Thalinia Narésiel

*"You struggle to carve out an empty existence in this galaxy. You sit on your hubris as our race dies around you, casting judgement on the lesser races as well as your own kin while you stew over prophecies with countless outcomes. I'm going to save our people and you can either help or stay out of my way."*

-Thalinia Narésiel, Autarch of Craftworld Ithyl-Loc arguing with the Council of Seers over her involvement in the War for Amarah Prime.
Thalinia Narésiel is an experienced Autarch of Craftworld Ithyl-Loc, and a hero who brought in an age of prosperity for the whole Craftworld.

Originally a Drukhari Trueborn from the Dark City of Commorragh, Thalinia was and still is a divisive figure among the populace of Craftworld Ithyl-Loc. There are factions who see her as a perversion of their way of life, not fit for military command, let alone wider leadership of the Craftworld, however there are also factions who see her as their saviour and the future for the Craftworld.

She is a calm, calculated individual, well versed in both the art of combat as well as diplomacy and politics. Her former life in the Dark City set her up well to rocket through the ranks after she and her sister, Lireia Narésiel, defected to the Craftworld, since the politics of the Craftworld were not that dissimilar to that of her Kabal, with less focus on murder and more on gaining the favour of others.

Through her storied and controversial career aboard the Craftworld, Thalinia has proven herself to be a most capable leader and combatant. She maintains high expectations of her troops, however she never throws their lives away callously, nor does she send them into situations she wouldn't herself walk into. She is often found at the tip of the spear, charging into the Craftworld's enemies on the front line and taking on the most dangerous jobs herself, both as a means to test her own strength and inspire her troops to do the same.

## History

*"I'm sick of being told what fate has in store for me. You speak as though we are all slaves to this intangible will, but I am slave to no one, no ideas, no concepts. If you are too weak, too frail to grab hold of your own fate and bend it to your will, then I'm sure you'll enjoy your mediocre existence."*

-Autarch Thalinia Narésiel
### In the Gladatorial Arenas

Thalinia was born into the Cult of the Crimson Dance. As a Trueborn, she was immediately treated with some level of deferrence, already born into the privileged class of Drukhari, however that does not mean she had an easy upbringing. As soon as she was old enough to hold a blade, she was thrust into the gladatorial arenas to prove that she was strong enough to survive and thrive in Commorragh. Her mother, a Wych named Arinella Eranwyn, was a gifted fighter in her own right, her skill with a blade and her dazzling beauty were spectacles to behold and Thalinia proved to be very much her mother's daughter. Her beauty and skill at arms started to bring in regular spectators much in the same way her mother did.

She was still a young Wych when her younger sister was born. Where Thalinia was a natural fighter, Lireia proved to be a skilled tactician. Where Thalinia carved a bloody path through her opponents, Lireia allowed them to defeat themselves, or baited them into another fight within the arena were there other participants. Whether it was their blood relations or simply an identification of a mutually beneficial relationship, the two became close training partners, constantly forcing each other to grow and develop as fighters.

However, their lives as part of the Cult of the Crimson Dance were relatively short lived. After a few hundred years, their father, Dracon Myrthanil Narésiel made his presence known, demanding the girls be given to him to fight as part of his Kabal. It would have been political suicide for Arinella to deny the request of the Dracon and thus the girls left their lives in the arenas behind, though she also knew that life in the Kabal would be far greater than a future in the Cult.

### Realspace Raiding

It didn't take long for the girls to be taken on a realspace raid. As Trueborn, they were afforded the finest wargear and priority spots aboard the Kabal's Raider transports. Both girls were adept fighters, having spent their lives up until this moment constantly fighting in the arenas. Thalinia favoured a combination of wargear, choosing a Venom Blade and Splinter Rifle to either dispatch her foes or take them back to Commorragh as trophies.

She earned fame and recognition within the Kabal of the Envenomed Chalice as she was frequently responsible for capturing all manner of different slaves. She took great pleasure in breaking their wills slowly, savouring the taste of their anguish like a fine wine. She found it hard to leave her previous life as a Wych behind and would often tease her slaves by giving them weapons and telling them to fight for their freedom, only to toy with them and sap all of their strength and willpower before killing them in one of many gruesome and excessively bloody ways that used to create such a spectacle when she was still a Wych. This fame and recognition only increased when their father, Myrthanil Narésiel, usurped the Kabal's Archon and took on the mantle of leadership for the Kabal of the Envenomed Chalice.

