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Art: “Heldrake of the Iron Marauders (Apotheo Dynasty Necron Construct Detail)” by Vitaly Perevoshikov, used with the artist's permission. source

Necrons · Unit

Canoptek Wraiths

Serpentine robotic Tomb World sentinels equipped with dimensional destabilisation matrices that let them phase through solid fortress walls and armour plate.

Necrons

Category: Fast Attack
Faction: Necrons
Related characters: 3

Illustrated by Vitaly Perevoshikov (“Heldrake of the Iron Marauders (Apotheo Dynasty Necron Construct Detail)”, used with permission) · Additional gallery art by George Earl Abalayan (“necron warrior sketch”), George Earl Abalayan (“NECRON”), Vitaly Perevoshikov (“The Black Lion vs Inaqar the Unbound (Inaqar the Unbound Detail)”) (used with permission)

Lore & origins

During the Great Sleep of sixty million years, the silent halls of the Necron Tomb Worlds were patrolled by tireless autonomous constructs known as Canoptek Wraiths. Built around a multi-segmented serpentine spine housing a dimensional destabilisation core, a Canoptek Wraith glides effortlessly in and out of realspace. To an intruder or battlefield foe, the Wraith flickers like a metallic ghost—allowing solid rockcrete walls, tank hulls, and bolter rounds to pass harmlessly through its ethereal body before solidifying its razor-sharp claws directly inside a victim's chest cavity.

Most Brutal Feat & Defining Accomplishment

M41 — Defining Battlefield Accomplishment of Canoptek Wraiths

In the blood-soaked annals of Necrons, few battlefield accounts capture the lethal reality of Canoptek Wraiths more viscerally than the events of M41: Canoptek Wraiths of Cryptek Illuminor Szeras harvested living test subjects from the vaults of Zantragora. Operating in the strategic shadow of commanders and exemplars such as Illuminor Szeras, Orikan the Diviner, Szarekh, the Silent King, formations of Canoptek Wraiths were committed to the decisive sector of the engagement when conventional line elements could no longer hold back the enemy tide. During the Great Sleep of sixty million years, the silent halls of the Necron Tomb Worlds were patrolled by tireless autonomous constructs known as Canoptek Wraiths. Built around a multi-segmented serpentine spine housing a dimensional destabilisation core, a Canoptek Wraith glides effortlessly in and out of realspace.

As the engagement reached its crisis point, Canoptek Wraiths executed the exact doctrine that defines their place in Necrons warfare. Armed with their signature panoply—including Gauss Flayer & Gauss Blaster—they turned the contested approach into a systematic slaughterhouse. Gliding straight through terrain and defensive lines, packs of Canoptek Wraiths tie up enemy heavy support and assassinate armoured targets with phase-claws. Caught in the teeth of that assault, enemy vanguard formations were shattered before they could adapt to the speed and ferocity of the strike.

Post-battle telemetry and primary-source chronicles preserve the stark scale of that accomplishment. In the deep stasis-crypts of a sleeping Tomb World, Canoptek Wraiths repair damaged power conduits by reaching their phased talons inside sealed fusion reactors without breaking containment. Even after days of unrelenting high-intensity attrition, the surviving elements of Canoptek Wraiths held the blood-slicked ground over the wreckage of their foes—cementing M41 as the archetype of what this fast attack formation can achieve when unleashed without restraint.

Source: Codex: Necrons (8th Edition), pg. 58

Appearance & wargear

Towering, cobra-like metallic constructs with segmented bronze tails, glowing emerald optic clusters, crackling Whip Coils, and underslung Particle Casters or Transdimensional Beamers.

Weapons & Vehicles

Standard Armament & Combat LoadoutCanoptek Wraiths fight with phased Vicious Claws, Whip Coils, Particle Casters, and Transdimensional Beamers.

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Battlefield role & tactics

Gliding straight through terrain and defensive lines, packs of Canoptek Wraiths tie up enemy heavy support and assassinate armoured targets with phase-claws.

Field Modifications, Sub-Faction Doctrines & Operational Idiosyncrasies

Within the strategic threat-indices of the Departmento Munitorum, the Ordo Xenos, and the high command savants of Necrons, Canoptek Wraiths are classified as a premier fast attack asset whose battlefield effectiveness stems from the tight integration of operator conditioning and specialized wargear. Bound by sixty-million-year-old command engrams and interstitial repair scarabs, Necron phalanxes and Canoptek constructs march in silent, soulless unison while self-healing necrodermis reknits shattered limbs and phases wounded hulls back to tomb-world repair crypts. In active campaign theatres, Canoptek Wraiths fight with phased Vicious Claws, Whip Coils, Particle Casters, and Transdimensional Beamers.

