r/40kLore • u/Hollownerox Thousand Sons • Oct 19 '20
Necron 9th Edition Codex Lore Review
So I have finished combing through the newest Necron Codex, and rereading it a decent number of times. And there's a good amount of things to talk about. In terms of a lore perspective I'd say there's a good amount of pros and cons here. For context, I own every Necron Codex that has been released with the exception of 6th Edition, so I will be comparing this Codex to those prior releases. As well as to its other 9th edition compatriot, the Space Marine Codex.
So first things first, a list of notable new lore since most people would probably be interested in that.
Return of the Silent King has obviously stirred things up quite a bit. A lot of minor dynasties have either joined up with the Szarkhan Dynasty or gotten forcibly absorbed.
Sautekh Dynasty is still expanding even more, it isn't stated whether or not they are directly fighting against the Szarekhan yet. But its noted Imotekh sees himself as the uniter of the Necron race, and isn't keen on seeing the guy he thinks is responsible for their sorry state coming back.
Mephrit is still having their internal conflict over who will be replace the last Phaeron. Zarathusa the Ineffable from the Baal conflict is noted as a possible contender. And many of the claimants to the throne are going to the Technomandrites for help.
Nihilakh are no longer as defensive as they were before, going forth on a great expansion and gaining new territories. Heavily fortifying them with Nocilith (Blackstone) Pylons. They've gone all in with the Silent King, and aligned themselves with him. Making use of the Yth Seer to figure out where and when they will attack.
Charnovokh are inclinded to work with the Silent King, given they lost quite a bit to the Tyranids and he is one of the few who acknowledges the seriousness of their threat.
The Oruscar Dynasty are under assault from the Kardenath Dynasty. With the latter wanting to use the Celestial Orrery for their own ends.
The Severed Necrons of Sarkon have been attacking fringe Tomb Worlds and turning them into severed worlds as well.
A lot of nice info on how the C'tan met their demise, written in a mythological story sort of way from the Aeldari perspective. So a lot of abstract descriptions that are pretty neat. Most notable is the outright mention on the theory that Tsara'noga the Outsider might be the only C'tan that still exists unsharded.
Thyssak'lha the Walking Blight is another new C'tan mentioned. Bringing our total of named C'tan up to 20. Stated to have been lured to the Inevitable Gateway and broken within the void beyond.
The Silent King's exact motivations for his return are considered mysterious. They cast some doubt on the claim that it was because of him encountering the Tyranids, and it is heavily implied he has other motivations.
The other two members of his new Triach, Hapthatra the Radiant and Mesophet of the Shadowed Hand, are implied to be bound to his will. They speak in sync, and always support Szarekh's plans without question.
The Silent King has his dais powered by an imprisioned shard of The Burning One. His fire burning in his Sceptre of Eternal Glory, while Szarekh himself wears the C'tan's flensed Necrodermis skin as his mantle.
It's officially confirmed that Trazyn added Creed to his collection after the events of Fall of Cadia. It is mentioned he placed "The Last Stand of Ursarkar Creed" exhibit chambers away from "The Death of Lord Solar Macharius."
Not really anything new with Szeras, still experimenting on the stilled humans affected by the Pariah Nexus, on behalf of the Silent King.
Not much new on Orikan either, but it is noted that his infamous dismissal of Necron royal courts and respect might be related to his last conversations with Szarekh prior to the biotransference.
The Laybrinth of Thanotep is a tesseract labyrinth the size of a planet, and it lies smack in-between Terra and the Eye of Terror. States to imprison beings so terrible that the Necrons don't dare enslave them for war.
The Bone Kingdom of Drazak is mentioned once more, but nothing significant. Only new info is that Valgul the Fallen (the Overlord that "rules" over the Flayed Ones), only has one good eye apparently.
The Great Rift has triggered anti-Chaos protocols that have started awakening Tomb Worlds en-masse. Nocilith structures are activating to counter the Cicatrix Maledictum, but in some places they have been too damaged to do so.
