Warhammer 40K: The Final Psychic Awakening Short Story
In the final short for Psychic Awakening, we get a glimpse into the mind of the Necrons as their grand plan beings to unfold.
Games Workshop has released the final short story in the Psychic Awakening series titled, “For Every End, a Beginning” and if you’ve ever wondered how the Necrons think, get ready for an interesting read. We’re going to be discussing this one so go read it before you continue.
Read For Every End, a Beginning HERE
Up next Spoilers. Duh.
Our story opens up with Illuminor Szeras. He’s our main Point-of-View character and we get to really delve into his mind in this story. Clearly, he’s got a very large ego and thinks very highly of himself. The thing is, he may not be entirely wrong. He’s recently gotten an upgrade to his body but it’s not just his physical appearance that got a refresh – his mind is also working at an accelerated rate.
This story alludes to the fact that the Necrons are up to something. Their new “Patron” has united many of the dynasties and is orchestrating a grand plan. To what end? That’s not entirely clear. Yet. Szeras seems to be in line with whatever this plan is and yet he seems to resent that this patron is the one pulling the strings. With all that processing power there’s still someone smarter than him.
Szeras clearly doesn’t want to disappoint this new Patron. And their goals are aligned for the time being as well. He steps into his a vast computational array and observers the universe. This is really where we get a better idea of some of the Necron’s capabilities. Now, there is a LOT of techno-babble in this story, but if you take a step back and analyze what it means it’s pretty cool.
The Necrons can see not only the different “layers” of reality but they can see the Webway and the “Energistic Infinity” which is their term for the Great Rift/Warp Rifts. Not only can they see them, they can also predict where the Warp will ebb and flow and where possible new rifts can open – or “violently close.”
This machine also allows Szeras to see the immaterean radiation pouring out and causing the psychic mutations among the biological life in the galaxy – specifically humanity.
After Szeras leaves his machine (a thought about his rival Orikan the Diviner causes him to lose focus), he visits his underlings. Where else would the bad guy go to feel better? Now he gets to be the big dog on campus and make others feel small. Gotta stroke that ego afterall!
On his way to this new area called the Contra-Empyric Matrix, we do get a tease that he’s been experimenting on Orks, Humans, and…Hrud! Pretty cool Easter Egg drop there. Eventually we get to the Matrix-thing and we meet a few of his underlings. Obviously, he’s got them doing busy work to make himself feel more important. He gives them a few commands and it’s clear that he could do it himself, but he gets some amount of joy from bossing them around.
We also learn that this Contra-Empyric Matrix maybe the the “thing” that is causing the malaise and depression among the “lesser races” like humans. Basically, it could be the thing that’s making people “go to sleep” or just feel like giving up. In their techno-babble:
The empyric dissonance triggered by the manifestation of the cascade chain through the Energistic Infinity is reducing. The rapid expansion of our contra-empyric matrix leads to ever greater degrees of disruption amongst the lesser races along its borders. This effort should have been so gradual as to be imperceptible to the short-lived vermin. Instead, you choose haste, and in so doing surely alert them to our efforts.
Anyways, after some back-and-forth, something truly interesting happens. Something NEW pops-up.
Sure enough, a fresh collection of glyphs can be observed amongst the confusion of life-signifiers and prospective nodal worlds beyond the boundary. Szeras’ single eye-lens flicks back and forth rapidly. He tracks blossoming empyric signatures that herald further glyphs that join the gathering swarm.
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These are labeled as “Human-form, prodigious militaristic disposition” – which translates to Imperial Troops. It’s probably Astra Militarum but it’s probably the Space Marines and (based on the trailer of 9th edition) Sisters of Battle.
Szeras knew this would happen. In fact, this was apparently part of the plan. He and his Patron wanted to get the attention of these new “Human-forms” and now they plan on testing the Contra-Empyric Matrix even more. I guess the Necrons really are setting traps now…
As the last short for the Psychic Awakening series, this one really feels like it’s just one more “…and you won’t believe what happens next” cliff hangers. Clearly, all these stories are leading up to SOMETHING big happening other than “just” the new edition. There are so many plot point and story seeds planted that GW has basically set themselves up for years to come with the lore they have created.
It’s not very satisfying to readers right now – that is very true. In fact, we’ve had 9 books announced and dozens of short stories and no real resolution. Lots of folks are feeling like PA was just a big old dud storyline wise. But it’s all a setup. And Games Workshop now has fertile ground to tell new stories in. Let’s just hope we get some payoff with all this lore…eventually.
What did you think of this last story? What do you think GW is planning as a big payoff for Psychic Awakening?!
