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[[Image:Ctan.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The C'tan [[Nightbringer]]{{Fn|1}}]]
 
[[Image:Ctan.jpg|thumb|right|300px|The C'tan [[Nightbringer]]{{Fn|1}}]]
The '''C'tan''' ([[Eldar]] ''Yngir'') are said to be the oldest beings in existence.  Once beings of God-like power they were overthrown by their followers, the [[Necron]]s, and most exist now only in the form of the [[C'tan Shard]]s.
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The '''C'tan''' ([[Eldar]] ''Yngir'') are said to be the oldest beings in existence.  Once beings of God-like power they were overthrown by their followers, the [[Necron]]s, and most if not all exist now only in the form of the [[C'tan Shard]]s.
  
 
==History==
 
==History==

Revision as of 21:38, 23 October 2020

The C'tan Nightbringer[1]

The C'tan (Eldar Yngir) are said to be the oldest beings in existence. Once beings of God-like power they were overthrown by their followers, the Necrons, and most if not all exist now only in the form of the C'tan Shards.

History

It is said that the C'tan were created at the very beginning of the universe, spawned from swirling gases and enormous amounts of energy, and as such are etheric creatures by nature.[1] In their natural form they are vast beings and spread themselves over the surface of a star, sucking at its energy to feed themselves.[1] After a time, they learned to use diaphanous wings to travel to other stars to continue their consumption. The matter around them was so insignificant that it didn't even register to their voracious appetites.[1]

After several million years, the race known as the Necrontyr discovered a being feeding from their very sun. The Necrontyr, under the leadership of Szarekh, "the Silent King," managed to communicate with this being, naming its species the C'tan; which in native Necrontyr means "star gods," or "star vampires".[1] Eventually the Necrontyr built physical bodies for the C'tan made from Necrodermis or living metal. The C'tan were then transferred, supposedly across an "incorporeal starlight bridge," into their new bodies - thousands of miles of energy creature compressed into comparatively tiny bodies.

The C'tan made use of the Necrontyr's hatred of the Old Ones to wage war and collect bodies to consume, which they enjoyed far more than their old diet of star energy.[1] They also found a love of worship, or more accurately, of others worshipping them. They were revered by the Necrontyr as gods and forced them into complete slavery.[1] The C'tan eventually tricked or convinced the Necrontyr into leaving their bodies and entering shells of living metal, becoming the Necrons.

In the war between the C'tan and their slaves the Necrons, against the Old Ones and the younger races, their red harvests slaughtered millions upon millions.[1] Not long after that a plague of Enslavers emerged, which apart from finally destroying the Old Ones, also depleted the red harvests further. It was then that Szarekh, realizing the error he had made by dealing with the C'tan, led a Necron revolt against their masters. In their arrogance, the C'tan did not realize their danger until it was too late and the Necrons shattered the C'tan with weapons that focused the unimaginable energies of the living universe. Since then, the C'tan have been shattered into shards, utilized by the Necrons in battle.[7]

Transcendent C'tan

Transcendent C'tan[8]

Transcendent C'tan's are C'tan's bursting with pure elemental energy. Each Transcendent C'tan is a collection of anywhere between a dozen and a hundred lesser shards, and its power far surpasses the sum of its parts.[9]

Shards of these mighty creatures are used by the Necrons as weapons by entombing them in Tesseract Vaults and controlling them with a Canoptek Sentinel and energy shackles designed by Svarokh.[9] Should the situation become dangerous enough, the Necrons may release the Transcendent C'tan from its prison to rampage across the battlefield. This however is often as dangerous to the Necrons as is it to their foes.[8]

Known C'tan

  • Aza'gorod, the Nightbringer: The first C'tan to encounter the Necrons. Powerful enough to impress its image as that of death itself on the psyche of the younger races, upon entering stasis it was almost destroyed by starvation but was released accidentally by the Dark Eldar, aided by a power-mad human industrialist named Kasimir de Valtos.
  • Emberresh, the Suneater: Held captive by the Xonthar Dynasty, who use it as a weapon against their enemies.[13]
  • Hsiagn'la[18]
  • Iash'uddra, the Endless Swarm: The most reviled of the C'tan.
  • Kalugura, the Silent Cry: Entombed at the word of the Silent King
  • Llandu'gor, the Flayer: The only C'tan fully obliterated by the Necrons, in his death he cursed the Necrons with the flayer curse.
  • Mag'ladroth, the Void Dragon: A figure of oblivion, wanton destruction and devastation. Speculated to be the Dragon of Mars.[3]
  • Mephet'ran, the Deceiver: The C'tan who made the bargain to turn the Necrontyr into the Necrons.
  • N'phoran, the Spiral Flame[15]
  • Nyadra'zatha, the Burning One: A C'tan that gave the necrons the ability to access the Webway.
  • Og'driada, the Arisen
  • Thyssak'lha, the Walking Blight[23]
  • Tsara'noga, the Outsider: A C'tan that went insane due to its consumption of other C'tan or possibly an Eldar deity.
  • Yggra'nya, the World Shaper: A C'tan's whose very thoughts could break apart a planet and reshape it in a form more pleasing to him.[10]
  • Zarhulash, the Potentate: Used by the Necrons to power the Pharos.[17]
  • Zul'channec: A C'tan nearly awakened by a cabal of Crypteks[24]

