Apocros wrote:
Furthermore, at what point does the actual consciousness entombed in a Necron soldier die? It's been my headcannon that they essentially "black out" when their shell is heavily damaged, and then wake up again when they are repaired. Then if they aren't repaired in a certain amount of time, or deemed un-repairable, their consciousness slips away into whatever afterlife comes for Necrons. That's completely headcannon though as I have no real idea what happens. Its possible their consciousness lives on, trapped forever in their wrecked metal shell. But even that would decay eventually and their consciousness would have to go somewhere. Or just fade away into nothingness, I suppose. Any info would be welcome!
Bear in mind that Necrons don't have an afterlife, no more than a damaged screw or a stone turned into sand would have. That's the great tragedy of their race, they lost their souls in the Biotransference process, and now they're just deadly computers; so, when one is destroyed for good, thats it. No soul, no afterlife.
What is more, only the upper echelons of the Necrons have circuitry complex enough and were storaged in extasis cripts good enough to retain conciousness and personality; I couldn't say if Inmortals or Warriors are sentient, or self-aware.
PS: I find the Necron fluff (specially the Newcron fluff, with their time gadgets and quantum bul**itery) but I really like this part of the history of
40k. How a race made a pact with the devil to win a war, and won it, but losing themselves in the process. The awareness of the tragedy by the leaders of the race, and their guilt as the lower classes were now mindless robots because of their pact.
IIRC, in the Necron fluff they described Biotransference from the point of view of a ruler individual (I don't remember if it was the Silent King) and he says he feels "empty" after the process; the C'tan fed on the souls of an entire race, and thus became much more powerful than they were before.