Taciturn Serpents

The brand of Laevernie adapted to the Aspect Rune is indicative that the Taciturn Serpents share history and myth with this older deity; Some Temples going as far as painting their left hand in pure ink.

## Aspect

### **Famous Exarchs**

Illustra Shockwave,
 Shaelreen Shadowhunter

### **Colours**

Multiple faded colours, green, blue and brown in banded patterns. Blood Red details.

### **Specialisation**

Sonic Immunity, Silent Hunting, Weapon damage scaling

### **Wargear**

Sonic Rifles

The **Taciturn Serpents** are a lesser known Asuryani Aspect with limited spread across Craftworlds of the Galaxy. Rightly condemned and ostracised by their peers the Aspect embodies an intolerable persona of the murderer ridden with jealousy and shame, as well as the thief; But their actions, in exercising this fundamental challenge of the developing Aeldari psyche, is faced in all the same virtues and morals as any other Aspect. They exercise their frustration through the myriad enemies of the Aeldari, often without gratitude or reward, and do it with the quiet grace of an assassin.

After a resurgence, when their once lost Phoenix Lord returned to activity, this Aspect has found itself at the front of the increasingly dire conflicts that approached the 41 st millennia and the time beyond it. The Taciturn Serpents have earned themselves an unnerving reputation both within their faction and beyond it, alike to the innate fear inspired from the Dark Reapers or Drukhari; It is not just that they kill, it is that the survivors of their onslaught are left deafened by the screech of their sonic rifles, or even traumatised by sensory deprivation in prolonged exposure of their Exarch's mute fields; 'Those lucky few'.

## Overview

### Mythology

‘’’Tacita’’’

The Phoenix Lord Tacita was an orphan, saved by Asurmen after the fall and recruited as a warrior. Any tale of heroism and virtuous comradery was eclipsed by Tacita’s persona, one dominated by the attributes of Laevernie; An Aeldari God of thieves and deceiver in their own right. Tacita stole, from the dead, from her allies, and from the other Phoenix Lords. Unrepentant and audacious she earned their enmity, but the wrath of Cegorach was the greatest. In some tellings of the myth she killed the Harlequin from which she stole the flipbelt from, and for that Cegorach tore out her tongue and condemned her to solitude. Still, amongst the Phoenix Lords she was an equal and her abrasive talents was also their boon. Tacita, while incorrigible in her behaviour, was no villain or enemy of her peers, for the early millenia she would be seen tirelessly supporting the other Lords and the Aeldari people, fulfilling the greater game of Asurmen. But this would not last forever, it remains an unknown date, unknown location and against an unknown enemy but Tacita was brought low. Some say she was shattered, and others say she was scattered, but either way the armour as a single entity disappeared and the obscure Aspect fell more into obscurity.

‘’’The Aspect of Khaine’’’

The calling of the Path of the Taciturn Serpents attracts those who are on the precipice of damnation, those consumed by jealousy or impotent rage at their immediate social circle, those that can only see violation of their assumed sanctuary as their solution. Rarely taking the young in their first journey down the path of the warrior, but the older if still inexperienced. The Shrines take them, and exercise their emotions upon the lawless battlefields and against the blameless or guilty that oppose the Aeldari. Gifting them patience, tolerance and innate precision in harmony with their teammates. Whatever outcome that the Aspect teaches, it comes from a psychology of such shame that it is ostracised, not celebrated; Or perhaps it is the shame of its patrons that drives a reciprocal revulsion in others. Their Shrines are often buried deep within the Craftworlds, away from the habitation domes, away from the infinity circuit, hidden behind utility tunnels and receding far from any chance wanderer.

When they do gather with the Aspect Hosts to join the Warhosts of the Asuryai in their war footing they are viewed with distrust, they can even be unnerving, wrapped in myths of their Curse and a silence that stretches to the psychic aura they project. They are simply an unknown, but do little to earn or reinforce this culture and therefore these barriers are often broken down by exposure. An Autarch who has shared their path will be at ease with them, and those under their command will be likewise.

