The Crone Shard

The Crone Shard is a Webway Subrealm built around a small planetoid body in the Webway, and housing a coalition of Reborn Drukhari and Reborn Asuryani under the leadership of Ishtá Morai-fen and Synistrid the Cronestalker.

## Ishtá Morai-Fen, Prima Succubus of the Cult of Lashing Blades & Imperatrix of the Crone Shard

Once a Howling Banshee Exarch of Craftworld Iyanden, Ishtá Morai-Fen often struggled with doubts about the future of the Craftworlds. Had the Asuryani made the right choice, buying back the purity of their souls in exchange for fatalistically accepting a long slide into extinction? These doubts crystalized after Ishtá survived the devastation wreaked by both the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken and an Ork fleet shortly after. Both times, Craftworld Iyanden only survived due to outside aid. The first due to the return of Prince Yriel and his corsairs, but the second by virtue of the Drukhari. It was then, her back pressed against a wall and knee deep in the bodies of her fallen Howling Banshee sisters, fighting for her life against an endless tide of orks as the Drukhari scoured them from Iyanden’s halls, that Ishtá’s faith in the Asuryani broke. Where the Craftworlds watched their numbers dwindle, the Drukhari had numbers in cheap abundance; and where the Craftworlds struggled just to survive another day, the Drukhari clearly had might to spare. It became clear to Ishtá that the Drukhari were the future of the Aeldari. When the Drukhari left Craftworld Iyanden, Ishtá left with them to find a way to fight for that future.

The amused Drukhari dropped Ishtá off at an Incubus shrine per her request, taking bets on how long the Aspect Warrior would last among her predators. She walked into the shrine and issued a challenge to the neophytes, her spirit stone as the prize. Two took her up on her challenge and charged her simultaneously, hoping to pincer her. She cut them both down in two fluid strikes, earning admission into the shrine. Ishtá sharpened her already considerable skill with a blade and learned the arts of the Incubus Shrine while acclimating to Commorragh and figuring out what fighting for the chaotic city’s future even meant. She eventually dueled a Klaivex to the death and laid claim to his station, growing close to a fellow Klaivex named Nyktas. Ishtá confided her motivations for abandoning the Asuryani and her desire to safeguard the Dark City’s future. Nyktas thought the idea was laughable, but she put Ishtá in contact with a haemonculus who might have opportunities for her.

The haemonculus, Synistrid the Crone Stalker, was delighted. Live specimens of Asuryani were rare, and observing Ishtá’s acclimation aided her research. She expressed some understanding of Ishtá’s motives, being a student of Aeldari history herself, and involved Ishtá in planning and leading her raids on Crone Worlds. Acting as a strategist and field commander for these raids gave Ishtá her first taste of genuine leadership in Commorragh. Ishtá resigned her position at the shrine, setting her sights on a position that would give her command and the ability to carve out a subrealm to expand the dark city.

Ishtá chose the Hekatarii Cults, and fought her way into the Cult of Lashing Blades. She climbed from Wych to Hekatrix, and earned a place in the coterie of Hekatrix Bloodbrides that accompanied the Prima Succubus. When the Syren leading the coterie fell in the arena, there was a contest for her position. Just as it was within her grasp, though, Ishtá was narrowly defeated by a rival Hektarix named Nyssa Mourn. Ishtá’s survival was ensured by Synistrid’s regeneration tanks, and both Ishtá and Nyssa went on to become Succubi. As their skills grew sharper and their rivalry deepened, they rose to be the second and third Succubi in the Cult’s triumvirate. Ishtá made a proposal to Nyssa: they would murder the Prima Succubus together, and then duel each other to succeed her. Nyssa was surprised at the overture from her rival, but agreed. The following duel was long and grueling, but Ishtá stood victorious over her rival in the end. She asked Synistrid to regenerate Nyssa, her rival too skilled to throw away, and appointed Nyssa beneath her in place of a triumvirate. She delegated most management of the arena to her, while Ishtá focussed on the Cult’s training and production to incorporate elements of her Howling Banshee training, and expanding its holdings and aggression in realspace. Nyssa initially felt denied the finality their duel promised, but she grew fond of the power she’d been delegated over the arena, and their rivalry faded in time.

Ishtá expanded her partnership with Synistrid as she fought for a subrealm of her own, but Commorragh was structured to keep Cults and Covens secondary to Kabals. Foremost in stifling her was the Archon sponsoring her Cult, and Ishtá decided to seize the independence she needed by seizing his Kabal. She reached out to Nyktas, now the Hierarch of her Incubus Shrine. Ishtá learned that Nyktas had grown restless and dissatisfied, with little left to strive for, and made an unusual offer: in exchange for access to her shrine’s intelligence and support, Ishtá would install Nyktas as her viceroy over the subjugated Kabal. The Kabal fractured after the Archon fell, and Ishtá and her partners subjugated the rebellious Shards. Nyktas rebuilt the Kabal around her Incubi as enforcers and an elite core.

