Sirens

The Sirens are one of the most widespread of the known peoples of Avernus, being found in oceans all across the known world. They are an all-female race, who reproduce asexually, and who possess the upper bodies of beautiful Eldar women and the lower bodies of fish. They are divided into three distinct castes: the Sirens, the Siren Ladies, and the Siren Queens. The Sirens were once united in the ancient Empire of Varjinash, which was the dominant power among the peoples of Avernus for several million years before being destroyed by the Transcendent Threnody Dragon Alyrasin, as punishment for a long forgotten crime. Since then the Sirens have split into eight different Queendoms, each of which has its own distinct culture and specialties, with some of them having evolved into their own sub-species.

## Physiology

Sirens have the upper body of a beautiful Eldar woman and the lower body of a fish, and are capable of slithering on the ground or swimming with a great deal of agility and speed. They are fully amphibious, being able to breath both in air and when underwater, and are surprisingly tough for their looks, being able to withstand a great deal of pressure. All Sirens are unaffected by the ravages of age and are capable of asexual reproduction. As well as conventional food all Sirens need to eat souls in order to maintain their psychic ability, and while the souls of animals work they are bland to taste.

Sirens are split into three three distinct castes, each of which has severe mental differences. It is possible for all three castes to be born from any Siren, although Sirens of higher castes are far more likely to lay an egg for a higher caste Siren than those of lower castes. Sirens have an instinctual need to obey the orders of those of a higher caste, although the stronger willed Siren Ladies can overcome this.

The most common caste are simply called Sirens, and unlike their kin have no more intelligence then a smart animal. It is estimated that over 99% of all Sirens hatched are in this caste. They are minor psykers that are able to use Siren Song instinctively, but are unable to use any other type of power. Most Sirens are members of the Court of a particular Siren Lady or Queen, and are bound to the will of their mistress. Some, however, are unbound, and are essentially wild animals. These Sirens generally congregate around the edges of the Siren Queendoms, and occasionally major efforts are made to bind them and integrate them into the Queendom.

Siren Ladies are fully sapient and highly intelligent beings, and are far more powerful and flexible psykers than normal Sirens. As well as having a more powerful version of the Siren Song than their lesser sisters, all Siren Ladies are skilled psykers with a range of powers, of which an effective shield is the most common. Siren Ladies range from Epsilon to Gamma levels of power, which when combined with their highly developed psychic tradition makes them some of the better psykers of Avernus. All adult Siren Ladies have a Court ranging from several dozen normal Sirens to several hundred, and can exert a great deal of control over their Court. Siren Ladies make up the vast majority of the Sirens' intelligent population, and are responsible for the majority of the work that goes into keeping the Siren Queendoms running, either directly or through the actions of their Courts.

Siren Queens are the rarest and the most powerful of the Sirens, with it being estimated that only a little over one in a million Sirens are born a Queen. Siren Queens are both highly intelligent by nature and also psykers of incredible power, with even the weakest being Beta-level, and the strongest being Alpha-level. The Queens are the leaders of the Siren peoples, and most Queendoms have under a hundred Queens in total.

## History

The Sirens are one of the three First Born races of Avernus, created in cooperation between it and the Old Ones when the Planet was still very young. This makes them one of the oldest species on Avernus by a very wide margin.

The Sirens were given access to the runes by the Eldar when they discovered Avernus and left behind several potent artefacts out of the trauma of the War in Heaven. These items were emblazoned with True Runes which the Sirens eventually reverse-engineered (a feat which impressed the Lizardmen). The Queendom that accomplished this began to expand eventually forming the Varjinas Empire.

The Varjinash Empire was one of the largest and most successful Avernite civilisations in its long history, resting beneath only the Lizardmen and Guardians in power and added significantly to the World's effective power. However, that strength also brought arrogance and eventually it destroyed itself after committing a vast sin.

Many of their discoveries remain on the seafloor, while each of the 7 (or 8) major queendoms are built from a Varjinashi structure.

## Powers and Technology

### Powers

All Sirens have two innate powers: Siren Song and Soul Devouring. Siren Ladies and Queens are also able to learn how to use other Psychic Powers, with their main disciplines being Runecraft, Telepathy, and Telekinesis, although some Queendoms also have their own specialty. All Siren psykers make a great deal of use of Songweaving, allowing them to easily form Choirs and to use a wider range of powers then most psykers.

Siren Song is a power capable of luring its targets to the caster over large distances with a song. This song is not purely sonic, as it can not be stopped by any purely physical object, and it seems to carry far better than any sound should. The only way yet found to stop someone who has fallen under the sway of a Siren from doing anything possible to reach her is to kill the Siren. Someone under the influence of this power will fight to reach and to protect the caster, though they will not be able to use their full mental capacities in these fights. It is also possible for a skilled user to exert a level of control over their victims, and even to allow them to operate with a greater portion of their minds. Some Sirens can build on this power to permanently tame beasts, or even, according to some dark rumors, actually enslave people.

Soul Devouring is a power that allows the Siren to devour the soul of the victim. Powerful as it is it has several massive restrictions, the main ones being that the Siren needs to kiss the victim to use the power and the victim must be either unable or unwilling to resist it. As such, Soul Devouring is mostly used on either those under the influence of the Siren Song, or who have been mortally wounded, and who for either reason are therefore unable to resist. Soul Devouring can be used on daemons and other immaterial beings, making conflict with Sirens a terrifying concept for many daemons.

Siren Runes are what sets Sirens apart from most of the peoples of Avernus, and are one of the most developed psychic systems known to exist. They are most often used to create powerful psy-active items, ranging in size from small amulets to massive ward systems able to cover entire hives, but can also be used to significantly enhance psychic powers.

While it only takes a few decades of study to learn the basic uses of Siren Runes, a true Runemaster takes centuries to train. Runemasters are those who can use Siren Runes not as Runes to get specific effects, but as an entire language. It is they who can create the incredibly complex enchanted artifacts that are a Sirens specialty, or use entire arrays of runes to unleash effects of incredible precision and power. The greatest of Runemasters are able to reach beyond Siren Runes into the realm of True Runes.

While details of True Runes remain few it is known that each True Rune is capable of incredible feats, being able to alter the very nature of the Warp to an extent. It is the work of a lifetime for even the greatest of Runemasters to learn a single True Rune, and few can push beyond that with Areatha, The Ancient Wanderer currently knowing the most, knowing three.

**Known True Runes**

* True Rune of Purification
* True Rune of Fire
* True Rune of Hope
* True Rune of Water
* True Rune of Darkness
* True Rune of Power

### Technology

Most Sirens have rather simple technology, relying instead on rune-inscribed items to fulfill many of the roles that humans use technology for. In recent years this has changed after the Avernite humans traded the Sirens a great deal of Tau and Quartok technology. So far the Sirens are still learning about technology, and have done little, if any, in the way of their own research and development. Eventually this will change however, and there is already talk about how to combine runes with technology.

## Queendoms

### Azure Bay

The Azure Bay Queendom was the first queendom that humanity encountered, this time at least, and lies in the Azure Bay to the east of Dis. Of the known Siren Queendoms they are the most similar to the old Empire of Varjinash, being one of the few remaining queendoms to still be run by the great noble houses that dominated the empire. Unlike most of the other Queendoms, the Sirens of the Azure Bay still believe that the Sirens are the greatest of the *peoples* of Avernus, and are willing to devour the souls of sapients outside of war. Traditionally the Sirens of the Azure Bay have been known for their mastery of Warding, though recently they are also becoming known for their technological advancement thanks to their interactions with humanity.