### Resurgence

When the Aeldari faction ‘Shadow of the Phoenix’ uncovered an abandoned shrine within the freshly liberated Craftworld of Brigan’Tia they uncovered a helmet of the missing Phoenix Lord and entered the game of recovering this lost Hero. In short order their agents went far and wide across the Aeldari’s domains and slowly put together the missing relics, overcoming those antagonists that hid the relics, and allying with like minded parties. Though the faction had their own selfish aspiration of indebting a Phoenix Lord, they knew that such a thing was impossible but the mission was of such importance that their sacrifices were not in vain. Tacita was, nearly a century after this discovery, reawakened; One armour piece remained within the vaults of a Archon. With the help of many shrines of the Taciturn Serpents the Kabal was infiltrated and brought low. The Archon was taken from their bed and put into the completed armour - a fitting punishment and the most use of that ‘waste of a life’.

Tacita was reborn, and returned to a Galaxy incalculably more troubled than she had left it. She has raised more shrines and incurred the Infinity Circuits of many Craftworlds to revive their neglected shrines. More though she has appeared in more and more battles, driven to protect their people and feeling remorse for their decades of idleness.

### Notable Shrines

* **Screaming Claw Shrine** - This Shrine has mastered the unusual discipline of melee and close quarter battle. Utilising grenades and Sonic hammers in combination. Using short blades to carve apart their stunned and staggered victims, their masks are daubed into terrifying visages of demonic entities.

* **Shifted Sand Shrine** - This Shrine has mastered the discipline of the patient hunter, disappearing into the battlefield to await the perfect salvo. Many a Mon'Keigh have routed in confused shock as the screeching chorus of Sonic rifles tear apart their lines, with their enemy in no sight.

* **Coiled Serpent Shrine** - This Shrine has mastered the art of fluid and flexible warfare, volleying between short hops, reacting to the rhythm of the battle. Their members exuding some of the greatest intrinsic harmony of their Aspect.

* **Screeching Hail Shrine** - This Shrine has mastered the use of grenades in conjunction with their weapons. Throwing them far and wide, timing volleys with their grenades and making full use of Impulse grenades potential amplification ability.

* **Steeled Gaze Shrine** - This Shrine has mastered teamwork and volleyed fire, holding the line against hordes of enemies - often tyranids or orks. With synchronous fire they overlap in a lace pattern to create amplification spots, firing in rhythm to systematically and efficiently eradicate deep ranks of the enemy.

* **Insidious Venom Shrine** - This Shrine has mastered the discipline of moving unseen, passing the enemy front lines to track down their quarry, who they eliminate with precision fire. They are the uttermost thieves of Tacita’s children, viewing their assassinations as stealing their enemy’s life. Behind this they are known for a vindictive and infuriating habit of leaving proximity fuse grenades for those that dare hunt them, which are rarely ever found before they detonate.

## Aspect Warriors

### Role in the Battlefield

The Taciturn Serpents are versatile, but can be at their best as head-hunters. The Sonic Rifle, a smaller and more efficient variant of the Vibro-Cannon, has the capacity to amplify its power with perfectly synchronised impacts. The Taciturn Serpents master the weapon to such a level that this ability is normalised. Despite the weapon’s weight and their heavy specialised armour the Taciturn Serpents cheat their limitation as heavy infantry with Tacita’s most infamous plunder; Flip Belts. They skip lightly across the battlefield, unheard and unseen, delivering high yield damage to pinpoint locations. The Taciturn Serpents will stack attacks against individual heavily armoured foes, overcoming significantly protected foes with numbers, giving them exceptional flexibility against targets. They cooperate well with Vibro-Cannon equipped Wrath-of-Vauls and Eagle Bombers armed with Sonic Charges - both of which they can amplify. The Taciturn Serpents cannot fire on the move, leading to a pattern of rapid movement, and stationary fire. Often grenades are thrown to stun or unbalance enemies while on the move to avoid incoming fire. This strategy is enhanced by their Flip-Belts, which allow short hops and easy movement despite their heavy armour and weapons. Though the Taciturn Serpents remain woefully cumbersome compared to the graceful standard of the Harlequins.

