Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

== The Necrontyr ==

In general, the Necrontyr are often considered to be similar to the Tau in many respects, including short lifespans, minimal warp presence, broad flat faces with little in the way of a nose, and slightly slower reflexes than humans. However, the Necrontyr differ from the Tau in several major ways. Unlike Tau, they lack a Jackobson's organ (the face-slit of the Tau), instead having a single nasal cavity similar to a lamprey, and have much faster reflexes. It's not clear if the bony ridge you see on many Necrons is supposed to reflect an actual biological feature, or was part of their armor when they were Necrontyr.

The Necrontyr are also big. Tau are said to be just a little bit shorter than humans, 5’5” on average. Necrons on the other hand are able to look Space Marines and Eldar in the eye. There is no evidence that the Necrontyr went through a major “growth spurt” when they became the Necrons like the Eldar did when the Old Ones first messed with them, so it’s likely that the Necrontyr were just that tall. Indeed, the Old Ones may have engineered the Eldar and Orks to be the size that they are so they were “about” Necrontyr size. It’s also not certain if that stooped posture is natural. It’s may not be, but it’s entirely possible that this is just how a Necrontyr stood.

The other major area in which the Necrontyr differ from the Tau is pain tolerance. Necrontyr are ridiculously resistant to pain. Even before they became the Necrons, the Necrontyr were described as being kind of tanky. Tanky as in “compensated for reflexes by ignoring the pain” as opposed to “super durability”. This pain tolerance is likely at least partially an evolutionary adaptation and partially a learned skill, because when your body is wracked with painful tumors there’s not a lot someone can do to you to make it worse. This pain tolerance likely influenced the way the Necrontyr fought. The Necrons/Necrontyr in canon are known to consider loyalty and discipline to be a big deal, even compared to other races. Such pain tolerance and high discipline would likely lead to confrontations where Necrontyr warriors would likely have formed massive firing lines to maximum dakka, being durable and pain tolerant enough to ignore glancing hits that led most other races to consider this a bad idea. The infamous Necron "shoot and move" maneuver? That more than likely originated with the Necrontyr.