Ul-Khari
 |
Eldar Portal | ||
 | |||
| Meaning: | A promise fulfilled[2a] | ||
| Current Location: | Trollius, Gilead System[2a] | ||
| Main Colours: | Orange & Green [2c]
| ||
| Reputation: | Crashed on Trollius, isolationist 'doom-courters'[2g] | ||
| Main Enemy: | Chaos | ||
 | |||
Ul-Khari is an Eldar Craftworld with a long history intertwined their former Maiden World Aral'dha within the Gilead System.
While the Ul-Khari was traveling along the system's edge, the Great Rift tore open and ejected a frozen Hive World hurled directly in the path of the craftworld. With no time to evade, the aeldari vessel crash-landed on Trollius, a long-dead world haunted by unknown terrors.[1a][1b]
Contents
Overview
After years of isolationism, the ‘doom-courters’ of Ul-Khari who failed to heed the omens of annihilation have become stranded amidst vengeful, crystal ice — but adapted impressively well.[2g]
The Asuryani of Ul-Khari are largely defined by their present struggle and recent tragedy. Tenacity in the face of hardship, loss, and scarce resources. The many orange banners fluttering in the cold wind and frozen environment gives their home an impression of an autumnal forest. Much of the outer sections of their vessel have been abandoned in order to consolidate within the few surviving habitable domes. Jury-rigged thermal units can keep the rime at bay, but not the nightmares the unnatural ice evokes. The asuryani do what they can make make the craftworld feel less like a vacuous graveyard, rebuilding ruined wraithbone structures to be compact and comfortable, readily distinct from the original monolithic and grandiose architecture. With so many dead and so much ruined by the crash, most Asuryani have been forced to retread old Paths for the survival of their craftworld, shunted into old roles they had abandoned long ago out of practical necessity.[2c]
Like most Asuryani galaxy-wide, Craftworld Ul-Khari has garnered an unjust reputation for cruelty amongst the lesser-races. The recent hard times require every action to be weighed against available resources. Rather than wasting resources they don't have attacking a hard target that will pose little threat in a prophecy, they often strike currently vulnerable ones that will assuredly become a significant threat in the future. Such as obliterating an isolated group of guardsmen long before they are prophesied to cause a major daemonic incursion. To an ignorant Imperial, such attack are viewed cruel and pointless. Regardless, Aeldari prophecy and early intervention has saved the Gilead system many times over and continues to do so.[2c]
The Call
Most Ul-Khari Aeldari experience a psychic vision known as the Call at least once in their lives, with varying clarity and force. The details of the vision are clouded in metaphor and symbolism, but the Seers have arrived to a consensus: something real and tangible from the ancient Aeldari Empire was lost in the Gilead System.[2c]
The prevailing theory, espoused by Ul'Khari Seer Seleithe Taranlys, is that whatever the Call is guiding Ul-Khari towards might help restore their Craftworld's Avatar of Khaine. All aeldari factions in the Gilead System know of this preoccupation the Ul-Khari craftworlders have and will sometimes use it to their advantage, sending would of a strong lead so that craftworlder agents might be sent to help investigate.[2c]
World Rune
The world-rune of Ul-Khari has always underpinned their inherent persistence and tenacity in the face of hardship, even before the current crisis. With a few subtle alterations to the rune's elegant strokes is now means: "We will not be forgotten". This further expresses the reality of their new situation and hope for change.[2d]
History
What would be known as the Gilead system was once part of the Eldar Empire. They would turn one of its barren worlds into a lush maiden world, which they named Aral'dha, meaning 'flower of dawn'. These ancient aeldari would eventually depart from this living monument to their gods, returning to the heart of their empire. These eldar sensed something off about their society upon their return but thought little of it until the depraved rot was readily evident. Most of the aeldari who crafted the world would choose to depart their society, making their exodus aboard the craftworld Ul-Khari for their true home, Aral'dha.[2a]