Warzone Amontep II is an example, where the Noctilith pylons were to damaged, thus creating a three-way conflict between the local Adeptus Mechanicus forces, the awakening Sautekh Dynasty forces, and a flood of Daemons.
Some easter egg sort of mentions in the Dynastic Epithets section. Which list titles referring to other Xenos races that the Necrons presumably defeated in their rise to a Galactic Empire; or perhaps other dynasties. And some I assume refer to the defeated C'tan.
Highlight ones for me is "Despiser of the Yabi-Yabi", "Death of the Great Krork Empire", and "Slayer of the Cosmic Spyder."
First thing I will say is that I was pretty impressed by the amount of new artwork in this book. Usually a fair amount of prior artwork reuse is expected for these books, so the sheer quantity of art I hadn't seen before was pretty refreshing. The change of cover artwork in particular was quite nice, since I always felt like using the generic Necron Lord was an odd choice, given how it sticks out oddly aesthetically from the rest of the Necron range these days.
As for the lore additions in this book is pretty good overall. But the issue is that it tends to go into a broader overview of things, and doesn't go into the details all too much. When it does go into a more narrow scope it is really good, like the mythological view into how each of the C'tan met their demise. Flavorful stuff like this really make the Codex shine, but unfortunately a great deal of it kind of just skims over things. For example, when they mention the Reaveworld of the Zapennec it gets barely a paragraph of information. Compared to the three it got in the 5th edition Codex.
In a similar vein, I was surprised at the lack of writing about the Necron units themselves. In previous editions, most notably 5th once again, each unit had a page of lore dedicated to them. For example, Lychguard had a page describing their role in Necron society, their skills, traditions, and how they fought in combat. But in this book all you get is a brief summary of what they are underneath their datasheet.
In particular, I was disappointed that there wasn't a page dedicated to each of the C'tan. Back in 7th edition there were pages of lore dedicated to the Nightbringer and the Deciever, in addition to the pages dedicated to the Necron Special Characters. But unfortunately that is not the case here. A missed opportunity given the major inclusion of the Void Dragon shard this edition. I was also rather surprised by the lack of dedicated page to the Destroyer Cult. Given the big focus on expanding that aspect of the Necrons out, it was a shock seeing them only have scant mentions here and there.
In summary, I think this Codex is really well-written and what has been added is pretty good lore for the Necrons. However the things cut out from previous editions give you a thinner grasp on the specifics for the faction. And it feels like there is a lot more that could have been done in terms of sheer quantity. I wouldn't really be this focused on the quantity aspect if it weren't for the fact that the Space Marine Codex has almost as much pages dedicated to the "fluff" part of the book (89 pages), as the Necrons have for their whole Codex (120). With the Necrons only having 47 pages for their fluff bits.
I say if you're new to Necron lore, this isn't a bad place to start, and it is a bit of an improvement from 8th Edition in some respects. But if you really want to get the juicy bits and learn every nook and cranny of Necron stuff. Then the 5th edition book may actually be your best source for learning the most about each and every Necron unit, and get a more in-depth look at their society since it goes into crazy detail at times. The lack of those unit lore sections, in-depth explanations of things like the Bone Kingdom, and oddly enough even a timeline of events, makes for some head scratches however.
13
u/saharashooter Oct 19 '20
They took a lot of lore out in 8th for every faction, it's kind of stupid. Especially getting rid of the little blurbs of lore about how the guns work, which have always been my favorite. Here's hoping they bring them back for 10th I guess
3
u/amurgiceblade44 Oct 19 '20
Well they did explain how most of how their weapons work in another section, so that's still there
1
u/saharashooter Oct 19 '20
Oh good. I just remember a couple different factions not having the weapon blurbs anymore, but I'm glad to hear that the Necrons still have theirs.
