Mymeara, known as "The Lost Behind the Veil," and "The Curs'd," is a comparatively minor craftworld of the Asuryani. With the onset of the Fall of the Aeldari, and the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, it was thought to have been lost for all time.
After the Fall, Mymeara's citizens turned inwards, focusing upon the glories of the past -- for they believed that without them the memory of their species would fade away forever. During its long isolation, Mymeara was forced to fight for its survival against rampaging Ork hordes and the ever-expanding boundaries of the Imperium of Man.
In these bloody wars a great number of Mymeara's people were slain, though they took many millions of their enemies to the grave with them. Alone and outnumbered, the craftworld learned well the ways of stealth, and mastered the art of concealing their world-ship.
In time, fate eventually reunited them with their kindred. In their ranks, the Craftworld Aeldari found a host of exceptional warriors possessed of great cunning and resourcefulness.
For many millennia after the Fall, the reclusive Asuryani of Craftworld Mymeara were lost in grief, for they believed themselves the only Aeldari left in the galaxy. But in 894.M41, Rangers from Craftworld Alaitoc, while searching the Webway for one of their renowned Wraithseers, discovered a portal that led them to the lost craftworld of Mymeara.
Recently, the Farseers of Mymeara discovered the location of the ancient armour of the lost Phoenix Lord Irillyth, the founder of the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors, whose vessel had crash-landed on the Ice World of Bethalmae (known to the Imperium as Betalis III) millennia before.
An alliance of Asuryani forces from the craftworlds of Mymeara and Alaitoc, as well as Aeldari Corsairs from the Void Dragons, Sky Raiders, and Sunblitz Brotherhoods, descended on the frigid world to recover their beloved Phoenix Lord's armour before it was discovered and defiled by the Human miners present on the planet.
In this way, the Mymearans hoped that Irillyth might be restored to fight once more for his people, since his spirit would have remained intact within his armour's Spirit Stone. After the Asuryani forces fought the Imperium's defenders to a bloody standstill, they vanished as quickly as they had arrived after they had recovered Irillyth.
The recent war on Betalis III has seen Mymeara reunited with their craftworld kin and earned them a reputation for stealth, swiftness and intense displays of firepower.
The world-rune of Mymeara, known as "The Cursing Eye," is a reference to the omniscient abilities of the Aeldari god Asuryan, the Phoenix King, said to be able to perceive and to kill in the same instant.
Asuryan's pitiless extermination of the ancient, brutal race known as the Yygghs epitomises the cull of a lesser species in its comparative infancy, eradicating it before it can grow to endanger the noble Aeldari people in any way.
History[]
The Fall of the Aeldari[]
Mymeara's story began with the Fall of the Aeldari -- the dying days of the Aeldari Empire, when Slaanesh's monstrous birth shattered their civilisation, and the survivors fled in disarray across the stars.
Before their empire was torn apart, a small few amongst the Aeldari had the foresight or, more importantly, the desire to question whether their ambitions and hedonistic practices would eventually lead them. For ultimately all experiences have a limit and those Aeldari who acknowledged this could see that for their people their ways could only end in disaster.
Amongst the wise few were the Aeldari of the colony world of Mymeara. As their system was located on the extreme limits of the Aeldari Empire, the corrupting influences of the many pleasure cults that had so far infiltrated other Aeldari societies had barely reached them, and so they looked upon the ever increasing extremes their brethren elsewhere in the Aeldari Empire were going to with disgust and revulsion.
None though could deny their growing curiosity to experience this life of moral abandonment, and the wisest of Mymeara Aeldari realised that if they did not distance their population, it too would eventually be consumed by their species' growing madness.
Through sheer force of will the Mymearans tempered their efforts towards building a massive craftworld, one in which their entire system's population could flee in should they so choose. It took many solar decades to complete, and with each that passed the system's worlds became ever more tightly gripped by the taint that had already poisoned most of their species.
Only half of their population was on board when the vessel finally set sail, forced to flee as the acts of depravity on the worlds below them escalated into whole-scale bloodshed and slaughter. The craftworld travelled for many solar months until it was nearly out of range of Aeldari space.
This, though, was still not far enough for it to escape the event known as the Fall, and nearly a third of its population was destroyed in the psychic scream that heralded the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh. Lost in their grief for the death of their species, the craftworld continued to drift through the stars, believed themselves now alone in the galaxy.
