Saynay
The Saynay clan are a Chaos Cult operating in the Koronus Expanse.
Contents
Description
The Saynays are reavers, mostly consisting of mutants and sorcerers, operating a flotilla of ships on the outskirts of the Koronus Expanse.[1] Some members of the clan have successfully infiltrated the Expanse's colonies, ships and space stations, where they commit wanton slaughter against the innocents unlucky enough to encounter them.[2b]
The clan's flotilla attacks isolated ships and colonies; the Saynay then bring survivors back aboard their flotilla's ships, where they are then sacrificed to the Saynay's god in rituals where the victims are bled, butchered and devoured while still alive.[2b] The sacrifices served to summon daemons, some of which are then bound into the hulls of the ships themselves by the Saynay sorcerers, while others are bound into people to create daemonhosts,[1] while yet others (particularly the minor daemons known as Blade-things) are left unbound and help in the abduction of fresh victims (or not, as is their whim).[2c] An unlucky few captives are kept alive to introduce new blood to the clan.[1]
Sorcerers are not allowed to be leaders - known as matriarchs and patriarchs - among the Saynays, only advisors at most, but one cannot become even a Saynay shipmaster without the support of at least one sorcerer, and the more sorcerers supporting an individual, the more successful within the clan that individual will be.[2b] Clan Matriarchs and Patriarchs wear the centuries-old finery rescued from the clan's noble origins, now rotted with the dried gore accumulated over that time.[3]
The majority of ships in the Saynay flotilla are in poor repair[2a] and not very heavily armed or armoured, so picking on seemingly weak targets from positions of surprise is their most commonly used tactic out of sheer necessity.[1] The decks of these ships are highly reminiscent of slaughterhouses, with dismembered human corpses hanging from hooks all over.[3]
History
The Feral World of Dusk in the Malfian Sub-sector was once home to a noble family headed up by one Lothar Saynay. Saynay effectively ruled over a large part of the world, but his practice of interbreeding his family with Dusk's many mutants and unsanctioned psykers, as well as his family's worship of a daemon named Mord'dagan, earned him a writ of execution by the Ordo Malleus in the early 7th century of M41. Although Lothar was slain, most of his family escaped the ensuing Inquisitorial purge. This purge also unveiled the Saynay connection to numerous other cults within the Calixis Sector.[1]
Using a flotilla of commandeered pirate frigates; armed merchantmen, and modified pleasure yachts, the surviving Saynays passed through the Koronus Passage and into the Expanse, with a few others doing so by stowing away upon pilgrim vessels and freighters. The Saynays then established themselves as raiders, earning themselves a fell reputation on Footfall, and even intimidating other pirates.[1]
Around 717.M41, the Saynays found a new ally in the form of the Navigator-turned pirate Ember Nostromo, whose warship, the Monarch of Whispers has now been leading the Saynay flotilla for over a century.[2a]
In the early 9th century of M41, the Saynays are one of several groups investigating the accursed Astropaths known as the Hexicars.[5]
See also
Sources
- 1: Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus, III: Enemies of Humanity, pg. 103
- 2: Rogue Trader: Edge of the Abyss, III: Foes and Rivals
- 3: Rogue Trader Core Rulebook, XIII: The Koronus Expanse, pg. 356
- 4: Rogue Trader: The Navis Primer, III: Path of the Mind, pg. 83