As well as individual targets of value, massed formations of lighter armoured foes are the Taciturn Serpents preferred prey, as they disrupt battle lines and drain morale from their quarry. Their rifles over-penetrating each target, those who do draw close find themselves cut off from communication and deafened. As heavily armoured infantry in numbers and a loose formation are the most effective counter to Taciturn Serpents, Dark Reapers and Fire Dragons are their preferred combat allies.

The Heavy Aspect Armour of the Taciturn Serpents is designed to suppress all waves that pass through it, protecting them from their own weapons and other sonic weaponry. As a by-product of this and their own careful movement they are nearly silent and themselves deaf. Communicating by comm links and sign language. Not content to bear this burden alone, their Exarch’s make use of adapted stolen Drukhari technology, ‘Mute Fields’, that create a wide aura of silence around them. The sudden deafness their enemies experience is shocking, enough to throw them into disarray and panic. Both of these attributes have made them the bane of the Emperor’s Children, as well as any Slaaneshi force; Those that feed off sensation, and champion sonic weaponry.

The Taciturn Serpents are also infamous for their melee style, where they are seen to 'brawl' with their enemies using mainly their fists, knees, elbows, feet and even head. Their gloves are specially reinforced with hardened claws fixed to the knuckles, likewise their boots are faced with sharpened armour, and the spikes and sharpened plates of the aspect armour are utilised to their full. Their victims are often ascribed to have been mauled to death as an animal would. Those shrines that utilise blades are designed after Tacita's own blade, inbuilt with a strong hand guard that is equally effective as a hammer in a strike. The brutality of this style is believed to be a preference to match the butchery of their ranged weapons, the Aspect taking satisfaction from either method.

### Wargear

The Taciturn Serpents are armed with Sonic Rifles, Flip-Belts, Specialist Armour, and Impulse & Concussion Grenades.

* **Sonic Rifle** - A miniature Vibro Cannon, like its larger siblings, its damage is multiplied when additional rifles target the same foe. The Sonic rifle generates resonant sonic waves, which rapidly scale between ultra and hyper sonic to efficiently generate a devastating sound wave with minimal collateral damage. The waves are funnelled towards their quarry by magnetic impel and damage everything caught in the beam. The victims undergo massive resonance, shaking themselves to death, as well as concussive force pushing the victim and the ground they stand on backwards.
* **Sonic Grenades** – Coming in two varieties, these grenades contain a single resonant crystal and multiple speakers around it to generate a non-specific wave to affect the close proximity.
* **Impulse Grenade** - Most closely mimicking the rifle, this grenade sends out a single shockwave generated by the scale of waves from the ultra to hypersonic. Generating a massive concussive force that sends everything proximate flying but with minimal notable damage. They are effective at removing enemy targets from cover, but do not cause continuous damage. Though it is unlikely to match the resonance of other sonic weapons during detonation, if it does the Impulse grenade can significantly amplify the sonic resonance of the target.
* **Concussion Grenade** – Generates a continuous resonance that is not strong enough to cause damage by itself but will affect its environment for a prolonged time. These grenades release an obnoxious noise that leaves enemies stunned and can amplify each other for moderate damage and with other sonic weapons. If enough Concussion grenades are gathered together the amplified waves can become quite deadly, and deny terrain to the enemy.
* **Aspect Armour** – Coated in a layer of resonant crystals, unique to the Taciturn Serpents, which absorb sonic energy and reroute it to their weapons or expel it as heat. Taciturn Serpents armour is near impervious to Sonic based attack, as well as being heavy and durable. The Resonant Crystals appear like scales. Striations and pockets cover the armour’s surface. The Taciturn Serpents paint their armour with multiple colours, in bands and stripes to mimic the Sistrus that their armour coincidentally resembles. It acts as a natural camouflage, relative to the bright colours of typical Aspect Warriors but incomparable to the cameoline cloaks of Rangers.
* **Flip-belts** - Identical to those used by Harlequins, the Taciturn Serpents use these anti-gravity devices to skip lightly across the battlefield despite carrying heavy armour and heavy weapons. These belts also help counteract gravity based attacks.

