Anrakyr

"I am not capricious, nor am I given to curl acts for their own sakes. It is simply a fact that you and your kind have trespassed, and thus invited extermination. Curse you for putting me to this inconvenience."

- Anrakyr the Traveller to the Tau Ethereal Aun’taniel prior to the Harvest of Ka’mais

Few Necrons awaken from stasis-sleep with fully functioning consciousness. Most arise addled by the long slumber, their wits and reason slow to come fully online. Not so for Anrakyr – he rose from dormancy with his mind intact and a great purpose foremost in his mind to reunite the dynasties. Embracing this as his destiny, Anrakyr the Traveller, as he came to be known, abdicated all responsibilities to his own Tomb World of Pyrrhia before lead an army into the stars to fulfil the mission that continues to this day.

History
Whilst his plan may have been glorious, the galaxy had changed much since Anrakyr last walked its worlds, and the maps of old no longer corresponded with the reality of the present. Planets had been destroyed, isolated by Warp storms or even shifted through time and space. Even should a world itself remain in the position recorded of it, the tomb beneath its surface might well be gone, destroyed by tectonic upheaval, meteor strike or other unforseen disaster. Worst of all, however, is for Anrakyr to arrive upon a sleeping Tomb World to discover it infested with lesser life forms.

Anrakyr has little desire to start war for its own sake – his forces are too meagre for wanton hostility – but to arrive on a slumbering Tomb World to discover its catacombs collapsed and its resources plundered is enough to drive him into an abiding rage that bodes ill for the perpetrators. Be the invaders a low-tech colony, a sprawling Waaagh! of Orks, a Tau expeditionary force or the planet-choking industries of the Adeptus Mechanicus, only one response is possible: swift and absolute war – fighting alongside the Tomb World’s forces if any remain, battling to avenge them if not. Not all the Tomb Worlds Anrakyr arrives upon are in such dire throes – some have gone entirely unnoticed by the younger races – but in a galaxy burgeoning with inquisitive life, such planets are few and far in between.

From each Tomb World awoken or feed from invaders, Anrakyr requests a tithe of warriors and weaponry to be given over to his cause. If the supplication is refused, he seizes his prize through force or artifice instead. A newly awakened Tomb World is inevitably a confused and disordered place, and such acquisitions are easily engineered. This goes some way to explain Anrakyr muddled repute amongst the Tomb Worlds he has encountered. To many nobles he is considered the highest avatar of nobility, a warrior who has yielded all ties of personal rank and status for the benefit of his people. To other, notably those who do not willingly contribute to his forces, Anrakyr is the worst kind of masterless brigand, almost as severe a threat to the slumbering Tomb Worlds as any of the galaxy’s other perils. For his part, Anrakyr would prefer to be supported willingly, yet need overrides all. His forces, worn down and ravaged by past campaigns, are always on the brink of complete collapse, and without reinforcements his great cause would come swiftly to an end.

On the battlefield, Anrakyr is invariably accompanied by a cadre of Pyrrhian Eternals – the remnant of the vast Immortal legion with which he began his great work. The ageless veterans are unswervingly loyal to their master and murderously efficient in furthering his goals. Yet even their threat pales beside that of Anrakyr himself. The same force of will that enables Anrakyr to maintain command over his forces can be refocussed temporarily to deceive enemy targeting systems, granting him control of the foe’s weaponry for brief periods of time. So it is that any foe who takes to the field against Anrakyr would be well served to pay equal attention to the guns at their rear in addition to those at their front…