Before long, Commorragh was shaken by the resurrection of Yvraine and the birth of the Ynnari faith. Ishtá saw the Ynnari as a new future for the Aeldari. Nyktas was in the audience of the Crucibael, witnessing Yvrain’s miracle firsthand and coming to believe in the Ynnari faith. Synistrid was interested in both their necromantic practices and the possibility of a future for the Aeldari. When the backlash against the Ynnari began, Synsitrid revealed the existence of the Crone Shard: a planetoid body hidden within the Webway at a crossroads between Realspace and the Eye of Terror, where Synistrid had built catacombs for performing experiments forbidden in Commorragh. She proposed making Ishtá’s dream a reality and turning the Crone Shard into a subrealm. Ishtá and Nyktas transferred what assets they could and built a new city on its surface, while Synistrid expanded her catacombs, including regeneration tanks and halfborn cloning facilities. With the foundation of her powerbase laid, Ishtá made contact with other Ynnari enclaves and other factions among the Aeldari, the Imperium Nihilus, and the Eye of Terror, turning the Crone Shard into an independent port and a bastion of strength for the Ynnari.

## Synistrid the Cronestalker, Haemonculus of the Eightfold Web

Synistrid was an iconoclastic figure among the Haemonculi, ostracized for her fascination with psychic and warp phenomenon, daemons and chaos mutated tissue, ancient Aeldari artifacts and history, and the Croneworlds. Her frequent raids on Croneworlds earned her the epithet 'Cronestalker'.

To shelter her forbidden research activities, Synistrid maintained a network of research stations in the Webway outside of Commorragh, with the hub being a planetoid the size of a small moon that she named the Crone Shard. She found it while stalking a Croneworld in the Eye of Terror that had been impacted by another celestial body. Its debris field did not match predictions, and her calculations suggested that a large mass of debris had been removed. She determined where it was removed from, and found a previously unknown Webway gate. The missing debris was on the other side, in the form of the Crone Shard. It’s location near Webway gates to the Eye of Terror and the Imperium Nihilus made it an ideal staging ground for her research, and she built extensive catacombs beneath its surface. She later discovered that a Harlequin Shadowseer named Ishylla the Huntress used the Crone Shard as a navigational marker, and they bonded as Ishylla provided her with new insights into the pre-Fall Aeldari.

The necromancy practiced by the Ynnari proved a fascinating subject  for Synistrid, and as a student of Aeldari history, their potential to build a future for the Aeldari was not lost on her. Now that the Crone Shard is a Ynnari stronghold, Synistrid has happily taken up residence in the catacombs beneath the surface. In addition to her prior research, she is currently studying the Ynnari necromancy practiced by Tishriel’s seers; studying Phoenix Lords, especially Jain Zar, hoping that their power can be understood and perhaps replicated; and attempting to study the Crone Swords to learn if they can replicated, or if their associated prophecy could be achieved with only four of the five.

## Nyktas, Hierarch of the Shrine of the Revenant Blade & Archon of the Howling Blade

Nyktas grew close to Ishtá during her time as a Klaivex. When Ishtá told her why she’d left her Craftworld, Nyktas laughed. The notion of wanting to safeguard anything on principle, let alone the future of Commorragh, was absurd to her. The only ambition she held was perfecting her skill with the Klaive and ascending to Hierarch someday. Regardless, she put Ishtá in touch with a haemonculus she knew. If nothing else, the younger Klaivex’s tenacity was endearing.

Sometime after Ishtá left the shrine, Nyktas dueled the Hierarch and claimed his throne, but the satisfaction was followed by an unexpected emptiness. What was left to accomplish? Ishtá provided an unexpected answer when she offered to appoint Nyktas as her viceroy over a subjugated Kabal. For an Incubus Hierarch to hold such a position was unheard of, but allowed Nyktas greater freedom in finding something new to strive for on her own terms. Nyktas rebuilt and restructured the Kabal, reshaping it to her liking and obliterating any preexisting alliances or cultural identity that may have caused trouble.

