# Necron characters



## Iron Angel (Aug 2, 2009)

Linash-Ket, Arahket, The Burning Maiden, The Dreamslayer

One of the closest and most devout disciples of the Nightbringer in life, her prowess for bringing death and ruin is no surprise. But in her youth, during the war with the Old Ones, she lost her entire family one by one to the Old Ones and their child races, instilling a deep-seated and unshakable hatred for all of them- Her lust for the annihilation of her enemy is not a result of her alliance with the Nightbringer; It is the reverse. Her devotion to the Nightbringer only amplified this already horrifying level of hatred to truly fearsome and nigh-insane levels.

Biotransferrence did nothing to dim her rage and wild-eyed abhorrence of anything not Necrontyr. Her transformation slowly molded her to hate those Necrontyr who had not accepted the machine as well, and was one of the most feared wardens of collection. She delved with grim and terrifying glee into bloody battle, leaving a swath of broken bodies and severed bones wherever she went, a trail of horrifying death behind her across every battlefield. Each kill only stirred her anger more and more, to the point where she began to spearhead assaults against her foes completely unprovoked and with no rest, sweeping across sectors and annihilating all life in her path like a tide of flame. Linash-Ket was synonymous with terror, and was whispered in every corner of the galaxy with horror and dread. Her rage was not blind, however. Her warlike prowess was that of a feral predator; Vicious and bloody, but calculated and precise. 

When the Great Rebellion began, she refused stalwartly to strike down the Nightbringer, and slaughtered scores of Nemesors who tried. Fame is a fickle friend, and it quickly turned to infamy as Ket’s history as a glorious heroine faded to her new reputation as an outlaw and C’tan loyalist. Her reputation meant little to her, only her boiling rage and incandescent fury. One opponent that sought to oppose her master was as good as any other.

Inevitably, the Nightbringer was slain. Ket’s fury upon this discovery was as never before. She unleashed a screeching roar that pierced the entire ship she was aboard, and stormed immediately to the hangar bays with the full intent of bringing the fight to the Silent King himself, striking him down and shattering his body personally.

A timely intervention by the Deceiver stayed her hand, however- Gahat-Siil, one of his disciples and a close ally and friend of Ket, though of much colder and more calculated temperament than hers, was able to spin her up in the Deceiver’s plan. Ket’s logical side gave way to her scorching wrath and she went along with the plan.

And so it was that the word was spread that the Deceiver had been found and captured, and that he had been impersonating Linash-Ket, whom he had already captured and held prisoner. The “real” Linash-Ket was absolved of her doppelganger’s crimes, and the Deceiver shattered, all according to his plan. The Great Slumber began, and the Deceiver claimed control of her warriors with Ket’s consent. After all, with the Nightbringer shattered, the Deceiver seemed the best option for wreaking terrible and horrifying vengeance upon her betrayers.

Among her other allies was the Illuminor Sinnat-Val, who had also studied with the now-obliterated Technomandrites. Rather than have brought forth some new trapping of technology, she instead desired two outmoded pieces of equipment- a Proton Gun and a Phase Axe. Proton guns were the predecessor to the Heat Ray, considered by many to be an unreliable and expensive bauble unsuitable for use on such a small scale, but Ket knew their usefulness. Similarly, the Phase Axe was the predecessor to the Warscythe, and considered large, cumbersome, and ineffective compared to the newer weapon. But once again Ket valued the advantages of its design- Her impressive physical form was more than capable of wielding the massive weapon and it became known quickly that when brought about in great arcs, it leaves little in its path but shattered corpses. With some labor, Val located the few that had not been recycled for parts and bartered for them.

Age has not been kind to Linash-Ket. During the Great Slumber, most Necron lords and overlords succumb to a form of madness that amplifies their eccentricities, and Ket was already half-insane before the slumber even began, her eccentricity being an insatiable fury for the annihilation of her foes. This has been amplified to a truly terrifying level. Most Necrons think she may be halfway to Destroyer, while others think she may have contracted the Flayer virus and is slowly losing her sanity.

