So, the Old Ones conquer the entire galaxy but get fucked by Gods and die. Then the Eldar conquer the entire galaxy, but then they fuck until they create a God, and die. Then humans conquer the entire galaxy but get raped by robots and sent back to the Stone Age. Then humanity comes back again but before they finish conquering the galaxy they get fucked by a God that convinces half their army to turn and rape them. I sense a recurring theme.
All I'm getting from that is that humans are too stubborn to just die off like the previous two empires. Chaos wiped out the old ones without an issue. Chaos nearly wiped out the eldar and even after millenia they're still doing the equivalent of crying in the shower after Slanesh molested their souls. Humanity didn't even bother waiting for chaos, we fucked ourselves with robots, recovered, THEN got fucked by chaos, recovered again and now chaos is trying to fuck us again, but can't seem to manage it no matter how hard it tries. And that's considering the imperium is technologically and culturally crippled. "Paralyzed from the nose down" levels of crippled. If the big E were to come back and get it up and running again, pretty much everyone in the galaxy, god or otherwise, would be fucked instead. Except maybe the orks, who'd be having a blast.
15:00 Another interpretation I have about the tyranids, taken in part from the Imperial Fists book, _Space Marine_, and added to what you proposed, is that the old ones may have seeded them as a sort of fail-safe. In that book a tyranid attempts to communicate with the Marines, being a first contact situation, and it describes their mission as something good and necessary, which the humans should be overjoyed to see -- to assimilate psychically attuned races, to destroy and calm the daemonic forces who prey upon them from the warp, and thereby turn the warp back into a less chaotic state -- because, as it's been described to me, when the old ones inhabited it the warp had been rather tranquil, like a paradise pre- "war in heaven" era. This is from the school of lore I'd subscribe to, at least. Maybe, though it's just a thought, the tyranid's "usefulness" is to be something like a cleanup crew in the event of catastrophic failure, deaths, and/or loss of the war, that beacon being the signal to then allow the galaxy to start over from scratch; or perhaps even let any rare, surviving old ones return to their previous way of existence. Could be? If indeed that's how they originally came about, as more than just a random, outside force of nature?
given the way the nids collect and store biomass/dna they could in theory also be used to reseed any races they absorbed basically wipe the slate clean and start over with a fresh batch birthed from the hive fleets
“Oh, I should be happy to be melted by bio acid, eaten alive by microscopic beetles, perhaps even get my spinal cord torn out by razor sharp teeth??? You and I have a different interpretation of good things, bug boy!” I never like that way of thinking, it just assumes that everyone is on the same page, which is just ignorant to think by anything.
@@omegawilliam95s36 This theory Just again shows the old ones are a stupid Race. Another one to throw on the pile of „civilization that would realistically never make it“
I like the theory of them having more of a purpose and not just being the bugs that may have conquered every other galaxy and now are about to finish off life in ours.
There's also a theory that the Tyranids were created by a C'Tan called the Outsider as a finally "screw you" to the galaxy. However I prefer the idea that the Old Ones created the Tyranids as a sort of cleansing agent, clearing the galaxy to render it fit for a renewed era of peaceful seeding by the surviving Old Ones...just like old times :)
+Lee Jenkins The problem I find with this theory is the fact that if the old ones did indeed create them, then why are they avoiding the Necrons? i would imagine the old ones would have made them at least willing to combat there ancient enemy.
+DoomDummy yes, that's my biggest issue with it too. If you're principle nemesis is made of living metal with no psychic imprint, then why create something which is attracted to psychic footprints and only wants organic matter?!
+DoomDummy I can come up with two reasons: First both the C'Tan and Necrons have an interest in sentient species, former as food, latter as potential new organic bodies. So ridding the whole galaxy of life, without waking them is quite the finger i guess. Imagine: the majority of the Necrons finally wakes up, tons are beyond repair, decay has become a real threat and all thats left in the galaxy are rocks. Not just planets rid of sentient life as probably after the War in Heaven, this time around there is nothing left. Can the Necrons take another sleep like that? One even longer than that? And the Old Ones are known to take their time, so the time needed doesnt appear as ridiculous as it normally would. As for the second reason: If you are going to eat everything in the galaxy and destroy a enemy you cant eat in what order will you go about it? By eating the Tyranids dont just grow in number, they also gain genetical information, considering the Old Ones engineered races to fight the Necrons, wouldnt it be a good idea to gather any gene info that might have survived all that time? Also whatever happened to the races mutation wise might prove useful too. To me this comes down to the question what is the better choice: Facing the mostly dormant Necrons with a weaker force while facing other threats, or taking the risk of the Necrons awakening to an uncertain degree and taking them on while your forces are at their strongest concerning numbers and gene info without facing other threats. I would go for the latter, but thats maybe just me. So, yeah thats what i can come up with right now^^
+Leeroy Johnson Those are some good points. However, if my memory serves me correct, the Necrons went to sleep AFTER breaking the old ones. The old ones really had no way to predict that the Necrons would turn on the C'tan, then go to sleep. So i do not think they would have had the foresight to develop a species to come and wipe the life out 60 million years later when the Necrons were sleeping.
Memory serves you right, although it was never mentioned that ALL Old Ones were dead, so maybe a little revenge from pissed survivors? Although i have to admit that this is grasping at straws, On the other hand the Tyranids might have not travelled between galaxys, but were a weapon deemed to radical to use by the Old Ones, thus "stored" outside the Galaxy. Basically its more likely Old Ones and Tyranids have no connection, they just happen to have all traits it would take to restore the galaxy into a Old One friendly habitat.
I really want to see a Warhammer 40k first person shooter where you play as the Tau empire and your character selection is a Tau firewarrior, a Kroot carnivore, a Vespid scientist, and another character. (im open to suggestions) It would play like Halo complete with optional vehicles only you have a weapon wheel. Each of the characters has his or her own reasons for fighting. The Tau firewarrior he fights for the greater good, the Kroot carnivore he’s out for revenge on an Imperial inquisitor, and the Vespid scientist she is motivated by her desire to study the enemy.
Theory: The Tyranids are an evolution of the Enslavers. This would explain a lot about their abundance, their unique psychic abilities (Shadow in the warp and Synapse) and their pull towards signs of intelligent life in order to absorb all life on the planets they encounter, particularly in their pull towards signs of the Old Ones. Edit: With no more intelligent life to consume within a large radius and the population of Enslavers reaching critical mass, its not too much of a leap to assume that a lot of them would have turned on eachother forcing a huge evolutionary pressure that lead to an organism that consumes all that it comes into contact with. We also know that some hive fleets compete for resources like any other organism, to some extent, even with eachother and the "Shadow in the Warp" would have provided a huge advantage to the newly evolved Tyranids against their Enslaver brethren. The reason Enslavers and Tyranids were very rare in our galaxy until recently would be that having consumed all life the Enslavers would have migrated out to new pastures and the few that remained would have been defective, wandering individuals with no guiding purpose.
I think the term "cold blooded wisdom" could mean that they were somewhat beyond the emotions of most races/species, making decisions based on what's good for a species instead of individual needs. I personally imagine that the Old Ones were also beyond standard mortal bodies and could adopt just about any form to communicate with the younger races.
I think Arch may be correlating the 40k/pre 40k Old Ones with the Warhammer FB "Cold Ones" (Lizardmen) also said to be the 1st children of the Old Ones. As the first they were likely made in their own image
I think when it says the Tyranids found when they were looking for, I think it means food. While they were wandering through the empty wastes between galaxies, a few hive-fleets starved to death and died. Therefore I think it's safe to assume that the remaining hive-fleets were desperate and starving. One of the main theories behind the Tyranids is that either they completely devoured all the biomass where they originally came from, or something even more terrifying forced them to flee to somewhere else.
Dude, awesome video. Also, I have to mention, its relieving to see a video that doesn't go into the crazy notion that the Old Ones created Humans (The Enslaver Plague happened 60 MYA, so "humans" were still rodents which spawned almost ALL mammals on Earth).
The new Necron codex seems to rewrite quite a lot of this. Basics are that Necrontyr waged a war against the Old Ones because they desired their secret to immortality. Unable to win this war, they accepted a bargain from the star gods C'Tan that they would give their flesh bodies up for immortal bodies of metal and in exchange agreed to fight for the C'Tan to defeat the Old Ones. They were victorious over the Old Ones only to realize that the C'Tan had tricked them. They then waged war against the C'Tan who were weakened from the great was with the Old Ones. The Necrons killed them too, enslaving the shards of their old forms. Now weakened by two massive wars they went into their 60 million year slumber. I'm no expert on 40K, I just thought I'd thrown this in
Enslaver infestation tactics seems suspiciously similar to the Tyranid one... So either the two species are related or the good old tentacle dinosaurs gobbled a few enslavers back in the day on top of apparently being immune their influence
In the new Necron Fluff, the Enslaver plague doesn't appear. The Silent King just kinda ordered them that it was time for to go to bed. The silent King is a enormous idiot, in my point of view, equal to Abbadon. Problem: My own race is fighting itself and I'm losing control. Solution: Attack an incredible powerful and functionally immortal race. Problem: My race is quickly going extinct because were fighting an incredible powerful and functionally immortal race. Solution: Transform my entire race into robots at the mercy of alien gods and under my absolute control. Problem: My race has it's life energy eaten by alien gods. Solution: Attack the gods, divide them into pieces and keep them as weapons. Problem, My enemies are defeated, my race is broken but functional and I have basically control over them, and through them the galaxy. Solution. Give all of my race still able to somewhat think freedom from my absolute control. But not before telling them to go to sleep for billions of years and then abandoning them while I travel into the void. Or, if the Enslaver plague happened Problem: My enemies have opened the gates of hell and all biological minds in the universe are in danger of being eaten. Solution: Dig in my race in for billions of years and abandon them while I travel into the void.
