Kabal of the Faceless Dread

Kabal of the Faceless Dread

Beware the faceless, for they possess hearts as black and cold as the void from which they strike. There is no world safe from their reach, no soul safe from their hunger and no escape once they have claimed you for their own.

An exiled prologue


Khaelor Etheloniel was a beautiful and graceful creature, even by the standards of a beautiful and graceful race, possessing a naieve and charming innocence. Qualities that appealed to Lelieth Arthonax, scion of one of the most influential families of the old Eldar Empire.


Lelieth was also a leading figure in the, then secret, pleasure cults and pursued her latest prey with vigor and cunning. Soon the young Khaelor was emeshed in a web of deceit, pleasure and hedonistic abandon, sowing the seeds of his own fall. This was the final days of the Eldar golden age, the pleasure cults where new, dangerous, and seen as sinful by the ruling councils of the Eldar. Lelieth's cult was discovered and exposed, creating a scandal that threatned to see the noble daughter of house Arthonax cast out and left without power and prestige.


She weaved a tale of seduction, blackmail and violation in which Khaelor was cast as a villain who dragged an unwilling maiden into a world of vice and degradation. It was the word of a lowborn against that of one of the most noble families and the broken Khaelor found himself banished, nurturing a hatred of the aristocracy that would burn within the hearts of all his descendants.
Falling in with a band of renegades and exiles, Khaelor vanished into the void to eke out a pitiful existence on the fringes of the Eldar empire. Eventualy Khaelor aquired a fine raiding vessel, a sleek and murderous craft that he named Voidstalker, a vessel that has remained under the command of his decsendents ever since.

The rise of Khaelen Voidstalker

The fall of the Eldar race changed everything, destroyed by their own hubris and degradation, the Eldar became a shadow of their former selves. Commorragh became the last bastion of the old ways and many Eldar found their fortunes rise in the aftermath of the near genocide of the Eldar race, one such individual was Khalen Voidstalker. A descendant of the exiled Khaelor Etheloniel, Khaelen came from a pedigree of raiders and renegades who had turned to slavery to fuel the Eldar society's descent into damnation. For the denizens of Commorragh their lust for pain and ceased to be an addiction and had become a necessity, the only way to continue existence.


Khaelen led an exciting and fulfilling existence raiding the realms of the lesser races and bringing a bounty of slaes back to Commorragh, yet his life was not his own. Aliethnal, Khaelen's father, had foolish put aside his ancestral hatred of nobility and indebted himself to the noble house of Kraillach in search of favour. The ploy backfired badly and Khaelen had been born a slave to the depraved noble house in all but name, all but a tenth of the profit from every realspace raid went to the house of Kraillach and Khaelen was constantly reminded of his place in the great scheme of things.
Freedom came with Vect's usurpation of power and the breaking of the noble houses. Khaelen had been away from the dark city on a realspace raid and returned to find Commorragh in a state of confused chaos, a situation that the wily raider was quick to exploit. Forming a coalition of ship masters, Khaelen removed himself from the conflict, preserving his strength for the future, paitently waiting and watching.


Khaelen recruited others to his banner and built a fleet of a dozen sleek and vicious vessels. While Commorragh descended into violence and turmoil, Khaelen raided the lesser races and built a stable of slaves. Khaelen built a haven within one of the smaller sattelite relams and used it to stockpile plunder and house his slaves.


When Vect had secured his power, having changed the social structure of Commorragh and birthing the rule Kabals, Khaelen returned. Using the riches he had been carefully building, the cunning and ambitious Archon traded wealth for influence and territory, creating a niche for himself within the new social order of the Dark City. His piratical band became the Kabal of the Faceless Dread and carved a place for themselves within the heirarchy of Commorragh. No longer beholden to any individual save Asdrubael Vect, free to raid and plunder on his own terms, Khalen Voidstalker became the master of his own destiny.

The masquerade


The kabal of the Faceless take their name from the fact that they never reveal their faces to strangers. They are always seen either wearing a full-faced battlehelm or a blank mask. This custom began two millenia before the rise of Vect. After a rather successful raid on a Human colony, Khaelen toured the slave-hold to decide which individuals to hide away from House Kraillach's cut of the profits and he overheard a child.

"How can something so beautiful be so evil?"

