Necron backstory tweaks?

[b1soul]

This is a bit of head canon speculation, as I always found the Necron backstory to be good but somewhat inconsistent: Why couldn't the highly advanced Necrontyr fix their life-span problem?

 

 

The Milky Way likely contains ~400 billion stars and ~1 trillion planets.

 > The Old Ones were a highly advanced civilisation who harnessed the equivalent of 10% of the Milky Way's stellar energy.

 > The ancient Necrontyr were a somewhat younger race who (before "joining with" the C'tan) rose to command the equivalent of 2.4% of the Milky Way's stellar energy.

 > While joined with the C'tan, the ancient Necrons harnessed the equivalent of 12%.

 > For a sense of scale, Golden Age Eldar harnessed the equivalent of 1.4%, and Dark Age humanity harnessed 1.2%. 

With the power/energy-scaling out of the way, let's talk about the pre-C'tan Necrontyr. Their cradleworld suffered from high stellar radiation: this resulted in an extremely complex and unstable genome. They consequently had short life-spans (around fifty Terran years).

Over time, their scientific advancements allowed them to shield their habitations from external radiation, colonise other star-systems, and extend their life-spans twelvefold to around six hundred years. However, the Necrontyr still viewed this as far too short (like increasing one's max lift from one pencil to twelve). They wanted life-spans measured at least in millennia, not a handful of centuries. They believed their genetic legacy held them back from reaching full potential and also lamented life-extension science as their weakest tech branch. No matter how hard they tried, their warped genome seemed to fight back, almost as if it hated them (secret: their cradleworld's star had been purposefully twisted by a powerful C'tan)

Thus, they also considered transferring their consciousnesses to organic or even inorganic constructs, but two factors militated against this: 

 > They were unsure whether such "transfer" would truly be a transfer...or a mere replication, through which the original consciousness would cease to exist.

 > Culturally, their original bodies (flawed as they were in the Necrontyr view) were still the temple of their essence. They strongly preferred to improve that temple, rather than abandon it for another construct.

When the Necrontyr encountered the Old Ones, the former were initially respectful (after all, here was an older civilisation commanding cosmic energies at a scale more than four times greater than their own). However, the Old Ones (coldly and arrogantly from the Necrontyr perspective) withheld the means of attaining far greater biological longevity. The Necrontyr viewed the Old Ones like an arrogant older brother. The Old Ones viewed the Necrontyr like an insecure younger brother:

 

> When the Necrontyr and Old Ones made first contact, the Necrontyr presented themselves as peers or near peers of the Old Ones. The Old Ones responded with detached politeness, which the Necrontyr interpreted as a sign the Old Ones may have been offended. The Necrontyr later adjusted their stance, asking for assistance as juniors. They were met with the same detached politeness: The Old Ones did not believe the Necrontyr required any assistance from the Old Ones. Furthermore, the Old Ones believed the mortality of the Necrontyr fired the engine of their species-progress and suggested the Necrontyr should consider how to guide less advanced races, as they seemed to have no philosophy in that regard. The Old Ones intended these as subtle compliments to the Necrontyr, but the latter misinterpreted them as veiled insults. This likely stemmed from diverging values: the Old Ones prioritised intangibles like philosophical outlook and contribution to galactic balance, while the Necrontyr prioritised speed and scale of material advancement within the species. Privately, the Old Ones foresaw a future when the Necrontyr would become decadent and complacent if their wish were granted.

 

The Necrontyr came to view the Old Ones as hoarders of immortality. The Old Ones tried to explain that they assessed species based on their character, and greater longevity suited some species more than others: the proto-Eldar (with a millennium-long natural lifespan) would benefit from being granted an even longer lifespan of many millennia, but the already extended Necrontyr life-span (currently measured in multiple centuries) was "proper".

This all planted the seeds of the impending War in Heaven, when the Necrontyr, on the verge of utter defeat, joined with the (deceptive and unreliable) C'tan and adopted bodies of living-metal (becoming Necrons), just to gain a substantial edge over the insufferable Old Ones, thus tragically forsaking Necrontyr values and possibly becoming replicated, rather than transferred, consciousnesses of the actual Necrontyr.

 

Before the War in Heaven, a small minority of Necrontyr even advocated that their species should be more humble and seek to better understand the philosophical underpinnings for the Old Ones' refusal to make the Necrontyr much more long-lived. This minority was labeled by the majority as supplicants or grovelers unworthy of the Necrontyr's proud legacy, and their voices were drowned out.

 

This is my attempt to weave some "depth" into the existing framework lore. Perhaps something like this has already been done in a Necron novel?

Edited 16 hours ago by b1soul

[NTaW]

I like a lot of the things that you're saying here, specifically the parts about the Necrontyr's relationship with the Old Ones and how they interpreted each other's actions. Not that I disagree, but what got you to the percentages of power achieved by the various factions at the beginning?

 

Relatively recently there was a pair of books released called Twice Dead Kind: Reign/Ruin that showed flashbacks the main character was having to their time living as a flesh and blood mortal (I really enjoyed the books). If I recall correctly, Necrontyr lifespans were still quite short at the time they first encountered the C'Tan. What expanses they had made had been shut down after their first conflict with the Old Ones, and they had been banished to their own solar system so couldn't escape the radiation of their dying sun. It was their studying of the sun's radiation that led them to contact with the first C'Tan, who was eating the star at the time. 

 

Heavy emphasis on the "if I recall correctly".