#The twice dead king

[magistralucis]

text posts + necrons

#warhammer 40k #necrons #trazyn the infinite #orikan the diviner #the infinite and the divine #the twice dead king #oltyx #imotekh the stormlord #szaregon #mechanicus game #illuminor szeras #cryptek #necron #shitpost #the last one's the one that inspired me to make this #chefs kiss.........

[alex-leweird]

‘Uatth, they called it’

#warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #wh40k #necron #oltyx #ttdk #the twic #the twice dead king #not an beach ep #well maybe yes

[jjs-brainrot]

Finished both of the Warhammer 40k: The Twice-Dead King audiobooks.

*slaps top of robot skeleton* These bad boys can fit so many different types of body horror inside them... and outside them.

Also dang, just casually dropping that one of the Necron dynasties has a canonical trans leader

#warhammer 40k #necrons #the twice dead king

[ghostinthegallery]

So a thing I’ve noticed about necron books…

I do not think it is controversial to say that Robert Rath and Nate Crowley really defined how a lot of us (especially me) view necrons in modern 40k lore. They did so much heavy lifting to take the faction that was literally just Terminator ripoff (aka Tyranids but worse) and make them into characters.

But they did it in such different and almost contradictory ways. And I think it boils down to this:

Rath's necrons are gods who were once mortal. Crowley's necrons are mortals forced to become gods.

(disclaimer: I don't think one author is "more correct" or whatever. Different characters experience the universe in different ways, embrace a little subjectivity does objective truth even exist?)

Let's start with Crowley. In both Severed and Twice Dead King, memories and bodies are defining features of their narratives. Oltyx can and does revisit his memories at will (not without consequence get your pins out and put em in). He is haunted by disphorakh, this feeling that he should have an organic body but does not and that this disconnect is actually killing him. The flayed ones' whole existence is steeped (literally) in flesh and blood and disphoria.

On the slightly less extreme end, in Severed Obyron remembers the flesh times vividly: the battles, the people, who and what he's lost. They are fighting the manifestation of what Obyron fears becoming: a mindless machine, “severed” from his past experiences. And the ultimate stakes in a Crowley book? Loss of memory. Loss of self. Obyron and Oltyx pay this price throughout their stories, and it eats away at them. Necrodermis makes their physical selves immortal, but their minds? Just as mortal as ever. If not even more so. The people they are were formed in flesh times, and all immortality does is wear away at them as they desperately try to cope.

Robert Rath's necrons? Not so much. Sure, Trazyn and Orikan angst about their loss of memory, but the memories of flesh for them are so distant and unreliable that they could not build their personalities around them even if they wanted to. Trazyn's link to the past is external: objects he has collected. Orikan... what memories he has of his past are fuzzy and in some cases straight up manipulated. That's distressing, but not enough to totally rock his sense of self. That’s a stark contrast to how Crowley’s necrons operate.

We all know the iconic Old Man Fight from Infinite and the Divine. Where Rath describes Trazyn and Orikan fighting and points out how stupid it would be back in the flesh times? Just two nerds hitting each other with canes. Well the flip side of that is that what is actually happening is NOT two nerds slapping each other but two immortals with incomprehensible power battling on a scale mortals cannot process.

Rath’s necrons operate on scales mortals barely understand. Oh, the Greek gods destroyed one city? Troy took em ten years? Trazyn and Orikan wiped out a planet's population by accident. And they are both so divorced from mortality that they don't care. Sheesh, Trazyn is so alienated from the idea of a body that in War in the Museum he informs a woman that he’s filled her up with her own dead sisters organs and I legit believe he thought this would make her feel better.

I adore both approaches! The differences in character and perspective, how they relate to the world and themselves. Yes, it creates contradictions in the lore (like why doesn’t Trazyn lose his shit knowing people like Zahndrekh or Oltyx just…remember necrontyr society perfectly clearly) but I aggressively do not care. I love the varying explorations or power, the nature of the self, the truth that none of these people have survived immortality “in tact.” Those are exactly the things that make necrons my favorite 40k faction. Hell, one of my favorite sci if aliens ever. Because both approaches are haunting and hilarious and poignant and so damn cool.

So…uh…thanks guys. Yeah.

