Operator Recommended Game Story · Warhammer 40,000 Part 3

Ancient Galaxy · The War in Heaven and the Races That Lived in Its Wake

Spoiler Notice: This installment covers the ancient war between the Old Ones, the Necrons, and the C'tan, as well as the legacy of the Aeldari and the Webway. The state of the Gilead System in later eras is introduced as a comparison to understand the scars of that war. This is a novel-style commentary based on cross-referencing official public materials; it does not fabricate unrecorded battle sequences or dialogue for ancient beings as if they were canon.

Even after the war ended, the stars remembered the conflict. On some worlds, the masters of the palaces changed; on others, the palaces themselves no longer remained. It was not just armies that were destroyed by ancient weapons. The paths that later voyagers would take, the planets that would be settled, and even the alignment of the stars they would gaze upon were all affected by the destruction. Long before humanity gave itself the name of an Empire, the galaxy already bore irreparable wounds.

In the previous two parts, we saw how the Necrontyr became the Necrons, beings of living metal. Now, we shift our gaze beyond those armies. What kind of war did the immortality they sought to escape death bring upon other life forms? And who were the beings that endured longer than the victory or defeat of the war itself? These questions are essential for reading the War in Heaven.

Chapter 1 · The War Changed by an Undying Army

The Necrons and the C'tan waged a massive war against the Old Ones. While biotransference replaced the frail bodies of the Necrontyr with strong metal, that change did not diminish the toll of the war. A faction with troops that could be repaired and revived could sustain the fight. The Star Gods revealed their power to the galaxy alongside those armies. The new possibilities gained by one race were an endlessly encroaching threat to others.

Official lore explains that the Old Ones also created numerous races to stand against them. If one depicts the war only through the numbers of armies, this aspect is missed. It was an era where even the forms and abilities of life were tied to the results of the war. The moment one asks whether a being was born to protect the world it lives in or to carry out the war of another, the origin itself becomes part of the conflict.

However, I do not pretend to know the production processes of every ancient race or the sequence of every battlefield based on this broad explanation. The War in Heaven is a domain where one must cross-reference different versions of lore, myths, and later memories. Here, we follow the beings and legacies whose connections are confirmed in official public materials. I do not create a complete chronology by attaching arbitrary commanders and planets to battles where specific names are not confirmed.

Chapter 2 · The Power of the Path

In a war that spans the galaxy, the ability to move is as important as the power to strike down an opponent. The Webway is a key name for understanding such history. If one reads it merely as a long road floating in realspace, its meaning is lost. One must distinguish between material space and the Warp, and understand the strange passages between them separately.

In official short stories, Szeras observes realspace, the Warp—which the Necrons call by other names—and the remnants of the Old Ones' Webway. That is the perspective of a later figure. The passages he sees are legacies already stretched and torn, and his hostile judgment is not the same as a neutral explanation from one who witnessed the creation of the galaxy firsthand. Yet, that scene shows the connection that the paths of a vanished civilization still hold meaning in the strategies and research of tens of millions of years later.

The later appearance of the Aeldari and Harlequins using those paths will be covered in the subsequent faction installments. Let us not conflate the Warp travel used by the Empire with the Webway as the same mode of transport. Depending on which paths are known and which gates can be passed, small armies can appear across vast distances. The structure of space is not an empty background for war, but a condition that changes who can face whom.

Chapter 3 · The Aeldari Left Behind by the Creators

Officially licensed lore explains that after the War in Heaven, the races created by the Old Ones inherited the stars, and among them were the Aeldari. Their powerful psychic abilities and superior technology were the foundation for them to grow into a massive power in the galaxy. Possibilities of a different nature than the power the Necrons showed through metal and Star Gods filled the post-war universe.

Their prosperity makes it impossible to view the galaxy before the appearance of humanity as a simple void. Even in places that appear to human eyes as ancient alien ruins, there was someone's creation, labor, faith, and memory. The beings called by the old name of Eldar in later times and the Aeldari are not two separate races. I retain the original terms to ensure that one history is not split into two due to differences in names.

I do not transpose the appearance of modern Asuryani warriors onto the confirmed equipment of the ancient war here. The illustrations show the appearance of the surviving descendants. How the Path system of the Craftworlds, the spirit structures, and the customs of protecting souls became necessary after a tragedy will be continued in the main installment covering the Fall of the Empire and separate lore installments. Knowing the origin is different from thinking that all eras were the same.

