Spoilers (edit I don't know how to tag spoilers so don't read below if you don't want to read a reveal)
I finished this book recently and wondered whether the Dysporakh is something all Necrons feel or something specifically Flayey infected Necrons feel. I.e. it's the symptom/cause of them becoming flayed ones.
Later on in this book we find out Olynx has been infected by the flayer virus for a long time, probably longer than the razor. But he's been in denial of it and resisting it for a long time.
After that big reveal going back and reading his experiences with the Dysporakh makes me wonder if this actually is a universal experience of all Necrons or the cause/a symptom of becoming a flayer.
Towards the very end they basically say that the obsessions and eccentricities of all the major necrons are expressions of the dysphorak because the only way to manage it is to distract from it
Certainly before the first book, I remember Oltyx’ scientist-y friend asking him why the flayed ones on the planet he was defending would listen to him while trying to convince him of his affliction.
As i understood it. Its universal but not as bad for most. We see it quite commonly with necrons that they will do a quick "I cant breathe" or similar before they collect themselves. The flayer virus however seems to use it to attack the necrons mind.
It gets *worse* when you know that necron warriors, despite being built unable to talk by order of the nobility, sometimes emit a screech when downed - nobody knows why and one theory is that they do so *because they are thankful that death spares them further painful non-existence they never wanted*.
Even better? Some of the warriors scream like children when you kill them, because what else were the C'tan gonna do with trillions of Necrontyr toddlers?
> death spares them further painful non-existence they never wanted.
Sorry, this is just angsty undead Halloween schlock writing. Maybe what it's missing is more self-negating language.
How about *"non-undeath spares them the non-unpainfulness of a further non-existence yet anti-oblivion that they never wanted but had to ask for with no mouth."*
Yes clearly an improvement. Jfc the BL necron writers birthed an abomination. I'll give them points for originality and enough comedy for people to love some of the book just for the funnies, but this is just Halloween angst.
I am 100% certain the C´tan (the Deceiver in particular) made the Necrons suffer the Dysphorak on purpose, just for the hell of it. (The neural spools that make up the hardware of a Necron mind are C´tan tech according to this book).
They could have edited those instincts out, but they choose not to.
The Deceiver of course. The orgional troll, to the point he was the first C'tan we know of to willingly make Shards of themselves to fuck around with the Necrons.
Played a leading role on the pro and anti bio-transfer parts of the Necrons becoming the Necrons
I mean yeah, they literally have a switch built into them that makes them capable of feeling pain again if it's flipped.
The Deceiver was obviously trolling pretty hard.
In Infinite and the Divine, the C’tan can in fact feed off Necrons in a way. I’m sure they included the function on purpose.
> “But there was nothing abnormal about this Deceiver shard. Cruelty was the natural state of the C’tan, and Trazyn could only imagine it was drinking whatever negative emotion that could be lapped off a necron. He blew air through his ruined oral cavity and doused the Deceiver’s face in reactor fluid.” — The Infinite and The Divine
It's sad and perfectly fitting that much of the necrons problem is just bad programming. Or maybe intentional. You'd think they would've made some kind of "living and breathing emulator",a little program to simulate what they're after.
Very interesting - when I first read the book I drew a lot of parallels between the Dysphorak and body dysmorphia, gender dysmorphia, phantom limb pain, etc. Ad Mech and Necron do really well when written as allegories to bodily types of dysmorphia/insecurities, imo.
I suffer from really bad OCD, and every time I read these passages my heartbeat quickens just a little. I'm a little more aware of my breathing. The compulsions feel a little more real if you will. It's scary lol.
I feel similarly reading *Lords of Silence.* The description of sliding down into a warm pit of depression is alarmingly similar to how I've felt in the past.
I was going through a bad OCD episode while reading these books and Oltyx's struggle was honestly really helpful to me. Nate Crowley really captured the horrific sensation of trying to push down fears and horrific thoughts, only for them to resurface stronger every time.
