Orikan

"Time is a weapon like any other. If nothing else, I can simply wait for my foes to rot"

—Orikan the Diviner

Orikan the Diviner, wielding his Staff of Tomorrow.

Orikan the Diviner is the most powerful of the Necron Chronomancer Crypteks. Millenia ago, he was the Triarch's Astrologer, and one of Silent King Szarek's most trusted councellors. Orikan was the only one to then oppose the proposal of Mephet'ran the Deceiver to grant the Necrontyr immortality trough the process of biotransferance, as he forsaw it would not end the way the Necrontyr expected, but his lone voice of dissent was ignored by the Triach. Driven by loyalty, Orikan submitted to the process and became one of the undying Necrons, forever trapped soulless into a mechanical body.

Despite the loss of his soul, the biotransferance procedure had an unexpected bonus for Orikan, as his already considerable powers have only expanded thanks to him being freed from the limitations of faillible flesh. In the late 41st millenium, Orikan's mastery over time is such that he can actually "walk back" in time in a limited manner, just enough to ensure his prediction never go awry.

History

Orikan is a consummate astromancer, able to calculate the events of the future from the patterns of the stars. Thus did he know of the Fall of the Eldar, the Rise of Man, the Horus Heresy and the coming of the Tyranids many thousands of years before they came to pass. Through careful study and scrutiny. Orikan can even divine lesser occurrences: the movement of fleets, the destinies of individuals, even the strategies undertaken by campaigning armies - events not important enough to reshape the galaxy, but the foreknowledge of which can dramatically change the fortunes of the beholder. Though they make use of his laborious studies, few amongst Orikan's peers truly trust him. This is not altogether to do with his skills, for all Crypteks are capable of techno-sorceries that defy belief. The unease that Orikan provokes is due chiefly to the mocking scorn with which he treats the nobility of every rank, and to the knowing gleam in his eye that implies he is party to a joke that no other can perceive. Many an Overlord would dearly like to see Orikan punished for this quiet insolence. However, not only is such a course of action impolitic - the benefits of being able to call upon Orikan's skills greatly outweigh any offence caused by his manner - it is also almost entirely impossible. Orikan knows the plans of his rivals and enemies long before they do, and it is child's play for him to exploit such schemes to his personal advantage - an alteration that, more often than not, involves a fatal outcome for the original plotter. Skilled astromancer though he is, Orikan's predictions are not flawless. Unforeseen events can queer his calculations, wiping out and replacing his prophesied timeline. Warp travel is a consistent aggravation, as its eddies and anarchies seem to delight in defying his predictions. Under such circumstances, to preserve his plans and reputation, Orikan is forced to employ a closely guarded set of chronomantic abilities. Travelling backwards down his own timeline, he emerges in the past at a point at which he can set his prophesied version of the future back on track, normally by having the interfering factor destroyed in some manner. In Orikan's predictions, the Imperial Navy dockyards on Helios VI should never have survived the onset of Waaagh! Skullkrak, and did so only by an inconvenient intervention by the meddlesome Silver Skulls 4th Company. By retroactively arranging for the Space Marines to be ambushed and nearly wiped out by Necron forces some weeks earlier, Orikan ensured that the destruction of Helios VI ultimately occurred as first foreseen. Thus were the Necrons able to reclaim much of the surrounding sector but, more importantly, thus was Orikan's reputation kept intact. Yet Orikan has ever been sparing of such actions, for his meddling can birth all manner of unforeseen events. As a direct result of the Helios VI affair, no less than five Space Marine Chapters, including the Death Spectres, Howling Griffons and the remainder of the Silver Skulls, descended upon the Lazar system to take revenge, utterly destroying the Tomb World from whence Orikan's original commission had come. In that case Orikan's culpability in the disaster remained secret, but it could have easily gone otherwise. Orikan takes great care to keep his machinations hidden from his peers. Though chronomancy is a science practiced by many other Crypteks, no other is remotely capable of Orikan's feats, something that would increase a hundredfold the suspicion in which he is held. And suspicion is the last thing Orikan needs at this moment. A thousand millennia of planning and preparation are about to come to fruition, once the stars are in the proper alignment, Orikon will finally embrace his true destiny...

Wargear

• Necrodermis - Like all Necrons, Orikan's body is built from the self-repairing living Necrodermis metal, granting him the unholy resilience common to his kind.
• Phase shifter - Orikon always carry a defensive Phase Shifter. This device Use a form of unknown inter-dimensional science, rendering its bearer's form as hazy and indistinct, as though they were not completely corporeal. Shots and blows can then pass through the user's mechanical necrodermis body, meaning that even the most powerful weapons cannot harm him. This is because a Phase Shifter flickers the very fabric of its bearer into and out of a phased state as they move between dimensions. If improperly timed, even the most powerful blows and shots aimed at the bearer of a Phase Shifter instead pass through empty air.
• Transdimensional Beamer - Orikan always carries a Transdimensional Beamer as a sidearm. this Necron weapon was originally designed as a convenient method of banishing unwanted debris, machinery and failed experiments from Tomb Worlds and battlefields into a pocket dimension outside of the normal space-time continuum. However, a Transdimensional Beamer can be used just as easily to exile and banish foes to a long and horrifying death from starvation in the same extra-dimensional space.
• Staff of Tomorrow - Orikan's staff exists a half second ahead of 'now', his blows hitting the target an instant before he moves to strike.
• Lord of Time - Orikan's can use his nigh-on prescient divinations to influence the unfolding of a battle, by precisely predicting where and when allied ans enemy reinforcements will appear, and have the Necrons around him react accordingly
• The Stars Are Right - Wherever he goes, whenever he fights, there is always a chance that the stars will come into alignment and restore to Orikon a portion of ancient power. Whenever this happens, the body of Orikon coruscates with pent-up energy, and his prowesses on the battlefield increases tenfold. However, such correct celestial alignments are often fleeting, and Orikan eventually powers down, sometimes mere minutes after powering up.
• Temporal Snares - Using his Chronomancer powers, Orikan slows down the enemy advance and deployment, granting his side an often decisive edge at the start of a battle.

Sources

• Codex: Necrons (5th edition) pp. 7, 57