### Exarch

The Taciturn Serpent Exarchs are paragons of their shrines, patient hunters and deadly ambushers. Experienced in choosing when to remain silent, and when to let their weapons roar. The Exarchs have mastered a number of unique skills, such as the use of Impulse grenades to direct themselves in evasive action - their immunity to sonic damage, coupled with their Flip-Belts make this bizarre strategy viable. The Exarch of the Taciturn Serpents has a number of load outs that can redesign how the squad will operate; whether to operate with maximum single target damage, mob dispersal, or enhanced melee capabilities. Their armour has an additional layer of scale armour pieces that are decoratively spined.

* **Heavy Sonic Rifle** - The most common weapon of the Exarch, a twin sonic rifle that fires as one. The heavy weapon amplifies its own attacks to devastating effect, disciplined squads will salvo their fire with the Exarch to deliver unmatched damage against individual targets.
* **Sonic Hammer** - A large two handed power hammer with an inbuilt sonic resonator that detonates upon impact with the same effect as an impulse grenade. It’s victims are catapulted away from the squad, allowing them to escape. Exarchs have been known to deploy Concussion grenades and close to melee, amplifying their Impulse attack to deliver a high damage strike that also dismounts their target from cover for follow up attacks.
* **Concussion Carbine** - An exotic weapon that launches resonant generators designed to detonate on impact in a similar manner to the sonic charges of Eagle Bombers. Launched by compressed air at a rapid rate, the Concussion carbine can create a line of Shockwaves that each interact and combine for devastating hits. Exarchs typically land shots either side of a well armoured target to wipe out the surrounding squads and trigger a high damage hit where the waves intersect. The sonic charges can be designed instead as Impulse Grenades and are used to remove entrenched targets for allied units.
* **Mute-field** - An arcane device often regarded with suspicion and even distaste by the Aeldari, as it is believed to be of Drukhari design. It is based around the sonic resonator technology within their weapons, but the mute field channels waves from the surrounding air into the Exarchs armour. It targets waves with low frequency, within Mon'Keigh hearing range, so that it does not affect the high frequency of their own weapons. The Mute field creates a vacuum like affect around the Exarchs and forces everyone in their proximity to experience a soundless environment – exactly as the Taciturn Serpents perceive their own environment.

### Notable Exarchs

* **Illustra Shockwave** - One of the first Exarchs of the Taciturn Serpent's resurgence. Illustra is fast and graceful, skipping through a battlefield barely, touching the floor with acrobatic feats. To accompany this fast movement the Shockwave's primary attack is a volley of grenades both thrown and fired, often combining Impulse and Concussion together for maximum damage.
* **Shaelreen Shadowhunter** - One of the few Exarchs to have survived through the Aspects' collapse into obscurity and recent return of its Phoenix Lord. Shaelreen is known for his vicious killer instinct and singular hunting style, leading a squad when they require him and operating alone as a preference. However, the Shadowhunter is still a great teacher, whose students are known for a similar skill as assassins.

## Tacita

A formidable warrior, Tacita is an individual fighter with devastating armament and matching armour ability. Able to shrug off enemy fire, and send back even more through a devastating volley of missiles or the supporting Grav Platform. From her days fighting and scavenging for survival in the wake of the Fall, Tacita has become a paragon of survivability and martial prowess, of innovative gadgets and weapons. Grace, speed and strength are all secondary to that drive, and this belief accumulates to the Taciturn Serpent's poor reputation.

