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Hello all. This is sort of a ranty-grumble about the name of the Nightbringer.

So, to summarise its background, the Necrotyr home star (their sun) fired out a lot of radiation, and they all spent their days hiding from the radioactive light of the sun which made them die young. Eventually they tech up, and find that the reason their sun is so hostile is because it contains a star god (C'tan). They identify this being with their god of death (this makes total sense).

We have a civilisation who would naturally associate the sun with death, as the radiation of their sun has caused them so much harm. We have a solar god who is from the sun, and they are the god of death, and they call this being the Nightbringer, yes _Night_bringer. I really wish the authors had gone for Daybringer instead, it would have made so much more sense. A god of death related to the daytime would have felt wonderfully alien, would have fit the Egyptian sun motifs and would have made complete sense in the context of the Necron background.

Anyway, rant over. I suppose I can headcannon it as some kind of Imperium or Eldar mistranslation from Necrotyr, and its real title is "Daybringer".

As far as I'm aware, we don't know whether the Necrontry named Aza'gorod upon first encountering it.

The Deciever was originally The Messenger, for example; and presumably the Outsider didn't get that name until the whole eating everyone and going loony incident.

It might be that Nightbringer got its name because 'Deathbringer' sounds cringe...

The Nightbringer was absorbing the star and rapidly pushing it through its lifespan, the end result being the death of the star, hence it would be bringing night to their homeworld.

Night is also a poetic term for death. So there’s that.

Yeah tbh that was my first thought seeing this thread. The Nightbringer is a metaphor. It's implied to be responsible for humans having a fear of death at all, isn't it?

Indeed, the concept of a "reaper" is present in humanity due to the unbelievable slaughter enacted by the Nightbringer during the War in Heaven.

What if "Nightbringer" was intended to be flattering, like "powerful savior" or "he who will deliver us from our enemy"?

I get the feeling that the studio was t really thinking about the Necron point of view when naming the thing

 Flinty wrote:
I get the feeling that the studio was t really thinking about the Necron point of view when naming the thing

They did when naming the other C'tan though...

GW wasn't always so laxidasical when dealing with their background material.

 Lord Damocles wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
I get the feeling that the studio was t really thinking about the Necron point of view when naming the thing

They did when naming the other C'tan though...

GW wasn't always so laxidasical when dealing with their background material.

They named the Nightbringer and wrote his lore nearly a quarter of a century ago. It’s not a recent faux pas!

Lord Zarkov wrote:

 Lord Damocles wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
I get the feeling that the studio was t really thinking about the Necron point of view when naming the thing

They did when naming the other C'tan though...

GW wasn't always so laxidasical when dealing with their background material.

They named the Nightbringer and wrote his lore nearly a quarter of a century ago. It’s not a recent faux pas!

...yeah..?

And a quarter century ago when they weren't so lazy ('all the Steel Legion just died, I guess'; 'female Custodes were always there, honest') they clearly thought about the name of the Deceiver/Messenger.

I am not seeing the connection between the three examples you give here, though I'll admit I am a bit wary to even touch on it in depth because "female custodes" alone feels like approaching a forum landmine.

The Nightbringer is a fine name for what it is. It's got both obvious meaning a star-devourer, and more metaphorical/poetic meaning as a reaper of lives.