+Ruben Plooster The first three solutions there don't seem particularly stupid ones top the problems proposed, not to mention you are leaving out a lot of important context there. The solution for the civil war seemed more driven by pride and circumstance than simple stupidity. I mean how exactly is pledging the allegiance of your entire race to a bunch of immortal and nearly all powerful gods a bad idea when your race is facing extinction through war anyway. How exactly is shattering and enslaving the race of alien gods that ate your races life energy and souls a stupid move? And the Necrons going to sleep was done because they weren't just extremely weakened by war, but because they where still on the loosing end of conflicts with the old ones creations, particularly the Eldar. Heck in the old fluff the Ctan did the exact same thing with the old ones so why is the idea of a war weary and nearly broken race of Necrons doing it dumb?
Declan Ellery The solution for the civil war wasn't as much to save the Necrontyr race but to keep the Triarch in power. And it wasn't the war in itself that's stupid, it was the target. And it wasn't so much that there was an alliance between the C'tan and the Necrontyr, rather enslavement for the vast majority of the Necrontyr by the C'tan. Attacking the alien gods wasn't a terrible idea, and keeping them around as slave themselves might seem like a good idea, if slaves never revolted. Retreating and rebuilding are quite valid plans for a losing force, that's still made up of respawning robots, is a far better idea than burying your entire race for untold billions of years leaving it to pure chance if any indeed awaken. And of course leaving your race dormant and defenseless to go muck around in the void isn't what I call clever. The Silent King is a perfect example of hubris, believing his race can only survive through his guidance but fumbles at key points.
Ruben Plooster In regards of targets, there wasn't really any other target available as far as we know, the nectrotyr and the old ones where the most powerful races around at the time. Not to mention the Necrotyr probably thought they actually could take on the Old ones, hubris is a factor here though it was likely a race thing rather than a Silent King thing. The Silent King didn't know they where going to be enslaved, he thought it would be an alliance, in fact that difference between what he believed and what actually happened was pretty crucial in the decision to revolt. They can't actually destroy the C'tan, they lack the means to do so, they can only shatter them into weaker, easier to manage but still very powerful shards. They usually just imprison C'tan but since the shards are so powerful they can be a very potent weapons hence the reason they sometimes take them out of their prisons and use them as slaves in combat, imprisoning is the primary goal here, enslaving isn't all that common. There's also likely a revenge factor in making the C'tan slaves, the whole you enslaved us so now we enslave you. Also simple retreating to a distance wasn't an option against the Eldar, they would simply hunt them down if they just retreated, they had webway travel after all so hiding was necessary. And given the Eldar's technology, very extraordinary measures had to be taken to hide the Necrons from the Eldar, hence the slumber. Now hubris was definitely a big factor in a few of these decisions, but there is a good deal of logic behind most of his decisions, its not just blind arrogance.
+Declan Ellery The war's only goal was to keep the Triarch and the Silent King in power. A strong social revolt or unifying ideology might have serve better for the empire. And if you strike an enemy while not certain of their power, you are indeed a fool in my eyes. The Silent King didn't know they were being enslaved by the C'tan, sure.. He knew that he would have the master control program that made him the absolute authority over the newly minted Necrons. He knew his entire race was about to be enslaved, he just thought it was enslaved to him. Yes, the means to destroy a C'tan are unknown, if possible. But keeping shards of gods you shattered around and using them on the battlefield might not be a smart thing to do. I would have buried it deep within some far of exo-planets. And not all the C'tan are shattered. There might yet be a reckoning. The C'tan and the Necrons invaded the Webway and with it, broke the old ones and at the moment of victory the Necrons fell upon the C'tan. Now the Necrons were greatly reduced in numbers and weakened, yes. But that doesn't explain why burying yourself for billions of years is a better idea. You still have the same spend force when you wake up, perhaps less because of unforeseen consequences. And no idea what's going on in the universe. Perhaps not blind arrogance, no, but certainly the arrogant logic that the Silent King's way was the best. And so I call him an idiot. For gambling his entire race in a hope for him to stay in power, not for failing.
Ruben Plooster "The war's only goal was to keep the Triarch and the Silent King in power." Except for the little detail where the civil wars where literally destroying the species, and before you go on about how a war with the old ones wouldn't do any better, I will reiterate that the Necrotyr though they could actually win the war, and the fact that civil wars tend to be more destructive than most. The Silent King genuinely believed that he was the best leader for the Nectons, which is likely how he justified the command protocols. However my argument was never that he didn't enslave his race (though he probably didn't see it that way), but rather that he didn't think they would be enslaved by the C'tan. There is arrogance in that belief yes, but not stupidity. The Silent King is not the one using the enslaved C'tan, pretty much as soon as they where beaten he left the rest of the Necron species. He just imprisoned them. The use of them as slaves is done by individual Necron lords and Overlords, and that's usually only in extreme circumstances, most of the shards spend their entire existence stuck in the prisons, the Necrons don't actually take them out veyr often. AN those that do are indeed probably playing with fire and being a bit stupid for the sake of arrogance or vengeance, they aren't the Silent King. The fact that the Necrons could use the webway is irrelevant in the Eldar chasing them, in fact it probably makes it even worse since the webway has set and defined entry and exits making it easy for the Eldar to hunt them down if they use the Webway. Remember by that point the eldar where in their apex and the Necrons severely weakened, they simply couldn't beat the Eldar in a fight and if they just ran the Eldar would follow, so they had to hide in the hopes that the Eldar wouldn't find them. And again the Eldar being Eldar they had to take extreme measures to do this, hence the sleep. That final move was a gamble, but it was a calculated gamble seen as the best possible solution given that there where so few others. And the Silent King made many mistakes, but they weren't a result of simple stupidity.
I remember the old short stories about the Necrontyr describing them as going into hibernation due to a "infestation", which we now know as the Enslaver Plagues, rather than defeat at the hands of the Old Ones. Then again, that was before they got turned into Tomb Kings in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! As for the whole "slow and cold intelligence" bit, I thought the statement was more figurative than literal, as beings above trite concepts like time and empathy. From the WFRP lore, their minds were proof against the blandishments of the Warp, which is feeling made manifest, so I figure their minds were simply that alien.
Finally found this video! Arch probably won't see this but, doesn't the new Enslavers MO sound like a kind of psychic Genestealer? Perhaps the Enslavers were a warp-based variant of the Tyranids, sounds like something the Old Ones would make.
The old necron army book I have stated that the necrons declared war on the old ones because they were jealous of them for living so long. At first they were winning but then the old ones got the upper hand and started kicking the necrontyr around. At this point the necrontyr discovered and contacted the C'tan, enlisting them to help fight the old ones. Which they did, at a price. the price being that the necrons would transfer their intelligences to robotic bodies rendering them immortal (something the necrons wanted) and giving up thier bioenergy or life energy to the C'tan (who were hungry and devoloped a taste for it).
A weird thought, the C'tan are in essence, living Dyson Spheres. So the energy from entire life spans of thousands of stars all contained in one form, goes a long way to explaining being able to destroy entire Star systems with little effort and even the Old Ones. Also I think the Enslavers are the Universes correction mechanism, they wipe all life from the galaxy? In other words attempting to reset the Balance of the Warp and Materium. So really they should be called Galactic Formatters, they wipe the drive clean, then later the natural order can reboot the system, shame about the Necrons and C'tan not being close to being "Living creatures" since them and the Old Ones were the reason shit got so messed up inb the first place.
Could someone please help me, this Channel is about some Norwegian guy talking about imaginary Universes for hours and it is really nothing more then wasted time. Now could someone please explain to me why I love this Channel so much?
I think the chaos warp wasn't too active due to the small number of intelligent lifeforms. Chaotic entities require the mental energies of living things, and during this time, there were not that many living things. However, with the deaths of old ones and the c'tun, chaotic entities grew off of these violent deaths, especially the c'tun's deaths. I theorize that the enslavers behaved in a manner similar to the c'tun, because the enslavers grew from the dead and living c'tuns' desires. So, I theorize the enslavers to be dead as, the entities that know about them are too few, and the c'tun are a dead race, thus sustaining their existance is impossible.
Maybe the Enslavers learnt their lesson after starving by the billions, trillions (billions of trillions?) and the survivors starting thinking much more long-term.
@arch Love your lore videos. They are well edited/prepared (no "blabla" padding) and more entertaining than lore videos by others (although they are good as well). I think your voice modulation and the quips liven things up quite well (e.g. comments on Tau :D). I'm also very impressed by your excellent English, considering you're a Norwegian. I'm absolutely looking forward to more 40k lore (and would love to see a video of you talking about the flaws of the Age of Sigmar reboot and Fantasy end times in detail) Two thumbs from Austria, a kindred land of freezing. :)
Some old written lore on enslavers (I can't quote it properly, I no longer have it physically) seemed to suggest to me that the best way to regard enslavers is simply as living organisms that had evolved in the immaterium just as physical life evolved in the physical realm. This is at odds with the lore you've stated in this video (i.e. that enslavers were born, like Chaos gods and daemons, from the reaction of the Immaterium to the emotions of physical beings), however, it is still a possibility given the rest of the lore you've stated (who knows, maybe the War in Heaven simply got them all riled up). They may have evolved further since the War in Heaven (and have become closer to true parasites in their activities, rather than simply killing all the life they rely on to survive). There may also be the possibility of other Immaterial life completely unrelated to "Chaos." Perhaps whole ecosystems that remained hidden, perhaps now all but wiped out by Chaos, who knows. Exciting thoughts.
