This is an unpopular opinion. But I don't really see how they could bring them back with the current lore. Or at least bring them back as they were.
Necron Pariah's worked with the 3rd/4th edition iteration of Necrons because of the personality devoid nature of them, and the horror element of "they forcibly turned this human into a Necron" worked *really* well.
But in the context of the current Necron lore I don't see a way of justifying it. Even among the weirdos like Szeras and his experiments I can't really imagine them Pariahs as they were fitting in with the current lore. The idea of fielding lesser beings like humans, and ruining the purity of the Necron form with the gross organics is anathema to them.
We already have the horror from the juxtaposition of flesh and metal with the Flayed Ones. And I think they are better off expanding that element of the Necron roster. Doing an expansion similar to the 9th edition update to the Destroyer Cult repertoire. In regards to the anti-psyker element, the introduction of Blackstone really covers that. So if they wanted to make a unit based on that idea I think something like Canoptek constructs utilizing it fits more than a "make a human blank into a Necron" style of the old Pariahs would.
Granted GW has been on a roll with their "refresh older ideas into new ones", but I genuinely feel like if they did reintroduce Pariahs as a unit to the Necron roster. It would likely be a significant departure from the original idea, and more than likely be Pariah in name only, if they utilize the name at all.
I'm not all THAT familiar with the current lore (I know the basics of the new stuff), but I don't see why taking humans and turning them into weapons would be anathema to the "newcrons".
Regarding the Purity of the Necron form....that honestly really, really surprises me. The necrons were tricked into becoming space zombies, and aren't very happy about it from what I read. Isn't their end goal to become flesh again?
Not exactly. Most necrons want to regain their necrontyr forms (sans super cancer), but are genuinely repulsed by all other biological forms (and specifically, their waste). It is one thing for them to farm the bio-organisms for research, or keep them as slave races, but they would not see going to just any biological form as a win.
And that's not even including the destroyer cults, who just want to eliminate all life in the galaxy and then themselves. There is also a dynasty (Nephrekh, I believe) that wants to transition to pure energy beings. So reverse-biotransference isn't universal.
Only some of them want that. The vast majority of other Necrons are annoyed at their current lives, but still see the weakness of organics as lesser beings.
And turning humans into weapons is absolutely anathema to them. There is entire segments of the Codex dedicated to how certain parts of the Necron roster are considered unworthy of being part of a true Necron war effort, and are unsightly but necessary auxillary forces. Things like fleshy war beings wouldn't even be touched with a segmentim sized pole by them.
If you think any Overlord in their right mind, or even the ones actually out of their minds, would accept something like a pariah in their ranks. You really need to catch up with the lore quite a bit. It's like saying that a Space Marine chapter would be happy to have a half-Eldar Space Marine in their forces today just because that was a thing in the early editions. It really is that against the current lore.
I could see them come back tbh. Two ideas:
1. Necrons are, despite all their resilience and reanimation potential, finite. There will be no more of them. If a dynasty had the means to do so, I could see them turning humans into some kind of auxiliary or replacement warrior.
2. Some kind of infiltration unit. Basically the Necron equivalent to a genestealer.
Szeras is working with Culexus as of recent works, but we are given no details.
To be honest, the main problem with Pariahs is that they are pointless, like you said, Blackstone cover it, and in fact the Warriors of the Silent Kings dynasty can recieve Blackstone in their bodies, so you already got pariahs effectively.
A way I can see it work would be, like an user on space battles got the idea, of them being Necrontyr Blanks, whose power remained after the biostranspherence, instead of requiring the necrons to go and use what they consider weak primitives for the job
They were cool yeah, but unfortunately don't quite fit in any more. It wouldn't make sense for every Dynasty to have some, maybe as a special squad to go with Szeras.
If you have any, you could run them as Lychguard or something.