You have multiple deals going on the the Azure Bay Sirens, mostly relented to your trading the souls of cultists for runes or help with psyker hunting. You have also set up a system to work together against mutual foes.

* You found that while the Sirens are interested in your providing them with xenotech there is a limit on how much they are willing to buy from you, greatly limiting the amount of credits you can get from that trade.

#### More Infomation

Perhaps the most controversial of the Queendoms, they live the closest to land out of all the Queendoms and cleave closest to the old ways of the late Var’jinash empire. Soul consumption and a general sense of Siren superiority are common traits amongst them.

Their government is entirely monarchical and feudal, albeit with the strongest Siren Princess becoming the overall queen rather than having a strict primogenitor inheritance.

Their history starts with several of the long standing nobility that escaped the destruction of the Var’jinash Empire and fled to what was effectively a resort. Although not exactly defensible, the only nearby Queendom was the Deep Sea Sirens at the time whose might unintentionally protected them during the events that followed.

The Azure Isles are rarely looked upon favourably by anyone. Their fellow Sirens see them as stubborn fools trying to return to a perceived golden age that led to the destruction of their empire, while most other peoples find them abhorrent for their desire to consume souls. While the innate ability to do so is one all Sirens possess it is not a biological necessity. Instead it is an indulgence akin to a delicious meal, but with such consequences to life only the Isles consumes others.

In the past they have been known to try and replicate the “high” (decadent/late period) Var’jinash tradition of raiding others for souls, but seem to forget that they do not have even a fraction of the strength required to make such a raid stick. It is actions like these which mean they are amongst the few Peoples others would happily allow the Animancers to attack, something they have done many times in the past due to their own cultural beliefs.

Their survival for the most part can be attributed to their immensely strong warding, which so far has prevented any from attacking their home city. These wards are strong enough that even Grandmaster Ridcully could not and still cannot breach them, which in consideration of the barriers erected by the Great Gods of Chaos is highly impressive.

Even more so as these are the result of the Isles’ own research into the subject, as their city lacked the infrastructure for a geomantic tap that most other Queendoms save the Turquoise Sea possess.

In the past twenty thousand years the Isles have been undergoing several reforms, a process that is apparently akin to pulling teeth in its difficulty and molasses like in its rapidity. This is unsurprising, given that they are the conservatives amongst a long lived people.

Nevertheless, the start of these reforms can be traced to the Queen Kshanjasadma 20,000 years ago, who rose to power in part through aid of the humans of Helheim, and in her life was able to force through several laws prohibiting how souls could be acquired and so forth. Her other policies did a great deal to reduce the scrutiny upon the Isles, and although long after her death the Queen has received much post-mortem praise for raising Areatha the Ancient Wanderer for a decent part of her childhood.

Subsequent Queens for the most part have built upon Kshanjasadma’s success and although certainly the most regressive Queendom by a large margin, they are essentially seen as coming out of the past, or at least have one foot out of it.

Their current ruler, Queen Azshara, is generally seen as one of their most popular ones yet by both her own people and by those abroad for finding a solution to the issue of Soul Consumption. For now at least.

The practice is so ingrained in their culture that getting rid of it entirely is a fool's errand, but in order to reduce the aggression towards them, it needed to be curtailed. Doing so was causing considerable unrest within the Queendom, with princesses outright forsaking their oaths. Humanity only saw a tiny fraction of this near civil war, as most of the conflict occurred below the waves, but we did encounter one of the actual challengers to the Throne in the nameless princess who had amplified her powers with the Black Crystal Necklace. Had we arrived a century or two earlier it's likely we would have faced a united assault by the Queendom, instead of the confused response we did.

Azshara’s lucky break came with humanity, who possessed a large number of corrupted souls, something no Avernite would protest to being devoured. By the time the offer came Azshara’s support was hanging by a razor’s edge, hence her uncharacteristically generous offerings and free sample as it were in the form of the Rune of Banishment. Human diplomats often wondered why the Sirens would be willing to trade military secrets for essentially luxury goods, but the logic becomes obvious if one knows that it is allowing the Queendom to retain a cultural balance. Azshara in particular has gone from reviled to celebrated domestically.

For now it seems Azshara is trying to push the conception of Soul Consumption more as a duty to rid Avernus of Chaos-tainted souls, similar to how the Cleaners rid it of more normal taint, as opposed to an indulgence that is solely for enjoyment, an argument that appeals quite strongly to the younger generations of Sirens.

Even if most other peoples view her proposition with a great deal more skepticism, the Azure Isles are at last being allowed to reenter the wider world of Avernus’s peoples. With their most negative traits curtailed and Animancers currently quiescent, they have experienced a boom in productivity and wealth. First merely resuming trade and by bringing to the markets of the Searing Sea goods that had been missing for a very long time and are increasingly exchanging technological goods and services as they grow accustomed to their new technological bounty.

Not only that their services as warders are in hot demand as might be expected, being amongst the premaire experts on the matter. While humanity takes up some of this and the Eldar are considering purchasing some kind of “sealing bottle” the Searing Sea, in what most hope to be another example of their shrewd investments, have contracted as many Sirens as possible to go north and reinforce the wardings of the Great Bastion.

#### Known True Runes

True Rune of Warding
True Rune of Purification
True Rune of Night

### Deep Sea

The Deep Sea Queendom was the second Queendom encountered by humanity and lies to the northwest of Duat. Where most siren Queendoms are based in the upper reaches of the Twilight Zone, the Deep Sea Queendom lies deep within the Midnight Zone, kilometers below the surface. These Sirens are significantly more bulky then their cousins, and have a layer of scale on their upper bodies, allowing them to better withstand the massive pressure at this depth. They are a far more militaristic society than the other Queendoms, being built into the upper layer of the caverns. The Deep Sea Sirens are considered to be some of the best weapon and armour smiths on Avernus, creating runed masterpieces which their highly skilled and disciplined warriors use to fend off attackers, often after inflicting significant casualties. Recently they have traded products from their runic forges to humans in exchange for Quartok technology.

* Recently you contacted the Deep Sea Sirens in order to discover what they are willing to offer you in exchange for the Aquatic Xenotech that you have access to. You found that they were willing to teach your Psykers the basics of Runeforging, a technique that their Runemasters use to create Runic items that is far more effective then standard Siren techniques. They do warn you however that Runeforging is an extremely difficult process at it will likely be centuries before your Runemasters can make more then a handful of items.

#### More Infomation

The most dangerous (and insane) Queendom, the Deep Sea Sirens hold the accolade of being one of, if not the only Avernite Peoples to possess a long term settlement within the Caverns.

Only the first level it must be noted, but then again they are within the ocean which amplifies the danger even higher.

The Deep Sea Sirens descend from an ancient and exceptionally stubborn pre Var’jinash Queendom that settled within what would later become known as the Cavern/Deep Sea region in pursuit of the mineral wealth they found down there. When they realised how dangerous it was instead of doing the sensible thing and abandoning the settlement they instead doubled down. Exactly *why* is not clear, but we can likely assume sunk cost fallacy played a very considerable role in it.

