Necrontyr
| Necrontyr | |
|---|---|
| File:Kastav.jpg | |
| Lady-Governor Kasterairin, A Necrontyr Female | |
| Scientific classification (unresolved) | |
| Family: | incertae sedis
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| Species: | Necrontyr Renata
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For the language of the same name, see Necrontyr (language).
Introduction
Necrontyr or Necrons are an alien species originating from the planet of Naogeddon in the Milky Way Galaxy approximately one billion years ago, with their earliest known surviving structures dating to around six hundred and seventeen million years ago. A mono-cultured society they are a major presence in The Ctan and are known for their advanced technology, decadent if morbid culture and haughty manner.
Appearance
Necrontyr generally appear in one of two forms, either as 'necrons' - perhaps the more famous image, semi-humanoid machines that appear distinctly skeletal, or as organic humanoid beings with skin colour ranging from ashen-white to grey-blue, approximately six to seven feet tall, and with the pointed ears usually associated with Elves. In this form they usually have 'natural' (though little about the species is unchanged over their long history) silvery eyes, and black or white hair. This line is blurred by modern generations of necron soldiers that appear externally to be organic but are internally machines.
It is speculated that the current appearance of the Necrontyr has been adjusted to match other species' standards of beauty, and while this is true to an extent, their physical form now resembles its original state quite closely.
Evolution
As on many other worlds, Naogeddon produced intelligent life naturally, without deliberate intervention of any higher power.
Abiogenesis
Following a typical pattern, life on Naogeddon was first formed in its green-tinted, semi-acidic copper-rich seas, forming primarily in the sun-exposed deltas of its great rivers. In part due to this the resulting ecosystem developed life forms whose blood carried oxygen via hemocyanin, resulting in the translucent or off-blue colour of Necrontyr blood. Thanks to the oxygen-rich atmosphere of Naogeddon, almost all land animals used hemocyanin as the basis for their blood.
Evolutionary Pathway
The Necrontyr species arose to sapience comparatively early in Naogeddon's history, before any major mass-extinctions, developing from land-based life in a plains herd-animal. Aspects of this heritage remain with the species even at many millions of years remove. These range from trivial, such as the inactive genes for great antlers (some individuals have these reactivated as one type of fashion, resulting in high crown-like structures of glossy black material akin to bone, to the physiological and psychological underpinnings of the fundamentals of the Necrontyr mindset and history. Although the Necrontyr became tool-users after a period of tree-ification, these plains-animal roots remain important.
Herd Instinct
Despite often being described as having a 'libertarian society' Necrontyr retain an exceedingly strong herd instinct; a form of group cohesion that would be judged to be essentially psychotic by many humans. To a Necrontyr, the idea of allowing a member of their group to be harmed is always abhorrent. It is difficult for a Necrontyr to even conceive of being harmed by 'outsiders' without also imagining how to enact retribution. This is similar to the vendettas of many tribal societies on Earth, but far deeper, an instinct as heavily ingrained as self-preservation. Although the Necrontyr are aware of this they have never chosen to attempt to counteract it or remove it; they see this group cohesion, long since expanded to include their entire species and culture, as an asset, and the notion of altering it as a form of treason.
Genetic Degredation
During the early history of the Necrontyr a being later known as the Nightbringer came to rest on Naogeddon's Star. The destructive feeding of this alien creature stimulated dangerously high emissions of several types of radiation, causing widespread damage and change to the ecosystem. This gave the Necrontyr a drastically shortened lifespan, and an obsession with death and the dead that persists to this day.