Seeking further inspiration for herself, Nyktas was in the audience of the Crucibael when Yvraine’s resurrection shocked Commoroght. The miracle that she’d witnessed and the Ynnari vision of vanquishing Slaanesh and building a future for the Aeldari gave Nyktas the purpose she’d been seeking, and she became one of the Ynnead’s faithful. With the establishment of the Crone Shard and the arrival of Tishriel’s Host, Nyktas has taken an interest in exploring her own psychic potential and expanding her martial prowess by studying elements of Jain Zar’s fighting style to incorporate into her own. She has secured both Tishriel’s and Synistrid’s assistance with her psychic ambitions, and has developed a mutually unexpectedly close bond with Tishriel.

## Tishriel Iydoth, High Farseer of the Host of the Flowing Spirits

Tishriel was a senior Farseer of Craftworld Iybraesil, who accompanied the Howling Banshees Host sent into the Eye of Terror to track down the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar and convince her to abandon the Ynnari. All who returned were changed, and Tishriel’s certainty that the Asuryani were right about Jain Zar’s ‘foolish defection’ turned to doubt, and that doubt turned to conviction that the Ynnari truly offered hope of a future to the Aeldari as Jain Zar so passionately believed. She gathered others who shared this conviction and organized a growing Ynnari subculture within Craftworld Iybraesil. The Matriarchy of Craftworld Iybraesil was alarmed by the dissenters and presented an ultimatum: abandon the Ynnari, or be exiled. Tishriel and those who would not abandon their new convictions chose exile.

Tishriel guided her people to where the strands of fate converged to the most hopeful outcome, but the webway’s perils took their toll, and the flotilla they’d been crammed into grew ever more battered and desperate. The hope Tishriel foresaw manifested in an unexpected form as Jain Zar herself came to their aid. The Phoenix Lord had learned of their exile, and felt responsible for the plight that had befallen those disciples who’d heeded her words. She informed Tishriel of a Reborn Drukhari stronghold she’d passed through during her own travels, and gave Tishriel the location of the Crone Shard.

Ishtá, Synistrid, Jain Zar, and Tishriel negotiated for the battered Reborn Asuryani host to settle in the Ynnari enclave. Ishtá was reluctant, Ynnari visitors were welcome, but permanent settlers were not part of the plan, both a potential burden and a potential instability. Jain Zar and Tishriel eventually persuaded Ishtá of the utility that the seers and aspect warriors of the flotilla could offer her coalition, and their utility dealing with Ynnari factions skeptical of Reborn Drukhari. The Iybraesil exiles joined Ishtá's coalition, building an enclave known as the Wraith Spire.

Tishriel is using the relative safety to rebuild her peoples’ fortunes, while working to further develop the Revenant Discipline. She has found unexpected assistance from Synistrid and Nyktas. Synistrid’s scientific study of Ynnari psychic phenomena and pre-Fall Aeldari ruins and artefacts has provided unique insights, and Nyktas’ desire to experiment with the psychic arts herself has provided Tishriel with a protege not biased by preexisting training in a different discipline. During their time working together, Tishriel has formed a mutually unexpected bond with Nyktas.

## Ishylla the Huntress, Shadowseer of the Masque of Soaring Spite

Little is known for certain about the Shadowseer who goes by the name Ishylla the Huntress. She first appeared to Synistrid sometime after she established her hub facility on the Crone Shard, selectively intervening in her affairs, sometimes assisting or altering the course of her raids, sometimes trading artefacts, other times seemingly just appearing to share a tale. Synistrid found the Harlequin amusing, and her recurring visits a good opportunity to collect observations on the Harlequins’ Phantasmancy discipline and insights about the pre-Fall Aeldari, and the two developed a bond. What Synistrid had managed to conclude about her during that time was that Ishylla was interested in the same regions of realspace and the eye of terror that she was, and that she seemed to be using the Crone Shard as a navigational marker of sorts.

Now that Ishta’s coalition has built its stronghold on the Crone Shard’s surface, Ishylla continues to visit with the same unpredictability. Sometimes offering assistance, sometimes nudging the course of events around the Coalition to varied outcomes, sometimes making requests of assistance in exchange for due compensation, sometimes trading artefacts, sometimes offering advice, sometimes arriving only to perform for the Shard’s inhabitants or thrill the crowd in the Cult’s arena. The precise endgame of her interventions, as well as what exactly the Huntress hunts, remain shrouded in mystery. Even Tishriel struggles to foresee what future Ishylla is trying to make manifest. What is known is that she seems to have an interest in stymying the fortunes of Chaos daemons, especially those serving Slaanesh, and collecting Aeldari artefacts of varying descriptions; that she’s intimated that accommodating her inconveniences is keeping a genuine threat off the Crone Shard’s back; and that so far, the benefits of dealing with her have outweighed the costs.

## Notable Battles

The Crone Shard has concluded the Hunt for the Diadem of Morai-Heg