#necrons #warhammer 40k #the infinite and the divine #the twice dead king #severed #i just think they're neat #contemplations on the self without a soul #Immortality sucks but HOW it sucks is the more interesting question #All of it is very gay

[zalmoxis-the-great]

#That's what they did after they left Oltyx on Drazak #Strategic Combat and Analytical are the ones speaking #Xenology picked the flowers #Doctrinal picked the hat #necrons #warhammer 40k #the twice dead king #twice dead king #connecticut clark #scarab #canoptek #xott #subordinate minds

[bardockarts]

oh, a quick one from the cron server like two months back (and a sincere thank you to corbie), my take on Zultanekh who i am sorry to say i legitimately forgot was in that book :snakesalute:

#zultanekh #the twice dead king #necron #necrons #warhammer #warhammer 40k

[detachhunter]

I am inconsolable and in tears as I think about this again, but it's fine. I'm fine. It's fine, I promise. I'm lying.

Spoilers for The Twice-Dead King: Ruin below. This is an appreciation post about Djoseras and I'm hurting.

Djoseras is only a supporting character in the TDK novels, but I really want to argue that he is perhaps the MOST IMPORTANT character outside of our boy, Oltyx, who is, of course, the protagonist. Now, he's not present for the most part, usually a referred to character and his actual "on screen" time is very limited. However, there are just scenes that shape Djoseras' character so immensely, giving him a level of character depth usually not reserved or expected for side characters, and though it's mostly through Oltyx's perception of him (so, skewed or otherwise), his brother is just. So important.

So, shout out to Djoseras who taught Oltyx the hard lessons even if he himself found discomfort in what he was teaching him.

Shout out to Djoseras who protected Oltyx by skewing a significant event that ultimately led to his brother being exiled instead of executed.

Shout out to Djoseras who went back to comfort Oltyx who was so scared of going through the furnaces of biotransference.

Shout out to Djoseras who who inscribed upon his immortals all their names and deeds upon their necrodermis to show who they were/are.

Shout out to Djoseras who feigned ignorance just so he could talk to his brother before his departing to the capital to trying making Unnas see reason about the incoming Imperial Crusade that would see all of Ithakas destroyed.

Shout out to Djoseras who stayed behind to give Oltyx the time he needed to flee and take what survivors he could with him before Antikef fell.

Shout out to Djoseras who, despite everything, will always love his brother and wishes nothing more than for him to thrive.

Please, remember him.

#Warhammer 40k #WH40k #Necrons #The Twice Dead King #Djoseras #Oltyx #Spoilers #TDK Spoilers #The Twice Dead King Spoilers #This is what I get for sleeping in #And laying in bed longer than I should have #And then having necron thoughts and wanting more TDK content #Actually I just want more necron content in general I'm begging #I'm also still not recovered from reading Severed and Zahndrekh's QUOTE #YOU KNOW THE ONE #STILL HAUNTS ME AND I THINK ABOUT IT EVERY DAY #BUT I'M ALSO HAUNTED BY DJOSERAS TOO #And how much he just #Loves Oltyx so much

[chronicallycarnivorous]

#warhammer 40k #necron #necrons #wh 40k #warhammer memes #warhammer 40k memes #the twice dead king #oltyx #yenekh #mentep #lysikor

[trazynstolemygender]

my dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😝 this strain is called "curse of llandu'gor" 😳 you'll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

me: yeah whatever. i don't feel shit.

5 minutes later: dude i swear i just saw a golden ghost behind the throne

my buddy yenekh pacing: mentep is lying to us

#necrons #warhammer 40k #yenekh #oltyx #the twice dead king

[feyd-rautha-apologist]

#warhammer 40k #40k #40k memes #warhammer meme #necrons #The Twice Dead King

[smaller-comfort]

Some poorly organized thoughts, now that I have consumed a stack of Warhammer books about necrons. (Cannot thank @ocelly enough for sending them to me.)

Spoilers for the Infinite and the Divine and thr Twice Dead King books. I'm not talking about Severed because I am genuinely tired of bursting into tears! I have become a parody of a human being.

Orikan deserves it nearly every time Trazyn leaves him in a mangled heap somewhere. No forgiveness or quarter for breaking those pots during his initial theft of the astrarium! I mean, I get where Orikan is coming from; Necrons as a whole are slaved to their past and their inability to change will destroy them. But also, priceless ancient pottery, you raging douchebag. You also didn't have to break Trazyn's walking stick.

Executioner Philias deserves the chance to decapitate both of them, as a treat. And Sannet deserves a vacation somewhere quiet and restful.

I know Orikan tends to be characterized as a shrieking gremlin in contrast to Trazyn's laconic smarminess but they both engage in a lot of shrieking gremlin antics here.

I love how the rise and fall of Serenade's civilizations is used as a framing device for the whole story. I love the approach to time itself in the book in general, with the necrons moving on incomprehensibly vast timelines. Pauses in conversations take hours; three years pass in the middle of a brainstorming session between Trazyn and his staff. Orikan manipulates the timeline with wild abandon to occasionally disastrous and frequently hilarious ends. It's a very fun premise, and it drives home the idea of necrons as not just immortal, but also impossibly old.