However, this too would pass as their transport was shot down during a realspace raid when they hit a Craftworld Ithyl-Loc strikeforce. As Thalinia crawled from the wreckage, she found herself alone. All the other Raiders had quit the field and she didn't hear any other Trueborn emerge from the wreckage until Lireia clambered out, though she was in far worse state than Thalinia. She readied herself for her last battle as she stood back to back with her sister, until Lireia called for parley. When Thalinia chastised her for her weakness, Lireia retorted that she did not wish to die to this betrayal; she wished to live to see Dracon Caeth Malathis, the Dracon in charge of the raid, pay for betraying them, doubly so for not having the courage to kill them himself. Seeing that her younger sister was determined to see this through, Thalinia laid down her arms. Now that she could see clearly, she conceded that her sister was right; she would reward his cowardice with a slow death.

### Gambit

The two Drukhari, now prisoners of their Craftworld kin, were taken before the seer in charge of the strikeforce, where he would pass judgement whether they should be allowed to live or be executed. All through their journey, Thalinia chastised her little sister further, believing that all she had managed to do was deny them an enjoyable fight before they finally perished at the hands of the Craftworld's Aspect Warriors.

When they were brought before Farseer Kelethan Velnoriel, Thalinia was expecting a quick judgement and an even quicker execution, knowing that their Craftworld kin denied their feelings and would not take the same pleasure she did in the act of murder. While Thalinia merely gazed at the Farseer scornfully, Lireia engaged in a heated debate as the Farseer was passing his judgement on the pair of them. Curious of the Drukhari who challenged him in intellectual conversation as opposed to one of the many depraved ways he knew the Drukhari enjoyed challenging others, he obliged the Trueborn and the pair spoke at length. Many hours passed and eventually they ceased when Kelethan expressed his desire to rest and meditate on what they had discussed, and so the two girls were given a brief stay of execution, once again postponing what Thalinia believed was inevitable.

What Farseer Velnoriel wished to meditate on was the fates of these two. His curiosity still piqued, he consulted the runes, looking into the future of the two Drukhari. Many paths led to death, either their's or their foes, but Farseer Velnoriel found a fate that would change the Craftworld and usher in a new era of prosperity for his people.

The next day, Farseer Velnoriel ordered that the pair be taken back to the Craftworld. He prophesised they would be instrumental in the Craftworld's survival and future prosperity.

### A Change of Heart

As soon as the pair reached the Craftworld, they were thrown into a containment cell. Nearby Craftworlders, including other prisoners, gave the pair the filthiest look, and Thalinia overheard many conversations and suggestions that they just kill the two Drukhari; they were strangers in a strange land, and most unwelcome ones at that. She maintained her mental state through obsessive thoughts on how she would kill Dracon Malathis.

Meanwhile, her sister was frequently taken from her cell. The pair had been separated enough to where they couldn't converse, but remained sufficiently close that Thalinia could see she was being escorted from her cell frequently. Thalinia wondered where her sister was being taken, or what these Craftworlders were doing to her, though she could do nothing but watch and wait for the moment.

It did not take long for her curiosity to be answered as she was escorted from her cell about a week later. She was brought before Farseer Velnoriel where the pair conversed. While she was a bloodthirsty pit fighter at her core, Thalinia was more than capable of politicking and maintaining a level headed discussion. The two conversed at length about their lives and motivations, with Thalinia calling the Craftworld way of life an existence of fear and control, though she was unable to refute Farseer Velnoriel when he argued that her life in Commorragh was the same. Gradually, he wore down her resistances, playing advanced mind games with the young Trueborn and subtly manipulating her psyche over time. She sank into a deep pit of depression as her entire existence and way of life was called into question within her own mind.

In her weakened, vulnerable state, it was no challenge at all for Farseer Velnoriel to reform her broken mind and she started to accept the Craftworld way of life, finally being released from captivity once Farseer Velnoriel was confident she would no longer pose a threat to the Craftworld.

### Warrior Born

Upon her release into Craftworld society, Thalinia immediately started on the Path of the Warrior, joining the Howling Banshee temple. As an experienced warrior, she excelled in her role as an Aspect Warrior. However, despite her incredible prowess with weapons, her journey was not an easy one. Everyone knew she was a Drukhari, which strained relationships with her fellow Craftworlders and she often felt like a pariah. Furthermore, the Exarch of the Howling Banshee temple had to intervene more than once to prevent her from murdering her practice partners, leading to further ostracisation.