History
Pre and Early History
With life-spans drastically curtailed, the proto-Necrontyr arboreal creatures were almost exterminated and forced to become nocturnal cave-dwellers. In this era, competition for such shelter with other large animals became acute and with an early grasp of tool use, the Necrontyr soon became adept at driving out and hunting these animals. Mastering fire and crude weapons, they had the time to begin to develop the rudiments of civilisation. Only the hardiest plants and hard-backed arthropod-like creatures of their world could survive in the day, and a verdant, diverse ecosystem was reduced to these few creatures, proto-necrontyr preying on and domesticating the large arthropods of their oxygen rich world. Modern Necrontyr fondly recall the debt they owe to such creatures and many have been recreated, as well as others replicated as industrial and war-machines. Fuelled by the copper-rich shells of these protected animals the Necrontyr soon learnt crude metalwork, handily skipping any period akin to Earth's stone age and catapulting them on the road to mastery of their environment. Naogeddon-Athropods, particularly the 'scarab' family are held to be singly responsible for saving their species a hundred thousand years, and preventing them being destroyed or enslaved by the Old Ones. Cruelty to such creatures is an utter taboo; they are amongst the most sacred things to Necrontyr, thanks to this history.
Understanding the peril of their star, early Necrontyr settlements relied heavily on thick flat rooves and later, many kinds of radiation protection. As their science, fuelled by the realisation that quickly dawned on them of the danger their star posed, and the scarce biological resources of their world, advanced, the Necrontyr soon reached into the vastness of space, journeying from a roughly bronze-age stage of development to their first landing on Naogeddon's nearest neighbour in less than seven centuries.
Any Necrontyr will admit that their prehistory was, in truth marked by incredibly fortuitous circumstances.
Spaceflight Era
In the era following, the Necrontyr spread across their home system, always striving to improve their own conditions. They created the first Artificial Intellects, who for a time, seceded from Necrontyr culture to establish their own domains, free of the morbid death-obsessed culture of their creators. They colonised other worlds in great sleeper ships clad in the earliest forms of their trademark living metals in a quest to find a new homeworld with more favourable conditions.
Their technology developed and soon they began to terraform other worlds into the image of Naogeddon. But they could not escape the fundamental damage done to their own biology; short and brutal evolution made them unable to cope with many of the diverse toxins and other conditions they met on these worlds. Even on other worlds their settlements were sepulchral and sterile.
Then the Necrontyr discovered an almost-ideal world, Tallathar, life-bearing but free of all the conditions that dogged them. It bore a terrible secret, however and the deeper the Necrontyr expedition dug, the more they became concerned. Another sapient species, technologically crude compared to the necrontyr's growing comprehension of the universe had lived there, until merely decades ago, before some inexplicable death had taken everything on that world.
The Coming of The Old Ones
It did not take long for Tallathar's murderers to appear; and the means by which they did baffled the Necrontyr, emerging from some form of portal in orbit of the world. Unprepared for the vast Necrontyr Torchship in orbit, the Old One vessel, assigned to begin re-terraforming Tallathar for their own use, was caught by surprise. History does not record who fired first, some claiming that the Necrontyr did so accidentally, or that they laid a trap in fury at the genocide they had found, or that the Old Ones had detected the Necrontyr expedition and meant to destroy it. What is known is that the Necrontyr vessel, out-massing the small gate-vessel by seven orders of magnitude, atomised it with its matter-conversion drive, but not before the Old Ones were able to exterminate every Necrontyr in the system.
When the broadcast of this reached Naogeddon, it triggered a full scale mobilisation for war. The Necrontyr could not conceive that they had been at fault, and had already seen the Enemy's genocidal practices. The Machine Secession and the Necrontyr became one unified society once more, and the last internal political divisions of the Necrontyr were swept away as, terrified by the unknown power of their Enemy, the Necrontyr reached out to make war.
The War in Heaven
Lasting over five hundred million years, the War in Heaven, as it is known to the Eldar but to the Necrontyr simply 'The War' defines the Necrontyr race. No comprehensive tale of the entire War can be attempted, much of it lost, given the nature of Necrontyr communications during this time.
The Ancestral Offensive
The first parts of the War in Heaven were defined by an ever deeper comprehension of the odds against them.