The line of Khaelor Etheloniel had always been blessed with outstanding beauty and Khaelen was no exception, he smiled and beckoned the child to him before plucking out her eyes. The incident would not leave him however and began to vex the pirate captain. Bred from a race of vain and proud creatures, Khaelen felt that his visage was wasted upon lesser races, for them to gaze upon his features became a deliberate insult in Khaelen's mind. From that day he wore either his battle helm or a blank mask when dealing with slaves, soon his entire crew took to wearing their helms or masks when dealing with slaves.


The idea of lesser creatures being unworthy to gaze upon the visage of Khaelen and his crew gradualy became an obsession. The Voidstalker's crew took to wearing masks under the helms in case they lost their headgear in battle and eventualy wore their masks whenever they left the ship, deeming all who where not of their number as inferior and unworthy of their visage. The crew of the Voidstalker became obsessed with their own appearence, many spending much time and wealth with the haemonculi to make themselves as beautiful as possible, knowing that few would ever see them. This gave the crew, who where of a low and unimportant position in the social strata of Commorragh, a sense of empowerment and a feeling that it was the followers of Khalen who where superior and not the corrupt denizens of the Dark City who looked down on the piratical raiders who where seen as merely suppliers of a needed resource and nothing more.

The nameless

Khaelor Etheloniel despised the old nobility of the Eldar and all of his descendents have shared in this hatred. Family names mean nothing to the Kabal of the Faceless Dread, an individual's lineage is as dung to these renegades. All Dark Eldar born or recruited into the Kabal take the name of their vessel as their family name and the vessel's master becomes the head of this new clan. Amongst lesser races such a relationship could engender loyalty and brotherhood, with the dark Eldar such relationships are considered weak and foolish. Rank within the Kabal is based on what an individual can take and get away with, alliances and loyalty is a fluid and flexible thing with betrayals and assassinations a common occurence.
They differ from the rest of their kin in their dealings with the rest of their decadent race. The kabal of the faceless Dread show a surprisingly solid front, it is remarkably dificult for rival Kabals to infiltrate agents within the followers of Khalen Voidstalker (yet not unheard of). Kabals whose origins lay in the old noble houses of Commorragh are treated with utter and complete contempt while the Kabals who carved their way from the lower ranks of Commorrite society are treated with a wary respect.

The bladed web

The Kabal of the Faceless Dread has few assets within Commorragh itself, however these are fiercely protected. Khaelen Voidstalker's primary holdings are witin a quiet corner of Port Carmine with enough facilities to outfit and repair the Kabal's fleet of sleek raiders.


Khaelen plaus a dangerous game exploiting the constant battles between the Slashed Eye and Stolen Conscience kabals, both are aware of the lesser kabal operating within their territory but the vicious struggle between the two more powerful kabals mean neither see it worth sparing the resources and effort to eliminate the Faceless Dread. Khaelen is also cunningly playing off envoys from both sides to appear supportive of each without committing himself. The Faceless Dread also have controlling interests in several minor, but profitable, slave markets within Commorragh which allows them to sell the results of their raids at the best possible profit.

Khaelen's true wealth lies in his network of alliances with small, relatively weak kabals. There are many kabals within Commorragh without access to vessels, at best they can only conduct small real-space raids against weak targets with active links to the webway that allow small forces to quickly attack them at little risk to themselves and such targets are few and far between and often such portals are firmly under the control of larger kabals.


Khaelen, for suitable renumeration, places his fleet of raiders at the service of consortiums of small kabals. This allows the less powerful Archons to fill their slave pits with quality stock that they would not normaly have access to. In addition, Khaelen is also able to hide his own raids and mask his wealth and power through these smaller kabals. He plays a delicate game of balancing his true influence and power with the appearence of a minor and forgettable player within the twisting politics of Commorragh, should he slip he invites total ruin.


In truth the Faceless Dread are far greater than they appear, the small fleet docked in Port Carmine is a masquerade. Khalen's ancestor, Khaelor Etheloniel, found a webway exit to the deep void millenia ago. The dark between the stars, empty and without life is the reason for the webway and why the Humans travel through the immaterium. The distances between stars are unimaginable and vast, the perfect place to hide and Khaelor took full advantage.
He built a small waystation in orbit of the portal and over the millenia this grew into a substantial installation capable of housing nearly a thousand individuals and support a fleet of two dozen vessels. Khaelen's kabal is based, in secret, at this port which is simply known as the Haven. His kabal makes regular raids from Haven and trades the resulting booty through his network of minor Archons who recieve a cut of the profits.

