Jain Zar

Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence, Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees Aspect Warriors, wielding the Blade of Destruction and the Jainas Mor

Jain Zar, called the "Storm of Silence," is the Phoenix Lord and founder of the Craftworld Aeldari's Howling Banshees Aspect Warriors.

History

Origins

Asurmen, the "Hand of Asuryan," was the first of the Asuryani Phoenix Lords, and it was he who founded the first of the Aspect Shrines, the Shrine of Asur, and trained the other Exarchs who would become the first of the other Aspect Shrines' Phoenix Lords.

Prior to the Fall of the Aeldari, Asurmen was the Aeldari who led the surviving craftworlds away from the ancient homeworlds of the now lost Aeldari Empire and it was he who founded the first of the Aspect Warrior Shrines, the Shrine of Asur, upon the barren moon of the same name located in a region of the Webway that his people initially settled.

Asurmen found that he could not give up the Path of the Warrior to follow a different Asuryani Path, for he desired to use his skills to protect what remained of his species after the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, "She Who Thirsts." From the Shrine of Asur sprang the first Aspect Warriors, and the Path of the Warrior was opened for the very first time to all Asuryani.

In the time after the Fall, Jain Zar was the first warrior of her species chosen to serve at the side of Asurmen, and the first to become an Exarch, those Asuryani who can never leave the Path of the Warrior for they can never take off the war mask of Khaine.

Formerly an orphan named Faraethil who had become a Hekatarri to fight in the arenas for the delight of the hedonistic masses on the Aeldari world of Eidafaeron, Jain Zarr was saved from her bloody fate by Asurmen, then known as Iliathin, after he helped her fend off her former masters among the Aeldari kindred later known as the Drukhari when she defected. After renaming themselves, the pair moved and settled on the barren moon of Asur where Jain Zar would become Asurmen's first disciple.

Jain Zar was a passionate Aeldari swordmaiden famed for her speed and ferocity. She and her brothers-in-arms who followed her in the service of Asurmen learned well at the feet of their master, and in their turn they assumed the mantle of the Asurya, the children of Asurmen and the first Phoenix Lords, spreading their own martial teachings across the stars and founding the shrines of the Aspect Warriors.

It was during this time that the first Aspects were formalised, taking as a model the tactical specialties of their founders. Those Craftworld Aeldari who wanted to follow this new path learned at the feet of their master, and in turn they then assumed the mantle of Exarchs before spreading throughout the galaxy. Great shrines were built on the craftworlds as they took to deep space so the skills of the Asurya could be conserved for all time.

Once her training was complete, Jain Zar travelled the Webway extensively, perfecting the abilities of her devotees and leading ever more Asuryani along the Warrior Path.

Jain Zar stands at-the-ready to lead the Howling Banshees into battle.

Soon enough, there were Aspect Shrines practicing her arts on every major craftworld -- shrines that she still frequents to this day, nurturing her spiritual descendants. Of all the Phoenix Lords, Jain Zar remains the most devoted to the shrines of her Warrior Aspect throughout the craftworlds.

An acrobat at heart like the Harlequins, Jain Zar (which translates into Low Gothic from the Aeldari Lexicon as "the Storm of Silence") is the fastest of all the Phoenix Lords save for Baharroth, the Phoenix Lord of the Swooping Hawks.

Jain Zar's astonishing swiftness and mercurial temperament are echoed by her Howling Banshee daughters, and it was she who first perfected the Scream that Steals -- though the psychosonic barrage that emanates from her mask can not only stun the foe but liquefy their brains in the process.

The Storm of Silence is the most active of all the Phoenix Lords in the war against the forces of the Great Enemy. She has led hundreds of Howling Banshees to war on countless occasions, even mustering them from several craftworlds at once should she deem it necessary.

She still travels the labyrinthine corridors of the Webway, spreading her particular martial knowledge to all but the most remote of the Aeldari craftworlds. Although she might disappear for standard centuries at a time, she always returns, and her shrines maintain a constant vigil for their deadly mistress.

Kiliak's Bane

In 838.M41 in the campaign that became known as the Pyre of Kiliak's Bane, Imperial xenographers began to plunder buried Aeldari artefacts on the Maiden World of Kiliak, bringing about a devastating retaliatory assault from the nearby craftworlds of Biel-Tan and Ulthwé.

A sighting of the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar, accompanied by one hundred of her Howling Banshee disciples, was confirmed before the entire Imperial force was slaughtered and incinerated, their ashes scattered to the winds in retribution for their assault upon the Aeldari's lost patrimony.

Hunt for Talos Valcoran

In the 41st Millennium, Jain Zar hunted the Chaos Space Marine Talos Valcoran, the commander of the 1st Claw of the 10th Company of the Night Lords Traitor Legion, due to a vision by Asuryani Seers that foresaw that a prophet of the VIII Legion would unify the Night Lords and lead them against the Ulthwé Aeldari in the future. In so doing the Heretic Astartes would kill enough of the craftworld's population to push it beyond its ability to recover its losses.

When Talos' warband of Night Lords laid waste to the Imperial colonists of the world of Tsagualsa in the Eastern Fringe, they were ambushed by Aeldari of Craftworld Ulthwé looking to again kill the Soul Hunter before he could become a threat to their species. In the ensuing battle, nearly every member of Talos' warband was slain and he himself became embroiled in a desperate single combat against the deadly Phoenix Lord who had led the Ulthwé Aspect Warriors.

Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence, in battle.

