Warhammer 40K: Necrons & The Dolmen Gates
Necrons used to be able to access parts of the Webway – yep, THAT Webway. What happened? It’s time to talk about the Dolmen Gates.
Back in June we talked a bit about the Necrons and how they are able to travel through space using their Inertialess Drives. But there is another piece of technology they have that was used during the War in Heaven to breach into the Webway and move on the Old Ones – The Dolmen Gates.
Dolmen Gates are living stone portals used by the Necron race that function by tapping into the Webway.
They were constructed during the closing stages of the War in Heaven with their design orchestrated by the C’tan known as Nyadra’zatha. The Burning One had long desired to take his eldritch fires into the Webway itself and is known to have taught the Necrons how to breach its walls. A series of such devices were constructed which allowed the Necrons to turn the Old Ones’ greatest weapon against them, which greatly accelerated their defeat.
Webway Portal
Their nature means that they are both unstable and uncontrollable when compared to natural entry points into the Webway. In an unknown way, the Webway even detects breaches into itself by the Dolmen Gates and moves to seal off the infected spur until the danger posed by it passes. Thus, any Necron entry into the Webway must move quickly to reach its destination, otherwise the network itself will bring about their destruction. In the aeons that have passed since the War in Heaven, the Dolmen Gates became lost or abandoned during the Great Sleep or destroyed by the Eldar whilst the Webway itself has become a tangled, broken labyrinth.
The remaining Dolmen Gates only grant access to a small portion of the Webway, with much of the network being sealed by the Eldar to prevent further contamination.
It seems these Dolmen Gates used to be the “main” mode of transportation for the vast distances between the stars. At least during the time of the Old Ones. Most of this information comes from the 5th Edition Necron Codex and the lore on the Inertialess Drives comes from Battlefleet Gothic. While these two pieces of technology do seem to contradict each other as the “main method of interstellar travel” it’s pretty clear that the Dolman Gates aren’t being used at this point – with the Webway actively being sealed off from them.
These Dolman Gates do seem to point towards the tech was used to develop the gates that are used to bring in troops via Monolith’s Eternity Gates. Perhaps these Dolman Gates (which are made of “living stone”) were modified and rearranged into other means of transportation.
Want to Learn more about the Necrons? Check out the Lexicanum!
