Among the Hekatarii of Commorragh, the gladiatorial sisterhoods whose prestige is bettered only by the kabals that patronise them, few are so notorious as the Cult of the Cursed Blade. In the argot of the Dark City a cursed blade is no mere weapon but a person or faction that turns upon those it was sworn to serve, and this cult has earned that grim title so many times over that for even the most watchful archon to bring its Wyches into a palace is regarded as a kind of elegant suicide.
Treachery, in the eyes of the Cursed Blade, is not vice but the highest of virtues. Through a merciless winnowing that resembles nothing so much as evolution set to a fever pitch, the warrior-women of the cult ensure that only the most cunning and ruthless of their number endure; the trusting and the slow are culled by their own sisters long before any foe could manage it. Small wonder that they favour arms designed to deceive, the razorflail that lashes from unexpected angles and the needler that spits its venom without warning, while the most innocent trinket about a Wych's person may conceal a hidden edge or a killing draught.
The cult holds court within the Nhexus Arena, a structure whose graceful lines and soaring architecture disguise a killing-ground of appalling ingenuity. Every sweeping curve is threaded with monofilament nets, hidden venom-darts and syringes brimming with liquid agony, and these lethal surprises are as apt to fall upon the baying spectators as upon the combatants they have paid to watch die. To the Cult of the Cursed Blade there is no distinction worth preserving between performer, patron and prey; all are simply matter awaiting the blade.
Order of battle
The Cult of the Cursed Blade field the units of the Drukhari, a detachment from the roster:
Other Drukhari formations
Cult of StrifeThe most celebrated of all Wych Cults, the Cult of Strife rules the great arenas of Commorragh where captives are butchered for the roaring delight of the Drukhari elite. Its warriors are peerless gladiators, and its supreme mistress is the deadliest blade-dancer the Dark City has ever produced. The Cult of Strife supplies the spectacle that Commorragh craves, and its favour is courted by Archons who wish to lend their raids the glamour and lethality of the arena.
Kabal of the Black HeartThe oldest and most powerful Kabal in Commorragh, the Black Heart has dominated the Dark City through the millennia-long reign of its Supreme Overlord. Its endless coffers, sprawling armada, and web of spies make it the pre-eminent force among the corsair nobility. Where other Kabals rise and fall in a single lifetime of scheming, the Black Heart has endured for aeons, absorbing rivals and dictating the fate of Commorragh from behind a veil of paranoid secrecy and calculated terror.
Kabal of the Flayed SkullMasters of aerial slaughter who reign from the jagged spire called the Poisoned Crown, striking from the sky in clouds of jetfighters, bombers and winged mercenaries.
Kabal of the Poisoned TongueA kabal of venomous intriguers ruled by the Mazeweaver, Lady Malys, who weakens every foe with toxin and treachery long before a single blade is drawn.
Prophets of FleshThe Prophets of Flesh are the most feared of the Haemonculus Covens, ancient flesh-sculptors who regard the mortal body as raw material to be perfected through agony. Preservers of the deepest secrets of resurrection, they hold sway over life and death itself in Commorragh, and even the proudest Archons must bargain with them. Their creations (grotesque, immortal, and endlessly refined) are among the most horrifying weapons in the Drukhari arsenal.
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