When the ancient Aeldari fractured their empire and birthed the Chaos God Slaanesh with their rampant excesses, many fled to the stars on enormous craftworlds in the hope of finding new lands. Those in the city of Commorragh – a wretched den even at the height of the Aeldari’s warped decadence – found that they survived with only scarred souls, though they would forever need to feed upon raw emotional sensation to stave off She Who Thirsts.
They are the Drukhari, despicable raiders who drag off living victims and cruelly extract their most potent emotions through trickery, despair, and torture. They appear in great fleets of grav-ships and employ some of the deadliest toxins in the galaxy for their main weapons, hamstringing and paralysing their prey so that they might be carted down to the depths of the Dark City. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these wild and pitiless raiders.
Drukhari Explained
Although the Drukhari were spared immediate death during the Fall of their ancient empire, the birth of Slaanesh still left a terrible spiritual wound on their souls that will never truly heal. Even as they take refuge in the Webway – a parallel realm that exists somewhere between realspace and the Warp – the essence of their souls is slowly drained and consumed by the insatiable Dark Prince, condemning them to eternal suffering upon their deaths.
There is only one way for the Drukhari to replace this lost essence: they must bask time and again in the most extreme emotions. Unbearable agony, boundless sorrow, naked terror; all these are rich fodder for the Drukhari and help them repay their soul debt – however temporarily. Without a steady diet of such heightened emotions, these denizens of Commorragh waste away before they are either killed by opportunistic rivals or fully claimed by Slaanesh.
Driven as they are to parasitise the suffering of others, the Drukhari must constantly find new victims to sate their sinister appetites. Most commonly, they will launch massive raids against vulnerable populations with the aim of carting off victims, so their suffering can be heightened and prolonged as much as possible. The shadow of their barges hovering overhead is often the most warning an unfortunate population will get before the raiders descend and slaughter those who resist with the strength and grace of the Aeldari but the sadistic glee of abhorrent monsters.
It is widely agreed across the galaxy that immediate death is the preferable outcome when the Drukhari attack, as the few abductees who escape the clutches of Commorragh describe unimaginably horrific tortures and revolting experiments conducted by their masters. The Drukhari are experts at prolonging the pain of others, and even their basic equipment is laced with virulent toxins that inflict extreme agony.
The Dark City itself is a massive, sprawling cityscape hanging within the Webway, whose darkened streets are a constant, chilling symphony of gunfire, screams, and maddening voices. None are safe from the predations of rivals, rebellious captees, or callous strangers, and for most who inhabit Commorragh, one rule dominates all others: the strong survive, and the weak are consumed.
The strongest of them all, and self-styled Supreme Overlord of Commorragh, is the infamous Asdrubael Vect – master of the Kabal of the Black Heart and unassailable in his dominion over the Dark City. Vect rose from the very dregs of the city’s population to command ultimate power through matchless guile, ruthless politicking, and a natural talent for making bloody examples of his rivals. He has ruled for so long that his influence has warped the very fabric of Drukhari society into his ideal image.
To endure Commorragh’s constant perils, most Drukhari join one of the thousands of independent organisations jostling for prominence in a never-ending social circus, where ruthless Archons plot against cunning Succubi and egomaniacal Haemonculi conduct terrible experiments on the many unfortunates who cross their domains. Warriors are typically split between three main pillars of military might – the kabals, the wych cults, and the haemonculus covens – with each one supplying its own specialised troops to a favoured leader’s raids.
The kabals in particular inhabit a space somewhere between private armies and piratical cartels, with the largest controlling great swathes of Commorrite territory. To belong to such a body is to borrow, and at once to become a part of, its strength. This is one of the few ways for Drukhari to secure the comradeship and protection – in however antagonistic and self‑interested a form – of their fellows.
The Drukhari are lethal on the battlefield, relying on speed and agility to wear down their opponents before going in for the kill. But they are also fragile. The majority of their troops and vehicles can’t withstand the sustained firepower of a determined foe, so devious generals will need to learn how best to employ their specialised weapons and skills in a great galactic hit-and-run scenario.
Realspace raids tend to have a wide variety of unit types at their disposal, including the dreaded mercenary Incubi and the gun-toting Ravagers, with a balanced approach towards ranged and melee combat. This allows them to adapt on the fly to changing battlefield conditions, using their superior skills to come out on top when unexpected objectives or sudden deaths threaten to capsize their raiding barques.
A Drukhari army will appeal to players who like to live dangerously, trading methodical safety for a no-brakes thrill ride that strikes with the force of a thunderbolt. Players can either focus on one particular aspect of the faction – such as Wyches, Haemonculi, or others – or amass a unified collection that covers all bases and gives you endless options for adapting your force.
