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I'm making a dark eldar army and I'd like to know more about the cabals and which would be a good choice to paint my space elves up in. My army is going to be mostly dark eldar, no wierd crazy monster things except for a beast master squad, so avoiding haemonculus heavy ones. I'd like to do the colour purple with some blacks for this army so if any fit that description let me know. Lastly, what's the general fluff about the cabals? I know it's a political crap hole in comorragh(hope I spelled it correctly) filled with everyone stabbing each other in the back for more loot, but other than that not much. Thanks guys, have a good one.


(Btw, should this be in general discussion or background?)

Actually, it's spelled "Kabal," with a K.

If you want general information, this is a great place to start:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kabal

Here are a couple of Kabals that use purple as their main color:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kabal_of_the_Last_Hatred
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kabal_of_the_Severed

I use pretty much the same colour scheme, purple and black, but just created my own fluff for them.

As for fluff, think of the Kabal's as a collection of highly organised and militarised gangs that run Commoragh, with Vect's Kabal of the Black Heart the biggest and most powerful.

It should be pointed out that Haemonculi and Wracks are Dark Eldar, they've just gone a bit Dr Frankenstein on themselves and anybody else that annoys them.

 fallinq wrote:
Actually, it's spelled "Kabal," with a K.

Na nonsense he is going to make a Cabal army . http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cabal





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I would suggest some "royal courts" filled with those lizard like species and perhaps some harlequin allies.

 oldzoggy wrote:

 fallinq wrote:
Actually, it's spelled "Kabal," with a K.

Na nonsense he is going to make a Cabal army . http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cabal

That would actually be really cool as a 'counts as' army. A team of agents that 'count as' an Assassinorum Execution force, maybe?

fallinq wrote:Actually, it's spelled "Kabal," with a K.

If you want general information, this is a great place to start:
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kabal

Here are a couple of Kabals that use purple as their main color:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kabal_of_the_Last_Hatred
http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Kabal_of_the_Severed

Thanks, I'll give those a read

Imateria wrote:I use pretty much the same colour scheme, purple and black, but just created my own fluff for them.

As for fluff, think of the Kabal's as a collection of highly organised and militarised gangs that run Commoragh, with Vect's Kabal of the Black Heart the biggest and most powerful.

It should be pointed out that Haemonculi and Wracks are Dark Eldar, they've just gone a bit Dr Frankenstein on themselves and anybody else that annoys them.

Yeah, I was considering my own fluff but wanted to avoid getting berated by people claiming them to be "special snowflakes"

And I thought Wracks were humans, sort of like servitors. Huh, good to know, guess you learn something new everyday

oldzoggy wrote:

 fallinq wrote:
Actually, it's spelled "Kabal," with a K.

Na nonsense he is going to make a Cabal army . http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cabal





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I would suggest some "royal courts" filled with those lizard like species and perhaps some harlequin allies.

Although that would be amazingly cool, I don't think I have enough greenstuff and modelling skills to make it happen

 #1ShieldBrother3++ wrote:

Imateria wrote:I use pretty much the same colour scheme, purple and black, but just created my own fluff for them.

As for fluff, think of the Kabal's as a collection of highly organised and militarised gangs that run Commoragh, with Vect's Kabal of the Black Heart the biggest and most powerful.

It should be pointed out that Haemonculi and Wracks are Dark Eldar, they've just gone a bit Dr Frankenstein on themselves and anybody else that annoys them.

Yeah, I was considering my own fluff but wanted to avoid getting berated by people claiming them to be "special snowflakes"

And I thought Wracks were humans, sort of like servitors. Huh, good to know, guess you learn something new everyday

I seriously dislike those kinds of people, one of the biggest aspects of 40K is the ability to make your own Chapter/Craftworld/Kabal etc.

Nah, Wracks are like apprentice Haemonculi, it's the Grotesques that can start of as anyone and get turned into a monster, usually as punishment.

Ha you don't need to convert anything that is the beauty of it.

GW already produces these models


And I see no reason why a dark eldar Archon could not have been on that council of ages already.

It's a balancing act. Create your own stuff by all means - but some people seem to think that creating their own stuff means they have to be the greatest evar!!11!! at whatever they specialise in, and have never failed at anything.