They may simply knew about the tyranids and that is why they simply didn't run away. The beacon may have been built to summon them as a weapon they themselves didn't build.
defenetly. humans are such a younge race (ignoring the tau who are younger but already more advanced than humans) compared to every other major race in warhammer 40k. and the old ones top them all.
I haven't been following the new releases since 5th ed, so quick question to those of you in the know. Are those Necrons on the left there with the sword and shields available as models. They look awesome, I would love to get some.
I would assume the old ones figured out these Cathar/ Cathans Would be a threat to life on a much larger scale than necessary and calculated their demise. Makes sense to me.
Is it possible that the Old Ones made the Tyranids, saw how anti-all other life they were, thought "Oh no, that's not good. Get rid of them!" They then tossed them away in their infancy, not expecting to have to deal with them again. The Tyranids then hit a galaxy, got eating, got big, and then saw a flash that they recognised from their birth. They then returned to their home galaxy now bigger, hungier and more dangerous then the Old Ones would have wanted.
Prey 2006's final boss seems to share some aspects of the Old Ones. They planted life on many planets, creating species to harvest it later. Maybe they are a degenerated offspring of the Old Ones
So is it "C'tan" like "C-tan" because I hear Arch say it like "Ca-thaan" ? (Epic video, I know its an old one but found your channel recently and been on a binge lol)
few questions here...werent the necrons at war with oldies before they met the ctan? werent the ctans suck life energy instead of solar energy when they got their physical bodies?
I wonder if the tau were created to take on the enslavers, with there near zero presence in the warp and absence of psychers, would they be suseptible to the enslavers controll?
it does seem plausible that the old ones created tyranids but i prefer to think of them as extragalatic predators with no agenda beyond their next meal, somehow makes them scarier
it looks more like that the elnsavers started to fight between themselves for the food supply and separated on the way of it into two forms of war - the war for souls, which in turn what created Chaos Gods, which devourred all their opposing demons and the war for biological matter - which in turn what created tyrranids menace. Somehow these two branches of the same origin had part ways to do essentially the same thing in the matterium and in the immaterium. While the materium war clncluded into creation of collective mind, the war in immaterium concluded into cold war of individuals and those induviduals more or less feared their own fellow tyrranid brethen (who kept their psyonic powers and could devour demons by sheer numbers of troops) so the strong division between materium and immaterium was created (or maybe it was only Tzeench who created it, while two other retards were fighting between themselves)...
the fourth and official one is the old ones had a war with the Necron Tier and were on the verge of total victory. Then the Necron found a C-tan the deceiver who deceived the Necron tier by telling them they too had fought the old ones and lost. But in truth the C'tan had no idea what the old ones even were and the C'tan was still discovering new things with this physical body and wanted to try war. Once the C'tan began to help the Necron attack the ones the war took a desastrous turn for the old ones. It became extremely one sided old ones being on the losing side but they did have the web way they could flee to. Ploting countless strategies and ways to battle the Nacron and C'tan and that battle last a long time because the Necron C'tan could not enter the immaterium. That is until the invention of the Necron dolmen gates and the old ones got wiped out. Then the Necron turned on their star gods the C'tan and a great battle followed. Altho the Necron won, it came at such a heavy cost that the Eldars and the Kroks were now for the first time in their existence winning against the Necron and so the Necron decided to go into a great sleep and wait for their enemies to weaken. The Kroks quickly turned on each other and devolved into the Orks. But the Eldar stayed for a long time, 60 million years in fact but then they doomed themselves by creating Slanesh and the eye of terror and this is why the Necron have awakened to once more conquer the galaxy.
I'm a fan of the nid theory that they are running from a bigger predator. Also, millions upon millions vanish from the imperium of man everyday, but because astropathic choirs have the restrictions that they do, entire worlds can be in duress but no one hears about it.
I thought the necrontyr and the old ones where at war before the necrontyr fount the ctan, and that they only made a deal with it as a last resort as they where getting their asses kicked by the old ones
been a while since I've read 40k lore, but back then it very much came across that the Necron & c'tan were winning. the choice to sleep was to stop the war and thus stop the enslaver incursion. No sense in winning and ruling over a barren galaxy.... no snacks is bad.
Ego schism YES THIS... the necrons lost the first war before they met the C'tan but won the second time... that's the entire point of the war in heaven
Some issues, first and foremost, perhaps its just because you have to translate from Norwegian, but I believe its called the War in Heaven, not the War in the Heavens. Secondly, you kinda painted over the Necontyr's ascension into the Necrons. It is likely you are just saving it for a lore video, but regardless the Necrons and Eldar were the primary races involved in the War that we know about other than their overlords the C'tan and Old Ones. However, I really enjoyed you touching on the Enslavers, really wish they featured more prominently in modern lore than they do now.
Isaac Sorrels well in 40k lore, I believe, all religions have a basis in "truth". The Warp Disturbances caused by the Old Ones might have planted the idea of a " War in Heaven" into some primitive human nightmares.
+sciencemile Nice derailing with a silly point, first off its Ka Tan basically, and secondly all religions in 40k were either inspired by big daddy Emps or Chaos, usually the gods prophets spoke of were just aspects of the Chaos Gods that their crazy psyker asses saw in "visions". As its basically said most people primitives consider shamans and or "blessed" people are usually somewhat psychic.
Kyle Vidauri Not always Gods, not always Chaos Gods, anyways. The C'tan buried on Mars is responsible for the "visions" of technology and science, according to one of the Horus Heresy books. There's no reason why those religions wouldn't get "inspiration" from other great forces of power besides The Emperor or the Chaos Gods.
Little disappointed in this - seems to have missed out the entire rivalry and wars between the Necronytr and the Old Ones that easily predated the first contact with the C'Tan. Necronytr were a sickly and short lived race who, upon finding the Old Ones, grew jealous of their longevity and mastery of space travel (the Necronytr being limited to sub warp travel). The Necronytr leaders launch a war against the Old Ones but are easily beaten back. A second war is then launched (at leat in part to unify the already splintering Necronytr empire), the war similarly unsuccessfully and it's at this point that the C'Tan show up, offering the Necronytr the gift of immortality and victory over the hated Old Ones. The price (unknown at the time) of bio transference into the shiny metal bodies was their souls, upon which the C'Tan fed happily. Wouldn't have taken much to mention this and it would have given a much fuller picture to an otherwise excellent video
Correct. More specifically the Necrontyr actually begged and pleaded with the Old Ones to help them, to make them live longer and better lives. The Old Ones refused and the Necrontyr attacked them. The Old Ones where MASSIVELY ahead of the Necrontyr in technology and pushed them back to their own star system. After this defeat the Necrontyr grew to not only resent the Old Ones but ALL life in the universe. The summoning of the C'tan was actually the Necrontyrs attempt to weaponize the creature, to use it to destroy the Old Ones. Once the Deceiver tricked the Necrons into their bodies is when they marched out to attack the Old Ones and The War in Heaven began.
I have a theory that the old ones from 40k and fantasy are the same the old ones from 40k traveled to an alternate universe (fantasy) and tried to start over
+Warboss Sloth Pope Fuzy Is it crazy to think Fantasy just takes place sometime in the past when the emperor was still on the side lines? Or perhaps helping to keep Empire safe? Tho I know almost nothing bout Fantasy lore, quite the opposite for 40K
+Warboss Sloth Pope Fuzy Maybe the old ones made the Tyranids and deemed them to be perfect but failed cuz no individuality and stagnent without other life to consume. They create the hive mind harnessing the C'tan of wherever the tyranids came from. Decided to avoid the C'tan in our galaxy and this might explain why tyranids would be attracted to a familiar signal maybe angry that they were abbandoned or knowing where their masters were there was life to consume. I duno just an idea
+MrMLaidlaw so the general consenus is that fantasy and 40k are in the same universe? ive always thought they were seperate with similar ideas such as orcs/orks or elves/eldar.
I like the idea of the old ones creating the Tyrranid but i have a question: Although i makes sense to create an army of living weapons that can evolve at an excellerated rate to be able to adapt to new threats, they still need biomass to do this, specificly the biomass of their enemies, and the necrons, at the time of the war, no longer possessed corporeal form. So did the old ones create the Tyrranids to feast on the corpses of their own allies (Orks, Eldar etc)? Or is there another answer for this in the lore that i missed?
Hmm what if the tyranids were made by the old ones in another galaxy to defeat the chaos gods as well, not just the necrons? I think that if they basically eat everything in the galaxy and the only surviving things are just themselves, then there will be no more chaos gods, emotions and all that. Then the old ones could come back and basically have a clean slate, more or less, from which to reshape the galaxy as they see fit.
That theory don't work, if the tyranids were created back then, why does the silent king didn't know about them until recently? Without talking about the fact that tyranids are even worse than the C'tan in regard of how they treats life, they both see all living being as food, but C'tan keep them alive at least. Saying that it's possible because they conserve the DNA is stupid, how do they plan to brings them back considering that tyranids leave nothing but sterile rock behind them? Without talking about the fact that tyranids conserve DNA because they are constantly doing genetic manipulation upon themselves, wich is one of the taboo of the old ones (the one without wich the war in the heaven would never have happened btw). And that's fine to create species to make war, but I don't see the point if they kill each other as soon as they come across, It's possible that at the time the Orks and the Eldars were controlled to not fight each other, but how they do so with the tyranids? they can't be controlled in the same way because of the Hive Mind. And if the Hive Mind is truly the old ones, why the Eldars and the Orks aren't controlled by it? Why does they make it so it cast a shadow over the warp? it seems like a stupid thing to create because it probably cut off the webway. How do they manage to lose against the enslavers? the Hive Mind and the shadow of the warp seems to be an excellent way to fight them.