It's gender dysphoria, not gender dysmorphia, to be pedantic. Dysmorphia is a mental illness where your mental image of your body is wrong - so thinking you're ugly or fat even when reality shows otherwise. It's a very common component in eating disorders like anorexia.
Dysphoria refers to feeling distress over your gender identity, on the other hand, which makes it very interesting that they chose to Necron-ise the spelling of dysphoria instead of dysmorphia. Dysphoria's etymology literally means "excessive pain" or "hard to bear", while dysmorphia means "ugliness" (literally "bad form"), which probably explains the preference for dysphoria over dysmorphia here.
To be clear, dysphoria is a general term, the opposite of *euphoria*, and just refers to a (usually pathological) state of profound disatisfaction or unease which causes depression, anxiety, irritability, etc. It’s not specifically inherently related to gender identity issues. That’s one thing that definitely causes it, but it doesn’t actually require a physical cause at all, it can be completely psychological with no physical component at all.
BIID, ADHD, PTSD, major depressive disorder, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, all have dysphoria symptoms or are considered dysphoric syndromes. Even severe types of PMS are on that list too, premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
Trayzyn is mentioned by Oltyx as an example of how 'purpose' even seemingly insane goals can stave off madness and mental degradation.
Trayzyn woke up earlier than most dynasties, by all accounts he should be completely cooked.
It's why Oltyx's brother Joseras polished the soldiers for centuries, he was holding onto his identity as a duty-bound kings guard and it helped him mitigate the curse.
Trayzyn is somewhat aware of this himself. He mentions in the Fabius novels that he knows how pointless his museum has become with the state of his species. But it's all he has left of the Necrontyr he once was.
Trayzyn is lucky in that his previous life's goals of recording, observing and curating are actually improved by being a soulless immortal.
Fabius enviously points out that Trayzyn could not have achieved a modicum of what Solemnace is today without being immortal. So while Trayzyn still laments the lack of a soul he is probably having the best time of any Necron.
"It's why Oltyx's brother Joseras polished the soldiers for centuries, he was holding onto his identity as a duty-bound kings guard and it helped him mitigate the curse. "
Im about to be a bit nitpicky here. I'm currently listening to the audiobook and I'm about finished. Joseras wasn't only polishing, but also etching the life's story of each Immortal (it isn't mentioned if he did this etching for the regular warriors under his command) onto their necrodermis potentially as a silent penance for his lesson to Oltyx on the parade ground.
I also want to point out because Joseras was royalty, not a king's guard but next in line to the throne. The level of care he was giving was actually frowned upon for necron of his stature and not at all considered part of his duty.
That said, I believe Joseras's mentions it's his uncompromising commitment to his duty to serve the dynasty and obey the dynast without question was his sanity saving obsession despite him realizing how foolish he was being in that regard towards the end.
You're right but I just wanted to clarify a few things because it's all super fresh in my mind.
Its a partial copy pasta of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, which it succinctly puts into the last paragraph. While not original it captures both ego death and its base concept rather well.
Spoilers (edit I don't know how to tag spoilers so don't read below if you don't want to read a reveal) I finished this book recently and wondered whether the Dysporakh is something all Necrons feel or something specifically Flayey infected Necrons feel. I.e. it's the symptom/cause of them becoming flayed ones. Later on in this book we find out Olynx has been infected by the flayer virus for a long time, probably longer than the razor. But he's been in denial of it and resisting it for a long time. After that big reveal going back and reading his experiences with the Dysporakh makes me wonder if this actually is a universal experience of all Necrons or the cause/a symptom of becoming a flayer.
Towards the very end they basically say that the obsessions and eccentricities of all the major necrons are expressions of the dysphorak because the only way to manage it is to distract from it
Trazyn's klepto ass is gonna implode with dysphorak if he stops collecting, then
Not in that book, I believe we learn that in reign.
True we do learn it in the next book but I'm sure we learn that he was infected a long time ago, probably before the events of rhe first book?
