The Triarch: Rulers of the Necrontyr
The Triarch was the ruling council of the Necrontyr empire before their transformation into the Necrons. Frequently undermined by rebellions during the Wars of Secession, the Triarch repeatedly sought ways to unify the Necrontyr race once more, be it through a common enemy such as the Old Ones or the promises of immortality made by the C’tan.
The Triarch itself consisted of three Phaerons, and the rulers of individual Necrontyr dynasties were governed by the Triarch. The head of the Triarch was known as the Silent King, who addressed his subjects only through the other two Phaerons. Nominally a hereditary position, the short lifespans of the Necrontyr ensured that the title of Silent King passed from one royal dynasty to another many times. The last Silent King of the Triarch was Szarekh.
Silent King Szarekh and the Great Sleep
During Szarekh’s rule, the Necrontyr empire was already engaged in a vicious struggle against the Old Ones. In desperation, Szarekh agreed to form an alliance with the C’tan and transfer the Necrontyr into new bodies of living metal, becoming the Necrons. While they now lived immortal lives and were finally able to emerge victorious in the War in Heaven, Szarekh realized that his people had become soulless pawns of the C’tan. Determined to exact vengeance against the star gods, Szarekh bided his time.
After the Old Ones were defeated, Szarekh led a Necron revolt against the C’tan, eventually defeating their former masters and shattering them into shards. However, Szarekh saw that the new races created by the Old Ones, such as the Eldar, were now becoming dominant, and the Necrons, exhausted by eons of war, could not stand against them.
Szarekh ordered the Necrons to withdraw into their Tomb Worlds and slumber in the Great Sleep, to reawaken sixty million years in the future and assert their dominance over the galaxy once more. The Silent King, however, did not join his people in slumber. He destroyed the command protocol that allowed him control over the Necron race and journeyed into the void of intergalactic space, seeking both solace and penance for dooming the Necrontyr race.
Szarekh’s Exile and Redemption
The Silent King took to the stars in a massive planet-sized sepulchral engine and set out for the void. With him went legions of his own Szarekhan Dynasty in stasis-crypts, for despite his shame, it was not befitting the Silent King to travel without an entourage.
For millions of years, the Silent King traveled in the void between galaxies. He was the only Necron to completely remember his past and time as an organic lifeform, suffering the memories of what he had done to his race. The aeons of grief would have destroyed the minds of any lesser lifeform. However, Szarekh still had a plan, seeking to redeem himself by achieving it on behalf of his people. Szarekh aimed to have his people slumber until such a time when the enemies of the Necrons, such as the Eldar, were overcome by internal discord and the ravages of time. Using their immortal bodies and radical weaponry, the Necrons would then lead his people to dominate the galaxy. In the meantime, Szarekh’s exile in the void would achieve other ends known only to him, though some speculate it was to find a way to reverse Biotransference.
However, Szarekh eventually encountered the Tyranids and saw the threat they posed to the Necron race. If the Tyranids consumed the biomass of the galaxy, the Necrons might never be able to reverse their transformation. While his duty to defeat the Tyranids was clear, Szarekh had no desire to preserve other civilizations.