War in Heaven (Necron)
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This article is about the the Necron and C'tan war with the Old Ones; for the Eldar Mythic Conflict, see War in Heaven (Eldar). |
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The War in Heaven was an ancient and devastating series of conflicts fought roughly sixty-five[6] to sixty million years before the 41st Millennium between the Necrontyr (and later Necron) race and their C'tan allies and the Old Ones.
History
Prelude
At some point, the advanced but short-lived Necrontyr came into contact with the immortal Old Ones, who by this time were masters of the galaxy. Almost immediately, the Necrontyr resented these long-lived beings and the magnificent works they had created.[1] Moreover, the Necrontyr ruling council, known as the Triarch, was desperate to restore a measure of unity once known by their race before the tumultuous rebellions known as the Wars of Secession and realized that unity could come from an external threat.[1]
The First Conflict
Seeing the mighty Old Ones as a suitable candidate for this threat, and justified by the Old Ones' unwillingness to share the secrets of their seemingly-immortal lifespans,[1] the Triarchs struck against the Old Ones and plunged the Necrontyr race into a devastating war that saw the rebellions abandoned and would in time see.
Despite their superior numbers and advanced technologies, after eons of warfare, the Necrontyr realized that they could not hope to defeat the Old Ones or the superior tactics their Webway afforded, and the Necrontyr were pushed to the edge of the galaxy amidst the Halo Stars[5] where they would be little more than a minor annoyance to the seemingly unstoppable Old Ones. As the prospect of victory faded, so too did unity to defeat this common enemy; the Necrontyr began descending into disunity and Wars of Succession once more[1] allowing the Old Ones to return to their quest of engineering and uplifting the life in the galaxy.[5]
The Coming of the C'tan
The situation changed dramatically when the Necrontyr forged an alliance with the vampiric C'tan, star gods of immense power given living metal forms of the Necrontyr's half-forgotten pantheon by the first Necrontyr who found them. The C'tan known as the Deceiver said that his race too had fought and lost a war with the Old Ones, and while the truth of the statement is unknown, the consequences of the alliance that followed are clear. The C'tan helped the Necrontyr transfer their essence into bodies of living metal, becoming soulless Necrons in the process. Gorging themselves off the abandoned Necrontyr souls to become stronger with new legions of immortal machines at their command.[1]
The Second Conflict
Under the command of their C'tan masters, the Necrontyr were able to breach the webway and turned the tide against the Old Ones, forcing their retreat though not their destruction.[1] The new Necrons and their C'tan extinguished suns and consumed entire solar systems, besieging the fortresses of Old Ones and harvesting the races the Old Ones nurtured like cattle to feed the C'tan. Defying conventional strategy, so assured in their conquest of the universe, the C'tan playfully unleashed battles against each other while building and smashing countless of their own cities until the 'cattle' grew too few, leading to the C'tan cannibalising one another.[5]
The Young Races
In the following millennia, desperate for some retribution as the star gods toyed with their galaxy, the Old Ones genetically engineered life into new forms with strong links to the warp, psychic Young Races like the Eldar, the K'nib and the Rashan.[5]
The Third Conflict
These new races fought the Necrons in every corner of the galaxy in what would be the bloodiest episode of the war, unleashing the power of the Warp. This overwhelmed the C'tan and putting them and their immortal Necrons on the back foot. Victory by the Old Ones and their Young Races seemed all but assured.[5]
Enslaver Plague
The maelstrom of souls of the Young Races, unleashed into the Warp still experiencing the carnage of war, attracted the rending claws of yet predatory Warp Entities, the most disastrous of which were the Enslavers. Enslavers, able to dominate the psychically-adept young races and usher themselves forth into reality from a psyker's minds, spread as an epidemic throughout the forces of the Old Ones and in so doing threatened all life in the galaxy.[5]
To defend themselves from this new existential threat the Old Ones engineered more Young Races, the green-skinned Krork and the Jokaero, but as Warp-spawned plagues overtook their intergalactic networks, places of power, and great works, the Old Ones were vulnerable. The C'tan too, felt existentially threatened, and concocted a plan to cede the galaxy to the Enslaver threat, sealing themselves away for millennia while their Necrons protected them.[5]
Necron Victory
The Necrons, as their masters plotted, did not relent and instead advanced while their foes faltered. The Old Ones, scattered and defeated, were hunted and destroyed by the C'tan and Necrons. The C'tan, tired and hungry from the war they waged were, too, vulnerable and at last Szarekh, the Silent King and only surviving member of the Triarch saw an opportunity to free his people.[1]
In a moment of arrogance, the C'tan were unprepared for an unrelenting rebellion among their own forces, as the Necrons sundered the C'tan into thousands of Shards and imprisoned them within Tesseract Labyrinths.[1] Their final defeat came at the Battle of the Sokar Gate.[3] Millions of Necrons would be destroyed in the rebellion, but the Necrons would finally be free.[1]
Aftermath
Through some unknown means the Aeldari survived the Enslavers, and inherited the mantle of galactic dominion in the war's wake, founding the Eldar Empire. Weakened by their rebellion, and the eons of war before it, Szarekh led the Necrons into their slumber beneath the Tomb Worlds.[1]
Other uses
For the Eldar, the War in Heaven has passed into mythology and is now described as a conflict where the Eldar God of war Kaela Mensha Khaine allied with demi-gods the Yngir to wage war upon the Eldar Gods Isha and Kurnous, their uncle Vaul, and their children the Aeldari. It is possible that this myth disguises some truths about the historic War in Heaven.[8]
Sources
- 1: Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pgs. 6-7
- 2: Warhammer Monthly 65, Kal Jerico in Above & Beyond, Part 6
- 3: The Twice-Dead King - Reign (Novel), Chapter 1
- 4: Magic: The Gathering's Universes Beyond Warhammer 40,000 - The War in Heaven
- 5: Codex: Necrons (3rd Edition), pgs. 24-26
- 6: The Infinite and the Divine (Novel), Act 1, Chapter 3
- 7: Flyers of the Dark Millennium, pg. 37
- 8: Codex: Craftworld Eldar (3rd Edition), pg. 17