The Parched

We know that Dark Eldar feed off of the pain and suffering of other living beings to sustain themselves. When they have not fed for too long and go deep into spiritual starvation to a point where they cannot recover they become known as 'parched'. They are cadaverous mirror images of their former glory who will fight tooth and claw for a scrap of soul.

I have my own idea of how they would appear to other Dark Eldar, but there isn't too much written on them and so I think it's good ground for speculation. What do you think the parched look like?

Do you think any of their features would become more pronounced? Would they be stark raving mad? Would they be physically altered in a supernatural grotesque way, or be more like a normal starving Dark Eldar roaming the streets with a horrible sheen to their eyes wearing tattered rags?

A starving Lestat comes to mind.

I always envisioned them as insane, emaciated, ghoulesque creatures.

The parched is a subject I love because they feature heavily in my fluff, the twins gather them up and have them work in their factories while slowly rehabilitating them. I've always depicted them as gaunt, gollum-like, ghouls that teeter on the edges of insanity (and the ones that are insane the twins kill and harvest their souls). I imagine them constantly trying to work out what is reality and what is the machinations of She Who Thirsts. I also imagine them constantly attacking each other for soul scraps perhaps even eating each other. So while not physically largely different they are very different in their behaviour.

Yeah, maybe like a really gaunt, emaciated dark eldar version of necron flayed ones?

I imagine them to look like Bando Gora slaves from SW Bounty Hunter, (or Hoody Salesmen, as we called them ) sadly i can't find pictures of them.
They are rather featureless, grey-black, small and skinny and wear a hoody.
Rather weak and easy to kill, but dangerous in masses.

I think the Bando Gora slaves would probably be like the recovering parched, not feral enough to be true parched

Or maybe like the Pack Necromorphs from dead space 2?
Just a bit bigger?

That forst picture by Nyx is very similar to how I imagine them. It reminds me of the sketch of a DE holding a heart in the 3rd ed codex. These are all good siggestions though, and it has goven me a lot to think about.

So, what do you think of using the Parched in terror tactics? Say a Kabal is in all out war with another Kabal they could round up the parched and herd/airdrop them into an enemy's position. They would provide a distraction and it would also help with thinning out the number of undesirable Parched in a Kabal's territory?
I am trying to think of practical uses for them. Afterall, everything can be a resource. I just dont want to have them in giant hamster wheels to power a Kabal's fortress

Edit: Lestat from Anne Rice's vampire trilogy had also come to mind. Sociopathic immortal fallen from grace

Cavash wrote:

...I am trying to think of practical uses for them. Afterall, everything can be a resource. I just dont want to have them in giant hamster wheels to power a Kabal's fortress

Edit: Lestat from Anne Rice's vampire trilogy had also come to mind. Sociopathic immortal fallen from grace

I find it hard to think that a Kabal would use the Parched if things like Beasts or Ur-Ghuls perform a better job in the same area.

But if you try to look for some usage outside of combat, I could imagine them being part of a Dark Eldar circus. No, seriously.

Or imagine a hundred Parched running through a labyrinth. The scent of suffering guides them and at the end of the labrynth is some kind of poor soul that is being tortured meanwhile. Naturally, there are countless lethal traps in the maze or the tortured souls are just barely out of reach for the Parched ones.

Sounds deliciously bittersweet to me.