Eldritch Raiders

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The Eldritch Raiders are a fleet of Eldar Corsairs under the command of Prince Yriel. Though Yriel and his Corsairs have officially left their Craftworld of Iyanden to raid Imperial shipping, the Eldritch Raiders still respond to the call of their Craftworld in times of need.[1] Their raids have been responsible for claiming over eleven thousand Human, Hrud, Ork, Chaos, and T'au ships.[2]

History

Symbol of the Eldritch Raiders[4]
Eldritch Raiders Symbol (Rogue Trader-Era)[3b]

Over fifty years before the assault of Hive Fleet Kraken upon Iyanden in 942.M41,[7] High Admiral Yriel led Iyanden's space fleet. Although he was considered one of the greatest Eldar naval tacticians to have ever lived, his character was flawed by the sin of pride.[1] When Iyanden was threatened by the Chaos space fleet of Kallorax[7] raiding out of the Eye of Terror, Yriel led the fleet on a pre-emptive attack on the Chaos fleet's flagship, leaving Iyanden unprotected. He only returned just in time to stop a suicide attack by a small flotilla of Chaos raider ships, who nonetheless managed to damage the Craftworld. Expecting to be feted and honoured for his victory, Yriel was deeply angered when he was called upon to defend his course of action.[1]

An enraged Yriel then left his Craftworld in protest. Joined by a small band of followers, he formed an Eldar raider company that became the single most powerful Eldar pirate force operating in the galaxy: the Eldritch Raiders.[1] The bulk of his crew are loyal Iyanden natives who left to follow Yriel as he claimed the now-absent keeps of Kallorax's followers and continued to wage war against Chaos, and in time those younger citizens of Iyanden who would follow to seek freedom among the stars.[10a]

With a fiercely loyal and highly experienced crew, the Eldritch Raiders are feared across the Galaxy and are formed from a core of skilled warriors. They have stormed tens of thousands of ships, including those operated by the Imperium, Chaos, Kreg, Hrud, and Khrave.[1] The Eldritch Raiders have even hired mercenary groups of Zoats: renegades of the Tyrannid Hive Fleets which through unknown means escaped their former masters.[3b] One conflict, orchestrated by the Imperium, found political means to pit two Corsair warbands against the Eldritch Raiders,[10a] Xian's Black Raiders and the Scarlet Command,[3a] but instead Yriel absorbed the opposing warbands and their fleets – forming the largest fleet in the galaxy.[10a]

The Eldritch Raiders ravaged the systems of the Kolarne Circle, a sector near the galactic centre with an unusually high density of stars and commodity-rich Imperial colonies. The sector bordered small Ork empires and its colonies were regularly in revolt, drawing the four different Space Marine Chapters that policed Kolarne to far-flung battlefields regularly. The Eldritch Raiders struck from the numerous hidden Warp Gates in the system, and became such a threat that all Imperial vessels were obliged to fire on any approaching Eldar ship – some in the Ecclesiarchy even called for a Space Marine Crusade against the Eldar pirates.[3b]

When he heard of the Tyranids' assault on Iyanden in 992.M41,[7] Yriel did his best to ignore the terrible peril that threatened his old Craftworld. But proud though he was, righteously angry though he was, Yriel could not leave Iyanden to its fate in this, its very darkest hour. Battling his way through the Tyranids' psychic blockade, Yriel swept to the aid of his people and became the saviour of the Craftworld.[1] In the wake of Yriel's appointment to Iyanden, the Eldritch Raiders continued to fight beside the forces of Iyanden as an adjunct force, joining wherever the craftworld called for aid.[6]

The Eldritch Raiders accompanied Yriel in his assault on the space hulks of Gara’gugul’gor during the Siege of Iyanden following the Dathedian, where their Corsair Prince died defending the craftworld, and continue to follow him after his resurrection by Ynnead[4] even as Yriel urges Iyanna Arienal and the seers of Iyanden away from the path of the Ynnari.[8]

The Eldritch Raiders and set out once more into the void on a quest from the Harlequins of the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow to seek out and plunder the Nightmare Gulf[8] and recover Alaitoci prisoners taken in surprise by Huron Blackheart and his Red Corsairs.[10b] Through spycraft Yriel discovered the prisoners to be aboard the Space Station known as the Crimson Eyrie within the Arrax System where together the Eldritch Raider Dragonships Flame of Asuryan and Jade Kris assaulted the station extracting the prisoners and many of the Asuryani artefacts from within its vaults. However, in their escape, the Jade Kris was boarded by Huron Blackheart himself and destroyed – a high price to pay for unsure rewards.[10b]

Notable Actions

Notable Warbands

Notable Members

Images

Sources

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