The Mortekh Void Warden is an unofficial Warhammer 40k Necron unit, a four-armed behemoth that can both act as a bodyguard to Necron Overlords, and provide front-line support to its smaller kindred, “getting up close to enemy units and punishing them”. It was designed by aspiring concept artist Robert Galliers.
Galliers is a “longtime fan of Warhammer 40k” who got into the IP through the Dawn of War RTS game series when he was “really young”. At university, his 40k-playing friends converted him over to the hobby of painting miniatures and playing the tabletop game. Necrons are his largest Warhammer 40k faction collection.
Galliers studied Biology at university, but retrained to become a concept artist in Singapore a few years later. He’s still trying to break into the games industry – you can find his excellent landscape concept art on his portfolio website, and he’s just started an Instagram to journal new concept art.
He says that the concept for the Void Warden was “something similar to a Space Marine Dreadnought”. Its visual impact came before any consideration of its lore or battlefield role: Galliers “wanted the Necrons to have a bigger brother of themselves walking the field”. He sees its battlefield role as “similar to a melee dreadnought… getting up close to units and punishing them”.
With its massive shield, the Warden could also “serve as a personal bodyguard to the Overlord”. Galliers says that the unit’s lore is “something I haven’t fully fleshed out”. He adds that “the community’s response has been quite interesting”.
Necron fans in the r/Warhammer40k subreddit have suggested the Mortekh Void Warden could be a “regal Destroyer Cult lord”, a unit leader for Triarch Praetorians, or even the “lovechild between a Lychguard and a Tyranid Hive Tyrant”.
It’s always amazing to see fan artwork created by Warhammer fans with industry-level skills: check out this excellent Henry Cavill Space Marine created by a Star Wars concept artist.