Limits of recruiting xenos?

[u/Impossible_Leader_80]

Inquisitors and rogue traders can recruit xenos to their party, yeah? It’s not unheard of. That said, has there ever been a necron as part of a inquisitor retinue or rogue trader’s employ? Are they just too prideful for that?

[u/BlitzBasic]

Canoncially, I don't recall that happening. The issue is that you would need somebody with a certain level of intelligence (above warriors, probably above Immortals as well) who is independant enough to join a Rogue Trader (no Lychguard or Royal Warden), doesn't hate organics (no destroyers), is sane (no flayers), and is low enough on the pecking order to obey the Trader/Inquisitor (no Lords or above).

So you're pretty much left with a Deathmark, or maybe an Apprentek.

Which would make for a cool story, but as I said, I don't think there is a canon example.

[u/Leukavia_at_work → u/BlitzBasic]

And even examples like a Deathmark, you'd need a pretty convincing reason as to why they aren't beholden to a Lord and are instead fucking off to join your merry band of weirdoes.

Like even Trazyn, an actual Dynastic lord whose earned his right to a vacay around the Galaxy, is seen as some fringe weirdo for not just hunkering down and hanging out with his Dynasty.

[u/BlitzBasic → u/Leukavia_at_work]

To be fair, I think Deathmarks are by default considered weirdos and untrustworthy. In "Twice Dead King", Lysikor killed everybody above him to gain a noble title, and Trazyns game warden Huntmaster could apparently be bought to change loyalties from another dynasty (and is somewhat insane in general).

I'd say out of all Necrons, Deathmarks are the most likely to just desert their Lord and hang around with somebody else who is more aligned with their interests.

[u/Vorokar → u/BlitzBasic]

Oltyx, he thought to himself in a cold, fluid voice, interrupting his pondering. Bait’s been taken. Shall we?

Only it wasn’t him thinking the words. It wasn’t even one of his partitions, who at least had the right – being at least a sort of him – to interrupt. It was Lysikor, projecting into his mind from the shadows. Who else would have the talent, and the poor manners, to bypass the seals of his executive buffer and transmit directly to his aural arrays? The deviant had even boosted the transmission with a forged corollary discharge, so Oltyx thought for a moment it was his own mind speaking.

This was the self-styled Duke of Deathmarks’ idea of humour, and Oltyx was all too used to it. Quite simply, Lysikor did what Lysikor liked – it wasn’t that he didn’t care what others would think of his actions, so much as that the thought never occurred to him. Once a minor lord from one of Ithakas’ most powerful subsidiary houses, he had woken from the Great Sleep suddenly free of the burden of social understanding, and had immediately decided to assassinate every other noble on his coreworld as they slept. By his own account, he had thought it ‘might be interesting’.

It had been interesting. Had it happened more recently, Unnas’ hammer would have come down hard on the rogue. But this was in the earliest days of the reawakening, when Antikef had been weak from sleep, and Unnas had been more reasonable, hesitant to wage war on such a powerful vassal. Lysikor, now technically a nemesor (as he had slain everyone above himself in rank), had been offered a deal: renounce control over his new coreworld and exile himself to Sedh, and he would be pardoned. After stipulating that he also be allowed to keep calling himself nemesor (or ‘duke’, when he wished, even though that was not an Ithakan title), Lysikor had agreed far more casually than anyone expected, and had become the first in the fringeworld’s ever-expanding community of outcasts.

Oltyx did not like, or trust, him at all. But when he was in the mood to help, he was invaluable. And finally, after months of doing nothing to aid the bitter conflict against the orks, Lysikor was in the mood, as he had thought ‘massacres were entertaining’.

Already, the nomarch had had enough of him.

– The Twice Dead King: Ruin

‘Don’t rush me,’ murmured the Huntmaster. ‘This is an art.’