Yo dude can you do a video on the tyrants hive fleets with lore? And what happens if tyranids consume a chaos world complete with demons? Can you have chaos tyranids?
Tyranids have either no soul, or are constantly under the protection of the Hive Mind, so no chaos tyranids, if you want to see what happens when they fight each other, go look the battle of shadowbrinks. Basically, tyrannids can't eat deamons as they are psychics, and deamons can't corrupt tyranids, so tyranids initially ignored them (well, they won't do it anymore since they got attacked by them), and Chaos attacked them because they didn't liked to see no soul to corrupt, but because of the shadow in the warp wich make the deamons fade away, the tyranids's adaptability wich make Nurgle's disease almost useless and the alien ichor they have instead of blood, so no blood flowing for khorne, Chaos lose in the end.
40k has so much fun lore. If only the game and miniatures weren't so, let's say, mediocre at best. I mean GW was good 20 years ago, but they totally failed to go with the times. In many ways the Imperium is a good metaphor for GW. A behemoth stagnant, decadent and slowly dying over the ages.
i honestly have never read a codex, like i'm honestly kind of a light 40k fan or something, but wasn't they're one version of the lore that said the dudes the necrons evolved from lived on this world that was like too close to the sun, and they wanted to contact the ctan because they could control and consume the suns energy in a positive way?
I have two problems with the idea that the Old ones created nids to defeat necrons. First one, why nids intentionally avoid Necrons tomb world? And secondly, nids are depend on biomass yet Necrons and C´than are not the most juicy target. I mean that unless nids wont devour the whole galaxy before they attacked C´than they will be screwed.The only implication of "nids being created by Old ones" theory is that Old ones want whip a galaxy of whole life to destroyed Chaos gods..
They weren't meant to fight the necrons,they were meant to slow them down by devouring worlds in their path,robbing the c'tan of the worlds biomass and through that,the souls of its population
I realize me posting this is a bit of a necro(ntyr), but I find it much more likely that the 'nids were created as an _attempt_ to counter the Enslavers, or at the very least a sorta "bulwark" against them should they try headed off to another galaxy. The reason I find this more likely is that, sure, scorched earth tactics have their place, but if _anything_ will take a flamethrower (or.. in this case, giant angry insecto-reptilian anthill), it's the giant space wasps (I use this analogy mostly because of their nasty reproductive habits, considering that's how certain wasps reproduce), not the field mice.
Arch's expanded theory goes: the nectons were wiping out any and all life they came across, just like the tyranids do; however the tyranids keep a record of any genetic material they consume to use at a later date to create different tyranid strains. A race as advanced as the old one could likely use the genetic records to re-terraform the destroyed planets with their original life forms. Not an ideal solution, but if the c'tan were going to wipe out all the life anyway, its probably the best way to salvage something
maybe already said but didnt you switch the catan with the necrons i heard that the necrons started the war with the old ones and turned in their hour of defeat to the catan as an ultimate super weapon
For Tyrranids, didn"t they have a theory were the Outsider, the C'tan tricked by this troll of Cegorah to *EAT* the other C'tan pretty much like the Nightbringer and the Deceiver, go out of the galaxy and somehow become the Hive Mind of the adorable ond lovely space ant ?
the old ones creating the tyranids makes sense since all lore I've ever heard or read said the old ones made the Krorks who we think turned into the orks cause it is said they can turn anything into a weapon aren't technologically advanced and are nearly unending in number now both do describe the orks and tyranids but could it be that krorks were a hybrid of both that the old ones split in two or evolved two ways
well tyranids could also be a something of a killswitch since the c'tun need life to feed. if the tyranids are sucsessful there no life left and the c'tun starf/die of.
this whole 'ancien' thing remind of two thing : the anciens from stargate for obvious reason and the very recent race from planète potaufeu , because of the whole 'we creat over powered life form to protect ourself but we got fucked and our uber lifeform became a danger for the univers'
I'm curious about where Arch gets his pronunciation and terms for these things. Since the videos are in english, I assume that he's using english codexes, or, at least, working from english sources. My Necron Codex (the one from when they were a brand new faction) mentions a "War in Heaven", not a "war in the heavens". Likewise, the star gods are called C'tan, not C'thawn. The 40k lexicanum wiki seems to agree with me on these points. The spelling of "cavalerie" in place of "cavalry" in one of the recommended videos also stands out as odd. He's not like 15-year-old me who kept saying "tie-ran-ids" for at least a year simply because I'd never played against a tyranid player and learned the pronunciation first hand, so I'm wondering what's up with this.
That might explain the pronunciation of things (most of what I know about Norwegians speaking English is based on the first two seasons of Metalocalypse), but I don't think it explains the spelling differences. The consistency of spelling differences leads me to think that the English codexes he's working from use a special Norwegian style of English instead of the regular English spelling. This seems a bit too stupid to be true though.
I have only read about the enslavers in a few places like lexicanum and the roleplaying books. Can someone point me to a enslaver larvae source? I always just assumed their flesh died from lack of sustinace and their spirit returned to the warp to find a new host.
hey arch i know this is off topic but can u tell me what the hell is a Space hulk? i heard of them a few times and seen some stuff but dont know much about them other then orks and tryannids really like using them them in general.
+Lord Fireice Taken from the WH40k lexicanum (wiki for 40k) "A space hulk is a massive conglomeration of lost ships and wrecks fused together. They drift in and out of the warp through space and during the millenia the lost ships join together into one enormous body. Many times they are so huge that they have their own atmosphere and gravity. Since the hulks often exit and re-enter the warp seemingly at random, searching or traveling in them is dangerous to the extreme." Basically, they are the greatest travelling treasure troves in the galaxy, usually filled with old technology, orcs, tyranids and chaos deamons. Understandably, the imperium sends terminator squads looking through these. Funniest part is when orcs actually manage to pilot one of these things.
So, the Old Ones conquer the entire galaxy but get fucked by Gods and die. Then the Eldar conquer the entire galaxy, but then they fuck until they create a God, and die. Then humans conquer the entire galaxy but get raped by robots and sent back to the Stone Age. Then humanity comes back again but before they finish conquering the galaxy they get fucked by a God that convinces half their army to turn and rape them. I sense a recurring theme.
Aye, there does seem to be a definitive pattern here.
oh shit there is a pattern huh.
Don't fuck with Gods?
That humans are not so easy to fuck up like the old ones and eldar?
All I'm getting from that is that humans are too stubborn to just die off like the previous two empires. Chaos wiped out the old ones without an issue. Chaos nearly wiped out the eldar and even after millenia they're still doing the equivalent of crying in the shower after Slanesh molested their souls. Humanity didn't even bother waiting for chaos, we fucked ourselves with robots, recovered, THEN got fucked by chaos, recovered again and now chaos is trying to fuck us again, but can't seem to manage it no matter how hard it tries. And that's considering the imperium is technologically and culturally crippled. "Paralyzed from the nose down" levels of crippled. If the big E were to come back and get it up and running again, pretty much everyone in the galaxy, god or otherwise, would be fucked instead. Except maybe the orks, who'd be having a blast.
Necrons are so hardcore they play Pokemon with gods.
by that logic, Pokemon Trainers are so Hardcore they play Pokemon with Gods and Primordial Forces of Nature
Ever play Pokéthulhu?
God shard pokeballs!!!
@David Salt Gods of 1 planet and primordial forces of 1 planet, not ones capable of devouring stars.
Also known as playing pokemon
15:00 Another interpretation I have about the tyranids, taken in part from the Imperial Fists book, _Space Marine_, and added to what you proposed, is that the old ones may have seeded them as a sort of fail-safe. In that book a tyranid attempts to communicate with the Marines, being a first contact situation, and it describes their mission as something good and necessary, which the humans should be overjoyed to see -- to assimilate psychically attuned races, to destroy and calm the daemonic forces who prey upon them from the warp, and thereby turn the warp back into a less chaotic state -- because, as it's been described to me, when the old ones inhabited it the warp had been rather tranquil, like a paradise pre- "war in heaven" era.
This is from the school of lore I'd subscribe to, at least. Maybe, though it's just a thought, the tyranid's "usefulness" is to be something like a cleanup crew in the event of catastrophic failure, deaths, and/or loss of the war, that beacon being the signal to then allow the galaxy to start over from scratch; or perhaps even let any rare, surviving old ones return to their previous way of existence. Could be? If indeed that's how they originally came about, as more than just a random, outside force of nature?
given the way the nids collect and store biomass/dna they could in theory also be used to reseed any races they absorbed basically wipe the slate clean and start over with a fresh batch birthed from the hive fleets
@@Sarindanvelor I really like that theory.
“Oh, I should be happy to be melted by bio acid, eaten alive by microscopic beetles, perhaps even get my spinal cord torn out by razor sharp teeth??? You and I have a different interpretation of good things, bug boy!”
I never like that way of thinking, it just assumes that everyone is on the same page, which is just ignorant to think by anything.
@@omegawilliam95s36 This theory Just again shows the old ones are a stupid Race.
