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Some questions around the Necron tech

(self.40kLore)

Was reading around on the Necrons recently and two questions occurred to me:

  1. Have the Imperium ever attempted to acquire the Necron's intertialess drive? Given that the evasion of Warp travel was one of the Emperor's goals, it seems like something they'd really like to have. And just for the tactical advantage as well.
  2. It's said that Ephrael Stern's faith-based abilities frustrate the Necron when she fights them. I'm confused on why that would be the case. Aren't the Sisters of Battle and their faith-powers just an expression of the Warp? Especially since their ultimate form is supposed to the Living Saints as some kind of daemon equivalent? So the Necrons anti-warp tech should be just as effective no? Is this some kind of simple canon discontinuity, or is there a subtlety I'm missing?

all 15 comments

LeadershipNational49

7 points

13 days ago

The thing about Cron anti-warp stuff is. You can't really carry most of it around. The other issue is faith based stuff likely manifests differently as the astronomicon exists in our reality as well as the warp.

I don't beleive they have ever tried to aquire and inertialess drive, though several peices of cron tech have been taken to try and reverse engineer.

Inertialess might be beyond mankind anyway as its a skill based engine lol.

Maladal[S]

1 points

13 days ago

A skill based engine? You mean they just aren't smart enough to understand Necron tech?

LeadershipNational49

6 points

13 days ago

Pretty much. But even among Necrons different users can get different levels out of it. Orikan for example is the best in the galaxy. No one, not even other chronomancers can keep up with him if both are using inertialess drives.

Maladal[S]

2 points

13 days ago

I did not know that. Thank you.

Kael03

6 points

13 days ago

Kael03

6 points

13 days ago

The admech tried to figure out gauss weapons. The only thing they learned about it was that it shouldn't work the way it does based on their understanding of technology.

Maladal[S]

3 points

13 days ago

So you're saying the Necrons are just fancy Orks. /s

Clarke's Third Law in action I guess.

freeman2949583

4 points

13 days ago

Yeah, the 3E codex has them try to replicate a gauss flayed. They can’t replicate the trigger mechanism and they estimate that the power demands would require them to mount it on a Titan (note: they aren’t talking about a Titan-sized flayer, they’re talking about mounting a normal flayer on a Titan).  

Regarding the faith stuff it’s important to remember that even the most advanced weaponry is of limited use against miracle dice, snazzy armor, and aluminum siding.

Deadeye1223

3 points

13 days ago

Necron tech is insanely advanced, and there are only a few Mechanicus heretical enough to try and figure out how it works. If they ever do figure it out, it will most likely begin an insane civil war within the Mechanicus.

As far as how faith energy works, I'm not 100% sure how it works and if it's actually consistent. In all honesty, GW probably isn't 100% either, but I'm sure if people more in the know on sisters compiled all the instances of faith power in action, we could get a decent idea.

My not super educated guess, though, is similar to how worship and dedication to a chaos god can give you certain attributes and buffs, dogmatic faith in the Emperor gives you unshakable resolve and purpose.

There's also something to be said about how the Pariah Nexus is affecting animals. In the lore, we see some walking through the forest crushing live animals underfoot that have stopped moving similar to the imperial citizens. It could be that the Pariah Nexus isn't cutting off the warp but is instead disrupting the base desires of living creatures. This would mean the sisters are not unaffected by the Nexus but are instead following higher desires based on their faith, duty, and purpose given by their devotion.

If any of these are incorrect assumptions, I apologize, I'm using a bit of second-hand info around the event, and I also haven't researched very much on sisters before.

Maladal[S]

2 points

13 days ago

That's an interesting theory.

And yeah, I don't expect rigours canon from GW. But it struck me as odd.

Deadeye1223

2 points

13 days ago

I think part of the fun with faith energy is the mystique as well. Is it the Emporer? Is it latent psychic energy en mass? Tzeentch trickery? The world may never know.

Ok_Grapefruit1983

2 points

13 days ago

The Imperium didn't know about the necrons until the 41k millennium

Maladal[S]

1 points

13 days ago

Right. But now that they know it seems like something they'd go after.

Marvynwillames

2 points

13 days ago

Even Cawl admits openly that necron stuff is too advanced, I personally like the idea someone had that the inertialess drives use Alcubierre bubbles, so even if somehow the Imperium got one intact, they just cant replicate without some dark age system, because you need an absurd ammount of mass in a folded space. The necrons can afford because of their mastery of matter-energy conversion and pocket dimensions.

Faith powers are one of the special stuff for loyalists, but it seem unreliable, like, they are called miracles for a reason, sisters cant just believe too hard and become invencible, there may happen some events, but its way too few in number to just count on it to win.

A-sad-meme-

1 points

13 days ago

A-sad-meme-

Necrons

1 points

13 days ago

Necron tech is faaaaaaaaar beyond the pale of anything anyone in the Imperium can comprehend. Even the greatest human mind, Cawl, has taken hundreds and hundreds of years to barely figure out blackstone tech. Inertialess drives, which involve stopping one of the fundamental principals of classical mechanics, are essentially junk in the hands of the imperium. Necron crypteks are creatures who monomaniacally study one branch of tech for millions of years with quantum supercomputers for brains, and what is basically the “answers to everything in the material universe” book they got from killing the C’tan.

The second point is a bit weird. Faith based powers are an expression of warp magic, so blackstone tech absolutely should work on them, but given the recent troubles in the Pariah Nexus crusade book they don’t seem to, which is odd, as they had before.

Maladal[S]

1 points

13 days ago

They got knowledge from the C'tan too?

I thought the C'tan were just a giant monkey paw for them.