'Fitting into the gaps' that exist in the background tends to lead to more interesting factions anyway. A kabal which is of mid-level power is still a faction capable of burning fleets and enslaving armies, after all.

Theoretically not every wrack has to be a dark elder - some might be former prisoners turned assistant torturers - but most are. A wrack is a student and (hopefully) eventually gets promoted to haemonculus but often ends up as a grotesque instead, along with anyone else who looks at the haemonculus funny.

Kabals are, as noted, somewhere between a renaissance noble house and a criminal cartel. The actual members of the key bloodlines are at the top, with 'halfborn' (essentially vat-grown) dark eldar filling out the bulk, and then slaves (human or not) stuck at the bottom manning workshops, cleaning, carrying and toiling. The upper nobility are 'trueborn' - actual dynastic children of other nobles - because carrying a child to term is sort of a status symbol (look, I can actually afford to have a child because no-one would dare to threaten it/threaten me whilst I was carrying it). Note that Kabal rulership posts aren't precisely 'inherited' - the dark elder are murderously meritocractic and 'dead men's shoes' is the main way anyone advances. In a society of power-hungry near-immortals there's not much loyalty between parents and children in either direction. It's merely that a non-trueborn is very much looked down on and will have to be twice as successful (and ruthless) to ever become an archon.

The kabal members do occasionally stab one another in the back, but also work together, because being stuck in Commoragh without a power structure behind you is a total death sentence, and because generally the people above you in the Kabal's power structure are even older, scarier and sneakier than you are - and whilst other kabals are happy to see their rivals fall, many of them like political stability.


If you can find it, the Path Of The Renegade/Path Of The Incubi/Path of the Archon trilogy is the single best introduction I can offer to the dark eldar, and has some seriously twisted characters in it.

oldzoggy wrote:Ha you don't need to convert anything that is the beauty of it.

GW already produces these models


And I see no reason why a dark eldar Archon could not have been on that council of ages already.

Man, that sslyth model is amazing shame it costs 20 bucks for one and it isn't customizable Was hoping to include at least a couple in my list.

locarno24 wrote:It's a balancing act. Create your own stuff by all means - but some people seem to think that creating their own stuff means they have to be the greatest evar!!11!! at whatever they specialise in, and have never failed at anything.

'Fitting into the gaps' that exist in the background tends to lead to more interesting factions anyway. A kabal which is of mid-level power is still a faction capable of burning fleets and enslaving armies, after all.

Theoretically not every wrack has to be a dark elder - some might be former prisoners turned assistant torturers - but most are. A wrack is a student and (hopefully) eventually gets promoted to haemonculus but often ends up as a grotesque instead, along with anyone else who looks at the haemonculus funny.

Kabals are, as noted, somewhere between a renaissance noble house and a criminal cartel. The actual members of the key bloodlines are at the top, with 'halfborn' (essentially vat-grown) dark eldar filling out the bulk, and then slaves (human or not) stuck at the bottom manning workshops, cleaning, carrying and toiling. The upper nobility are 'trueborn' - actual dynastic children of other nobles - because carrying a child to term is sort of a status symbol (look, I can actually afford to have a child because no-one would dare to threaten it/threaten me whilst I was carrying it). Note that Kabal rulership posts aren't precisely 'inherited' - the dark elder are murderously meritocractic and 'dead men's shoes' is the main way anyone advances. In a society of power-hungry near-immortals there's not much loyalty between parents and children in either direction. It's merely that a non-trueborn is very much looked down on and will have to be twice as successful (and ruthless) to ever become an archon.

The kabal members do occasionally stab one another in the back, but also work together, because being stuck in Commoragh without a power structure behind you is a total death sentence, and because generally the people above you in the Kabal's power structure are even older, scarier and sneakier than you are - and whilst other kabals are happy to see their rivals fall, many of them like political stability.


If you can find it, the Path Of The Renegade/Path Of The Incubi/Path of the Archon trilogy is the single best introduction I can offer to the dark eldar, and has some seriously twisted characters in it.

