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I've been fascinated by Necron Canoptek stuff recently and want to make a canoptek army in 2021. Now I don't know that much about necron fluff, but what I know is that the Canoptek constructs are built by Crypteks and they are used like servitors in the IoM, but they also defend the Necron tombs and follow the warriors around when they go to war. But that's about the extent of my knowledge..

Can you elaborate more on these fascinating technocreatures? Are there any particular books or short stories that would give me more insight into the whole Canoptek scene?

So far, I've been thinking of a few possible avenues for the army

1) A lone Cryptek wages a one-necron-war with the aid of its' self-built machinations
2) A "Hivemind" of three Cryptek Spyders lose contact with their tomb mainframe, but miraculously have evolved and adapted their programming to cope independently, carrying out the last instructions the mainframe communicated to them "exterminate"
3) Canoptek Spyder pack finds a lost STC which has been "poisoned" by the Men Of Iron A.I. the canopteks mistake the STC as a piece of Necron tech and repair it, interface with it and a new flocked up form of sentient Canopteks are born.. they start collecting resources for building more of their kind and stuff starts escalating from there..

Any of these scenarios sound plausible under the current lore?

I'm not sure there's a ton to know beyond what's on the surface. They're robots built to serve necrons. They patch up damage, water the planets, and bark at intruders. If you'v ever watched a superhero cartoon where an alien bad guy had an army of robotic drone servants, they're basically that.

Oh, and there are some really specialized sub-typed of scarab, like mindshackle scarabs.

In the necron story from the recent tyranid collection, we get to see a bunch of canoptek constructs fighting and attempting to run maintenance on awakening necrons.

Relevant to your plot hooks:
1.) In the Sisters of Battle novel (Hammer and Anvil?) where they're reclaiming Sanctuary 101, we see that the initial conflict against the sisters was overseen by an awoken Cryptek. In the tyranid story I mentioned above, we see evidence that a cryptek and her lych guard are intentionally awoke before the overlord who is in turn awoken before the lesser nobility. The idea being that you want your cryptek to oversee the important guy's wake up so that his mind doesn't deteriorate more than absolutely necessary, and you want him to wake up before the other nobility so no one gets in crazy ideas about a coupe.

I mention all this because it supports the idea that a cryptek might be woken up to oversee a canoptek army, and it also gives evidence that he might have a couple non-cnaoptek units around to help out (and to help you round out your army).

2.) The 5th edition codex has a little snippet of fluff in the timeline about a tomb world that basically turns into Skynet and decides that it should be in charge now. Like, the main computer of the tomb world basically gains awareness, rebels, and decides it's in charge .

In the Severed story there are two tomb stalkers/sentinels which are essentially presented as "hunting/guard dogs" by one Necron leader.



I liken the Canoptek to being rather like the machines out of Horizon Zero Dawn or the drone like spiders and robots that tend the human battery farms in The Matrix; or the robot from Castle in the Sky. Basically full robots doing their thing and not really interested all too much in interacting with the world or outside of their programming.

They are not stupid, they have problem solving; but they are bound by their code. Operating like ants in a hive to preserve, protect and maintain the Tombs. They operate on instruction so when your masters sleep, their last instructions are to protect the Tomb. When their masters wake they can issue new orders; give them new roles and profiles. The Canoptek machines will never think outside the bounds of their code. At least barring exceptional situations as noted above.

I am not an expert, but what I have read supports the idea that an army of canoptek constructs does not particularly need additional motivation to be fighting as an army; that could simply be part of what they are programmed to do. Especially if they were on guard duty then got thrown to the other end of the galaxy by warp-fuckery and are still running defendtomb.exe but at a completely different location.

Oo, I like that "tomb mainframe becoming Skynet" idea! I could go with that but I'd need a HQ unit.. And AFAIK there are no non-skeletoid HQs.

For me, analogy between Canoptek and the robomonsters in Matrix is strong. So it would seem the fluff seconds this idea.

Hammer and Anvil, eh? I'll have a peek, thanks!

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I am not an expert, but what I have read supports the idea that an army of canoptek constructs does not particularly need additional motivation to be fighting as an army; that could simply be part of what they are programmed to do. Especially if they were on guard duty then got thrown to the other end of the galaxy by warp-fuckery and are still running defendtomb.exe but at a completely different location.

