Kabal of the Pierced Eye

"Why do we ride atop these elegant craft? The better to hear the screams of our prey as we ride them down, to savour the fear etched on their faces, to taste the tantalising tang of their blood in the air as an appetiser before the feast.  But most of all we ride them so that the slaughter may begin as soon as possible."
-Dhariaq Bladetoungue, Kabal of the Pierced Eye

It is in this quote, which I first read in the 5th edition rulebook (ahh what a good time for the True Kin), that I found the inspiration for my Kabal of the Pierced Eye.  The Pierced Eye maintain that their emphasis on rapid assault and maneuver is in order to ensure that "...the slaughter may begin as soon as possible," but really it is to "blind" the enemy as per the strategy of Archon Bladetongue. Despite his aptitude for intrigue, Bladetongue is still relatively new to planning raids and military tactics, and uses sheer speed to compensate for this lack. However, he is quickly learning the subtleties of warfare, and some whisper that he is drunk on his successes, eagerly executing one raid after another. Only time will tell if there is a method to his madness, or if he is merely using his Kabal to stroke his own ego. If the latter proves true, it would not be the first time he has seemingly placed the his ego over the sureness of his own Kabal.

Bladetoungue's moniker comes from his first action after his successful coup:   lingulectomising the deposed Archon, Drosyx the Marauder, in a swift, internecine conflict that saw most of the Kabal either dead or wounded.  Interestingly, the ascendant Archon Bladetongue made Drosyx his lieutenant.  Many, in the most private corners of their mind, questioned Dhariaq's choice of not killing Drosyx. The Kabal was still reeling from the fractious event of the coup, and there were still many loyal to Drosyx.  Predictably, Drosyx burned for the chance of revenge, but the constant humiliation by Dhariaq (who never misses a moment to ask Drosyx for his opinion, or pointedly remark about Drosyx's "preference" for silence) has so far proved to keep Drosyx unbalanced and his plots obvious and ineffective.  Yet Dhariaq never punishes Drosyx for his treachery, "forgiving" him each time Drosyx's plots are effortlessly foiled.  At first, other Kabalites within the ranks of the Pierced Eye expected the same leniency.  The first coup after Dhariaq's was the last, with Drosyx's allies being "pardoned" in inventive and terrifying ways.  Thus, Drosyx has found it harder and harder to find allies for his schemes, having to go farther and farther outside of the Kabal as the shocking stories of what happens to those who try to double-cross Dhariaq spread deep into the rumor pools of Commorragh, like blood into water.

The Kabal of the Pierced Eye increasingly ally with the Wych Cult of the Unsullied, who are obsessed with slicing their victims and rivals so quickly that blood does not have time to settle on the blade.  For the Unsullied, a clean blade after a battle is a mark of exceptional skill, and any sign of having cleaned a blade to deceive the other cult members is certain, painful, and drawn-out demise.  The Unsullied have one of the poorer reputations among the Wych cults, with detractors claiming that they are too single-minded about the appearance of their blades, rather than their placement, but the Unsullied maintain that if they ever did lower themselves to the standards of other cults that they would be the greatest in effectiveness, and that true artists do not compromise the quality of work for greater volume.  Regardless, Dhariaq's patronage has seen the cult grow in leaps and bounds, and it remains to be seen if his investment is as foolhardy as it may seem.

As of late the Pierced Eye has grown in status sufficiently to attract the attention of a minor Coven known as the Mind-Eaters, who specialize in modifying the brains and nervous systems of their victims.  Their favorite subjects are the Aeldari of the craftworlds, whom they love to transform from calm, self-controlled stoics into monsters driven by an unstoppable urge to kill, yet still fully in command of their higher faculties.  It is this latter trait that the Mind-Eaters especially pride themselves on, and the advantage they reap is that their Grotesques can be trusted with specific instructions and are not simply mindless killing machines (though they are no less effective).  In fact, the Mind-Eaters are known to use their Grotesques as assassins.  When more subtle methods are not effective, a team of focused and unrelenting monstrosities inevitably are.

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Pics to follow. Hope you enjoyed the little tale I cooked up.