Event · M0–M40
Great Sleep
The Great Sleep was the prolonged dormancy of the Necron dynasties, begun after the War in Heaven and lasting some sixty million years. It followed the Necrontyr’s bargain with the C’tan, their transfer into metallic bodies, and their war against the Old Ones and the younger races the Old Ones had fostered. Once the C’tan were shattered into shards and the Necron empire had been left depleted, its remaining dynasties are recorded as withdrawing into stasis within their tomb worlds. Accounts differ on how far the decision rested with the Silent King, Szarekh, and how far it was forced by attrition, the loss of the C’tan’s power, and the Necrons’ own diminished numbers. The Sleep was not a single event at a single place but a scattering of long vigils across the galaxy, and Orrery anchors it to Solemnace as one site within that wider pattern. While the dynasties slept, the younger races rose: the Aeldari reached their height and fell, humanity spread among the stars, and the orks multiplied. Tomb complexes were left under the care of automated systems and a few wakeful custodians. The slumber did not end everywhere at once. Some tombs are recorded as failing early, others as opening through the interference of outsiders, and many stayed sealed. The consequences shape the present era of the setting. From the 41st millennium onward, awakened dynasties have re-emerged to reclaim worlds, and the Silent King is recorded as returning in the years of the Indomitus Crusade. The Great Sleep therefore fills the gap between the War in Heaven and the modern Necron revival. It explains why an ancient power that had been silent for so long could reappear as an active claimant to the galaxy.
See where Great Sleep occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.