even being a particular advocate of Eldar being all powerful or anything, but simply between the Avatar's Worf effect and the new Necron Codex showing the incompetent Eldar Farseer it is rather glaring that one faction seems to be taking the fall more often than others. Having 2 elder races fight it out while humanity is caught in the crossfire can work, but only if one side isn't shown as being incompetent.

The Eldar ARE backstabbing. They have been for a loooooooooooooong time. They care not for humanity or its trials and tribulations, they care only that they and their kin survive.

And that Eldar backstab has not been the issue at all. Good job of not addressing the main point. The point was that the Eldar end up still being punished in terms of background despite being among the victors, while the UM get to bask in winning. The original point is how Ward's writing seems to consistently portray the Eldar as incompetent and losing, and in this case losing even when they win, seemingly showing a double standard. Now if they later show the Eldar using the Stars of Khaine in somewhat useful fashion or showing Eldorath is not a bumbling fool then I withdraw my objection, but thus far Eldorath has lost twice to the Necrons, lost a hand to Imotekh, and gotten his sorry self captured even when he ostensibly wins. That is a long series of failures to make up for.

They could have just as easily written it as the UM celebrating victory then finding out they were backstabbed after the Eldar had left, and then shaking their fists and vowing revenge. Alternatively, the defeated Necrons could have sent a message or shown them that the Eldar had done so, accomplishing the same yet letting the victors be victors and the losers be losers in that battle report, and perhaps showing Necrons sowing discord among the other factions.

So you're using the Eye of Terror as an example of this despite the fact that Ward was just an intern at that point?

Andy Chambers wrote the fluff for that. He was a pretty big Eldar fan.

Secretly, I guess he must think Guilleman is his spiritual liege as well huh?

I haven't gotten to read the actual fluff in the Newcron book yet, but rate it for me on a scale of Pete Haines(fluff is there to justify outrageous rules) to Thorpe(terrible rules justify terrible fluff)?

Iracundus wrote: The original point is how Ward's writing seems to consistently portray the Eldar as incompetent and losing, and in this case losing even when they win, seemingly showing a double standard.

But then again, Eldar made the Necrons retreat at the end of the War in Heaven (page 7: "the Great Sleep"). This is something completely new. Eldar were supposed to be near extinction due to the Enslavers invasion. Now, thanks to Ward, Eldar were the most powerful faction. Stronger than Necs, C´tan, Enslavers, Old Ones (and sons)... they were victorious.

Sisters of Battle, on the other hand, get a beating any time Ward writes something.

Kanluwen wrote:
I haven't gotten to read the actual fluff in the Newcron book yet, but rate it for me on a scale of Pete Haines(fluff is there to justify outrageous rules) to Thorpe(terrible rules justify terrible fluff)?

At first sight, good rules (some issues in the Troops section: few units, few choices).
Fluff: overall acceptable. Some stuff here and there infuriating / poorly written / ignoring previous fluff / troll food / making no sense.
Mat Ward level.

Kanluwen wrote:So you're using the Eye of Terror as an example of this despite the fact that Ward was just an intern at that point?

Andy Chambers wrote the fluff for that. He was a pretty big Eldar fan.

Secretly, I guess he must think Guilleman is his spiritual liege as well huh?

I haven't gotten to read the actual fluff in the Newcron book yet, but rate it for me on a scale of Pete Haines(fluff is there to justify outrageous rules) to Thorpe(terrible rules justify terrible fluff)?

No, I compared it to the Eye of Terror campaign. You seem to have mistaken comparison with claiming it is an example. Certainly though at GW there seems to be such an undercurrent of such a practice whether it is intentional or unintentional. If one goes through all the Avatar mentions, it hasn't had a clear cut victory since about 2nd edition and has had one previous victory re-written into a defeat (Iyanden vs Tyranids).