The Old Ones' civilization sprawl across hundreds - thousands of galaxies, they had subverted or exterminated almost all sapient life within these, binding them to a form of slavery that utterly repulsed the Necrontyr. Ironically, given their later deeds, the Necrontyr of this period sought to save and redeem the countless thrall-species of the Enemy.
The Old Ones possessed nigh-magical abilities fuelled by a dimension known as 'The Warp' at first the Necrontyr sought to use these same abilities themselves, but found that the same culture that fuelled them to forever advance their science made it impossible to grasp the nature of this dimension, and it was essentially futile in any case, given the mastery of the Old Ones.
Although patently insane, and with no hope of victory, the Necrontyr feared the erasure of self that would come with conquest by the Old Ones; every species they had touched had become warp-dependant religiously-obedient near-primitives. The Necrontyr resolved to spend as long as possible fighting the masters of the Universe.
The more they learnt of the Old Ones, the more the Necrontyr hated the Enemy.
And they learnt, over time, to their considerable relief, that their understanding of the material world was far in advance of that of the Old Ones. As much as the Necrontyr could not comprehend the Warp, neither could the Old Ones match their understanding of the Real.
Defeat
Eternally outmanoeuvred by the Old Ones' mastery of faster-than-light travel, despite their overwhelming superiority in the physical sciences, the Necrontyr could never consolidate their victories, outnumbered over a billion to one by the Old Ones and their thralls. It is certain that if the Old Ones had truly pressed their advantage, they would have crushed the Necrontyr. But the Necrontyr were a mere nusience, and spread their vast fortress ships to the far corners of the Local Supercluster, quietly establishing millions of fortress systems from where they could fight their suicidal, guerrilla war.
During this time the few convert-ships and constructs to defect to the Necrontyr were accepted into their civilisation, giving them a scant-few vessels capable of travelling faster than light. Other, infamous traitors, joined the Old Ones, dooming billions of Necrontyr with each of their own defections.
Altering themselves and adopting a plethora of new ideas and new forms, the Necrontyr reached their greatest ever diversity in this era.
The Coming of The C'tan
Pushed back to Naogeddon itself in their home Galaxy, the Necrontyr of the Milky Way were able to protect their home-world (though perhaps the Old Ones here showed some pity) and turned, at length, to making it habitable once more. Now they had the understanding, gleaned from across the universe, to comprehend the nature of the thing upon their home sun. In their efforts to remove it they realised it could make a terrible weapon, and began to communicate with it.
The Nightbringer, first of the C'tan, was summoned into physical form. Although it brought new gifts to the Necrontyr, and finally an understanding of how to travel faster than light, an insight from its billion-year-old consciousness, its power and thirst for destruction was simply apocalyptic, and under its influence, and their own frustrated hatreds, the Necrontyr grew darker, their war-aims expanding to include the utter annihilation of the Old Ones and their slave-species, the Nightbringer and the others of its kind fuelling prejudices against those slave-species and gleefully reducing them in the minds of the Necrontyr to little more than unclean creatures to feed the angry god-like Nightbringer and its kind.
Necrons
Although the Necrontyr had many times experimented with uploading their minds into mechanical forms, a truly indestructible form now became possible with the development of living metals even more developed than those that came before. Although Old One propaganda, produced because of the fear of this immortality being offered to their slave-races, paints the transition as one of betrayal by the C'tan, this was the culmination of a civilization-wide change over a generation. Although the Necrontyr - now Necrons - always planned to rebuild their species in organic form, they only recently accomplished this with the help of Menelmacar
Inertialess Drive
With the advent of technologies capable of travelling the universe at speed, folding space or exceeding the speed of light, the Necrontyr were re-united, more C'tan were awakened, and the war, at last, renewed.
