Home › Units › Craftworld Aeldari › Striking Scorpions
1 / 4 · Click to enlargeLore & origins
Among all the warrior cults of the Craftworlds, the Striking Scorpions embody one of the deadliest facets of Kaela Mensha Khaine: the patient, unseen killer whose sting fells beasts many times its size. Where the Howling Banshees rely on blinding speed and psychic terror, the Scorpions are masters of stealth, infiltration and brutal close-quarters strength, able to remain motionless in deep cover for days before erupting into sudden violence. Because they must constantly submerge their consciousness in the Predator Trance — a cold, reptilian state of mind just beneath their War Mask — they are regarded as an unsettling breed even by their fellow Aspect Warriors, retaining an icy watchfulness long after they unbuckle their armour.
The history of the Aspect is forever bound to two contrasting Phoenix Lords. Its founder, Arhra — the Father of Scorpions — fell to darkness, turned against his fellow Phoenix Lords, betrayed the shrine of the Asurya to Daemons of Chaos, and vanished into the Webway, where legends whisper he still burns with the dark light of Chaos and sired the fallen order of the Incubi in Commorragh. Out of that tragedy rose Karandras, the Shadow Hunter, greatest of Arhra's pupils, who tempered the Aspect's feral fury with icy patience and saved his master's teachings from damnation.
Every initiate of a Striking Scorpion Shrine undergoes a gruelling metamorphosis on the Path of the Warrior, spending months in sensory-deprivation chambers until they can read the faintest vibration in the air and control their breathing and heartbeat at will. Only when they have survived the Trial of the Scorpion — dropped unarmed into a pitch-black labyrinth on a Death World or the cold peaks of a Craftworld dome while hunted by veterans — do they earn their segmented emerald war-plate.
Appearance & wargear
Compared to other Aspect Warriors, Striking Scorpions wear heavier, more heavily plated Aspect Armour patterned in deep greens, yellows and blacks, formed of overlapping psycho-sensitive plates that allow silent movement while turning aside blades and solid shot that would gut a Guardian or Banshee. Their crested helmets are lined with long, sensor-tipped dreadlock vanes and twin Mandiblasters — laser-guided needle-pods mounted on either side of the faceplate that discharge a conductive plasma sting capable of boiling an enemy's brain inside their skull before the blades even meet. In their gauntlets they carry a Shuriken Pistol and a high-pitched Scorpion Chainsword studded with diamond-hard crystal teeth; Exarchs often trade these for the Biting Blade, a two-handed chainsabre, or the dreaded Scorpion's Claw, a powered gauntlet incorporating a built-in shuriken catapult.
Weapons & Vehicles
The brutal motorised tooth-bladed sword carried by Space Marines, Imperial Guard officers and Chaos renegades, chewing through armour a…
The graceful wraithbone gravitic-accelerator firearm of the Craftworld Aeldari, slicing targets to ribbons with silent, monomolecular s…
An oversized servo-assisted armoured gauntlet sheathed in a matter-shredding energy field, capable of tearing open tank hulls and crush…
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
Aspect Warriors who leap through the Warp itself to ambush the enemy, risking their souls with every jump.
A towering wraithbone walker steered by two Asuryani twins, one living and one dead, who fight as a single mind.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Striking Scorpions are the supreme infiltrators and close-combat shock troops of the Asuryani warhost. Slipping onto the field ahead of the main force or gliding down from Wave Serpents under cover of gloom, they stalk through dense jungle, ruined cities and trench networks until they are within arm's reach of the enemy. At their Exarch's signal they burst from cover in unison: a blinding shower of plasma needles from their Mandiblasters paralyses or slays the front rank, and a heartbeat later their whirring chainswords and pistols butcher the survivors in a silent, merciless frenzy before the squad melts back into the shadows.
Notable battles & users
- Karandras, the Shadow Hunter — The Phoenix Lord who redeemed the Aspect after the betrayal of its fallen founder Arhra, the Father of Scorpions.
- 143.M40 (Cleanse of Hive screaming-depths on Hoeth) — A single squad of Striking Scorpions infiltrated a Genestealer-infested underhive and slew its Patriarch in pitch darkness without losing a single warrior.
- Shrine of the Silent Sting and Shrine of the Vengeful Blade — Renowned Striking Scorpion shrines of Craftworlds Biel-Tan and Alaitoc.
Related
Characters (2)
Eldrad Ulthran · High Farseer of Ulthwé
Jain Zar · Storm of Silence
