40k Lore: War in Heaven

The War in Heaven is an essential component of the origins of the 40k setting, one that has in many ways set the stage for all that came after, and on request let us examine what we know of it.

In this case, of course, the War in Heaven is the ancient conflict between the C’Tan and their Necrotyr servants and the Old Ones and the various species of intelligent life they created to aid them.  Unfortunately for anyone wanting to know more about this chapter of ancient history, there is very little known about it.  This is mostly a function of the vast time frames involved; the end of the war was 70 million years before the current date, and the war itself is said to have lasted for eons.  Much of what is known exists in the form of paleontology, or in the mythology of some of the most ancient cultures in the galaxy.

As a result we can construct only the most basic framework of the conflict.

Sometime in the most distant past, hundreds of millions (perhaps even billions) of years in the past, two very different species evolved to sentience; one was the enigmatic C’Tan energy beings, dwelling in and feeding upon stars, the other was the mysterious organic species known only as the Old Ones.  The C’Tan dwelled for countless eons in their stellar homes oblivious to the universe around them.  The Old Ones reached out to explore the universe they saw around them, whether through natural development or technology they extended their own lives to neigh-immortality and used this time to develop further develop their control of the universe. They became adept at the manipulation of warp/realspace interaction and from this knowledge they created their own dimension the Webway to facilitate interstellar travel so that with a single step they could cross the vast gulfs between stars. One other area in which they developed great skill was the manipulation of life itself, and whether out of benevolence, curiosity, or loneliness, they fostered and created life wherever they could.

At some point another species rose to sentience, the Necrotyr. Unlike the other two this species was still young, and compared to the lives of the Old Ones their existences were barely flickers, and rendered more difficult by the fickleness of their star which periodically flared to bath their planet in radiation.  They sought to spread out into the galaxy and find other worlds and ways to prolong their lives, but were frustrated by the insufficient reach of their science and technology. They saw in the Old Ones everything that they wanted for themselves but could not acquire, and so they came to resent and hate them. They sought to take what they wanted from the Old Ones but could not, and so they tried to destroy them but could not, and the Old Ones barely even took notice. So in bitterness they threw themselves into their pursuit of technology to try to bridge the gap, sought out ways to extend their lives, and studied their star to try to make what life they had more bearable.  It was in this way that they first encountered the C’Tan.

The being in their star that had rendered it unstable was the first of its kind to perceive life other than its own kind.  It also discovered that it could draw sustenance from these new beings, and it found that such food was good, far more flavorful than the tasteless energy of the star which had been its only food until then. The Necrotyr died in droves to feed this new hunger they had awakened, however at last they were able to communicate with it, to placate it. They promised it sweeter meat existed in the galaxy, and the freedom to seek it out if it would help them. They clad it and others of its kind in metal bodies, and pledged themselves to these beings. With their unique perspective on matter and energy they advanced the technology of the Necrotyr, and in time promised them immortality and metal bodies of their own.  But in this they deceived the Necrotyr, they received their “immortality” and their metal bodies, but all but a handful were rendered mindless automatons, slaved purely to the will of their new masters.  Armed with their new technology and with the C’Tan at their head the “Necrotyr” (if indeed they could be called this any longer) launched again their war on the galaxy.

The Old Ones were caught off-guard at first, taken aback by this new foe, but they were not defenseless, and their ageless minds could look to the long war.  So they made soldiers of their own, the created and shaped the life on many worlds and made it into soldiers to champion them.  And war raged across the galaxy, war like nothing that has ever existed since. Stars were snuffed out, and the genocide of entire species were accomplished as skirmishes or as rations to sate the C’Tan hunger. Who can say how long this war raged? It may have flowed back and forth for thousands, or more likely millions of years.  It is known that the Old Ones wielded evolution itself as a tool, and made weapons of entire species.  What is known is that it waxed and waned, but eventually the C’Tan ever so slowly and inexorably pushed their way to victory. For vast lengths of time the C’Tan ruled the galaxy all but completely with the Old Ones trapped in their enclaves.  However, with their apparent success the C’Tan turned upon one another, and when the feeding frenzy ended only the four strongest remained. Faced with an enemy torn by internal conflict and diminished in numbers the Old Ones and their servant races struck and won key victories, rekindling the age old conflict. 

However, unknown the both sides the constant war and the disturbance of so many new sentient minds scheming and suffused with strong emotions of hate and rage and fear created compounding ripples in the previously calm warp, and new things were spawned there. New predators of thought and desire prowled this realm, and would in time give rise to the Chaos Gods, and older predators were drawn to these fertile hunting grounds. The Enslaver plagues began, and swept the galaxy, laying waste to the resurgent Old Ones and their servants. The C’Tan and their slaves were not suitable prey to these horrors, but far from a respite from the new offensive they realized that their prey was being poisoned and destroyed. So while the Old Ones and their servant species struggled for their very existence (and in many cases lost) the C’Tan hid themselves away, determined to slumber away the eons in their ageless slumber until the galaxy was once again a fertile feeding ground…