Lelith Hesperax

Overview

Lelith Hesperax is the Succubus of the Cult of Strife, the undisputed champion of Commorragh's arenas and Vect's favourite.

Alone among the Wych Cults, she refuses to use combat drugs, relying on her own skill. She fights with two simple but exquisite knives, and her rivals call her the Queen of Knives. Her performances draw crowds from every corner of the Dark City, and her victories sustain her own soul as much as her cult. Lelith Hesperax is the mistress of the Cult of Strife and the greatest arena fighter in Commorragh. She fights with almost no armour and with blades that look more like jewellery than weapons, and the crowd loves her because she makes slaughter look like dance. She is allied with Vect but no one's servant. Yvraine's admirers once boasted that she could face Lelith, a boast that shows how far above every other arena fighter Lelith stands.

Lelith is the Succubus of the Cult of Strife and the undisputed champion of Commorragh's arenas. She is Vect's personal favourite, and some say his occasional courtesan. Watching her fight is a privilege only the wealthiest Drukhari can afford, and Kabalites say the sight reinvigorates even the oldest of them.

Origins

Her rivals whisper that the Haemonculi have modified her. The truth, the sources say, is simpler: she is a born killer.

She rose through the arenas of Commorragh, learning every weapon and every style of combat. As her fame grew, she became Vect's favoured champion, giving her protection and influence. Her success as Succubus of the Cult of Strife has made her one of the most famous figures in Commorragh.

Key events

1. Rose to command the Cult of Strife.
2. Became the arena's star performer and Vect's favoured champion.
3. Defeated Yvraine in the Crucibael on the Night of Revelations.
4. Allied with the Ynnari, sending much of the Cult of Strife to fight Slaanesh.
5. Helped defend Yvraine from Shalaxi Hellbane.

Battles & campaigns

• The arenas of the Cult of Strife: countless spectacles of slaughter.
• Realspace raids alongside the Kabal of the Black Heart.

Personality

Silent, graceful and artistic, a performer rather than a politician.

She is silent and graceful, more interested in the art of killing than in politics. She craves worthy opponents; Commorrite gossip imagines a duel between her and Lucius the Eternal as the greatest the Crucibael could ever stage. Her alliance with the Ynnari may owe as much to the challenge Slaanesh's daemons offer as to faith.

Her voice has been compared to honeyed velvet, but she rarely speaks. She is an artist, not a politician, and her handmaidens carry out her few orders to the letter. Before a realspace raid she sometimes walks into an Archon's halls with dozens of hand-picked Wyches. She is not offering an alliance. She is looking for unusual prey, the elite champions of other species, and she has never come back without blood on her blades and new trophies for her private museums of pain.

She is the only Wych who refuses combat drugs, on the principle that chemicals dull the subtleties of death. In arenas where that refusal would normally be fatal, her skin remains flawless. She can use every exotic Wych weapon but usually fights with two plain, exquisitely balanced daggers. Her mane, as long as she is tall, is woven with tiny blades and hooks, and she controls it well enough to snare opponents as a lesser Wych would with a net. Her sharpened fingernails are enough to find the weak points in heavy armour.

Weapons & Vehicles

Agoniser & HuskbladeMelee Weapon

The nerve-shredding neural whips and moisture-vaporising Huskblades of Drukhari Archons and Succubi, turning close combat into an arena…

Splinter Rifle & Splinter CannonRanged Weapon

The cruel crystal-toxin firearms of the Drukhari Kabals, firing storms of venomous shards designed to kill targets in maximum, soul-nou…

Power SwordMelee Weapon

A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…

Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.

Connections

Characters (2)

• 
  Asdrubael Vect patron · Drukhari

  Lelith is Vect's favoured champion.

• 
  Yvraine rival then ally · Ynnari

  Lelith fought Yvraine in the Crucibael; later they became allies.

Factions

• Drukhari primary faction
• Ynnari also affiliated

Also in this faction

The VisarchUrien Rakarth

Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.

Legacy

Lelith Hesperax is the most celebrated Wych of Commorragh, a killer whose art is perfect, effortless slaughter. She cares more for the performance than for politics, and her alliance with the Ynnari surprised the Dark City. She has become one of the clearest links between the Drukhari and Yvraine's cause, and a sign that even Commorragh can be drawn into the fight against Slaanesh. Her refusal to wear armour has become part of her mystique, a statement that no foe is skilled enough to need it. Her reputation is so lethal that even claiming to be her equal is considered suicide.

In the age of the Great Rift she fights alongside the Ynnari, Craftworld warriors and Harlequins against the Chaos hordes in the Imperium Nihilus. The cause is officially the destruction of Slaanesh. Her private goal is to capture Lucius the Eternal, the Emperor's Children champion whose skill and repeated resurrections make him the ultimate opponent.

Appearances & sources

• Codex: Dark Eldar / Codex: Drukhari
• Lexicanum: Ynnari (on Yvraine and Lelith)