Kheradruakh
Kheradruakh the Decapitator is a Dark Eldar special character Mandrake, and just a creepy fucking asshole. Kheradruakh isn't his real name, but a title that means "He Who Hunts Heads" or "Decapitator" in the Evil dialect of Eldarese, meaning that "Kheradruakh the Decapitator" translates to "he who hunts heads and cuts them off". He has eyes of pure darkness and appears to be half-shadow--all mandrakes are rumored to be the descendants of true Eldar and some kind of quasi-daemonic beings that live in the space between the Warp and the Materium. He also paid a Haemonculus to attach a second pair of arms to him just to look more like a cross between a meth head and a trapdoor spider. Or maybe so he can jerk off while murdering people. Just, fuck, I don't even like looking at him.
Kheradruakh doesn't speak, he simply giggles like the creepy fuck he is. Like the other two Dark Eldar HQ choices who barely communicate (Lelith Hesperax and Drazhar), he probably puts the various warriors and wyches under their command in a tight spot when they need orders. But unlike Lelith and Drazhar, who can at least lead by badass example (and Lelith does speak, it's just most of the time she chooses not to), Kheradruakh wanders off on his own, GOING MARBO by teleporting in through fucking shadows because he's GODDAMN MAGIC (Level 4 Wizard: Lore of Shadow). His M.O. is then going to cut off a particular target's head, and just leaves the same way he came in. Which is a fucking area that simply doesn't have light bouncing off of it at the moment. He doesn't even go through the Warp or some in-universe plausible thing like that. He's just one of those slasher film villains that seems to teleport between jump-cuts. So he just chops a head off and pisses off, leaving all the Kabalite warriors leaderless and all the Wyches shivering and ready to take a shower. In the game rules, he's so solitary that he lacks independent character and can't even join a unit of other mandrakes. Ugh, Christ, fuck this guy.
He gets paid an Archon's ransom to do this (old lore put it at the price of two hundred thousand souls for him to kill one guy of his payer's choosing... even his fee is ridiculous), even though I'm not quite sure how people get a hold of him. Does he have an agent? A LinkedIn profile? No, he can't, because he doesn't fucking talk and Comorragh still uses Xanga. The only explanation is that he's always watching you. From any and every shadow.
The worst thing is, he collects the heads he takes and brings them back to his lair like they're Beanie Babies. He flays them with his bare hands, and examines them. With his tongue. While almost certainly not washing his hands afterwards. And he's really fucking anal about it, like one of those people who can't bare to see a single smudge on the mint-condition packaging of their Yak Face action figure. He throws away all but one in a decade of killing, and puts that lucky son of a bitch on display in a little cubby hole. Despite his incredibly high standards, his enormous chamber is almost full, making him a cross between a trading card collector, a trap door spider, and THE FUCKING HOLOCAUST. And all these skulls are staring at a single point in the center of his lair. And holy shit, that psychic pressure is boring a hole straight through the reality of Commorragh into some realm of primal darkness - and remember, the Dark City is already in nowhere-land, halfway between reality and hyperspace hell. His disciples believe that when whatever is down there breaks through everyone but his children/followers, the Mandrakes, are S.O.L. Everyone in Commorragh will drown in a tide of crazy warlock shit out of fucking nowhere, and then possibly beyond Commorragh. Luckily, Mandrakes are the shittiest Dark Eldar unit and the storyline never progresses, so this dark future resides purely in the realm of speculation.
But man, really people, Kheradruakh is just the worst. Fuck that guy. As of the 2014 Codex Kheradruakh is no longer a playable unit. In addition, his fluff was downgraded to a single paragraph as a legendary mandrake. Hurray!
| Dark Eldar Lords and Ladies | |
|---|---|
| Asdrubael Vect - Archon Tahril - Baron Sathonyx Drazhar - Duke Sliscus - Kheradruakh Lady Malys - Lelith Hesperax - Urien Rakarth | |