| abstract | - The Necrons' underground tombs are generally quite large and cavernous, containing repair facilities that are manned by Canoptek Scarab robots that repair the Necrons that were critically damaged in recent battles. They have stasis units, in which the dormant Necrons hibernate. They also usually have a large room in which either the Necron Lord or Necron Overlord that commands the Tomb World (occasionally called a Platinum Lord or a Tomb Lord) sleep in a massive and ornate black stone sarcophagus. For many of the galaxy's myriad intelligent species, the re-emergent Necrons are but one terror amongst many in the darkness between the stars. Even within the Imperium of Man, the Necrons are only dimly understood, with just a handful of individuals aware of the true scale of the threat they represent to Mankind's dominion over the galaxy. Just as Necron society is rigidly hierarchical, so too are its Tomb Worlds. The most important are the crownworlds, oldest and proudest of all the Necron-held planets and the sites from which their dynasties and planetary clusters are governed. Crownworlds were once hubs of galactic power in the ancient days of Necron might, buttressed by tithe and tribute sent from elsewhere within the territory of their ruling dynasties. With access to such great resource-wealth, crownworlds were able to construct the most reliable stasis-crypts for their inhabitants. As a result, crownworld inhabitants that have weathered the slumbering millennia, without falling afoul of external circumstances, have done so in excellent condition -- though this only dampens the tragedy for the Necron race when a crownworld is lost to galactic calamity. Next in importance for any Necron Dynasty are the coreworlds, planets which together form the heart of a dynasty's interstellar territory. The rulers of coreworlds would inevitably be the close kin to the regent of their dynasty's crownworld, ensuring a bond of dynastic loyalty endured between the often diverse planets. Though neither so majestic nor so mighty as crownworlds, the coreworlds were great powers to be reckoned with in their heyday and, barring disaster, are so again in the late 41st Millennium. Finally, Necron fringeworlds are planets of tertiary importance to their ruling dynasty, not viewed as being of high enough status to be numbered amongst a dynasty's coreworlds. Fringeworlds were often poor or distant colonies of a dynasty, able to contribute to the wider realm only in terms of manual labour or as a location for penal institutions. Some fringeworlds will once have counted amongst the coreworlds of a different dynasty, but have since been conquered or otherwise subsumed into the dominion of their current ruler, thus descending in status. There is no such thing as a "typical" Necron Tomb World. Each answers only to the will of its noble ruler, and thus his proclivities define everything from its grand campaigns to trivialities such as architectural styles and forms of address between noble ranks. Nevertheless, there is one common cause that binds all Tomb Worlds: the rebuilding of the Necron dynasties of old, and the return of the Necrons to their rightful place of supremacy over the whole of the ignorant galaxy. The Tomb Worlds listed below represent no more than a handful of the many millions spread throughout the galaxy. Each revived world has its own idiosyncracies, and the number is ever growing. Who can say how many far-flung outposts of Mankind have their foundations set upon a planet long ago claimed by an immeasurably older civilisation, its inhabitants blissfully unaware of the slumbering horror at their planet's core. In these days of the Necrons' awakening, no world in the galaxy can truly rest easy...
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