Overview
The Children of Thorns are an exiled kabal of the Drukhari who are active in the Calixis Sector, the
Koronus Expanse and in the permanent Warp storm of the Screaming Vortex in the Segmentum Obscurus in search of slaves, wealth and new technologies that they can use to reclaim a place of prominence -- if not the outright overthrow -- of the Dark City of Commorragh in the Webway.
When voidfarers in the
Koronus Expanse speak of the fickle and vicious ways of Aeldari Corsairs, their tales most often speak of the corsairs known as the Children of Thorns, who are actually a renegade kabal of the Drukhari. Clad in glossy, beetle-black Kabalite Armour, the proud and capricious Kabalite Warriors of the Children of Thorns are merciless in combat and are said to slaughter their enemies to the last once battle is joined.
The Children of Thorns are one of the weaker Drukhari kabals. Exiled from the Drukhari's city of Commorragh, the Children of Thorns consist of ex-slaves, fugitives, the dregs of Commorrite society, and fallen Drukhari lords who have come together in an attempt to regain their glory. To do this, they spend most of their time in realspace in search of slaves and plunder and have even allied with ambitious Human lords, such as the secessionist Duke Severus XIII of the Calixis Sector's Periphery Sub-sector.
They are also active within the Warp storm known as the Screaming Vortex, where they also collect slaves and weapons from among the Human Heretics and servants of Chaos who find refuge there.
While other kabals desire to overthrow Supreme Overlord Asdrubael Vect so they can take his place as the rulers of the Dark City, the Children of Thorns want instead to tear down the old order of the Drukhari and replace it with their own. To do this, they secretly arm their followers lurking in the deepest, darkest sub-reality sinks of Commorragh, who wait for their chance to strike back against their oppressors.
It is said that one is fortunate to hear the keening war cries of the Children of Thorns and live to tell of it. The leader of the Children of Thorns is a female Aeldari archon who long ago cast herself from the strictures of the Asuryani Path to lead her Children of Thorns in bloodshed across the Halo Stars in pusuit of the Path of Damnation. Her true names long ago discarded, she is now simply known as the "Mother of the Shadows."
When attacking in the void, the night-black ships of the Children of Thorns prize stealth above all other tactics. Only once they have ensured complete surprise and a perfect position of attack, they strike with ferocity and precision, crippling their prey and leaving the foes' voidship reeling and boarded by screaming, dark, and graceful shapes that kill and kill until there is nothing left alive and the prize is theirs.
Despite their terrifying reputation, the Children of Thorns have had dealings with a number of Rogue Traders in the
Koronus Expanse and have even made compacts with a few or fought as mercenaries for those brave enough to seal such a bargain. It is perhaps these ties that give the Children of Thorns the phenomenally accurate information that allows them to strike at Human voidcraft close to the Maw with such accuracy. One or more
Rogue Traders have sealed a compact with the Children of Thorns -- one paid for in the blood of their rivals.
History
Calixis Sector and the Spinward Front
In 779.M41 Duke Severus XIII of Kulth assumed power over what little remained of his house and its territories in the Periphery Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector. Unlike his predecessors, Severus XIII had managed to claw his way up the rungs of power in the Calixis Sector, drawing upon methods and means yet to be fully revealed. Yet, just like his predecessors, Severus had been raised to believe that his forebears had been denied their rightful place as the masters of the new sector by the machinations of Saint Drusus, the man who had completed the Angevin Crusade to conquer the Calyx Expanse and establish the new sector in the 39th Millennium.
In 799.M41, Severus XIII assumed the appointment to which he had worked his entire life, the position from which he might finally realise the dreams of his entire line. He ascended to the position of Lord Sub-Sector, the
Adeptus Administratum prefect of the region his eponymous forebear Severus I had founded -- the Periphery.
But in truth, Severus XIII could never have gained ascendancy over his peers to become the recognised Imperial governor of the Periphery without the aid of the Drukhari group known as the Children of Thorns. This outcast Drukhari kabal, exiled from the Dark City of Commorragh.
