I feel I have to mention the movie Terminator first. Everything from their general appearance to their “I’ll be back” ability. This list would include the idea of living metal, a la the T-1000. Another reference would be the Borg of Star Trek, an enslaving group who have melded with machinery to become a collective consciousness. Televisions longest running sci-fi series gives us a race of aliens the Cybermen, of Dr Who.

Necron is taken from the word necro, meaning dead tissue, thus we can look at them as undead. The word C’tan, if you pronounce a soft C (as in S) and the ’ is seen as an A, then it is Satan. Pariahs are people who are rejected from society or home and fit in with the idea of them being untouchables while human. Immortals are a possible reference to the elite cadre of warriors who were the private bodyguard of the ruler of ancient Persia. Said to be 10,000 in number, they were called Immortals because as soon as one died, he was immediately replaced by a new warrior drawn from the ranks of the Persian army. In this way the force was always exactly 10,000 men. On page 32 of the codex they talk about three pyramids and how they align to a constellation. These are just like the Pyramids of Giza which are not in a perfect line, one is off set, to match the belt of the Orion constellation. Flayed Ones wearing the skin of those they kill is taken from Meso-America. Mayans, Aztecs, etc had ritual sacrifices where the priest would wear the skin of the sacrifice afterwards.

There is a scene at the start of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey that makes me think of the Necrons. The reason for this is the monolith which comes and influences our primitive ancestors. You could almost look at this as the creation of the pariahs and how Nightbringer was been burned into our collective subconscious as the Grim Reaper.

The largest influence on the Necrons is the writings of HP Lovecraft. He created a universe with gods called the old ones and cults that worshiped them. The old ones, not to be confused with the 40K old ones, are malevolent beings representing the C’tan. Paticularly things like the Colours Out of Space and Fire Vampires.

Most of the war gear contained in the codex is self explanatory. There are a few that will need further explanation. The Chronometron comes from chrono; time and metron; metronome. A Phylactery either of two small leather cases containing texts from the Hebrew Scriptures worn by Jewish men during morning prayer. Games Workshop, however, is not the only company to take from the real world and in Dungeons & Dragons, lichs which transform into an undead state through unholy rituals and store their soul in a magical jar called a phylactery. The Gauss weapons take their name from mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss, who has a unit of magnetic flux density named for him.

However there is one last source for the Necrons. Where does the name come from? Necro? Perhaps, but then where can you find a war between technology and psychics (magic). There is a movie called Wizards where you find a character named Avatar leading elves (Eldar) against his brother Blackwolf. The two have been at war for thousands of years and it is only through a new weapon (technology) that Blackwolf begins to win. Then there is a robot assassin, whose mission is to destroy Avatar. What is his name? Why Necron 99 of course. Need I say any more?