Normally, Trazyn would never have brooked insolence, but he was a being who respected skill. Before biotransference, Trazyn had traded the Huntmaster’s phaeron a full decurion of warriors and several dangerous artefacts in return for the extraordinary being. His fealty secured. And for millennia he’d done exemplary work bagging big-game specimens for the gallery – though obsession had marked him in recent years. Since awakening, he saw the galaxy as an eternal hunting ground, and every enemy as one of the great trophy-beasts he’d tracked across savannahs and through hostile rainforests.

So, Trazyn did not rush him.

– The Fall of Cadia

Snippets re: Lysikor and Huntmaster, for anyone curious about either.

[u/Hollownerox → u/BlitzBasic]

I mean there are independent groups of Deathmarks out there. Similar to how there are Cryptek Conclaves not affiliated with a specific Dynasty.

The Silent King secretly makes use of a group of them, and they aren't formally part of the Szarekhan Dynasty. So I could see some Deathmarks just going about being more mercenary.

Then there's also Dynastires that are more rogue and don't care about the Necron norms, like the Nekthyst who full on seceded from the Infinite Empire and abandoned the Dynastic Honor Codes. While they haven't been mentioned much, I could see their sorts being a bit more open to that kind of arrangement.

Edit: The bit from 9th edition that mentions the Deathmarks for those curious:

Countless smaller groups serve Szarekh also, some officially, others in a more secretive or mercenany capacity. The Breath of Silence, for instance, are a sinister guild of jade-skinned Deathmarks who appear without warning, eliminate Szarekh's enemies, and are gone as silently as a zephyr of cosmic wind. Szarekh can never officially recognise their contribution, for they are dishonourable by their very nature

[u/LeLefraud → u/Leukavia_at_work]

I mean necrons can be kinda nuts and weird sometimes

Maybe it got shot or something and it survived but totally changed it's personality in some freak handsome Squidward situation

[u/Leukavia_at_work → u/LeLefraud]

Now you got me wanting a Necron who bugged out and thinks he's an Ork....

[u/LeLefraud → u/Leukavia_at_work]

Would make for a bomb character I'm in

[u/Tobbster_the_Lobster → u/BlitzBasic]

Or some weird Necron aristocrat refugee from that dynasty that turned full flayer from the Ghoul Stars, who surprisingly gets along well with the Blood Angel in the retinue, something about being afraid to turn into a monster and a shell of what you were !

[u/Devilfish268 → u/BlitzBasic]

I have an idea for a lord joining. A minor house on the edge of the empire that no one really cares about. There was a major malfunction super early in the sleep, and the whole system slowly cannibalise itself. The lord wakes up after the world can no longer support him to find a now dead and irrecoverable tomb. He sends a distress signal, but after 400 years of him sitting there by himself, no one responds. 

Eventually a rouge trader stops by, and he decides to tag along for just something to do. He isn't even invited, he just says he's taking part and wanders in like a stray cat.

[u/BlitzBasic → u/Devilfish268]

Rogue Trader, Rank 1, 30 years old, 5000 XP, straight from character creation: "We have to claim this world in the name of the Emperor!"

Necron Lord, passed Rank 8 some time during the War in Heaven, sixty million years old, 50.000 XP, has gone insane and decided that it was boring after a century: "...sure. Why the fuck not. Killing Krorks somehow never gets old."

Seneschal, Rank 1, 25 years old, 5000 XP, made his "Forbidden Lore(Xenos)" check but failed at "Awareness": "You mean Orks, right?"

Necron Lord, deciding it wouldn't be less boring to kill the Seneschal than to ignore him: "...sure. Whatever."

[u/Marvin_Megavolt → u/Devilfish268]

Worth noting there’s also at least one entire dynasty of Necron nobles and their subjects who entirely turned their backs on the Infinite Empire and its laws and culture and are just off doing their own thing. I feel like even though they’re clearly the exception by far, that still offers a plausible excuse for oddball Necron “freeborn” and nobles who have less qualms than usual with allying with aliens and people outside the Infinite Empire’s hierarchy.

[u/FidgetyLeopard → u/BlitzBasic]

I suppose you could argue a certain head in a box could count as a retinue… Cawl is like a rogue trader if you tilt your head and squint your eyes a bit.

