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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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The Necrons' story is one of ancient betrayal. Aeons ago, the [[Necrontyr]] race clung to their short lives in fear of oblivion at the hands of their massive and ravaging star. They pushed the limits of science in an effort to lengthen their lives, but to no avail. In their desperation, the looked to their science and discovered ethereal beings feeding on the energies of whole stars. They named these beings the star gods, or [[C'tan]]. The C'tan offered the Necrontyr people immortality, but only at a terrible price. It is uncertain if the Necrontyr knew this price, but their race was completely purged and transferred into new metal bodies, stripped of thought and self.<sup>1</sup>
The C'tan are enormous energy beings who were given physical embodiments by the Necrontyr. They encased the C'tan inside vast lumps of their living metal, the same material they used in their space faring ships. The metal mutated into the shape desired by the personality of the being inside. The Night Bringer was forged into a dark figure with a large cloak, adding to the fear it already inspires, and the Deceiver was formed into a wily shape. Originally there were a large number of C'tan, but due to the machinations of the Deceiver, this number reduced to twofour, The [[Night Bringer]], The [[Deceiver]], The [[Void Dragon]],and The [[DeceiverOutsider]]. There may be more but there is no officially confirmed info on this. However a An ancient [[Eldar]] poem in the Necron Codex refers to a C'tan who sleeps on a Vaul-Moon (An Eldar term for factory world) and is known as the Dragon. This is widely believed to refer to the [[Noctis Labyrinth ]] on [[Mars]]. The locations of the other remaining C'tan are unknown.
Now focusing on gathering souls, the C'tan assaulted the dominant species at the time, the Old Ones, and began an unstoppable march upon their domain. The Necrons burst into the Old Ones strongest fortresses, overcoming their magicks and technology. The and forced the Old Ones were forced to seed planets with life to help fight the C'tan, including the Eldar and [[Krork]]. These races had the ability to use the warp to defend themselves, as the C'tan seemed harmed only by psychic energy. Gradually, the Old Ones were forced back by the relentless push of the C'tan and billions of souls were harvested for the Star Gods, increasing their power to incredible proportions.
The C'tan had been working on a plan to cripple the Old Ones, and eventually it came to frutition. They burst into and destroyed the webways discovered by the Old Ones. Without these portals, the Old Ones were unable to move troops throughout the galaxy. With the new races using so much warp power for the purposes of killing, the benign creatures in the warp mutated into the evil creatures they are today. At the precipice of victory, the [[Enslavers]] emerged from the now tumultuous [[Warp]] and forced the C'tan and their slaves back with their psychic powers, the weakness of the Star Gods. The Enslavers killed many of the C'tan, leaving the Necrons in disarray and without figureheads to lead them and forcing the C'tan away from the forefront. As the Enslaver plague expanded sections of the galaxy, the four remaining C'tan went into stasis to avoid the onslaught and allow the galaxy to repopulate without the psychic swarm so they could emerge and reconquer their empire. However, this kindled a single-minded determination in the C'tan to eliminate the only threat to their conquest, the Warp. Thus began the [[Great Work]], the severing of the [[Materium]] and [[Immaterium]] so that the C'tan would go unchallenged once again.<sup>1</sup>