Atrocity and Civil War
Over millions of years of furious war between the Necrons and the Old Ones, the C'tan came to dominate Necrontyr culture and war-aims became increasingly subservient to their alien hungers. An overwhelming majority of Necrons sunk into insanity of one form or another, caring nothing for their original culture beyond surface appearance and the war that had so defined them.
In time, internecine warfare provoked between one C'tan and another entirely distracted them from the war. Many Necrons turned from this and the civil wars marked the descent of the Necrontyr from their traditional values into anarchy and mayhem. The C'tan fed upon entire worlds, exterminated entire galaxies, and the evils of the C'tan and Necrons now outstripped those of Old Ones at their worst.
Triumph and Disaster
Deprived of their strategic advantage of speed, the Old Ones, now being annihilated by the C'tan and Necrons, sought to create ever more lethal slave-species, drawing more and more heavily on the Warp to counter their enemies. For a time, even, this seemed to work. The few remaining C'tan called a meeting and began a Great Work to forever destroy the Warp, in order to prevail over these new weapons.
Then, in one instant, the Old Ones' civilisation was destroyed, as the Warp, stirred by the backwash of these countless weapon-species, overflowed and overloaded their constructs and works. The Necrons and the C'tan barely had to concern themselves with this. The Old Ones, in attempting to compete, had destroyed themselves.
But the damage did not stop there, destroying utterly the slave-races the C'tan covetted so as playthings, and swarming across the biological life forms of the Local Group, leaving only a few hardy races to survive.
The Long Sleep
Without their playthings, the C'tan called a general retreat into stasis, to wait out the millions of years until they could once again enjoy their hard-won supremacy.
The Future Past
Waking again, the Necrontyr found a universe little changed, soon to be overwhelmed by the warp. Deciding this was not tolerable, the only woken C'tan of that era enacted a variant plan, and modified the Great Work to shift the entire culture and its works into another universe
This Universe
The Necrons of this Universe remained quiescent for a time, while Mephet'ran, the active C'tan, learnt more of their new surroundings. Long-dead protocols were triggered however, by the Tomb-Worlds on which the Necrons had slept, slowly altering the mind-states stored within the Necrontyr to what they had been before conversion, a protocol unknown even to the C'tan, implanted deep within the machine-intelligences that served them; the unquestionable neutering of the Warp and the remaining works of the Old Ones triggering the conditions for the Necrontyr to return to the long-forgotten state of peace.
Mephet'ran was unaware of this, and perhaps fortunately for him, concluded that a new universe dictated new ideas.
Tolerated by the Necrons, acutely aware of the blood on their own talons, incorporating biological insights from both universes, a new generation of biological Necrontyr-forms were created. Some existing Necrons transferred their minds back into organic form, while others were new-grown children of a new universe.
The massive horror of their deeds as Necrons affects many modern Necrontyr deeply, adding a new layer of morbidity to their character, but such things are not discussed with outsiders, a private and historical matter that informs many of their actions. Despite their repentance, the heights of their power still affects modern Necrontyr culture; the vast majority are determined that the only way to truly atone for their misdeeds is to counteract them with equivalent deeds of a more moral nature. Many seek to return, ultimately, to their home universe with overwhelming force and restore order there, and save the few remaining Old One slave-races from themselves.
Culture
Necrontyr culture is rich, ancient and austere in some ways, yet also self-indulgent in the extreme. Its unique legacy contains such strange entitlements as The Right of Proclamation, or in Necrontyr, Irenasta. This is an ancient custom from pre-FTL times, whereby isolated Necrontyr would be required to resolve issues, potentially thousands of years out of contact with others. This meant that such authority initially only granted to starship captains but then travellers in general included the ability to represent the Necrontyr and their government to alien cultures. When speaking with Irenasta any Necrontyr (or rather, Citizen of The Ctan) of adult age is invested with the full authority of their people to represent them as, in human terms, a full ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary. This right has never been enacted in modern times.