Sometime prior to M30, Ul-Khari returned to the Gilead system where they found humanity deeply cemented in the system. Rather than attempting diplomacy or engaging the system in outright battle, the lone craftworld would instead choose subtler means to unseat the Mon-keigh squatters. Before these plans bore fruit the Fall of the Aeldari Empire occurred, and aeldari across the galaxy were forced to salvage what they could in the aftermath.[2a]
In M34, after craftworld Ul-Khari learned how to preserve themselves after death with spirit stones and the infinity circuit from their kin, they returned to the Gilead System after a millennium of mourning their fallen civilisation. Farseer Idril was among the many powerful seers on the craftworld. She foresaw that the Imperium would not be able to hold the system and this was proven true when they arrived to investigate their home. They found it firmly under the control of Chaos and Slaanesh. Thus Idril began to make her preparations.[2a]
Gilead Crusade
Farseer Idril sent scouts through the webway to investigate the enemy more closely, and did the same to learn of the plans of the Imperium. Learning of the Julyanna Gilead was mustering a crusade, Ul-Khari had hoped to defeat two foes at once. Through subtle manipulations of the human fleet's Navigators and Astropaths and officer, they drew the crusade towards the system. Believing the Gilead Crusade would quickly move on to other threats after conquering the system, Ul-Khari covertly aided the humans in a variety of pivotal engagements. The Gilead Crusade's logistics and leadership were aided through continued subtle influences, guiding and directing them as needed, subtly influencing their coordination and timing to its greatest effect. The military forces on the ground would often find their enemies withered by unseen ranged fire, or otherwise flanked, distracted or disrupted through various means. The ignorant Imperials attributed much of this to luck and intervention from their God-Emperor, claiming their crusade was blessed.[2a]
A Harlequin Solitaire also appeared to aid in this campaign, much to the dread of the asuryani. The Harlequin told an assembled group of Ul-Khari leadership that Cegorach had an interest in the Gilead Stem. A grand jest was to play itself out there, and it was vital that the craftworld find a way to make their craftworld one with a planet in the system. The Solitaire explained all this with a dance of death. Only one aeldari survived this meeting.[2a]
The Asuryani was apparent as they did not foresee the Imperials fortifying themselves in the system and using it as a staging point for many further crusades. The Ul-Khari who decried the aid given to the Imperials as foolish were proven correct, they simply traded one uninvited guest for another. The Imperial presence in the Gilead System would remain stronger than ever going into the future.[2a]
Wanderings
Ul-Khari would travel throughout the galaxy, learning more of the sorry state their once-great civilisation was now in. The craftworld would intermittently return to their home, the Gilead System, keenly observant of their former maiden world home Aral'dha, now named Ostia by the Imperials.[2a]
For over a century prior to their crash, Ul-Khari carefully charted courses through the galaxy to avoid potential conflict. Although their Guardians have not been called to war for over a century, their skills remain undiminished as they now defend their home on Trollius.[1d]
Collision
At the end of M41 the Dathedian tore across the galaxy. Ul-Khari was traveling along the Gilead System's edge, when a warp rift was created around the Gilead System due to the Great Rift's violent sundering of realspace. The rift ejected a rogue planet directly at the craftworld. A frozen hellscape of a Hive World was hurled directly in the path of the craftworld. With no time to evade, the aeldari vessel crash-landed on the warp-forsaken world Trollius, a long-dead world haunted by unknown terrors.[1a][1b] The tendrils of the Weaver of Fate appear to have arranged the collision, for unknown purposes.[3a]
