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Necrontyr

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The Necrontyr are an ancient and long-extinct race of humanoids. The planet they originated on was barren and radiation-blasted, making it incredibly hostile to life. It was so hostile that plasma storms and atomic winds constantly scoured its surface. Life on the planet was harsh; lives were short and uncertain. Their bodies were ridden with radiation sickness and they lived a morbid life, constantly fearful of their coming death.1

The Necrontyr attempted to master science, unlike the Old Ones who used psychic power and links to the Immaterium to advance themselves. They learned after thousands of years that they could not control their destiny with science. Their bodies could not be changed to survive on the planet and not suffer from the radiation sickness and perpetual fear of death. Their cities were built in anticipation of their demise, and simply became vast tomb complexes with a few homes for the living, in a temporary form.1

Eventually they developed sufficient technology to move out to other planets. They did not have the abilities of the Old Ones to move between the stars in seconds, and had to use slow-moving stasis crypts and slow-burning torch ships to gradually grope out to other stars. They clad their ships in their living metal to withstand the rigors of space flight. After much time, they met the Old Ones. This meeting of a short-lived, dour race to a race of hopeful and nigh-immortal people set a fire of rage burning in the hearts of the Necrontyr. From this moment on, they turned their entire lives to destroying the Old Ones in spite of their superior lifestyles.1

When war was declared, the Necrontyr realized they would never be able to win. They were constantly outmaneuvered by the Old Ones mastery of the Webways. Eventually they were pushed back to merely an annoyance in the outer regions among the Halo Stars. The fury of the Necrontyr was cooled after many thousands of years of imprisonment, and their disgust of the Old Ones turned into an utter hatred of all life.1

As their star had haunted their own existence, the Necrontyr studied the stars in an attempt to understand more of how they worked and to try to find something they could unleash on the Old Ones. Eventually, they found something so ancient as to predate even the Old Ones. This sentience fed on the stars they orbited but had little conception of the universe around them other than satisfying their need for energy. This was the weapon they needed to fight the Old Ones. Their etheric form made them invincible to conventional weapons. They were named C'tan, or Star Gods.1

How the Necrontyr managed to communicate with these beings is unknown, but the Necrontyr knew these beings could not understand the material universe without a physical, material body. So they made bodies for these creatures out of their living metal, allowing these bodies to expand and change at the will of the being enclosed. Supposedly, "translucent streams of force" were seen as the first being moved across the incorporeal starlight bridge into the body forged for it.1

The first being to come across the starlight bridge was the Nightbringer. As the creature became more manifest and intelligent, the Necrontyr fell in awe of their discovery. Shortly after, the Necrontyr began to worship the C'tan as gods for their supreme powers. The C'tan turned the Necrontyr into slaves and enjoyed ruling over them with cruelty and distrust.1

Soon the Necrontyr were ready to begin the battle anew with the Old Ones. The C'tan then made a proposition to the Necrontyr that they could not refuse. The C'tan offered immortality for the race. Their cursed flesh would be discarded in favor of bodies like their gods, made of living metal. Their bodies would be consumed and their minds transferred into the new metal bodies with which they could continue the war with the Old Ones. Whether the Necrontyr knew the consequences of this is unknown, but their entire race was purged when transferred into the metal bodies. Their minds were dulled and they were drawn into eternal servitude. Only a few of the Necrontyr retained any form of independent thought, but it was much reduced. The Necrontyr were no more, and the Necrons were born.1

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