Eventually Vaul built them the great volcano forge that is the centerpiece of their city. It is a work of incredible complexity that taps into many disparate properties of the universe taught to the God by the Old Ones including the geomantic web. The gift was meant as recognition of their tenacity\*, but also so they were now trying to protect something more than just their pride.
\*Like most of the Eldar’s gifts, it likely had a secondary purpose of being somewhat therapeutic to the God in question. Like a symbolic casting away of techniques and ideas used in the War in Heaven. The Eldar are theorising that the infinity circuits may be an attempt by Vaul or Hoeth to create an Eldar geomantic web, given the similarities in the generated power, with this forge being the last thing he made that was based on the Old One’s system.

Many years later when Var’jinash was trying to unite the Sirens she failed to convince the prideful Deeps to join her through words, while force of arms was met with silence and armies of her supporter’s corpses bobbing to the surface. Eventually she settled on bribing them with her knowledge of Runes, an agreement to help them understand the forge and various treaties that gave them a far greater degree of independence from the main empire compared to other Queendoms.

It is one of the many reasons they are known as the undefeated Queendom, though in large part this is because few external foes can reach them to begin with.

During the era of Var’Jinash the Deep Seas tended to remain on the side lines, focused primarily on their own works. It is a trope that appears a great deal in the Empire’s own culture, with the Deep Seas usually appearing as insular, gruff barbarians whose role in the story is usually as the ones who craft the heroes weapons or serve as political commentators unrestricted by the necitess of usual empire society.

For their part the Deep Seas remained focused on studying the innumerable cavern creatures they encountered, runes and the art of metallurgy doing their best to ignore the surface as much as possible.

When the empire fell they simply shrugged and adapted as they always have, and for now seems always will.

In terms of individual might, the Deep Sea Sirens are possibly the single most deadly non-guardians on Avernus with an individual warrior or theirs surpassing even a soldier of the Remnant Empire. There are many reasons one can point too, the fact that almost everything they use reaches into the relic level of quality as a result of their rune forging, incredibly well designed training plan that they use to educate their soldiers, or in more recent years gaining access to advanced technology from humanity. None of these are wrong, but they miss the main point, the Deep Sea are so deadly because they have to be. Living at the bottom of the ocean essentially *within* the first layer of the caverns forces them to either thrive or die, with gratuitous casualties accompanying them.
(OOC note: Imagine if our entire civilisation was made of nothing, but people of similar or greater skill level to the First Dis, but with psychic powers and even more experience.)

In Spite of this the Deep Seas find time to still research and improve their own understanding having gained numerous insights although many should be better left forgotten. Runeforging is their signature technique, developed from the study of Vaul’s Forge. It is a technique that incorporates emotion, reagents and time to significantly improve the power and stability of their runeworks, albeit at the cost of taking far longer. However, given the end results can be disproportionately strong compared to other Siren’s conventional techniques it seems it is well worth it.

However, there are many more eldrich insights they’ve learned from studying the cavern creatures around them. Some of these have been translated into runes, but they generally do not speak of what they are or show them to outsiders. We know that one of the few that they are comparatively free with, the rune of luck, is a result of this research as no other Queendom possesses it.

While it is beloved across Avernus for fairly obvious reasons alongside it's *much*rarer counterpart the True Rune of Luck, there are many among the Sirens who look at the Deep Sea’s with greed and hope to take the secrets they hide for their own.

The Eldar report that the Deep Seas are aware of the Incursion and are focusing all their efforts on preparation. They are however, willing to share some of their insights with the Eldar, in exchange for knowledge of their own. Specifically they are asking for some secrets of the black library, in exchange sharing information into the mechanics of their runes, giving eldar artisans access to the Forge of Vaul and creating numerous runic masterworks.

We know only that this includes many runes of luck amongst this number. While they do have equivalents, they possess nothing that can be produced on nearly a similar scale, which given the opposition they are up against means they are more than happy with the price.

#### True Runes Known

True Rune of Luck
True Rune of Hope
True Rune of Power
True Rune of Focus

### Turquoise Sea

The Turquoise Sea Queendom lies in the tropical waters to the south of the Everglades, and unlike the other Queendoms are semi-nomadic. Where the other Siren Queendoms mostly grew out of the scattered remnants of the Empire of Varjinash, the Turquoise Sea Sirens instead grew out of the wild Sirens left after the fall of the Empire, along with a handful of Ladies who kept them alive. While Turquoise Sea Queendom does have a single permanent city the majority of their population lives elsewhere, mostly in mobile towns built onto large tamed beasts, such as kraken. The Turquoise Sea Sirens are considered to be the wildest of the Sirens, living as various tribes of hunters and herders, rather than the ordered civilizations of the other Queendoms. While the Turquoise Sea Sirens are considered to have the least knowledge of Siren Runes of any of the Siren Queendoms, their mastery of the Siren Song has no equals, as does their ability to tame the animals of Avernus with it.

The Turquoise Sea Queendom is willing to sell domesticated sea creatures and that they will trade them for technological goods.

#### More Infomation

The freest of the Queendoms, though some would say they are not a Queendom at all. The Turquoise Sea is descended from escaped Siren slaves.\* Many enslaved sirens used the chaos of the empire’s collapse to escape, fleeing into the wild oceans to protect their new freedom. They were aided in this as many lesser sirens followed them of their own will. Bereft of masters or directions, they simply followed those who had been charged with their care and feeding. The end result was an exodus of millions, who managed to link up safely either by happenstance or the grace of the Wheel, none can say.
\*There were many other species that escaped with the Sirens, many needing their aid to escape the oceans, however they took their leave from them as soon as they reached land.

They eventually “settled” near to the Dragon lands of Tarascon, specifically because of how near to Alyrasin they would be, hoping that the legend of the Dragon would ensure that any slave owners who attempted to “reclaim” their property would be too afraid of the Black Wyrm to try their luck.

Although they occasionally underestimated the desperation of those who had lost everything, as well as the foolishness of the spoiled and deluded, their decision did seem to scare off the majority of pursuers leaving the Turquoise Sea to develop relatively peacefully and start to begin their own wandering culture.

Many years and calamities have passed since those days, but the Turquoise Sea has survived, indeed thrived, in spite of the odds against them, having little to their name in terms of material or storied legacy. What makes it work to a large extent is that they still have a disproportionate population of non-sapient Sirens to sapient Sirens, with courts reaching up to double the size of a regular Queendom’s.

While officially based around the Turquoise Sea, the Queendom’s members are entirely nomadic, traveling on the backs\* of various sea creatures all across the World’s waterways.
One of their favoured steeds are Mighty Terrorpins, massive creatures that are aquatic kin to the Cityback Behemoth. While having similar properties, the Terrorpins generally surlier than their terrestrial cousins, albeit more powerful at a base level. The Turquoise Sea is better able to communicate and tame these immense creatures with their powers and unique amongst all peoples can direct where they go via their songs. While there are not too many of these living cities as might be expected, the ones the Turquoise Sea do have are very potent and well cared for as a norm. Even more so they possess a handful that are utterly monumental and ancient compared to their kin, with staggering populations and power. What powers they are too with their innate ability allowing them to produce their own macro scale runes and add their own song to that of its inhabitants.
\*Or in the mouths, gills, coils, tentacles, beaks and more. The Sirens, it seems, are not terribly picky on this front.

