The Necrons don’t always get enough credit for how absolutely terrifying they are to the average denizen of the 41st Millennium – undying, soulless automatons who never tire and blast their foes to atoms with impossibly advanced technology. So when you learn there’s a being that makes even their robotic legs shake with fear, if they believe it exists at all, you sit up and take notice.
Many shrug off the legend of the Nekrosor as a parable or myth, but unfortunately for the 500 Worlds of Ultramar, this fabled monster is perfectly capable of driving its claws through flesh and blood.
For its name is Ammentar, and it is death incarnate.
Nekrosor Ammentar is afflicted by the same maddening virus that warps the Destroyer Cults into single-minded killing machines, but unlike all others, its advanced mind is not held entirely in thrall to its base desires. Some even suggest that it was the first to succumb to the virus and thus is the genesis of all Destroyers, though no records exist to confirm such suspicions save those in the mind of the Silent King – and Szarekh is not a talkative chap.
What all Necrons learn, through dread reputation or traumatic experience, is that a pall of psychosis follows Ammentar and twists the minds of those it passes near, turning everyone from the lowest tomb world orderly to the highest Overlord* into raging beasts hungry for death on a galactic scale. Few even realise their protocols have been completely overwritten until it’s too late and they’re strapping hyperphase blades onto their arms with cold glee.
Those who don’t come willingly are forcibly converted into Destroyers by Ammentar’s enthralled Crypteks, and as you might imagine, this makes it a touch unpopular. Don’t feel bad – it pretty solidly earns its dark reputation.
Whether through the slow degradation of time or a catastrophic injury it received in the distant past, the Nekrosor began to harbour an almost religious fascination with the Nightbringer – deadliest of all the Necrons’ ancient enemies – and has since taken up its master’s mantle to shepherd the eradication of all organic life. Its obsession with one of the star gods is repugnant to its fellow Necrons, though few can stop its crusade to obtain every last scattered C’tan shard and unleash the Nightbringer anew.
If you’re wondering whether there might be a shard under the worlds of Ultramar and Ammentar has come to collect, good job! The Ultramarines have no idea quite what’s coming to kick down their door.
On the battlefield, Ammentar is a whirlwind of death festooned with weapons, from barbed claws and its strange Unmaker Gauntlet to enmitic disintegrators – previously seen on the Hexmark Destroyer – and a whip-like bladed tail. Its infectious madness rouses Destroyer allies to greater heights of carnage, who cut down the few poor souls left alive after the Nekrosor’s blinding speed has sliced through their friends before their blades were even raised.
Yet for all its violent rampages and the ever-present cloud of insanity that follows it, Nekrosor Ammentar is no simple brute, and more than anything it’s the predatory intelligence and occasional bouts of lucidity it displays that other Necrons fear the most. It’s smart enough that its abhorrent crusade might actually work, and with no life left in the galaxy, the Necrons would have nothing to rule.**
We’re sorry, but if you’re just now deciding that you should shore up your defences before Ammentar arrives, it’s a bit too late – the Nekrosor goes up for pre-order this Saturday, and the Ultramarines can’t be everywhere at once.*** We’ve still got a little more to see from the new 500 Worlds books, so come back later this week for more lore, a peek at the new Boarding Actions rules, and more.
* Legend has it that Ammentar has even corrupted the master programs of entire tomb complexes.
** Or more accurately, nothing to look down on.
*** Unless absolutely everyone buys the new Captain Titus. We believe in you!