Another one to throw on the pile of „civilization that would realistically never make it“
I like the theory of them having more of a purpose and not just being the bugs that may have conquered every other galaxy and now are about to finish off life in ours.
There's also a theory that the Tyranids were created by a C'Tan called the Outsider as a finally "screw you" to the galaxy. However I prefer the idea that the Old Ones created the Tyranids as a sort of cleansing agent, clearing the galaxy to render it fit for a renewed era of peaceful seeding by the surviving Old Ones...just like old times :)
+Lee Jenkins The problem I find with this theory is the fact that if the old ones did indeed create them, then why are they avoiding the Necrons? i would imagine the old ones would have made them at least willing to combat there ancient enemy.
+DoomDummy yes, that's my biggest issue with it too. If you're principle nemesis is made of living metal with no psychic imprint, then why create something which is attracted to psychic footprints and only wants organic matter?!
+DoomDummy I can come up with two reasons: First both the C'Tan and Necrons have an interest in sentient species, former as food, latter as potential new organic bodies. So ridding the whole galaxy of life, without waking them is quite the finger i guess. Imagine: the majority of the Necrons finally wakes up, tons are beyond repair, decay has become a real threat and all thats left in the galaxy are rocks. Not just planets rid of sentient life as probably after the War in Heaven, this time around there is nothing left. Can the Necrons take another sleep like that? One even longer than that? And the Old Ones are known to take their time, so the time needed doesnt appear as ridiculous as it normally would.
As for the second reason: If you are going to eat everything in the galaxy and destroy a enemy you cant eat in what order will you go about it? By eating the Tyranids dont just grow in number, they also gain genetical information, considering the Old Ones engineered races to fight the Necrons, wouldnt it be a good idea to gather any gene info that might have survived all that time? Also whatever happened to the races mutation wise might prove useful too. To me this comes down to the question what is the better choice: Facing the mostly dormant Necrons with a weaker force while facing other threats, or taking the risk of the Necrons awakening to an uncertain degree and taking them on while your forces are at their strongest concerning numbers and gene info without facing other threats. I would go for the latter, but thats maybe just me.
So, yeah thats what i can come up with right now^^
+Leeroy Johnson Those are some good points. However, if my memory serves me correct, the Necrons went to sleep AFTER breaking the old ones. The old ones really had no way to predict that the Necrons would turn on the C'tan, then go to sleep. So i do not think they would have had the foresight to develop a species to come and wipe the life out 60 million years later when the Necrons were sleeping.
Memory serves you right, although it was never mentioned that ALL Old Ones were dead, so maybe a little revenge from pissed survivors? Although i have to admit that this is grasping at straws,
On the other hand the Tyranids might have not travelled between galaxys, but were a weapon deemed to radical to use by the Old Ones, thus "stored" outside the Galaxy.
Basically its more likely Old Ones and Tyranids have no connection, they just happen to have all traits it would take to restore the galaxy into a Old One friendly habitat.
I think I am falling in love with 40k
Trust me it just gets better and better
I can hardly blame you. The deeper you go, the more intricacy you find, the better it gets.
Wait for the Necrons, they are the best.
I really want to see a Warhammer 40k first person shooter where you play as the Tau empire and your character selection is a Tau firewarrior, a Kroot carnivore, a Vespid scientist, and another character. (im open to suggestions) It would play like Halo complete with optional vehicles only you have a weapon wheel. Each of the characters has his or her own reasons for fighting. The Tau firewarrior he fights for the greater good, the Kroot carnivore he’s out for revenge on an Imperial inquisitor, and the Vespid scientist she is motivated by her desire to study the enemy.
@Arch Warhammer; Google torture devices? As if my search history could look any better.
Theory: The Tyranids are an evolution of the Enslavers.
This would explain a lot about their abundance, their unique psychic abilities (Shadow in the warp and Synapse) and their pull towards signs of intelligent life in order to absorb all life on the planets they encounter, particularly in their pull towards signs of the Old Ones.
Edit: With no more intelligent life to consume within a large radius and the population of Enslavers reaching critical mass, its not too much of a leap to assume that a lot of them would have turned on eachother forcing a huge evolutionary pressure that lead to an organism that consumes all that it comes into contact with. We also know that some hive fleets compete for resources like any other organism, to some extent, even with eachother and the "Shadow in the Warp" would have provided a huge advantage to the newly evolved Tyranids against their Enslaver brethren.
The reason Enslavers and Tyranids were very rare in our galaxy until recently would be that having consumed all life the Enslavers would have migrated out to new pastures and the few that remained would have been defective, wandering individuals with no guiding purpose.
I always like the lore hints that the tyranid's are fleeing from something.
I think the term "cold blooded wisdom" could mean that they were somewhat beyond the emotions of most races/species, making decisions based on what's good for a species instead of individual needs. I personally imagine that the Old Ones were also beyond standard mortal bodies and could adopt just about any form to communicate with the younger races.
it is an oddly literal interpretation of that line, especially considering the more metaphorical abstractions that Arch usually makes.
iirc there ARE actual sources that refer to them as reptilian though
I think Arch may be correlating the 40k/pre 40k Old Ones with the Warhammer FB "Cold Ones" (Lizardmen) also said to be the 1st children of the Old Ones.
As the first they were likely made in their own image
Wow actually didn't know any lore about the enslaves before this. Agree with your gushing over 40k, its so rich its just incredible.
"and some were simply too stupid and stubborn to die" you've convinced me to start getting orks, Arch, I found that line fucking hilarious :)
I think when it says the Tyranids found when they were looking for, I think it means food. While they were wandering through the empty wastes between galaxies, a few hive-fleets starved to death and died. Therefore I think it's safe to assume that the remaining hive-fleets were desperate and starving. One of the main theories behind the Tyranids is that either they completely devoured all the biomass where they originally came from, or something even more terrifying forced them to flee to somewhere else.
the WAAAAAAGH is coming?
GIVE ME ALL THE DAKKA!
Slougun Restrictions only 3 dakka? you bring shame to orkish kind
Slougun Restrictions den you beat their eads in till you et the blitz back
DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA
Kees de Groot dis is du type of dakka i wants, you mights do well but be carefuls because i will beat you if you try me
+Jerec 12 Silence Xenos
Dude, awesome video. Also, I have to mention, its relieving to see a video that doesn't go into the crazy notion that the Old Ones created Humans (The Enslaver Plague happened 60 MYA, so "humans" were still rodents which spawned almost ALL mammals on Earth).
One of the few things that'd ever get me proper back into 40k is GW releasing an Old One's Army.
Necroooonnss! I've been waiting for this one. Excellent work Arch.
The new Necron codex seems to rewrite quite a lot of this. Basics are that Necrontyr waged a war against the Old Ones because they desired their secret to immortality. Unable to win this war, they accepted a bargain from the star gods C'Tan that they would give their flesh bodies up for immortal bodies of metal and in exchange agreed to fight for the C'Tan to defeat the Old Ones. They were victorious over the Old Ones only to realize that the C'Tan had tricked them. They then waged war against the C'Tan who were weakened from the great was with the Old Ones. The Necrons killed them too, enslaving the shards of their old forms. Now weakened by two massive wars they went into their 60 million year slumber.
I'm no expert on 40K, I just thought I'd thrown this in
Enslaver infestation tactics seems suspiciously similar to the Tyranid one... So either the two species are related or the good old tentacle dinosaurs gobbled a few enslavers back in the day on top of apparently being immune their influence
In the new Necron Fluff, the Enslaver plague doesn't appear. The Silent King just kinda ordered them that it was time for to go to bed.
The silent King is a enormous idiot, in my point of view, equal to Abbadon.
Problem: My own race is fighting itself and I'm losing control.
Solution: Attack an incredible powerful and functionally immortal race.
Problem: My race is quickly going extinct because were fighting an incredible powerful and functionally immortal race.
Solution: Transform my entire race into robots at the mercy of alien gods and under my absolute control.
Problem: My race has it's life energy eaten by alien gods.
Solution: Attack the gods, divide them into pieces and keep them as weapons.
Problem, My enemies are defeated, my race is broken but functional and I have basically control over them, and through them the galaxy.
Solution. Give all of my race still able to somewhat think freedom from my absolute control. But not before telling them to go to sleep for billions of years and then abandoning them while I travel into the void.
Or, if the Enslaver plague happened
Problem: My enemies have opened the gates of hell and all biological minds in the universe are in danger of being eaten.
Solution: Dig in my race in for billions of years and abandon them while I travel into the void.
+Ruben Plooster The first three solutions there don't seem particularly stupid ones top the problems proposed, not to mention you are leaving out a lot of important context there. The solution for the civil war seemed more driven by pride and circumstance than simple stupidity. I mean how exactly is pledging the allegiance of your entire race to a bunch of immortal and nearly all powerful gods a bad idea when your race is facing extinction through war anyway. How exactly is shattering and enslaving the race of alien gods that ate your races life energy and souls a stupid move?
And the Necrons going to sleep was done because they weren't just extremely weakened by war, but because they where still on the loosing end of conflicts with the old ones creations, particularly the Eldar. Heck in the old fluff the Ctan did the exact same thing with the old ones so why is the idea of a war weary and nearly broken race of Necrons doing it dumb?
Declan Ellery The solution for the civil war wasn't as much to save the Necrontyr race but to keep the Triarch in power. And it wasn't the war in itself that's stupid, it was the target.
And it wasn't so much that there was an alliance between the C'tan and the Necrontyr, rather enslavement for the vast majority of the Necrontyr by the C'tan.