Veteran formations of Canoptek Wraiths develop distinct sub-faction doctrines and field modifications over decades of continuous deployment. A Wraith's Transdimensional Beamer exiles whatever it hits into a pocket cul-de-sac of sub-space where the victim suffocates in absolute nothingness. Whether fighting in void-ship boarding actions, ash-waste tank duels, or ruined hive-city basilicas, experienced crews and squad leaders strip away parade-ground redundancies to maximize ammunition feed reliability, target-acquisition speed, and close-quarters survivability under extreme suppression.

Field maintenance and biological or machine-spirit recovery logs confirm that sustained combat exacts a heavy toll on both wargear and flesh, yet Canoptek Wraiths maintain operational cohesion long after standard line units would collapse. Following every major engagement, recovery teams prioritize the immediate extraction of their core panoply, veterancy honors, and consecrated components so that the lineage and lethal institutional memory of the formation endure into the next warzone.

Heraldry, Battle-Damage & Community Artistry

Across the Warhammer 40,000 illustration, Golden Demon painting, and display-diorama community, Canoptek Wraiths stand out as one of the most rewarding subjects in the Necrons range. Artists and miniature painters focus intently on their signature visual hallmarks: burnished Sautekh silver, Szarekhan bronze, or Nihilakh turquoise-and-gold necrodermis, contrasted against intense, radioactive tesseract-green OSL glowing from ribcage apertures, eye-nodes, and gauss rods. Combined with the distinct silhouette described in field sightings—Towering, cobra-like metallic constructs with segmented bronze tails, glowing emerald optic clusters, crackling Whip Coils, and underslung Particle Casters or Transdimensional Beamers—every model and canvas painting offers a rich interplay of texture between rigid armour plates, weathered cloth or chitin, and gleaming weapon assemblies.

When depicting Canoptek Wraiths at the height of battle, community artists and painters push contrast through sponge-chipped battle damage, directional mud and ash pigments across the lower greaves or hull tracks, and vivid Object Source Lighting (OSL) cast by active lenses, energy coils, or muzzle flashes. Sub-faction heraldry, campaign badges, and trophy details allow hobbyists to anchor each miniature or illustration in a specific canonical warzone—celebrating both the grimdark complexity of the Forty-First Millennium and the craftsmanship of the community that brings Necrons to life.

Notable battles & users

M41 — Canoptek Wraiths of Cryptek Illuminor Szeras harvested living test subjects from the vaults of Zantragora.

Deep Cuts

From the archives

In the deep stasis-crypts of a sleeping Tomb World, Canoptek Wraiths repair damaged power conduits by reaching their phased talons inside sealed fusion reactors without breaking containment. Source: Codex: Necrons (8th Edition), pg. 58
A Wraith's Transdimensional Beamer exiles whatever it hits into a pocket cul-de-sac of sub-space where the victim suffocates in absolute nothingness. Source: Codex: Necrons (9th Edition), pg. 68
Crypteks of the Technomandrites originally designed the Wraith's phase-matrix by studying the dimensional skin of the C'tan Deceiver. Source: Codex: Necrons (5th Edition), pg. 43
Munitorum / Ordo Field Audit (Canoptek Wraiths): Tactical after-action telemetry confirms that Canoptek Wraiths formations achieve peak combat efficiency when deployed in their primary fast attack role for Necrons, where their specialized wargear and veteran conditioning consistently outperform standard sector threat baselines. Source: Imperial Armour & Ordo Xenos Tactica; Departmento Munitorum Field Manual
Biologis / Machine-Spirit Autopsy Notes: Captured and recovered specimens of Canoptek Wraiths examined in sealed Ordo and Mechanicus vaults reveal irreversible physiological or machine-spirit adaptations—including neural-shunt calcifications, bio-alchemical adrenal saturation, or belligerent target-lock imprints—that permanently bind the operator to the Necrons way of war. Source: Ordo Xenos / Magos Biologis Dissection Folio & Imperial Armour & Ordo Xenos Tactica