I'm picturing something akin to the Blame! manga - towering builder constructs tearing apart hive levels to "repair" them while scarabs and lesser machines swarm around arbites.

It would make a nice art piece.

Canoptek are potentially fun precisely because there is little background info on them. They are built both directly by Necrons (presumably Crypteks) and, what I find most interesting, it was the Canoptek stuff that maintained the Tomb Worlds for countless millennia. They were built by the guardian computer that oversaw operations. What happens if the computer was corrupted? What happens if there was a degradation in the coding (or Necron equivalent)? What happens if they gained sentience over the countless years of operation?

 Grumblewartz wrote:
Canoptek are potentially fun precisely because there is little background info on them. They are built both directly by Necrons (presumably Crypteks) and, what I find most interesting, it was the Canoptek stuff that maintained the Tomb Worlds for countless millennia. They were built by the guardian computer that oversaw operations. What happens if the computer was corrupted? What happens if there was a degradation in the coding (or Necron equivalent)? What happens if they gained sentience over the countless years of operation?

We know that. The Severed Worlds is what happened.

Severed Worlds? Sounds interesting. I'll try to look more into it.

EDIT: Okay, cool! So Sarkoni emperor huh? This bit of fluff is looking very promising for what I want to be cooking up. Can anyone tell me if there are any lore written about the Sarkoni emperor and fall of Takarak?

What I love about the Sarkoni's is, they totally allow me to have Necron vs Necron battles while still adhering to fluff! Good stuff.

Imagine what greatness could ensue if the Sarkoni Emperor ever got in touch with the Men Of Iron.. bet it would turn out beautiful! I start hearing Wagner's 'Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla' just thinking about it.

 tauist wrote:
Oo, I like that "tomb mainframe becoming Skynet" idea! I could go with that but I'd need a HQ unit.. And AFAIK there are no non-skeletoid HQs.

For me, analogy between Canoptek and the robomonsters in Matrix is strong. So it would seem the fluff seconds this idea.

Hammer and Anvil, eh? I'll have a peek, thanks!

Could do a head swap. Literally. Like the canoptek machines took an Overlord's body, ripped off his head, and stuck a scarab head on it. You could even have the Overlord's head impaled on a spike somewhere!

 tauist wrote:
Oo, I like that "tomb mainframe becoming Skynet" idea! I could go with that but I'd need a HQ unit.. And AFAIK there are no non-skeletoid HQs.

Skorpekh Lord with an extra arm and more arachnid head and Destroyer Lord with Tomb Spyder thorax and head. There's plenty you can do for Canoptek Counts As.

Copying this for my own Canoptek army:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:

 tauist wrote:
Oo, I like that "tomb mainframe becoming Skynet" idea! I could go with that but I'd need a HQ unit.. And AFAIK there are no non-skeletoid HQs.

For me, analogy between Canoptek and the robomonsters in Matrix is strong. So it would seem the fluff seconds this idea.

Hammer and Anvil, eh? I'll have a peek, thanks!

Could do a head swap. Literally. Like the canoptek machines took an Overlord's body, ripped off his head, and stuck a scarab head on it. You could even have the Overlord's head impaled on a spike somewhere!

That could work. However, I really love the Canoptek aesthetics, and even if headswapped, it'd still look more like Necrons with head swapped instead of these robotic insects. If I was a Canoptek hive mind of three Spyders combined, I'd just put scarabs to absorb the necrodermis of a skeletoid necron and use it to build more Canoptek's.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Platuan4th wrote:

 tauist wrote:
Oo, I like that "tomb mainframe becoming Skynet" idea! I could go with that but I'd need a HQ unit.. And AFAIK there are no non-skeletoid HQs.

Skorpekh Lord with an extra arm and more arachnid head and Destroyer Lord with Tomb Spyder thorax and head. There's plenty you can do for Canoptek Counts As.

Copying this for my own Canoptek army:

Yeah, this is more like it!

I wish there was more lore written about the Severed Worlds. Or there's a BL book called "Severed", anyone read that one? Does it have lore about it?

I checked the Galactic map and it seems like The Sarkoni Empire's original tomb world planet Sarkon is very close to some localized warp anomalies in the current timeline.. I wonder what's up.