The dance of blades


Being a kabal based in the void, the Faceless Dread dominates the skies of a prey-world, razorwing fighters turn enemy aircraft into blazing flames, falling to earth. Voidraven bombers eliminate communications and heavy defences before the warriors scream down upon the helpless prey.
In battle the Kabal of the Faceless Dread favour a strategy know as the dance of the thousand winged blades, Khaelen's warriors fly across the battlefield in their raider transports and flay the enemy piece by piece with accurate and deadly splinter fire. Often the kabalites will not even set foot upon a planet's surface untill the enemy are defeated and the gathering of slaves has truly begun. Darklight weapons eliminate heavily armoured threats, allowing the kabal to deal with the prey without annoying distractions.


Khaelen has no paticular links to any wych cults however they have a long and profitable relationship with a force known as the Covenant of Bleeding Wings. The Covenant is a long established force of elite reaver and raven pilots who have flown in support of the Faceless Dread for millenia

The lords of Haven



Khaelen Voidstalker



Khaelen took command of the Voidstalker nearly three millenia before the rise of Vect and some say he was a child during the fall, this would make him one of the oldest of the Dark Kin who yet claim their own soul.

As the Dark Eldar age they require more and more suffering and pain to sustain themselves, they quickly age and wither. It becomes harder and harder to maintain their youth and vitality untill they eventualy become soulesss husks, drained by She Who Thirsts. Yet Khaelen is a lithe and youthful specimen, betraying no hint of his age or the toll it take upon his corrupted soul. Many within the Dark City are desperate to learn the pirate's secret.

The secret of Khaelen Voidstalker is simple, Khaelen Voidstalker is dead and has been since the rise of Vect.

Returning to the chaos of the power vacuum left in the aftermath of the Astartes invasion of Commorragh, Khaelen quickly evaluated the situation and chose to stand against Vect. To the arrogant and proud Voidstalker, the usurper would forever be a slave and unworthy of any kind of power. Gathering together a group of like-minded raider captains, Khaelen formed a small 'kabal' and prepared to ally himself with others who would stand against the slave turned master.

Eristophel, Khaelen's son, realised the error of this decision and plotted mutiny. He focused the loyalty of the voidstalker's crew and turned them against their master crew and in the space of a single night murdered all who would oppose his rule of the vessel including his own father who's fate was to be slowly skinned alive as his son drunk the captain's very soul. Eristophel donned his Father's mask and slowly, through a mixture of cunning diplomacy and brutal assassination, turned the newborn Kabal into his own personal band of raiders and set the foundations for what would become the Kabal of the Faceless Dread, known and feared throughout the realms they choose to strike.

Khaelen Voidstalker has "died" twice since his son took up his father's mask. Eristophel fell in battle against craftworld Eldar, incinerated by a pulse laser strike. Eristophel's own son, Morthiniel, then took up the mask to insure an unbroke lineage untill he fell upon the claws of a Space Wolf Lord known as Vargr Stiarnaganger who took the body as a trophy.

Morthiniel left no male heir, only a daughter named Khaela. Lacking none of her ancestor's cunning she convinced her lover, Elandeleth, to take up the mask and rules from the shadows as the Voidstalker's executive officer and "Khaelen's" bloody right hand. Recently Elandeleth has begun to think of himself as the true ruler of the kabal and recents Khaela's position and authority. None would dare risk the truth being revealed as much of the kabal's power and influence is derived from the belief that Khaelen is one of the oldest of the Dark Kin and is respected for his uncanny survival and youthfulness. Some suspect that the face behind the masquerade is not Khaelen's yet none can prove anything either way.

Khaela believes the time may come, and soon, in which the kabal is strong enough to survive the death of "Khaelen" and allow her to reighn as the open and undisputed mistress of the Voidstalker. She is aware of her lover's growing resentment and weaves a web to trap him within his own plots.

So, the Dread Pirate Roberts with DE flavor? I like.