How do you feel about Necron lore?

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ezra]

 

There's certainly no more mysterious abductions and experimentation or Pariahs for us to discuss.

 

Not entirely true. The new codex mentions abductions, with whole settlements going missing. Amusingly (to me, anyway), one of the more pronounced cases mentioned in the codex happens on a planet sharing name with a municipality in Norway.

 

Sure, no more pariahs (why GW, why?!), but the Necrons haven't changed much in that particular regard.

[Captain Idaho]

Yeah but they're not mysterious is what I'm getting at.

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ezra]

They are to the defenders, who find settlements gone and no idea who did it. :P

 

But I get what you mean.

[Trimegistos]

I feel, although , the faction needed a bit more fleshing our they are now more like Scooby Do villains.

 

I personally loved the pariahs and old school wraiths

[9x19 Parabellum]

So I have one major beef with Necron fluff, I'm sure someone has talked about it before, but maybe not...

 

The Necrontyr are said to have started on a planet with a horrible sun that left them all irradiated, cancerous, and short-lived.

 

So I guess my questions is how/why could/would a life form have evolved on such a planet that was intrinsically so susceptible to such a problem?  It kind of defies the whole natural selection/evolution/adaptation thing.  If they had evolved on that planet, they would have developed biological systems that made them at least somewhat resistant to whatever the radiation and energy levels of their home planet happened to be.

 

The second part of that is, if they had nevertheless learned how to navigate and travel the stars, why not just pack up and move to a planet that offered less radiation levels that their own planet?  Problem solved, no war in heaven, everybody wins!

[Tyriks]

Well, they did exactly that. They had colonized most of the Galaxy to get away from their harsh sun. But then they we're spread out and became fractious, which is why they had the War in Heaven. The Triarch felt an external threat would keep them unified.

 

As far as natural selection, that's not necessarily the case. You don't evolve to achieve an end. Mutation is stupid, most mutation ends up being deleterious or producing non-viable offspring. But every so often it will result in traits that aren't, and if those traits are beneficial it gives them an edge in the reproductive game so they are more likely to out-survive those without the trait. So if the radiation doesn't cause problems until they're after breeding age it wouldn't change their evolution at all.

[Mr4Minutes]

The question I’ve always had is if they are so short lived because of their sun etc. wouldn’t they have become long lived after becoming a star faring race?

 

If its just the star causing it, I’d imagine all the other dynasties lived a lot longer, kind of ruining the whole worship death because we die early fluff.

[Tyriks]

The question I’ve always had is if they are so short lived because of their sun etc. wouldn’t they have become long lived after becoming a star faring race?

If its just the star causing it, I’d imagine all the other dynasties lived a lot longer, kind of ruining the whole worship death because we die early fluff.

I'm not sure they worshipped death as much as obsessed over it. But maybe those that left did love much longer, doesn't mean they'll obsess any less. Average human lifespans have doubled since medieval period, yet we obsess over mortality even more in many ways. If their culture is founded on this obsession or worship, it would be very hard to shake that.

[Skaorn]

My guess would be that the Necrons star was not producing some steady form of cosmic radiation that somehow threaded the needle between allowing life to adapt to it and not wiping it all life out, but was just incredibly active. This increased volatility could regularly bombard the planet with random bursts of various radiation that the atmosphere couldn't always shield against causing higher rates of cancer during those periods. Of course the Necrontyr would probably have started to take steps to deal with their sun problem once they started getting to 20th century level tech by creating shield buildings and suits for going outside. Their natural lifespan probably was what it was, increased over the years due to nutrition and medicine, it just seemed short when compared to species. Kind of like how we might think it would be great to live to 500 (unless the human body continued to wear like it naturally does, then it would suck).

 

Of course this is a game where humans get implanted with artificial extra organs, which automatically kills off females painfully, that the brain is somehow forced to accept and operate though it wasn't designed for it. These trigger all sorts of changes that should leave those males horribly crippled at best. The end result somehow being a super child soldier. Sure eyes in the back of your head (just an example) might sound like a cool install until your stuck with them and a brain not able to deal with that kind of imput.

 

So my new theory is that the Necrons sun was the evil sun from Super Mario games and chased the Necrons all over until the C'tan pointed out it could be taken out by a turtle shell. I think it's scientifically sound, for 40K :D

[Captain Idaho]

It was the Nightbringer himself that fed on the Necrontyr's sun, causing it to die and splash about radiation that caused suffering and life cycle of the race to be what it was.

 

If you really want a scientific explanation, how about they evolved a short and painful lifecycle that only lasted a few dozen years? Science can only do so much after all.

 

They weren't the biologists of the Old Ones; they were the diametric opponents of each other.

[Mr4Minutes]

Well, the Old Ones were sustained by utilizing the warp, or at least that’s how I read it. So I’ve always thought as the Necrontyr technology advanced, they’d sustain themselves longer. Similarly to how the Imperium does it now.

 

Definitely so great interpretations to the fluff. Things to add to my growing dynasties lore.