With these advantages it is a fact that few know Avernus’s oceans, rivers and lakes like them, and their services as guides are in hot demand by adventurers, archaeologists, merchants, treasure hunters, and more.

To go along with their nomadic existence is a significant degree of decentralisation. While they do have respected elders who form a sort of pseudo Queenly Council, for the most part the Queendom has no direct ruler. Talking to them as a single body is thus filled with frustrations. However, as many of their people as possible do assemble every decade or so several miles off from the coast of Tarascon for an important festival, which is usually the best time to contact the Queendom as a whole. When combined with their less absent-minded nature and methods of long range communication it's far easier to talk to them than the Ork-Wings.

The Turquoise Sea has probably the weakest understanding of Runes out of all the Queendoms. Considering how their ancestors were slaves and forbidden from learning the art, this is unsurprising, but it has forced them to develop in other areas. Specifically, they have an understanding of the Siren’s Song which is superior to all others, the effects of which are amplified by their large courts.

The effects of their specialization are varied, such as long range communications known as humming whispers that can be picked up by another Siren on the other side of the world as if the other was right next to them, but their greatest achievement is in the taming of the fauna and flora of the sea. The Queendom has some of the greatest variety of monsters anywhere in the World in this regard with some of the antediluvian behemoths they have “befriended” being worth more than any army. In turn their peaceable friendship with so many creatures seems to have opened the Queendom as a whole up to the Primal Warp.

They share a close relationship with that strange realm, and know many secrets behind how to use its strength to empower others. We’ve mostly seen this during the Nurgle Incursion, where the Queendom’s Elders awoke and empowered vast numbers of monsters on the oceanic portion of the Exalted’s journey, something which managed to slow down their march considerably and inflicted staggering amounts of attrition on the rest of Nurgle’s forces.

Unfortunately much of their knowledge cannot be transferred to non sirens and they cannot accept much in the way of technology for risk of losing their connection to the primal, although they are happy to trade with humanity in exchange for luxuries goods and beasts. More recently, something happened to make the Turquoise Sea look to the stars and then to humanity. A representative from the Elders then appeared and asked our ambassador to inquire into giving over what knowledge we have into the primal warp.

When asked to elaborate they said that while the knowledge is not relevant for either them or us, they wished to “experience” who had made it and then potentially they could give *them* aid.

#### True Runes Known

True Rune of Waking
True Rune of Water

### Frigid Ocean

Less is known of the Frigid Ocean Queendom than of the nearer Queendoms. What you do know is that they are one of the northernmost Queendoms and specialise in the use of large Songweaving Choirs, possibly in imitation of their northern neighbors the penguins. Socialy they seem to be rather collectivist.

#### Contact

The Frigid Ocean Queendom is one of the most friendly out outgoing groups of Avernite that you has met so far, and while a Siren Queendom have a major proportion of their population made up from other Peoples of Avernus. They also possess a level of technological development that while patchwork is on part with yours, and includes technology from all of the technologically advanced Peoples of Avernus that you know of, and others that are long gone. While their specialty is mass song-weaving Choirs, they use these choirs to deploy a range of techniques that they have learned from their allies both extinct and not and are the only other group on Avernus that seems to go out of its way to learn technologies and psychic disciplines outside of their own.

#### More Infomation

The first of the Sirens we do not have formalised contact with, the Frigid Seas are by far the most unified of the Queendoms and are considered to be of a unique kind for willingly remaining in the frozen north, helping to act as a bulwark against the forces of chaos.

The Frigid Seas were originally established by the Empire of Var-Jinash not as a separate state, but as a military outpost, acting as a lookout post for incoming incursions. Over time their role was gradually expanded, the fortifications widening and growing more sophisticated until the Empire went all in, investing vast resources into creating a literal shield wall around the polar cap. To help funnel the daemons, four great gates were created, each marked with True Runes of Unbreaking, while the walls themselves were carved with the True Rune of Banishment. When powered the runes created a barrier only the strongest daemons could cross without being brutally severed from reality, leaving the gates as the only viable exit, each requiring the deployment of an exalted to break down. This was the Great Bastion, one of the most impressive masterworks of the ancient Empire.

It did not do much to stop the daemons, but it did a great deal to slow them down, something that was appreciated by the Polar Guardians, who in effect deputised the Sirens to act as an additional line of defence and in return taught them secrets of choirs and unity.

The problem with such a vast mega project was that it required considerable resources and siren power to run, and as the empire gradually fell into disrepair and hedonism those resources stopped flowing. Soon enough the dedicated souls at the barrier, who already represented a considerable population, grew frustrated with the Empire’s refusal to continue supplying the wall and began to act on their own, protecting Avernite Peoples in exchange for the materials needed to keep the wall operational, dejur signaling their independence from the Empire. When Alyrasin destroyed the empire it simply made their independence de jure as well as de facto, and at the time the Frigid Seas were likely the Strongest Queendom by a considerable margin.

Then came the Grand Incursion of Chaos Undivided.

Never before had the Pole taken such an assault, as dozens of exalted under the command of Be’lakor marched on Avernus, crushing their way through the Penguins and tearing down the once impenetrable barrier of the wall. The gates were crushed beneath the feet of Bloodthirsters, Unclean Ones devoured Sirens in their millions and Lords of Change laughed as they worked to mutate banishment into calling, bringing yet more daemons into reality.

Only one gate and one section of wall survived the carnage, and it was weakened beyond imagining. The Sirens barely survived and were forced to rely on the charity of others. Indeed most queendoms offered them succor with them, and would have gladly welcomed such heroes amongst them. None would have blamed them for asking to be released from their secondment to the Penguins. Nevertheless, pride and hatred overcame sense as the Frigid Sea refused all. They had sworn to stand at the pole and guard the rest of Avernus alongside the Penguins even unto the end, and they would not shirk that duty.

For the past 30 million years they have remained and focused all their efforts on rebuilding what was lost, a patchwork effort that is set back everytime a new incursion comes and they throw themselves into the fray. One made even more difficult by not being guardians and so lacking the support of the World directly...but not indirectly.

Whatever the opinions a People may have on the Sirens as a whole, the Frigid Sea are liked by all. Although many have claimed aspirations in the past of doing what they have, few have ever had the commitment to do it and then remain when the going became tough. As such most Peoples who are able send resources and expertise to aid the Frigid Seas in their task. What form this takes the Frozen Sirens do not seem to care much, and it is as varied as can be imagined. Living souls in the form of criminals to die in the next war and earn some redemption, new weapons and technologies, literal materials to aid in rebuilding the wall, even just food. It matters not to the Frigid Seas, who greet all donations with the same stoic grace.

In spite of this some of Avernus’s older groups, headed by the Searing Seas have a complex system of convoys set up to bring a steady flow of resources to the great bastion, with some species being far more enthusiastic donors than others. The Khoswe for instance have volunteered entire warrens to transplant themselves into the north to fight and die at the Sirens side. Humanity is presently excluded from these convoys, firstly due to our lack of chaos resistance, second our xenophobia and third our connection to Tjapa. If we meet them though it is likely others will press us to make donations to them, with the eldar advising we do so as well. As investments go in their eyes it is a surprisingly good one.\*
\*The only species that did not do this until recently was the Termites, for obvious reasons.