The truth is that neither party is correct. Destroyers are driven purely by a mechanical desire to destroy the mutation that is life, and Flayers are mindlessly propelled by a bloodthirsty desire to consume the living. Ket, unlike Destroyers, still experiences rage, hate, and the unparalleled fury that had her nicknamed The Burning Maiden in life, as opposed to the impartial apathy the Destroyers exhibit. Unlike the Flayed Ones, her moves and motives are calculated and precise, with purpose beyond simple bloodlust. Her searing wrath is the product of a life of war and strife, amplified by the ruthless march of time. She bears a deep and complete detestation for the Necrontyr who betrayed the C’tan, considering them even less than the other races of the galaxy, which she will only refer to as vermin and a disease. Praetorians in her army are very cautious about selecting opponents as honorable- Any Praetorian who suggests a traitor Necron of being honorable will be surely torn apart in a violent display of explosive fury.

While she hates and revolts at her kin who turned from the C’tan, deep inside, the fuel for her campaign of slaughter and annihilation is the deep desire to return to the old ways- If she could stop fighting other Necrons and instead rally them to conquer the galaxy under the C’tan, as they should be, she would gladly accept that fate. Until then, however, she will shatter and obliterate any who stand in her way, Necron or otherwise- And she will revel in their annihilation.



Gahat-Siil, Siilekteth, The Frozen Poet, The Wishmaster

One of the greatest burdens in Necrontyr society was being what was referred to as a Poet- These were historians and lorekeepers, implanted with special chips that recorded their experiences, and imparted the experiences of those who possessed the chip before to their bearer. Upon death, a Poet’s chip is removed and implanted into the next, a reliquary of the combined experiences of dozens of Necrontyr from adulthood to death.

This burden was never heavier than late in the War in Heaven when a Poet’s chip contained only horror and despair from centuries of battles, mostly lost, its previous bearer losing his chip almost invariably from death on the battlefield. Poets were characteristically defined by a sullen, cold, and ominous nature, their minds plagued with nightmares that sometimes weren’t even theirs, but were instead the contents of a hundred minds that died from the horrors of war.

Gahat-Siil was no exception. In life, many described him as bearing a perpetual scowl, and a set of large, piercing eyes that had the frightening appearance of knowing far too much about pain. Siil was also an accomplished warrior, though hardly as famous as Ket, though many considered his frigid and intense nature to be nearly as terrifying as Ket’s blistering rage. Their closeness in many campaigns however had them informally dubbed with matching monikers- The Burning Maiden and The Frozen Poet.

Where Ket was an unparalleled one-woman army, Siil was a master of small unit tactics. Whenever a battle was engaged, his unit invariably made the deciding push, the unexpected flank, the killing stroke. Always at the vanguard, he brought all his icy and calculating ability to the forefront of the battle, using his perception and the prowess left to him by a hundred minds to sunder his foes and direct his allies. While he had no particular mind for generalship or politics, he understood the flow of battle with a piercing acuity not found in many warriors.

Biotransferrence was kind to him in this fashion- His already acute mind was only empowered by the speed and accuracy of a computerized brain. His deadliness on the battlefield was improved beyond its already prodigious reputation, and it became widely known.

His chosen deity was the Deceiver, whom he connected with immediately- The Deceiver’s calculating and impersonal nature, and the tone that constantly belied that he knew far more than he was revealing, resonated with Siil. Where Ket was placed at the front of the spearhead and pointed in the general direction of the enemy, and could be relied upon to do the rest herself, Siil’s expertise was quickly recognized by the Deceiver as the perfect mind for secret operations needing small units of elite warriors to perform specific tasks- There was no need for higher generalship, and he was not required to operate on his own.

Thus was he instrumental in the Great Work of seeding the Pariah Gene. Humans were considered the best candidates of the gene- The other children of the Old Ones were considered unsuitable for a variety of reasons. The Orks were too prone to self-eradication. The Eldar were too clever and would wipe the gene out quickly- Their abundance of acutely warp-attuned individuals meant a blank would be detected and destroyed before it was even born. Humans, however, were not particularly self-destructive, nor were they abundantly warp-attuned, and they were certainly none too clever.

In a daring operation, he and several of the highest ranking Lychguard and Deathmarks stole into the Webway to find the hidden gene-splicing vats of the Old Ones to sabotage them and add the small vial that contained the Pariah Gene. They could not be detected, and they could not damage anything- Stealth was vital.

