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I want expand the backstory of my Necron force and I've come up with a few questions I'm having trouble answering.

1: Do female Necrons exist? I know that their bodies are sexless and most are mindless, but has there ever been a case of a higher ranking Necron being referred to with a feminine pronoun?
2: Where can I find more details on the organisation of the Necron dynastic hierarchy? There's a neat diagram for the Sautekh dynasty in the 5th ed codex but it doesn't really explain many of the titles and how they relate to the rest of the dynasty.
3: Do destroyer lords have identities like their regular lord counterparts or are they totally insane killing machines like the other destroyers?
4: Can a high ranking Necron be infected by the flayer virus? If so, does it retain its personality/intelligence or does it degenerate into a mindless mook?

Thanks.

I hate to be a killjoy but I prefered Necrons without a back story, made them more intimidating and alien when they had no real story, just hated everything, really hated Eldar and were cursed to souless sentience.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
I want expand the backstory of my Necron force and I've come up with a few questions I'm having trouble answering.

1: Do female Necrons exist? I know that their bodies are sexless and most are mindless, but has there ever been a case of a higher ranking Necron being referred to with a feminine pronoun? Yes. The Overlord of the Nihilakh dynasty is female if I remember right
2: Where can I find more details on the organisation of the Necron dynastic hierarchy? There's a neat diagram for the Sautekh dynasty in the 5th ed codex but it doesn't really explain many of the titles and how they relate to the rest of the dynasty. Err I think they leave it vague so you can play with the narrative of your army
3: Do destroyer lords have identities like their regular lord counterparts or are they totally insane killing machines like the other destroyers? I would assume so yes, but they do tend to be more killy
4: Can a high ranking Necron be infected by the flayer virus? If so, does it retain its personality/intelligence or does it degenerate into a mindless mook? Yes, they can. In Imperial Armour: The Fall of Orpheus, the Maynarkh Dynasty is infected in its entirety. They do retain their personality as well, but obviously with more thought directed to killing things. Worth picking up!

Thanks.

Answers in red


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
I hate to be a killjoy but I prefered Necrons without a back story, made them more intimidating and alien when they had no real story, just hated everything, really hated Eldar and were cursed to souless sentience.

Then it begs the question as to why you would post such an utterly unhelpful response to the OP?

Blackhair Duckshape wrote:I want expand the backstory of my Necron force and I've come up with a few questions I'm having trouble answering.

1: Do female Necrons exist? I know that their bodies are sexless and most are mindless, but has there ever been a case of a higher ranking Necron being referred to with a feminine pronoun?

The Phaeron of the Maynarkh, Xun'bakyr, is known as the Mother of Oblivion.

2: Where can I find more details on the organisation of the Necron dynastic hierarchy? There's a neat diagram for the Sautekh dynasty in the 5th ed codex but it doesn't really explain many of the titles and how they relate to the rest of the dynasty.

I think that's about it. It leaves you free to fluff out your guys as you choose. Most of those titles I can see relate to being an Overlord, so having dominion over a planet. The Gravs I think are indicative of your standard Lords in the codex.

3: Do destroyer lords have identities like their regular lord counterparts or are they totally insane killing machines like the other destroyers?

I'd say bent towards omnicide, but still having a personality.

4: Can a high ranking Necron be infected by the flayer virus? If so, does it retain its personality/intelligence or does it degenerate into a mindless mook?

See the Maynarkh dynasty.

angelofvengeance wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
I hate to be a killjoy but I prefered Necrons without a back story, made them more intimidating and alien when they had no real story, just hated everything, really hated Eldar and were cursed to souless sentience.

Then it begs the question as to why you would post such an utterly unhelpful response to the OP?

Agreed. Not exactly helpful.

Female Phearons are called Phaerakhs.