Notable Campaigns

 * '''805.M41 The Ruin of Morrigar – A battle between the Hive City gangs on the planet of Morrigar inadvertently awakens the Necron Tomb hidden there. All contact with Morrigar is lost shortly thereafter. When the Cadian 207th makes planetfall six months later, there is no trace of any inhabitants, human or otherwise. Before the Imperial Guard can leave Morrigar, the nomadic Necron warlord Anrakyr the Traveller arrives. Assuming the humans are responsible for the apparent destruction of the Tomb World, he launches an attack that leaves his own forces decimated and the Cadian 207th utterly eliminated.
 * 859.M41 The Traveller has Come – Anrakyr the Traveller arrives in the embattled Lazar system, and immediately joins his forces to those Necrons defending against the onslaught of the Silver Skulls Astartes Chapter. Necron Victory is finally assured at the Battle of Dreadpeak, when Anrakyr’s Pyrrhian Eternals spearhead an assault on the Silver Skulls’ downed Battle Barge Argent Hammer. Though the Space Marines battle hard against the veterans of Pyrrhia, their efforts are undone when Anrakyr seizes control over the Battle Barge’s still-functioning weapon batteries and turns their fury on the defenders. With their Chapter Master slain and their forces in disarray, the Silver Skulls are forced to withdraw their blockade of Lazar – though they take great care to ensure that word of their defeat does not spread. His duty done, Anrakyr takes ship and heads out into the galaxy once more.
 * 902.M41 The Harvest of Ka’mais – Possibly the first encounter between the Tau Empire and the Necrons, a dozen Hive Ships of Hive Fleet Gorgon assaulting the Tau colony of Ka’mais are destroyed as a fleet of Necron ships unexpectedly emerges from Ka’mais’ dead moon. Once the Tyranids are destroyed, Anrakyr lands upon the planet and is greeted with great celebration by the local Tau. Uncaring of this, Anrakyr orders the Harvest of Ka’mais, where most, if not all, of the Tau populace are killed or captured.
 * 999.M41 The Carnac Campaign – Anrakyr the Traveller arrives on a planet he supposes to be the Tomb World of Carnac, only to find it infested with Eldar Exodites. Realising that the tomb, if it remains, will be buried too deep for him to awaken before the Exodites can themselves summon aid, Anrakyr entreats the Necron Lords and Necron Overlords of other Tomb Worlds for aid. Reinforcements arrive from Mandragora, Gidrim and Trakonn, though the most unexpected of all is a contingent from Solemnace, led by Trazyn the Infinite himself. All this takes time, however, and by the time the Night Scythe fleets deploy the invading forces, the armies of the Alaitoc Craftworld stand side by side with the Exodites. Guided by the prophecies of Farseer Eldorath Starbane and the strategies of Illic Nightspear, the Eldar attempt to stall the Necron invasion with a series of hit-and-run attacks. Their aim is to sever the command structure by destroying Anrakyr and his closest allies, but the Pyrrhian Lord manages to subvert the prophecies of the Farseer through the astromantic analyses of Orikan the Diviner. Though Orikan’s divinations are by no means as focussed as those of Starbane, they are sufficient to tangle the skeins of fate and leave many details beyond the Farseer’s reach. So it is that Pathfinders arrive at what they thought to be Anrakyr’s location, only to find him long gone and squads of Deathmarks waiting in ambush. After several inconclusive battles on Carnac’s verdant plains, Anrakyr forces the Eldar to engage in a head-to-head confrontation by marching on the World Spirit shrine. As the tireless Necron legions advance upon its walls, Doom Scythes duel with Eldar fighters in the skies above, Deathmarks ply a deadly trade of ambush and counter-ambush with Alaitoc Pathfinders, and all the while Flayed Ones prowl on the flanks, pouncing on any Eldar foolish enough to show even a momentary sign of weakness. The sides are well matched, with the Necron hardiness countered by the precise strikes of the Eldar. Victory finally falls to the Necrons when Carnac’s tomb unexpectedly begins to awaken, stirred from dormancy by the tumult above. With Necron reinforcements now starting to constantly trickle into the campaign, the Eldar have little choice but to abandon Carnac and its World Spirit to their foes. Anrakyr is grimly jubilant in the campaign’s aftermath and gladly accedes when Trazyn requests the entire World Spirit shrine as spoils of war. For his part, Orikan requests no trophy or payment for victory, and merely hopes that when the flush of victory fades, no one thinks to question the convenient coincidence of Carnac’s awakening.

Wargear

 * Necrodermis - Like all Necrons, Anrakyr’s body is built from the self-repairing living metal known as Necrodermis. As befits one of his lofty rank, Anrakyr’s body is of superior craftsmanship and richly adorned, clearly announcing his status and allowing him to repair even the most grievous of wounds in a matter of moments.
 * '''Warscythe – The traditional weapon of Necrontyr nobility and their bodyguards for eons, a Warscythe is an energy-bladed battle-staff. The energy field that encompasses the Warscythe allows it to cleave through almost anything with ease. Heavy and ungainly, these weapons are only effective in the hands of an untiring Necron combatant.
 * Tachyon Arrow – A Tachyon Arrow is an intricate wrist-mounted energy that, when activated, transmutes a sliver of inert metal into an unstoppable thunderbolt capable of piercing the heart of a mountain. Such a weapon has near infinite range, and is able to penetrate almost any form of armour, including that of Titans. However, it can only be used once before the guardians of a Necron tomb must tend to its technologies and prepare it for another use.