An Aeldari Wraithknight armed with a Ghostglaive.
A Wraithknight is a Craftworld Aeldari Ghost Warrior combat walker. Dominating the battlefield, the Wraithknight looks down upon its foes like a vengeful god of war.
Armed with either massive directed energy cannons or a colossal powered Ghostglaive and Scattershield for melee combat, this giant Ghost Warrior can unleash blazing destruction or charge in to artfully carve apart its foes.
Inside its wraithbone hull, its living pilot communes with the soul of their twin, for this Ghost Warrior is driven by two Asuryani, one living and one dead, working as one.
In many ways, the Wraithknight embodies the symbol of the cyclical nature of reality for the Asuryani, the curving discs that embody a portion of death within life and a fragment of life within death.
Their contoured shells house the spirits of the wakeful dead in much the same way as lesser Ghost Warriors, though their armoured chests each hold a living Asuryani pilot within.
These pilots are not normal steersmen such as those at the helm of Aeldari grav-tanks and aircraft, but rare and unusual warriors who were each born a twin.
Role[]
An Asuryani Wraithknight strides across the battlefield.
The psychic link between the rare pairs of Asuryani identical twins is like no other. Whilst alive, these gifted individuals can sense the proximity, the mood, and even the thoughts of their counterparts with the ease that a normal Asuryani could feel the sun on his skin or the wind in his hair.
The bond is so strong that should one of the twins die before the other, the surviving brother or sister will often fade away in sympathy.
Sometimes, when such a soul-reaving loss has taken place, the surviving twin will sacrifice what is left of their life to pilot a Wraithknight for their craftworld.
The essence of the dead twin is transferred from the Infinity Circuit of their craftworld into the large Spirit Stone in the chest of the giant Ghost Warrior, whilst the surviving sibling enters a near-permanent battle trance within the fitted cavity behind its breastplate.
The clarity of thought provided by the living twin ensures that the construct moves with the speed typical of the Aeldari species, whilst the psychic link between the pilot and their departed sibling allows them to commune with not only the animating forces of his twin, but also the spirits of former incumbents that once controlled the construct's long-limbed form.
The great measure of control afforded by this gestalt mind gives the pilot mastery over the construct's psychically-powered weapon systems and affords the war machine an acrobatic grace that belies its massive size.
It is well that each Wraithknight is capable of such feats of heroism, for it is they who are at the forefront of the quest for new Asuryani Spirit Stones.
A Wraithknight of Craftworld Saim-Hann armed with twin Heavy Wraithcannons standing next to a Guardian for size comparison.
By passing through forbidden portals and traversing the shattered multidimensional spars of the Webway, Wraithknights can emerge onto the surface of Crone Worlds, where the nature of realspace shears with that of the Warp.
It is the metaphysical friction of this unnatural union between the energies of the Immaterium and realspace that causes reality itself to bleed, each drop of unleashed psychic energy from the Warp crystallising into a new Waystone ripe to house another Asuryani soul and so become a Spirit Stone.
Only a Wraithknight can endure the Warp-touched environments and daemonic infestations that plague these lost planets and return with their bounty intact.
Those mortals who embark upon such perilous missions risk not only their life but also their eternal soul. Only the Wraithknights have the power and resilience necessary to harvest a clutch of Spirit Stones and still escape from the nightmarish denizens of the Crone Worlds.
As the end of days approaches and instances of birth become ever more eclipsed by reports of death, fewer and fewer pairs of Aeldari twins are born upon each craftworld.
A great many Wraithknight pilots are recruited from Revenant Scout Titan helmsmen who have lost their own Aeldari twins in battle and, driven to regain their kinship whatever the cost, give themselves over to the twilight life of a Wraithknight pilot.
As unsettling as it may be, it is whispered that some craftworld councils are removing the option of choice from such individuals. Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all -- should a pair of twins be too attached to the light of the living world, it is possible to steer them toward a darker fate.
Armament[]
An Asuryani Wraithknight cuts down a monstrous foe.
Looming Ghost Warriors many times larger than even the mighty Wraithlords, the war machines known as Wraithknights are still dextrous enough to run through the ruin of a shattered city, leaping from pillar to spar as their arcane weapons bring oblivion to the enemies of the Craftworld Aeldari.
Each carries either a pair of Heavy Wraithcannons, their lengthy forms capable of sending their targets straight into the hell-dimension of the Warp; a Suncannon, powerful enough to obliterate a platoon of Human soldiers in a single blast of roiling plasma; or a great Ghostglaive and Scattershield to engage even the Daemon Lords of Chaos in single combat.
Skathach Wraithknight[]
A Skathach Wraithknight armed with twin Deathshroud Cannons.
A much rarer form of Ghost Warrior construct than the Wraithknight itself, Skathach Wraithknights were designed to walk the endless paths of the Aeldari's ethereal realm in the Webway and to purge them of any who would dare trespass.
A Skathach Wraithknight of Craftworld Mymeara armed with twin Inferno Lances.
This macabre breed of Wraithknights are piloted by an Asuryani torn by the separation from their twin. Grief-stricken, a pilot and his Skathach Wraithknight dwell in the Webway communing with the small wraithbone Infinity Circuit of their own construct.
Usually Skathach Wraithknights protect the Webway from intrusion and emerge into realspace only to aid Asuryani forces on the brink of defeat or to defend threatened Webway portals.
Equipped with complex Webway Shunt Generators and rare, specialised weapons, Skathach Wraithknights are few in number, but devastating in battle.
Skathach Wraithknights are often armed with a pair of Deathshroud Cannons or Inferno Lances. Similar to the armament of the Deathspinner grav tank, the Deathshroud Cannon projects a dense field of monofilament wire which leaves only unrecognisable gore in its wake.
The area affected can be adjusted for maximum coverage or increased lethality.
Sources[]
- Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pg. 51
- Codex: Craftworld Eldar (7th Edition), pg. 77
- Forge World Website - Skathach Wraithknight with Deathshroud Cannons
- Forge World Website - Skathach Wraithknight with Inferno Lances
- White Dwarf Weekly 92 (2015), "Forge World - Eldar Skathach Wraithknight"