Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

=== World Engines ===

The attack on the World Engine happened much as in canon, what with the Astral Knights ramming their Battle Barge into the thing, with a few notable differences. First, in addition to the Astral Knights, a number of Eldar joined in on the ramming of the World Engine, because they weren't going to let a bunch of Space Marines show them up especially against their most hated enemy. Secondly, rather than M41, in this timeline the World Engine attack happened in M34. There are several reasons for this. First, there a severe lack of events between M32 and the Age of Apostasy. Secondly, if the World Engine occurred at the same time as canon, depending on the time the Emperor would either ask the Silent King what the fuck is going on or merely consider it an escalation of hostilities. Moving the World Engine up to M34 increases its “OH GOD WHAT” factor and really foreshadows what the Imperium is in for with the Necrons.

Consider the following. In M34 the Imperium is at the peak of their power. The mortal followers of Chaos have been forced back into the Eye of Terror, the Orks are disorganized, and there are no tyranids, Necron Star Empire, or major uprisings to divert forces from other fronts. The Imperium is basically on top of things.
And then this World Engine from what is supposed to be an extinct race comes lumbering in from out of nowhere carving a swathe of destruction through the Imperium. No one knows where it came from. No one knows where it was going. All that anyone knows is that it shrugged off nearly everything the Imperium could throw at it, and its point defenses shot down just about everyone who tried to stop it about as easily as a human swatting a fly. The Imperium finally put it down at great cost, but a lot of uncertainty remained as to what this thing was, where it came from, and if something like this was going to happen again.

It's the equivalent of if a nuclear missile came blazing through the sky one day only to be shot down at great cost, and later analysis of the design shows it was built by an extinct civilization. How did they build it? How did it get launched? Are there more of them?

Fast forward to M41, and it turns out the mystery object was a Necron world engine. <b><i>A</i></b> Necron World Engine. As in they have multiples of the thing. Not a lot mind you, probably no more than a handful, because building a World Engine is still a massive undertaking even for the Necrons. The M34 World Engine was reactivated by accident, rather than on purpose. As of 999.M41 the remaining World Engines have only just finished booting up after having been reactivated by the Silent King as he gets the big guns out.

World Engine also means when the Silent King revs the rest of them up in M41, the Imperium has enough context to know how hard to shit bricks. To the average Imperial, the World Engine had almost reached mythological status , and now you're saying there's more of them? It would be like telling the ancient Greeks that Tartarus was open and Kronos was back.