In the ensuing battle, Jain Zar took grievous injuries and Talos sacrificed himself by detonating a grenade. The blast stopped short of killing the Phoenix Lord, whose crippled and barely-conscious body was finished off by the Night Lords' Chaos Dreadnought Malcharion.

Jain Zar's armour was later recovered by the Aeldari, and the Phoenix Lord would eventually return when a new Exarch was chosen to take up the burden of the Storm of Silence and assume the Phoenix Lord's memories and personality.

Similarly, Talos Valcoran's gene-seed was recovered by his comrade Variel the Flayer and used on a specially-selected Heretic Astartes candidate named Decimus, who some solar decades later would become the foretold prophet who would begin to unite the VIII Legion in preparation for the 13th Black Crusade. This prophet advocated assaulting the Ulthwé Aeldari to keep them from offering their assistance to the Imperium during Abaddon the Despoiler's great assault.

Battle of Biel-Tan and the Ynnari

Jain Zar next appeared when she fought to save Biel-Tan from an invasion by the Daemonic forces led by the Masque of Slaanesh and her ally the Bloodthirster Skarbrand and has since joined the new faction known as the Ynnari, taking the power of Ynnead, the newborn Aeldari god of the dead, into herself and becoming reborn.

Since then, no other Phoenix Lord has championed the cause of the newly risen Ynnari like Jain Zar. She has spoken passionately about the hope fostered for the entire Aeldari species by the birth of Ynnead, and come to the aid of the god of the dead's prophet and high priestess Yvraine and her followers on multiple occasions.

However, Jain Zar went missing in the Webway during the Ynnari's battle against the Thousand Sons Traitor Legion following the Battle of Biel-Tan.

She reappeared during the Psychic Awakening to protect Yvraine, first from an assassination attempt by Drazhar during the Raid on Saim-Hann then later on the Maiden World of Iathglas where a great conclave of all the Aeldari faction had been called by the Ynnari from the Slaaneshi Keeper of Secrets Shalaxi Helbane.

Blood of the Phoenix

After the Raid on Saim-Hann, Jain Zar pursued the retreating troops of Drazhar through the Webway. The journey led them to the Aelindrach -- a mysterious region of the Shaa-Dom sub-realm of Commorragh. There Drazhar ambushed Jain Zar and the Howling Banshees that accompanied her, slaying them all and slicing Jain Zar in half. Drazhar believed that if the Phoenix Armour of Jain Zar stayed in the tainted realm of Aelindrach among the region's shadowy Mandrakes, she could never be reborn in the body of a new Exarch who sought to take up the Storm of Silence's mantle.

But this was proved not to be the case when Yvraine, having sensed Jain Zarr's death and feeling great guilt over being its cause, asked her patron Ynnead, the Aeldari god of the dead, to grace the Storm of Silence with a new life. So it was that with the divine aid of Ynnead, the Howling Banshees Exarch Quitui'yenh donned the Phoenix Armour and the Banshee Mask of Jain Zar and was able to merge her own mind with all the other bearers of the Storm of Silence's legacy back to the beginning of the Aspect Shrine on Asur.

Born anew, Jain Zar slew many of the dark Mandrake denizens of Aelindrach and activated an ancient portal that led from Comorragh to the long-lost craftworld of Zandros. There she rejoined Yvraine and her Ynnari once more.

Soon after, Drazhar, who had learned to his rage of Jain Zarr's improbable resurrection and was determined to slay her once and for all, also arrived at Zandros. An epic duel was then fought among the ruins of the ancient craftworld, reminiscent of a previous duel fought in solar decades before in 928.M41 on Zandros between the Phoenix Lords Arhra and Karandras, in which Jain Zar managed to slay Drazhar because at that moment she contained not only the power of the Phoenix Lord, but also was still empowered with the divine energies of Ynnead.

Wargear

Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence

• Phoenix Armour - The legendary Phoenix Lords wear ancient, invaluable Aspect Armour so finely wrought it is proof against almost any weapon. The helmet of this suit contains the Spirit Stones of Jain Zar which hold the souls of every Howling Banshees Exarch to have become the Phoenix Lord since the original Jain Zar left the tutelage of Asurmen at the First Shrine on Asur millennia ago.

• Mask of Jain Zar - The first and greatest of all Howling Banshee masks, this artefact has the power to turn its wearer's warcry into a devastating barrage that robs the mind of all those who hear it.

• Zhai Morenn - Known as the "Blade of Destruction" in the Aeldari Lexicon, this long and elegant polearm was made in the distant past, yet retains much of its original power. It is amongst the most potent of blades to survive from the time of the Fall, yet it is light and easy to wield with blurring speed.

• Jainas Mor - Known as "Silent Death" in the Aeldari Lexicon, this triple-bladed throwing weapon possesses sharpened edges that were forged in the anti-flame of the Warp. Black fire licks around its keen surfaces as the Silent Death describes an elegant loop through the air, leaving decapitated bodies in its wake before returning to its mistress.

Sources

• Blood of the Phoenix Rulebook (Boxed Set) (8th Edition), pp. 10-15
• The Gathering Storm - Part II - Fracture of Biel-Tan (7th Edition), pp. 22-32
• Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pp. 9, 86
• Codex: Eldar (3rd Edition), pg. 10
• Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pp. 31, 63
• Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pp. 57, 65
• Codex: Eldar (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 189-192
• Planetstrike (5th Edition), pg. 55
• Void Stalker (Novel) by Aaron Dembski-Bowden
• Warhammer Community - Phoenix Lord Rising