Nearly half of the Craftworld was destroyed in the crash or entombed in ice, other areas are rendering derelict and unusable. The loss of many food cultivation facilities, workshops, and archives has rendered the craftworld significantly short of critical resources. Other areas lost includes those that housed the Aspect Shrines of the Howling Banshees and Fire Dragons. Deciding whether to allocate energy and resources into producing food or arm and ammunition requires constant balancing.[2c]
Although Craftworld Ul-Khari rarely summons their Wraithguard from slumber, their wraithbone groves are obsessively tended, and many of these survived the devastation. Ul-Khari has been forced to call on many of these Wraith Constructs to stand guard and defend the crashed vessel. The Great Rift has effected their wraithsight and reliability. There are rumours that those few amongst the Varonius Floatilla would occasionally destroy their human ally's Sanctioned Psykers. Those on Trollius itself sometimes pause to stare motionlessly up at Ostia for days at a time, lost in a trance.[1e]
Trollius
The collision with with the rogue planet proved to be disastrous for Ul-Khari, as the giant Warp Storm caused by the Great Rift's opening caused the long-dead and frozen Hive World Trollius to suddenly appear in front of the Craftworld. With no time to evade Trollius, Ul-Khari crashed into the Hive World, which resulted in the Craftworld being seriously damaged due to a devastating impact on the Hive World's surface.[1] Now Ul-Khari lingers there half-buried within the ice and permanently fused to its surface, so the only way to separate the stone from the wraithbone is to smash Trollius to pieces. Almost half of Ul-Khari was ruined beyond recognition in the collision. A significant portion of Ul-Khari's population survived the crash and now struggle to live on and pick up the pieces of their shattered Craftworld.[2b] Although they can depart their wrecked home through the webway, doing so would comdemn untold numbers of souls within the craftworld's infinity circuit to greedy humans and hungry daemons.[3a]
Although the asuryani of Ul-Khari are isolationists, pragmatism has forced them to break with tradition. Normally, they'd have no allies in a human-controlled system. Now they are now forced to work with lesser species to defend and repair their craftworld, while also preserving the Gilead system from Chaos and She Who Thirsts.[3a] Although Ul-Khari's relationship with Imperials as a whole are nearly nonexistant,[3b] their farseers have struck a deal with the local rogue trader Jakel Varonius. Much to the chagrin of the diminished local Inquisition, the details of this agreement remain unknown.[1b]
Dangers on Trollius
Curiously, though Trollius is a Hive World, the Eldar of Ul-Khari have found its Hives to be empty and there is no sign of what became of its previous population.[1a] There is evidence that the former human inhabitants had attempted to flee some unknown danger. The Asuryani are reluctant to speak of the exact dangers tell their human Varonius agent allies that the ice itself has, what they describe as, "emotional resonance".[1b] Asuryani scouts are sent throughout Trollius and its hive cities searching for clues as to how they might free their craftworld from it's icy clutches.[2c]
Tyranids
Ul-Khari has encountered Tyranids before and know of their destructive potential. There are Tyranids trapped beneath the ice across Trollius. Farseers have named this threat the Catastrophe Seed, as it will grow into a greater disaster in time. The Tyranids seem have a particular sensitivity to humans. The most unsubtle of approaching Aeldari have no effect on the frozen monsters, but when a human is anywhere nearby they will stir into lethal action almost immediately.[2c]
The Aeldari who know of this are sworn to secracy to protect Ul-Khari. If the threat was know to the entire craftworld, it would undermine moral. If the Imperium learned of Tyranids on Trollius, the planet would undoubtably be bombed and the trapped craftworld alongside it.[2c]
Winter's Last Cry