Certainly before the first book, I remember Oltyx’ scientist-y friend asking him why the flayed ones on the planet he was defending would listen to him while trying to convince him of his affliction.
As i understood it. Its universal but not as bad for most. We see it quite commonly with necrons that they will do a quick "I cant breathe" or similar before they collect themselves. The flayer virus however seems to use it to attack the necrons mind.
The worst part is the implication that this is what every Necron Warrior feels all the time. Trillions of people, for millions of years.
It gets *worse* when you know that necron warriors, despite being built unable to talk by order of the nobility, sometimes emit a screech when downed - nobody knows why and one theory is that they do so *because they are thankful that death spares them further painful non-existence they never wanted*.
Even better? Some of the warriors scream like children when you kill them, because what else were the C'tan gonna do with trillions of Necrontyr toddlers?
> death spares them further painful non-existence they never wanted. Sorry, this is just angsty undead Halloween schlock writing. Maybe what it's missing is more self-negating language. How about *"non-undeath spares them the non-unpainfulness of a further non-existence yet anti-oblivion that they never wanted but had to ask for with no mouth."* Yes clearly an improvement. Jfc the BL necron writers birthed an abomination. I'll give them points for originality and enough comedy for people to love some of the book just for the funnies, but this is just Halloween angst.
I'm impressed you wrote all of that one handed though.
that was fucking good, I'm yoinking that
> Yes clearly an improvement. The fact that you think that is why people don't pay you to write.
Who hurt you...?
Yes
I am 100% certain the C´tan (the Deceiver in particular) made the Necrons suffer the Dysphorak on purpose, just for the hell of it. (The neural spools that make up the hardware of a Necron mind are C´tan tech according to this book). They could have edited those instincts out, but they choose not to.
100% that most of the Necrons current issues are features and not bugs.
Makes you think who has the last laugh. Other than Cegorach
The Deceiver of course. The orgional troll, to the point he was the first C'tan we know of to willingly make Shards of themselves to fuck around with the Necrons. Played a leading role on the pro and anti bio-transfer parts of the Necrons becoming the Necrons
I mean yeah, they literally have a switch built into them that makes them capable of feeling pain again if it's flipped. The Deceiver was obviously trolling pretty hard.
In Infinite and the Divine, the C’tan can in fact feed off Necrons in a way. I’m sure they included the function on purpose. > “But there was nothing abnormal about this Deceiver shard. Cruelty was the natural state of the C’tan, and Trazyn could only imagine it was drinking whatever negative emotion that could be lapped off a necron. He blew air through his ruined oral cavity and doused the Deceiver’s face in reactor fluid.” — The Infinite and The Divine
It's sad and perfectly fitting that much of the necrons problem is just bad programming. Or maybe intentional. You'd think they would've made some kind of "living and breathing emulator",a little program to simulate what they're after.
Thanks for posting this, this scene was so brutal in the book and having it means i csn suffer through this whenever i want
At your service.
I'm currently halfway through *Reign* and the books are great, I love Nate Crowleys take, as well as Robert Rath's take too! Necron books are great!
I would also recommend severed by Nate. It's a fantastic read.
Very interesting - when I first read the book I drew a lot of parallels between the Dysphorak and body dysmorphia, gender dysmorphia, phantom limb pain, etc. Ad Mech and Necron do really well when written as allegories to bodily types of dysmorphia/insecurities, imo.
I suffer from really bad OCD, and every time I read these passages my heartbeat quickens just a little. I'm a little more aware of my breathing. The compulsions feel a little more real if you will. It's scary lol.
I feel similarly reading *Lords of Silence.* The description of sliding down into a warm pit of depression is alarmingly similar to how I've felt in the past.
I hope you're doing good now friend.
Oh yeah, I'm a lot better now.
I was going through a bad OCD episode while reading these books and Oltyx's struggle was honestly really helpful to me. Nate Crowley really captured the horrific sensation of trying to push down fears and horrific thoughts, only for them to resurface stronger every time.
