Dracon

"Eyes without life, maggot-ridden corpses, mountains of skulls. These are some of my favourite things."

—Dracon Borkor

Marazhai Aezyrraesh, dracon of the Kabal of the Reaving Tempest, now unwilling ally of the Rogue Trader of House von Valancius in the Koronus Expanse. Marazhai has much to teach his mon-keigh ally about the nature of depravity and cruelty.

A dracon is a Trueborn Drukhari officer who commands an elite regiment of their fellow Trueborn Kabalite Warriors. Every dracon is an important lieutenant of their Kabal's ruling archon and also one of their potential rivals and replacements.

Role

Naturally-born Drukhari are rare, due to the long gestation period of the Aeldari infant. The ones that are naturally birthed from their mothers' wombs, known as "Trueborns," are often very privileged in Drukhari society because of the circumstances of their birth. As such, they are arrogant and see themselves as far better than the majority of Drukhari, who are born in amniotic gestation tubes and whom the Trueborn derisively call the "Halfborn."

Due to this prejudice, the Trueborn often gather only in squads of other Trueborn within the Drukhari Kabals, and serve as the elite Kabalite Warriors that escort their Kabal's ruling archon into battle and serve as their most elite unit of warriors.

Trueborns usually sport many more advanced weapons than their fellow warriors, such as the Shard Carbine, a Drukhari weapon design that hybridises the Splinter Rifle and a Splinter Cannon and possesses a shorter range than either. Trueborn also often make use of Dark Lances and Splinter Cannons as well as Blasters and Shredders.

The Trueborn are an elite group that excludes any "Halfborn" Drukhari birthed in an amniotic tube from their company. Led by an officer called a "dracon," these hardened killers carry a wide assortment of expensive and deadly weapons wherever they go, supposedly to better protect the life of their Archon but in truth only to better inflict more pain and death. Trueborn delight in dramatic displays of firepower, sending powerful fusillades into the enemy's ranks and leaving bodies and the broken carcasses of armoured vehicles in their wake.

A Trueborn Drukhari dracon of the Kabalite Warriors

Dracons frequently lead their forces of Kabalite Warriors in large-scale realspace raids directly. Sometimes, they might only join up with an ongoing raid when considerable resistance has been met, so that they can turn the tables with their tactical expertise.

By the time a member of a Kabal achieves the rank of dracon, they more than likely have attained access to the full armoury of the Kabal. Consequently, they are often seen equipped with incredibly advanced wargear, or ancient and valuable Drukhari artefacts. Nevertheless, should the archon choose to participate in an operation of sufficiently grand scale as well, the dracons are to allow their lord first choice on the finest equipment. To outshine their vain superior, whether because of excessive carelessness or boldness, is an affront that may easily warrant a gruesome death.

It is quite common for a dracon to be accompanied by a retinue of elite Kabalite Trueborn. These warriors are less like bodyguards, and more like disciples of the dracon, granted an excellent opportunity to train under a being of such distinction and skill as to achieve this esteemed rank. This Kabalite Warrior squad is usually bestowed a special name, and is treated with particular favour by their dracon, while suffering increased contempt from their fellow Kabalite Warriors.

These elites usually swear fealty to the dracon personally over the Kabal, and as such are often the fulcrum necessary for a successful coup d'etat. Unfortunately for them, this means in the event of the dracon's plot being foiled, these elite warriors are usually killed or enslaved by the surviving archon regardless of whether they had anything to do with the matter.

Wargear

• Kabalite Armour

• Splinter Pistol

• Shard Carbine

• Dark Lance

• Blaster

• Shredder

• Drukhari Close Combat Weapon - A dracon can wield any number of favoured Drukhari melee weapons.

• Plasma Grenades

Notable Dracons

• Maensith - Maensith was a dracon of the Kabal of the Crimson Talon.