(It feels like a treat to read something like this after some of the ideas I've chewed on in my Sea of Stars fic. It's hard not to draw parallels, and some part of me desires an entirely senseless crossover. Trazyn would have a delightful time getting to show off his archives to Resh'an, up until the Vial of Time starts breaking down the chronostasis fields in some of the exhibits. Whoops.)

Thinking about the curatorial/transformational dichotomy in fandom makes me want to contemplate an incredibly stupid AU where Trazyn and Orikan have been getting into flamewars with each other on gaming message boards since the early 90s. They have been banned from attending the same conventions and tournaments after getting in one too many fistfights with each other.

I'm not going to write that. (I'm not likely to write anything...but if I do, it's probably going to be porn where Orikan gets dismembered. *sigh* I'm always predictable to myself, of course, but sometimes the mortifying ordeal of being known weighs upon one's mind.)

I just picked up the audio book, so I may give my eyes a break in the coming week and give it a listen.

Zahndrekh's cameo in Ruin, followed by the revelation in Reign that he's wrapped up in the Carnotite conclave bullshit makes me wildly curious as to where Crowley is headed with these stories. Also the fact that Zahndrekh was as weird and off-putting to people when he was alive as he is when he's a necron is so, so fucking hilarious. He's just like that normally! Incredible. I love him more than words can describe.

I feel like if I were better versed in ancient Greek philosophy and Egyptian mythology, I'd have been picking up a lot more of the references and allusions in Twice Dead King. I've also never watched Battlestar Galactica, so I don't know how much the parallels between BG and Reign line up beyond the superficial.

(It may be Locked Tomb brainrot at work making me assume there are additional levels to the story that I'm missing. Not that there aren't already plenty of levels to the story!)

Going back through pieces of Ruin after finishing Reign makes everything hurt even more! Wow. Incredible.

Reading Ruin: Oltyx you absolute gay disaster baby, please get a grip

Reading Reign: wait no not like that oh god no

Yenekh gets to subvert the 'best friend who dies tragically to support the hero' trope because he's not the best friend, he's the love interest. Oltyx spends the first six chapters of Ruin waxing poetic about his dear friend's graceful curves and shining carapace, come on.

(Their reunion on the Polyphemus also made me cry, unsurprisingly. Love wins! Which is the central theme of course; Oltyx's salvation comes from the people who love him.)

Lysikor manages to steal every scene he's in, which is hilariously appropriate. He's just the distilled essence of that one thief in every D&D campaign who rolls way too high on his pickpocket checks. I have to assume that he's relying on his obsession with stealing shit to stave off his own descent into the flayer curse, since he is originally from Ithakas.

If/when he gets turned, he can go to Drazak and make out sloppy style with Oltyx while Yenekh looks on in horror before joining in.

...I mean I guess Lysikor doesn't need to be turned for that, necessarily. It's going to be an extremely messy endeavor, regardless.

Between The Locked Tomb, and Twice-Dead King, it feels like there's a lot of ritualistic cannibalism with skeletons going on around here. 🤷‍♀️

#nattering #necrons #warhams #the infinite and the divine #the twice dead king #i feel like an eddie izzard skit; 'two fandoms? no one can live at that speed!' #this may fizzle out but we'll see

[magistralucis]

Conflict in Literature + Necron Books

(Read more for titles and notes, watch out for spoilers)

Man vs. Nature - Devourer This is not the only necron vs. tyranid lit, but I thought the cover illustrated the conflict best. Out of all the horribad things in WH40K, the tyranids tend to be presented as the closest faction to a natural disaster; certainly in Devourer they do not logically justify their presence, nor can they be reasoned with, not by the Blood Angels or Anrakyr or the Tomb World he's trying to wake. Not mindless, but an amoral happenstance, like nature itself.

Man vs. Society - The Lords of Borsis Necron court intrigue played straight, with a sprinkle of delusion on the side. Since this story revolves entirely around the schemings and plottings of necron(tyr) society, with changes in dynastic hierarchy as the final objective, it fits best here.

