The Scrivarekh

  We endure.

  These simple words could be easily applied to our entire species, yet they define our dynasty. While other kingdoms raised arms against each other and fought over scraps of power, we remained steadfast and unyielding. Such was our way as one of the Great Houses of the Necrontyr, and such is our way as Necrons.

  When the mighty C’Tan came to us with their treacherous offer, we did not fight it as the Khansu did. Nor did we proclaim the Star Gods as our salvation. We made a simple choice. To unbind ourselves from the mortal coil, and stand unbroken before the passage of time.

  When the time came to turn on our treacherous masters, we did not hesitate then either. The way forward lay through the Star Gods, not as thralls to their whims. Just as we once freed ourselves from decay, so did we thrust off the shackles of slavery.

  We gained more than a few C’Tan shards from the final years of the War in Heaven. Essence of the Deceiver, the Nightbringer, and a single fragment of the mighty Void Dragon. Our species has always craved power and dominance, and so many other dynasties have succumbed to the lure over the centuries and now use their shards in battle.

  They are short-sighted fools. Our collection of chained C’Tan rests deep within the bowels of Crownworld Aletheia. There they sit, imprisoned within their tesseract labyrinths, gathering dust as they have for millions of years. So long as we endure, there they will remain.

  We are the Scrivarekh, the Archivists.

  Our dynasty takes the longest view of all, and in a species of immortals that is truly an impressive feat. We are small enough to not pose a threat to the Sautekh, the Szarekhan, the Nihilakh. The greatest realms of our kind fear nothing from us. Yet we are not weak either, and any war would cause terrible damage to our foe for little gain.

  While our brethren content themselves with conquest or trying vainly to restore our fallen forms, we have a different calling. We collect knowledge. We hoard secrets. We record history.

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  There is a human saying that I am rather fond of: ‘rage against the dying of the light’. It is not because it describes our dynasty; it does not; but rather it is a reminder of the purity of our own steadfast defiance. The younger races of this galaxy are sparks, glowing for a moment before being extinguished. They rage against their own doom, because they have not yet transcended the slow decay of time.

  We are different. Our defiance is purer, more potent than anything even the Aeldari can muster. Ours is not a flickering flame in a sea of darkness, but a tapestry of stars, shining undimmed across the long millennia.

  When the Silent King is long gone, when the galactic empire of Mankind is dust on the wind, when even our ancient Aeldari enemies finally fade from all other memory, within our archives they will remain.

  We are the chroniclers of this universe, and so long as we endure, every great leader, every civilization, and every race will live on within us.

  The Scrivarekh were there at the beginning, and we will be there at the end.

  Notes on the Dynasty

  Because of their focus on longevity, the Scrivarekh have had some of the fewest losses of tomb worlds and Necron forces over the course of their million-year sleep. Their small realm within the Segmentum Obscurus is nonetheless heavily fortified, and many would-be invaders simply choose to bypass it rather than engage in a costly confrontation for no perceived gain.

  Their seat of power is Crownworld Aletheia, from which Phaeron Mys’tehk rules. The dynasty’s obsession with immortality prior to entering the long sleep resulted in better hibernation technology with many technical contingencies and redundancies and a much larger force of Canoptek units to guard their sleeping bodies. As such, there is little insanity to be found among the courts of the dynasty, though many members have bizarre oddities and quirks, suggesting they did not endure the long sleep entirely unscathed.

  The Scrivarekh guard their own lore jealousy, for if others, even other Necrons, knew of the knowledge they had collected over the long millennia, their own realm would become a tempting prize. As it stands now, most other dynasties view them as a weaker twin to the Nihilakh; little interested with the affairs of the world beyond their own borders.

  This could not be further from the truth. The Scrivarekh employs a legion of spies to aggressively collect as much information as possible about the state of the galaxy at large. Where a more ambitious dynasty might use this information to leverage their own position, they see information as its own reward. Of course, the true goal of the Archivists is to see themselves endure to the end of time itself, so perhaps they are the most ambitious dynasty of all…

  The Scrivarekh Necrons wear black plating over silver bodies, the inverse of the most common Necron schema. Their weapons and heavy armor are forged in bronze necrodermis, and their energy has a green tint.