It's gender dysphoria, not gender dysmorphia, to be pedantic. Dysmorphia is a mental illness where your mental image of your body is wrong - so thinking you're ugly or fat even when reality shows otherwise. It's a very common component in eating disorders like anorexia. Dysphoria refers to feeling distress over your gender identity, on the other hand, which makes it very interesting that they chose to Necron-ise the spelling of dysphoria instead of dysmorphia. Dysphoria's etymology literally means "excessive pain" or "hard to bear", while dysmorphia means "ugliness" (literally "bad form"), which probably explains the preference for dysphoria over dysmorphia here.
Oh thank you! Didn't know there was a difference but I do now :)
Indeed. Dysphoria can be treated by re-aligning the images, but dysmorphia cannot as it is the perception of the image itself that is broken
To be clear, dysphoria is a general term, the opposite of *euphoria*, and just refers to a (usually pathological) state of profound disatisfaction or unease which causes depression, anxiety, irritability, etc. It’s not specifically inherently related to gender identity issues. That’s one thing that definitely causes it, but it doesn’t actually require a physical cause at all, it can be completely psychological with no physical component at all. BIID, ADHD, PTSD, major depressive disorder, bipolar, borderline personality disorder, all have dysphoria symptoms or are considered dysphoric syndromes. Even severe types of PMS are on that list too, premenstrual dysphoric disorder.
Not even gender of even form is secure for a Necron. Any certainty has no real proof behind.
As do Iron Hands because they have dysmorphia *bad*
Even with all of that pain and sufferings, one must imagine, the Necron happy. Which leads to 2 cases: Trazyn or a Flayer
Trayzyn is mentioned by Oltyx as an example of how 'purpose' even seemingly insane goals can stave off madness and mental degradation. Trayzyn woke up earlier than most dynasties, by all accounts he should be completely cooked. It's why Oltyx's brother Joseras polished the soldiers for centuries, he was holding onto his identity as a duty-bound kings guard and it helped him mitigate the curse. Trayzyn is somewhat aware of this himself. He mentions in the Fabius novels that he knows how pointless his museum has become with the state of his species. But it's all he has left of the Necrontyr he once was. Trayzyn is lucky in that his previous life's goals of recording, observing and curating are actually improved by being a soulless immortal. Fabius enviously points out that Trayzyn could not have achieved a modicum of what Solemnace is today without being immortal. So while Trayzyn still laments the lack of a soul he is probably having the best time of any Necron.
"It's why Oltyx's brother Joseras polished the soldiers for centuries, he was holding onto his identity as a duty-bound kings guard and it helped him mitigate the curse. " Im about to be a bit nitpicky here. I'm currently listening to the audiobook and I'm about finished. Joseras wasn't only polishing, but also etching the life's story of each Immortal (it isn't mentioned if he did this etching for the regular warriors under his command) onto their necrodermis potentially as a silent penance for his lesson to Oltyx on the parade ground. I also want to point out because Joseras was royalty, not a king's guard but next in line to the throne. The level of care he was giving was actually frowned upon for necron of his stature and not at all considered part of his duty. That said, I believe Joseras's mentions it's his uncompromising commitment to his duty to serve the dynasty and obey the dynast without question was his sanity saving obsession despite him realizing how foolish he was being in that regard towards the end. You're right but I just wanted to clarify a few things because it's all super fresh in my mind.
And Zahndrekh who is either genuinely mad and happy or sane but messing with everyone and happy.
How much more grim dark can you get that the arguable masters of the galaxy can’t have a mouth but they must scream
The way they decided to make necrons have the biotransference equivalent of gender dysphoria is wild. Poor dude's panic attack is relatable.
This is some weak writing imo
Its a partial copy pasta of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, which it succinctly puts into the last paragraph. While not original it captures both ego death and its base concept rather well.
Yeah I mean it gets the point across, but I think it's just very simple and predictable writing.
it's very pulpy in a turn your brain off way.