Attacking the alien gods wasn't a terrible idea, and keeping them around as slave themselves might seem like a good idea, if slaves never revolted.
Retreating and rebuilding are quite valid plans for a losing force, that's still made up of respawning robots, is a far better idea than burying your entire race for untold billions of years leaving it to pure chance if any indeed awaken.
And of course leaving your race dormant and defenseless to go muck around in the void isn't what I call clever.
The Silent King is a perfect example of hubris, believing his race can only survive through his guidance but fumbles at key points.
Ruben Plooster In regards of targets, there wasn't really any other target available as far as we know, the nectrotyr and the old ones where the most powerful races around at the time. Not to mention the Necrotyr probably thought they actually could take on the Old ones, hubris is a factor here though it was likely a race thing rather than a Silent King thing.
The Silent King didn't know they where going to be enslaved, he thought it would be an alliance, in fact that difference between what he believed and what actually happened was pretty crucial in the decision to revolt.
They can't actually destroy the C'tan, they lack the means to do so, they can only shatter them into weaker, easier to manage but still very powerful shards. They usually just imprison C'tan but since the shards are so powerful they can be a very potent weapons hence the reason they sometimes take them out of their prisons and use them as slaves in combat, imprisoning is the primary goal here, enslaving isn't all that common. There's also likely a revenge factor in making the C'tan slaves, the whole you enslaved us so now we enslave you.
Also simple retreating to a distance wasn't an option against the Eldar, they would simply hunt them down if they just retreated, they had webway travel after all so hiding was necessary. And given the Eldar's technology, very extraordinary measures had to be taken to hide the Necrons from the Eldar, hence the slumber.
Now hubris was definitely a big factor in a few of these decisions, but there is a good deal of logic behind most of his decisions, its not just blind arrogance.
+Declan Ellery The war's only goal was to keep the Triarch and the Silent King in power. A strong social revolt or unifying ideology might have serve better for the empire. And if you strike an enemy while not certain of their power, you are indeed a fool in my eyes.
The Silent King didn't know they were being enslaved by the C'tan, sure.. He knew that he would have the master control program that made him the absolute authority over the newly minted Necrons. He knew his entire race was about to be enslaved, he just thought it was enslaved to him.
Yes, the means to destroy a C'tan are unknown, if possible. But keeping shards of gods you shattered around and using them on the battlefield might not be a smart thing to do. I would have buried it deep within some far of exo-planets.
And not all the C'tan are shattered. There might yet be a reckoning.
The C'tan and the Necrons invaded the Webway and with it, broke the old ones and at the moment of victory the Necrons fell upon the C'tan.
Now the Necrons were greatly reduced in numbers and weakened, yes. But that doesn't explain why burying yourself for billions of years is a better idea. You still have the same spend force when you wake up, perhaps less because of unforeseen consequences. And no idea what's going on in the universe.
Perhaps not blind arrogance, no, but certainly the arrogant logic that the Silent King's way was the best.
And so I call him an idiot. For gambling his entire race in a hope for him to stay in power, not for failing.
Ruben Plooster "The war's only goal was to keep the Triarch and the Silent King in power." Except for the little detail where the civil wars where literally destroying the species, and before you go on about how a war with the old ones wouldn't do any better, I will reiterate that the Necrotyr though they could actually win the war, and the fact that civil wars tend to be more destructive than most.
The Silent King genuinely believed that he was the best leader for the Nectons, which is likely how he justified the command protocols. However my argument was never that he didn't enslave his race (though he probably didn't see it that way), but rather that he didn't think they would be enslaved by the C'tan. There is arrogance in that belief yes, but not stupidity.
The Silent King is not the one using the enslaved C'tan, pretty much as soon as they where beaten he left the rest of the Necron species. He just imprisoned them. The use of them as slaves is done by individual Necron lords and Overlords, and that's usually only in extreme circumstances, most of the shards spend their entire existence stuck in the prisons, the Necrons don't actually take them out veyr often. AN those that do are indeed probably playing with fire and being a bit stupid for the sake of arrogance or vengeance, they aren't the Silent King.
The fact that the Necrons could use the webway is irrelevant in the Eldar chasing them, in fact it probably makes it even worse since the webway has set and defined entry and exits making it easy for the Eldar to hunt them down if they use the Webway. Remember by that point the eldar where in their apex and the Necrons severely weakened, they simply couldn't beat the Eldar in a fight and if they just ran the Eldar would follow, so they had to hide in the hopes that the Eldar wouldn't find them. And again the Eldar being Eldar they had to take extreme measures to do this, hence the sleep.
That final move was a gamble, but it was a calculated gamble seen as the best possible solution given that there where so few others. And the Silent King made many mistakes, but they weren't a result of simple stupidity.
Put at 1.25 for the normal speed.
+*CONOR McGLORIOUS* Thank you so much
+*CONOR McGLORIOUS* You changed my life! Thank you.
Thank you, much better! :D
lol I do it automatically when people talk in a slow manner.
Try putting it on 1.5 for half the video, then turn back to normal for the rest of the video. It's really fun!
I remember the old short stories about the Necrontyr describing them as going into hibernation due to a "infestation", which we now know as the Enslaver Plagues, rather than defeat at the hands of the Old Ones. Then again, that was before they got turned into Tomb Kings in SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!
As for the whole "slow and cold intelligence" bit, I thought the statement was more figurative than literal, as beings above trite concepts like time and empathy. From the WFRP lore, their minds were proof against the blandishments of the Warp, which is feeling made manifest, so I figure their minds were simply that alien.
Finally found this video! Arch probably won't see this but, doesn't the new Enslavers MO sound like a kind of psychic Genestealer? Perhaps the Enslavers were a warp-based variant of the Tyranids, sounds like something the Old Ones would make.
The old necron army book I have stated that the necrons declared war on the old ones because they were jealous of them for living so long. At first they were winning but then the old ones got the upper hand and started kicking the necrontyr around. At this point the necrontyr discovered and contacted the C'tan, enlisting them to help fight the old ones. Which they did, at a price. the price being that the necrons would transfer their intelligences to robotic bodies rendering them immortal (something the necrons wanted) and giving up thier bioenergy or life energy to the C'tan (who were hungry and devoloped a taste for it).
I once read somewhere that the Old ones where not one single race but more a collection of serveral civilations.
So, the Enslavers are the Flood? I'm loving 40k more and more!
Maybe the enslavers are still just as crazy, but the instability in the warp is disrupting their ability to detect life and control beings.
A weird thought, the C'tan are in essence, living Dyson Spheres.
So the energy from entire life spans of thousands of stars all contained in one form, goes a long way to explaining being able to destroy entire Star systems with little effort and even the Old Ones.
Also I think the Enslavers are the Universes correction mechanism, they wipe all life from the galaxy? In other words attempting to reset the Balance of the Warp and Materium.
So really they should be called Galactic Formatters, they wipe the drive clean, then later the natural order can reboot the system, shame about the Necrons and C'tan not being close to being "Living creatures" since them and the Old Ones were the reason shit got so messed up inb the first place.
Could someone please help me, this Channel is about some Norwegian guy talking about imaginary Universes for hours and it is really nothing more then wasted time. Now could someone please explain to me why I love this Channel so much?
It's the accent
+Simon Tusch cuz it's awesome a f
+Simon Tusch Truly, this can be only the fault of a tactital gen-CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED !
+Simon Tusch Well... If you want to.. no longer waste your time everything you have to do is dump your PC. It's the only way..
Norwegians have mind control powers
I always imagined The Old Ones as a race of Doctor Manhattans.
There are bigger numbers than billion
I 'can't believe I got 16 likes lol
"Much much much much, much more bigger" :) nailed it?
Googolplex
I think the chaos warp wasn't too active due to the small number of intelligent lifeforms. Chaotic entities require the mental energies of living things, and during this time, there were not that many living things.
However, with the deaths of old ones and the c'tun, chaotic entities grew off of these violent deaths, especially the c'tun's deaths. I theorize that the enslavers behaved in a manner similar to the c'tun, because the enslavers grew from the dead and living c'tuns' desires. So, I theorize the enslavers to be dead as, the entities that know about them are too few, and the c'tun are a dead race, thus sustaining their existance is impossible.
Another great lore video.
Maybe the Enslavers learnt their lesson after starving by the billions, trillions (billions of trillions?) and the survivors starting thinking much more long-term.
the slavers could be an interesting new faction
@arch Love your lore videos. They are well edited/prepared (no "blabla" padding) and more entertaining than lore videos by others (although they are good as well). I think your voice modulation and the quips liven things up quite well (e.g. comments on Tau :D). I'm also very impressed by your excellent English, considering you're a Norwegian. I'm absolutely looking forward to more 40k lore (and would love to see a video of you talking about the flaws of the Age of Sigmar reboot and Fantasy end times in detail) Two thumbs from Austria, a kindred land of freezing. :)
This is some high level lore
Maybe the old ones had the tyranids as a fail safe if they lost, like a way for killing the c’tan if the old ones were wiped out
Some old written lore on enslavers (I can't quote it properly, I no longer have it physically) seemed to suggest to me that the best way to regard enslavers is simply as living organisms that had evolved in the immaterium just as physical life evolved in the physical realm.
This is at odds with the lore you've stated in this video (i.e. that enslavers were born, like Chaos gods and daemons, from the reaction of the Immaterium to the emotions of physical beings), however, it is still a possibility given the rest of the lore you've stated (who knows, maybe the War in Heaven simply got them all riled up). They may have evolved further since the War in Heaven (and have become closer to true parasites in their activities, rather than simply killing all the life they rely on to survive).