On the topic of creating your own, I actually came across a random kabal generator from 1d4chan. Might use that and just concrete the purple colours and non-haemonculusness. And thank you for the lore and book suggestions, I'll check that out. And are kabals really that powerful? The only action I've seen one in is the Iron Guard book, but I assumed they were just a very powerful kabal.

it is way too expensive I agree.but they can be customized with little effort by replacing arms / weapons with DE warrior bits and you will have plenty of those.


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If you don't like the look of grotesques.
This dude has made some really nice and relative simple conversions for them.
http://eyeoferror.blogspot.nl/2011/12/dark-eldar-grotesque-conversions.html
Big picture

And are kabals really that powerful? The only action I've seen one in is the Iron Guard book, but I assumed they were just a very powerful kabal.

Given the number of one-liner references to kabals mentioned only in throwaway stories essentially depopulating worlds or slaughtering 'on-alert' guard armies, yes. If it was only the Black Heart doing it, maybe not, but it isn't. Hell, even factions of raiders who've been thrown out of Commoragh and set themselves up as pirates are often mentioned as subsector/sector-level threats to the navy.

 #1ShieldBrother3++ wrote:


On the topic of creating your own, I actually came across a random kabal generator from 1d4chan. Might use that and just concrete the purple colours and non-haemonculusness. And thank you for the lore and book suggestions, I'll check that out. And are kabals really that powerful? The only action I've seen one in is the Iron Guard book, but I assumed they were just a very powerful kabal.

Depends entirely on the Kabal in question. The really powerful Kabals like the Black Heart and Poisoned Tongue would be a major threat to just about anybody they set there sights on whilst smaller Kabals would have to be a little choosier, and exilled Kabals might have to be choosier still.

Might also be worth reading Valedor, an instance of Craftworl Iyanden and a Kabal working together to deal with Tyranids.

I know this is a bit off-topic, but how unified are DE raids? Of course I don't think they make any specific pacts agreeing explicitly not to harm one another, but when a Kabal goes on a raid, do they just invite whoever to come with, just for the sport? If they did, they could easily take entire planets in the span of a month (your alone in space and suddenly thousands of DE ships swoop in and begin hauling everyone to the skimmers and shooting anybody who resists). But that doesn't often seem to happen in the fluff.

My understanding is that it's a Kabal and maybe it's close allies. I don't think they actively block other people joining but they wouldn't tell them about the raid. I imagine it's very easy for 'accidents' to happen during raids.

locarno24 wrote:

And are kabals really that powerful? The only action I've seen one in is the Iron Guard book, but I assumed they were just a very powerful kabal.

Given the number of one-liner references to kabals mentioned only in throwaway stories essentially depopulating worlds or slaughtering 'on-alert' guard armies, yes. If it was only the Black Heart doing it, maybe not, but it isn't. Hell, even factions of raiders who've been thrown out of Commoragh and set themselves up as pirates are often mentioned as subsector/sector-level threats to the navy.

Yes, it really depends on the Kabal in question. There are huge differences between Kabals. Some are small and weak, little more than criminal gangs who struggle to control even a single neighbourhood in Commorragh. The greatest and most prestigious of Kabals on the other hand are immensely powerful and have huge armies that could threaten entire sectors of realspace. Depopulating a planet in a matter of moments would be an easy job for them.

Randomrolls wrote:
I know this is a bit off-topic, but how unified are DE raids? Of course I don't think they make any specific pacts agreeing explicitly not to harm one another, but when a Kabal goes on a raid, do they just invite whoever to come with, just for the sport? If they did, they could easily take entire planets in the span of a month (your alone in space and suddenly thousands of DE ships swoop in and begin hauling everyone to the skimmers and shooting anybody who resists). But that doesn't often seem to happen in the fluff.

The really powerful Kabals have the power to do raids all on their own, they will probably take some sponsored Wych Cults, allied Haemonculi etc. along but that is it. No reason to give their rivals any opportunity for loot, that would just be stupid.
However, the vast majority of Kabals aren't strong enough to raid well-defended targets on their own, so they either stick to easy prey or they make temporary alliances with other Kabals and with Wych Cults and other groups in the Dark City to carry out a raid. These raid alliances are pretty much the only moment the Dark Eldar stop infighting and backstabbing.