Kabal of the Nightsworn

Nightsworn
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Background: The Nightsworn were once a minor noble house in Commorragh, but when Vect took over House Al’demar was forced to become the Kabal of the Nightsworn. The Nightsworn had many competitors and was slowly weakened for thousands of years until Sevran Al’demar came to power. Sevran helped bring the Kabal back to it’s former glory, and over time amassed secrets that would aid the Nightsworn in becoming one of the major powers in Commorragh… At least that was his vision, unfortunately one of the Haemonculi under Sevran’s employ betrayed him, with the aid of a rival kabal and traitors within the Nightsworn’s ranks the Kabal was crippled terribly. It’s Archon dead, members dying, and much of the Kabal’s wealth stolen. Sevran’s only child Rhivan had work to do…


Necromancy: After his father’s death, Rhivan developed an intense fear of his own death. But he couldn’t turn to the haemonculi for they’d betrayed his father… He needed to find another way to bring him back from death. He began to experiment with soulstones, twisting them and corrupting them, until something new was created. The Soulstone had absorbed his soul… well a portion of it, Rhivan wasn’t dead, but neither was he fully alive but it made him stronger, and now there was something new within his grasp. Something forbidden dancing in his mind.


Through experimentation with his new existence he discovered he could imbue others with his gift, by doing so their soul’s were tied to his, this transformation made the newly raised Undead with loyalty to him while still retaining intelligent thought. Though not all of his creations were capable of such as Rhivan was able to animate skeleton’s to his whims, and raise undead abominations to join his ranks...


Rhivan Al’demar - to be written
Is a Psyker and a powerful one. (I assume the Nobles had some great psychic potential even with the numbing of it, along with Undeath and binding other’s souls to his will increased that latent power further)




Note: I am not even close to finishing all the lore for my Kabal as I plan on adding more with the models I get, more named characters and even subfactions into my Kabal (The Haemonculus covens will be replaced with the Nightsworn’s Necromancers but there will be more subfactions as well), another thing is eventually when my maiden world (see below) is more fleshed out I will get the Exodites to join the Nightsworn and possibly enslave the human populations for slave armies, food/souls, and entertainment. On another note I based Therin’s transformation on a combination of a Vampire and a Lich.

To add on to the note I still plan on my Archon fighting chaos and try to recreate the Eldar Empire but as of now that is not in written form.


If anyone is interested in helping flesh out the Nightsworn either message here or send me some private messages I’d love help


Anyway not to the Maiden World!


The Maiden World Vindalin
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Continents and Islands
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Continents:
General Information:


Valkyron - The Northernmost continent on Vindalin, and host of the world tree, Yneadrassil, boasting the largest landmass of all the continents, the land is rugged and harsh with high hills, glaciers, and jagged spires, but also with great forests, lakes, and rivers as well. While the surface belongs to the Valkul there is a hidden secret beneath the earth.


Lordaeros - The Easternmost continent


Sindrafal -


Valdoran -


Island Chains:
General Information:


Valdoran -
Kyrian Isles -
Eldamere Isles -


The Underdark:
Hidden under the ground lies underground caverns known as the Underdark. This is where the Exodites lurk. The largest concentration of caverns lies beneath Valkyron, but every continent has them, and you can reach other continents through them if you know the way.


World Trees
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General Information: The world tree’s are an extension of the world spirit on Vindalin, protecting the Eldar from not only she who thirsts but also blessing the Eldar as well.


Yneadrassil - The Dead Tree. Back when the Human’s began their war to take the planet they attacked the world trees as they were seen as having significance to the Exodites, as this Tree was destroyed the World Spirit quaked with anger, rage, and pain. The world was changed beyond recognition in that moment and the landscape around Yneadrassil most of all. The surrounding woods became dark and twisted, the departed rose from their graves and continue to haunt the woods to this day.
Valdrassil -
Sindrassil -
Lordrassil -
Eldrasil -


The Exodites
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General Information: After the war with the human’s centuries before the Exodites have been driven to the Underdark, fortunately for the Exodites all of the World Tree’s have pathways to the Underdark so they are able to stay safely hidden from humans and defend the Trees
???- I was thinking of having one group of Exodites having some sort of alliance with a tribe of the Val’kul, I may call these exodites Val’kyr (They’ll probably be protected and kept hidden if I do this)
???-
???-


The Humans
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General Information: The Humans of this world have regressed to a Feudal level of technology, forgotten by the Imperium, and unable to sail the stars they are forced to make due on their new home. (They’ve been here for centuries), The Exodites who they fought so long ago have passed been forgotten, though there are myths of fair folk living in the woods...
The Val’kul - (Norse in nature with a strong possible influence of the Vrykul from wow) (I think it’d be interesting to have them as a “Slave” army being run as either Space Marines or Imperial Guard)
The Kyrian League -
???

