Warhammer 40K: The Last Old One

In Warhammer Fantasy, the Old Ones are a type of super-magical frog-like beings from outer space. Knowing that Chaos would one day appear in reality and attempt to devour the material world, they decided to create beings capable of stopping or even completely defeating it. They reshaped the entire world and, in the process, developed lizardmen as allies: the Sran Toads are goofy clones of the Old Ones, the Lizardmen are the Sran's less-than-intelligent but burly bodyguards, and the Spirit Lizards are the Sran's excited little servants. The Old Ones also built two stargates at the planet's north and south poles, using them to travel between this world and others. To protect the world from Chaos, they used gates to absorb pure Chaos magic into the material universe... Yes, that's it, sounds perfectly logical. The Old Ones strived to coexist peacefully with the native intelligent beings—such as dragons and Ents—and did their best to educate them. It was also around this time that the Old Ones noticed the existence of the Greenskins, who seemed to have unknowingly brought Greenskin spores to this world, where they flourished. Although the Old Ones ordered the lizardmen to exterminate the mushroom people, the result was clearly not ideal. First, the Old Ones created the elves, and even specially crafted a gigantic, toilet-shaped floating island called Ulthuan for them to live on. They also instructed Slan to teach the pointy-eared elves how to use magic. Whether the elven gods were created by the Old Ones, born from faith, or were themselves the Old Ones is unclear, but since Aisha is the mother of all the elves, and Lilith in E. T. Said the elven gods were survivors of the previous world, it sounds quite similar to the Old Ones. Later, these cosmic mad scientists felt the elves were too delicate, and their reproduction rate was too slow, with a long maturation period. Although they were skilled in magic and had strong resistance to the corruption of chaos, they couldn't defeat chaos independently. Then, the dwarves were created. The dwarves are somewhat like self-propelled anti-magic field generators; their mere presence causes magical energy to gradually dissipate and seep back into the chaos realm. The dwarves, hardworking and resilient, could tame magic through rune forging, a physical process, and use it without being affected by Chaos. However, dwarves were too rigid and rule-bound, completely unable to adapt to the various tricks of demons. Thus, the Old Ones abandoned another of their creations. Next, humans. This new species blended the magical abilities of elves with the tenacity and endurance of dwarves, but neither was particularly outstanding. Humans had short lifespans and rapid rebirths, possessing greater ambition and passion than their two older races, allowing them to quickly adapt to any challenge brought by Chaos. However, human willpower was fragile, as their ambition and fertile minds made them easily susceptible to Chaos's influence; if they couldn't resist temptation, they would become its victims. Therefore, humans later became both a solid bulwark on the front lines against Chaos and a major component of Chaos's forces. This uncertainty clearly didn't satisfy the Old Ones' vision. Then, the Old Ones—for reasons unknown—created halflings. No one knows the purpose of the Old Ones creating the halflings, because they were small, weak, and cowardly, with nothing to offer except for their high chaos resistance and decent cooking skills. The Old Ones clearly ran out of ideas, so they created a whole host of new species to fill the gaps in the game's content and the fans' imaginations, such as the Sky Titans: giants with mountain-like bodies, possessing both the magical talent and intelligence of elves and the endurance of dwarves, but they were too isolated to ever band together. Perhaps there were many other races, but those less successful experiments were likely wiped out by the lizardmen. Finally, the Old Ones created the perfect creation, combining the best of all races! This race has chaos resistance as high as halflings, lifespans as long as elves, sturdy bodies like dwarves, reproduces as quickly as humans, and knows how to use magic and cooperate. Most importantly, they are incredibly adaptable—these ogres can eat anything and survive on anything. Just as the Ancient Ones were looking at these chubby little ones with delight, preparing to educate them and give them all sorts of cool equipment, the Stargate suddenly collapsed into a chaotic rift, and demons broke into the world. As a result, the ogres became wild children, and the entire race naturally developed and expanded, but they didn't know their purpose in being created; they simply pursued survival and eating aimlessly. After the Stargate collapsed, chaos ran rampant, and the Fantastic Four collectively turned the world upside down. The fate of the Ancient Ones is unknown; they may have been captured and eaten by chaos, or they may have escaped the world, leaving it to be ravaged by chaos, and continued their experiments on other planets. In short, they vanished. From then on, the Lizardmen began to worship the Ancient Ones as gods, and the Slan meticulously studied the information their masters left on the golden tablets (a method of information recording for a primordial race: inscribed stone tablets), striving to interpret even every punctuation mark, and then acting according to the interpretations. Oh, and there's another non-Chaos-bound villain who can also decipher the tablets. He learned the spell the Old Ones used to shape the world and used it (under immense physical and mental stress) to shrink a city-sized fortress to the size of a bottle cap. In older stories, the Old Ones weren't interstellar scientists who created life. They were simply space travelers, and the Sran were their mentally challenged, decadent offspring through inbreeding. E. T. Describes the Middle Ages as an eternal cycle of rebirth and destruction. While humans, elves, and dwarves seem to fit this cyclical setting, the Old Ones, as an alien race, are clearly not part of it. Some argue that the Old Ones are actually surviving Sran or surviving Elven gods from a previous world. If the latter, then we return to the question of where the Elven gods came from, perpetuating the cycle.

