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Eldar Portal

Howling Banshees are one of the types of Eldar Aspect Warrior.

Overview

Howling Banshee

According to Eldar mythology, banshees are the harbingers of woe and death with it being said that their cry can herald ill fate.^2-p10 It is their call that draws dead spirits from the warp with their eerie howl being a premonination of certain death. They also have a sinister implication as their call is said to lure their soul from their spirit stone and thus lure it into the arms of Chaos. In fact, the release of a spirit is accompanied by a shrieking call which is felt rather than heard and it is even known that spirits unexpectedly disperse into the warp during the transference between spirit stones.^1-p9 Legend says that the creation of the Aspect came when the Crone Goddess Morai-Heg desired the knowledge contained within her divine blood and thus sent her daughters to haunt their father, the war god Kaela Mensha Khaine as he was the only being capable of harming another god. Seeking to end his torment, he decided to grant Morai-Heg her wish and severed her hand which allowed her to drink the knowledge contained within. In exchange for his help, Khaine was granted the Howling Banshee Aspect and thus it came into being.^4-p31 As such, it is only fitting that perhaps the most of the Aspect Warriors is named after such an unearthly creature.^2-p10 When Asurmen raised the first Aspect Warriors, he selected Jain Zar for her ferocity and speed whereupon she became one of the Phoenix Lords thus teaching her art on the large Craftworlds leading to the prominence of shrines of the Howling Banshees.^1-p86

Similar to the Banshee of legend, the Howling Banshees are primarily a female Aspect who are fearsome close combat warriors.^2-p10 This meant that they are almost always female Eldar due to their origin being from a female spirit. Amongst the Aspects, they are fast and mobile with their training being in swiftness of foot as well as mobility. These Aspect Warriors are armed with laspistols and power swords which allows the to excell in their speciality in close quarter combat where they make use of hand-to-hand skills. Their most notable weapon is the Banshee Mask which allows them to focus their enimity into psychic attacks on their enemies central nervous system.^1-p9 Squads of these Aspect Warriors activating their masks can cripple their foe entirely before a single strike can be made.^4-p31 Howling Banshee masks and their gleaming power armour has been the doom of many foes across the millennia.^2-p10 What these women lack in brute strength, they make up for in efficiency and precision as their shimmering swords are capable of slicing through both armour or flesh with equal ease.^4-p31

Howling Banshees are amongst the most common type of the Aspect Warriors and are the most lightly equipped. This allows them to be swift as well as mobile troops who make use of deadly hand-to-hand fighting along with their mind-destroying battle screams from their banshee masks against their enemies. Their costumes are bone-coloured with a flaming stock of orange hair and were mostly Eldar females though any Warrior Aspect can be either male or female.^5-p65

Aspect Wargear

Howling Banshee wargear.⁹

The Howling Banshee Aspect Warriors are armed with:

• A Banshee Mask - Stuns their foes as the Banshees charge into combat, allowing them to strike first.
• A Power Weapon.
• A Shuriken Pistol.
• Aspect Armour - This armor provides more protection than the mesh armour of the Guardian citizen-warriors.

Exarch Wargear

An Exarch is the leader of an Aspect Shrine. She is one that has traveled so far down the Path of the Warrior, that she can no longer turn from that path to follow another path. This gives them great skill and dedication. In addition to the wargear of the aspect, the Exarch can be armed with a number of special weapons:

• The Executioner. A power weapon which adds strength to the Exarch's strike.⁴
• Mirrorswords. A pair of twin power weapons that the Exarch can use to increase her number of attacks.
• The Triskele. A three bladed weapon that is thrown in an arc that returns to the hand of the Exarch after striking the enemy. It can also be wielded as a power weapon in close combat.³
• Exarch Armour

History

In 838.M41 during the events of the Pyre of Kiliak's Bane, Imperium xenologists began to plunder the buried Eldar artefacts on the Maiden World Kiliak which bring about a devastating assault from Craftworld's Biel-Tan and Ulthwe. A confirmed sighting of the Pheonix Lord Jain Zar was noted in the conflict where she was accompanied by a hundred disciples of the Howling Banshee Aspect which sees all the Imperial forces killed, incinerated and their ashes scattered to the winds.^7-p55

Images

• 

  Howling Banshee miniatures (3rd edition).⁸

• 

  Howling Banshee miniature (4th edition)

• 

  Howling Banshee Exarch with Executioner

Sources

• ¹ Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pg. 9, 86
• ² Codex: Eldar (3rd Edition), pg. 10
• ³ Codex: Craftworld Eldar (3rd Edition)
• ⁴ Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pg. 31
• ⁵ Codex Imperialis, pg. 65
• ⁶ Warhammer 40,000: Compilation, pg. 58
• ⁷ Planetstrike, pg. 55
• ⁸ White Dwarf 236, September 1999, p 10
• ⁹ Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Rulebook, 2008, p 157

See also

• Aspect Warrior