Cool start. Bear in mind that in most DE circles, DE widely consider themselves to be the Eldar from before the fall, hence the term "True Kin" in referring to the dark eldar.

I know they think of themselves as True kin, I also thought that most have basically just stay in the Cammoragh and don't plan on retaking their old empire. That is more of the Craftworlders thing and Harlequin stories. Am I wrong? I didn't refer to them as Dark Eldar did I?

Edit: I did say Eldar but when I said that I meant the race in general like how the Harlequin talk about uniting the Eldar into one people? The idea is that my Archon was fascinated by Harlequin prophecy and wants to make it a reality.

Yeah, I get it, and it's definitely cool. I was just pointing out that dark eldar consider themselves the "real" eldar.

But no, I don't think most of them have any desire or designs to try to take their old empire back. That seems crazy, since much of their empire was completely destroyed in the eye of terror incedent. The parts that remain are well within the eye of terror under control of the forces of chaos.

It would be pretty cool to see a dark eldar on a crusade to wrest control away from the chaos gods, and would even make for a cool special character in actual GW fluff. But much of the DE fluff makes that really unlikely to happen. The primary reason DE exist is because they stay in the webway(stopping their debauchery and depravity from crossing the shroud and drawing the attention of she who thirsts), and that they have learned to supress their psychic ability. A dark eldar that spent much time outside the webway(like, longer than a raid) would inevitably draw the attention of Slaanesh.

UPDATE

I've added more onto my Kabal in the Doc and it explains a bit more about why my Archon want's to reclaim (or recreate) the Empire.

I'm open to advice on how I should describe the planet where i've taken over along with where my Kabal's domain is within Commorragh.

You could make them have their own maiden world. Or something similar, only twisted and evil. That's why they survive outside of the Web way.

How would a corrupted maiden world work? How could I get something similar?

I was thinking that my Kabal may make use of spirit stones. Now I know that when a Eldar with a Spirit stone does what a Dark Eldar does they lose their soul (I could easily be wrong I believe it was second hand info I forget.) so they just temporarily take off their spirit stones whenever they do their evil?

Another alternative is that they have corrupted spirit stones that they accidentally created. It could be along the lines of their soul is still being gnawed on but Slaanesh can't find them while in realspace I don't know...

I would appreciate any help I can get.

So the Kabal of the Nightsworn has been updated I look forward to everyone's critiques, responses, and ideas.

I have massively overhauled this Kabal I've also opened up a project log so as my conversions finish you'll be able to see some of my undead! (When I create factions I may add pictures of some of the units within)

I've finally started fleshing out the maiden world, and I'm putting the necromantic ideas as more then an afterthought.

Love the idea of a dead world-tree called Ynneadrassil. Nice touch

I'd keep the rest of the fluff pretty centred around a couple of key themes and environments. It's not really that realistic for a real-life planet, but it's a lot easier to make a compelling setting. Think of places like Fenris or Catachan or Armageddon. Single-faceted places, but really memorable and easy to build a good story from you've done that nicely with your kabal, centering around your Archon's fear of death.

How are you planning to connect them to the kabals?

In my exodite fluff, there's a trade in captives and drugs for weapons between the exodites and the Dark Kin. A kabal that's been knocked around by its rivals could certainly reach out to their trade partners for extra manpower and leverage, or employ them as lackeys and hired muscle in realspace.

I do plan on connecting them with the Kabals, the idea is that Vindalin becomes a base of the Nightsworn with the human population serving them, the Exodites adding in new ideas, psykers, and more manpower, as well as the inspiration to recreate the eldar empire. Although as I'm still trying to create the Exodite Culture i'm not sure the specifics they will bring in, or the culture. Should be fun (I'd humbly request help in this measure though) (I've followed your exodites lore it's awesome!)

I really wanted to have Necromancy play a part in the Kabal, and I thought my Archon's fear of death would be an excellent motivator for it. I'm looking forward to what you think of the different divisions within the Kabal when that's written.

Yeah I thought it would be perfect to name it Yneadrassil.  I actually plan on expanding on Yneadrassil and possibly having Rhivan play with that and gain a connection to the maiden world and enhance his necromantic powers. Although I still need to work on the other World Trees.

