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Kabal of the Severed are a spacebound Drukhari Kabal that left the Dark City hundreds of years ago. They are more than familiar to the Imperium as The Severed. The Severed have plagued the systems of the Ghoroid Strip since time immemorial. Their brightly painted Raiders and Ravagers are adorned with chains of shrivelled hands taken from other Drukhari, Space Marine and Imperial Guardsman alike. Their Archon, S’aronai Ariensis, once botched a coup that cost him his place in the Dark City and most of his left hand. He defiantly refuses to regenerate his wound, and his warriors are often mutilated in the same manner, their left hands reduced to talons or replaced by augmetic claws.

History

Kabalite Warrior of the Severed

Kabalite Warrior of the Severed

It is testament to Archon Ariensis’ utter ruthlessness that, having lost such face before his followers, he managed to retain the reins of power. Indeed, in the days following his and his Kabal’s exile from the Dark City, Ariensis faced challenges to his authority almost daily. Each was answered with sudden, shocking violence, the Archon making such hideous examples of his rivals that those who remained soon lost all desire to attempt coups of their own.

Now the Severed are a force to be reckoned with once again. With his authority beyond dispute, Archon Ariensis has fought a centuries-long campaign against all who cross his path. His Kabal’s pirate fleet – once a ragtag collection of battle-damaged craft – has become a sleek flotilla of hundreds. They strike at will, navigating the broader sections of the webway with peerless skill to strike against worlds across the galaxy and even, on rare occasions, Commorragh itself…

Notable Campaign

  • The Battle for Thaxar Rift (745.M35) - The Chaos-worshipping pirates and renegades that make the lairs in the Thaxar Rift become so powerful that they prove a serious problem to The Severed, those Kabalite fleets seek to plunder the rift at their leisure. Rather than face the renegades directly, Archon Ariensis ensures that his foes come to the attention of the Imperial Navy and Adeptus Astartes, and a grinding war ensues. The Severed haunt the edges of this conflict, tales of murderous ghosts and xenos pirates spreading like wildfire in their wake while they test and study the Imperium’s way of war. Eventually the Imperium’s forces are reduced to a shadow of their former might. The Thaxar Wars turn into a grinding stalemate that last for six years before the area is declared lost and subjected to systematic and aggressive Exterminatus. The Drukhari watch and learn from the spectacle. While the doomed worlds still smoulder, the Severed descend in full force. They annihilate the surviving Imperial Navy ships left behind to watch over Thaxari space, before proceeding to plunder and pillage at will.

Sources

  • Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), pp. 21, 63
  • Codex: Dark Eldar (7th Edition), pg. 17
  • Colours of the Kabals (Defunct Site)
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