Burial
The Necrontyr value the remains of their dead highly. Since time immemorial it has been their custom to extract the carbon of the bodies of the dead and compress it into diamonds, or other gemstones (sapphires, the colour of blood, for those who have been killed in battle, and other special meanings). Such stones are invisibly and indelibly inscribed throughout their lattice with the biography of the individual they are from. These are held in great reliquaries on ancient Tomb Worlds, and are cut to be worn as jewellery by the descendants of the Necrontyr concerned. They are always returned.
Even the most hated enemies are considered worthy of a burial, though in this case only their bones are preserved, in great mortuary structures known as 'Tombs of the Lost.' It is in these places that Necrontyr memorialise the courage, folly or villainy of their enemies.
Marriage and Reproduction
Necrontyr, on the whole, are either monogamous or 'open' where two individuals share a primary partner but may take others, however, what is primarily alien to Necrontyr is the notion of 'casual' relationship. This taboo is deeply seated and is as a result of the importance of monitoring and correcting the many genetic conditions caused on Naogeddon. Similarly, Necrontyr attach extreme importance to correctly identifying parents.
Orthodox Necrontyr tradition holds roles for both male and female homosexual couples in extended families, although their technology allows for both pairings to produce offspring. Necrontyr hold no prejudices regarding intimate relations with other species, including those who are not humanoid, and are capable of genetically engineering offspring to incorporate genetic traits of alien parents (but these children are wholly Necrontyr or members of the other race, genetics are approximated to incorporate those traits that can be, not hybridised).
Tradition dictates heavily in favour of planned parenthood among Necrontyr, with a period of underground seclusion for both parents beginning before intended pregnancy, and continuing for the mother between conception and birth, to protect children before birth. Similarly, much of early childhood is spent in indoors, with a ceremony around the third year (human equivalent 5) of an individual first going outdoors (Going Forth by Night) and at five (human equiv. 8) of first braving the sun (Going Forth by Day) usually at dawn of the regional winter solstice. For this reason it is typical for groups of young families to live together. Even in circumstances where these limitations are no longer required, the tradition of pregnancy seclusion and presenting one's children in defiance of the Sun continue.
Dining and Hospitality
Like many human cultures in harsh conditions, Necrontyr stress the importance of hospitality; this tradition does not wholly persist today, but The Ctan, as a result. The Staff of Light, the weapon and badge of office of Necron Lords and other prominent persons, has evolved from a traditional travelling staff offered to departing guests to help them on their journey (via the cultural institution of Blade Plays).
Necrontyr cuisine is of course quite diverse, but in human food they have a strong preference for various nuts and liver. Necrontyr always prefer dark chocolate, and find coffee intolerable. It is customary for Necrontyr to eat with others, and only in rare circumstances will they eat alone. Utensils are usually limited to a form of knife that also doubles as a defensive weapon; with the vast majority of Necrontyr foods eaten with fingers, or from cups. However, when in another culture, they tend to adopt the prevalent local customs with ease.
Architecture and Art
Necron architecture tends toward the imposing, and they build primarily in stone and metal. Their living metals are preferred for this. Necrontyr structures are typified by sloping walls with few openings, and flat roofs, save the various monumental pyramids and ziggurats which may have more elaborate forms. Necrontyr also build extensively deep underground.
Biology
As a race coming from a near-dead world that was dying even when they first learnt to use fire, the Biological inheritance of the Necrontyr is unusual. Never content with the weak biological legacy of their species, historically Necrontyr have favoured cybernetics to compensate for its failings, but there are many adaptations the entire species has added to its genetic heritage.
