#c’tan shard

[vetusvulpes]

Rogue trader and her C’tan Nomos. Pict in color for @hypnostallev

[supercomputer-lizard]

Emperor and Void Dragon poll

so during the very distance past in Warhammer 40k, there is something known as the Void Dragon that was put under Mars by the Emperor. From what I’ve heard, it was a shard of the Void Dragon against the Emperor and the Emperor ambushed it and trapped it under Mars, which does not necessarily make the Emperor weaker. But which one would win in a battle to the death

edit: the general consensus is that the Void Dragon would beat the brakes off of the Emperor if both were at full strength and I agree, Voidy is cool and a shard of him seems like an equal to the Emperor

[eonianshadow]

Nomos taking control of C’tan Shard body

Commissioned illustration for @hypnostallev

[minweber]

One implication from The Infinite and The Divine’s strong worldbuilding that I keep coming back to is that, time being so meaningless to necrons, mortal species must be extremely annoying for them to deal with. So annoying, in fact, that it must border on being terrifying. 

Half a dozen generations of Tau can change during the time it takes Orikan the Diviner to have a proper meditation. And sure, it’s all “pathetic mortals” until you realize that, without the trademark imperial stagnancy, that is a lot of time to do something.

When Trazyn met Cawl on Cadia, the latter seemingly knew next to nothing about necron technology, and probably even necrons in general. But not much more than 20 years later - barely a discrete amount of time for immortals - we see Cawl hacking and manipulating necron tech on Pharos and slamming it with a C’tan shard.

Imagine going away for the weekend, and when you are back, the crows outside your house have learned to drive a fucking car. Probably yours. And will continue in that vein if you don’t do something about it very quickly and constantly. Because what for you is a distraction of a menial task, for them could be the purpose of their whole existence, at which they will come again, and again and again, never stopping, always dragging you down to their level of chaotic short-term existence.

I guess what I am saying is that it must be very hard to enjoy being untethered from the flow of time, while someone very tethered to it is out there trying to steal your whole shit.

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Are there any non-shard Ctan? Like how much influence could a single but complete C’tan have on the setting?

As far as we know, they all got sharded. Except for the Flayer, who was exploded to death.

A single, complete C’tan would be like a single, complete Khaine. It’s functionally a god. A material god, granted, but a god. Given that transcendent C’tan can decimate entire planetary systems when unleashed, a full one would be very bad. These things used to feed on suns and life energy in quantities that were concerning, to say the least.

With the way the warp is, I don’t personally think a single complete C’tan would survive in the setting, but I do think it would do a lot of damage before being destroyed.

Y’know, “bing bong your sun’s gone” isn’t a good lunchtime situation

[aethira]

Galaxy-themed C’Tan Shard of the Void Dragon ✨

I’ve been really enjoying painting my Necron army and I’m proud of how my first C’Tan came out :D (well, only C’Tan, since there’s no way I’m getting the Nightbringer and Deciever until they get better sculpts hsgdkd)

I got the Void Dragon as a reward for myself when I started taking art commissions again and I’m really happy aaaaa

[farsight-the-char]

To balance the scales regarding Primarch releases, Xenos factions should also receive a defector Primarch. 

The Khan should join Tau, the great Steppes of the Tau homeworld giving him a place of meditation on the value of the The Greater Good and the importance of Alien life. Also they give him a jetbike. 

Curze should be rescued by the Laughing God, be given a wraithbone body, and be assigned to the Ynnari. The Eldar Seers help him control his visions, Harlequins giving him a new purpose. The Konrad who Laughs. 

Ferrus’s skull should be “re-appropriated” by Trazyn, bound to a C’tan shard, and then Mr Metal is bound to the Necrons (or something).

...

This is mostly a joke.

[phantomoftheshoppera]

The latest additions to my necrons, the Transcendent C’tan Shard and Hexmark Destroyer! I’m very excited to use these in battles, the C’tan has a lot of mobility compared to the rest of my army, and hopefully the Hexmark will deter enemy charges with it’s free overwatch.

[calcazars]

sometimes a family is a Rogue Trader, her Xenos mate, a former member of the Inquisition, a baby, a test tube baby and their pet C’Tan Shard.

[themorrignasystem]

SILVA TENEBRIS LOREDUMP

(MAC'S FORGEWORLD)

Silvra Tenebris was a tomb world of the Szaregon dynasty. It was awoken during the early age of the imperium, slowly awakening over time. The awakening quicking during the era indomitus when explorators of the adeptus mechanicus invaded the planet. Once on the planet, the mechanicus forces invaded and scoured the planet. During their invasion of the planet, the mechanicus forces had a rebellion led by a known heratek. During this rebellion, Techpriest scavola sided with the heratek rebellion and killed Fuastinius in on one combat. Due to the fallen leader, the mechanicus forces suffered a skishm, with Lector-Dogmatis Videx dumping all the mechanicus forces on the planet and leaving, thus leaving the new leader Scavola and the remaining forces, which includes Xenobiologis Tiresus, Subdomina Khepra, Quartermaster Rho, Prime-Hermeticon Captrix, and Magos Dominus Reditus. The focres now lead by Scavola managed to establish an alliance with the Necrons of the tombworld. 