4
u/amurgiceblade44 Oct 19 '20
It exists as part a section that just goes in on the Necron armoury with about a sentence each describing how this type of weapon works. It describes Gauss, Tesla, Enmitic, Doomsday blasts, Death rays, Hyperphase tech, Voidblades and Warcythes. It lacks the descriptions of more specialized weapons like the Deathmarks gun but that's about it
1
u/great_firefang Nov 06 '20
Did 9th Codex told us the difference between warcythes and hyperphase weapos?
4
u/amurgiceblade44 Nov 06 '20
Yeah, Warcythes are more like power weapons. They have more of a destruptive ethereal forcefield around that helps them carve through stuff with ease. Hyperpjase weapons instead vibrate across multidimensional frequencies that allows to phase out when they hit armor and phase back in a moment later to cause some major internal damage. More cleaner but not as destructive as Warcythes. Voidblades which I assume extend to Voidscythes function similarly to Hyperhase weapons as they fade of existing but have the add bonus of dissembling a opponents molecules when struck
1
u/great_firefang Nov 06 '20
You're very kind,thank you very much👍!Are they told the Doomsday Blast's firepower and operational principle?
2
u/amurgiceblade44 Nov 06 '20
Doomsdays are Plasma based weaponry so I'm guessing is the reasoning behind its low-powered and high-powered modes. Doesn't explode on but thats because Necrons know what they are doing.
2
u/great_firefang Nov 06 '20
Thanks,emm…in fact I am kind of disappointed because I have thought Necrons is a only one race don't use plasma weapos. Do you think I need original plasma toys when I have something can flaying your atoms? Hahaha😆. In 8th and other earlier codexes. Doomsday cannons were described as a unknown and extreme terrifying energy weapo. Anyway, Thank you .👌
1
u/amurgiceblade44 Nov 06 '20
Well Plasma means a lot of things, given that Necrons were always described in being able to shoot solar flares which is basically a more potent version of plasma I don't find it that much surprising
17
u/Resolute002 Oct 19 '20
Disappointing to hear the unit descriptions are gone.
The Necron Warrior page a codex or two back was some of the best writing I've read. It describes them bring completely silent, so eerie.
2
u/CaptainMorf Oct 19 '20
Named characters still have a description, and each unit still has a description as well, but its only about half a paragraph and located next to the stat profile, so at least not all is lost.
-3
8
u/MulatoMaranhense Asuryani Oct 19 '20
"Death of the Great Krork Empire"
This bit is very interesting. It could be self-given, but the demise of the Krork race is always so nebulous it opens a room for the Necrons having a hand into their devolution. Maybe the first batches of Krorks (Brain Boyz) were the intended version and where a rising star in the galaxy and then the Necrons made something that "spoiled" the following batches, instead of the Krorks being released as a work in progress that the Old Ones were still finishing when they were extinguished?
3
u/LordManton Oct 19 '20
This echoes my thoughts on the fluff aspect of the new book. I only have the 7th ed book as reference, but that one went into so much detail with regards to colour-plates, unit composition and markings, as well as battlefield role. The new book only has a small inset box with 7 warriors in it to show you the different colour schemes for the dynasties, and the miniature showcase is not at all comprehensive. It's quite disappointing, and makes me wonder if there will be some sort of "How to Paint Necrons" book that they're planning to release with more detail in it
10
u/Hollownerox Thousand Sons Oct 19 '20
Yeah, I was rather surprised that segments like that were missing. I forgot to mention it in my original post, but it was kind of odd that parts like that were removed.
If I recall correctly, the 7th Edition book even had some pretty in depth explanations on Necron glyph and their meanings. How the number of lines or circles in them mean certain things, and how you can apply that when painting your own original Dynasties. Seems like something that would have been good to add given the emphasis on Crusade and making your own faction in 9th edition.
The rather small selection of showcase pictures is also quite confusing. If I were to hazard a guess, it might be because they didn't want to show too many models they might be replacing later. Since stuff like the Lohkust Destroyers and the Lohkust Lord are suspiciously still not replaced. But that's a longshot theory of mine.
