Karandras

Karandras, called the Shadow Hunter, is the Phoenix Lord of the Striking Scorpions among the Asuryani. He is one of a small number of Phoenix Lords, the near-immortal founders and exemplars of the Aspect Warrior shrines, and he stands as successor to Arhra, the shrine’s original founder. Where Arhra later broke from the Asuryani, gave himself to the Ruinous Powers, and is remembered as the Fallen Phoenix, Karandras represents the discipline the shrine chose to preserve: patient, methodical killing in place of frenzy.

Karandras was a child at the moment of Slaanesh’s birth, when the psychic shockwave of the Fall tore through the Eldar race and killed his family along with countless others. He came to the Striking Scorpions shrine and rose as Arhra’s most able pupil, eventually challenging his master in single combat that lasted seventeen days. Karandras prevailed, took up the shrine’s war mask and armour, and in doing so redirected its teachings away from Arhra’s ferocity toward stealth, restraint, and the patient stalking of prey — a philosophy the Striking Scorpions still follow.

As Phoenix Lord, Karandras fights with the Scorpion’s Bite, a claw-weapon capable of shearing through power armour, and he is recorded as ranging far beyond any single war or cause. He has hunted alone through tomb worlds against the ancient constructs said to dwell there, and has sought out and killed the warlords of Ork Waaagh! hosts to break their followers’ morale. He has also stood among the defenders of the craftworld Alaitoc during assaults upon its walls, lending his blade to a home that is not his own.

Accounts from the forty-first millennium hold that the seer Zandros witnessed a second duel between Karandras and Arhra, again fought across seventeen days, echoing their first contest at the shrine’s founding. In the present era Karandras has fought alongside the Ynnari, the followers of the Whispering God who draw the Aspect shrines into an uneasy new alliance, and has defended the Exodite wards of Biel-Tan’s people against their enemies. He commits to none of these causes permanently, appearing where the shrine’s judgement — and his own — decides he is needed, then vanishing again into the war between the stars.