Natural Biology
Blood and Metabolism
Despite being humanoids, the organic Necrontyr are fundamentally alien, from a 'genetic' level upwards. The most obvious difference is their wide-spectrum hemocyanin based blood. The complex-hemocyanin form that makes up necrontyr blood is mildly immunotheraputic, a trait selected for in Naogeddon's carcinogenic biosphere, resulting in the predominance of this oxygen carrying fluid over more efficient iron-based carriers such as hemoglobin. Although they have blood cells, these are ancillary oxygen carriers to the combination-hemocyanin blood plasma. As their blood is considerably more viscous than comparable humanoids, the Necrontyr heart is considerably larger and more powerful than that of humans, though due to the oxygen density of their home atmosphere, their lungs are considerably more compact. Due to the nature of their blood, the necrontyr metabolism consumes considerably more energy than that of comparable humanoids, and their ideal body temperature is considerably higher, resulting in skin that is comparatively warm to the touch. Unfortunately, this has also generally meant that their aging process is considerably quicker than that of humans, reducing their individual lifespan, even outside of their perilous home environment, resulting (originally) in early deaths due to these adaptations.
Respiratory System
The basic respiratory system of the Necrontyr has been entirely replaced and only exists as inactivated 'legacy' protein-sequences in their genetic code. Originally they used a form of membranous structure inside their bodies most akin to 'book lungs' of terran arachnids. This however was a limitation on activity, lifespan, survival outside high oxygen atmospheres, and was prone to complex hemmorhagic damage if punctured or subjected to physical trauma: short period de-pressurisation that would be essentially harmless to a human was instantly and agonisingly fatal to early Necrontyr.
Notably, the Necrontyr respiratory passage is entirely separate from the digestive passage, it is was not originally possible for a Necrontyr to breathe though their mouth. While this does render them vulnerable to some problems, it is consequently impossible for a Necrontyr to choke on food. Their olfaction is not provided by the nose but by the tongue, although later genetic alteration allowed detailed information to be gleaned from inhaled air.
Digestive System
Due to the limited biodiversity of Naogeddon, Necrontyr have limited ability to taste, and favour extremes of taste that are typically outlandishly strong. In the same way the tongue also contains olfactory cells, further reducing the range of available taste as parts of the organ are adapted to perform other functions. The Necrontyr tongue is considerably less flexible than its human equivalent, but marginally longer. Because of the dessication of much of their homeworld, and the acidity of its seas, their water retention capacity is considerable, with no direct equivalent to urination. Harmful chemicals were originally expelled in solution by the exocrine glands.
Homeostasis
Necrontyr are essentially endothermic, and regulate their temperature in a number of ways. Their somewhat willowy statue is an adaptation to ensure high heat intake, and while they possess exocrine glands for producing perspiration, they rarely encounter situations where they need to thanks to their high internal temperature. Necrontyr are extremely vulnerable to cold environments, and simply enact technological solutions to these.
Skin
Naturally, Necrontyr skin was very vulnerable to the effects of their star, and only tool use and nocturnal lifestyle protected early Necrontyr from extinction due to this vulnerability. Natural selection increased its resistance but nonetheless, it has always been a liability. Surprisingly, it is not something that has a comprehensive genetically altered solution.
Genofixed Adaptations
Many other adaptations exist, with greater or lesser uptake; the following details are only some of those that are both in current use and universal; which is to say that every Necrontyr currently born possesses them.
Blood and Metabolism
Because of issues with atmospheric pressure, the Necrontyr found their original clotting mechanism insufficient, and like their respiratory system, extensively altered it. Cell-fragments akin to platelets still exist, they are regulated by a series of anticoagulant glands in the brain, intended to limit the effects of decompression sickness.
Respiratory System
Perhaps the least visible and most radical artificial genetic-fix of the Necrontyr, and one of the earliest to be adapted by the whole species that is still be part of their genetic makeup, is a wholly re-designed lung system, switching what was originally a rather human-like structure for six inter-dependant but redundant faveolar lungs, whose air-flow is regulated through one another by ancillary organs to allow vastly improved oxygen-extraction, permitting normal activity in low-pressure and low-oxygen atmospheres. The six-chambered air-circulation system allows a multi-stage respiration that means that between four to six breaths pass between air being inhaled to the same air being exhaled. Necrontyr have a conscious override on these mechanisms in the same way humans do, but to a higher degree, and can 'shut down' one or two lungs with no ill effects, should they become damaged. These structures surround the heart three-to-a-side and contain an internal pressure, divided off by muscular walls.
