Drastanta

Drastanta, styled the Tempest of Starlight, is a Phoenix Lord of the Aeldari and the patron of the Shining Spears Aspect, recorded as missing. Like the other Phoenix Lords, Drastanta is counted among the most ancient exemplars of the Path of the Warrior, and belongs to no single Craftworld. The Shining Spears are the Aspect Warriors who fight from jetbikes, delivering charges with laser lances and close-support weapons, and Drastanta is the figure to whom that Aspect looks as its embodiment of Khaine’s martial character.

The Phoenix Lords are held to persist beyond individual death: when one falls, the spirit stones within the armour may resonate with a worthy Exarch, who dons it and continues the line. Drastanta is listed among the Phoenix Lords who are not counted with the Asurya, the first-generation founders led by Asurmen, and accounts of the origin of the Shining Spears Aspect are sparse. Little is recorded of specific campaigns, and this dossier does not supply any beyond what is attested. Drastanta’s standing is chiefly defined by absence, as with several of the wandering Phoenix Lords who appear only in moments of great need and are otherwise unseen for long periods.

In the current era Drastanta is noted as missing rather than slain, and no successor wearing the armour is recorded. The other Phoenix Lords, including Asurmen, Jain Zar, Fuegan, Baharroth, Maugan Ra, Karandras, Irillyth and Lhykhis, are the natural contemporaries for placing the figure within the wider Phoenix Lord tradition on the map and timeline. Later tradition holds that the Phoenix Lords will all take the field again at the Rhana Dandra, the final battle between Chaos and the material universe, though nothing attested ties Drastanta to a specific world or date.