longer.blue

@g0thstrawberry15.bsky.social Titania Syndra Starstrider of Craftworld Biel-Tan was a member of a formerly influential house of bonesingers specializing as shipwrights that began to fade in prestige over time. The girl had no talent for the art of bonesinging, feeling especially weak at psychic control, and lacking the requisite finesse and patience for the art. She was treated as a bit of a black sheep because of this, choosing the Path of the Warrior instead, but was embraced by the brash youths of the warlike craftworld. She carved her way as a Crimson Hunter aspect warrior and ace pilot, thwarting many external threats and leading multiple raids on alien bases, picking up a knack for void skirmish warfare. Syndra was given the callsign “Titania” half-mockingly, like most callsigns, for her imperious attitude towards her contemporaries, yet she earned the moniker by masterfully leading her squadron like the against impossible odds fabled fey queen herself. For many years Syndra would effortlessly collect accolades like trophies until she grew bored and complacent, and then everything changed. In a great orbital battle with a Tyranid Hive Fleet to defend a Maiden World, Syndra is killed by the swarm. The world falls and is scoured clean by the Tyranid menace; however, years later her nearly intact remains are eventually recovered from the cold of the void by scavenging Drukhari. Recognizing her as an Aspect Warrior, the raiders are well rewarded by a Haemonculus coven of Commorragh. Rather than simply taking the fallen Crimson Hunter’s soul, a particularly ambitious and cunning haemonculus with a fascination with Tzeentchian mutations experiments on the body and clones a perverse yet subtle caricature, with a diabolical plan to subvert their so-called Light Kin. Commanding the stolen void stalker voidship Astral Stalker, Titania returned to her home of Biel-Tan shortly after its sundering following the actions of Yvraine and her Ynnari, who have left it vulnerable to attack. Unsure of her own motives, the darkly fey corsair leads her Titania’s Harrowers coterie as its mysterious baroness, familiar to some Biel-Tani, yet a stranger at the same time. While some are suspicious, in the wake of disaster the Farseers need all the help they can get. The risen Titania has flesh-sculpted shining wings, talons sprouting from her fingernails, and strangely fluorescent, raptor-like eyes that are unsettling to craftworlders but not unheard of among corsairs who intermingle with flesh-sculpters from time to time. She hides further mutations that may be emerging from a different source (Chaos), but it seems to be contained at this time. Titania’s Harrowers Is a splinter Anhrathe coterie “aligned with” Craftworld Biel-Tan. The sickle on their banner represents the violent succession of power, and the blood represents life and death, but also the uniting influence of shared heritage among the Aeldari across the Asuryani and the Drukhari. In real-world history, the sickle is connected to the story of the ancient Greek poem, The Theogeny, which is representative both of violent succession of power, as well as a link to the natural world and the cycles of life, death, and regeneration. The name Titania based on sisters of Titans of Greek lore, and also is the faerie queen from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Their banner also features the Biel-Tan world-rune, heart broken to represent their former outcast status, which has an ironic added meaning when returning to the Craftworld following the Fracture of Biel-Tan in Yvraine’s wake.