Associated with this system is an organ around the air intake tract that acts to sense toxic atmospheres, intrusive fluids, and foreign objects and vacuum sealing a sphincter within it, allowing a Respiratory Bypass Effect, closing the lungs into an internal system and automatically inducing anaerobic respiration in many muscles. This gives a natural, if short-lived, internal air system allowing the Necrontyr to seek out a technological solution to whatever problem they encounter. A direct nervous pathway autonomously triggers a neurotransmitter release in the brain leading to a 'think-fight-flee' response.
Neurological Systems
The centrepiece of the whole body, the Necrontyr brain is also one of the most modified parts. Necrontyr modification is so deep that it affects such basics as danger response; while simultaneously preparing the body for action, danger-response increases conscious brain activity and induces heightened awareness, equipping Necrontyr to undertake a technological response to a problem that scares them as much as to fight or flee from it.
Drug Glands
A holdover from earlier necrontyr bio-engineering, these were originally intended for synthesising painkillers, though implanted Nerve Regulators serve better in this role now (Although some enjoy soporific effects, and use them as such if required). Modern uses include various forms of recreational drugs, coagulants, cognitive enhancers, relaxants and aphrodisiacs. As well as the bloodstream, the modern placements of these exocrine glands are able to deliver via saliva and other bodily fluids. Typically, these glands are organic augmented with implants, or fully artificial. Only a limited control is possible without a cybernetic implant to allow detailed molecular synthesis, but nonetheless, these glands are able to produce over seventeen thousand different molecular combinations of complex organic chemicals on 'instinct' alone. Learning to use even a fraction of these without an implant is difficult at best, as although they are voluntary, the biological trigger commands are a complex series of ternary trigger-pulses to enact a 'programmed' response, and require something of a meditative state.
Genetics and Cell Biology The details of Necrontyr Genetics (Not to be called DNA, as the nucleobases in Necrontyr genetics are different) are a closely guarded secret, but some of the more remarkable artificial adaptations of Necrontyr genetics and biochemistry include:
Anti-Mutagen Cells
Necrontyr bones contain specialist cells generating virus-like primitives, these are intended to replicate the default code throughout the body (excepting other anti-mutagen cells and gametes, which lack the relevant receptors in their membranes) endlessly, in the same way a virus hijacks a cell, these complicated primitives replicate the correct genetic code throughout the body to terminate cancerous growths. This system is not flawless, and in high radiation environment often requires analysis regularly, as any cancer within such a cell is instantly and dangerously metastasing, spreading throughout the body using this mechanism. Rogue Anti-Mutagen cells can be physically terminated by micro-surgery, and uncorrupted ones then heal the damage caused. Most Necrontyr today do not possess active anti-mutagen cells, but can release a chemical to mature the inactive anti-mutagen cells within hours if necessary.
A more important use of these cells is that a particularly created virus can alter them, allowing easy genetic updates. Often Genetic Alteration Units are also implanted, allowing an individual to update their own genetics as required.
Prionocytes
A deliberate modification of every cell (except gametes, skin cells and various others to avoid accidental infection) in the body is intended to provide a retribution against any aliens who would consume Necrontyr flesh, these organelles break down into a wide variety of prions, intended to affect a broad spectrum of species (humans, and species that can breed with humans, are a recent addition) and induce such effects as chronic wasting, absolute insomnia, nervous degeneration, and worse depending on affected species. This morbid and vengeful genetic alteration was developed during the War to savage carnivorous Old One slave species, allowing even fallen Necrontyr to slay the enemy, nonethless where possible it is maintained.