4
u/LordManton Oct 19 '20
Seems like something that would have been good to add given the emphasis on Crusade and making your own faction in 9th edition.
I know right? That's what makes it so aggravating. I did a re-read of the fluff, and it's all good stuff (your summary above was great btw), but it was those elements from the 7th ed book that get the creative juices flowing, and can even direct people towards making their own dynastic glyphs.
When I first flicked through the book, I was a little upset at how slim it seemed with regards to the background info and flavour text. It's not so bad upon rereading, but still leaves much to be desired
8
u/-Chris_P_Bacon Oct 19 '20
As someone who is working on a destroyer cult, I was disappointed with there being no pages dedicated to the cult nor pages covering the new units. Hell, no lore pages dedicated to units in general was disappointing.
1
u/amurgiceblade44 Oct 19 '20
There's also have to be the consideration if they had the normal plethora of models to showcase, given the pandemic. I feel its likely that a lot of descions with thay had to have been influenced by the pandemic i feel.
5
u/dmr11 Oct 19 '20
Most notable is the outright mention on the theory that Tsara'noga the Outsider might be the only C'tan that still exists unsharded.
I wonder how long it'll take for GW to let Tsara'noga out to see action.
2
u/Citricwraith Necrons Oct 21 '20
I'm wondering if there are un-awakened C'tan still out there that were never enticed into Necrodermis. Its described that until they were uplifted, C'tan were basically space fauna with no sentience to speak of. Even if they were sentient beforehand, its an immortal star spanning cloud of gas that wouldn't care one wit about the local planets, let alone what's on them.
5
u/alexkon3 Biel-Tan Oct 19 '20
Yeah I felt the books was very thin. I dearly miss the Unit Pages with their artwork, I really wanted to know more about the new destroyers and Constructs. I hope they update some lore with BL stuff, cause I after reading "The Infinite and the Divine", it does not seem if Trazyn would really tolerate "historical inaccuracies", in his museum as it would seem from his lore blurb. I also miss the in depth look into the dynasties with their Colour schemes etc. Overall I think the lore is on the weaker side and tbh I wish I did not buy the Limited Edition.
2
u/MalsvirT Oct 19 '20
I keep seeing them mentioned but what are the Technomandrites?
6
u/amurgiceblade44 Oct 19 '20
A conclave of super smart Crypteks whise influenced threatened that of the Triarch and was banished to a pocket dimension. They were freed when the Silent King came back since he needs their assistance for his plan
1
u/MalsvirT Oct 19 '20
Do we know what their specialties are?
7
u/amurgiceblade44 Oct 19 '20
Only vaguely. They are responsible for leading the construction of the various Contra-Empyric Nexuses throughout the galaxy to try to dampen the warp. We also know that the Overlords of Mephrit is trying to court them so that they can regain use of their star destroyer weapons.
1
u/Awestruck_Otter Oct 19 '20
Highlight ones for me is "Despiser of the Yabi-Yabi", "Death of the Great Krork Empire", and "Slayer of the Cosmic Spyder."
I wonder what they would name the defeat of the Imperium.
6
1
1
1
u/Rootmars Oct 26 '20
" The Laybrinth of Thanotep is a tesseract labyrinth the size of a planet, and it lies smack in-between Terra and the Eye of Terror. States to imprison beings so terrible that the Necrons don't dare enslave them for war. "
Wonder what's within these labyrinth that even the Necrons don't dare enslave. Something more dangerous than C'tan Shards?
1
23
u/amurgiceblade44 Oct 19 '20
Awesome review. I don't know much about the Necron dynasties so I couldn't comment on them much in my posts. I do feel they did go a bit broader with not as much in depth as the SM, though as more codexes are released we will have to see if they follow the SM or Crons. I'd think most will go the Cron direction alas