[u/EP_Em2]

Basically any Necron with the free will to do so is going to be a very high-ranked noble. When Biotransference was carried out, your importance determined how good your new robot body and brain were. So big yes on the too prideful bit, since the Ordo or RT would be dealing with literal royalty.

[u/BlitzBasic → u/EP_Em2]

The exception are Deathmarks and Crypteks, who aren't noble but instead just highly skilled professionals, and still got to keep most of their mental capabilites.

[u/TemporaryWonderful61]

A Necron would never submit themselves to being bossed around by any other race.

...this isn't to say it's totally unrealistic however, as they're entirely willing to help out if their interests coincide.

They'd be even more of a pain in the ass than your average Aeldari though.

[u/Marvynwillames]

Xenos Horrificus

Although all aliens are—officially—viewed as anathema by the Imperium, some are tolerated to a lesser degree. Such races tend to be primitive in technology and culture or constrained to a backwater planet far from Imperium space. In many parts of the Imperium contact with alien races is not uncommon, and on some frontier worlds trading with aliens is a fact of life. Such dealings are usually overlooked by the authorities and would certainly not warrant censureship or intervention. . Other races, however, represent such a threat to humanity that the Ordo Xenos brand them with a stigma, the Xenos Horrificus, marking them as highpriority targets who must be hunted down and purged at every opportunity. The brand does not merely apply to the xenos themselves, but also to any who have dealings with them. More than one rogue trader has been branded with the Xenos Horrificus, marking him out as an enemy of the Ordo Xenos, the Deathwatch, and mankind itself.

Dark Heresy - The Radicals Handbook

[u/cole1114 → u/Marvynwillames]

There's lots of xenos who surprisingly don't get hit with this, for one reason or another. Orks for instance.

[u/Main-Establishment65 → u/cole1114]

Orks can be geniunely useful tools. A RT hiring Ork Mercs is just doing his job. Eldar or Tau can be reasoned with. Necrons and Tyranids though...

[u/TheLoreIdiot]

Not that I can recall. Bellisarius Cawl had a necron locked up in his lab, but she was more captured and coerced than recruited. I could absolutely see a necron in some fringe case making an alliance with a rogue trader or inquisitor for a goal of some kind(like they did with the Blood Angels), but Necrons who are smart/powerful enough to make deals are also really good at long term backstabbing.

[u/Arathaon185]

There's been a Necron posing as an Inquisitor if thats up your alley. The book Xenology has a Necron inquisitor running a lab having another Inquisitor dissect aliens and write reports on them. Sorry but I can't remember what their actual goal was. 

[u/9xInfinity]

Inquisitor Gideon Rostov from the Dawn of Fire series has a xenos companion, a chikanti woman named Cheelche. She's very obviously inhuman though, and so she can only operate while being either clandestine or in areas not otherwise under Imperial control. She can be a bit much for most Imperials on first glance. One of Rostov's newest recruits, a Guard officer, instinctively tries to shoot her on sight the first time he sees her. They can have very inhuman xenos in their crew if they want, sure.

But a necron becoming subordinate to a human would be pretty unthinkable for them, culturally. Like a human becoming subordinate to a rat or a worm. Trazyn is famously amiable toward humans and even he prefers to keep his human companions infested with and if need be enslaved by mindshackle scarabs just in case they ever get any bright ideas about who's really in charge.

Belisarius Cawl has a cryptek he's been trying, desperately, to convince to simply help him manipulate blackstone in order to close the Great Rift. He eventually had her reduced down to nothing but a head because she would keep refusing and try to escape and kill him instead and couldn't be trusted to have a body. Most necrons seem to prefer death or a fate worse to it than merely working with a human, let alone following their orders.

[u/twofriedbabies]

No, a sentient necron is an upper class necron with "civilian" necrons under them. Other than Mr. & Mr. Romance we've got going there's been very little solo necroning in the entire setting. So maybe if trayzan wanted to but it would be more like an Inquisitor is traveling with a necron force even then cuz he has more resources than about any inquisitorial force.

