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I'm just wondering, was there ever any data upon what the Necrotyr looked like before their bio-transfer?

Nope. There are a few fan pictures around, I posted a few up in a similar thread a few weeks back.

I believe it was left intentionally vague to convey that their flesh forms are long gone, and may not even be remembered at all from the standpoint of the current incarnation of the Necron.

I'd like to add to the OP's question.

Was the Necrontyr's technology identical to that which they possess now? You know, Gauss weapons, teleporting cloaks, Tesseract Labyrinth, those Deathmark phase doohickies that have the side effect of sending the enemy back in time just as you defeat him so he may thwart your plans etc?

Yes, pretty much. Necrons were masters of space/time technology before they ever encountered the C'tan.

 Gogsnik wrote:
Nope. There are a few fan pictures around, I posted a few up in a similar thread a few weeks back.

There are fan pics? Where? I've never seen them.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:
I'd like to add to the OP's question.

Was the Necrontyr's technology identical to that which they possess now? You know, Gauss weapons, teleporting cloaks, Tesseract Labyrinth, those Deathmark phase doohickies that have the side effect of sending the enemy back in time just as you defeat him so he may thwart your plans etc?

Their tech level was the same or at the least close to what they have now but a lot of the current renditions of their tech would have to take different forms, ie most of their infantry weapons seem to be powered by the user. So their pre-necron guns would probably be bulkier or they may have used a different kind of weapon entirely. Warscythes also, large heavy melee weapons that require tireless robot musculature to wield wouldn't exactly work with an army of sickly human equivalents. That being said I suppose that they could have had mech suit kind of things to let them use their own weapons (sort of like tau only a lot cooler looking and less focused on the greater good and shooting stuff). This is all speculation of course. Although there is one thing I know for sure, they didn't have tomb blades before being necrons those were made after the bio-transferance.

Current Necrons were not the sickly, irradiated beings they were in previous editions. Now, they were the masters of a galaxy-spanning empire, so it is not only possible but likely that their soldiers would have had the strength and mass to wield their gauss weapons, warscythes and other tech, or very similar variants. The majority of their wargear is Necrontyr, not C'Tan, in origin.

The Necrons did, after all, wage war on the Old Ones before the coming of the C'Tan, but were unable to defeat the Warp-Magics of their rivals. The C'Tan told the Necrontyr that they, too, had fought and lost against the Old Ones, though as it was the Deceiver that told the Silent King this, it is unclear whether this is true.

 Zaki66 wrote:
There are fan pics? Where? I've never seen them.

The other thread on Necrontyr - link

My post is about three quarters of the way down.

For some reason I've always imagined them as looking like Pureblood Sith from Star Wars, although thinner and not red-skinned. Not quite sure why though, maybe because of the not quite Egyptian stuff.

 Gogsnik wrote:

 Zaki66 wrote:
There are fan pics? Where? I've never seen them.

The other thread on Necrontyr - link

My post is about three quarters of the way down.

Those are really good.

 Zaki66 wrote:

 Gogsnik wrote:

 Zaki66 wrote:
There are fan pics? Where? I've never seen them.

The other thread on Necrontyr - link

My post is about three quarters of the way down.

Those are really good.

Seconded. The Necrontyr Lord looks almost exactly how I've envisaged one before biotransference.

Am I the only one who thinks the Necrontyr fan art looks a lot like Tau?

Well, if you've seen one grey-skinned noseless humanoid, you've pretty much seen them all.

I imagine the Necrontyr would have modelled their new bodies on their old ones. If you imagine that the standard necron warrior is a close copy of at the very least the skeletal form of the Necrontyr, then with the large Scapulas you see on the necron models its not hard to believe that the Necrontyr were powerfully built, at least on their upper bodies. The larger and more advanced Necrons have more decoration, and this is probably similar to the dress they wore when they were alive.

So my vision of a Necrontyr is a Bipedal humanoid, with a very pronounced spinal column (all the necron models pronounce this to greater or lesser degrees) combined with a large cranium, but a narrow head proportionately. there is no reason to think that if they were heavily build on their upper bodies, they would have stick legs, so i think its safe to assume they had powerful lower bodies as well.

So my vision of a Necrontyr before bio transference is a race akin to Triple H or dwayne johnson as regards their physique.

GrafWattenburg wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks the Necrontyr fan art looks a lot like Tau?

That's certainly the living 40k race they'd be most similar to imo. I'm thinking the Necrontyr would've been a bit like a significantly shorter, skinnier version of the Space Jockeys from Alien/Prometheus (albeit with a more elongated head) with the adornments seen dependent on status, which is pretty similar to that aforementioned pic really. Have no doubt, as madtankbloke says, that they'd bear a reasonably close resemblance to their current form, though that would likely be slightly idealised in addition to being skeletal.

I like to imagine they were exoskeletal, so that they appeared much as they do now, just not made of metal. I think this goes well with their conservative culture and general unwillingness to alter their forms further.

I always imagined the Necrons as very similar to the Tomb Kings (in spehhsssss), that they are or were desperate to seem like they were in their previous life, or have even forgotten what they are.
Might be a bit badly explained but anyone who's read Tomb Kings would understand xD

We know they didn't live very long and had some issues with excessive radiation from their sun causing serious cancers; I always imagined them gaunt and hairless.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
We know they didn't live very long and had some issues with excessive radiation from their sun causing serious cancers; I always imagined them gaunt and hairless.

Apparently they had some issues with the concept of "roof" or "hat"

 Psienesis wrote:
Current Necrons were not the sickly, irradiated beings they were in previous editions. Now, they were the masters of a galaxy-spanning empire, so it is not only possible but likely that their soldiers would have had the strength and mass to wield their gauss weapons, warscythes and other tech, or very similar variants. The majority of their wargear is Necrontyr, not C'Tan, in origin.

The Necrons did, after all, wage war on the Old Ones before the coming of the C'Tan, but were unable to defeat the Warp-Magics of their rivals. The C'Tan told the Necrontyr that they, too, had fought and lost against the Old Ones, though as it was the Deceiver that told the Silent King this, it is unclear whether this is true.

Ah, you are right. I thought they kept a passage about them being miserable and sickly but I couldn't find it anywhere.

Yes. Read the Tomb Kings

 Smolo82 wrote:
Yes. Read the Tomb Kings

TOMB KINGS IN SPEHSSS

Those pictures looks awesome, though I always thought the necrontyr would have been quite big and strong, and this skeletal appearance is as metaphorical as it is literal, as in, they are nothing of their former selves.