There may also be the possibility of other Immaterial life completely unrelated to "Chaos." Perhaps whole ecosystems that remained hidden, perhaps now all but wiped out by Chaos, who knows. Exciting thoughts.
They may simply knew about the tyranids and that is why they simply didn't run away. The beacon may have been built to summon them as a weapon they themselves didn't build.
That would be one hell of a war the Old Ones vs the Imperium of Man
defenetly. humans are such a younge race (ignoring the tau who are younger but already more advanced than humans) compared to every other major race in warhammer 40k. and the old ones top them all.
I haven't been following the new releases since 5th ed, so quick question to those of you in the know. Are those Necrons on the left there with the sword and shields available as models. They look awesome, I would love to get some.
I would assume the old ones figured out these Cathar/ Cathans
Would be a threat to life on a much larger scale than necessary and calculated their demise. Makes sense to me.
Arch Warhammer is the God Emperor of Neckbeardkind.
Is it possible that the Old Ones made the Tyranids, saw how anti-all other life they were, thought "Oh no, that's not good. Get rid of them!" They then tossed them away in their infancy, not expecting to have to deal with them again. The Tyranids then hit a galaxy, got eating, got big, and then saw a flash that they recognised from their birth. They then returned to their home galaxy now bigger, hungier and more dangerous then the Old Ones would have wanted.
Prey 2006's final boss seems to share some aspects of the Old Ones. They planted life on many planets, creating species to harvest it later. Maybe they are a degenerated offspring of the Old Ones
yep Tyranids always go for a pretty pretty light, my Termagants is so easily distracted by laser pointer
Wow. Enslavers could compete with Tyranids in the factors of NOMing.
...
They cross dimensional cousins?
For some reason, I think that the Enslavers were defeated by the Ruinous Powers.
So is it "C'tan" like "C-tan" because I hear Arch say it like "Ca-thaan" ? (Epic video, I know its an old one but found your channel recently and been on a binge lol)
few questions here...werent the necrons at war with oldies before they met the ctan? werent the ctans suck life energy instead of solar energy when they got their physical bodies?
I know nothing about Warhammer, but this is pretty interesting. GG
I wonder if the tau were created to take on the enslavers, with there near zero presence in the warp and absence of psychers, would they be suseptible to the enslavers controll?
Could the tyranid be a counter to the enslavers since they are conected to the hive mine and by that way not easily controlled by the enslavers?
it does seem plausible that the old ones created tyranids but i prefer to think of them as extragalatic predators with no agenda beyond their next meal, somehow makes them scarier
it looks more like that the elnsavers started to fight between themselves for the food supply and separated on the way of it into two forms of war - the war for souls, which in turn what created Chaos Gods, which devourred all their opposing demons and the war for biological matter - which in turn what created tyrranids menace. Somehow these two branches of the same origin had part ways to do essentially the same thing in the matterium and in the immaterium. While the materium war clncluded into creation of collective mind, the war in immaterium concluded into cold war of individuals and those induviduals more or less feared their own fellow tyrranid brethen (who kept their psyonic powers and could devour demons by sheer numbers of troops) so the strong division between materium and immaterium was created (or maybe it was only Tzeench who created it, while two other retards were fighting between themselves)...
i remember that there were some fluff back many years ago that had some catachan meet enslavers who took over a psyker from an inquisitors retinue
the fourth and official one is the old ones had a war with the Necron Tier and were on the verge of total victory. Then the Necron found a C-tan the deceiver who deceived the Necron tier by telling them they too had fought the old ones and lost. But in truth the C'tan had no idea what the old ones even were and the C'tan was still discovering new things with this physical body and wanted to try war. Once the C'tan began to help the Necron attack the ones the war took a desastrous turn for the old ones. It became extremely one sided old ones being on the losing side but they did have the web way they could flee to. Ploting countless strategies and ways to battle the Nacron and C'tan and that battle last a long time because the Necron C'tan could not enter the immaterium. That is until the invention of the Necron dolmen gates and the old ones got wiped out. Then the Necron turned on their star gods the C'tan and a great battle followed. Altho the Necron won, it came at such a heavy cost that the Eldars and the Kroks were now for the first time in their existence winning against the Necron and so the Necron decided to go into a great sleep and wait for their enemies to weaken. The Kroks quickly turned on each other and devolved into the Orks. But the Eldar stayed for a long time, 60 million years in fact but then they doomed themselves by creating Slanesh and the eye of terror and this is why the Necron have awakened to once more conquer the galaxy.
Maybe Tyranids were made to combat enslavers. And that beacon Loyalists discovered, was merely alarm that Ensalvers came back to destroy life.
I'm a fan of the nid theory that they are running from a bigger predator. Also, millions upon millions vanish from the imperium of man everyday, but because astropathic choirs have the restrictions that they do, entire worlds can be in duress but no one hears about it.
I thought the necrontyr and the old ones where at war before the necrontyr fount the ctan, and that they only made a deal with it as a last resort as they where getting their asses kicked by the old ones
been a while since I've read 40k lore, but back then it very much came across that the Necron & c'tan were winning. the choice to sleep was to stop the war and thus stop the enslaver incursion. No sense in winning and ruling over a barren galaxy.... no snacks is bad.
Ego schism YES THIS...
the necrons lost the first war before they met the C'tan but won the second time... that's the entire point of the war in heaven
Cheers, Arch.
Some issues, first and foremost, perhaps its just because you have to translate from Norwegian, but I believe its called the War in Heaven, not the War in the Heavens. Secondly, you kinda painted over the Necontyr's ascension into the Necrons. It is likely you are just saving it for a lore video, but regardless the Necrons and Eldar were the primary races involved in the War that we know about other than their overlords the C'tan and Old Ones. However, I really enjoyed you touching on the Enslavers, really wish they featured more prominently in modern lore than they do now.
+Kyle Vidauri I might also be wrong, but also since it's called " The War in Heaven" , that C'tan should be pronounced See-tan, or Satan.
+sciencemile The existence of "Heaven" doesn't necessarily imply the existence of "Satan". As far as I know that's unique to Abrahamic religions.
Isaac Sorrels
well in 40k lore, I believe, all religions have a basis in "truth". The Warp Disturbances caused by the Old Ones might have planted the idea of a " War in Heaven" into some primitive human nightmares.
+sciencemile Nice derailing with a silly point, first off its Ka Tan basically, and secondly all religions in 40k were either inspired by big daddy Emps or Chaos, usually the gods prophets spoke of were just aspects of the Chaos Gods that their crazy psyker asses saw in "visions". As its basically said most people primitives consider shamans and or "blessed" people are usually somewhat psychic.
Kyle Vidauri
Not always Gods, not always Chaos Gods, anyways. The C'tan buried on Mars is responsible for the "visions" of technology and science, according to one of the Horus Heresy books.
There's no reason why those religions wouldn't get "inspiration" from other great forces of power besides The Emperor or the Chaos Gods.
GW really reallllly needs expand on this :/ I would like to the Necrons before they became genocidal robots
The Skeptical Space Marine I don’t know, I think one of the things that makes it so interesting is it’s opaque nature.
Little disappointed in this - seems to have missed out the entire rivalry and wars between the Necronytr and the Old Ones that easily predated the first contact with the C'Tan.
Necronytr were a sickly and short lived race who, upon finding the Old Ones, grew jealous of their longevity and mastery of space travel (the Necronytr being limited to sub warp travel).
The Necronytr leaders launch a war against the Old Ones but are easily beaten back.
A second war is then launched (at leat in part to unify the already splintering Necronytr empire), the war similarly unsuccessfully and it's at this point that the C'Tan show up, offering the Necronytr the gift of immortality and victory over the hated Old Ones. The price (unknown at the time) of bio transference into the shiny metal bodies was their souls, upon which the C'Tan fed happily.
Wouldn't have taken much to mention this and it would have given a much fuller picture to an otherwise excellent video
+Lee Jenkins he will in his necron lore video
Oh yes I didn't doubt that, just would have been nice to give it 10 seconds in this one, just to fill in that gap
+Lee Jenkins yeah I love the necron lore so I would have had no problem with it.
Correct. More specifically the Necrontyr actually begged and pleaded with the Old Ones to help them, to make them live longer and better lives. The Old Ones refused and the Necrontyr attacked them. The Old Ones where MASSIVELY ahead of the Necrontyr in technology and pushed them back to their own star system. After this defeat the Necrontyr grew to not only resent the Old Ones but ALL life in the universe. The summoning of the C'tan was actually the Necrontyrs attempt to weaponize the creature, to use it to destroy the Old Ones. Once the Deceiver tricked the Necrons into their bodies is when they marched out to attack the Old Ones and The War in Heaven began.
I have a theory that the old ones from 40k and fantasy are the same the old ones from 40k traveled to an alternate universe (fantasy) and tried to start over
+Evan Diaz It's probably a world in 40K, and there may be surviving Slann on it.
+Warboss Sloth Pope Fuzy Is it crazy to think Fantasy just takes place sometime in the past when the emperor was still on the side lines? Or perhaps helping to keep Empire safe? Tho I know almost nothing bout Fantasy lore, quite the opposite for 40K
+Warboss Sloth Pope Fuzy Maybe the old ones made the Tyranids and deemed them to be perfect but failed cuz no individuality and stagnent without other life to consume. They create the hive mind harnessing the C'tan of wherever the tyranids came from. Decided to avoid the C'tan in our galaxy and this might explain why tyranids would be attracted to a familiar signal maybe angry that they were abbandoned or knowing where their masters were there was life to consume. I duno just an idea
+MrMLaidlaw so the general consenus is that fantasy and 40k are in the same universe? ive always thought they were seperate with similar ideas such as orcs/orks or elves/eldar.
