40K Lore: Wych Cults of the Drukhari
Wych Cults are bloodthirsty cabals (bot not kabals) of gladiatorial fighters. With a lust for combat, and particular skill in entertaining the masses with their violent displays of martial prowess and daring jetbike races, the Hekatarii help keep the appetites of the Drukhari sated.
Today Loremasters, we discuss the depravities of the Drukhari–specifically the Wych Cults that seem to be elevated in the eyes of their twisted, sadistic kin. With their deathsports and skill at deadly combat, Wych Cults are a popular entertainment for the foul xenos masses, bringing them into a comfortably numb stupor from which they surely cannot escape. With their wits addled by brutal and mindless displays of violence, the Drukhari are surely frail and weak–but though their defeat is soon to come, it is important to know your enemy no matter how assured you are of victory over them. So today, we discuss the Wych Cults.
Wych Cults evolved from the thirst for blood that grips the Drukhari. The society of Commorragh would be at a loss if it wasn’t for the nightly displays of violence performed by the Hekatarii. Wych Cults operate out of their own arenas, which are used both as means of staging their violent fights as well as to display the wealth and status of a Cult. Every arena has its own deadly charms and challenges, such as spinning blades, predatory beasts, gravity-wells, kinetic inversion snares or even more esoteric and inventive hazards. A Wych Cult member is obsessed with honing their skills in hand to hand combat, but there are other areas of interest as well. Some wyches may choose to train in the use of Reaver Jetbikes won or stolen on the arena, since many Cults include toroid racing tracks.
Some Cults also host a nomadic band of Beastmasters, a male-dominated offshoot of the largely female Wyches. They remain distant and aside from the rest of the Cult, but sometimes have their own arena complex within a Cult from where they emerge every few nights to showcase their newest pets. Many Cults also maintain close relations with gangs of Hellions for beneficial contracts. The Hellion gangs can offer their members for sport in the arena or in a realspace raid. In return, they gain protection against rival gangs as well as a source of combat drugs.[1b] The fighters of a Cult train constantly with each other, and they are expected to kill their opponents if possible. In this way, the weakest members are very quickly weeded out, producing only the best warriors with which to represent the Cult.
Wych Cults don’t usually have large enough numbers to perform their own raids, so they work as mercenaries for Kabals, lending them their strength in exchange for slaves, the currency of Commorragh. The coliseum puts on fights regularly as an exhibition of their talents, pitting Wyches against each other as well as groups of slaves, or even fearsome alien beasts collected during raids. In this way, they are able to advertise their skills to Kabals, and bring in more work.
As you can see, these depraved “dark eldar,” as they’re known, are a band of hedonistic savages, and their Wych Cults are known for their stunning weaknesses and crippling fear. Let’s take a look at some of the better known cults and talk about why they are doomed to fall before the might of the Imperium and its collected knowledge.
The Cult of the Red Grief is a Wych Cult that is afraid of touching the floor. Their raiding forces employ whole flotillas of Raiders that fly in close formation towards the foe, escorted by Reavers, Venoms, and Hellions. When these formations close with the enemy, the Wyches will spring from Raider to Jetbike to Skyboard and back again with athletic precision because they are doubtless convinced that the ground will turn to lava, or otherwise transfigure beneath their feet. Such is their terror that they have devoted countless years to honing their skill dismounting and mounting their flying transports, like the cowards they are, that the transports barely have to slow. Only the Wyches themselves ever touch the ground, and even then only to deliver the killing blow to an enemy.
The Red Grief’s main arena, The Pit, is an unforgiving structure built into the peak of a towering Commorragh spire. Its galleries are made from transparent crystal, revealing that the audience are suspended only moments from a plunge to their deaths. The arena proper has no floor, just a gulf prowled by drifting anti-grav platforms. Hellions duel here, their skyboards trailing lines of monofilament wire that unspool in complex webs that decapitate and dismember opponents.
The Cult of the Cursed Blade are a Wych Cult renowned for their treachery, their name derives from the Commorragh term referring to rebels who defy their masters. Treachery is held as the greatest of all virtues by the Cursed Blade, for by a process of hyper-accelerated natural selection the warrior-women of the Cult ensure that only the strongest and most cunning within their ranks survive. Weapons that deceive their foes are popular in the Cult, and many harmless-looking ornaments worn by the Wyches contain a hidden weapon or poison. It is common to see many Razorflails wielded among their ranks.
We didn’t really have to add any well-researched facts to that one. It is well known that they are traitors, and they hold treachery and heresy in their hearts as all Xenos do.
The stronghold of this devious Cult is the Nhexus Arena, and is far more deadly than its elegant architecture would suggest. Every curve and line contains Monofilament nets, venom-darts, toxin-loaded syringes, and other lethal traps. These surprises are just as likely to strike the arena audiences as well as the performers. This is seen as merely part of the fun.
And finaly there’s the Cult of Strife–possibly the most powerful Wych Cult of all, largely due to the sublime talents of Her Excellence, Lelith Hesperax. Not through martial coups or treacherous politicking has the Cult of Strife risen to the apex of power, but through the creed of speed over strength, and the elevation of bloodsport to a high art. Though the Cult of Strife boasts dozens of the best warrior-athletes in the galaxy, Lelith herself is the diamond at the centre of the crown. Her deadly allure draws in hundreds of thousands of spectators every night — each of whom is prepared to pay a high price to the Cult’s paymasters for the privilege.
Despite heretical rumors to the contrary, we are not in the pay of Lelith Hesperax, she’s just proof that even a Xenos can earn a reputation for savagery and grace–even if it pales in comparison to the deadly force of the Kataphron Destroyers.
Until next time, remember Loremasters, Drukhari bloodsports are heresy and treachery and there will be no more attempts to use the astropaths to scry on Commorragh, that’s not even how they work.
