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And by good i mean with an objective other than killing everything?
Someone that may be considered honorable or not necessarily evil?
Id like to read some necron stories and this tends to hold my attention a little better i think.
As a comparison i loved lords of silence if that makes sense.

Trazyn is a good example of a Necron character not focused on empire building or mortal slaying. He's the ultimate eccentric collector and the recent short story on him in War in the Museum shows some of the conflicts between various Necrons. Hell, technically during the Fall of Cadia storyline he tries playing the hero for once by helping out the Imperials with the Pylons on Cadia and letting loose with some of his Imperial collection of pokeballs before everything goes tits up and Cadia explodes.

 Grimskul wrote:
Trazyn is a good example of a Necron character not focused on empire building or mortal slaying. He's the ultimate eccentric collector and the recent short story on him in War in the Museum shows some of the conflicts between various Necrons. Hell, technically during the Fall of Cadia storyline he tries playing the hero for once by helping out the Imperials with the Pylons on Cadia and letting loose with some of his Imperial collection of pokeballs before everything goes tits up and Cadia explodes.

You beat me to it.

Anrakyr the Traveller is pretty noble. Nemesor Zahndrekh also follows a code of honour, but mainly because of his delusions.

Necrons haven't been mindless murder bots in awhile, many of them have their own objectives, that doesn't nesscarily make them good. as those objectives are rarely to the benifit of mankind.

Trazyn’s main objective in his own mind is to be the main architect of the history of the galaxy for his race.

“You (Bile) pluck open flesh, to learn its secrets. I do the same with time. I chop out the mechanisms of occurrence and study them at my leisure. This history of this galaxy is an open book to me, and my collection is the story of everything.”

Whilst he has noble intentions, his methods and rationale seem obviously alien and malicious to “lesser” races.

Szeras is tehcnically science-driven in his efforts to understand life, so his motives are not "bad" as it is... He's methods however are indeed cruel and frightening but "good-willed" in a way.

The novella "Severed" is a great read and focuses on Nemesor Zahndrekh and his bodyguard, Vargard Obyron. The relationship between the two presented in the story is interesting and it gives you a story on how the necrons are today; showing how the lower ranks might be more "mindless" but that the leader/upper ranks are far more individual.

It also shows off some of Zahndrekh's madness and how he manages to operate within the setting.

The Silent King has generally been portrayed as one of the most genuinely pleasant and altruistic figures in the setting, but I have a feeling from the tone of the previews they’re about to retcon that.

Anrakyr is actually an incredibly unpleasant person in what fiction he’s appeared in, but in general Necron nobility have no less capacity for good and bad than humans, eldar or tau.

this is all very interesting guys, thank you.
ill admit that i haven't paid much attention to them since the old days of kill everything but it sounds like they have much more personality now.

changemod wrote:
The Silent King has generally been portrayed as one of the most genuinely pleasant and altruistic figures in the setting, but I have a feeling from the tone of the previews they’re about to retcon that.

I hope they d'ont but it is true that the silent king has litteraly exiled himself for having done zogg up, he literraly just seeks to save his people as he did with biotransference. At the stage i'd envision him as this truly good and selfless figure who nevertheless fails to be of use to his people.

I'd also say -although that migth get a bit off the rails- that it'd be extremly incoherent if he on the contrary came back to lead the necrons to a new glory. For what i know, Abaddon's almost already won (although for sale's sakes he can't and just stopped when litteraly everything was just as planned), the nids are a bit staled but can't be hindered that much longer by a warpstorm as big as it might be... I feel like with the fluff as it is now the imperium should in all due logic already have ceased to exist, if the necrons were to actually turn from looming menace to yet-the-other-ultimate-foe because of Szarekh having at it, that'd be even less enjoyable.

Well i find at least.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
this is all very interesting guys, thank you.
ill admit that i haven't paid much attention to them since the old days of kill everything but it sounds like they have much more personality now.

They do, in the old days they were basically space terminators and now they are a an ancient empire rising anew.

I personnally prefer the newcron lore, as I find it more enjoyable due to how more fleshed out it is and how the necrons have got way more personality to "slip into being a necron" when you campaing with them or in general.

The oldcrons lore is on the contrary basic but has them way more alien as they don't use much humanoids traits in their fluff design.

You may come across both schools, oldcrons fans are often particularly adamant about newcron lore being gak but in the end that's a matter of tastes.

There is nothing stopping multiple versions of the Necrons from existing.

There was mention in a past Necron Codex of the Severed Worlds where the tomb world AI had taken over and the Necrons were just mindless automatons like Skynet's terminators.

One could still imagine some Necrons out there don't want to return to flesh, worship the C'tan as gods and try to reform them.

I miss the early Necrons - silent, incomprehensible, lovecraftian evil from the beginning of time.

Cyel wrote:
I miss the early Necrons - silent, incomprehensible, lovecraftian evil from the beginning of time.

Don't worry you can still have all that - its called Tyranids!

Yes Tyranids are silent - totally incomprehensible, they have tentacle mouths and are, well if not evil, they are at least wanting to consume all life and material in the galaxy so if you're living in the galaxy at the time that's pretty high up on the evil list.

They have different flavors, though. It’s like telling a guard player he could just play Tau because they both shoot a lot.

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

changemod wrote:
The Silent King has generally been portrayed as one of the most genuinely pleasant and altruistic figures in the setting, but I have a feeling from the tone of the previews they’re about to retcon that.

I hope they d'ont but it is true that the silent king has litteraly exiled himself for having done zogg up, he literraly just seeks to save his people as he did with biotransference. At the stage i'd envision him as this truly good and selfless figure who nevertheless fails to be of use to his people.