Their mourning though was to be brutally cut short as they fell prey to those who dwelt in the darkness beyond the once great Aeldari Empire, and hundreds of thousands of Mymearans died as they fought to protect themselves from attacks by Orks and things far worse.
Irillyth, the Shade of Twilight[]
During these terrible times hope came to the Mymearans in the form of Irillyth, a disciple of Asurmen who strode forth one day from one of the many Webway portals on the craftworld that had remained inactive since their departure.
Through his wisdom the warrior-citizens of Mymeara learned how to combine the aspects of stealth, speed and overwhelming firepower to utterly decimate their foe. Together the warriors of the craftworld and the Phoenix Lord set about clearing a safe path through the galaxy for their world-vessel, hitting out mercilessly at any who dared to threaten them.
Irillyth's presence upon the craftworld was short-lived though. Calling a meeting of the craftworld's Council of Seers, he announced that the ultimate reason for his arrival upon the craftworld was to prevent its utter destruction, which he had seen in a vision whilst undergoing his training with Asurmen, first of the Phoenix Lords.
Centuries in the future, the craftworld would sail through the empire of a hostile species so vast and powerful that they would neither avoid nor survive its wrath. The Phoenix Lord could prevent the doom of the craftworld now if the Council of Seers would grant him a war host large enough to destroy the alien empire, which at that point in time was still in its infancy.
Bowing to the wisdom and foresight of the Phoenix Lord, half of the entire craftworld's war host was given over to Irillyth. As the last citizen-warrior stepped across the threshold of the Webway portal the Phoenix Lord had appeared from years before, the device was destroyed as per his instructions, for fear that the enemy would one day somehow discover how to use it to invade the craftworld.
If his war host was victorious, then the Phoenix Lord would find some other way to ensure their return. That was the last those who remained on the craftworld saw of their brethren. As their vessel slowly drifted through star systems where Irillyth had said the empire of their eventual destroyers would be, they could see that he had been true to his word and that paths of the alien race's evolution had been altered.
Planets along their route had once been the site of cataclysmic battles. Whole cities had been destroyed by what could only have been Aeldari weaponry, and the reptile-like aliens scavenging amongst the ruins were now little more than savages. Still though there was no sign of Irillyth and the Mymearans.
The craftworld continued their search, and eventually encroached upon part of the dominion of Mankind. Realising that to continue through such a populated region of space would put them at terrible risk, the Seers of the Mymeara Craftworld chose instead to conceal their great world-vessel and continue their search through other means.
They came to rest in a region of space that had not yet been infested by other species, and using their technology hid themselves away, drawing the stellar matter of a nearby star around the craftworld like a shroud.
There they remained for Terran centuries, sending out Rangers in the hope of locating their lost kin. During their search the Rangers came into contact with other survivors of their species.
Although the Mymearans would have preferred to remain concealed from all, even their own kind, they recognised that they would need the support and protection kinship provided and brokered an alliance of sorts with Alaitoc craftworld and its Aeldari Corsair allies; the price of their allegiance being the exchange of Aeldari technology not seen by Alaitoc since the Fall.
Bethalmae[]
When the Phoenix Lord was finally located in 894.M41, it was not the Mymearans who found Irillyth. Instead, whilst searching for new resources to rip from their world, Betalis III (known to the Aeldari as Bethalmae), Human colonists broke through into a massive cave system, the site, thousands of standard years before, of the final battle against those destined to destroy the Mymearan Craftworld.
During the conflict Mymeara's enemies had been defeated but as the Phoenix Lord Irillyth saw in his vision, it was at the cost of his and the war host's lives.
But when a Phoenix Lord is slain, he does not truly die, only the body of the warrior hosting his spirit is killed. The Phoenix Lord's essence remains within his war panoply, to be taken on by the next Asuryani warrior to don it.
When the colonists broke into the cave they triggered an ancient defence system within the Phoenix Lord's armour intended to protect it whilst his spirit is in a dormant state. This caused the cave-in which killed all the miners and also alerted those who still tended the Phoenix Lord's shrine on the Mymearan craftworld to his location.
Betalis III soon became the site of the Betalis III Campaign, a long-running campaign fought between the forces of the Imperium defending the system and an alliance of Asuryani from Craftworlds Mymeara and Alaitoc and their Aeldari Corsair allies, who sought to recover Irillyth's war panoply and the spirit of the Phoenix Lord within.
