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Hi!

So as the title says, which Necron unit is stronger?

I don't mean on tabletop, but in canon. Praetorians act as law enforcers, heavy shock troops, and jump troops, but Lychguards are the personal bodyguards of a Necron Lord/Overlord.

Lychguards are sentient as well, retaining their personality but having the capacity for disobedience removed. I'm unsure if Praetorians are still sentient as it is said that there only contribution is to decide whether an opponent is honorable or not.

From what I've read so far, it seems Lychguards are the more powerful of the two, being able to utilize Dispersion Shields and can take control of Necron forces with deadly proficiency when needed. While Praetorians may, in fact, hinder the war effort by forcing commanders to obey the rules of war when facing an honorable foe. But that's not to say they aren't deadly when deployed. So are the Lychguards more powerful, or do the Praetorians outmatch them?

Now on to Szarekh.

The Last Silent King seems to be a ghost character. No model, no artwork, no list of anything other than some of his deeds.

Remember, not on tabletop.

But since he was the ruler of the Necron Empire, and presumably still is, I assume he has the best, most durable, powerful, advanced, necrodermis body, along with whatever insanely technologically magical weaponry, armaments and accessories that the Crypteks could design. Though when I checked the diagram for the current Necron Empire, it places Imotekh the Stormlord at the top and as Phaeron of the Sautekh dynasty. So my question is: is Szarekh more powerful and does he possess a body and equipment that surpasses even that of the Stormlord? or is Imotekh more powerful than the last Silent King?

What are your thoughts guys?

The Silent King doesn't actually command the Necron Dynasties anymore. He destroyed the Command Protocols when he went on his long hiatus, and thus they're free to run their political games, as they always had in the past. So it's through force of will, personality, arms and diplomacy that the Silent King gets various Phaerons to resume their roles under him.

Lychguard are more powerful than Praetorians, by a lot. They analyze a foe to determine the most mathematically-precise way to kill them, often ending foes with a single swing of their swords.

I suppose that solves the Praetorian/Lychguard question (almost forgot about that killing blow protocol there), but even if Szarekh severed the command protocols, what about his personal combat capability?

I would think the Phaeron of Phaerons would get the best body and equipment during the Biotransference process, but I haven't read anything about Imotekh before the Great Sleep, and he only held the rank of Nemesor, and Szarekh was the Silent King, thus probably had better stuff.

So in a duel between Imotekh and Szarekh, who would win?

I know I'm not accounting for Imotekh's strategic brilliance, but a one on one duel with only personal weaponry to the death. No right hand amputation this time.

Nemesor is a military rank.

Silent King is a political one.

Not every race in 40k follows the rule of "Authority equals asskicking" - its entirely possible that Szarekh never lifted a weapon in his life other than for ceremonial reasons. Lychguard are better fighters than Praetorians, despite Praetorians outranking Lychguard.

In which case, Imotekh would hand him his shiny metal arse handily in a duel.

While the position of Silent King is a political one, it is also occupied by a Phaeron of a dynasty. And the grandest of campaigns was directed by a Phaeron with several lords and overlords serving under him. As demonstrated by Imotekh leading his armies from the forefront and personally challenging high-ranking foes in duels of honourable combat, Phaerons, and by extension, the Silent King, could have gone into battle personally to lead their troops. It is also stated that "almost without exception, Necron Lords and Overlords are skilled warriors and commanders, completely capable of making split-second tactical decisions even as they cut their way through the enemy’s ranks." So is that almost Szarekh?

But the frustrating thing is that we don't know enough about Szarekh to know if he actually did any fighting for himself. So I'll give the victory to the Stormlord as there are records of him fighting in person.

Though this leaves the second question: Szarekh was at the top of the pyramid, being the ruler of the Necron Empire. So would his body and equipment be equally as good as someone like Imotekh's or even better?

The difference between an Overlord and a Phaeron is the relentless protocol, which is more of a software upgrade than a hardware one. Its possible that the Overlord chassis is the best they could do without Time Lord magic.

I'm unsure if Praetorians are still sentient as it is said that there only contribution is to decide whether an opponent is honorable or not.

They are quite sentient. In fact, thy never went to sleep and were jut watching over galaxy the whole time, interfering with 'lesser races' from time to time and trying to spread the glorious culture of the Necrontyr around.
As for 'deciding hw honorable the opponent is' - it is not always bad or wrong. In fact, Praetorians can and do organize battlefield alliances with other factions, or dynasties.

As for Necron hierarchy in the book. It depicts Sautekh dynasty only, not the whole of Necrontyr.
As for Szarekh himself - we have only his Blood Angels encounters to work with. In there he is described to use 'space-time manipulations' when employing his forces, and to wear Death Mask of Sanguinius (probably specially for Dante).
Personally, i think there would be no reason for him and Imotekh to fight.