For this task, the disgraced Illuminor Tovalekh was brought into the fold to produce for Siil the tools necessary- Namely, the Revenant Cloak, a special Veil of Darkness that could target allies even in a swirling melee and spirit them away, the Wraithknife, a small but potent energy blade that could quickly dispatch even the most heavily armored enemies, and the Pendulum, a weapon that could easily cut apart anything in its path.

A diversionary attack was staged by Vier to make it seem as if the goal of the attack was the facility’s destruction while Siil and his force infiltrated the facility, added the gene material, and escaped.

The mission was partially successful. Their intrusion was detected, and the Old Ones knew that they had done something to the human gene pool- But not what. Unable to spare the resources necessary to completely scrap the project and start anew, they instead sparingly used the new genes to make humans, focusing on the Orks and Eldar, their two most successful species.

The modifications went unnoticed, fortunately, and upon the defeat of the Old Ones, the scattered Humans bore enough of the gene across the stars to ensure its longevity well into the future of the stars.

When disaster struck and the C’tan were betrayed, Siil was livid with his brethren, but the Deceiver stayed his hand and revealed to Siil his master plan- That the revolt was engineered by him, and that the shattering of the C’tan was necessary. He could absorb the other C’tan and become the sum of all of them, and in time, unite the Necrons forever and undeniably, giving them dominion not only over this galaxy, but others as well. He could not do this in his current form, however, being one of the least physically threatening of the C’tan. He plied Siil for patience, and to have faith in his plans. Siil coalesced, and was instrumental in gathering the other important figures that the Deceiver uses for his goals.

The Great Slumber darkened Siil’s mind further- Where before he was cold and brooding, his nature is now downright frigid. Largely silent, speaking only when absolutely necessary and sure to deliver his message with cold precision and profound meaning with as few words as possible, he comes off as distant and severe in all things. Usually, speech is unnecessary anyway- Most Necrons simply understand his piercing gaze, which has a tendency to make any who it falls upon extremely uncomfortable. Vier is recorded as tensely ordering Siil to not look directly at him because of this very thing.

Furthermore, Siil’s moral boundaries are beyond questionable. Where Ket simply slaughters everything in her path, Siil’s actions of manipulation are far more horrifying. Things even the most vile of individuals of other races would be too horrified to do are well within Siil’s parameters- Infecting children with mindshackle scarabs and using them as spies or even shock troops against their own kind, imploding entire cities of civilian populations rather than go through the trouble of conquering them, and perhaps most horrific of all, turning blanks into Pariahs, who then slaughter their own kin with remorseless efficiency. This is, of course, his ultimate purpose- To gather the Pariahs and use them as a tool to seal the warp of forever. And without the Warp, Necron dominance will be undeniable.



The rest to come shortly.


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## NoPoet (Apr 18, 2011)

Hi, this is an excellent background piece for your characters. I haven't read the new Necron fluff, although it sounds amazing compared to the somewhat depthless nonsense of their first Codex (fancy introducing a new species in a bare-bones Codex!) and the new models are fantastic. 

You make me want to run out and buy the Codex so I can write about this Rebellion and build an army with which to fight it!

*Linash-Ket*

I struggled with all the character names but got the hang of things when I re-read it. I was slightly confused near the beginning when you make the character's rage out to be something akin to a daemon of Khorne, but a couple of paragraphs in you then state her anger is that of a calculating predator. "Rage" to me is synonymous with berserk fury and unplanned reaction, as opposed to calculating anger or cruelty. Just adding the word "smouldering" (or somthing similar) tempers her rage somewhat, so she still feels the same emotion but she displays it differently - this would make her more calculating and less of a berserker.

I LOVE the idea of Necrontyr resisting this "transferrence" into metallic bodies.

As the author of 20K, I greatly enjoyed the mention of precursor weapons like the phase axe and proton gun.

*Gahat-Siil*

What a brilliant and imaginatively written piece! Poets in our society are variously regarded from pathetic and wishy-washy to masterminds whose writing has influenced our civilisation down the ages. I love the idea that Poets are symbols of horror and despair to the Necrontyr; by this point I am really getting the fell for how much of a beating the Necrons took and why they are such cold-blooded killers. 


Very intriguing!


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