Sautekh Dynasty

The Sautekh Dynasty is a Necron dynasty, a ruling lineage of the Necrons, and one of the most powerful xenos forces on the Eastern Fringe. The Necrons are an ancient species of robotic warriors, and the Sautekh ranks among their greatest and most warlike dynasties, ruled by Phaeron Imotekh the Stormlord. To many within the Imperium the name Sautekh has become synonymous with the Necrons as a whole, though this is recorded as a considerable overstatement of its true standing among the wider dynasties.

Before biotransference (the process that transformed the mortal Necrontyr into the undying Necrons), the Sautekh ranked third among all dynasties in power. Many of its tomb worlds (dormant Necron burial-complexes) survived the Great Sleep, the aeons-long Necron hibernation, though its crownworld of Mandragora fell into civil war after its Phaeron succumbed to the ravages of time. One contending claimant awoke the Nemesor Imotekh to win him the throne; Imotekh instead seized the dynasty for himself. The Sautekh dominion comprises some eighty tomb worlds, including Akynatos, Cano’var, Davatas, Hypnoth and Schrodinger VII. Several lesser dynasties, among them Arrynmarok, Horth, Sekemtar and Malthost, are held as client powers, while the Karnokh Dynasty broke away after its awakening, coming to regard its own reawakened warriors as accursed.

Under Imotekh, the Sautekh nobility pursues an aggressive campaign of galactic reconquest, enslaving non-human worlds and warring on neighbouring Necron dynasties that refuse it fealty; defeated rivals are shown greater respect than lesser foes, yet are nonetheless absorbed into the dynasty. Recorded campaigns include the Cerberax Wars, the Absorption Wars, the sieges of Somonor, Khanoris and Hypnoth, the conquest of Uttu Prime, the Sanctarro Campaign, the Battle of Schrodinger VII, the War for Amontep II and the Ultramarian Reclamation, together with attacks upon Tigrus, Bellus Prime and Attila. Sautekh forces have also fought at the Battle of Sanctuary 101 and turned back an ork Waaagh! led by the warlord Snagratoof. More recently, Imotekh has led the Sautekh in open defiance of the Silent King, the supreme ruler of the Necrons, in the Pariah Crusade within the Pariah Nexus.

Imotekh the Stormlord is served by the bodyguard Vargard Osirok and stands alongside other notable Sautekh nobles, including the Nemesor Zahndrekh, attended by his own bodyguard Vargard Obyron, and the Cryptek (a Necron artificer-priest) Orikan the Diviner. In the present era the Sautekh Dynasty remains among the foremost Necron powers, its ambitions for dominion and its rivalry with rival and breakaway dynasties alike continuing to shape the balance of power along the Eastern Fringe.