Betalis III was reinforced by Astra Militarum regiments drawn from the Cadian Shock Troops and the Elysian Drop Troops as well as Titans from the Legio Gryphonicus and Space Wolves Space Marines.
Fighting the Imperial forces to a standstill, Mymeara was ultimately able to recover the armour of their lost Phoenix Lord from the Aresta IV mining complex and spirit it away, with Irillyth reborn during the battle.
Notable Campaigns[]
- Battle of the Dawning Twilight (Betalis III Campaign) (894.M41) - The frigid Ice World of Bethalmae, known to the Imperium as Betalis III, was the site of the Battle of the Dawning Twilight (known in Imperial records as the Betalis III Campaign) which was fought in 894.M41 between the forces of the Imperium defending the system and the Asuryani who sought to recover the armour of the ancient Phoenix Lord Irillyth, the founder of the Shadow Spectres Aspect Warriors, whose vessel had crash-landed on the world many Terran millennia before. Without Alaitoc's aid, and that of its Aeldari Corsair allies, the resurrection of Mymeara's Phoenix Lord would not have been possible. Not only did the craftworld bring the full force of its squadrons of Grav-tanks, Vypers, Nightwings and other vessels to bear against the Leman Russ Tanks and Chimeras of the Astra Militarum's forces, but its Pathfinders and Aspect Warriors also stalked the icy depths of the Tormus Delta against the troops of the Emperor. Alaitoc's efforts kept the Imperium's forces away from the ultimate objective of the Mymearan Farseer Bel-Annath, the retrieval of his craftworld's lost Phoenix Lord from the cave system below the Aresta IV mining complex. Bel-Annath led the mission to re-animate the spirit host of the Phoenix Lord, and succeeded. The Asuryani's reward was the resurrection of Irillyth. That Bel-Annath succeeded is in no small part due to the contributions of the Aeldari Outcasts, despite their reputation among the craftworlds.
Mymearan Forces[]
Specialist Units[]
- Shadow Spectres - The Shadow Spectres are a recently re-discovered Aspect Shrine of the Mymeara craftworld who specialise in the deployment of highly-mobile, infantry-based anti-armour firepower and are experts at striking at enemy vehicles from concealment and long-range. Armed with Prism Rifles, each a potent anti-tank weapon, and equipped with Jetpacks, their mobility allows them to hunt down their chosen targets with the implacable patience of the dead, materialising seemingly from the very air to unleash their overwhelming firepower. The Shadow Spectres represent the Aeldari god of war Khaine in his aspect as the Eternal Warrior, for whom death is no release from duty. It is therefore appropriate that the Shadow Spectres Aspect Shrine has historically been associated with the Wraithguard. Traditionally, Asuryani who lose their lives in service to the Shadow Spectres Shrine have their Spirit Stone transferred to a wraithbone combat walker body to serve as a Ghost Warrior; in turn, the Wraithguard have acted as the guardians of the Shadow Spectre Shrine for many Terran millennia. During the Betalis III Campaign, the Shadow Spectres of the Mymeara craftworld became a legend on the battlefield. The sight of them phasing in and out of sight sent those who survived their attacks mad with fear. The Asuryani of Alaitoc and the Aeldari Corsairs looked upon them with hope, because if something from their distant past could return as the Shadow Spectres have, then maybe there are others of their lost kin still out in the galaxy for them to rediscover.
Notable Mymearans[]
- Bel-Annath - Bel-Annath is the High Farseer of Craftworld Mymeara. When Irillyth, the Phoenix Lord of the Shadow Spectres, met with Mymeara's Council of Seers to prevent the fate of their craftworld, Bel-Annath was one amongst them. Although already Terran centuries old, he was still the youngest of the Farseers there, having only take the Path of the Seer solar decades previously. Prior to taking his first steps along this, the most dangerous path the Craftworld Aeldari can take, he had fought for his people in many guises. He has trod every Aspect in the Path of the Warrior, and even the lonely Path of the Outcast. Having gained mastery over every aspect which moderated Bel-Annath's fury for battle, he then moved on to the Path of Command as an Autarch. Bel-Annath took part in the Council of Seers session addressed by the Phoenix Lord, but also the resurrection of Irillyth in the caves of Betalis III. The Farseer's years of leadership have brought hope to his people that perhaps they may survive whatever lies ahead for them.
Sources[]
- Codex: Craftworlds (8th Edition), pg. 25
- Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pp. 17, 30
- Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara, pp. 10-131