In aiding Severus XIII, the Children of Thorns kabal gained easy access to a region in which the Imperium's forces are unable to oppose their realspace raids. Thousands of men, women and children were dragged screaming back to the dark sub-reality sinks of the Dark City in the Labyrinth Dimension of the Webway, yet there are those that question whether the kabal's involvement in the wars of the Spinward Front that now consume the Periphery might be more pernicious still. Some fear that the Drukhari might be working towards another agenda entirely -- one that can only bring more doom and disaster upon the war-torn worlds of the Periphery and beyond.
His ambitions echoing those of the progenitor of his house, Severus XIII believed that the Periphery should be his, yet he knew that overtly declaring secession from the Imperium would cause the sub-sector's Loyalist planetary governors to rise up against him and bring the force of the Imperium crashing down upon his head.
Instead, he sought allies in the darkness spinward of the Periphery, his spies seeking out any who might lend him aid, no matter their price. Waiting in the darkness, his spies discovered the Drukhari of the outcast Children of Thorns, and vile pacts were made in exchange for the aliens' lethal services.
Severus XIII consigned entire Frontier Worlds to the Drukhari's cruel mercies, ensuring that when realspace raids occurred, the sub-sector's military reserves were always too distant to intervene. Xenos chattel-barques swollen with slaves delivered hundreds of thousands of Human beings to their doom in the pits of Commorragh, while the court of Severus XIII gained a host of new veiled courtiers and black-eyed assassins.
For over a solar decade, Severus and his cruel xenos agent-allies worked tirelessly to cut the ties between the Periphery and the sector at large, one at a time, so that none even noticed as it was slowly transformed into his personal realm. Planetary governors resistant to corruption or subversion were quietly removed, but always the eight worlds closest to the border with the Malfian Sub-sector were maintained in a state of outward normality.
The worlds spinward of them were entirely in the sway of the secessionist noble, who had at last attained his ancestor's dream of an independent stellar empire of his own in all but name.
The Children of Thorns had long tolerated and exploited the Human presence in this region of the galaxy. Prior to the arrival of the Imperium, the scarcely populated worlds of the Periphery presented a steady supply of slaves to be used for their needs in Commorragh.
As the Imperial presence intensified, worlds which were once easy prey became increasingly resistant to the kabal's slave raids. When Severus XIII offered to selectively lower defences against realspace slave raids in exchange for assistance in consolidating his power in the region, the Drukhari were swift to agree to his generous terms. Since their initial agreement, the duke has mercilessly condemned entire worlds to the Children of Thorns. Hundreds of thousands of Imperial citizens have gone screaming into the slave pits of the Dark City. Outwardly, the duke has shown no remorse for these actions. He firmly believes that without the assistance of the xenos, his fledgling nation might have already collapsed.
More recently, however, problems have begun to surface in the agreement between the Secessionists and the xenos. As the Severan Dominate has lost control of worlds due to the invasion of the Ork WAAAGH! Grimtoof, their available assets have significantly decreased. As the duke is losing his stranglehold on additional planets, he is unable to consign the inhabitants of those worlds to a life of torture at the hands of the Children of Thorns.
Several worlds which have already been restored to the Imperium after the intervention of Astra Militarum forces in the Periphery to both reclaim the Severan Dominate and throw back the Greenskins are no longer suitable targets for the slavers. This is increasingly true of worlds where the Imperium has chosen to maintain a significant number of reserve forces -- in those star systems, slave raids are often overwhelmed by the coordinated Astra Militarum efforts.
In reaction to this difficulty, representatives of the kabal were swift to bring their "concerns" to the duke and his court. After all, their agreement to ally was based entirely upon his ability to provide them with worlds well-suited to their slave-raiding efforts. However, as he continued to lose worlds, the duke's ability to provide such access became limited.
The fact that he has become increasingly dependent upon the limited number of worlds he still controls has only exacerbated the issue at hand. Unless there is a swift change in his fortune, the Severan Dominate might soon run out of worlds that can provide an adequate number of slaves to the Children of Thorns. The duke is well aware of the deteriorating situation, and has begun efforts to renegotiate the scope of their agreement.
Key to that negotiation is the issue of the compensation that the Secessionists receive from the Drukhari. To date, the xenos have provided the Severan rebels with a limited supply of advanced Drukhari weapons and technology. In general, these armaments provide the Secessionists an edge only within a very constrained set of circumstances.
