The Black Descent

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Symbol of The Black Descent[1]

The Black Descent are a Dark Eldar Haemonculi Coven of Commorragh.[1]

Overview

Evinkahr the Ghast, Wrack of the Cell of the Nightmare Abyss[4]

The coven has a complex hierarchy and an even more complex labyrinth. Each haemonculus within the coven is given knowledge only of the pathways that the masters of the coven want them to know. The deadly traps in the labyrinth are used to keep both intruders as well as other haemonculi who get too curious for their rank.[2]

The Haemonculi of the Black Descent love to lay traps and sit back to enjoy their lethal denouement. These range from the feigned flights and baited ambushes of their realspace raids to thousand-year intrigues that see their rivals fully humbled. To cross the Black Descent is to invite a punishment darkly twisted to fit the crime. One who uses brute force against them may later find himself stung by an insect-sized Wrack, the hyperdrenaline introduced into his bloodstream forcing him into a frenzy so severe he literally tears himself apart. One who delays payment for the Black Descent’s poisons may awake one morning trapped in a Sslyth venom-nest. Even unintended offense can yield retribution – when an ambassador from the Kabal of the Baleful Gaze wrinkled his nose at the stench of the Coven’s dungeons, he soon found himself coughing on transmutative gas. Later that night he sprouted the quivering nostrils of an Ur-Ghul, his eyes sealing over so he could better appreciate the fine bouquet of rot.[3]

The Haemonculi of the Black Descent have constructed a pyramidal labyrinth of glass that hangs inverted beneath the Dark City. Promising captives are thrown into the labyrinth’s sensory deprivation chambers whilst the Covenites leer outside. The only way out is to negotiate the maze’s trap-strewn confines through touch and instinct. Almost all of those that undertake this journey are killed, caught in paradox cubes or falling eternally into Moebius pits as they try to avoid the labyrinth’s bladed convolutions. Those that pass through safely are rewarded with a new life as a Wrack, becoming a part of the Coven forever more.[3]

When they launch realspace raids, the Black Descent put their skills in constructing traps to gruesome use. Even compared to other Covens, their raids are meticulously planned, with some of their excursions taking decades to come to fruition. Rather than assaulting their victims head-on, they prefer to lure them into some predetermined site laden with traps. Oftentimes the Haemonculi will lace the flora of a planet with time-delayed mutagens, causing the plant life to explode and envenom the foes as they arrive. Other favourite traps include storms of neuro-electric lightning or biological scabbing agents that graft victims into the rubble. Archons that wish to prepare the sites of their raids with such traps will often employ the services of the Black Descent, but in doing so they must take care not to inadvertently offend the Coven's overly decorous Haemonculi.[4] The raids are also usually accompanied by Harlequins, whom the Black Descent have close ties within due to their appreciation of Death Jesters.[5]

In recent years, the Black Descent have gained a fasciation with Genestealer Hybrids and have sought to weaponise the mutated flesh of these creatures. Their biological matter is harvested and distilled into toxic cocktails along with a panoply of growth accelerants, often causing it to rapidly take hold of a host. Once prepared, the bioweapon is vaporized into a planet's atmosphere and implanted into its food and water. The raid is then launched to coincide with the apex of the mutation, which sees defenders gripped by insatiable hunter and growths of fangs and claws before cannibalizing themselves. Many of the Black Descent's practitioners are Apparitians, delighting in capturing the vain and exposing them painfully to their inherent flaw.[4]

The Black Descent have a long-lasting hatred for Bellathonis who used to be a part of their coven.[2]

Forces

Notable Members

See also

Sources


Drukhari Factions
Major Kabals
Minor Kabals
Other Kabals

Major Cults
Minor Cults
Other Cults

Major Covens
Other Covens

Other Notable Factions
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