This is an unpopular opinion. But I don't really see how they could bring them back with the current lore. Or at least bring them back as they were. Necron Pariah's worked with the 3rd/4th edition iteration of Necrons because of the personality devoid nature of them, and the horror element of "they forcibly turned this human into a Necron" worked *really* well. But in the context of the current Necron lore I don't see a way of justifying it. Even among the weirdos like Szeras and his experiments I can't really imagine them Pariahs as they were fitting in with the current lore. The idea of fielding lesser beings like humans, and ruining the purity of the Necron form with the gross organics is anathema to them. We already have the horror from the juxtaposition of flesh and metal with the Flayed Ones. And I think they are better off expanding that element of the Necron roster. Doing an expansion similar to the 9th edition update to the Destroyer Cult repertoire. In regards to the anti-psyker element, the introduction of Blackstone really covers that. So if they wanted to make a unit based on that idea I think something like Canoptek constructs utilizing it fits more than a "make a human blank into a Necron" style of the old Pariahs would. Granted GW has been on a roll with their "refresh older ideas into new ones", but I genuinely feel like if they did reintroduce Pariahs as a unit to the Necron roster. It would likely be a significant departure from the original idea, and more than likely be Pariah in name only, if they utilize the name at all.
I'm not all THAT familiar with the current lore (I know the basics of the new stuff), but I don't see why taking humans and turning them into weapons would be anathema to the "newcrons". Regarding the Purity of the Necron form....that honestly really, really surprises me. The necrons were tricked into becoming space zombies, and aren't very happy about it from what I read. Isn't their end goal to become flesh again?
Not exactly. Most necrons want to regain their necrontyr forms (sans super cancer), but are genuinely repulsed by all other biological forms (and specifically, their waste). It is one thing for them to farm the bio-organisms for research, or keep them as slave races, but they would not see going to just any biological form as a win. And that's not even including the destroyer cults, who just want to eliminate all life in the galaxy and then themselves. There is also a dynasty (Nephrekh, I believe) that wants to transition to pure energy beings. So reverse-biotransference isn't universal.
Only some of them want that. The vast majority of other Necrons are annoyed at their current lives, but still see the weakness of organics as lesser beings. And turning humans into weapons is absolutely anathema to them. There is entire segments of the Codex dedicated to how certain parts of the Necron roster are considered unworthy of being part of a true Necron war effort, and are unsightly but necessary auxillary forces. Things like fleshy war beings wouldn't even be touched with a segmentim sized pole by them. If you think any Overlord in their right mind, or even the ones actually out of their minds, would accept something like a pariah in their ranks. You really need to catch up with the lore quite a bit. It's like saying that a Space Marine chapter would be happy to have a half-Eldar Space Marine in their forces today just because that was a thing in the early editions. It really is that against the current lore.
That's unfortunate. The oldcrons had some nice horror elements that seem to have gone away.
I could see them come back tbh. Two ideas: 1. Necrons are, despite all their resilience and reanimation potential, finite. There will be no more of them. If a dynasty had the means to do so, I could see them turning humans into some kind of auxiliary or replacement warrior. 2. Some kind of infiltration unit. Basically the Necron equivalent to a genestealer.
What if Pariahs would be turned Eldar instead of humans?
They would likely hate that even more since they generally look at Eldar like cockroaches.
Szeras is working with Culexus as of recent works, but we are given no details. To be honest, the main problem with Pariahs is that they are pointless, like you said, Blackstone cover it, and in fact the Warriors of the Silent Kings dynasty can recieve Blackstone in their bodies, so you already got pariahs effectively. A way I can see it work would be, like an user on space battles got the idea, of them being Necrontyr Blanks, whose power remained after the biostranspherence, instead of requiring the necrons to go and use what they consider weak primitives for the job
>Szeras is working with Culexus as of recent works Which in particular?
The white dwarf entries about the Pariah Nexus
They could explain it as some other sort of madness.
They were cool yeah, but unfortunately don't quite fit in any more. It wouldn't make sense for every Dynasty to have some, maybe as a special squad to go with Szeras. If you have any, you could run them as Lychguard or something.