His new model includes a C'tan shard that is clearly being tortured, doesn't signal much "good" to me.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
They have different flavors, though. It’s like telling a guard player he could just play Tau because they both shoot a lot.

I strongly suggest NOT tasting your Tyranids, whether they be the miniature or actual variety.

 Esmer wrote:

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

changemod wrote:
The Silent King has generally been portrayed as one of the most genuinely pleasant and altruistic figures in the setting, but I have a feeling from the tone of the previews they’re about to retcon that.

I hope they d'ont but it is true that the silent king has litteraly exiled himself for having done zogg up, he literraly just seeks to save his people as he did with biotransference. At the stage i'd envision him as this truly good and selfless figure who nevertheless fails to be of use to his people.

His new model includes a C'tan shard that is clearly being tortured, doesn't signal much "good" to me.

Affiably Evil perhaps then? No one in 40k should be perfectly good. The Silent King I imagine has his own priorities, the necron race and well.. maybe he doesn't have a problem with humanity persay but to quote Loki "Does an ant have a quarral with a boot?"

That's heavy briandavion

Perhaps good is too loose of a description if that makes sense.
I suppose i just mean not hell bent on destroying the universe and is willing to spare a life every now and then.

I looked up Anrakyr the Traveller and found his story kind of interesting.

Iracundus wrote:There is nothing stopping multiple versions of the Necrons from existing.

There was mention in a past Necron Codex of the Severed Worlds where the tomb world AI had taken over and the Necrons were just mindless automatons like Skynet's terminators.

One could still imagine some Necrons out there don't want to return to flesh, worship the C'tan as gods and try to reform them.

That is correct, i wonder whether there isn't even a story of a dynasty being wreaked haoc on as a c'tan shard break free, it could as well have enslaved this dynasty again.

Esmer wrote:

 Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

changemod wrote:
The Silent King has generally been portrayed as one of the most genuinely pleasant and altruistic figures in the setting, but I have a feeling from the tone of the previews they’re about to retcon that.

I hope they d'ont but it is true that the silent king has litteraly exiled himself for having done zogg up, he literraly just seeks to save his people as he did with biotransference. At the stage i'd envision him as this truly good and selfless figure who nevertheless fails to be of use to his people.

His new model includes a C'tan shard that is clearly being tortured, doesn't signal much "good" to me.

Any Necron that isn't hostile without reason would be considered "good" by their standards i think.

I'll be very surprised if the Silent King isn't retconned into a total psychopath who might be a bit polite, who exists as nothing more but fodder to be slain by Primaris Of The Week with replacement bodies stored somewhere so he can recover everytime he gets his arse kicked.

 Arbitrator wrote:
I'll be very surprised if the Silent King isn't retconned into a total psychopath who might be a bit polite, who exists as nothing more but fodder to be slain by Primaris Of The Week with replacement bodies stored somewhere so he can recover everytime he gets his arse kicked.

To be fair, Trazyn is the only Necron that can be #winning

Cyel wrote:
I miss the early Necrons - silent, incomprehensible, lovecraftian evil from the beginning of time.

Yeah, they were neat and different.

If your dynasty is heavily afflicted by the Destroyer Cult/Flayer Virus you could definitely play them that way, though.

For those interested the book I mentioned above - Severed - features an "Old Chrons" style army in the story.

There was that time Necron allied with blood angels, can’t remember which dynasty it is.

 Big Mac wrote:
There was that time Necron allied with blood angels, can’t remember which dynasty it is.

Pretty sure it was the Silent King himself that helped out Dante and friends.

Grimskul wrote:

 Big Mac wrote:
There was that time Necron allied with blood angels, can’t remember which dynasty it is.

Pretty sure it was the Silent King himself that helped out Dante and friends.

Correct. It was the Silent King. He even whispered something in Dante's ear, which is a huge deal symbolically.

Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:

That is correct, i wonder whether there isn't even a story of a dynasty being wreaked haoc on as a c'tan shard break free, it could as well have enslaved this dynasty again.

Spoilers for World Engine:

Egyptian Space Zombie wrote:Anrakyr the Traveller is pretty noble. Nemesor Zahndrekh also follows a code of honour, but mainly because of his delusions.

See, I thought he was pretty noble when I read the 5th and 8th edition codices, but he has a story in the recent tyranid collection (forget what it's called) where he comes across as a jerk whose emotion maintenance code has to work overtime to contain his temper tantrums. That story kind of ruined Anrakyr for me, but it also introduced gal pal 'crons whose friendship I found genuinely interesting. They probably won't show up in other stories, but you get to see a glimpse of what friendships that exist across necron castes can look like.

I feel like necrons can be made pretty likable. Necron society has some pretty harsh values that make it difficult to categorize anyone on board with them as "good" by most modern perspectives, but they can be likable and have "noble" goals mixed in with the more sinister ones. If your dynasty isn't full of destroyer lords, you might be perfectly fine with not killing any aliens that submit to your will. You might even treat a bunch of human cultists indoctrinated by the praetorians as "pets" or alien subjects of a sort.

My homebrew dynasty's fluff is that the overlady had a soft spot for her zoo/garden and took lots of precautions to protect it against the ravages of time. When her tomb world's defenses wrecked the human colonists that showed up during her nap, they ended up taking refuge in the massive garden/zoo because the canoptek guardians treated life in the garden as part of the collection provided they followed certain rules. (Rules which they found out through lethal trial and error and eventually turned into a set of religious taboos.) When the overlady woke up and found the weird bipeds worshipping the statues of her spread throughout the garden, she found it amusing and now treats the human settlements she absorbs into her domain as subjects, or perhaps as additional pets added to her collection.

Just think of the primitive humans in the original Stargate movie, worshipping their alien overlords as gods.

Regarding Nemesor Zahndrekh and his delusions:

Spoiler regarding the Severed novel: