New Necron Backstory (A step forward)

[Anggul]

So I've had a read of the new Necron codex, and despite the fact that, as we know, Ward usually doesn't do very well, a lot of the backstory is actually quite balanced, with less of the ridiculous overwhelming victories we've come to know him for, and less constant ranting about how incredible the race is. Obviously it makes a point of how good they are, but so does every codex, and you wouldn't want to read a codex which just tells you how sucky your faction of choice is.

There are a couple of dodgy points, but they're things which most writers get wrong, like a farseer (it's in his name and the entire purpose of his profession) not seeing things coming and just rushing into things, as if he were some kind of super-arrogant Dark Eldar Dracon, rather than holding the extreme calm and patience of a farseer and proceeding with caution and consideration. As I said, this is something that quite a few writers seem to get wrong, because the situations they create to cause the Eldar to lose just wouldn't work if the Eldar actually saw it coming as they should. Many writers still need to realise that the Eldar should be beaten on the battlefield rather than with tricks and ambushes which just wouldn't work. I'd also like to have seen a bit more about the Orks, considering that they too were one of the main forces of the Old Ones.

These things aside, the fluff is good to read, and although I think they went a bit too far with the 'personality' thing (it was a good move but they've gone almost to the point of human emotion, the loss of soul not actually seeming to change them much), this is a colossal step forward. As you read it, you'll probably notice some similarities with certain evil webway dwellers both in rules and backstory, but if getting better at writing means taking a leaf out of some good writer's books to get on your way, then it can't be bad compared to previous... 'offerings'.

Here's to a bit of optimism.

Any other thoughts on the new backstory? Dark Eldar and Necrons shiny and new in 5th edition eh? Thought we'd never see the day.

[Denzark]

I've got a thought on the backstory.

Imotekh the unbeatable (except for Orkses?). Brings to mind Imhotep being chanted by zombies in 'The Mummy'.

What GW should do every time they see a retcon, is write it all down. Every bit of fluff. Everything that compliments or advances the story should go in.

Everything that crayons over perfectly good backstory should be printed out in 72 type, on really bad quality paper, rolled up into a ball, and shoved up the writer's fobosity, and go nowhere near a codex.

[Necron2.0]

The one thing from the new fluff that I'm having some trouble getting over is the reason why the Necrons went into stasis. Seriously? They went into hiding because of they feared one of the Old Ones vassal races? That's a bit like saying, "We defeated the National Socialists, but now we'd better go and hide from the Albanians." It's a nonstarter.

The other reason why that fails is because the Necrons don't reproduce. It's not like they can go hide in a hole somewhere and pump out new baby Necrons. Every Necron destroyed is one less that exists, ever. And as far as the fluff is concerned, they don't "recruit" either, turning captured enemies into newly minted Warriors. So the number of Necrons that went into the ground 59.96 million years ago will be the same number (or less) that comes out of it in year 40K. If they were weak back then, they could only be weaker 60 million years on, while the Eldar could only get stronger. Their best bet to beat the Eldar would have been when they were at their weakest, which was right after the War in Heaven. Any Phaeron worth his circuits would have made that calculation long ago. So ... why did they go into stasis again?

[Hotsauceman]

I've got a thought on the backstory.

Imotekh the unbeatable (except for Orkses?). Brings to mind Imhotep being chanted by zombies in 'The Mummy'.

What GW should do every time they see a retcon, is write it all down. Every bit of fluff. Everything that compliments or advances the story should go in.

Everything that crayons over perfectly good backstory should be printed out in 72 type, on really bad quality paper, rolled up into a ball, and shoved up the writer's fobosity, and go nowhere near a codex.
Ummm, You do realize the Imhotep is a real person. Is was the high priest of Ra and designer of the pyramids.

[eldargal]

The Eldar were strong back then, what with the Eldar Empire and all. They were weaker ten thousand years ago than they are in the 41st millennium but oversleeping by tens thousand years after 60million is a fairly tiny margin of error. Also the Eldar weren't just a 'vassal race', they were the most advanced of the Old Ones children even if they weren't quite as advanced as the Necrons. It was also the Necrons who were weakened after the war in Heaven and the revolt against the C'tan, not the Eldar. It actually makes much more sens than it did before, when they were utterly unbeatable, led by unbeatable gods and decided to go to sleep for lulz.:rolleyes:


The one thing from the new fluff that I'm having some trouble getting over is the reason why the Necrons went into stasis. Seriously? They went into hiding because of they feared one of the Old Ones vassal races? That's a bit like saying, "We defeated the National Socialists, but now we'd better go and hide from the Albanians." It's a nonstarter.

The other reason why that fails is because the Necrons don't reproduce. It's not like they can go hide in a hole somewhere and pump out new baby Necrons. Every Necron destroyed is one less that exists, ever. And as far as the fluff is concerned, they don't "recruit" either, turning captured enemies into newly minted Warriors. So the number of Necrons that went into the ground 59.96 million years ago will be the same number (or less) that comes out of it in year 40K. If they were weak back then, they could only be weaker 60 million years on, while the Eldar could only get stronger. Their best bet to beat the Eldar would have been when they were at their weakest, which was right after the War in Heaven. Any Phaeron worth his circuits would have made that calculation long ago. So ... why did they go into stasis again?

[Denzark]

Ummm, You do realize the Imhotep is a real person. Is was the high priest of Ra and designer of the pyramids.

The fact of Imhotep as a real person (you surely mean was a real person not is a real person) has absolutely sweet fanny adams to do with my comment. His provenance is irrespective.

[hohoho]

It actually makes much more sens than it did before, when they were utterly unbeatable, led by unbeatable gods and decided to go to sleep for lulz.:rolleyes:
It was not “for lulz”.

The War in Heaven turned into the Enslavers Plague. The Necron were unable to stop the Enslavers (they were not “utterly unbeatable”). So they went to sleep.
With the living pushed to the brim of extinction and the dead sleeping, the Enslavers (who feed on consciousness) died by starvation and turned back to the warp.

It made sense. It does not make sense now.

The Necs also prepared their awakening, sowing the seed of the pariah to be harvested and burying the pylons (in Cadia, among others), both actions in order to close the path to the warp and stop the Enslavers. But the pariah didn´t mix well with the space mummie concept, so they (GW, not MW imo) scratched it all off.

Which is a pity.

[hohoho]

Weird DP

[Psychosplodge]

Weird DP
I think the theory is to avoid eye contact with the other male.....
oh double post sorry I get you.

Seriously though the egyptian thing doesn't work for me, we had bamf nigh on indestructible robots with the mystery of being unknown little backstory, and now we have space tomb kings.... very lazy

[Myu]

Read through some of the book today, and i think the story is lackluster.

The new reason for stasis is very tacked on. Before they had an actual reason, now it doesn't really make much sense. There were moments that I actually liked and that made sense and expanded the fluff in a good way - but these were few. Every time I start to think, well maybe it's no so bad, it goes down hill. He writes in an over flowery manner, almost all the time. He could have cut down the word count drastically if he could write succinctly.

The old fluff and artwork was actually creepy, mysterious and scary. At the very least, it wasn't forced like this background was. I don't want to be just told Necrons are scary. I want actually reasons as well.

I read through the book trying to find a reason to like it since they changed the direction almost entirely from what I liked, but even accepting the new fluff as permanent it's mostly badly done.

[Alpha Omega Protocol]

Well for the reason the only way it makes sense to me is that the Necrons were expecting them to die out or be destroyed. I would compare Eldar to the various empires that Earth has had, but on a galactic scale with other aliens. Empires have either died out or been destroyed on Earth, and who knows what empires in the galaxy have had this happen. Taking that into account maybe they thought to sleep, and let the Eldar be destroyed by someone else. That way they don't have to worry about dealing with the Eldar themselves. But the joke is on the necrons since the Eldar weren't completely destroyed as they hoped. (They came pretty close with that whole Slaanesh thing.)