Although the earlier chapters about creating the lizardmen were a bit boring, I'm optimistic about the later developments. The perspective is also fresh, and the author's research on Warhammer is excellent, making it a Warhammer novel worth reading. Another aspect that aligns with my personal aesthetic is that the author's overpowered abilities are just right, not too much or too little, and the protagonist is an original ancient saint. As long as the story doesn't involve any plot points like him transforming into human form to lick the emperor's ass, I think it'll be great.

Ancient Saint looks like a combination of a toad and a crocodile.

This book was just signed, and I don't know how it's doing so far. I'm a complete new author, and I've only just figured out how to change the cover. The update plan will likely remain one chapter per day at noon, around 3000-5000 words, with some possible increases depending on the plot. Once it's officially released, I'll probably release several more chapters at once, depending on how many I can accumulate in the meantime (I have some backlog, but not many). As a newbie author, writing is just a side job. My main profession is a dentist, so I can't write 10,000 words a day like full-time authors. Writing 4000 words is already my best effort. This thread is for feedback. I'm not a seasoned 40k Warframe fan; I've never bought any official Warframes, only a few Primarch toys from Darksource. Most of my 40k content comes from watching Colonel's videos. The only 40k works I've actually read are Horus's Rebellion and some Eldar Phoenix Lord short stories, and I've also read some Jesters. I do know quite a bit about the Medieval era, which is why I included the Cold-Blooded (I really like their ruthlessness and loyalty to the Old Ones). If any seasoned Warframe fans find bugs, please point them out, but please don't start with insults. I'll hide any overly aggressive comments. Oh, and one more thing, I've seen people say that following the new book during its initial release is very important. I hope you all can scroll to the last page after each update 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