Their most important doner is the Remnant Kingdom, who have a long relationship with the Frigid Sea. The Trolls have long appreciated the Sirens acting as another line of defence and while they aid the Penguins as much as they are able, the Trolls have been assisting with the Frigid’s most ambitious project, the complete restoration of the Great Bastion. Of course being unable to assist in the restoration of the Runes, the Trolls instead provided the high quality materials needed to rebuild miles upon miles of wall and geomantic taps to power the runes whenever a runesmith learned the True Runes needed. Although it has taken millions of years of effort, with continual setbacks they are nearing their goal at last. The last few incursions have done little to attack the Frigid Seas, being omni focused on other goals\*, in the midst of this the bastion rises once more. Soon it shall be completed, even stronger than it was before, wrought of Trollish alloys, renewed with improved runes and covered in defences donated from all the Peoples.
\*In addition the most recent incursion seems to have let Avernus itself provide some support itself. Numerous, large deposits of essential and usually extremely rare materials emerged exactly where they were needed, while several new arcane fulcrums were awakened close to the bastion, aligned exactly to support and reinforce the wall.

The Siren’s themselves are a stoic lot, uninterested with social niceties or indeed most things that are not directed towards their goal. While they are supposed to have a rich culture, it is rare for outsiders to see it, although we have heard it involves numerous “rituals of kinship” and “demonstrations of unity.” These Sirens certainly are most hostile to the memory of the Var’jinash empire, or at least what it became, blaming them for the immense destruction inflicted upon them in the grand incursion and bitterly lamenting the end of Avernus’s promised Golden Age.

To outsiders they remain equally distant, generally only interested in as far as they help them maintain the Bastion and fight chaos, which remains their other key interest. So far the Eldar say they have yet to encounter a People with such an intense hatred of Chaos, the Sea’s burning even colder than the Animancers. However, the Eldar mention that their attitude melts slightly when interacting with the Penguins. It seems there are always at least a few of the diminutive polar guardians within around the Bastion, usually representatives of the six kingdoms, coordinating with the Sirens. Around them the Sirens tend to relax slightly and become somewhat more open, while the Penguins seem to enjoy their company in turn albeit in a somewhat mournful manner.

In terms of power the Frigid Seas are not the most powerful individually of the Sirens, nor possess the greatest mastery of runes. Instead they seem to try and emulate the Penguins and their teachings. Their choirs are massive and highly skilled, with one of their more complex techniques being a sort of “divested” choire. East of two princesses combining their court for example, they have figured out a means for each princess to take in the full power of their court *then* form a choire. The end result still cannot grow too large, but it can still give them more cumulative power than an honoured.

They combine this with a great understanding of how best to use the Geomantic web, which they have retained fairly consistent access to and some of the most potent anti daemon techniques known in the galaxy. As an example, one of their most terrifying is a macroscale example of their soul sucking technique, an ability that seems to have been originally designed to bring true death to warp entities. Finally they are known to have one maybe two Sirens capable of creating the True Runes of Banishment and Unbreaking who are working on restoring the final gate and stretch of wall. Given the importance of their current assignments both are kept under constant guard and cannot be distracted from their tasks.

Given their location, the Eldar have already made some donations of material to them. It is not particularly onerous to them, especially as they have tapped into preexisting Avernite routes to do it. However, their interest extends into other areas, from obtaining anti-chaos techniques, to ensuring that they can make use of the bastion come the incursion. Knowing that this incursion is liable to be even stronger than the one that nearly destroyed them all those years ago, the sirens have already accepted their offer of aid.

#### True Runes Known

True Rune of Banishment
True Rune of Fire
True Rune of Ice
True Rune of Unbreaking

### Searing Sea

Less is known of the Searing Sea Queendom than of the nearer Queendoms. What you do know is that they are live in tropical waters and seem to be more mercantile by nature then the other Sirens. The Searing Sea Queendom specialise in enchanting items with Runecraft, being skilled at adding conceptual, exotic, and esoteric effects to items.

#### More Infomation

Probably the Strongest of the current Queendoms, the Searing Seas have remained strong on a history of adaptation and continual foresight.

They are an Old Queendom, whose existence predates the Var’Jinash empire. Founded on on the equator, near to the strange oceanic “trench?” where the World Serpent spends its time asleep their Queendom is odd in that it is semi-above water. The area around them is remarkably volcanic, leading to the hot waters for which their Sea is known and numerous islands onto which the Queendom built. It is known in this time they worshipped the World Serpent as a deity of some kind, and focused on understanding it and the Geomantic Web, but this is so long ago that most details are entirely lost.

When Var’Jinash began her unification of the Sirens the Searing Seas did not fight and instead accepted the Empress with open arms. In their words they were uninterested in fighting and instead coveted the knowledge of runes Var’Jinash possessed and for their loyalty were rewarded greatly in this regard.

On this note it is difficult to say that the Searing Sea’s were “loyal” as much as they were pragmatic, but they certainly stuck with Empire loyally for millions of years. In this time, the Searing Isles (as they later became known) started to become a centre of commerce upon Avernus, as more peoples started to come into existence. The Searing Seas saw this as an opportunity and used their knowledge of Avernus’s treacherous oceanic pathways to guide ships, becoming a safe harbour situated in between both hemispheres of the world. Initially starting as just a haven the Searing Seas soon expanded their businesses into trading of their own, various intellectual services, banking, mercenary work and ship building. Before long most goods and currency that passed around Avernus in some way seemed to pass through them, and dozens of species can say they have in effect a second home in the Searing Isles.

It was during this period of prosperity that the Searing Isles earned its greatest hero, the legendary smith Sav’Athenas. Perhaps in a mirror of the Searing Isles old relationship with the World Serpent, Sav’Athenas was known to have some kind of kinship to the Great One. She combined it with her remarkable clarity of purpose, desire for knowledge and insight into her own works to make some of Avernus’s most potent and coveted artefacts. Three stand out as her masterworks, but shall be spoken on later, however the memory of her actions remains a considerable influence on the culture and attitude of the Searing Seas.

The Seas are not infallible. As the Empire gradually fell into decay the Searing Seas were some of the most energetic members of the soul trade, with billions of Avernites passing through their port walls to satisfy the appetites of nobles domestic and abroad. None are exactly sure *what* prompted them to suddenly discontinue the soul trade entirely and black list any who participated, save it had to do with the World Serpent. The Ancient One’s comment was only that it made itself clear on its views, which given the power of that Great One is a rather ominous way of putting it.

When Var’Jinash fell, the Searing Sea managed to ride the destruction well enough. Trade was disrupted for generations, what with the empire gone and so many peoples utterly savaged meaning that source of wealth was almost entirely gone. However, the Sirens simply turned to other means of sustaining themselves, investigating new techniques while simultaneously working to restore Avernus’s trade nexus. Given that they were remarkably lacking in competition due to the incursion, it is likely they’re even stronger now than they were before in that regard.

The Searing Seas take advantage of their wealth, resources and access to so many of Avernus’s ideas to accumulate these ideas themselves. While possessing their own specialities, they have earned a vast number of assorted resources and techniques bought from other Peoples and are willing to share them with others, for the right price. Furthermore they are willing to deal with just about any People in order to get what they are interested in, including groups like the Seekers of the Truth, who they are a noted sponsor of.