It makes sense to a point.

[Myu]

I see what you mean, but they could have at least done it a bit better.

[tdogp]

They took the really cool Necron fluff of 3rd and replaced it with Tomb Kings in Space. I think the old Necrons had the Tomb King look, but were more akin to the Vampire Counts in the way they operated, which was a cool way to blend the undead races into 40K. Now it seems that the creative team was unable to look past the TK part and just focused completely on that.

Old Ncrons actuall had a menace to them. The fact that their 3rd ed codex was written almost entirely from an outside perspective made them even scarier, but may have led to the misconception that they had no personality. Now........... I mourn for the loss of the fluff

[Myu]

@tdogp

"The fact that their 3rd ed codex was written almost entirely from an outside perspective made them even scarier, but may have led to the misconception that they had no personality"

I think I see what you mean. To me the faceless menace portrayal worked, but I guess the people making the decisions disagreed.

I also hadn't thought of the "blend" of tomb kings and vampires. I definitely see it now tho

[Maleclypse]

Well I thought the new fluff said that they just recopy the mind data for the warriors. Like the CORE in the Total Annihilation games. So when warriors die it's no biggie, they were just compilation data anyway. When a king dies... well it can be damaging to his psyche and all that but he will probably still come back. When a tomb world dies.....that's it, none of those necrons can ever be recovered. So while the necrons can expand numerically they can never expand creatively. Always trapped in the same lines of thought.

[Miami]

I agree with those that have a distaste for the fluff.

I'm not saying it was the best before, but no matter how many times you call something "soulless" or "emotionless" I won't believe it once I've read about it having an emotion. It's a poorly written backstory, with a forced upon motif of political intrigue that would suit a number of races much better (and already did, when I read about it in the DE book). And the worst is that there are a number of decent ideas in the book that failed to get decent expansion. Take Destroyers and Destroyer Lords - they are these maniacal beings built to suffer fools not to live by seeking to make themselves as efficient and deadly as possible, and yet all of them decided that one gun and a jet-body is the epitomy of existence. Either write fluff that fits the model and rules, or make rules that fit the fluff even a little better. Sure, you're not going to be releasing new models for destroyers anytime soon, but no options for gun swaps after you made all these crazy weapons? Coler me disappointed.

And finally, let's not forget Ward's go-to fluff idea: "This unit APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE AND HELPS IN THE BATTLE! Then they disappear! That's so coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!"

I get it, you like that idea. Stop putting it in all of your books, Doomrider is getting jealous!

All in all, the Necrons are now a surface army - they kinda look cool, but the story behind them is so sad I just can't get into them.

[Kataklysm]

There was a huge feeling of menace and creepiness from the old fluff. It made them feel like they could appear in any world, any place, in any shadow. Now i feel just like some of you have said before, They are tomb kings in space.... :( At least the new models look amazing. that mix of egyptian/cyberpunk/war of the worlds, I LOVE IT.

[Psychosplodge]

And finally, let's not forget Ward's go-to fluff idea: "This unit APPEARS OUT OF NOWHERE AND HELPS IN THE BATTLE! Then they disappear! That's so coooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!"

I get it, you like that idea. Stop putting it in all of your books, Doomrider is getting jealous!

.

Didn't The Legion of the Damned do it first?

[Spectral Dragon]

You know, it would have been so easy to change a few things to tie the current fluff together.

"Recently, the C'tan have been reigned in and fragmented into shards," instead of doing it millenia ago.

"The Pariah Concept failed, the fleshy bits were needed to keep the pariah effect intact, thus the idea was ultimately abandoned."

And so on and so forth.

You know, At first Ward had made this army so weak and terrible fluff-wise that GW made him redo it with some help, or so I hear. Can't prove it though.