They eventually dubbed themselves “The Court of the cog”, with Lord Szaregon and Lady Tech-aquisitor scavola as its leaders, using the mechanicus leaders to supplement the court members that fell during the original invasion. At some point, during interrogations with a void dragon C’tan shard, the shard spoke of an accession beyond flesh, even beyond Magos Dominus Reditus’s ascension. One techpriest, Madoc Fuego, decided to speak with the shard personally, and both disappeared for a long amount of time. After the period of time was done, a machine spirit calling itself Machina Furem emerged, showing a hybridization of the C’tan shard and the techpriest. The machine spirit however, also speaks of memories that was not Madoc Fuego’s, perhaps suggesting it is several techpriests and the C’tan shard. The machine spirit shown extreme interest in learning, so Szaregon and Scavola treated it as their child, and it learned all that the Court of the Cog could teach it. The machine spirit eventually figured out how to open temporary webway portals, and subsequently the Court of the Cog purged the world of the Flayed ones and the Destoryers.

However, not all would be well, as eventually  Lector-Dogmatis Videx returned with a full fleet to perform an Exterminautus on the Heratekinca of the World. The court of the cog used hybrid Necron-Mechanicus tech to create a defense system that woud assult ships with bolts of Guass, and trace the beams with Necrodermis, thus ensaring and webbing the ship. The ships were then siphoned of motive force, thus stunning them. This meant that the exterminuatus fleet were ensared and pulled onto the planet, wrecking them. Lector-Dogmatis Videx’s forces were attacked and subsequntly defeated. Lector-Dogmatis Videx was captured and brought before Lord Szaregon and Lady Scavola. They decided to punish Lector-Dogmatis Videx by stripping him of his augmentics and wiring him into a vox system. 

Some time after, a large shard of the C’tan Maldogoth emerged, and began a schism in the Court of the Cog, thus starting the War for tenebris. During the War for tenebris, forces lead by Maldrogoth began to use necron biotransferanse technology to capture and convert forces of the court of the cog to his side. Maldrogoth eventually seized the artefact of the Court of the Cog, but in a last ditch effort, the court of the cog split the artefact into 8 shards. Madrogoth seized 4 shards, and began to create a large device dubbed Maldrogoth’s Grasp, emplaced at the north pole of the planet, and connected to the core of the planet. Maldrogoth’s forces began to work on the tombs of the planet, carving strange pathways into the planet, and using scarabs and tomb spiders to carve sections of the tomb. When the carving was done, Maldrogoth used Maldrogoth’s Grasp to ensnare the star of the system, and drag it into the planet, and the purpose of Maldrogoth’s wrath was revealed; the star was ensared and forced into the planet’s core, desabilizing the planet, and the carved sections shifted, enlarging the planet and allowing every tomb to be powered by the star. The maldrogoth shard reveled in this, as it meant that it could use the newfound power to power Maldrogoth’s grasp even more. With more modifications, Maldrogoth’s grasp became even more powerful, allowing it to breech the webway and the warp, ensnaring all neabry ships and pulling them onto the surface of the planet, where tehy are scrapped for technology. The maldrogoth shard was distracted enough during the modifactations to Maldrogoth’s grasp that Prime-Hermeticon Captrix was able to assiante it by pushing it into the star core if the planet, however due to the nature of the C’tan shard, this did not kill it, but instead made it comatose. 

In current times, the Court of the cog are mostly defeated, lying hidden in inactive tomb sections, hoping that machina furem coud organize an effort to purge Maldrogoth’s forces. 

Due to the horrid atomosphere generating constant storms, and the high gravity of the enslaved star, hover technology doesnt work on Silvra tenebris, thus the mechanicus of the forge world adopted achhranid like patterns to their bodies and vehicles. It is not suggested to fly on Silvra tenebris, as the constant storms and dense atmosphere make flying difficult and dangerous. Due to the reshaping of the planet, large pillars of blackstone emerged along the coastlines and beaches of silvra tenebris, much akin to basalt pillars. 

Over the years, many factions have come to or been grounded on silva tenebris, making it a constant battleground. It is of interest to those who know about, as it holds many secrets and technologies on it. 