Known C'tan Powers and Abilities

  • Antimatter Meteor - The C’tan Shard gathers an orb of roiling antimatter, before hurling the crackling projectile into the midst of the foe.[12]
  • Cosmic Fire - At the C’tan Shard’s gestured command, a pillar of black fire streaks down from the heavens.[12]
  • Entropic Touch - Metal decays on contact with the C'tan Shard's rotten grasp.[19]
  • Gaze of Death - Eyes blazing with dark energy, the C'tan Shard drains life from all in the vicinity.[19]
  • Grand Illusion - The C'tan Shard weaves a glamour of deception, preventing the foe from seeing the disposition of the Necron forces.[19]
  • Immune to Natural Law - The C’tan Shard’s very existence is anathema to natural law and it is not bound by petty rules such as gravity or the solidity of matter.[20]
  • Lord of Fire - This C'tan Shard is a creature of living flame, able to command the fires wielded by the enemy.[19]
  • Moulder of Worlds - Tortured rocks buckles and heaves, showering the C'tan Shard's foes with boulders.[19]
  • Seismic Assault - Stone fractures and ores flash burn into silvered steam as the C’tan Shard drags up tides of magma from deep below.[12]
  • Seismic Shockwave[21]
  • Sentient Necrodermis - The C’tan Shard is bound by a living metal Necrodermis that both protects and contains its essence.[15][20]
  • Sentient Singularity - A C'tan Shard's presence destabilises gravitational forces, disrupting engines, teleport beams and warp jumps.[19]
  • Sky of Falling Stars - Savagely beautiful orbs of coruscating light plummet from the cold depths of space, growing to roaring bale-stars as they approach.[12]
  • Storm of Heavenly Fire[21]
  • Time's Arrow - Mutating the flow of causality and remoulding the temporal stream, the C’tan erases its foe’s very existence from space and time.[12]
  • Transdimensional Maelstrom[21]
  • Transdimensional Thunderbolt - The C’tan Shard projects a crackling bolt of energy from its outstretched palm, blasting its foe into oblivion.[12]
  • Transliminal Stride[21]
  • Swarm of Spirit Dust - A cloud of swirling darkness conceals the C'tan shard from the gaze of his foes.[19]
  • Wave of Withering[21]
  • Writhing Worldscape - The natural world revolts at the C'tan Shard's presence, the very ground writhing and shaking as the physical laws holding reality together are undone.[19]

Relationship with the Warp

A C'tan shard

The major weakness of the C'tan is their inability to comprehend the warp. It is speculated that they find it impossible to survive in it and are particularly susceptible to warp-spawned magicks and psykers. They had a plan to block off the warp forever in an attempt to remove their single greatest threat.[1] It is also speculated that they have set up a series of pylons on Cadia, possibly for this purpose.[Needs Citation] Whether these pylons have anything to do with the Eye of Terror is unknown, but it is unlikely, as the Eye was not opened until after the C'tan were in their stasis tombs.

There is also a Necron object on Armageddon in the central region of the planet.[2]

Other instances of the C'tan

During the Great Crusade, it is known that the Imperium encountered a suspected C'tan device known as the Vortex field generator which would later be relocated to Jericho fort and making that site invulnerable to orbital bomardment.[6] The armies of the Imperium are known to guard the Gates of Varl from the quiescent perils of the Ctan.[4]

Members of the Imperial Assassin Callidus Temple use a weapon called the C'tan Phase Sword.[1] It is unknown what specific relation the weapon has with the C'tan themselves, but when it comes into contact with a C'tan's body it is absorbed as if it is a piece of its body returning home.

Notes

The fate of the C'tan differs from the 3rd Edition and the Fifth Edition onwards. 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.

Sources