There's plenty of reason for Szarekh and Imotekh to fight - Imotekh is trying to set himself up as the new Silent King.

In the fluff I think Lychguard and Praetorians are roughly equal in combat ability.

As far as who has more power, I would side wit the Silent King. He has all of the Triarch forces at his disposal on top of having more political power to convince other Phaerons to join him.

I thought that the Silent King had returned, and was in hiding, including the possibility of being disguised as another character. That means that one of the existing characters might be the Silent King, secretly.

I don't recall there being anything to say he is actually one of the current special characters.

 PhillyT wrote:
I don't recall there being anything to say he is actually one of the current special characters.

Yeah I haven't read anything to that effect.

I do believe that all necrons are themselves, with the exception of Trayzn the Infinite, since he loves having others like Lychguards take his place while he goes to collect more artifacts.

Szarekh still travels from Tomb World to Tomb World, with all Triarch Praetorians having sworn themselves to him since he is recognized as the Silent King, and waking them up one by one. It's similar to Anrakyr the Traveler, but he doesn't go specifically to Tomb Worlds, but rather where ever the Necrons need help.

So yeah, pretty sure that Szarkeh is Szarekh.

And Imotekh is pretty damn powerful, and still reaching for more, though he hasn't made any overt moves to take the role of Silent King from Szarekh, but considering all the backstabbing the Necron court does to each other, it's probably more than likely he's making plans. Unless of course, he also recognizes Szarekh as his ruler. Not likely.

Still. If Imotekh want's to take the position of Silent King, he's going to have to deal with the guy that successfully crushed the C'tan and sealed them in Tesseract Vaults, not to mention the legions of Triarch Praetorians that swore themselves to Szarekh, and are programmed/honor bound to uphold the rules of the Necron dynasties.

What kind of gear do you think Szarekh would have if he was actually revealed?

I'd actually imagine the Praetorians being more powerful, even if it is not reflected well in game turns. They were, after all, the a military/judicial arm that called stray Phaerons and Lords to task.

Which presumably meant they had to be capable of fighting a court, the Lychguard, and the Lord himself.

 Ferros wrote:
I'd actually imagine the Praetorians being more powerful, even if it is not reflected well in game turns. They were, after all, the a military/judicial arm that called stray Phaerons and Lords to task.

Which presumably meant they had to be capable of fighting a court, the Lychguard, and the Lord himself.

On the other hand, there were probably more Praetorians - a court might have a core of ten or maximum twenty Lychguard, and the Praetorians could probably over-ride the Lords' command protocols on the rest of the dynasty's warriors.

 PhillyT wrote:
I don't recall there being anything to say he is actually one of the current special characters.

It does say he may be under the guise of another. They clearly want conclusions drawn. That could easily be misdirection though since Imotehk is one of the few who would fit that

jakejackjake wrote:

 PhillyT wrote:
I don't recall there being anything to say he is actually one of the current special characters.

It does say he may be under the guise of another. They clearly want conclusions drawn. That could easily be misdirection though since Imotehk is one of the few who would fit that

Ah, typical GW "mystery" fluff! Well spotted, thank you.

I personally feel that The Silent King would be somewhat on the level of the Emprah. Consider the kind of tech-prowess the Necrontyr wielded, then think about what they could have given the single most important being in their empire.

He had the Command Protocols that gave him overall command of the Necrons. He trashed those, though, and they don't work anymore.

Here is what Szarekh looks like.

Word of the Silent King wrote:He was taller than the rest, yet not as tall as I had imagined he might be. His mechanical body was a work of unspeakable xenos artifice, more finely wrought than any I had ever seen upon the field of battle. Where they might be skeletal, he was lithe. Where they were animated with grim, unyielding purpose, his every movement possessed an undeniable vitality. His form spoke of musculature and clean-limbed strength, perhaps touched by the divine, and his finery was simple and yet impossibly elegant.

He's a bit bigger than the standard Necron Overlord since he's both taller and not a robot skeleton like them.

As for how powerful he is, that depends on what he did during his 60 million year exile and what gear he has, though if I were to guess I'd say everything he has would be an exceptional relic by other standards (e.g. an apotheosis orb instead of a resurrection orb), the only question is how many relics he'd have on him.

On the topic of Lychguard vs Praetorians, it depends on if the Praetorian can get around the shield, if he can, it's over, a Lychguard with a warscythe is a dead Lychguard.

TCF wrote:

He's a bit bigger than the standard Necron Overlord since he's both taller and not a robot skeleton like them.

For reference, these overlords are both taller and more powerful than almost any space marine. This guy sounds like an in-game all sixes statline