### Tacita’s Equipment

* **The Imperturbable** - Bespoke and decorative, Tacita’s armour is closer to power armour as it supports her extensive armoury. It carries the same sound absorbent quality of the Taciturn Serpents, and has the scale and spine appearance of the Exarchs. Tacita’s helm has two short horns that can be mistaken to represent Slannesh, but are nothing so vulgar - sensory nodes designed to resemble the Sistrus' own.
* **Impulse missile racks** - Aeldari micro missile tubes are lined along Tacita's shoulders and form her primary and most devastating attack. The missiles are small impulse charges that embed into a target and detonate in synchronous impact. The line of impulse charges not only disrupt the enemy battleline but will amplify off each other to inflict horrific damage. However the missiles are wasted against single targets.
* **Mute beam** - On the right arm Tacita carries a unique weapon, a cut down sonic rifle that fires a broad beam of low frequency waves that rather than silence like a mute field, supplants the air with useless noise. The victims, without protection, can writhe in agony as they are submitted to constant, loud whitenoise. Even with protection the victims can no longer filter battlefield chatter, removing their ability to communicate through sound.
* **Sonic Knuckle** - Forming the tip of the mute beam, an array of magnetic fields that can be activated to redirect the broad sonic beam into a focused one. Coupled with a secondary sonic charge that activates to amplify the otherwise low yield beam to form a single concussive blast that stuns the victim as well inflicting significant damage. The apparatus does not impede the right hand that remains free to grapple or hold another weapon.
* **Concussion Pistol** - A cut down Concussion rifle affixed to the wrist and likely inspired by the Terrorfex.
* **Implied Demise** - Tacita’s power blade, suitable for a Phoenix Lord and crafted by the Daughters of Vaul. A short blade perfect for carving the stunned victims of a precursory sonic attack, wielded in the left hand and often used to parry and riposte.
* **Cegorach's Curse** - The flip-belt used by Tacita has been modified by the Phoenix Lord herself to reverse it's function on demand. On command the flip-belt will increase Tacita's local gravity field, accelerating her to the ground. On occasion this will allow her to escape death, but it is more often used as a brutal melee weapon, combined with the Phoenix Lords hardened and bladed boots, Tacita can stomp on a victim - often cleaving them as a sword would.

## Sistrus

A giant and mighty lizard native to a number of Exodite worlds and familiar to Aeldari. Its scales are armoured and closer to spines.

