Black Arts of Shaimesh

The Black Arts of Shaimesh is the name given by the Drukhari of Commorragh to the arcane sciences that surroind the distillation of various poisons and toxins. The term refers to the Dark Muse Shaimesh, renowned as the Lord of Poisons and the patron of assassins and murderers.

The Dark Eldar are expert in the use of toxins. Entire districts of Commorragh are given over to the manufacture of the most potent necrolixirs and vitriolic compounds that can eat through duralumin as if it were soft flesh. Many of the weaponised syringes and needlers used by the Drukhari contain potent cocktails of the most virulent venoms available, for the Kabals appreciate the toxic spectrum much as an artist would the myriad colours of a sunrise.

The Haemonculi are the most skilled of all when it comes to administering a painful death, and should one come too close one would find that their sting is always poisonous. Their toxin-based weaponry, of which the Liquifier Gun is most infamous, fires organo-acidic compounds that can trigger blood vessel explosion or implosion, pharyngal contraction, extensive haemolysis, skeletal disintegration, sclerotic corrosion, intercostal spasms, hyper-reacted thermoreceptors, subcutaneous necrolysis, Eustachian collapse, cardiac and respiratory atrophy or wide-scale exsanguination -- sometimes all at once. Toxin traders thrive in Commorragh, and though antidotes exist, they are difficult to obtain and generally frowned upon as being the refuge of the weak.