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When viewed from every angle, good and evil become very objective. And 40k shows the biggest picture possible.
So from what I understand he wants to rule the Galaxy, gave the galaxy time to heal from the war, is fighting off the tyranids, and seems to have some respect for life. These make him a saint by 40k standards but what else is there?

He actually does NOT want to rule the galaxy, IIRC. That's like, the whole reason he left in the first place. He does however wish to unite the necrons against the Tyrannids, but if he ends up ruling them in order to do that, that's just a secondary nescescity rather than something he wants to do.

From a necron perspective, he's probably as morally good as other morally good individuals we've seen in 40k (like Salamanders, Logan, etc). He showed genuine remorse for what he did to the Necrontyr and ensured them their free will by destroying their control protocols, abdicating his own political power to do so.

Sure, he presumably doesn't mind enslaving or killing anything that isn't Necron, but even Logan and the Salamanders don't care for anything that isn't their race either.

That's just from what we know about him, of course. We don't know if he cares for children and defenseless necrontyr but that's a bit of a moot point these days since there's no such thing as a defenseless or child necron now.

Don't imagine he cares at all about other races, though I can see him wanting to crush the Eldar.

He cared enough about children and defenceless Necrontyr to take the offer of Immortality when it was made. It was only afterwards that he began to regret his decision.

I suppose the easiest way to put the Silent King into perspective is "Pretend the Necrontyr were human, instead" (and assume the same situation. IE, humans having overly short life spans that they really wanted to do something about), far as I can tell.

You'd end up with a guy who looks pretty much like a lot of the Imperium's nicest guys. He did what he thought was right, and when he saw it was wrong, he regretted it and tried to make amends. And he hates aliens (again, so does EVERYONE)

(as we know from the Necron Blood Angel "bro fisting" scenario, he MIGHT have some honor in that regards too. The fluff explicitly states it's uncertain if that's why he also did not continue fighting, though)

Was the Silent King involved in that battle?

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Was the Silent King involved in that battle?

Yes, he was leading the Necron forces in that conflict

Suddenly the whole thing makes more sense from the necron PoV.

He may care about defeating the tyranoids but no life = no chances to undo what they did all that time ago.

His desire to destroy them is semi selfish. He wants to help his people but only protects others as they are needed to help his people. So tyranoids are his enemy as they threaten his aims, not out of kindness.

No such thingg Asa a 40k good guy. Even the slamandors will purge a planet if needed, without remorse

 jhe90 wrote:
He may care about defeating the tyranoids but no life = no chances to undo what they did all that time ago.

His desire to destroy them is semi selfish. He wants to help his people but only protects others as they are needed to help his people. So tyranoids are his enemy as they threaten his aims, not out of kindness.

No such thingg Asa a 40k good guy. Even the slamandors will purge a planet if needed, without remorse

There's such thing as a "40k good guy relative to other 40k guys"

In this case, EVERYONE in 40k "only cares about their own race" and "only protects other races if they are needed to help their own race", so you can scratch that off. In terms of relativity, something is irrelevant if EVERYONE is that way.

However, NOT everyone actually gives a crap about other members of their own races. NOT everyone has a sense of honor. NOT everyone has a sense of remorse. NOT everyone tries to atone for or fix their own mistakes. Etc for many other traits that people would classify as either morally evil or morally good.

The Silent King, for the most part, seems to have traits that are morally good which not everyone else has.