## Quotes

"*Yes I think it was a Phoenix Lord, I did not know what they were at the time, but it had more ornamental armour than the rest, I think it’s weapons were installed into the arms yes. They came at us in a staggered line, that Lord at the front. Proximity sensors had done nothing - they had already crossed half of our firing line and passed the optimal killzone, popping in and out of craters and abandoned trenches as a canine running through long grass. Commissar did his duty, kicking the rest into the battle line – had his work cut out for him the bugger. We made the battleline, shoulder to shoulder and readied a volley when a swarm of lights flew from the lead and into the ranks. I’ve experienced artillery before, basilisk shells from Dusk to Dawn, missiles, and weapons I don’t care to know the name of but nothing so odd as this. These things sent us flying, but only felt like a kick to the chest and the rest of my body as well. I was on the floor and the air of my lungs was gone. At first I thought I couldn’t hear the Commissar thanks to the blood coming out of my ears but I realised that he and many of my squad had been blown clear of the ramparts. I had to remove my helmet, the visor was obscured by blood and by the time I got back on my feet the Xenos were lined up infront of us, like a firing squad. Their weapons flashed blue and the air around popped and distorted, like a day’s heat off rockcrete. They didn’t make any sound though, not until they hit us. Come to think of it, the Xenos hadn’t made any sound at all, no warcry, no chatter, no steps, nothing.
The sound when they hit us? It. It was nothing short of horrific, an inhuman wail, a thunderous screech, a deafening buzzing. It’s hard to describe something that could sound as pedestrian as Vox interference, but made my face bleed and my knees buckle from the shockwave. My strength, my will and my dignity was blown away like leaves in the wind and a lifeless body caved in on itself. I … I was lucky, my comrades that remained at my sides had been turned to pulp, in the confusion I did not know who had even stood next to me, only the standard issue flak vest told me that they were once guard.
What followed. Well the Xenos hopped onto the ramparts as easy as climbing stairs, I saw their feet landing on the floor around me. I find it hard to describe what happened as they reached us. Within an instance all the sound was gone. The whine and buzzing from my wounded ears, the screams of the dying, the drone of aircraft, the distant thump of artillery, the whispers of the Vox, the wail of the wind, the thunder of my heart. It was all gone. There was nothing, just suffocating silence. A level of quiet unsurpassed, an absence of sound that demanded to be noticed, my mind screamed louder than I had ever heard it filling the vacuum as best it could. For a moment I was driven mad, and then as quickly as it had come it was gone with the Xenos.*"
—Excerpt from a Guardsmen’s account of engaging Xenos identified as the Taciturn Serpents.
"*Faraeseth returned the warmask and drank in the comfort of the calm and calculated killer that had dwelled subdued. The fear and anticipation he had felt vanished with the hiss of pressurised air and sudden following silence. He had taken in the ambience of the battlefield without it, a indulgence he delved into at every opportunity; The noise of the Mon'Keigh, their heavy breathing, screams and vulgar language, the crude ill balanced weapons and exaggerated deaths. When Faraeseth returned to the craftworld he could better appreciate the peace and beauty of his kin and the perfection that underpinned millenia of design. But such an indulgence was no longer acceptable, with the helm replaced he only knew silence and the Warmask instead fascinated on the Mon'Keigh faces, reading the movement of lips and limbs. He had become accustomed to the silence that his enemies would soon be confounded by, but the same armour that protected his aspect was also a curse. He revolved his head continuously, taking in every inch of the surrounding space. A would-be assassin could be unseen, and would remain unheard.
 Faraeseth had kept time perfectly and arose from the dwelling that cloaked him, in step with his kin. They skipped across the barren battlefield, from cover to cover, over corpses and mines. The squad was in perfect tandem, following the Exarch Telue with minimal direction, only pausing as the aged warrior raised his shoulders and with a near invisible slight of the arm directed them forwards again, deftly evading preoccupied squads of Orks racing towards the battlefields frontline. Though their camouflage was no cameoline cloak of the rangers, coupled with their silence it was effective and under the guidance of their Exarch it was more than adequate. With a flick of his fingers Telue directed Faraeseth to take up a firing position to the left, who complied, with the assistance of his flip belt the heavily armoured aspect warrior gently glided up into the cover of the first floor of what had once been a building, but now remained an abstract wall. The rest of the squad likewise scattered into firing positions around their killing post. Again they waited, the patient and still hunter within the shifting sand of the battlefield, their chosen prey would soon arrive. Indeed the Warboss was punctual and scampered across the battlefield, as tall as a war walker in a brutish mockery of power armour sparking with energy and roaring their warcry high into the battelefield. At least Faraeseth conjectured, the mouth was agape in the same shape as Faraeseth's earlier victims in their death throes. He looked to Telue knowing the incoming command, three fingers into a trigger grip, they knew their part already, Faraeseth aligned his weapon towards the warboss and on the third second fired.
Through the thinner material of his gloves he felt the charge collect and the familiar warm tingle as his weapon discharged, the wave was released and sped into the warboss along with six others. Each struck simultaneously and the waves amplified together reaching a crescendo within the giant ork. The warboss stopped in his tracks and swayed, within the armour that cracked with the resonance the flesh had liquefied, the hollow casket fell forward into the mud with satisfying silence. The Orks gathered around were clutching at their ears, writhed with agony, their blood streaming from the ears, nose and eyes. Those who had been caught in the individual beams also laid dead and dying. Faraeseth look to Telue, he hoped that the veteran would order a following attack but expected the wave to retreat. The red eyes flashed. Faraeseth charged the Sonic rifle to fire again, and drunk in the despair of his quarry.*"
—An excerpt from a Taciturn Serpent's Memoirs, repurposed by storytellers