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Just finished listening to the audiobook of The Twice Dead King. Overall, a very fun listen that provided interesting insight into necron society and a refreshing break from all the bolter porn. That said, wtf was up with the magical flashback thing? I get that on a meta level it gave the author a way to make the main character's flashbacks diagetic (though I'm not sure they needed to be), but what exactly were they supposed to do?

I was listening rather than reading, so it's tough for me to go back and review the portion that explained the rules/intent of the flashbacks, but it kind of seems like what rules there were didn't actually get followed? From what I caught, the flashbacks:
* Were supposed to provide Altix with a metaphorical insight from his past that was tailored to address his present predicament.
* Caused the accessed memories to be permanently forgotten.

But the memories he accessed didn't seem to be particularly relevant to his situation any time he used them; he mostly uses them to power nap his way through a painful "surgery." And then we see other characters repeat sayings that we saw in at least one of the flashbacks meaning Altix either doesn't remember the reference being made or else the other character says the same thing so often that it sort of undercuts the supposed tragedy of losing that particular memory. I got the impression that said tragedy combined with his rampant use of the flashbacks near the end were meant to suggest he was abandoning a big chunk of his remaining "humanity", but his personality doesn't seem to have really changed afterwards; at least, not in ways that can't be explained by his circumstances/experiences. I guess it gave him an excuse to resist the flayer virus that he may or may not have actually contracted?

So what even were the flashbacks meant to be? They make him lose his living memories, but not really. They're supposed to be a tool for coming up with inspired courses of action, but the time it takes to decipher them seems like it's probably at least as value as the inspiration itself. They make him lose part of his "self," but his personality seems unaffected or changed for the better. Narratively, I guess it ties into the theme of letting go of the past in order to better face the present/future, but what exactly was supposed to be going on in-universe?

Wyldhunt wrote:
Just finished listening to the audiobook of The Twice Dead King. Overall, a very fun listen that provided interesting insight into necron society and a refreshing break from all the bolter porn. That said, wtf was up with the magical flashback thing? I get that on a meta level it gave the author a way to make the main character's flashbacks diagetic (though I'm not sure they needed to be), but what exactly were they supposed to do?

I was listening rather than reading, so it's tough for me to go back and review the portion that explained the rules/intent of the flashbacks, but it kind of seems like what rules there were didn't actually get followed? From what I caught, the flashbacks:
* Were supposed to provide Altix with a metaphorical insight from his past that was tailored to address his present predicament.
* Caused the accessed memories to be permanently forgotten.

But the memories he accessed didn't seem to be particularly relevant to his situation any time he used them; he mostly uses them to power nap his way through a painful "surgery." And then we see other characters repeat sayings that we saw in at least one of the flashbacks meaning Altix either doesn't remember the reference being made or else the other character says the same thing so often that it sort of undercuts the supposed tragedy of losing that particular memory. I got the impression that said tragedy combined with his rampant use of the flashbacks near the end were meant to suggest he was abandoning a big chunk of his remaining "humanity", but his personality doesn't seem to have really changed afterwards; at least, not in ways that can't be explained by his circumstances/experiences. I guess it gave him an excuse to resist the flayer virus that he may or may not have actually contracted?

So what even were the flashbacks meant to be? They make him lose his living memories, but not really. They're supposed to be a tool for coming up with inspired courses of action, but the time it takes to decipher them seems like it's probably at least as value as the inspiration itself. They make him lose part of his "self," but his personality seems unaffected or changed for the better. Narratively, I guess it ties into the theme of letting go of the past in order to better face the present/future, but what exactly was supposed to be going on in-universe?

It serves the purpose of showing the mental decline of even seemingly intact Necron characters, as it means what they think is their past is shown by that device to be unreliable. The device shows the true memory, even though it then wipes it. Quotes may be remembered by the character but then misattributed to someone else rather as they cannot recall who said it or the circumstances. Oltyx's view of his brother and subsequent hatred and rivarly proves to be based on a complete misunderstanding or misremembered incident.

It shows the Necrons all have been struggling with insanity and they each come up with their own ways of dealing with it (those that are aware of it anyway). Oltyx's brother, Djoseras, is seemingly an arch-conservative, but this stems from more than just his views, but rather Djoseras adheres rigidly to ancient codes and rules because that is his way of keeping sane. He does his decoration of his warriors' limbs as another form of this. Djoseras compares himself to iron, unable to bend too far without snapping. Against the yawning abyss of the vast gulfs of time since they became Necrons, Djoseras clings to the old ways, which includes utter loyalty to the ruler even when he is aware of the ruler's state and bad decisions. Djoseras engages in a form of double think, simultaneously aware of his father's decline yet also at the same time remaining passive and doing nothing about it, in a state of denial about how severe it is.

Great response! Kind of makes me wonder about the intentions of the psychomancer who installed that feature. How aware are the 'crons that their memories can be flawed without it being obvious? And how do they feel about that? Human memory becomes distorted with time. Assuming the same was true of the necrontyr, do they see such erosion of memories as "normal" or terrifying? How does an immortal deal with the notion that they can't cross the same river twice?

The following has spoilers from the sequel The Twice-Dead King: Reign:



The Necron nobles don't seem to be a philosophical lot and are pretty narcissistic. The rulers in particular seem to be focused on the concept of heka, which is meant as the royal will, and how lesser Necrons must remake reality to conform with the royal will when the two do not match. Heka is a real ancient Egyptian ward (as Nate Crowley did sprinkle in several other real ancient Egyptian words in the novels) and can be sort of translated as magic. The crypteks are the philosophical ones though they veer easily off into mad scientist territory.