Necrons - Cognitive levels?

[Scribe]

Within the modern lore, what level of awareness are we looking at across the various levels of necron?

 

Lords and Cryptek, clearly have consciousness.

 

Immortals and Deathmarks?

 

Warriors mostly not, but then they are able to have a change in behavior, becoming Flayers.

 

I imagine that with the expansion of the Destroyer cult/faction, we will get some detail in the next Codex, but was wondering if we have a solid picture now at the Immortals tier.

[The Unseen]

Deathmarks have enough cognition to plan ahead, and disobey a lord if pushed too by a cryptek, from a short story with Anrakyr and Szeras, the deathmarks appear near the climax of the battle and slaughter the remaining guardsmen behind their defensive bulwarks. Afterwards, Anrakyr basically dresses them down and tells them to only appear when summoned by him next time, then tells Szeras to bugger-off, as his interference in the honorable fight by employing such assassins without his permission has ruined their agreement.

So deathmarks are at least capable of being chastened. Immortals are described as still having all their knowledge and skill at fighting intact, but had much of their individual personalities stripped away, leaving them "poor conversationalists". Warriors are basically nearly mindless, but still higher up than the canoptek automatons.

[Bonzi]

Warrior = toaster

Immortal = toaster with bagel and defrost settings

[Scribe]

Mods, I'd really appreciate you stop moving threads. :)

[Tyriks]

Immortals are capable of taunting opponents at times.

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

=][= I'm not the one who moved it, but as you didn't specify that you were looking for descriptions in BL novels specifically, I suspect whoever did move it figured that the discussion would be better suited here. I'll note I agree with the move. We do tend to source some of our lore here from BL, though, so you are welcome to discuss Black Library novels and their descriptions here. =][=

 

Immortals were the professional soldiery of the Necrontyr empire before they underwent biotransference, so they were permitted to retain much of their knowledge of war, battle, and protocol, etc, though as noted they don't really talk much. A favored example of mine is when Overlords give speeches to their troops, they will go on and on expecting a response from their troops. Because the Immortals are not being directly addressed with a query, they will remain silent. This will cause the Overlords to decide they must be more inspiring, so they talk more, in a recursive loop until such time as battle is joined.

 

Warriors know enough to wish they were truly dead. I don't think we're given much information on them, but I've always tended to interpret Lychguard and Praetorians as being of an as awakened state of mind as their nobles--Lychguard have the presence of mind to have pride in their blows, not striking until they are sure of a killstrike. After all, you can't be an agent of your lord's will if you can't interpret their orders when necessary and proper. I imagine that a Royal Warden might be much the same, perhaps a trusted captain or lieutenant who was a retainer in their lord's court.

[WickedJester1013]

The indomitus book has a lot of personality for several necron units and characters FYI.

[Sandlemad]

Lychguard are portrayed in Severed as rather closer to immortals. Able to affirm, deny, fight well, but without much in the way of emotion or individual personality. Obyron privately laments that what he knew of the warriors he fought alongside is basically gone and that they no longer have any group identity as a body of warrior-companions.

[Scribe]

Alright, thx folks. So its all pretty lacking in identity, at even the elite level. 

 

So leadership, and crypteks really.

[WickedJester1013]

Yeah when it comes to character I tend to think of them more like vampire counts from fantasy, where you have a few key figures with personality that is in control of the mindless masses

[Miek]

On page 19 of the codex, it says that Immortals are self aware and tactically independent. Deathmarks and tomb blades are also mentioned as self aware entities. So apart from the obvious canoptek stuff, warriors and outsiders (destroyers and flayed ones), I think most necron units cannot be considered mindless. Edited October 18, 2020 by Miek

[Tyriks]

Flayed Ones and Destroyers also must have some superior autonomy because they exist apart from a Dynasty's direct control. All the BL novel(la)s I've read that feature them make it very clear that the aristocracy fears contamination so much they avoid directly commanding or controlling them.

[Miek]

Ah that makes sense, thanks.

[Uberlord Gendo]

We sure that these are wholly consistent?- In universe, I mean. The lack of awareness of Warriors is pretty consistent, but if there were different sites where biotransferrance was carried out and each one was very much a unique thing designed with the aid of a Ctan and clearly not understood by the Necrontyr, then one imagines there is room for substantial variation depending on factors like the Ctan in question and random errors on the part of the Necrontyr. Since the Ctan only really cared about eating souls maybe having an army, I can't imagine they'd be giving too much attention to detail. Throw in the consistent depiction of cognitive degradation over the eons and the impacts of trauma, it seems reasonable that there would be a lot of variability in the results. It also fits with the way individuals fade or go over into destroyer psychosis. (Granted, I also don't buy that the Silent King himself intended for the personalities of his people to be shorn. Given the role the soul seems to play in all that, I think the Silent King figured most of the thinking would be carried out by the non-physical soul, with the hardwired stuff being a means of enforcing unity. Since the nobles have more ways of skavening someone, more controls are needed, thus more hardwired stuff. Reasoning here is the Silent King's deep regret. I think he planed on an obedient populace, but one capable of enjoying their new lives. Of course others in the hierarchy may have intended the limitation in cognition-certainly rendering them silent speaks volumes.)

[WickedJester1013]

I think it’s fairly easy to add your own fluff if it suits your needs. Who’s to say that you lord doesn’t suppress ever ones personality to the point of literal machines, or the opposite? Maybe you lord is saddened by the transference and had his crypteks imprint fake personalities to make his legions more “alive”

[nanosquid]

There's some lore in the new codex talking about the Silent King's retinue of Lychgaurd, and how they each have enhanced cognitive systems that allow them to "philosophize", and how they each have a personal Night Scythe to get around. Supports the idea of being able to have dynasties with varying levels of intelligence if you want a more "normal" social system, at least among the elites.