The Outsider

The Madness

Among the C'tan, the Outsider is the one whose nature most resembles its name. The Necron records suggest he was always slightly other than his fellow Star Gods — too long alone in the deep void between stars, too willing to dwell on the cold facts of galactic emptiness. By the close of the War in Heaven the other C'tan had concluded that he was, in some operational sense, broken.

What exactly broke is unclear. Some Necron historians suggest he ate another C'tan — Llandu'gor the Flayer, said to be the missing fifth Star God — and could not digest the soul. The flayer's consciousness now lives inside him, screaming.

The Exile

When the Necron dynasties shattered the rest of the C'tan, they did not shatter the Outsider. They exiled him. The Silent King's personal decision, according to the Necron record, was to construct a Dyson sphere around a chosen star beyond the galactic edge and seal the Outsider inside it. The reasoning was that a being who could not be eaten and could not be trusted should at least be kept somewhere far enough away that his interference could be detected before it arrived.

The Dyson sphere still exists. The Outsider, presumably, is still inside it.

He laughs at the stars. The stars do not laugh back.

— Necron poetic fragment

The Flayer Curse

Necrons across the galaxy occasionally develop the Flayer Curse — a degeneration in which the affected Necron becomes obsessed with wearing strips of organic flesh, treating other beings' bodies as material for grotesque self-adornment. The curse is contagious by proximity, untreatable by Necron technology, and ends in the affected dynasty being quarantined.

The Necron theological view, when pressed, is that the Flayer Curse leaks from the Outsider's exile. That if Llandu'gor is still screaming inside him, his pain is sometimes audible to Necron minds across the galaxy. They do not have a fix for this.

M42 Speculation

Imperial xenologists with access to the Ordo Xenos' deeper files have noted that nothing prevents the Outsider's Dyson sphere from being approached, if a sufficiently powerful intelligence wished to open it. The Silent King is the obvious candidate. The Silent King has not yet done so. Whether this is restraint or whether the original exile has additional safeguards that the King is still unwilling to test is, like most questions in this archive, unanswered.

The Pre-War Position

The Outsider's specific pre-War in Heaven theological-and-operational position within the C'tan pantheon was sustained-marginal: the Outsider was classified as the C'tan pantheon's specific marginal figure, with arrangements that operated at the C'tan pantheon's periphery rather than at the pantheon's core. The position was sustained-institutionally distinctive; the C'tan pantheon's arrangements had permitted the Outsider's sustained-marginal arrangement without integration of the Outsider into the pantheon's core.

The Outsider's specific pre-War operational character was sustained-isolated: the Outsider operated through sustained personal operational engagement with the C'tan pantheon's requirements rather than through coordination with the pantheon's core. The arrangement had been sustained across the C'tan pantheon's complete pre-War operational history; the Outsider had maintained distance from the pantheon's core for reasons that the broader C'tan pantheon's surviving operational documentation does not specifically address.

The Outer Darkness

The Outsider's specific post-War operational position has been sustained-isolated across the broader C'tan pantheon's post-War operational fragmentation. The Outsider has maintained distance from the broader C'tan pantheon's arrangements; the Outsider's base is classified as "the Outer Darkness" — a position at the outer galactic-margin that the broader C'tan pantheon has been unable to access. The arrangement has been sustained across approximately sixty million years of post-War operational history.

The Outsider's specific Outer Darkness operational arrangement has been significant for the Outsider's character. The Outsider has, by sustained C'tan pantheon assessment, developed character traits that the broader C'tan pantheon's arrangements have not been familiar with. The traits include: hostility toward broader C'tan pantheon institutional arrangements, unpredictability in the Outsider's decisions, and continued action patterns that the broader C'tan pantheon has been unable to predict.

The Flayer Affliction

The Outsider's affliction — sustained Flayer-pathology that affects continued action with biological substrates — is distinctive among C'tan pantheon members. The affliction operates through sustained C'tan-biological compulsion: the Outsider requires sustained engagement with specific biological materials (specifically, the sustained processing of biological materials into arrangements that the broader C'tan pantheon's operational arrangements do not require). The compulsion is sustained-irresistible; the Outsider's decisions have been calibrated around the affliction's requirements.

The Flayer affliction has produced consequences for the Outsider's broader work. The Outsider has infected sustained populations of post-biotransference Necron individuals with sustained Flayer-pathology; the infected Necron populations operate through sustained Flayer-compulsion that mirrors the Outsider's compulsion. The infected populations are classified as Flayed Ones; the Flayed Ones operate through continued action with biological materials that the broader Necron species' operational arrangements have been unable to suppress.