+alex cripps different universe same creators
The inquisition cant be everywhere!?! ARE YOU MOCKING ME?
I like the idea of the old ones creating the Tyrranid but i have a question: Although i makes sense to create an army of living weapons that can evolve at an excellerated rate to be able to adapt to new threats, they still need biomass to do this, specificly the biomass of their enemies, and the necrons, at the time of the war, no longer possessed corporeal form. So did the old ones create the Tyrranids to feast on the corpses of their own allies (Orks, Eldar etc)? Or is there another answer for this in the lore that i missed?
Hmm what if the tyranids were made by the old ones in another galaxy to defeat the chaos gods as well, not just the necrons? I think that if they basically eat everything in the galaxy and the only surviving things are just themselves, then there will be no more chaos gods, emotions and all that. Then the old ones could come back and basically have a clean slate, more or less, from which to reshape the galaxy as they see fit.
That theory don't work, if the tyranids were created back then, why does the silent king didn't know about them until recently? Without talking about the fact that tyranids are even worse than the C'tan in regard of how they treats life, they both see all living being as food, but C'tan keep them alive at least.
Saying that it's possible because they conserve the DNA is stupid, how do they plan to brings them back considering that tyranids leave nothing but sterile rock behind them? Without talking about the fact that tyranids conserve DNA because they are constantly doing genetic manipulation upon themselves, wich is one of the taboo of the old ones (the one without wich the war in the heaven would never have happened btw).
And that's fine to create species to make war, but I don't see the point if they kill each other as soon as they come across, It's possible that at the time the Orks and the Eldars were controlled to not fight each other, but how they do so with the tyranids? they can't be controlled in the same way because of the Hive Mind. And if the Hive Mind is truly the old ones, why the Eldars and the Orks aren't controlled by it? Why does they make it so it cast a shadow over the warp? it seems like a stupid thing to create because it probably cut off the webway. How do they manage to lose against the enslavers? the Hive Mind and the shadow of the warp seems to be an excellent way to fight them.
Yo dude can you do a video on the tyrants hive fleets with lore? And what happens if tyranids consume a chaos world complete with demons? Can you have chaos tyranids?
Tyranids have either no soul, or are constantly under the protection of the Hive Mind, so no chaos tyranids, if you want to see what happens when they fight each other, go look the battle of shadowbrinks.
Basically, tyrannids can't eat deamons as they are psychics, and deamons can't corrupt tyranids, so tyranids initially ignored them (well, they won't do it anymore since they got attacked by them), and Chaos attacked them because they didn't liked to see no soul to corrupt, but because of the shadow in the warp wich make the deamons fade away, the tyranids's adaptability wich make Nurgle's disease almost useless and the alien ichor they have instead of blood, so no blood flowing for khorne, Chaos lose in the end.
40k has so much fun lore.
If only the game and miniatures weren't so, let's say, mediocre at best. I mean GW was good 20 years ago, but they totally failed to go with the times.
In many ways the Imperium is a good metaphor for GW. A behemoth stagnant, decadent and slowly dying over the ages.
A time when gods walked the battlefield
i honestly have never read a codex, like i'm honestly kind of a light 40k fan or something, but wasn't they're one version of the lore that said the dudes the necrons evolved from lived on this world that was like too close to the sun, and they wanted to contact the ctan because they could control and consume the suns energy in a positive way?
it would be cool if the old ones and enslavers, at some point, become a race that is implemented into the table top game
OP as shit, you'd pay 30 bucks for 2 characters XD
Do not attend the play of its name sake.
Let's just hope we can migrate into transhumanism without having the pressure of being at war with an ancient alien empire.
I have two problems with the idea that the Old ones created nids to defeat necrons. First one, why nids intentionally avoid Necrons tomb world? And secondly, nids are depend on biomass yet Necrons and C´than are not the most juicy target. I mean that unless nids wont devour the whole galaxy before they attacked C´than they will be screwed.The only implication of "nids being created by Old ones" theory is that Old ones want whip a galaxy of whole life to destroyed Chaos gods..
+Luckiller 01 necrons used to have flesh
They weren't meant to fight the necrons,they were meant to slow them down by devouring worlds in their path,robbing the c'tan of the worlds biomass and through that,the souls of its population
I realize me posting this is a bit of a necro(ntyr), but I find it much more likely that the 'nids were created as an _attempt_ to counter the Enslavers, or at the very least a sorta "bulwark" against them should they try headed off to another galaxy. The reason I find this more likely is that, sure, scorched earth tactics have their place, but if _anything_ will take a flamethrower (or.. in this case, giant angry insecto-reptilian anthill), it's the giant space wasps (I use this analogy mostly because of their nasty reproductive habits, considering that's how certain wasps reproduce), not the field mice.
Arch's expanded theory goes: the nectons were wiping out any and all life they came across, just like the tyranids do; however the tyranids keep a record of any genetic material they consume to use at a later date to create different tyranid strains. A race as advanced as the old one could likely use the genetic records to re-terraform the destroyed planets with their original life forms. Not an ideal solution, but if the c'tan were going to wipe out all the life anyway, its probably the best way to salvage something
maybe already said but didnt you switch the catan with the necrons i heard that the necrons started the war with the old ones and turned in their hour of defeat to the catan as an ultimate super weapon
Haha, what's with the re-colored Shatterer at about 9:50?
For Tyrranids, didn"t they have a theory were the Outsider, the C'tan tricked by this troll of Cegorah to *EAT* the other C'tan pretty much like the Nightbringer and the Deceiver, go out of the galaxy and somehow become the Hive Mind of the adorable ond lovely space ant ?
Were these the creatures under Prospero's surface during the Horus Heresy?
the old ones creating the tyranids makes sense since all lore I've ever heard or read said the old ones made the Krorks who we think turned into the orks cause it is said they can turn anything into a weapon aren't technologically advanced and are nearly unending in number now both do describe the orks and tyranids but could it be that krorks were a hybrid of both that the old ones split in two or evolved two ways
+Augie Chiavuzzi that sounds plasable
Arch, do you have Warhammer: Mark of Chaos, or Warhammer Battlemarch for PC or Xbox ( anyone else?)
Perhaps they meant that the old ones never destroyed their own creations
well tyranids could also be a something of a killswitch since the c'tun need life to feed. if the tyranids are sucsessful there no life left and the c'tun starf/die of.
this whole 'ancien' thing remind of two thing : the anciens from stargate for obvious reason
and the very recent race from planète potaufeu , because of the whole 'we creat over powered life form to protect ourself but we got fucked and our uber lifeform became a danger for the univers'
Jeez dude, are you too lazy to finish the words ?
So the old ones of 40k are the slann-priest of the lizardmen?
All hail your Enslaver overlords
I'm curious about where Arch gets his pronunciation and terms for these things. Since the videos are in english, I assume that he's using english codexes, or, at least, working from english sources.
My Necron Codex (the one from when they were a brand new faction) mentions a "War in Heaven", not a "war in the heavens". Likewise, the star gods are called C'tan, not C'thawn. The 40k lexicanum wiki seems to agree with me on these points.
The spelling of "cavalerie" in place of "cavalry" in one of the recommended videos also stands out as odd.
He's not like 15-year-old me who kept saying "tie-ran-ids" for at least a year simply because I'd never played against a tyranid player and learned the pronunciation first hand, so I'm wondering what's up with this.
That might explain the pronunciation of things (most of what I know about Norwegians speaking English is based on the first two seasons of Metalocalypse), but I don't think it explains the spelling differences.
The consistency of spelling differences leads me to think that the English codexes he's working from use a special Norwegian style of English instead of the regular English spelling. This seems a bit too stupid to be true though.
it explains why he likes pickled herring
@9:45 i get the feeling that some artist took the whole 'void dragon' thing a little too literally lol
Only a little haha
Oooo oooo, the Ctan are also galacticas from the fantastic four silver surfer
Don't mention that catastrophe here
+scrin99 sweet Jesus no!!!
Soo...the enslaves are basically the perfect manifestations of the duality of the universe (the warp and the physical) ?
In your artwork, which race is it on the right? The Old Ones?
what book of the horus heresy is the old one beacon in?
Do you do these videos in one take?
hi arch which heresy book were you talking about in this video ?
Is it any connection between C'than and Chaos Gods ?
next up is Orks ?!
I have only read about the enslavers in a few places like lexicanum and the roleplaying books. Can someone point me to a enslaver larvae source? I always just assumed their flesh died from lack of sustinace and their spirit returned to the warp to find a new host.
hey arch i know this is off topic but can u tell me what the hell is a Space hulk? i heard of them a few times and seen some stuff but dont know much about them other then orks and tryannids really like using them them in general.
+Lord Fireice Taken from the WH40k lexicanum (wiki for 40k) "A space hulk is a massive conglomeration of lost ships and wrecks fused together. They drift in and out of the warp through space and during the millenia the lost ships join together into one enormous body. Many times they are so huge that they have their own atmosphere and gravity. Since the hulks often exit and re-enter the warp seemingly at random, searching or traveling in them is dangerous to the extreme."
Basically, they are the greatest travelling treasure troves in the galaxy, usually filled with old technology, orcs, tyranids and chaos deamons. Understandably, the imperium sends terminator squads looking through these. Funniest part is when orcs actually manage to pilot one of these things.
ok cool. thx