Editing Flayed Ones (section)

==Fluff==
Flayed Ones are basically the Lepers of Necron society, feared and ostracized for their disease. Although instead of sending them to a Leper colony, the Necrons simply try to kill them to prevent the spread of infection before it fully emerges (that's disease control in [[Warhammer 40,000]] for you); the ones that don't die (and being Necrons with the ability to self-repair even after being nuked that's most of them) end up in a weird subspace dimension where they hang out with other Flayed Ones until they sense bloody battle, at which time they warp out, kill everything with a pulse, and warp back there again once they're done. The "clean" Necrons don't mind this so much as long as the Flayed Ones stay far, far away, (so they don't catch the illness), and fuck off as soon as the battle is up.

This new lore comes from the Fifth Edition Necron [[Codex]]. In Third Edition, Flayed Ones were just close-combat specialists whose affliction caused them to become feral, but also heavily increased their already considerable melee prowess. If that were the end of it, then they could have almost been thought of as Necron <s>wulfen</s> digganobz, but the fact that Flayed Ones like to play dress-up with the skins of their slain foes makes any such comparison impossible. Their choice of attire was because they'd gone insane, either from being roboticized or because [[Grimdark|the hibernation protocol failed and they were forced to spend 65 million years awake and immobile I-Have-No-Mouth-And-I-Must-Scream-style]].

The novels/stories have added new dimensions that make them even nastier. In one book, the Flayed Ones flay people because in their warped minds they're just trying to turn themselves back into beings of flesh and blood. In the Psychic Awakening story "Gone Dark" their intelligence and sadism get a boost; a Flayed One flays a guardswoman and wears her skin before messing with her brother by impersonating her - including flawless voice mimicry and awareness of their relation - to get close to him and then attacking.

Unfortunately, their models and their lore were not updated well -- they went from "pray we kill you ''before'' we flay you" to "dance party."

That is, until 9th edition hit and now they have some great plastic models which resemble those from Dark Crusade.


A relative stable one, who calls himself Steve the Human, has infiltrated the Guard on unknown purpose as a simple private. Despite this, he came to enjoy his role and the people around him, gaining his regiment more than one victory and himself a fair share of fame all across the Imperium.

===The Bone Kingdom of Drazak===
A nice piece of story from the 5th Edition Necron Codex tells of a legendary [[Tomb World]] named Drazak (located in the Ghoul Stars) or alternatively the Bone Kingdom. It's a world populated almost entirely by Flayed Ones, who are ruled by Valgul the Fallen, a Necron Lord who is immune to the Flayer virus. The world is devoid of living creatures, so the Flayed ones roam around fighting each other for scraps of rotten meat and bone. Every few ''months'' Valgul rises from his throne of bone and announces a Time of Bounty, where they launch fleets to raid nearby planets to collect flesh and blood of the living to sate his subject's hunger. Which leaves the questions '''a)''' Why anyone would stay on those nearby planets, '''b)''' Why nobody has performed [[Exterminatus]] upon Drazak yet and '''c)''' Why the Flayed Ones return to Drazak instead of crusading across the stars.<br>All three questions are answered by one word: [[Grimdark]].

More light is shed (and questions raised) on the Bone Kingdom of Drazak in the Twice Dead King series. Valgul is dismissed by the protagonist Oltyx as a myth, believing that it is impossible for a Necron to keep his sanity after contracting the Flayer Virus. Yet circumstances conspire that he must bring his Dynasty, heavily afflicted by the Flayer Curse, to Drazak while it turns out he himself has it yet somehow retains all of his faculties. Eventually when his arrives at Drazak, he finds it completely empty and lifeless, seemingly waiting for a king to reign over it. Heavily implying that he became Valgul in the end (also aided by the fact he ends up losing his eye, exactly like how Valgul is described in the codex). How this works is left ambigious; he may have traveled back in time (due to travelling through an alternate dimension called the Ghostwind which is also revealed to be the same dimension Flayed Ones use for their travel), Valgul may be a title passed down between Necron Lords over the generations or it may be that Valgul truly was a myth until Oltyx took on his role.

===Flayer Kings===
When a Necron Lord is overcome by the Flayer Curse, he retains his intelligence while still being absolute fucknuts. These figures inevitably become seen as leaders by their lesser brethren. Sadly, despite the concept of a Flayed One Lord being introduced in the Fall of Damnos novel which was our first exposure to Newcron lore, they have never received proper models or rules like Destroyer Lords have, the closest being the Court of the Flayer King formation from War Zone Damnos.

A particularly nasty example of one is Unnas the Eater of Gods, from Twice Dead King: Ruin. The Phaeron of the Ithakas Dynasty, Unnas got infected and proceeded to break into the mausoleum of Ithakka (the founder of his dynasty in Necrontyr times), devour his corpse and wear his mummified face as a mask, in his madness believing he had obtained divinity from this horrific act.
* To explain the magnitude of this act, Ithakka is worshipped by his Dynasty to the point that they had a law ''predating Bio-transference'' protecting Ithakka's corpse to the point that even ''looking'' at it is a capital offense, including for royalty. The mummified body was only tended to by canoptek drones or ritually blinded morticians.

In light of the above, even his second son, the caustic and mostly irreverent Oltyx, was horrified by his father's act and abandoned the attempted negotiation to try and kill him for the sacrilege.

Unnas became a weak-minded pawn of his vizier and drove his dynasty into ruin as he sold off the mineral wealth of his kingdom to other dynasties in exchange for shipments of captives. Eventually he was executed by his son Oltyx, having degraded to the point his own Lychguard gave their silent permission to this mercy-killing.