• Th'tysh - Th'tysh was a dracon of the Kabal of the Red Seed, serving as the second in command of the Kabal's high lord, Archon Kas'queil. Th'tysh was part of his lord's retinue during a Drukhari raid on the world of Fenris in 641.M41. While hunting a group of Fenrisian tribesmen alongside his lord, the Kabal's forces were ambushed by a pack of Space Wolves led by Lukas the Trickster. In the ensuing fight, Th'tysh was killed by a shot from a bolter.

• Marazhai Aezyrraesh - Aezyrraesh is a dracon of the Kabal of the Reaving Tempest, which is active in the Koronus Expanse of the Segmentum Obscurus. Aezyrraesh would later join the retinue of the Rogue Trader of House von Valancius, though it was never anything but an alliance of convenience with the completely untrustworthy Drukhari warrior. The Drukhari are considered among the most cruel and malicious of xenos that threaten the people of the Imperium. They are a degenerate kindred of the ancient Aeldari xenos species, a dark society of torturers and raiders, striking out at the galaxy's inhabitants from their labyrinthine shadow-realm of Commorragh in the Webway. Selfish, prideful, arrogant and murderous, the Drukhari are an utterly self-serving people. Their rulers reign over their kindred with the utmost cruelty and intimidation, for only the fear of death can keep the Drukhari in line. Their subjects are torn between their own ambitions that urge them to backstab their own and a hatred of their common enemies that pushes them into fragile alliances and shaky agreements. The laws of this fractured society are known only to the Drukhari themselves -- and even they often become victims of their own intrigues and games, having faltered in their judgment or one of their plots. Marazhai Aezyrraesh, a dracon of the Kabal of the Reaving Tempest, is a true scion of Commorragh, who is driven by an insatiable lust for violence and power over others -- things which he achieves through subtle cunning, shady deals, and -- to his great delight -- carnage and the agonising but delicious torture of his enemies. Everything changed for the arrogant Drukhari when another raid by his kabal in realspace went awry, and Marazhai realized that this time it was he who was being hunted. It was time to strike back, not wait for the enemy to get ahead. But the intricacies of Commorragh's intrigues and machinations are different from the rules of these rampant and bloody slave raids, and the most sophisticated plan can fail if one of your tools is an overly feisty and underestimated Rogue Trader...or if one of the apex predators of Commorragh, with whom you struck a dark alliance, decides not to hold up his end of the bargain. Stripped of everything that once belonged to him, Marazhai received one final favor -- to perish to the delight of his kin, feeding their insatiable psychic hunger with his exquisite pain. This fate is unlikely to suit the proud Kabalite Warrior of the Reaving Tempest, and he has one last chance to avoid it -- to enter into an alliance with yesterday's enemy. If this uneasy union holds together, if the doomed find their way out of Commorragh, if this Drukhari, a child of the Webway, survives in realspace...then the fallen dracon will have a shred of hope: one day he might reclaim the shards of what he once considered his own or follow the path of bloody revenge as someone with nothing to lose. The rut of daily life on a Human voidship can be unbearably dull for a creature of such different customs and dark appetites -- and there is none more inventive in devising twisted entertainment than a bored Drukhari. Since only the Rogue Trader is worthy of any attention amid the surrounding Human rabble, it will not be difficult for them to attract Marazhai's special consideration. A former preything can just as easily be turned into an amusing plaything...or, if the chosen rules dictate, roles can change completely. For a reckless -- or unwary -- Rogue Trader willing to indulge Marazhai's debauched nature, he has much to share on the subject of depravity and cruelty -- such things might just leave a permanent mark on the soul of a willing and receptive mon-keigh.

Sources

• Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), pg. 26
• Spirits of Tir-Namagesh (Short Story) by Gav Thorpe
• Lukas the Trickster (Novel) by Josh Reynolds, Ch. 14
• Owlcat Games website - Marazhai Aezyrraesh: The Creed of a Tormenter
• Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (PC Game)