Man vs. Technology - Indomitus This is an awkward placement, since Indomitus was not, well... a compelling story, with most of its tropes not being explored beyond their first introduction. But it is the most bare-bones way of describing this book's premise. Humans battling a robotic malignancy, albeit with a Bolivian Army Ending, which doesn't conclude the plot in either direction 😞

Man vs. Man - The Twice-Dead King: Ruin Ruin is an exceptionally deep novel, and fits every conflict listed here. It was the hardest one to place, because it's not so much choosing the one that goes best, rather crossing off every other conflict not central to the story. Both gods and the absence-of-gods are a problem in Ruin, as well as nature and technology, but they're not at the heart of Oltyx's problem. Society could be a big one, since Oltyx is an exile - but he’s not trying to antagonize his society throughout Ruin, he's trying to work with it, or at least save it from doom. Self and reality both count, but fit better with other stories in the Nate Crowley corpus. So man vs. man it is. His most important clashes are all with individuals ('man') - Djoseras, Unnas, Hemiun, arguably Yenekh in reserve - and by the end, his crownworld is overrun by the Imperium, who will become the antagonists for the second part of his tale. Man vs. 'Man', with a capital M.

Man vs. Self - The Twice-Dead King: Reign Again, this could have gone elsewhere. In man vs. reality, perhaps, or the god-related ones. But the self is where the conflict of Reign truly lies, since Oltyx's greatest obstacle is himself, and it is his inability to accept that which brings his dynasty close to destruction. Thank goodness he got over that one.

Man vs. Reality - Severed The emotional and philosophical core of this novella relies on it. Zahndrekh's inability to see the world as it is brings about the whole plot, and is at the centre of all of Obyron's musings. Interestingly, reality does not win at the end, at least not what necrons envision reality to be: a place of cold hard facts, with no room for emotion. Zahndrekh would rather dream the impossible dream, which might be the healthier way to deal with their situation.

Man vs. God - The Infinite and the Divine 🚨 𝔻𝕆 ℕ𝕆𝕋 𝔹𝔼 𝔻𝔼ℂ𝔼𝕀𝕍𝔼𝔻 🚨

Man vs. No God - Crusade: Pariah Nexus Not a novel, not 100% about necrons, not even out yet as of now (Dec 2023). This is an inherently problematic conflict for WH40K, because gods are very real and very present in that universe... here I'm only thinking about the necron perspective, and the civil war unfolding in their lore. They banded together in a shared purpose eons ago, destroying the Old Ones who oppressed them, and sundering the star gods who subjected them to biotransference. Now they are as antigod as they could be, and they did not retain their bonds, they have once again turned on each other. So it goes.

Man vs. Author - Codex: Necrons (10th Ed.) (Collector's Ed.) James Workshop knows what they did. 😑

#warhammer 40k #wh40k #trazyn the infinite #orikan the diviner #the infinite and the divine #essay #oltyx #the twice dead king #anrakyr the traveller #devourer #the lords of borsis #indomitus #nemesor zahndrekh #vargard obyron #severed #pariah nexus #codex: necrons #necron #necrons #conflict in literature

[alex-leweird]

Discworld x Warhammer 40k (Lysikor from The Twice Dead King)

#warhammer 40000 #warhammer 40k #wh40k #necron #Lysikor #TTDK #the twice dead king #Discworld #wyrd sisters #Hogfather

[nikothefunkyskeleton]

I’ve been reading The Twice Dead King Ruin and I love the subtle hints at Oltyx being infected by the flayer disease. Genuinely it feels so fun to pick them out during the story like when he uses the medium for the first time and is happy to have flesh but then thinks about how he’s always had flesh or how he tried to grit his teeth and had a moment of horror as he realized that he doesn’t have teeth anymore.

#the twice dead king #warhammer 40k #necrons #flayed ones #book

[ghostinthegallery]

One of my favorite things about Twice Dead King is how effectively it flips the script on the human vs the alien. Humanity becomes the existential terror descending from the stars, near infinite in number and unstoppable in its desire to destroy. It can't be negotiated with, there's too many to fight, all our protags can do is run and hope humanity doesn't catch them (but in the end it will always catch them). These books may be the root of my resentment for the "humans are the main characters of 40k" thing. Because you can tell such effective stories where we aren't the main character. Where we are the alien, and where we see ourselves as the monster.

#necrons #warhammer 40k #wh40k #the twice dead king #what if humans are the real monster #really makes you think #but actually tho

[triarch]

Very important thought.

Has anyone done a Disco Elysium meme with Oltyx’s subminds?

Analytical: There is a nought point 9 percent of success in this venture.

Doctrinal: Honour demanded you challenge him to a duel. I am proud.

Combat: killkillkillkillkill

Xenology: This opponent is a [Redacted] fl*sh lover.

Strategic: This duel should have been avoided, you are at a severe disadvantage at this time.

#necron #the twice dead king #oltyx #Warhammer #warhammer 40k #40K #disco elysium