However, Thalinia did not care about her social status. She channeled her feelings of anger and frustration into her training, demanding absolute perfection of herself as she mastered the way of the Howling Banshee. She became more socially accepted after she was deployed as part of an Ithyl-Loc strikeforce. Their squad was cut off by a Space Marine counter-attack and the situation looked bleak as Imperials closed on all sides. As the Howling Banshees fought a losing battle against a tide of Imperial Guardsmen, a squad of Space Marines emerged behind them, their combat knives at the ready as they charged in behind the Banshees; the Banshees knew their time had come, but resolved to go down swinging.

As a blur of movement, Thalinia darted between the Imperial forces, her power sword cutting effortlessly through the squad of Space Marines that pressed upon their position. The precision of her strikes was unparalleled in a way that only an experienced arena fighter chasing to perfect her murderous craft could manage. Attacking weak points in the humans' bulky armour, she made quick work of the squad's sergeant, separating his exposed head from his body in an instant before he could bring his power fist to bear. She quickly turned her attention to the others, bringing another three of them down in a blur of acrobatics and precision strikes before a bolter round tore through her side. Fortunately, the round only clipped her, otherwise the explosion would've blown a hole in her that she would have no chance of surviving, though the grazing shot still sprayed shrapnel all up her side. Dropping to the ground, she pulled her shuriken pistol around and fired at the final Space Marine, spewing hundreds of projectiles at her attacker. Fortunately, this was enough, as a few dozen projectiles found their way through joints and eye sockets, dispatching the last of the Space Marines.

Seeing their angels of death brought low by a single warrior, the Imperial Guardsmen fled, their morale well and truly broken as the Howling Banshees carved through the now-retreating humans with ease. They all knew who was responsible for them still drawing breath at the end of the battle and they brought a wounded Thalinia back to their Wave Serpent transport, ensuring her safe return.

### Disagreements

Thalinia continued on the Path of the Warrior for over a thousand years. She spent time with every temple she could, spending all the time she needed to perfect each aspect of warfare available to her. She was a part of the Warp Spider, Dire Avenger, Fire Dragon, Dark Reaper and even the Shadow Spectres Aspect Shrine, however she thrived in the more melee focused Aspect Shrines, thanks to her previous life as a Wych, excelling as a Howling Banshee and being an exemplar to her peers as part of the Shining Spear and Striking Scorpion Aspect Shrines.

Over the years, she made a lot of friends across her time in the various Aspect Shrines, though she also made a lot of enemies on the Path of the Seer. She knew that the Craftworld used seers to dictate both battlefield strategy and the general running of the Craftworld, but she viewed it as nothing but slavery to an intangible concept. Furthermore, she looked back on what brought her here and despised Farseer Velnoriel for manipulating her into embracing her new life; she did not hate him for bringing her into her new life, as she found the ability to perfect such specific aspects of warfare on the Path of the Warrior to be incredibly fulfilling, but she hated him for the manipulation and considered assassination more than once. She swore that if the opportunity presented itself to murder him without people finding out, she would drive her blade into his back for what he did to her.

This led to many disagreements, as she would frequently speak her mind to seers advising campaign strategy and how they should go about fighting their battles. She would call them slaves to fate, too weak and pathetic to forge their own path, and would often be called a foolish, short-sighted savage in return. However, she was never in a position to influence anything as an Aspect Warrior and her frustration just continued building.

### Heartless No More

Even after embracing Craftworld life, Thalinia maintained many of her views as a Drukhari. She still believed that murder and torture was the best way to conquer one's enemies and was chastised by her fellow Aspect Warriors if she ever looked to be slipping back into her old ways. While she made friends, she never viewed them as such, since the concept was entirely alien to one who grew up in Commorragh.

However, something changed when she was presented with the opportunity to get her revenge on Farseer Velnoriel. The two of them were separated from the rest of the warhost. Farseer Velnoriel was leading them in a covert mission to sabotage an Imperial power plant, though when they were detected all of the Striking Scorpions in Thalinia's squad were felled in the Imperial counter-attack. Thalinia herself was dragged from the battle by Farseer Velnoriel, saving the badly wounded Aspect Warrior's life. The pair were isolated and the enemy closed in on them from all sides. The time was perfect for Thalinia to get her revenge and her soul cried out to taste the Farseer's suffering, the feeling of vengeance burned brightly, despite the fact he had just saved her life.

