Mephet'ran, the Deceiver is a C'tan, a living god of the Necrons, that survives as fragmented shards.[2]
History
The Deceiver, as its name implies, enjoys using trickery, deception and lies to its own ends.[1e] The other C'tan quickly learned to distrust and shun the Deceiver[1e], and its nature was shown particularly when the Deceiver tricked the Necrontyr into giving up their bodies in favour of metallic husks.[1e] When the Necrontyr first encountered the Deceiver, they gave it the name Mephet'ran, the Messenger[1f] and hoped it would be able to bridge the gap between Necrontyr and C'tan.
The Deceiver was the one to steer the Necrontyr towards a war with the Old Ones, by using its words to instill hatred of their power and ageless wisdom. Eventually this led to the transformation of the Necrontyr to the Necrons, which in turn led to the next major incident in the history of the C'tan. One of the three possibilities says that the Deceiver was the first to set C'tan against C'tan, convincing them that each other was the "best of all feasts"[1f], but despite this the Deceiver remained one of the physically weakest C'tan and only survived by avoiding the more violent C'tan, such as the Nightbringer and the Void Dragon.
Along with many of the other C'tan, the Deceiver was shattered into shards by the Necrons.[2]
The Deciever and other races
The Deciever is known by various names by various different cultures[Needs Citation]:
- The Eldar gave the Deceiver the name "the Jackal God"[1f]
- Artemorra to the Jokaero
- Sathsarrion to the Initiates of the Gethvar
- Mohagg to the Cornochinae
- Harrimoch to the Vendichi travellers
Recent History
The Deciever was the last of the C'tan to descend to its stasis tomb and the first to leave, and has had millennia to gather support. It has destroyed, through its subtle methods, the Blackstone Fortresses, the only weapons capable of destroying the C'tan, and placed the remains far out of reach of the Eldar. It is said that it invoked the Gothic War simply to destroy or remove the Fortresses.
An article by Farseer Maechu of Ulthwé makes a brief prediction of the future, of how the Deceiver will blur the sight of the younger races and mankind and will make them believe they are coming home when in fact they are walking into the Necron "soulforges."[1h]
Translation of an Eldar Artifact
This artifact tells of the signs of the return of the C'tan. It has one line dedicated to the Deceiver, "...and the Jackal-God shall turn brother against brother."[1a]
Assassination attempt
Another text mentions the attempt by a Callidus Assassin to assassinate a Planetary Governor named Takis. She used her C'tan phase knife and attempted to kill Takis, but she failed and her weapon passed straight through him. He knocked her aside and took her weapon and absorbed it into his hand. [1b].
The Silvae
The Silvae were an agrarian society with little technology. They were visited by the Deceiver early in their development and it convinced them to worship it. It returned occasionally to reinforce their devotion and they quickly became a superstitious people.[1f]
The Silvae were then introduced to the Imperium and they soon turned to violence, but the Deceiver did not show up to help them. Instead it was dismayed to find them "slipping back to barbarism." It then sent in a Necron force to wipe out all of the Silvae; a few Silvae survived the near-extinction of their race, but there is insufficient genetic variation in these remaining members to perpetuate the species. [1g]
Previous Editions/Canon Conflict
Prior to the publication of Codex: Necrons (5th Edition) the C'tan were described as having been in an aeons-long slumber from which they are only now awakening, rather than having been shattered into the C'tan Shards. Since this retcon, the canonicity of some older information is uncertain.