Additional favours have been promised -- including actual direct military support from the kabal in the form of mercenary troops. However, that support has only materialised within a very few, specific situations -- ones in which the Children of Thorns were able to acquire additional slaves in the face of minimal resistance.
As the Severan Dominate's resources have begun to dwindle and its needs increase, it has begun to try to press the Drukhari ever harder in their negotiations. This creates a situation where neither side is negotiating in good faith. Just as the duke and his representatives make promises that they have no hope of delivering, the representatives of the kabal also have no intention to honour many of the pathetic Human lord's desperate requests.
To date, both sides have continued to pay lip service to their agreements, but both factions have also begun to push the boundaries wherever it is possible to do so. Both sides now recognise the deceptions posed by their opposite parties, and seek to take full advantage of the situation before everything completely collapses in the warfare consuming the Spinward Front.
Each side has responded to the perfidy in its own way. On the part of the Severan Dominate, this has been to attempt to decrease the number of opportunities that the xenos have to take Human slaves. In part, this has meant better securing many of their isolated facilities from kabal assault. However, this has not always been an effective deterrent.
The Children of Thorns have technology that exceeds Humanity's, and the ability to strike at a moment's notice through the Webway. In contrast, the Severan Dominate's resources have become increasingly strained by the ongoing, multiple wars in the sub-sector. Resources which they could not effectively guard prior to the agreement remain very poorly protected. Consequently, in spite of their best efforts, the Secessionists remain largely dependent upon the kabal honouring its word to only strike at previously agreed-upon targets.
In contrast, the Children of Thorns have continually looked for ways to exploit their relationship with the Severan Dominate. As they consider the duke little more than a talking prey animal like all other Humans, they hardly feel any strong obligation to honour their agreements with him. As long as it serves their purpose, they are likely to continue to at least pay lip service to his nation and his cause.
For the time being, this also includes cooperating with him, for exactly as long as the Drukhari can fully take advantage of his information and his assets. However, they feel no loyalty at all to his cause. In situations where they may be able to acquire additional assets without any added expense, they are certain to do so. They feel no qualms about exploiting the duke, as they have every expectation that he treats them in the same manner. Notably, in the event that they can confirm an act of betrayal or accumulate strong evidence of his deception, they are certain to turn against him. If this were to happen, the Secessionists would suddenly add an additional front to their war -- one which might well spell their doom.
A further complication in their agreement is the loyalty of Severan Dominate citizens to the
Imperial Creed. A working relationship with these sadistic xenos is anathema to their religious beliefs. To assuage this issue, the Severan-Drukhari alliance is a highly-kept secret; only the highest-ranking Dominate officers are even aware of the cooperation, and soldiers of the line are warned to ignore any scandalous rumours about the matter by Ducal Legates and other authority figures. Should the true extent of the alliance become known, the Dominate's war efforts could completely unravel as large portions of the duke's people return to the Imperial fold.
Screaming Vortex
The Children of Thorns are one of the two Drukhari groups that routinely pass through the Webway gate known as the Forbidden Portal into the Screaming Vortex alongside the Kabal of Crimson Woe. The Children of Thorns represents a kabal of outcast Wyches, Hellions, Reaver gangs and disgraced Drukhari nobles. Instead of surrendering to the inevitable doom that Commorragh normally visits upon such dregs, the Children of Thorns have determined to reclaim their fate and strike back against their oppressors. The group aims to replicate the fete of the Drukhari's Supreme Overlord Asdrubael Vect himself, who rose from the lowest station of a slave to topple the old noble order of Commorragh and take control of the Dark City for himself.
The Children of Thorns range far and wide in their activities, collecting slaves and weapons and taking them back to Commorragh, where they arm their followers lurking in the deepest, darkest sub-reality sinks of the city. While the Kabal of Crimson Woe desires the overthrow of Vect so that they themselves may replace him, the Children of Thorns seek to raze the entire edifice of Drukhari society to the ground, tearing down the old order and replacing it with their own. It is not known if Vect is yet aware of their activities, though it can scarce be imagined that one who rose to power in such a manner would not take every precaution to ensure that others did not attempt to imitate him.
And some say that another Drukhari group utilises the Forbidden Portal, though not to make slave raids. Who these bright-clad and deadly graceful warrior hunters might be, none can say, for no Disciple of Chaos has ever faced one in battle and lived to tell the tale.
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