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The Cult of the Withered Thorn is an average-sized Wych cult operating in one of the more out-of-the-way corners of Commorragh. Unlike most Eldar, they do not believe it is possible for Ynead to be resurrected, even with the death of all Eldar - indeed, new inductees are trained not just in combat, but in the group's own fatalistic take on Eldar lore. Nevertheless, a withered rose still has its thorns, and they fight all the more majestically for the belief that their death serves no purpose. When not raiding realspace, the Cult often stages mock skimmer battles in the skies above their arena - some say this is because such a spectacle requires less bloodshed than conventional gladiatorial combat, but the Wyches themselves do not say - and in any case, blood is still spilled by the bucket in the Cult's more ordinary displays. Whatever the reason, the Cult's inventory of skimmers contains mostly larger vehicles as a result of this - the more compact Venom lacking the bulk to survive repeated haywire blasts as a Raider or Tantalus might.

Their beliefs often bring the Cult into conflict with other Eldar, particularly those counted among the Ynnari - indeed, the Cult of the Withered Thorn harbours an intense dislike of most Ynnari as a result of the carnage the group's misguided experiments have wrought among the spires of Commorragh. They will, however, still accept the aid of Harlequins on occasion, and have been observed at least once fighting alongside realspace Corsairs as well. It is rumoured that the group are working alongside at least two different Haemonculi Covens with the goal of capturing and perverting a Phantom Titan of their Craftworld kin - crucially, one outfitted for melee combat - to use as a centerpiece of sorts for their death-defying skimmer battles.

Ellestrix Hevvax, the lesser of the three Succubi who hold dominion over the Cult, harbours a number of other unusual superstitions - chief among them, that darklight weaponry has a hidden flaw (perhaps intentional, perhaps not) and is inevitably at risk of a spectacular accident at any time. The Cult of the Withered Thorn therefore makes significantly reduced use of these weapons when compared to most Drukhari raiding parties - though her influence is not enough to completely dissuade its use.

Fatalistic Eldar Gladiator Cult?

Absolutely love it

I've got an Ynnari Cult that I'm trying to inject a little grimdark twistedness into by painting them as more of a real-world religious cult, using parlour tricks and (mostly) false promises to prey on the vulnerable and disaffected of the Eldar. Sounds like they'd be the perfect adversaries to your Wych Cult, as your Wyches would be decrying them as the liars and charlatans they (mostly) are.

Anything that promotes intra-Eldar tension is great by me

Good work!

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
Fatalistic Eldar Gladiator Cult?

Absolutely love it

I've got an Ynnari Cult that I'm trying to inject a little grimdark twistedness into by painting them as more of a real-world religious cult, using parlour tricks and (mostly) false promises to prey on the vulnerable and disaffected of the Eldar. Sounds like they'd be the perfect adversaries to your Wych Cult, as your Wyches would be decrying them as the liars and charlatans they (mostly) are.

Anything that promotes intra-Eldar tension is great by me

Thanks!

It sounds like our respective cults would be bitter foes indeed. I definitely agree that more intra-Eldar tension can only be a good thing - the Drukhari and Craftworlders are best as distrustful factions who interests sometimes align and sometimes don't, in my opinion, rather than being wholly united in the pursuit of something that can defeat Slaanesh. With the amount of collateral damage the Ynnari have done in the pursuit of their goals, it feels only natural that some Eldar would resent them. The rest of the background sort of fell out of the restrictions I wanted to put on myself when building the army - I don't like how the Venom looks (it's too Craftworld-y to be a DE vehicle, IMO) but I love the rest of the DE skimmers, so having a fairly natural excuse for them to eschew smaller vehicles worked nicely. A lot of DE armies really rely on darklight spam, so I wanted to try and do something a bit different.

I also have this idea for a heavily converted Phantom titan where the cockpit is completely open, with a Grotesque chained in place of the normal pilot. Various pins would be driven through the wraithbone and wired together to make it look like it was taking constant shock therapy to keep the titan itself subdued. Naturally the titan would be fitted with a Power Glaive even though the ranged options are almost certainly better from an optimization perspective, which I imagine it flaying around wildly according to the Grotesque's whims.

I don't know that I'll ever actually be able to justify buying a Phantom, but it's fun to think about...