Chapter 4 · War Determines the Next Master of a Planet

The system later called Gilead was under Necron dominion during the War in Heaven. Official public samples state that weapons terrible enough to extinguish stars and tear the order of the universe apart devastated the galaxy. Such descriptions go beyond the modifier of being powerful. It means that the very places where the civilizations of the next era would start were diminished and changed.

After the Necrons toppled the C'tan, the Lezektekhan Dynasty chose one of the devastated planets there as a place to slumber. As even that tomb world was later destroyed, the system became a nearly abandoned place. I do not extrapolate this case to the same fate for every tomb world in the galaxy. I read the fact that even in one confirmed location, war, the Great Sleep, and later destruction were layered as different strata.

The battlefields and shelters of one era become the objects of exploration in the next. Later Aeldari scholars investigated the fate of the vanished Necron tombs and attempted to transform other devastated planets into new places. Instead of the results of the war disappearing and ending, they became starting points that invited the questions and actions of other civilizations. Thus, the history of the galaxy continues in a way where the story of one faction is attached to the victory of another.

Chapter 5 · The Dawn Created After the Ruins

The Aeldari used biotechnology to turn barren planets into lush worlds. One world in Gilead was named Aral’dha. Public materials explain this as a name meaning 'flower of the dawn' in one of the Aeldari dialects. Where there was only stone, soil and life took root, and the planet became a Maiden World honoring their civilization and gods.

This is not a battle scene from the ancient war, but an example of the prosperous era that followed. Near the places left by the undying metal legions, a different kind of power appeared that created living planets. Placing the possibilities of the two civilizations side by side broadens the landscape of the galaxy. Not everything existed solely for destruction. However, the ability to create beautiful worlds did not guarantee the safety of the entire civilization forever.

When the scholars and artisans who completed Aral’dha returned to the heart of the Empire, the sense of the society they knew had also changed. This connection will be followed in more detail in the installment on the prosperity and fall of the Aeldari. The paradise they created, the descendants who wish to return to that paradise, and the histories of other races already settled there are intertwined. The beauty of a planet makes the loss of its later era more concrete.

Chapter 6 · A Map Older Than the Start of an Empire

It is a later story that humanity comes to call that world Ostia. To settlers who do not know the name that came before, a planet can be the starting point of their own civilization. However, in the eyes of the previous owners, it is a place stripped of life and memory. When different factions read the same map, different origins and rights overlap on the same land. The brief public history of Gilead is a window showing that collision.

Not all later Aeldari protect the past in the same way. The disciplined life of the Craftworlds, the survival methods of the Drukhari, the faith and performances of the Harlequins, and the freedom of the Corsairs each have different paths. In this installment, I do not retroactively apply those paths as institutions already completed in ancient times. The main installment connects the eras, the faction installments will read the differences of the divided descendants deeply, and the lore installments will explain the power and places to understand those choices.

The detailed origins and battle relationships of other ancient races, including the Krork, are research items that require separate official version cross-referencing. I do not add unverified creation purposes, armaments, and war sequences as confirmed events of this installment simply because I know the names. Such blanks do not mean that the Necrons and Aeldari alone can substitute for all ancient history. It is the remaining history that must be reconnected in the materials for those races and the installments on figures and factions.

Chapter 7 · The Problem After Victory

The galaxy after the War in Heaven was not the same place as it was at the beginning. Races had changed, stars had vanished, and paths, tombs, and new worlds remained. In the next installment, I will connect the betrayal of the Necrons turning against the C'tan and the Great Sleep in more detail. It is a return to the point where the fact that they defeated the enemy and the fact that they regained the life they wanted never became the same thing.

The Old Ones are different beings from the Old Gods of Warcraft. The C'tan are not the same as the Chaos Gods, and the Aeldari are not citizens of the Empire. One must maintain these boundaries of names so that the long stories of various factions do not erase one another. In Parts 1 and 2 of the table of contents below, you can reconfirm the starting point of the Necrontyr and biotransference. The Emperor of Mankind did not yet stand at the center of this galaxy. The stars had already seen too many masters pass by.

Official Materials and Scope of Verification

Verification Date: October 8, 2026 (UTC). This was written based on the lore and events confirmed in the official public materials below. The public samples and lore introductions were verified only within their respective scope; this does not indicate that the entire books were read. The illustrations are AI reconstructions, not official images.

Starting a Necron Army

What Is Biotransference?

Psychic Awakening: For Every End, a Beginning

Wrath & Glory: Inheritance of Embers — licensed public sample

Starting an Aeldari Army