The most immediate threat to the craftworld is the environment. The unnatural ice of the dead hive world is malign and alive. The name given to it by the Asuryani rendered in Low Gothic is Winter's Last Cry, a more literal translation would be 'the final howl of a doomed season, killing as it dies'. The Tyranids trapped under the ice are a fairly lower concern to the Aeldari than the ice itself.[2c] Imperial auspex scans indicate that the ice moves at impossible speeds, enveloping anything that lingers too long. Even being in orbit of the world evokes bad dreams.[1b] The Aeldari planetside frequently have nightmares of Winter's Last Cry entombing the craftworld under its serene icy shroud.[2c]
Guardians who venture forth into the snowstorms of the world return changed — some oddly silent, others with a simmering rage that boils over into a shocking ferocity.[1d] Some Aeldari who succumb to this strange malady turn feral and ravenous. Although reluctant to tell their Varonius allies of their troubles, they do vaguely imply to the human agents that they may need help on Trollius in regard to the emotional resonance of the ice.[1b] Farseer Taranlys has noted that this resonance responds uniquely to to the presence of the Mon-Keigh, and this might be a key factor in overcoming the hostile environment and freeing the craftworld.[3b]
Daemons
Daemons lurk on the warp-infused world and they hunger for the prize of soul stones within the vulnerable ship. Although the Asuryani still have war machine and elite warriors at their disposal, if it wasn't for the intervention of Princess Greensteel and Rogue Trader Varonius, they would have been overrun by Dark Apostle Marloquence during the Tide of Red Frosts.[3a]
Aeldari Allies
Ul-Khari has a close relationship with the Harlequins. The Masque of the Calamity Trail visits the trapped craftworld regularly and provide news of the system beyond their wrecked home. They also provide relief from boredom, misery, and fear along with being fierce allies when needed.[2c]
The asuryani are loathe to ever actually admit they are in need of aid and would be significantly worse off if it wasn't for their local Aeldari allies. The Aeldari Corsair band known as the Greensteel Warriors have devoted themselves to Ul-Khari's protection, although this isn't purely out of altruism, as the Emerald Princess Ferianwyr has her own discrete personal goals behind this generous aid. Through her, the asuryani are even more reluctantly allied with the Human rogue trader Jakel Varonius, a close ally of the Greensteel Warriors.[2c]
The Ul-Khari Asuryani despise the Drukhari as a whole, but hold special loathing for Archon Kyrik Rhaul. The craftworlder's believe that the archon's recent increase in raids in the Gilead system is a sign that she wishes to take advantage of Ul'Khari's weakness. In truth, a recent Dysjunction in Commorragh has left her with few system she can easily access. Thus she only intends to increase the frequency of raids on Gilead.[2c]
Locations
- Temple of Kurnous - A verdant dome containing a vast jungle and many wraithbone spires, all dedicated to the god Kurnous the Hunter. In the aftermath of the collision with Trollius, this piece of the craftworld is now hidden away and lodged in the side of a mountain, but still warm and brimming with life. One of the pieces of Ul-Khari's fractured Avatar of Khaine landed in the centre of its expansive forest, having crashed through the center of the dome's roof.[4]
Known Ul-Khari Eldar
- Tylanriel Tarnalys - Farseer and acting figurehead[3a]
- Ishtá Indomi - Autarch[2c]
- Lanriel Taranlys - Farseer[2c]
- Asurmen-Alaya - Dire Avengers Exarch[2c]
- Kurannin the Muse - Bonesinger[2c]
- Seleithe Taranlys - Seer and Loremaster[2c]
- Tamalys - Farseer[3a]
- Kaelitha Nagith - Ranger[3a]
- Hyrene Olivaste - Storm Guardian[3a]
- Rhakiem - Warlock[1f]
Notable Writings
- Scrolls of the Ul-Khari - A history of the Craftworld stored on sheets of psychoreactive wraithbone.
- Songs of Asuryman - Emotion-woven music evoking and representing their patron diety[Note 1]
- Things Yet to Be - Millennia of prophecies from the exiled Farseer Unnias, many of which are disturbingly proving to be accurate.
Images
Notes
 |
- Note 1: In the Wrath & Glory: Forsaken System it makes mention of "Asuryman" in regard to its chief deity.[3a] This could be a typo meant to be the deity Asuryan or the Phoenix Lord Asurmen. Alternatively, this could be a purposeful combination of the two names but no evidence states this.