The Searing Sea are also the only people that know of a semi stable route to the invisible continent in the materium. To clarify there *are* other routes, indeed the Searing Sea has a bounty for any new ones that can be located and are willing to pay princely sums to anyone insane enough to explore them, but for now they have the only one where the chance of survival is above 50%. When questioned on this, Vlad said at least when he was there, this was not an example of merchants trying to maintain their monopoly and putting out stories of an uncrossable sea. He says this because he “successfully” navigated a proposed alternate route, was given the best of everything that could be provided by Helheim and the Sirens, a crack team and even had HWWO able to help him as he was on holiday. Even then Vlad was still the only survivor of the expedition by a hair’s breadth.

Those that live on the forbidden continent can enter and leave without too much difficulty themselves, but again in Vlad’s words “they are kind of insane.”

Regardless for now the Searing Sea remains the sole importer and exporter of many of the continent’s mysteries, which fetch sometimes outrageous prices on the open market.

An example is Séance Poppies, flowers which when used in certain rituals supposedly call the spirits of the dead to speak with the living. There are debates as to whether they are the actual deceased, but they have been proven to speak accurately on topics the person would have had knowledge on. Perhaps more tellingly the Poppies cannot bring anyone whose soul has been truly destroyed, giving more evidence that they are rather literal.

The Searing Sea may be more than happy to purchase powers from others, but they have also developed their own knowledge nonetheless. In particular they have taken the knowledge, Var’Jinash gave them into true runes and continued to try and understand them. At a base level this let them produce more Sirens capable of wielding true runes at the cost of a less broad library of normal runes, which they simply bought from others. However, Sav’Athenas managed to complete their insights into the prototypical form of Enchantment. Far more conceptual and narrative compared to “traditional” rune work, it is more complex and potent than normal runes and able to produce very different effects; it is also more accessible than True Runes, which the Searing Sea takes great advantage of.

#### True Runes Known

True Rune of Focus
True Rune of Stories
True Rune of Might
True Rune of Courage
True Rune of Sunlight

### Ethereal Sky

Less is known of the Ethereal Sky Queendom then of the nearer Queendoms, with you not even knowing where they are based. The Ethereal Sky Sirens are rather aloof, refusing to talk much to anyone who has not found their home. Their specialisation appears to be general psychic powers.

#### More Information

Among the most knowledgeable of the Queendoms, the Ethereal Seas are one of the two “hiding” Queendoms, as they and the seventh are noted for refusing outsiders. The Deep Sea Sirens are excluded from this paradigm as they are rightfully paranoid, but will not refuse visitors. Instead they are not usually communicated with much due to the sheer difficulty of reaching them in the first place.

The Queendom traces their origins back to disparate and not exactly unified nomadic mystics and sorcerers that traveled the world before the establishment of the Empire. Travelling across the primordial World and learning from the wildlife and Peoples they encountered.\* When Var’Jinash began her unification and conquest these wanderers met together and after much arguing opted to bind themselves to the empire in hopes of sharing in the knowledge of Runes and gaining access to unique magicks of various Queendoms.
\*As Vlad or Areatha would be the first to note, doing so is not a very original trope on Avernus.

Though they would not found a Queendom of their own for a long time, they did become an indispensable means of communication and shared links between the various bodies of the Empire and made themselves the founders of many of its most prestigious educational bodies. During this time one of their members would discover the Seeker and lead to the formation of what would eventually become the modern day Church of the Seeker.

Eventually they founded their own Queendom during the Empire’s high period and had sufficient resources that they were able to afford the best of everything in the process, creating one part hyper secure laboratory and one part moving art piece. Academics from across the Empire came there as a safe haven and within its walls numerous advancements were made into the Sirens fundamental understanding of the warp.

As the Empire gradually slid into its low period the Ethereal Sea was spared from the destruction primarily due to the Siren’s own overconfidence.

An experiment they were quite confident in went wrong and proceeded to banish the entire city somewhere else, causing widespread panic within the Empire itself and large amounts of damage to the city. Missing a connection to the geomantic web the Taps that powered the cities defences failed and “strange creatures” that they called the worms began to flood in to devour them.

To the Ethereal Sea it was a race against time to return themselves somewhere normal(ish) before they were devoured and against all odds they did succeed, many many years out of time.

When they reappeared they “crashed” after the destruction of Var’Jinash, the resurgence of Chaos, the death of Alyrasin and the end of the golden age, before promptly vanishing again.

Since then they’ve remained steadfastly isolationist, allowing visitors to their city only if they can pass a series of tests to find it. The Eldar say it would do us no good to describe those tests or where the city is, but did confirm that they were able to meet the Siren’s standards with little difficulty.

The Ethereal Sea’s primary goal is the advancement of knowledge, but critically not just the art of runecraft. While it is sometimes forgotten Sirens do possess great faculty for most forms of conventional psykery, save for pyromancy. While the Ethereal Sea is very skilled in runecraft, especially compared to say the Turquoise Sea, their primary focus remains “magic” and “spells.”

It is a rather unique method of conceptualising their powers, but one that seems to grant their population a very high degree of control compared to normal and makes them very easy to learn at least at the low levels. Furthermore these spells are universally applicable as long as a psyker is capable of performing that particular sort of technique.

What is interesting (and apparently somewhat derived from principals in runecraft) is the arbitrary nature of some of their spells. A simple spell called magic missiles, launches bolts of force that conceptually are incapable of missing. They can be blocked and are not necessarily extremely damaging, but pretty much any general can appreciate the utility of an attack which will always strike its target.

Their strongest wizards are apparently capable of far grander feats of strength, from pulling down meteor storms, flatly disintegrating an enemy with a glare or simply uttering a word that kills enemies below a certain level of strength. There are even stronger ones, but none of their current archmagi are capable of actualising them.

Their most revered technique is a method of simply warping reality where in the wants of the caster actualise. It is by far their most complex technique and is apparently rather inefficient in most areas, taking a great deal of effort to cast, but having relatively small results. However, it is a cultural capstone as learning it demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of magic sufficient to denote someone an Archmage, while simultaneously acting as a research gateway. If it can be refined then who knows what its upper limits might be?

When asked how they learned it though the Ethereal Sea is remarkably quiet. The story goes that their Queen when they were lost in that unknown dimension had it come to her in a dream, taught the version they currently have before sacrificing her own life to wish them back to reality. For fairly obvious reasons most Sirens assume this knowledge came from the Wish-Maker of Avernus, with the Great One being extremely well worshipped within their personal faith alongside the Eldar god Hoeth.

Supposedly they’ve many more techniques and secrets hidden within their libraries, but these are what they commonly reveal to the world, and are what is being taught at this very moment. According to them the Ethereal Sea quite suddenly emerged from being quite so isolationist around two thousand years ago, creating an academy of magic on the continent over from us. Since then new institutions have been established all the way to the Searing Seas.

Apparently the reason that there has been no academy built amongst the peoples we are familiar with is a lack of one the Siren’s find proper. The Turquoise Sea are too dispersed, the Azure Isles too “barbaric”, the Deep Seas too dangerous, the Remnant Kingdom doesn’t need them and so on. However that may change soon as Lulana reports that the Ethereal Sea was in negotiation with the Nynye to build their newest academy with them. While negotiations have stalled due to the recent incursion it seems the Sirens do not consider the hit they have taken a sufficient reason to drop talks. While she would normally be very cautious with the Remnant Kingdom watching over their shoulders for any hint of foul play and the Ethereal Sea’s general offer not changing much (an open hand towards helping the Nynye rebuild their alkhestrical knowledge, and investigating its similarities it with the Siren’s known knowledge of “alchemy”) she thinks the business will be finalised soon.

