Mandrake

Dark Eldar Portal

A Mandrake^[7]

A Mandrake is a type of Drukhari native to the region of Commorragh known as Aelindrach.^[5]

Overview

Mandrakes are often cannibalistic and wild, living separate from other Drukhari.^[1a]

A Mandrake's physique has adapted to make himself or herself camouflaged almost anywhere. They have evolved the so-called shadow-skin, which makes them nigh-invisible out of direct light. They also exist within a different reality itself and are capable of entering into reality straight out of another person's shadow. No-one knows how this dramatic change has occurred, not even their Drukhari kin. While the shadowskin could be just the result of warp exposure, other theories exist. Some consider them to be the very shadows brought to life, while others claim that Mandrakes are the descendants of a forbidden cult that found a way to pass into shadow to avoid the Fall^[3], yet other rumors tell of a union between Eldar and Unholy Entities^[3] created when the Eldar Empire was at it's most decadent.^[3] Other rumors hold that the first Mandrakes were created by Haemonculi employed by the Wych Cult of Grief.^[6]

A Mandrake^[4]

One thing that is known about the Mandrakes is their lethality. Even the brutal denizens of Commorragh fear these creatures. Younger Drukhari call Mandrakes "creepers", whispering that they can slink from one shadow and to another. They strike from the shadows, surprising and rending their enemies apart with Glimmersteel Blades, with strength more often associated with Orks, rather than the Eldar.^[1c][3] These weapons, and an assortment of other hooked blades wielded by Mandrakes, are used to extract the maximum amount of pain from their foes, who are not immediately consumed by the Mandrakes' eerie flames.^[8]

Mandrakes can be deployed by Archons for taking out or guarding strategic objectives for unusual payments: a treasured memory, a heartbeat, a true and secret name, and other odd esoteric ephemera.^[8]

Types of Mandrakes

Mandrakes have a unique hierarchy that only themselves understand^[8] :

• Nightfiend, the leader of a Mandrake unit, a being whose presence can cause its enemies’ blood to curdle.
• Abyssals, living conduits of the malign energy that resides in the tenebrous dimension of Aelindrach.^[8]
• The Chooser of the Flesh uses its baleblades to collect limbs in service of some arcane ritual.
• Dirgemaws haunt their foes with pareidolic projections in shadows and reflections, their wailing scream the last thing their target ever hears. ^[8]
• Shadeweavers, Mandrakes that weaponise darkness, drowning areas in suffocating darkness and using their penumbral manipulation to bore tunnels through the very fabric of reality.^[8]

• 

  Nightfiend^[8]
• 

  Abyssal^[8]
• 

  Chooser of the Flesh^[8]
• 

  Dirgemaw^[8]
• 

  Shadeweaver^[8]

Notable Mandrakes

• Blightsoul^[9]
• Dreameater^[9]
• Heart Thief^[9]
• Kheradruakh^[1b]
• Shadowcreeper^[9]

Images

• 

  Mandrakes (10th Edition)

• 

  A group of Mandrakes (5th Edition)^[2]

• 

  Mandrakes (3rd Edition)

• 

  A Drukhari Mandrake.^[1a]

• 

  Drukhari Mandrake^[3]

Sources

• 1: Codex: Dark Eldar (3rd Edition)
  • 1a: 8
  • 1b: 41
  • 1c: 45
• 2: GW Website Mandrakes
• 3: Codex: Dark Eldar (5th Edition), pg. 33
• 4: Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition Rulebook, pg. 209
• 5: Codex: Dark Eldar (7th Edition) - Blades for Hire
• 6: Eldar & Dark Eldar Collectors' Guide, pg. 73
• 7: Codex: Drukhari (9th Edition), pg. 31
• 8: Warhammer Community: Manipulate Shadows, Throw Balefire, and Terrorise Foes With the Murderous Mandrake Kill Team (Posted on 02/04/2024) (Last accessed on 02/04/2024)
• 9: Warhammer Combat Cards, Card Description