Warhammer 40K: The Void Dragon of Mars Ad-Mech Connection
Today delve into the Void Dragon that may or may not still be trapped on Mars. Exactly what do the Mechanicus know about this?
Alright Loremasters, it’s time to put on your tinfoil hat and connect some dots. The Necrons got their new Void Dragon C’tan Model – which looks pretty rad at the kickoff of 9th Edition. However, this development has us wondering what this means for Mars. Let’s all think back to the old Codex: Necrons (3rd Edition) book that had a short story about a particular Necron fleet ship that attacked Mars. Why was it attacking and what was it after? For years folks believed it was trying to reach the Void Dragon of Mars.
The Dragon of Mars is an ancient, exceedingly powerful entity that is currently imprisoned in the Noctis Labyrinth on Mars. There are hints that point to it possibly being one of the C’tan, more specifically Mag’ladroth the Void Dragon, but it has not been explicitly stated that this is the case.
Overview
The Dragon of Mars was supposedly defeated in combat by the Emperor on ancient Terra and later imprisoned under the surface of Mars. It has remained there for millennia, its influence affecting the inhabitants of that planet and leading to the creation of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It is watched over by a series of individuals known as the Guardians of the Dragon — much of the information known about the Dragon comes from these Guardians due to their ability to share the creature’s memories, the veracity of these memories is debatable however.
Historical Context
According to Adept Semyon, one of the versions of the Dragon’s memories shows him fighting the Emperor near the city of Cyrene, in Libya, around the 11th or 12th century (i.e., the first or second century M2), but also as a soldier serving Emperor Diocletian (who ruled from 284-305.M1), which implies that this battle is the origin of the story of Saint George and the Dragon.
Saint George Killing the Dragon, woodcut by Albrecht Dürer (1501/4)
In this account, the Emperor (described as a lone warrior knight in golden armour and a scarlet-plumed helmet, riding on a mighty charger of midnight-black and wielding a tall lance of purest silver, from which flew a long red and white banner depicting a soaring eagle grasping a bolt of lightning) fought the Dragon (described as being half crawling beast with talons like scythe blades and half loathsome bird, with an immense scaled head, a tail twenty metres long, malignant fire in its eyes, plate-like scales rippling like liquid mercury, and the light of devoured stars shining in its breast) and defeated it by thrusting his sword at a weak spot beneath the Dragon’s left wing and then tied his banner around the helpless Dragon, although he stated that he was unable to destroy it completely.
Whether this describes a literal conflict or an allegorical one is unclear – it is implied that, at some point between the time of this battle and the Age of Strife, the Emperor brought the Dragon to Mars and imprisoned it in the Labyrinth. However, as the only given record of this is the recollections of the Guardians, the exact truth is unclear. What is known is that, by the 31st millennium, the Dragon lies imprisoned beneath the Noctis Labyrinth on Mars.
Learn More about the Dragon of Mars
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