But Farseer Velnoriel had seen it. As Thalinia prepared to bury her Scorpion Chainsword into the Farseer's back, he confessed his sins to her. Admitting to his crimes and regretting what he did to her and her sister while their minds were vulnerable, he apologised, stating his decisions had haunted his memories and left a heavy burden on his soul that he needed to lift. Chuckling, he mused that he was curious what would be his death during this campaign, having prophesised his own death before the Craftworld even made the decision to come to this planet. When Thalinia asked why he did nothing about it and why he decided to lead their covert expedition, he stated it was his wish to confess this to her.

As the Imperials closed on them, Farseer Velnoriel asked Thalinia to kill him. Taken aback by the request, Thalinia suddenly showed hesitancy in her desire for revenge. When challenged, Farseer Velnoriel stated that he knew she was stealthy enough to slip past the Imperials who were closing on them, but he was not. Furthermore, he wished for her to carry his soulstone back to the Craftworld so that he could join with the Infinity Circuit, something that wouldn't happen if either they both died or if he died to the Imperials while Thalinia slipped past them. Suddenly, her desire to murder the Farseer evaporated. Knowing that she wished his death, he still led the expedition and saved her life from the humans. She hesitated, but she could see it in his eyes. She could feel his conviction. It burned as brightly as her lust for revenge had for all those years.

Thalinia fulfilled the last wish of Farseer Velnoriel, killing him instantly and painlessly with a precision slash of her blade. She plucked the soulstone from his body, as well as those of her squad that he had quickly salvaged before dragging her from the battlefield and took them back to their main forces, slipping past the Imperial lines despite her wounds. While she handed off the soulstones of her fellow Striking Scorpions to her superiors, she refused to relinquish Farseer Velnoriel's, demanding that she take it to the Infinity Circuit herself. The other seers doubted her motives and a fight almost broke out as Thalinia seemed ready to fight them over it, though to avoid further bloodshed they eventually relented, though they kept a close eye on her to ensure she wasn't up to no good.

### The Path of Command

Farseer Velnoriel's death weighed heavily on Thalinia's mind. She found herself unexpectedly affected by his death, a feeling that was alien to her. She had killed countless enemies as an Aspect Warrior and even going back to her time in Commorragh she had tortured and butchered countless more, often murdering her foes in excessively painful and brutal ways. She couldn't wrap her head around what had happened and why she had these feelings after the act. Their people were dying, she was painfully aware of her race's downward spiral toward extinction.

She felt herself slipping away. She felt her psyche falling into a deep depression that she could never hope to claw her way out of. She stood on the precipice; she could either give up and allow herself to sink, or she could struggle against it. Either she embraced her fate, or stood defiant.

It was anger that drove her to continue fighting. Rumours begun to spread among the Craftworld that the seers had prophesised their doom, and after a string of military defeats the people had started to believe it. The people had already given up, and this brought Thalinia's rage to the boiling point. She was sick of people deferring to prophecy and accepting their fate as if it were pre-ordained. With her extensive experience on the Path of the Warrior, Thalinia finally stepped away from it and begun to walk the Path of Command, much to the chagrin of many Craftworld seers. That not only a former Drukhari could rise to a position of leadership, but one who did not trust in the prophecies of seers that had safeguarded their Craftworld up until this point weighed heavily on the Craftworld seers. Many interpreted this as being the catalyst for the death of Craftworld Ithyl-Loc.

### Open Defiance

Her path as an Autarch was fraught with challenges. She largely had the acceptance of many Aspect Warriors and temple Exarchs, having worked alongside them for over a thousand years and proving herself a very capable warrior, but the seers were another matter entirely. Typically, the only seers who accepted and worked with her were those who were former Aspect Warriors who now trod the Path of the Seer as a Warlock. Her advice often fell on deaf ears, as seers brushed her words aside out of a mix of fear and loathing.

When she finally found a Farseer who was willing to listen and support her, the experience was bittersweet. On one hand, she now had the support she needed to form a military strikeforce to venture away from the Craftworld. However on the other hand, the Farseer in question turned out to be her own sister, Lireia, who had recently lost herself on the Path of the Seer. This infuriated Thalinia even further, as she saw it as the fault of the seers who stubbornly blocked her that forced her little sister to do so. However, she also blamed herself, believing that it was her struggles with the other seers that pushed her sister to take such measures.