The cause of this sudden and fairly minor opening up, seems to have been the result of a rebellious mage who wished to share their knowledge with more of Avernus and went against the majority of the Queendom’s desires with her students. Finding that it was successful the Majoral council voted narrowly to continue the venture and has expressed its satisfaction so far.

With knowledge of the Incursion it seems the Ethereal Sea has stepped up its research into various dangerous areas, but is accordingly making it a priority to spread a basic understanding of many of their techniques due to their proven effectiveness.

#### True Runes Known

True Rune of Magic

True Rune of Knowledge

True Rune of Balance

True Rune of Control

### Indigo Sea (no contact)

You know that the seventh Siren Queendom is called the Indigo, or Faithful Sea Queendom but know nothing of them.

#### More Infomation

The final Queendom, one that is even more isolated than the Ethereal Sea and that draws relatively routine astoundment from the elder races.

The Faithful Sea traces its origins to when the Eldar first came to Avernus, when it seemed as if the aggression of the newborn Khorne and Confusion would destroy the world. Saving the planet from their wroth the Eldar remained in contact with Avernus for a long time, seeming to use it and those on it as an emotional crutch after a fashion. The Sirens they were particularly interested in and gave them numerous wonders such as the forge Vaul built for the Deep Sea sirens.

However, the majority of these items were weapons.

The Eldar and their gods in this time were so utterly traumatised by the War in Heaven, with its embers still glowing hot that they cast away many of the instruments they had used which reminded them of those times. Some they kept like Asuryan’s Spear, but for the most part the wargear of the Eldar’s Gods held little resemblance to what they had used during that cataclysmic conflict.

Indeed Isha confirmed part of the reason the True Runes had fallen out of fashion and Vaul dedicated so much of his time to creating a new system was in no small part because they wanted to have as few reminders of that time as possible.

Whatever the case the Eldar and their Gods used Avernus almost akin to a doting older sibling or uncle who wanted to be rid of their old toys, handing over items of galaxy shaking potency, many of which not even be used *because* they were too powerful. However, in the process the Eldar likely changed history, for from these items Var’Jinash would reverse engineer the True Runes and from them develop the modern siren rune system, saving that old one made system from being entirely forgotten.

However, the Eldar could not simply give such gifts without leaving a mark of their own and many Siren’s began to worship them, the most fervent being those who would eventually form the Queendom of the Faithful Sea.

Isha describes the reaction of the pantheon as more amused than anything and onto their city they bestowed immense blessings. At the time as they were utterly supreme it was considered a minor thing, but with the benefit of hindsight Isha admits cumulatively they probably imbued the city with enough power to form a moderate to major warp storm.

This queendom became *the* Holy City not just for the Sirens, but indeed for all of Avernus. Pilgrims would come from across the entire world to bask in its radiance, pray at its shrines and find blessings and balance. The Siren natives in turn searched for new gods, creating a hybrid faith in the Eldar’s Gods, the Great Ones and the Old Ones learned of at the feet of the Lizardmen. In turn they also focused on matters of the spiritual, prayer and meditation being the cornerstone of the city.

The Ancient One, himself a worshiped being within the city, says that one moment in particular sticks in his memory. It was after an incursion, dawn was rising and he was returning to Itza to recuperate. However he stopped hearing the sound of singing over the horizon, and following the sound he came across the city bathed in the light of the ascending star. All within, pilgrim and resident, clergy and laity sang as one as they organised to go out and find all that they could heal. He says he cannot put their song into words, save that it made him feel...vindicated. To him it remains one of the most beautiful experiences he has had upon Avernus.

When Var’Jinash began her unification there was never even a thought of assaulting the city, not only was it a foolhardy act given its defences, but it would have been heresy to all Var’Jinash included. Instead she offered them protection against the deprivities of Chaos and a place within her inner council, which the city accepted with some hesitation. Although uncertain of the conqueror, they eventually crowned her Empress and did so for every Empress after her.

For most of the Empire’s history they remained preeminent amongst the Queendoms, until the decay of the Empire set in. Unlike most who were content to simply sit by the priestess queens spoke out against the soul trade and suffered numerous sanctions because of this defiance.

Eventually this came to a head under the final Empress Razka’jakar, who had accepted the crown under the cloud of a mysterious death amongst the Priestess’s upper hierarchy. Although none know the exact nature of her sin, it is know she demanded an artefact from the sacred reliquary and when she was refused declared that the Holy City would burn.

Her followers were countless and armed with the greatest weapons of the Empire, and where Var’Jinash millions of years ago could not hope to breach the walls, so many eons later Razka’jakar could.

It was in this time that the great miracle of Saint Ikya, who tore reality asunder with her power, hiding the city away from the covetous Empress, martyring herself in the act.

Although the city was safe, it has never reappeared and the inhabitants spurn their kin, the Searing Sea in particular. They make occasionally contact with the Deep Sea Sirens due the Forge of Vaul, but aside from this there are only rumours of their activities.

The eldar only knew of them due to their continued fervent worship of their Pantheon, with Ceogorath and Isha both sensing their faith. However, they did not know *where* it was originating from. Eventually their rangers were met by representatives of the Queendom and taken to the City.

To hear them describe it to walk in a place so blessed by their Gods is utterly overwhelming, especially considering that many of the gods that put themselves into the city are now entirely dead and their temples lost to the eldar’s folly. This may be the only remaining spark of their power left, something the eldar truly cherish.

What they found was a city that remains dedicated to the same faith as before, albeit now with a more insular focus on protecting the relics and replicating their great miracles. This is partially practical, as they have no idea where they are. Nobody does. They barely understand how they enter and leave it as it stands, and that anonymity protects them from those that seek their relics and the city.

Chaos is first amongst them, as if a god were to devour it, they would gain vast amounts of power from the ancient blessings.

Interestingly the Eldar found that there is considerable worship being directed towards Isha, and has been ever since she was captured. Although uninformed of *what* had happened to her, they recognised something had and so prayed fanatically to her to try and help in some fashion. Through a similar method they recognised that she was free and healing Kurnous as his relics “sang with joy” shortly after they were reunited.

Isha is reportedly unsure how to react to a people not of the Eldar that remained more faithful to her and her fellows than the Eldar themselves in some ways. Cegorach apparently finds it hilarious.

With more information on what happened to the Eldar the Sirens are reorganising their pantheon, creating new holy days and adding the additions of Ynnead and the Phoenix Avatars. They’re apparently voracious theologians and students according to the priests the Eldar have managed to send and are just as enthusiastic for speaking of their own syncretic faith.

Key to this is ritual meditation and focusing that is key to their most powerful technique.

As humanity can attest, carving a Siren Rune into the body is impossible. The end result is always disturbing and fatal, as the rune draws on the power of the soul, destroying it for fuel *and* activating. It can be as simple as the rune of fire, which burns the soul while setting the body on fire, or the rune of banishment which tears the soul for a second before expelling it from the body. Either way the effects are endless and horrific.

The Faithful Sea, through intense faith and concentration upon a concept have learned to carve runes into their very souls. The effect is pronounced. Sometimes it is physical, such as rune of fire giving immunity to heat and the ability to make their bodies burst into flames, other times it is akin to attunement, granting an immense capacity for pyromancy.