The Old Ones are an ancient, space-traveling reptilian race that possessed an advanced civilization long before the development of younger, contemporary races. They were the first sentient life in the galaxy and the first race to traverse the stars, making them the oldest space-traveling species in the galaxy. The Old Ones are said to possess a slow and cold-blooded wisdom; they studied the stars, elevating astrology and astronomy to a mystical science. It was their understanding of the universe that enabled them to manipulate other dimensions, and they are known to have undertaken great psychic engineering. At some unknown time, they meticulously designed the Web, a passageway through which they could travel to distant worlds unaffected by warp tides. This advanced science allowed them to traverse vast cosmos in a single step through Web portals, and in this way, spread their descendants to many other places. The Old Ones believed all life was useful, and they are known to have brought about the rise of many new species and brought life to the thousands of worlds they created. The Ancient Sran believed that the purpose of life itself was to perfect their mortal souls, and understood that if a person's mind was strong enough to remain whole after death, it could reincarnate at will, provided they could resist the morbid consciousness of the chaotic forces that might devour their identity. As the Old Ones traversed the universe, many younger, more ferocious races developed in their wake, including the Dreadless, who struggled to colonize other worlds. In this encounter, the hyperintelligent, mystical race known as the Old Ones were believed to have colonized other worlds more rapidly with greater ease and possessed immortal longevity. The Dreadless were known to have pleaded with the Old Ones for the secret of immortality, but they refused. This fueled intense hatred within the Dreadless, whose harsh sunlight cursed their morbid bodies and the difficulty of colonizing the stars. At this time, the Dreadless Empire was suffering from a war of division between its dynasties. The ruling council, known as the Triumvirate, believed that an external enemy would unify their race, and their hostility towards the Old Ones led them to declare war on this ancient race. The lure of victory's spoils and the secret of immortality united the divided kingdoms, igniting a conflict known as the War of the Heavens. The growing jealousy ultimately led the Ancient Dreadnecks to dedicate their entire civilization to the extermination of the Old Ones and their descendants. It is known that a terrible war ensued after this series of events, but all wars ended with the Dreadnecks unable to defeat their enemies. Despite their advanced technology, they found themselves constantly surpassed by the Old Ones due to their control over the Webway Portals. Eventually, the Dreadnecks were so subjugated that they were considered merely a nuisance to the Old Ones and forced to retreat to the outer darkness of the Halo Stars, where they were forgotten. This imprisonment lasted for centuries. While searching for a suitable weapon to attack their enemies, the Dreadnecks began to study their sun and discovered ancient entities inhabiting it. They named these manifestations, or Stargods, in their language, and used them as new weapons against the Old Ones. Through the Stargods, the Dreadnecks transformed into a ruthless machine race known as the Necromancers. They were now able to exact revenge on their nemesis. This time, the conflict was vastly different from previous wars, as the Old Ones' control over the warp was now countered by the Stargods' dominion over the material universe. As time passed, the Astral Gods began to rule the galaxy, and the Old Ones' fortresses were besieged. The races they nurtured were devoured like livestock by the Astral Gods' eternal hunger. Entire worlds were razed to the ground, suns were extinguished, and entire star systems were consumed by the terrifying Astral Gods. During the war, it became known that the undead legions had breached the Web and attacked the Old Ones in every corner of the galaxy. Despite their legendary patience and tenacity, the Old Ones began to despair and began to cultivate new life forms with a closer connection to the warp, aiming to empower these manipulated species to channel their psychic powers for their own protection. Many warrior races were created in this way; the Eldar, K'nib, and Rashan are believed to be among the foremost. These new creations took thousands of years to prepare, during which time the Astral Gods and their undead armies annihilated even more life in the universe. The Eldar were their greatest students, learning to master the Web, cultivating their own perfect minds and the ability to achieve immortality in the warp: the Eldar were fearless. According to Eldar legend, the heavens created by the Old Ones have now been desecrated by the Star Gods, whom the Eldar call Ingil. Their creations also include early humans, and these tree-like creatures are part of their ecosystem, but in other respects not defined by the Old Ones as having a greater role. This is the time the Eldar call the War of the Gods, fought between the Undead, supported by the Star Gods, and the Old Ones, aided by their successor races. When the Old Ones rallied their forces, only four Star Gods remained, but most life in the galaxy had already perished. Ultimately, the hot-blooded young races were unleashed, leaving the Undead reeling, for the power of the warp was a curse to them, and they struggled to contain the advance of this new offensive. In response, the Star Gods united for the first time in millions of years and began the Great Protection, a countermeasure against the Old Ones' magic by permanently isolating the High Heavens from the material universe. However, in this era, as the growing pains of the young races festered with this invisible energy, a seemingly unforeseen side effect of the warp began to manifest: as the High Heavens began to transform into a more hostile environment, the old warp entities became predatory. From the rifts in reality, the inhabitants of the warp sought access to the material universe, forcing the Old Ones to create new species to defend their last stronghold. Their creations included the Greenskin, the adaptable Ancient Orcs, and the technologically mimicking space apes. Unfortunately, it was now too late; their interstellar network was destroyed, and their great creations and lands of power were overwhelmed by the horrors of the warp they themselves had created. Among the most insidious of these were the Enslaved, who dominated the minds of younger races, creating portals for more of their kind. The Enslaved plague was the final blow to Old One rule; they were scattered, and their power was shattered forever. It was the relentless attack of the Astral, coupled with the dangers lurking in the misplaced warp, that ultimately led to the Old Ones' defeat, scattering, and destruction. The surviving Astral and Undead were delighted to see the Old Ones fall, and while the Astral feasted on their ruins and on one another, the Silent Lord Szalak launched a rebellion that crushed the Astral. In the power vacuum following the war, it is known that the smaller creations of the Old Ones, such as humans, continued to develop, but in unpredictable ways. Domination of the galaxy will eventually pass to the Eldar, who fought alongside the Old Ones during the war. This species will survive where the Old Ones are absent and will witness the Undead enter a Great Hibernation after their battle against the Celestials. Legends continue to speak of the Old Ones; the rune singers of the Arkworld of Carol describe the Webpath as the architecture of this ancient ancestral race, which they used to traverse the stars. It is rumored that the Staff of Annihilation wielded by the Undead Lord Talathim the Infinite may have been crafted using technology designed by the Old Ones.

The Old Ones of this era are far too powerful, and they've effectively blocked humanity's path. Even if the Emperor were still unified, whether they could create a Primarch under the Old Ones' noses is another matter entirely. Without the Web, humanity is just a roadside nuisance, merely a plaything of the Warp's consciousness, and logically, their development will only lag behind the Eldar. The Eldar have truly won this round. If the Emperor wants humanity to rise again, they either need to defeat the Old Ones and seize the Web, or they must integrate into the Grand Plan and accept the coexistence of biodiversity. However, given humanity's nature after unification under the Emperor, I think a long-term peaceful coexistence with the Old Ones and acceptance of the Grand Plan is practically impossible.

Keep it up! Books about lizard people are still extremely rare on Qidian.

For the sake of the grand plan, Ancient Saint has come to report. @Reader

I've finished reading all 24 chapters. The only problem so far is that it's too short.

Like the title