Besides, being the baddies is fun.
Combat Patrol
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The Drukhari deploy a force from one of the haemonculus covens, opting for more brute strength and durability than their usual fast and precise game plan – a good fit for the rough-and-tumble arena of Combat Patrol.
The Coven of Agonies is led by a brilliant but utterly depraved Haemonculus named Xatrophos Nuul, whose misshapen creations lumber into battle as two units of five Wracks – orderlies and apprentices whose tough hides can turn aside a surprising amount of firepower. Having two units means that you can cover much more ground, and safely contest objectives while the rest of your force goes for the kill.
The Talos Pain Engine is a horrific amalgamation of flesh and machine, equipped with multitudinous devices for torture, destruction, and impromptu battlefield dissections. It and the Cronos are the heavy hitters of your Combat Patrol, with each of them able to withstand lots of punishment and dish out serious damage should they get close enough to their targets.
Painting
The Drukhari are heavily compartmentalised between their many kabals, cults, and covens, and standing out from among the chaff is vital as each one jostles for prominence in the never-ending social (and literal) battlegrounds of Commorragh. Accordingly, they exhibit a wide range of colours when decorating their armour, and realspace raids composed of many different groups can turn into a riotous explosion of colour.
Drukhari miniatures also frequently mix sleek, sharp armour plates with warped and twisted flesh, giving you two completely different kinds of texture to work with. The flesh abominations of the haemonculus covens are an especially good place to practice painting techniques, as if you try something new and it comes out looking a little funky, that’s just part of the aesthetic!
To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints for the Coven of Agonies, as featured in the Combat Patrol box. These paints are also a good fit for Kabalite and Wych units too, so you can get most of your army painted with no hassle at all.
This is by no means an exhaustive primer, however, and you’re fully encouraged to modify the existing colour schemes or come up with something brand new. After all, you want to stand out in Asdrubael Vect’s court, don’t you?*
Next Steps
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to mount up for a raid upon realspace, you might be wondering where to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Drukhari – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 21 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
The Combat Patrol gives you a solid starting force based around the haemonculus covens, so the next logical step is to branch out with some Kabalite and wych cult units. Kabalite Warriors are the backbone of many raids, and can lay down a withering hail of firepower with poisoned splinter rifles that specialise in killing infantry – wounding the mighty Custodian Guard as easily as they would a regular Guardsman.
By contrast, Wyches are fast and deadly close combat specialists who turn the act of murder into a macabre art, trusting in their quicksilver reflexes to keep them safe from harm. They are excellent troops for assaulting objectives, as their speed lets them dart between cover and dive into melee on their terms.
Existing beyond the normal bounds of the Drukhari kabals, Incubi are elite warrior perfectionists who offer their lethal skills to any able to pay their exorbitant fees. They are supremely effective swordsmen who swing energised combat blades in deadly arcs while protected by ancient suits of heavy armour, and will outfight all but the most elite of your opponent’s troops.
Few ambitious individuals make it to the top of the Commorragh food chain without finding a knife in their back, so those names known across the Dark City belong to the truly exceptional – like Lelith Hesperax, a gladiator of such impressive lethality that she’s known as the Queen of Knives. She’s an incredible leader for your Wyches and extremely deadly to enemy Characters, who find blades stuck firmly in their jugulars before they can lift a finger.
The hallmark of an incoming Drukhari raid is the massed silhouettes of their distinctly angular vehicles descending from the skies, with the bulk of their forces carried into battle on nimble Raiders. These fast, lightly armoured skimmers can drop a whole squad of Kabalites right into the action, before laying down supporting fire from a mounted heavy weapon.
When tough targets like tanks and hulking monsters prove too resilient for those on the ground, Voidraven Bombers are called in to rain death from above. They’re a great way to add some serious firepower to your army without compromising on speed, and they’re devilishly beautiful miniatures to boot.
Fiction
As befits their villainous nature, Drukhari act as the baddies in a great many Black Library novels, but have few protagonist credits to their name. To really get into the heads of these gleeful fiends, look no further than the omnibus Path of the Dark Eldar – as the Drukhari used to be known – by Andy Chambers.
This collection of interwoven stories has everything you’d want from a Drukhari tale – backstabbing politics, twisted characters, grisly details, and the looming presence of Asdrubael Vect hanging over the story like the sword of Damocles. It’s a great way to learn all about the Drukhari and their horrific city, exploring their society in greater detail than any other story.
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* Just not too much. He doesn’t like rivals.