As for single environment worlds I plan on it being fairly universal but with some variants, I was thinking Northern European or quite a bit like Warcraft's Northrend planetwide.

Thanks for checking it out btw!

Thanks a lot! Glad someone enjoyed it!

I'd love to have a read through what you come up with, and if I can contribute anything I'd be very happy

I think what I really like about the 'fear' motivation for your Archon's necromancy is that it's different to any other readings of necromancy I've come across before. There's oodles of necromancers that dabble in the dark arts to try and gain power, but none I can think of I've read about that do it because they're scared...

Hmmm, just had a thought about how to tie necromancy into the wider Eldar technology-base, and your Archon's background too.

He's suspicious and mistrustful of his kabal's initial allied haemonculus coven. So, he goes in search of more esoteric allies. He ends up entering an alliance with an exiled haemonculus living on the exodite world of Vindalin.

There, this haemonculus had ingratiated himself with the exodite population, and used them to provide psychic talents that he himself lacked. Intrigued by the process by which the Craftworlders transferred souls into their wraith constructs, he began experimenting on what the limit was for something to be imbued with a soul.

For their part, the exodites were willing accomplices. For their ancestors, life withing a dead and decaying world spirit was not a pleasant one. They took any opportunity to escape into the real world once again.

This suited Rhivan fine. In battle, he carried about his person great flasks of swirling spirits, vengeful in the extreme. Opening them, and psychically projecting them across the battlefield, they inhabited the corpses of the recently deceased and long-dead warriors in equal measure.

The look of terror on his enemy's faces when his barrow-wights reanimated his fallen comrades was a sweet delicacy he had grown quite accustomed to...

Well I think I'll start posting more of my plans in general so you guys can get an idea (Probably tomorrow when I can take the time to do a update on some stuff)

I got the idea of the fear factor is because that's one reason why I'm interested in Necromancy. Necromancy is powerful, cool, and dark but immortality was always something that interested me about Necromancy as well because I'm terrified of dying so the idea of doing anything you can to live forever is something I can resonate with. I also thought it was an interesting reason for necromancy (Besides unlimited power that is)... Plus if you think about it from a Dark Eldar's point of view, when you die you become at best the assault God's sex toy, being tortured for eternity. At worst your soul is consumed and you stop existing. I'm surprised Dark Eldar haven't taken more precautions about their deaths.

Ooh I like that background I'm gonna have to play with it and make use of that (If you don't mind).

BTW only Yneadrasil is "dying" I'm still fleshing out how the world tree's are connected to the world spirit but the others are fine and the world in general isn't dying, just the area near Yneadrassil although I'm not sure how far that area is going to be. Perhaps continent spanning to some degree but it won't reach further then that.

I'm not sure if I should use Ynneadrasil (which would be the proper way of spelling Ynnead) or Yneadrassil because well the name could've warped overtime plus it's slightly less overt?

P.S. Cavash and I are dabbling with the idea of organizing some kind of inter-kabal (eldar) writing and roleplaying. Where other kabals may feature each other in their backstories and RP with each other to an extent, we're still working on the details but if your interested maybe you could help us plan?

Ah I see. Could 'World Trees' be in actuality vast wraithbone spires and branches that reach through the planet to form the conduits of the planet's infinity circuit/world spirit? Yneadrassil (hmmm, not sure which one I prefer) could have been severed from the others, causing it to ossify and die.

Yeah that inter-kabal writing thing would be fun I like the idea of 'your dudes' being tied up with 'his dudes' in 40k I'll happily help

That works perfectly for the World Tree's, although I think it would be really cool if each World Tree granted a specific blessing to those who seek it. (Would be cool lore to write up).

I'm not sure if Yneadrassil is severed so much as has a giant leak as it were. Things are able to exit through the leak and it the leak makes it work far less effectively, and things could get in theoretically (Que Chaos Cults trying to corrupt the World Spirit to make it a Chaos World Spirit and the Exodites frantically try to stop them).

I like the idea that the World Tree's are almost a physical representation of a part of the world spirit, and perhaps each of these become semi sentient with their own personalities, powers, and blessings. That way each World Tree's affect the land differently. (Not sure if I'll follow though with this or not) If I do this that means that World Tree's can become corrupted to some degree.

At least that's what I'm thinking so far as having it gone would mean the tree's individual blessings and boons wouldn't exist instead it's powers have been changed...

Then again I may be trying to add WAY to much into these World Tree's.