Hi all, as I wait for my parcel of D.E to arrive on my door (already have a game against Tau planned for this Tuesday
) I decided to sit down and write up some fluff for my army (always gets me in a better painting mood if I have a backstory to attach me to them with), so without further ado... the History of the Kabal of the Stinging Song;
The Kabal of the Stinging Song was founded on the backs of the remnants of four Noble Houses (Urras, Sylas, Harrag and Loron). Spanning as far back as 5000 years, the Houses decided that with the rise of Vect, their very way of life was in jeapordy, for they saw the Civil War exploding around them. So they created a treaty between them and through an agreed trial, named the ‘Trial of Salt and Rock’ each family was allowed to nominate one member to represent them. The first challenge was to sway the other families to vote for you with a speech on your prowess and by offering gifts to each of the Households (your own House could not vote for you and must vote for another).
Once the vote was cast, the victor (in which there could be multiple) would be taken to a small pocket realm, isolated from all others within Commoragh called Nagga Wyk (it’s access fiercely guarded by the Kabal and kept secret). Here lay the Sea of Glass, the prospective Archons’ needed to enter the water and go beneath its surface, there they would find that the water’s surface could not be breached as if it had set as hard as diamond. There the candidates would die, and only then would the water allow them back to the surface. Dragging their bodies to shore, they would wait until one breathed again once more (in the history of this tradition, there has never been two survivors, nor none) and with returning from the Spirit Realm with their soul still intact they would be given the title of Archon and all four Noble Houses bowed to their will. Only once this Archon perished can the Trial be called for again, which means unlike most Kabals, Archons of the Stinging Song had nothing to fear from their own folds as all families upheld their pledge to serve the Lord Reaper (The Honorific Title given, antiquated compared to the title Archon, more widely recognised throughout the Dark Eldar civilisation). This can be shown by stating that in the five thousand years the tradition has been in place, it has been incited only twelve times.
The first Archon chosen by the Kabal, Lord Tamaryen Harrag was approached by Vect and was told to show his loyalty to him by crushing House Urras and removing them from the Galaxy, for one of their servants had not bowed in respect as he passed them. Tamaryen explained that he could not fulfil the request and refused but offered his life. Vect outraged by the action, but moved by the odd show of loyalty with his kin, agreed to let his life answer for the House. But he also chose to exile them from Commorragh for the remainder of his rule and instead gave the Kabal a moon on the Outer Fringes of the known galaxy with a Webway Gate that if found could lead to the downfall of Commorragh itself. For it linked into the Sub Space between the realspace of Commorragh but Vect did not want it destroyed because if one day Commorragh fell, it would be an escape for his people to fight again.
Tamaryen accepted the Order and signed the Shei Protectorate Agreement and upon doing so was impaled on the claws of Vect, his essence devoured. The Agreement in place, the “gift” (as Vect put so diplomatically) to the Kabal of the moon Blacktyde, which hosted the Shei Webway Gate was complete. An emergency session was called for the Trial that evening as they prepared to leave and the Second Lord Reaper was chosen.
When they arrived on their new home they found a habitable world that had rich, fertile soil and oceans of water filled with a myriad of sea life, most notably the Qrilth giant carnivorous tentacled creatures that attempted to even hunt the Drukhari vessels that sailed over the oceans surface. The ferocity of the creatures quickly brought them into tales and legends within the Houses youths and upon the crowning of the third Reaper Lord became the Kabals Sigil. The systems sun was a dwarf star, so despite it being a moon, it received a full day and night cycle.
Blactyde orbited a planet of toxic air with no land mass, its surface instead covered by a sea of acid. The planet was named Menshad Ra (Lonely Light translated by the Imperium) due to its ebbing dull glow that bathed the lands and seas on Blacktyde in a dull green at night. Over the millennia the toxins within the Kabals weaponry came exclusively from this planet and were finessed to a point of almost tantalising perfection.
With their imprisonment, the group in a strange way found their freedom. No more were they under the watchful eyes of Commorragh politics and instead could be free to grow and plunder. The new problem was that scouting parties found that they were light years from any other life and the necessity for souls was a very real issue.
So scouting parties were sent into the Webway Gate to find ways to bypass the local Commorragh routes and eventually a way was found when the scouting group ran into a Harlequin travelling troupe who had traversed the far reaches of the Webway many times. Thankful for the information but unsure why it was given the scouts returned and told the Kabal of the new ways past the watchful eyes of Vect and back into populated space.
After a few more test missions, it was deemed safe and Stinging Song went back to the raiding and pillaging they enjoyed to great success. The quickest route they found was to the Imperial Sub Sector of Bakka which became a rich harvesting area for slaves and souls but with new additions being found to the Webway network they started hitting many different targets throughout the galaxy sporadically. The Kabals way is cunning, Feints, ruses, decoys, false-flags: their plans always seem impossibly unpredictable and confusing to their foes and rivals, which keeps them safe from the ever prying eyes of Vect.
Over the next millennia the moon became host to many settlements and one great trade port known as Pyke rose upon Blacktyde and brought many seeking fortunes, bounties, slaves and a myriad of other goods and services. In fact, the port has become quite well known for it’s appreciation of macabre artistic expression. Watching a man die of a new toxin, developed to inflict the most amount of slow agony possible to a slave before they gave up and died. Towering murals painted in the blood of a hundred different species. The decrepit pleasure of the Eros district… these are the things Pyke is truly famous for.
In Blacktydes ever growing popularity, The Webway Gate was constantly locked down with only those approved able to gain access to Blacktyde and even within the Webway a Stinging Song army constantly sat poised to strike and defend if one came across the hidden access way to Commorragh their way through.
After one thousand years of prospering, the Harlequins returned and demanded to see the Leader of the world. Archon Euronar met with them for what is said to be three days. Those that attempted to hear the conversation could only hear a sweet low music that soothed them. Once the three days were up the Solitaire known as Rin and their Lord evicted the room, nodded to one another and the day continued on. That evening Euronar gathered the Kabal and told them that the Harlequins had come to ask that our debt be paid. “They told me of a time many years from now when they will call for our aid, and we must ride with them. I have agreed to this for they assisted us in what we have become today.”
A further 3000 years pass and the Eye of Terror is growing once more, Archon Nakariial is now in charge. An arrogant leader, proud and strong. But equal to his arrogance is his ability for scheming and calculating, becoming one of the best strategists the Kabal has ever seen. In his arrogance recently he has reinstated the uniform colours and sigils upon all troops, transports and vehicles the Kabal possesses, meaning when they raid, it is now obvious who they are, but with the rumour that Vect has disappeared, Lord Nakariial is confident that we can do so without recourse and that we must build the reputation of the Kabal once more.
Now the debt to the Harlequins has come to pass and we are allied in our cause. A new Eldar god has been born and they are our only hope of stopping Slaanesh and us being freed of our bonds. In this Aeldari across the stars are coming together. We await the day Vect perishes so we may return to Commorragh once more, but our home now is within the Galaxy, and we must strive to defend it.
Hope you like, if people are interested in more I will happily continue
Subject: Nakariials' Kabal of the Stinging Song 
Thu Sep 21 2017, 17:46
I like wyches and venoms in this cabal
