Ebahn Lauma, the Black Prince of Slinnar, and Corsair Lord of the Balestorm Avengers, charges into battle alongside Khoren'shai.
Ebahn Lauma, the Black Prince of Slinnar, is the Aeldari Corsair Lord of the Balestorm Avengers. He is also a lead member of the Conclave of Tears.
History
The Balestorm Avengers are one of the Aeldari groups operating within the Jericho Reach, though the region is far from the only one they have haunted over the millennia. Since the Age of Shadow, however, the Avengers have concentrated their efforts in the Outer Reach and even established a number of havens on the outer verges of the Slinnar Drift.
Far from using the lambent clouds of the Drift as a place to hide from vengeful enemies, the Avengers appear to be using them as places from which to watch surrounding space. Exactly what these outcast, piratical Aeldari are watching for remains unknown, though some of the masters of the Dead Cabal hold that it must surely relate to the accursed Dark Pattern.
The master of the Balestorm Avengers is a being known to his enemies as the Black Prince of Slinnar, and to his wayward kin as Ebahn Lauma, meaning "night sky" in the tongue of the Aeldari. Like his underlings, Prince Lauma is an outcast of an unknown craftworld, and he appears blessed of the skill to unite those of his species that might otherwise fall to the path that leads only to the gates of the Dark City under his banner.
While outwardly jocular and bloodthirsty, Prince Lauma is in fact utterly dedicated to the welfare of his corsairs and entirely uncaring of the fate of those he preys upon.
He wears an extravagant mantle of golden fur shorn from some mighty alien predator, and a cloak of glittering scale said once to have belonged to an uberlord of the Nebulax Diaspora.
At the Black Prince's side is Khoren'shai, a snapping, six-legged gatorex said to have crippled or slain a thousand would-be assassins over the course of Lauma's tenure as master of the Balestorm Avengers.
It is known amongst the Dead Cabal that the Balestorm Avengers are one of the more capricious and unpredictable groups of corsairs, though the full extent of their anarchic existence has barely been glimpsed.
The Black Prince harbours an abiding hatred of a rival corsair lord called Caeluthin Baharrudor the Stormchaser, and the two groups have fought a series of bitter wars for no reason the Ordo Xenos' most learned xenos-savants can ascertain. In truth, the internal politics of the Aeldari are labyrinthine and contradictory, and utterly impenetrable to Mankind.
Despite his anarchic existence, the Black Prince of Slinnar is an active member of the Conclave of Tears, and his corsairs are willing participants in furthering its mission. Aeldari corsairs maintain extensive fleets of warships well able to penetrate even the most well-guarded star system, and so it is not surprising the Balestorm Avengers are frequently called upon to enact the Conclave's will.
The Black Prince himself often accompanies his forces, seeming to joyously revel in the act of ruining the long-dreamed of schemes and aspirations of lesser races.
In terms of the internecine politics of the Conclave of Tears, the involvement of the Black Prince of Slinnar presents something of an issue, yet one that appears to be crucial in the precarious balance of power.
The Balestorm Avengers' bitter war with the Twilight Swords of the Stormchaser causes friction with the venerable Farseer Erandel Voidsinger, for many of Caeluthin Baharrudor's corsairs are drawn from Craftworld Kaelor, the Voidsinger's home.
In temperament, the Black Prince is closer to the bloodthirsty kin of the Haemonculus Vakillar U'riss, yet in truth his deeds are motivated not by cruelty or ennui, but by genuine exuberance.
For some reason, unknown even amongst the Conclave of Tears, the Shadowseer Ailill Nuada barely utters a word to the Black Prince, suggesting that some further, dark tensions have yet to fully reveal themselves.
Sources
- Deathwatch: The Outer Reach (RPG), pp. 64-65