Lelith Hesperax
Her Excellence Lelith Hesperax is a Dark Eldar special character, the leader of the Wych Cult of Strife and the most renowned Succubus (a Wych champion) in Commorragh. She is easily one of the biggest badasses in a universe of badasses, simply because she has survived the arenas for millennia - she was already a powerful Succubus when Asdrubael Vect began his rise to power, and in fact aided him in his coup. While there are thousands of warriors who carved bloody swaths across the galaxy, she's the only one who does it without modifications, the blessing of gods, super-special weapons, or a wearable tank - she's armed only with two daggers, her hair, a sports bra, and a thong. Not even shoes? Not even shoes.
And we're not kidding about her hair - she so skilled at twisting around the hooks woven into it that it counts as a shardnet and impaler AND as an AP2 power weapon (Well, used to. Now she can just ignore any armor save). Yes, she's so good at whipping her hair back and forth and using tiny ass daggers to find weak points that her attacks cut through terminator armor when a goddamn actual power sword won't. She is also listed as having plasma grenades, but since she isn't modeled with them, we must assume this is simply a way of granting "distracting" rules to DAT ASS.
Lelith Hesperax is the most oversexed special character in any codex - nearly naked, with a purring voice, and whole rings of perverts dedicated to trading videos of her offing opponents. Yes, there are snuff films in 40K. And the 7th edition codex hints that at least one entity of the warp is watching them...is Slaanesh just fapping, is Khorne scouting for a Sci-fi Valkia, or both?
Of particular note among her exploits was one story where she decided to give a special "reward" to whoever can give her the greatest opponent to fight, having grown bored of cutting the same shit over and over. Predictably, every Archon from here to Hell jumped on the bandwagon and began optimistically hunting down the best of enemies to fight, and many of them failed. However, one lucky archon did finally bring out one Space Marine Champion. The battle lasted for several hours, but before the marine dropped, he managed to give Lelith a nasty scar across her midriff. Of course, such a besmirching mark pissed her off to no end and when the Archon who brought the marine asked for a reward, she merely mentioned that the reward was to die by her blades. Just goes to show you to not fuck with a woman's image.
Oddly enough, she seems to lack the ambition and sadism of most Dark Eldar, similar to Drazhar. She knows she's the best in the arenas, and has proven it for about as long as Europe has been a thing, but she doesn't seek political power beyond leading the Wych Cult of Strife. She simply shows up before a raid (a rare occassion- she's often in such high demand that bids for her services have triggered kabal wars), does her thing with her Bloodbrides, and takes home interesting trophies from fallen opponents that she houses in a private museum. She's not only a gladiatrix, a noble woman, and a porn star - she's a curator. She probably catalogues that shit in a little tweed jacket late at night when nobody's looking. She's still a mass-murderer and bloody-minded warrior, but that's par for the course in 40K, so it's hard not to view her as less of monster than most Dark Eldar, and just a natural born killer.
She also manages the Crucibael (sigh, is Vect just wandering around Commarragh naming things after himself? Actually nevermind, that sounds like classic him), the greatest arena in the universe, with Reaver arenas the size of cities and a coloseum carved of living jade. Vect has commented that this grandeur is appropriate, for "Lelith Hesperax is the greatest treasure of the Dark City, and one does not display one's finest emerald amid squalor." D'aaaaaw. That's Adorabael Vect.
Unfortunately, her model doesn't see as much use as it could due to her mediocre strength 3 and lack of access to combat drugs (Lelly is straight-edge - NOT EVEN ONCE, YOU GUYS)- the only way to up her strength is with the furious charge granted by Power from Pain. 7th ed. gave her "reroll failed to-wound rolls" at the very least. However, she is great against tarpits of Strength 3 troops, and is fucking hilarious against Tau. She used to gain X attacks, where X is the difference between her insane weapon skill of 9 and the highest WS value amongst her opponents, but now she just has Rampage. She also has a hilariously high Ballistic skill - also 9 - despite having no ranged weapons until the 6th edition grenade update. You can just imagine an archon begging her to at least carry a Blaster, but BITCH STUCK UP. WE'RE GETTIN REAL TIRED OF YO SHIT, HESPERAX.
Perhaps most importantly, Lofn thinks Auntie Lelith "is really cool!". Woe (and numerous stab wounds) be to anyone who reminds her of how much she adores her niece.
Stories involving Lady Hesperax
- Hesperax's Pet - For those who actually want to see the queen conquering someone. (Limited time offer: get a glimpse of her long-hidden kinder, romantic side.)
See Also
- Reri Hesperax - Much like Lofn, another teegee half-eldar creation, Reri is thought to be the half-breed child of Lelith and her human mate named Avitus (No, not that Avitus), born from the story above. Whether or not this makes her count as a Dark Eldar Trueborn remains uncertain. Reri's father remains an unknown in her own story, but common headcanon seems to keep Avitus around.
| Dark Eldar Lords and Ladies | |
|---|---|
| Asdrubael Vect - Archon Tahril - Baron Sathonyx Drazhar - Duke Sliscus - Kheradruakh Lady Malys - Lelith Hesperax - Urien Rakarth | |