Time to overthink another necron guy!
Anrakyr the Traveler! Overlord of Pyrrhia (Pyrhhia? I never get it right, hang on...okay it's Pyrrhia). Blue guy who's good with machines and drew the short stick when it came to necron nicknames (Silent King! Stormlord! Diviner! Infinite! Traveler...sorry it just doesn't have a same vibes)
To get a little meta right off the bat, when I'm analyzing a character (a thing I just do for fun in my spare time because I'm a normal person), I generally start with the question most authors are going to frame that character's story around: what does this person want and why? Sometimes that's easy. An author (or multiple authors) has already written that character in a way that clearly outlines their goal+motivation so I just start there and let my thoughts run wild. Trazyn wants to collect things for his museum because he is a kleptomaniac gremlin believes in the inherent value of culture and history. Szarekh wants to reverse biotransference because it sucks and its his fault. That is the seed from whence all rambling blooms for me.
Anrakyr...does not have that clarity.
We do know what he wants! To awaken and unite all the sleeping necron dynasties. That's where his name comes from: traveling the galaxy, seeking out tombworlds to bring them up to speed on the state of this messed up galaxy we call home. Okay cool. Why does he want to do this? Uh...
Even in-universe, this question doesn't have a clear answer. To some, he's incredibly noble. He left behind his homeworld, sacrificing his throne, to help his people adjust to a tumultuous new era. A lot of these tombworlds are waking up damaged, or occupied by hostile alien species that didn't exist when they went to sleep. Maybe their planet is in a different part of space. It sure would be nice to have someone explain everything before an ork eats your face.
The opening paragraphs of Devourer refer to Anrakyr as "would-be overlord of the necrons." Does that just refer to the dynastic rank of overlord (if so, why add on the "would-be" since he literally is an overlord?) or does that line hint at higher ambitions? Is he trying to unite the dynasties under him? That's certainly possible! Ambition is not exactly unusual for necron nobility. It explains his suspicion towards the triarch prateorians who follow him around (put a pin in them). He thinks of them as spies, servants of a rival...and that rival is The Silent King. That's one hell of an enemy to choose.
Cool, right? Except there's another side to Anrakyr. Because he doesn't just go around helping other tombworlds, he demands a price: weapons, legions, other tributes. To some, who have just woken up and had lifesaving information dangled in front of them only to have it ripped away if they don't pay up? That doesn't seem strictly altruistic.
Anrakyr is fine killing his own subordinates for failure (see the Carnac campaign where he sets up his own general to die for the crime of not killing space elves with suitable efficiency). Of course, given that most of Anrakyr's armies are tributes, most of his forces aren't loyal to him per se. Aside from the immortals that left Pyrrhia with him. But overall he's in an awkward spot within his own army.
Except if Anrakyr wants to rule...why leave behind Pyhrria, the planet he literally ruled?
You see my problem here?
Okay then, where does that leave us? A goal with a bunch of conflicting motivation, actions, and no clear answers. And I admit, I was stuck here with Anrakyr for a while! I kind of wrote him off as "The Stormlord we have at home" and moved on.
Until I started writing for him myself. At which point "this dude is an inconsistent mess" doesn't really cut it.
The thing about people (and by extension characters) is that people change. Especially when a bunch of different unconnected writers major, violent events happen across millennia. So what if both versions of Anrakyr are true? What if the well-intentioned savior and the would-be conqueror are each aspects of the same person.
Going back to those three triarch praetorians.
For those unaware, Anrakyr has the joy of hosting three emissaries from the triarchy. Three praetorians whose names he does not know, so he literally just named them the necron equivalent of A, B, and C. He assumes they are spies for Szarekh, to whom he has no interest in pledging service, but he still keeps them around. They are mysterious, they literally hang random trinkets from their head pieces like Christmas ornaments, and they give cryptic advice.
What the heck are these three doing here?
I guess they could be spies, but why the heck would Szarekh send three praetorians to keep an eye on Anrakyr who really is not that important in the grand scheme of necron politics? Don't get me wrong, he's not a nobody, but...he's got a ragtag army, a planet he doesn't visit, and some Blood Angels he teamed up with one time. This is not someone the Silent King desperately needs to watch out for.
But hey, speaking of Blood Angels, remember The Word of the Silent King? The one short story where Szarekh has an active presence. Guess who else is in that story?
Anrakyr the Traveler.
He's in the first line! The necron half of the story is being told to him by one of the praetorians. Why draw such an intentional parallel between these two characters? Sure, sets up Anrakyr's involvement in the Devastation of Baal lead up (ngl I don't know the order these stories were published it could be the other way around, either way GW is tying up their lore in a bright little bow) but narrative continuity is a BORING answer for CHUMPS so LET'S GO DEEPER!
What might three weird little triarch praetorians see in Anrakyr that they also see in Szarekh?
Tragedy.
Szarekh's entire character is defined by tragedy (see my ramble about him for details). What if Anrakyr is in a similar position? What if he started his journey with all those good intentions? The desire to save his people, free them from alien invaders? And overtime those intentions got corrupted, turning him into the harsh, suspicious, bitter person we see in Devourer? The Anrakyr in that story doesn't care about the tombworld he's supposedly saving. He hates organic life, he needs the reinforcements from that world...but never does he truly express concern about it. Or sorrow when he finds it consumed by the flayer virus. But consider how many tombworlds he's seen fall to the flayer virus? Or infighting, or madness, or aeldar, or orks, or humans, or a random supernova or a million other things? Imagine how many worlds he found but could not save? This is a person who has lost the plot.
But the person who inspired those stories of nobility still exists. He still organized a massive campaign of different dynasties to save the tombworld of Carnac. He still defended necron tombworlds against the Silver Skulls (who are a real space marine chapter and not just a Trazyn goof!). He still fought Tyranids alongside the Blood Angels and the Mephrit.
Anrakyr's praetorian buddies have told him the Silent King won't speak to him. Yet. But Szarekh will if Anrakyr proves worthy. Anrakyr probably doesn't care either way, but for a praetorian to say this about their king is huge. To me it shows that they believe Anrakyr could be worthy, one day. They think he's worth watching. Not as a ruthless crusader, but as another person who suffered for their good intentions and came through it with a renewed purpose.
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