Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue

"Another flawless victory. Ah well. It almost makes one long for a loss, just to keep things interesting. Almost, but not quite..."

- Lady Aurelia Malys, the Dhenial Massacre

The Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue has insinuated itself throughout Commorragh, its agents working like subtle toxins in the Dark City’s necrotic veins. They are perhaps the most insidious of the Kabals, yet when their schemes call for it, they are more than capable of flexing their violent might.

The Kabalites of the Poisoned Tongue are universally sharp of wit, with a flair for duplicity so pronounced that they can tie their rivals in knots and dissect them with words alone. They have carved their own niche in the Dark City through constantly misleading and wrong-footing their rivals, ensuring their ‘allies’ bear the cost in blood whilst they plunge the knife into the foe’s delicate underbelly. They even use failure and mischance as weapons, elegantly scapegoating and framing others to achieve their means. Many an opposing Archon has been torn to shreds by their own Kabalites due to the campaigns of misinformation spread by the Poisoned Tongue. Nobody trusts the honeyed words of this infamously sly Kabal, but seeing as no Drukhari trusts another in any case, this is not much of a handicap.

During their realspace raids, the Poisoned Tongue put their skills of deceit to deadly use. On worlds where the Kabal have trained their eye, inhabitants are often supplied with false signs of an impending attack, as well as fragmented messages and fleeting signatures of Drukhari raiding craft. They position their defences as best they can to repel the impending invasion, but when the Poisoned Tongue finally strikes it is inevitably where their victims least expect. The Kabal regularly employs infiltration tactics, assassinations and massed poisonings to ravage their enemies before ever meeting them on the field of battle. The result is that the raiding parties of the Poisoned Tongue are able to swiftly run through the disordered ranks of their prey before spiriting back their captives to Commorragh.

History
Led by the intellectual titan Lady Aurelia Malys, the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue enjoys a position right at the forefront of Commorrite society. Their number includes many Trueborn – the closest to nobility in the Drukhari society that Vect’s mercilessly enforced Kabalite system will allow. The whispersmiths have it that the Lady has her own mysterious patron, for those bold or foolish enough to eavesdrop on her personal chambers have reported two distinct voices when only one life-sign registers within. Few such spies survive long, for Lady Malys has her little ways, and she is invariably several steps ahead of the competition.

The accuracy with which Lady Malys can predict her enemies’ moves borders on supernatural, leading to the belief amongst many of her detractors that she has a degree of psychic ability. However, the truth is that she simply has a mind like a steel trap. So astoundingly complex is her psyche that she was once taken by Asdrubael Vect as one of his consorts, until the Supreme Overlord eventually cast her out. Outraged, Malys and most of her Kabalite Warriors left Commorragh and struck out into the Webway. There it is said she encountered the god of the Harlequins, Cegorach, who banished her followers and challenged her to a duel of wills. When Malys successfully answered all of the Laughing God’s riddles, Cegorach vanished with an amused chuckle, leaving behind a semi-sentient blade and a pulsating crystal, which was the trickster god’s own heart. Determined to gain enough power to undo Vect, Malys used the blade to cut out her own heart and replaced it with that of Cegorach. The heart has continued to beat within Malys’ chest ever since.

Lady Malys returned to Commorragh, where she reinstated herself as Overlord of the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue. Since then she has deftly led the Kabal through the Dark City’s most deadly intrigues, including the great treacheries that have occurred in recent years. Following Vect’s murder, many suspected the hand of Malys was involved. Rather than wait around for the reprisal that the Black Heart had inevitably planned, she took the vast bulk of the Poisoned Tongue and ventured out into the webway, there to await the coming storm. Malys’ foresight was once again vindicated when those Archons who attended the Great Wake in Commorragh were butchered one and all, and Vect himself arose, alive and triumphant. For now, the Poisoned Tongue are content to watch the Dark City from afar.

Notable Kabalites of the Poisned Tongue Kabal

 * Lady Aurelia Malys - Though less than a thousand years of age, Lady Aurelia Malys is the only Archon who has proven to able to match Asdrubael Vect's soaring intellect time and time again. Even before the fateful events that led to her ascendancy, Malys' mind was built like an incredibly complex timepiece, a latticework of tiny golden cogs each clicking away in its place. She is consummately cunning, but at all times she conducts herself with perfect decorum and even a frosty politeness that hides her lethal intentions. Her hauter and aloof manner is echoed throughout her court, for only the quickest of wit are admitted to the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue.