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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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With the C'tan and Necrons fighting as one, the Old Ones were overwhelmed and defeated in a bloody purge across the Galaxy that saw whole systems devoured by the reality-warping powers of the Star Gods and legions of immortal Necron warriors, who managed to infiltrate the [[Webway]] and assail the Old Ones at every corner of the Galaxy. The Necrons burst into the Old Ones strongest fortresses, overcoming their magics and technology and forced the Old Ones to seed planets with life to help fight the C'tan, including the [[Eldar]] and [[ork]]. Ultimately the increasingly desperate Old Ones were themselves wiped out after mistakenly unleashing [[Warp]]-spawn perils<sup>4-p.7</sup> such as the [[Enslaver]]s.
Throughout the final stages of the War in Heaven, Szarekh bided his time, waiting for the moment where the C'tan would be most vulnerable. With the Old Ones finally defeated, the Silent King struck and led a Necron revolt against the arrogant C'tan. The Necrons focused the unimaginable energies of the living universe into weapons too mighty for even the C'tan to endure. The C'tan, almost impossible to destroy entirely due to their very nature, were instead shattered into [[C'tan Shard|shardshards]]. Yet even with the defeat of both the Old Ones and C'tan, the Silent King saw that the time of the Necrons was - for the moment - over. The mantle of galactic domination would soon pass to the Eldar, who had fought alongside the Old Ones in the War in Heaven. The Necrons, weakened by the War in Heaven and the revolt aganst the C'tan, could not stand against them. Yet the Silent King knew that the time of the Eldar would pass, as did the time of all flesh. So it was that the Silent King ordered the remaining Necron cities to be transformed into great tomb complexes threaded with stasis-crypts. The Necrons were laid to rest, ordered to sleep for sixty million years and then reawaken, ready to rebuild all that was lost and restore the dynasties to their former glory. Yet the Silent King did not join his subjects. Destroying the command protocols by which he had controlled his people, the Silent King left the Galaxy, there to find whatever measure of solace or penance he could.<sup>4-pg.7</sup>
For sixty million years the Necrons remained in their deathless slumber in their tombs in what became known as the [[Great Sleep]]. As time passed, many [[Tomb World]]s fell prey to malfunction or ill-fortune. Some were destroyed by marauding Eldar. These failures destroyed millions, if not billions of dormant Necrons. But when the Tomb Worlds did begin to rewaken, it was not simultaneously. Some awoke to see the [[Great Crusade]], others during the [[Age of Apostasy]]. Most however awoke during the later years of [[M41]], but even still billions of Necrons lay dormant.<sup>4-pg.8</sup>
