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Golden Men/ Stone Men/ Iron Men
16th Sep, 2008

This is a bit of wild musing on the nature of the Golden Men/ Stone Men/ Iron Men. It differs from GW material and what I have posted on my concept page on my site: Dark Age

Musings

I'm rather taken with the idea that it's a bit like Hesiod's works and days, specifically the ages of man. Obviously we have to muck about with it (or it's no fun) and I kinda lean towards the concept that it should aim to describe what it means to be human (or rather sentient) and their progeny. The idea of progeny has to be expanded a wee bit, to allow for creations other than reproduce that are 'sentient'. Not just genetic but meme, where DNA is but a code of information to create other codes of information in other formats.

Golden men = Original Psykers made by the Slaan (Old Ones)
Stone men = the great artificial intelligences
Iron men = a new chaos immune species.

This may have all be done to 'invade' the materium.

Transition of life form types

  1. In the grand scheme of concepts the Old Ones [who are warped based] create a materium species who are the Slann.
  2. The Slann variants include human beings. The humans start out as being fantastically powerful psykers, and are basically the gods of myth like Zeus etc.
  3. The humans then (seem to) degenerate away from being Psykers. They become 'us' (modern humans).
  4. Modern day humans are a transitional phase (see below), and do not show up in the ages.
  5. Humans, who devolve to merely having latent psyker abilities, but this does allow a link to the warp and for creativity. The humans create technology and the machines.
  6. Machines rise as a full materium life form lacking any form of warp connection.
  7. The great artificial minds are powerful, a 'god' in the materium, but not as good as the original Psykers in the god stakes.
  8. The machines create a new biological life form in the Iron Men.
  9. The Iron Men are literally a 'Tau' brain in a machine case (probably 'T.A.U'?).

As such humans are merely a means to an end and are outdated. They were made to bring about a fully 'materium being' able to function without connection to the warp.

Why the Old Ones would want to make such a creature is open to debate?

As I see it (in this concept) The 'ages of man' are merely steps to creating at end result (I suspect the Iron Men have left to do what they had to to, whatever that was. They may even have ended up as 'Necrons/ C'Tan' and form a basis for a warp invasion (where the Necrons are not actually opposed to the 'chaos gods', and function as counter-parts and agents. All working for the Old Ones?).

I suppose that's really pushing into what people are calling 'grimdark' a little too much. I'm sure many are not going to like the idea that the whole of human evolution is a mere 'stepping stone' to great plans, and all the terrible calamity in 40k is a mere trifle compared to the concerns of the Chaos Gods - Necrons and the greater plans of the 'Old Ones' (which makes the Old Ones power level off the chart (but they may be dealing with infinite alternate realities (all connecting to the same warp)). The plans of the Old Ones marches on relentlessly and humans have been forgotten. A mere 'remnant' of the fabric of the universe.

  1. Old Ones - govern infinite alternate realities and the warp
  2. Chaos gods - govern warp local to a given reality accross a whole universe
  3. Slann - govern the warp local to a given galaxy and can materialise.
  4. Necrons - govern a given galaxy and the physics within.
  5. Humans*  (and other sentients) govern worlds and lesser lifeforms on the (perhaps part of an 'evolution protocol' driven by 'chaos' and stabilised by the Necrons - Necrons perform 'cults' in this breeding program)
  • Humans are currently hitting outside their weight.

As to fact and connection, I vaguely remember RIk or someone suggesting the Stone Men were silicon based (CPU) with Iron men as robots, but I could be wrong.

Philip

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Hearing feedback is very important to me in developing my ideas. Much of my designs are inspired, and crafted, by chatting to fans on forums before snowballing into a full concepts posted on this website. I would like to thank all those who have contributed critiques and participated in discussions over the years. If you would like join in, you are most welcome!

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