Szarekh, the Silent King

Overview

Szarekh is the last Silent King, ruler of the Necrontyr at the height of their empire. Under his rule his people underwent biotransference and then turned on their C'tan masters. Wracked by guilt, he went into exile, but he has returned to reunite the dynasties against the Tyranid threat.

He travels on a floating command throne, flanked by the Triarchal Menhirs, colossal monoliths of living energy. Command protocols built into every Necron by biotransference give him the potential to overrule his nobles' will, a power he once relinquished and is cautious about using again. Szarekh was the last Silent King of the Szarekhan Dynasty and ruler of the Triarch. His reign saw the war against the Old Ones grow desperate, the coming of the C'tan, and the grand biotransference that turned the Necrontyr into the Necrons. Once he grasped the cost, he turned his people against their star-god masters, shattered the C'tan, ordered the Great Sleep and went into self-imposed exile. In the Era Indomitus he has returned to unite his dynasties against the Great Rift and the Tyranids.

Origins

Szarekh was the final heir of a royal line that ruled through the Triarch. Desperate to save his short-lived people from death and from the war with the Old Ones, he accepted the C'tan's offer of immortality. He realised the true cost only after biotransference was complete.

White Dwarf's Last of the Silent Kings (January 2020) says the Szarekhan Dynasty traditionally provided the Silent King. It also says the Deceiver persuaded Szarekh to accept biotransference despite the warnings of his court astrologer, Orikan. Codex: Necrons (9th edition, pp. 28-31) adds that he received the most sophisticated body of them all, with necrodermis taken from the C'tan, and was the only Necron to remember his organic life completely. He left in a planet-sized sepulchral engine, accompanied by Szarekhan legions in stasis-crypts, because even in shame a Silent King did not travel without an entourage. The 9th-edition codex notes gaps in his story, including when and how he met the Tyranids in the intergalactic void. Necrons who ask such questions are taken by Triarch Praetorians and never seen again.

Key events

1. Ordered biotransference, which turned the Necrontyr into soulless Necrons.
2. Turned against the C'tan and shattered them into fragments, binding many as shards.
3. Severed the Necrons from his command protocols and went into exile in the intergalactic void as penance.
4. Returned after witnessing Tyranid hive fleets approaching the galaxy from his place of exile.
5. Formed a new Triarch with Hapthatra the Radiant and Mesophet the Shadowed Hand.
6. Met Roboute Guilliman on Mesmoch, where the two forged an uneasy and temporary alliance.

He returned in 744.M41 and worked secretly through Praetorians and unwitting crypteks and overlords. When he finally revealed himself, he gathered his followers on Antrakh and chose two minor phaerons, Hapthatra the Radiant and Mesophet the Shadowed Hand, as his new Triarch. They are bound to the Dais of Dominion, which is powered by a captured shard of the Burning One, Nyadra'zatha. They speak with one voice and never overrule him. The short story The Word of the Silent King has him claim that he once met Sanguinius, who may have been close to an alliance with the Necrons. Codex: Blood Angels (5th edition) records the Gehenna Campaign of 955.M41, where his army and the Blood Angels were forced to cooperate against Tyranids.

In the Pariah Nexus, White Dwarf 480 shows him receiving his vassals and three thousand Praetorians on Xendu, where he was offered captured human blanks for study. He then led a counteroffensive of millions. In Robert Rath's novel The Silent King, he spoke to Guilliman through Hapthatra at Mesmoch, demanded surrender, crippled the Dawn of Fire and boarded it to capture the Primarch. Illiyanne Natasé closed the portal before they met. Crusade: Pariah Nexus shows his position weakening as Cawl arrived, Imotekh rebelled and destroyed pylons, and Vashtorr's forces appeared. His warship is the Song of Oblivion.

Battles & campaigns

• The War in Heaven: He led the Necrontyr against the Old Ones.
• The Rebellion against the C'tan: The star gods were broken into shards.
• The Indomitus era: He returned as the Silent King.

Personality

Szarekh is solemn and burdened by the memory of what he did to his people. He is determined to unite the dynasties and defend the galaxy, but he remains a distant, imperious figure. He does not trust the younger races.

Weapons & Vehicles

Staff of Light & Eldritch LanceRanged Weapon

The arcane techno-sorcerous sceptres of Necron Crypteks and Overlords, unleashing searing bolts of captured stellar radiation while ser…

Warscythe & Hyperphase SwordMelee Weapon

The dimensional-phasing polearms and emerald energy blades of Necron Overlords, Lychguard and Skorpekh Destroyers, slipping effortlessl…

Gauss Flayer & Gauss BlasterRanged Weapon

The iconic emerald molecular-flaying beam rifle of the Necron legions, stripping flesh, bone and tank armour apart atom by atom in a bl…

Triarch PraetoriansFast Attack · Unit

Winged arbiters of the Silent King who refused to sleep for sixty million years, enforcing the ancient Necrontyr codes across the dynas…

LychguardElites · Unit

The noble-bodied bodyguards and envoys of the Necron court, programmed for loyalty and proud of every dismembering stroke.

C'tan ShardsMonsters & Daemons · Unit

Splinters of the shattered Star Gods, bound in necrodermis and unleashed by the Necrons only when the day is darkest.

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Connections

Characters (3)

• 
  Roboute Guilliman uneasy alliance · Ultramarines

  They met on Mesmoch and forged a temporary truce against the Tyranids.

• 
  Illuminor Szeras served · Necrons

  The C'tan supplied the knowledge, but Szeras made real the biotransference that Szarekh ordered.

• 
  Imotekh the Stormlord sovereign · Necrons

  Imotekh must now bow to the returned Silent King.

Factions

• Necrons primary faction

Related units (6)

ImmortalsNecron WarriorsDeathmarksCanoptek WraithsTriarch PraetoriansC'tan Shards

Also in this faction

Anrakyr the TravellerNemesor ZahndrekhOrikan the DivinerTrazyn the InfiniteVargard Obyron

Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.

Legacy

Szarekh is the last Silent King, returned from self-imposed exile to lead his people against the Tyranid threat. His return has reshaped Necron politics, forcing proud dynasties to choose whether to bow to their ancient king. His uneasy contact with Guilliman shows that even the Necrons may need allies against the Great Devourer. He carries the guilt of biotransference, and his return makes the Necrons' story one of possible redemption as well as conquest. Every Necron warrior is a monument to Szarekh's choice.

Appearances & sources

• Codex: Necrons (9th Edition)
• Indomitus campaign material