The Old Ones are
the oldest among all races, save for the C'tan in their incorporeal state.
They were the first to cross the deep cold of space, and possessed a slow,
cold-blooded wisdom. During their evolution and travel among the stars, they
rose astronomy and astrology to arcane sciences. Their understanding of
parallel dimensions allowed them to use psychic powers, to manipulate their
surroundings using the powers locked up in the warp. They performed amazing
feats of psychic engineering. With the knowledge of psychics, they managed
to enter, map and control the vast webways which allowed them to travel to
almost any point in the galaxy in a matter of seconds.
Unfortunately, they found themselves to be alone in the galaxy, but with
their mastery of the webways, they spawned thousands of worlds, creating
many minor races which they helped to grow and flourish. In their divine
will, they created that which would destroy them, the Necrontyr. Their lives
were short under their blaring sun, producing a dour people. They sought
control of their lives through science, cold and hard. Eventually they
developed sufficient technology to grope out to the stars. They had to use
slow burning torch ships and sleeper ships made of their patent living
metal. When they met the Old Ones, they gained a deep hatred of them due to
their nigh-immortal lives. This was to prove the downfall of the Old Ones.
The First War against the Necrontyr had a massive cost in lives, but the
Necrontyr could never win. The Old Ones consistently outmaneuvered them
using their webway portals, and the Necrontyr were forced back to a remote
world in the outer rim of the Halo stars. The fury of the Necrontyr was
cooled over thousands of years of imprisonment, but they turned their hatred
against all life rather than just the Old Ones.
The Necrontyr had studied their star for millions of years. In their quest
for a weapon to use against the Old Ones, they found the C'tan. Gradually
they managed to talk with these ethereal creatures, but they knew they would
never be able to understand the material universe without a material body.
So the Necrontyr built the living metal bodies they are still adorned with.
They were worshipped as gods, as their powers were far beyond anything the
Necrontyr had seen before. As the C'tan became more manifest in their bodies,
they began to enjoy certain aspects of life more, including pain, suffering
and slavery.
Eventually, armed with the gods themselves, the Necrontyr were ready to
begin their war with the Old Ones afresh. But the C'tan offered them a way
out of their short lives by transferring their minds into metal bodies, much
like their gods. Whether the Necrontyr knew what they would lose by doing
this will never be known, but their entire population was purged. Their
minds were dulled and only a few retained any independent thought, but this
was only a fraction of what it had been. Now, the C'tan struck forth with
their legions of undying warriors. The Necrons were born.
The Old Ones were sent reeling. They could not match the cold science of the
Necrons and were pushed back. Millions were slaughtered and eventually the
Necrons dominated the galaxy. The last bastions of the Old Ones power were
besieged and many of the younger races were completely destroyed. The Old
Ones came to the conclusion that they needed to spawn minor races with
stronger links to the warp. These races included the Eldar. By using these
powers, the new races introduced pain and death into the warp, twisting the
entities into voracious killers.
The C'tan's empire was sent to their knees by the warp spawned magiks. They
decided to break the link to the Immaterium, removing the problem of psychic
powers. Eventually, with the eruption of the Enslaver Plague on the galaxy,
the Old Ones were broken and scattered, never to come to any power again and
eventually die out altogether.
The Old Ones created many races to serve them including the Slann, Eldar,
Krork, Jokaero and of course the Necrontyr. The Slann were probably the
absolute servants of the Old Ones and as such may have been one of the
earliest races created.
Also, the Old Ones are reputed to have predicted the downfall of the Eldar
and the creation of Slaanesh and gave control of the webways to the Eldar.