The factions under Machina furem regularly come to the planet to save the planet, but so far it has been to no avail. The factions include the Mechancus cult of the Machinasiah, which believe machina furem to be the omnisaih, the Adeptus soroitus cult of the Order of the Blessed cog, which are akin to the Machinasiah cult but also are mostly fanatical electropreists, using both augments of electropreists and arcoflagelants to create electrified zealots. The chaos cult of The Lord of Technology, which worship the warp nature of Machina furem. The Tau cult of Fio’Tek-O, which have learned the lies of the Etherals and decided to side with Fio’Tek-O. 

Live doc link:

This is the setting for my Warhammer 40k DnD 5e campaign!

[memecucker]

Oh so there’s a Necron ‘dynasty’ called The Severed who basically had something go wrong during their slumber which wiped out all their memories and minds and had the AI of their tomb world takeover so they’re basically just fully soulless and mindless robots that go out to extinguish all forms of biological life due to programming and are feared and hated by other Necrons and unlike Destroyer Cults don’t embrace becoming machines instead of biological life because the Severed Necrons don’t have minds that could desire in the first place

I like that a lot bc it kinda re-retcons the “Oldcron” lore into a subfaction and I liked the old lore because it made the Necrons the other extreme of Chaos in that they worked to close off the Warp entirely and turn the Universe into a cold shell. I get that it was hard to do much about Necrons that way but it’s cool they brought it back somewhat and you can even headcanon that the incident was caused by an escaped C’tan shard to just fully make them Oldcrons

[macgyvertape]

I didn’t think of the implications till this most recent reread; that there were two things needed to open the crypt of “Nephreth the Untouched”, the Astrarium Mysterios that Trazyn stole and the unique data files Orikan stole to decrypt the puzzle. Indeed the trap was set up that way:

“Opening the tomb required two, the Deceiver said. It did not step forward, but rose and glided, the lengthening hooks of its toenails scraping the blackstone floor. One cunning enough to decipher Vishani’s riddles, and one with the doggedness not to heed her pathetic distress signal.”

It had me thinking, if Vishani went through the trouble to include at least six different fake solutions to her manuscripts, as well as give out altered copies of the manuscripts that do not work to solve the puzzle, and kill herself as part of the effort to keep the crypt sealed; then I think it's a reasonable guess that the solar flare that killed the dynasty was deliberate:

“A solar flare from the local star triggered a failure cascade to its stasis system” … “Orikan took pleasure in imagining the solar flare ionising the neural matrices of the sleeping dynasty, shock waves scrambling their tomb world’s magnetic field and rendering all systems inert. Mass neural death, in the span of a few minutes.”

In her view, better the dynasty die than they all wake up and want to open that crypt and unleash what was in there, and maybe she can destroy any keys to the tomb as well.

I also hadn’t thought before about how funny this alternate chain of events would be, where Orikan foresees the Orks opening the crypt.

“‘Mock me, but I have seen it. Repeatedly for the last few decades. Not everything I calculate comes to pass, Trazyn, but each time this vision intrudes it becomes stronger. The Waaagh! is coming, it will destroy and befoul the greatest cultural relic of our kind, and both of us will be killed”

A 4 or 5 shard C’tan that can easily take on an Ori Waaagh! Before getting a head start on the rest of its galactic plans.

[mountainashfae]

Hey, people who know 40k more than me, if a C’tan shard theoretically had a reason or desire to. Do you think they could shapeshift into a more human form. Asking for overly ambitious writing reasons.

[zalmoxis-the-great]

Careful what you wish for ! - Short Story -Orizyn

The C’tan looked at the shard of the Deceiver offered to him. He seemed pleased.

Your offer has been accepted by us, child. The knowledge that you seek is yours. Zarhulash said to Trazyn.

Dealing with free C’tans was incredibly dangerous. An insane thing to do. But Trazyn knew that great things came with great risks. Spying on the Archmagos Cawl proved fruitful, since the clever human gestalt released a C’tan shard that now hides in the far reaches of the galaxy.

Trazyn watched as the C’tan grabbed the other shard and hid it within his recesses. The star vampires were greedy and torturous, more than they hated other beings they hated their own kind. He didn’t want to think what kinds of torments were reserved for the lesser, smaller shard.

The free shard touched a canoptek after, pouring into it knowledge of the material real, raw data overwhelming its systems and whipping existing information to fit it.

‘Thank you, Potentate one’. Trazyn, surrounded by lychguards, said, not bowing. The weapon on his doom scythe was aiming at the C’tan.

He might be a risk-taker, but he was no fool.

He ordered one of his guards to retrieve the construct, so he could use and analyze the data safely.

It pleases me that you are unlike your treacherous siblings. Said Zarhulash, as Trazyn was about to start the translocation protocols. I will reward you, as one would reward a loyal hound. The archivist wanted to protest what was he compared to, but the intrigue stopped him.

‘I reward, you say?’

Yes, with the prospect that you will come again to bargain for my wisdom, I shall grant you a wish.

