A Skyboard is a single pilot, anti-gravity platform utilised exclusively by the Drukhari known as Hellions. They are the reprobates and miscreants who hunt in packs and haunt the desolate regions of the Dark City of Commorragh.
These fast-moving platforms are highly coveted as symbols of independence. Each Skyboard is personalised with trophies and glyphs, though most have changed hands several times, won in ritual knife-fights or claimed as bounty. Often they will be bedecked with the severed heads of several previous owners.
Skyboards often have numerous blades and compact anti-gravity technology that allows them to soar far above the battlefield and swoop down to the ground. Their Hellion pilots often use hooked chains to keep themselves from falling while moving.
Skyboards are sensitive to the slightest pressure; because of this, and for the sheer thrill of it, Hellions take combat drugs that enhance their reactions still further until they can flip and jink at incredible speed, their reflexes as sharp as their artfully filed teeth.
When not participating in realspace raids or their own aerial turf wars, Hellions can often be found fighting in the arenas of the Wych Cults. Every night the Cults scout out the sky-battles, looking for Hellions whose skill and panache could draw an audience.
Those chosen are given the opportunity to hone their dog-fighting skills against all manner of alien enemies. The Skyboard riders are a perennial favourite amongst spectators, for invariably they either dispatch their opponents in some spectacular fashion or are themselves torn screaming from the sky.
Beastmaster Use[]
Beastmasters, those Drukhari responsible for controlling the various ferocious alien beasts employed by the Kabals in realspace raids as well as the arenas of the Dark City, utilise Skyboards as well. They hover above the gore-splattered ground upon Skyboards modified to automatically swoop around hazards, leaving the Beastmasters free to goad their charges into the fray with whip and lure.
Splinter Pods slung beneath the Skyboard spit hails of toxin-coated shards, cutting through the closest enemies before the hunting pack even reaches them, and when the Beastmaster finally crashes into the staggering ranks they lay about themselves until their enemies are torn to shreds. Only when the prey has been thoroughly butchered does a Beastmaster allow their slavering pets to devour the dead and dying.
Sources[]
- Codex: Drukhari (8th Edition), pp. 29, 66-67, 85, 98, 101
- Codex: Dark Eldar (7th Edition), pp. 58, 68, 173-174, 181-182
- Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), pp. 10, 14, 28, 30, 48, 83, 90