Carving these runes is an immensely personal and dangerous process, but to have gone even further and truly astounded the Lizardmen is a trio of Saints who successfully carved a True Rune into their souls.

To their knowledge, only the Old Ones themselves could have possibly achieved such a feat, and to have succeeded not once but thrice even over the course of thirty million years is absurd. Of those three two have died attempting to replicate their achievement.

While the Lizardmen will not speak on what the exact implications of branding a true rune into one’s soul is, the idea as the Eldar understand it is that it transforms the barer into an incarnate of the rune’s concept, almost as literally as can be imagined.

The first as already mentioned was Saint Ikya, who carved her soul with the True Rune of Power and was able to single handedly hold back the entire might of the Var’Jinash empire for a time, before splitting existence and hiding the city.

The second was Saint Optalat, imbued with the True Rune of Truth, whose insights into the nature of reality and the warp shall echo on for eternity. With her vision the Sirens have made more progress into understanding the process of creating Gods than seemingly any since the Old Ones and are scraping at concepts far beyond their understanding.

Finally Saint Dhrasa, tattooed with the True Rune of Life.\* A font of eternal virdance and by whose decree turned what was before a dank watery tomb into a garden of eternal vitality, ensuring that the people of the city would not wish for decay or want.

It has been six thousand years since Saint Dhrasa died in her efforts to imbue a new Siren with a True Rune. However, between the insights of Optalat and Dhrasa the Holy City is confident that another will be born shortly. Each time they have been successful the time between subsequent Miracles has been lessened and although they have accepted that understanding fully what is going on the process is a matter known only to the Gods, they know enough to have faith.

The eldar have been permitted to examine the bodies of the Miracles and their report is similarly astounded and somewhat afraid. Each of the Sirens displays a connection to their runic concept that is palpable. Saint Ikya especially could not be properly investigated as her corpse is saturated with so much energy that even attempting to come close disintegrates the soul. Questions to their gods are met with no answers, as only Vaul himself was taught the mechanisms behind the True Runes, while the tomes of the Black Library are similarly silent.

\*It has been considered that Isha with her connection to life and healing might be able to resurrect Saint Dhrasa. Given that in life Dhrasa was the prime priestess of Isha there are certainly numerous connections, but the question is fraught with uncertainty, such as whether there is even a soul there to be resurrected.

(OOC note: For context this is essentially taking a paragon level technique and jamming it into your soul when you are already at the very least a paragon yourself. Its kinda nuts.)

Moving onto the current moment the Holy Sea have pledged to aid the Eldar as best they can, although they fear there is little they can do directly. For the moment their simplest move has been to refocus their faith predominantly onto the currently active Eldar God’s with Isha and Ceogorach receiving an even larger share than before. Given that Sirens are a very psycically powerful species this is not an inconsiderable amount of strength especially to the Laughing One whose reserves are infamously low.

The other is the opening of their reliquaries and returning to the Eldar many of the War in Heaven weapons that were once given to them.

To those that remember the war in heaven this is a mournful occasion for they have no fond memories of these items. Ceogorach in particular naming one object given to him as a “hateful thing.” Nevertheless, with doom on the horizon the old gods have taken these ancient weapons up once again with no complaint. Isha especially has benefitted, as she has reclaimed her healer’s kit, an item she once threw aside in disgust, haunted by the memory of those who had died during the war. Despite that it is one of the most potent artefacts of restoration that exists in the galaxy, baring the true rune of healing and fashioned by the hands of the Old Ones and with her speed in restoring Kurnous has accelerated drastically.

The younger gods, Ynnead, the Child and the Phoenix Avatars have fewer compunctions. Each of the Avatars have selected an artefact once wielded by a now dead god of the Eldar, one that seems to resonate with the concepts that they embody. The Child by contrast took in a great disease created by the long obliterated god of disease who was kin to Lord Ellinill, the Eldar God of Destruction.

However, Ynnead is far more complex as she is not merely a new god, but the reincarnation of Asuryan. Thus the artefacts left by the Phoenix Lord changed and crumbled to ashes in her presence, adapting to new aspects of their old yet young mistress.

Strangely Eldrad Ulthran has also taken something, but will speak of it not.

Even after this emptying of their stores the Sirens still retain many artefacts associated with the other gods of the Eldar, and there are yet more upon Avernus, representing the sheer scale of the Eldar’s divestment. In hindsight Isha admits they were being extremely foolish. Many of these are hidden away by various groups who will not easily relinquish them, but they are confident they can do it. However the greatest accumulation of these artefacts was lost with the capital of the Empire in long sunken Var’Jinash.

The Holy Sea has launched pilgrimages and crusades to try and recover these items to mixed success. Alyrasin’s wrath has driven the city down to the depths, the penultimate level of the Caverns, and so lost as they are in that umbral mist they are unsure if they shall ever reclaim them. The Ancient One is known to have taken back two, the star of Isha and the Baton of Ceogorach, but there are many more, safe but unusable.

However the Holy Sea is otherwise unsure of the next path they should take. Some of their high priestesses say they should go forth and convert to aid the Eldar’s gods, others that they should focus upon bringing forth a new miraculous saint in time for the Incursion. The eldar are known to be assisting them in this latter affair in what small ways they can, but for their part the mere existence of this temple city is a great boon to their morale.

As a species designed to work with gods, so many of which are now entirely dead to the Yinnari standing in this place is rapturous. It is the closest they can come to experiencing what it was like to live as an Eldar before the fall and Asuryan’s edict divided the Eldar from their gods, and though a pale shadow of what it once was, it is still much more than they had before.

However, two choices now lay before them. The first is obvious with the new gods of the eldar wishing to contribute to the blessing in some small way. The second far darker and unconsidered, but now desperation and necessity can drive many choices that would once be inconcievable.

#### True Runes Known

True Rune of Power
True Rune of Life
True Rune of Truth
True Rune of Healing

### The Eight Queendom

One of Avernus’s eternal mysteries, but either there *is* an eighth queendom that is simply better at concealing itself than can be believed, or it is one of the most potent memetic effects on record, albeit currently a benign one.

As simply as anyone can tell there is no Eighth Queendom, no records, no history, no rumours, legends nothing...yet everyone knows there is one. Unless they focus and think the automatic response of anyone informed of the Siren Queendoms is always that there are eight of them not seven.

The Eldar have tested this, asking the Primarch Vulkan who absentmindedly responded that there were eight, within his forge in Mount Deathfire and only when corrected did he respond seven. That alone should demonstrate the scale of this...either deception or conspiracy. Nobody can tell.

While it is being chalked up as one of Avernus’s many mysteries recently a theory began to circulate amongst the staff of Avernus’s Caver liaison division, apparently inspired by the drunken ramblings of a particularly temporally displaced Caver. Specifically that they “remembered seeing some strange fish ladies waaaaaay after they ended up here and now.”

The rest of the transcript is mostly slurred and confused, but it did spark the idea that perhaps the reason the Eighth Queendom does not exist is related to time. Between the time twisted plains and the caverns Avernus certainly does not want for temporal anomalies, even before considering the potential implications of a True Rune of Time.

Thus the theory goes that the reason everyone knows the Eighth Queendom exists is the result of a temporal mistake. Perhaps they were obliterated from the time stream, or trapped themselves outside of it like ghosts. Maybe they are time travellers and just can’t find their way back to their then and now.

For now it is just a theory.