They exist in the fluff. There is no good model for one. Necrons with boobs bother me. I think there are better ways to model them feminine without putting robot tits on robot ribcages. I work on my conversion for one off and on.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Phaeron

As far as I understand OP, destroyer lords simply hate anything living, due to them going slightly mad during the great slumber. Essentially you could never, ever be diplomatic with a destroyer lord, as he has one thing on his mind - to wipe out all life because of the fact he cannot have what was taken when the bio-transference happened, a soul. Even other Necron lords keep a wide berth, that's how loopy these nutters are! The only problem with them having personalites is that they all would be the same: kill every living thing and be a bit bonkers between battle, but more towards rage at other life forms, hatred, and other unpleasant things than a "funny" madness, as I doubt they would enjoy any other pastimes that don't involve eviscerating something with a war scythe...

Destroyers are simply immortals that have gone the way of the lord (due to them being proper soldiers before bio-transference, they actually have free thought and some vocabularies unlike the civilian bodied warriors, who are essentially mindless drones) and so want bigger pew pew Gauss guns for more efficient killing.

With female Necrons, I'd assume yes, as there was one named female lord. You could put ANY Necron lord model to have a female name, as my interpretation is that the Necron metal body is based on how the Necrons skeletal system looked like, but obviously with some extra bits/changes for efficiency. So, any model could be female (especially warriors as they were civilians) as skeletons are featureless, a perfect base for the mass production of billions of them.

Others gave mentioned the dynasty of literally nothing but flamers, so I'd suggest reading up on them. Good read, and makes you a feel a tiny but of sympathy for the metal crazy skinners.

 Lance845 wrote:
Female Phearons are called Phaerakhs.

They exist in the fluff. There is no good model for one. Necrons with boobs bother me. I think there are better ways to model them feminine without putting robot tits on robot ribcages. I work on my conversion for one off and on.

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Phaeron

Good catch on the Phaerakh - I forgot to mention that!
And agreed - Necron frames are genderless. No need to sculpt them any differently.

 angelofvengeance wrote:

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
I want expand the backstory of my Necron force and I've come up with a few questions I'm having trouble answering.

1: Do female Necrons exist? I know that their bodies are sexless and most are mindless, but has there ever been a case of a higher ranking Necron being referred to with a feminine pronoun? Yes. The Overlord of the Nihilakh dynasty is female if I remember right
2: Where can I find more details on the organisation of the Necron dynastic hierarchy? There's a neat diagram for the Sautekh dynasty in the 5th ed codex but it doesn't really explain many of the titles and how they relate to the rest of the dynasty. Err I think they leave it vague so you can play with the narrative of your army
3: Do destroyer lords have identities like their regular lord counterparts or are they totally insane killing machines like the other destroyers? I would assume so yes, but they do tend to be more killy
4: Can a high ranking Necron be infected by the flayer virus? If so, does it retain its personality/intelligence or does it degenerate into a mindless mook? Yes, they can. In Imperial Armour: The Fall of Orpheus, the Maynarkh Dynasty is infected in its entirety. They do retain their personality as well, but obviously with more thought directed to killing things. Worth picking up!

Thanks.

Answers in red


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
I hate to be a killjoy but I prefered Necrons without a back story, made them more intimidating and alien when they had no real story, just hated everything, really hated Eldar and were cursed to souless sentience.

Then it begs the question as to why you would post such an utterly unhelpful response to the OP?

Unhelpful it may be when it comes to writing backstories but a good number of people will agree it's what made Necrons great.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:


1: Do female Necrons exist?

There is at least one third party Necron female torso upgrade available out there if you want to model some.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Unhelpful it may be when it comes to writing backstories but a good number of people will agree it's what made Necrons great.

It doesn't answer any of OP's points.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Showtime wrote:

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:


1: Do female Necrons exist?

There is at least one third party Necron female torso upgrade available out there if you want to model some.

Is it necessary? Necrons can be female without boobplate.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Unhelpful it may be when it comes to writing backstories but a good number of people will agree it's what made Necrons great.

It doesn't answer any of OP's points.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Showtime wrote:

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:


1: Do female Necrons exist?

There is at least one third party Necron female torso upgrade available out there if you want to model some.

Is it necessary? Necrons can be female without boobplate.

That has always bothered me a lot. Why do we need to add boobs to robot skeletons?