A wish? Although a shard, this C’tan was the master of the physical realm. He could undoubtedly grant him something of value.

A wish. Greed suddenly filled Trazyn’s engrams, he could wish for anything in the universe. He already saw the gallery for the Empire of Mankind getting its centerpiece.

He stopped the vector of ideas. The C’tan were untrustworthy. They give with a hand and take with seven. Asking for something that big would be unwise.

Maybe he could ask to repair Sannet’s memory engrams? Could he trust his arch-cryptek cognition to a shard? Absolutely not.

Trazyn thought, what could he ask for that wouldn’t backfire horribly?

After a moment he smiled, at looked at the C’tan, his wish prepared.

-------------------

‘Orikan, I need your predictions for the aerial attacks for the next 20 standard cycles’, Imotek asked, as he examined the battle charts in phos-green glyphs, all displayed in front of him.

‘As you wish’, the cryptek sitting to his left, answered as the Stormlord received packages of data on their interstitial channel.

His work was impeccable, like always.

There was a sudden shift in the air, for a fraction of a second. Imotekh noticed it, and turned to the astromancer, sitting in a meditative position, scrying the battlefield and feeding his hyperlogical algorithms battle predictions.

He seemed unperturbed.

‘What was that, did the scanners pick something ?’

‘Picked what? We are currently engaged in a battle', he answered, with barely enough tact to be considered respectful, like he usually did when interrupted.

‘Widen the planetary scans from the orbit. Something must have happened.’

‘As you wish. We should deploy the Doom cannons, the left flank will become overwhelmed.’

An astute observation. Imotek smiled, logical centers noting how the left side had a high probability of being pushed back if the enemy moved as predicted.

‘Good, when do you suggest we send them?’

‘Right meow, my Phaeron.’

Imotekh stopped, did his audio receptors glitch?

He rewinded the conversation. Did my cryptek meow at me? The astromancer didn’t seem to react.

‘Now? Did you say now?’, he asked, hoping the audio interference was from the battle raging outside.

‘Pawsitive’.

[arcann]

who respects the noahn the most? Is there anyone Noahn liked at first and then grew to hate or hated at first and then warmed up to?

-Everyone in the Koronus Expanse is forced to respect a rogue trader but I feel like the most hard earned respect are Nomos's and, through him, Pasqal's. Noahn has an ideology filled with contradictions and flaws that they are able to justify or even open up and explain and that’s something both the C’tan shard and the magos understand. All three are extremely different in their beliefs and responsibilities, with futures that at some point will radically diverge but in that moment they felt something truly special happen between the three.

-I think Calligos and Incendia contrast each other in that, during their first meeting Noahn judged the books by their very obvious covers, with Calligos being a rebellious and boisterious warlord which Noahn didn’t outright like but could work with while Incendia seemed to shut down any attempts at cordiality, making Noahn think that they would have to begin unnecessarily long rituals of diplomacy between dynasties which would be ultimately pointless and just work to pacify Incendia’s bruised ego over losing Footfall.

By the end, Noahn deemed Calligos unsalvageable right when they realized the situation they were in at Quetza Tremer. In Noahn’s mind either they tried to negotiate with him and he’d end up with a grudge that would certainly fester and would be paid in blood… because he was obviously a follower of Khorne. Or they could kill him in the anonymity of that planet and be done with his blunders while they found a way to support Evayne’s ascension, since he already owed them. The decision became easier because freaking Nocturne of Oblivion backed them up. So Calligos did try his hardest to kill Noahn and he managed to give them nightmares for weeks, but that’s the end of their relationship.

On the other hand, Noahn had both blackmail And reason enough to justify negotiating with Incendia. They will never see the point of her zealotry on Footfall and they would never be good buddies but Noahn had made her see reason at her darkest and that was willpower and strength of character that they valued. The details of her rescue are still in Noahn’s hands but they will not use them against Incendia if they can be sensible and negotiate, which was viable after the game was said and done.

They also go from loathing Marazhai and searching for excuses to kill him to considering him “Hainne’s [REDACTED]” and tolerating him when he dropped by to visit/drag away Hainne and throw barbs at each other. Maybe figuratively, maybe literally.

[cursed-40k-thoughts]

Is there any individual who could destroy a planet or like a small moon in 40k? Whether Emps, a daemon, a daemon Prince, a Ctan shard or Phaeron. Anything?

I’m assuming you mean like… in one go? Because plenty of things in 40k could destroy a moon, given time. Anyway.

Transcendent C’tan. Alpha level Psykers or higher. Angron did in fact split a moon in half (with some Khorne help). A sufficiently strong daemon prince.

Technically there are also a number of Imperial and Necron pilots/captains who could destroy a small moon in one go, if they were having a bad morning. Macro weapons!