The background has certain gaping holes in consistency and logic that could have and should have been spotted. Leaving aside for the moment whether one likes or dislikes the concept of Tomb Kings in space, since that is a subjective preference, there are retcons to the Necron FTL method that strain disbelief (claiming they have no FTL system and rely on "hacking" the Webway) and upend existing background (BFG for example). There are also parts that strain credibility such as all the hype over Quantum Shielding. So much "super science" to achieve a conditional AV13, when slapping on some heavier armor plating like the Imperium could give you AV13 or better all year round. Unstated too is why the Necrons felt the need to slumber in the face of the Eldar (since all the mentions of the War in Heaven don't seem to show the Eldar as such a huge threat), or why the Eldar didn't end up destroying more Tombs instead of simply sitting in vigil over them. Other small details raise eyebrows such as Immortals having voices, so that they can issue reports to superiors and orders to Warriors. Surely they would not need to use such crude methods of communication with each other as speaking? In the section on Triarch Praetorians, who have been awake for 60 million years, it mentions sponsoring of Necron-like cultures in other races, only for these to then be destroyed by for example, outriders from Alaitoc Craftworld (which has only existed since just before the Fall, i.e. 10,000 years ago).

In summary, some parts have potential but are spoiled by lack of attention to detail or strange retcons that strain disbelief. The overall retcon of Necrons and C'tan is also clumsy and IMO would have been better handled if the Necron rebellion had occurred after the War in Heaven, after the Necrons found the C'tan weaker than ever upon awakening. That way old Necron players could still be C'tan loyalists and have C'tan shards manipulating the galaxy, trying to complete the Great Work of warding off the warp, and trying to reassemble themselves, while those that prefer Tomb Kings in space can be the rebellious Necrons.

They retconned Necron ships? Really? REALLY?

That was probably the only thing I truly found interesting :(

C'tan. "Killed", shattered and enslaved by necron lords. Mr. Ward has successfully destroyed another Codex.

Boofreakinghoo.

The C'Tan were crappy fluff to begin with. Now at least they make sense to be fielded, just like Avatars and Greater Daemons.

Yeah the fluff of the new codex doesn't sound too bad in concept. I want to read it though, and judge for myself. I haven't read a new codex since...ummm...Tyranids I think it was, though.

Kanluwen wrote:The C'Tan were crappy fluff to begin with.

Why is that?

Now at least they make sense to be fielded, just like Avatars and Greater Daemons.

While the actual, genuine C'tan should of indeed never been fieldable, shattering them into tiny pieces (You know, like what was done with Khaine) didn't need to be done to make fielding them sensable. Especially since Dawn of War successfully justified fielding them without nerfing them from a narrative perspective, making their essence possess Necron Lords as avatars. Much easier to swallow than "They got broken into pieces and are slaves now" IMO.

Void__Dragon wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:The C'Tan were crappy fluff to begin with.

Why is that?

"How can we make 'Not Warp Gods'?"
"I know, let's say they're beings made of pure energy which devour suns!"
"BRILLIANT!"
"Guys--shouldn't we describe it a bit more than that...? Or at least tone them down?"
"Go sit in the corner, we're geniusing!"

Now at least they make sense to be fielded, just like Avatars and Greater Daemons.

While the actual, genuine C'tan should of indeed never been fieldable, shattering them into tiny pieces (You know, like what was done with Khaine) didn't need to be done to make fielding them sensable. Especially since Dawn of War successfully justified fielding them without nerfing them from a narrative perspective, making their essence possess Necron Lords as avatars. Much easier to swallow than "They got broken into pieces and are slaves now" IMO.

Except what you described from Dawn of War was stupid too. C'Tan are not Daemons, they cannot interact with the physical world without a physical body or manifesting one themselves. That makes possessing an organic or even an inorganic thing impossible.

Within the new description, it makes sense at least. The Necrodermis shells that the C'Tan originally possessed were destroyed. The Necrontyr then built smaller ones which could only contain so much of the C'Tan's essences.


Think of it like this. Say you have a big pitcher of Evil, Suneating Godlike Being. That big pitcher full of Evil, Suneating Godlike Being then decides to start devouring your city.

You think "Well, if its power comes from it being all together...why not separate it?".
Et voila. You no longer have a pitcher full of Evil, Suneating Godlike Being--but rather multiple small cups which can still do miraculous things but can't do the things it used to because of its power being diffused.