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Unhelpful it may be when it comes to writing backstories but a good number of people will agree it's what made Necrons great.

It doesn't answer any of OP's points.

Sure it does.
#Do female Necrons exist? Irrelevant, the lack of knowledge makes them more alien.
#Necron Hierarchy? Irrelevant, lack of understanding makes them more alien.
#Do Destroyer Lords have identities? Irrelevant, lack of knowledge makes them more alien.
#Can they be infected by the Flayer Virus? Not knowing their weaknesses makes them more threatening.
There's a reason the better Necron fluff isn't written from the Necron's perspective.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Unhelpful it may be when it comes to writing backstories but a good number of people will agree it's what made Necrons great.

It doesn't answer any of OP's points.

Sure it does.
#Do female Necrons exist? Irrelevant, the lack of knowledge makes them more alien.
#Necron Hierarchy? Irrelevant, lack of understanding makes them more alien.
#Do Destroyer Lords have identities? Irrelevant, lack of knowledge makes them more alien.
#Can they be infected by the Flayer Virus? Not knowing their weaknesses makes them more threatening.
There's a reason the better Necron fluff isn't written from the Necron's perspective.

That's nice, dear.

In terms of the Necron boob-plate-or-not question, I think it would depend on whether we have any good indication of sexual dimorphism in the Necrontyr race.

I'm of the opinion that that is likely NOT the case: That a male necrontyr looked practically indistinguishable from a female necrontyr (with the exception of the dangly bits, which wouldn't be included on the Necron chassis anyway), and so they didn't bother making the Necron chassis any different for male or female Necrontyr.

Even if they were sexually dimorphic in the way of having mammal-like boobs (because we can only imagine Star Trek levels of alien differentiation from humans, apparently?), I'd rather just handwave that difference away for the Necron chassis regardless, given that boob-plate would be detrimental to the defensive structural integrity - you don't want incoming fire redirecting towards particular points in center mass.

Double post

 Dakka Wolf wrote:

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Unhelpful it may be when it comes to writing backstories but a good number of people will agree it's what made Necrons great.

It doesn't answer any of OP's points.

Sure it does.
#Do female Necrons exist? Irrelevant, the lack of knowledge makes them more alien.
#Necron Hierarchy? Irrelevant, lack of understanding makes them more alien.
#Do Destroyer Lords have identities? Irrelevant, lack of knowledge makes them more alien.
#Can they be infected by the Flayer Virus? Not knowing their weaknesses makes them more threatening.
There's a reason the better Necron fluff isn't written from the Necron's perspective.

While I have to say I agree with you utterly on all those points, it would appear our OP quite likes the newer more expanded Necron fluff.

We'll have to be more subtle to bring them round to the dark side

The older fluff worked well as a story. It is, however, infinitely more interesting to the players as they are written now, as a setting.

It's a big galaxy. I don't see why you couldn't have a Phaeron who doesn't communicate with lesser races and employs fear tactics. If the Great Sleep could give birth to flayers, it certainly could alter an Overlord personnality. Or maybe he was deceitful before the biotransference. Or several C'Tan shards coalesced during the eons, forming a powerful one directly controlling an entire Dynasty after erasing their identities, making them effectively oldcrons. Or simply write from another race's perspective.

Go nuts!

As to the questions:

1: Yes. I didn't know GW published something about one though, that's great.
2: I believe it's supposed to help you flesh out your own. I don't know about any more information on the hierarchy unfortunately.
3: They retained their identities, but are obsessed with the eradication of life. Madness, to anyone who encountered it, is never funny. It is truly horrifying, no matter what form it takes.
4: Seems entirely possible, it would just need a bit of work maybe. I mean, there has to be some protections in place for an Overlord, right?

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
I hate to be a killjoy but I prefered Necrons without a back story, made them more intimidating and alien when they had no real story, just hated everything, really hated Eldar and were cursed to souless sentience.

I have a completely opposite opinion. I much prefer Necrons with a backstory rather than just nameless killing machines. Adds more flavour to the universe