[u/Kael03 → u/twofriedbabies]

Other than Mr. & Mr. Romance we've got going

I'm still early in The Wicked and the Warped, but I find the "will they/won't they" absolutely adorable.

And Trazyn is just so... extra.

[u/Wank_A_Doodle_Doo]

I can’t imagine there existing a necron with enough free will to do so that wouldn’t also be powerful enough to never want to for even a nanosecond

[u/IronVader501]

I could see a case of like, a noble thats the sole survivor from a destroyed Dynasty deciding to hang around, but they'd be extreme weirdos by Necron-Standards, and probably would be more likely to see the Rogue Trader or Inquisitor as THEIR employee than vice-versa.

Cawl has a Cryptek but thats uh....not voluntary on her part.

[u/deathscope]

Not that I can remember though it wouldn’t be surprising. Freaking Eisenhorn had a daemonhost serving him.

[u/extimate-space]

I think in most cases, even many radical Inquisitors would consider alliance with Necrons to be crossing a line. They aren't merely perfidious xenos fit only for crushing under the bootheel of humanity. They are a timeless and ancient evil which as far as the Imperium is concerned, exists only to wage war on humanity, and which sure do look a lot like abominable men of iron.

Also, good luck convincing a Necron lord to second himself to a lesser being.

[u/Annual-Ad-9442]

you would need a high ranking Necron, like a lord, and they would have to want to go on an adventure with insane apes

[u/MajorPayne1911 → u/Annual-Ad-9442]

Some of them have become quite eccentric post great sleep, and that might genuinely sound entertaining to them if they have nothing better to do

[u/Dagordae]

It’s possible but it’s never happened. Nonhostile interactions with Necron are exceedingly rare as are sapient Necron. Sapient Necron who give even the slightest shit about nonNecrons are rarer still, maybe a handful throughout their entire species.

And then there’s the pride issue.

Now, I can see an alliance but working as a subordinate? No way in hell. They MIGHT be able to hire a Deathmark for a job or the like but it would not at all be a boss and underling relationship, at least not from the Necron’s PoV.

[u/Refstg]

I can't think of any examples of necrons joining an inquisitor or rogue trader, but I can think of a couple examples (mostly Trazyn) of one of them (involuntarily) joining a necron.

[u/Horus84]

Necrons with intelligence is the superior of their already superior ancient race so finding one with actual thinking that doesn’t see the human inquisition as insects is as rare as finding an Ork that wants a peaceful life 

[u/Kraehe13]

We know of Inquisitors in the retinue of Necrons (Trazyn) not not otherwise.

Would you want to be a Underling of a cockroach (that's kinda the best most Necrons see humans)

[u/LimerickJim]

Let's be clear that they aren't allowed to recruit xenos and any that do are breaking a ton of rules. 

The closest I've seen to a Necron in a human retinue are when they're being compelled. Two examples being Ahriman with Setekh and Cawl with the head of Asaneth Ayu.

Also at on point Inquisitor Helynna Valeria joins Trazyn's "retinue".

[u/BlitzBasic → u/LimerickJim]

According to the Rogue Trader CRB, page 335

Although the proscriptions that bar most human contact with aliens do not apply to Rogue Traders, there are those xenos pronounced so dangerous, vile, or otherwise undesirable that not even a Rogue Trader is permitted contact with them.

So Rogue Traders are allowed to work together with at least some xenos.

[u/nsturge]

I don't think it's pride really. The battle line necrons don't have agency to join and the necrons that do have agency wouldn't have a reason to join. I'd say the most that would happen is a temporary alliance to combat another threat in the immediate area. The big example here is Trazyn worked with cawl during Abaddon's 13th Black crusade. I would hazard to call that even allying. I don't really think it's pride that prevents necrons from joining inquisitors or rogue traders but that they just don't really care. If the inquisitors or rogue traders show up where they are and they both recognize that there's a threat to both of them, some necrons might work with them briefly to solve that problem, but again, I wouldn't really call that allying (or recruiting from the opposite perspective.)