In one meeting with Craftworld seers, Thalinia lost it. Lireia brought up a potential risk to the Craftworld on the Imperial world of Amarah Prime, as well as a valuable treasure buried deep beneath the planet's surface, though her visions showed no details. With the system engulfed in a war between the forces of Chaos, a Tyranid Hive Fleet and the system's Imperial defenders, the seers said it was too risky and the consensus was reached that they would not intervene. Thalinia accused the council of cowardice and openly stated that she would go with or without their blessing. When she was forbidden to take such an action, she stormed out of the council chambers and begun raising an army. With the support of many Aspect Warriors, it wasn't long before she had a warhost assembled.

Against the will of the council, Thalinia and her warhost, as well as Lireia, departed for Amarah Prime.

### The War for Amarah Prime

The forces of Craftworld Ithyl-Loc arrived in system to find it far worse for wear than Lireia's initial visions had predicted. The Imperial forces were on the backfoot and even the forces of Chaos had been pushed back by the innumerable alien creatures. Immediately, Thalinia deployed her forces to gather information, learning that the Imperials were here to secure an STC template, though none of this interested Thalinia. Now that she was on the planet, even she could feel its presence. The item of value on the planet was the fragment of a lost Craftworld.

Thalinia started waging her campaign against everyone on the planet. She showed no mercy, crushing all who opposed her with minimal losses to her own warhost. She favoured fast, mechanised strikes into the enemy lines, maintaining their distance and dispatching their enemies from afar with overwhelming firepower. She favoured the use of a Warp Jump Generator to grant her the mobility to be wherever she needed on the battlefield, as well as leading daring pushes into enemy lines to eliminate enemy commanders, artillery or support elements.

The Craftworld forces quickly located the ideal site to start excavating the fragment of the lost Craftworld and no enemy force got near. The forces of Chaos and Imperium eventually gave up, focusing their efforts on each other and fighting over the STC system that had now been uncovered by the Imperium. Tyranids still pressed in, but Thalinia exterminated any Tyranids that got close. However, it was clear the Tyranids were gaining too much ground far too quickly and at the rate they were going, the Imperial forces would be overwhelmed before Thalinia's warband could excavate and extract their prize.

She contacted the local commanders, a Space Marine Captain and an Imperial Guard Tank Commander, and offered to assist them in a risky strike against the Tyranids. Negotiations were tenuous, since Thalinia had been fighting against them and had personally defeated both in combat, but eventually she convinced them of their need for cooperation. After all, the humans would not have enough time to extract the STC if they did not do something about the Tyranids. After all, the planet had almost entirely been consumed by the Tyranids with the exception of a small contingent of Chaos Space Marines who were in the process of withdrawing, as well as a small pocket of Aeldari and the Imperial forces' last stand.

Leading an assault on the main Tyranid spawning pools, Thalinia led her forces from the front, as usual, however they used their mobility to move around the flank, picking off important Tyranid beasts and blasting holes in the swarm of uncountable creatures while the humans held the line against the bulk of the Tyranid forces. As soon as the opportunity arose, Thalinia struck into the heart of the swarm, attacking the main capillary tower. Her warriors cleared the nearby area, fast moving Aspect Warriors and mechanised forces dismounted as Lireia administered a potent biotoxin developed by the Craftworld forces during their time on the planet. Once it was administered and the feeding tubes started to grow a sickly colour, Thalinia ordered the retreat. She had done her job, infecting the Tyranid spawning grounds and the Hive Fleet tendril that reached into the system. Perhaps it would be enough for the Imperium to reclaim control of the planet, perhaps not; Thalinia did not care beyond buying time for her forces to excavate the fragment of the lost Craftworld. Mounting up in their vehicles, the Craftworld forces quit the field, leaving the Imperium to clean up the nearby Tyranids or get consumed by their overwhelming numbers.

Thalinia returned to the Craftworld to praise and adulation. The fragment of the Craftworld that the Aeldari had recovered included an intact Infinity Circuit among the resources recovered. In a single act of defiance against the Craftworld seers, Thalinia had rescued countless Aeldari souls from certain doom. Without her intervention, it likely would have been ruptured and destroyed by the Tyranids in their consumption of the planet, the souls consumed by Slaanesh.

### A Time of Prosperity

Amarah Prime was just the start of Thalinia's list of conquests. She led her warhost across the stars, under the guidance of her sister's prophecies; Lireia was the only Farseer she trusted, despite their begrudging acceptance of her now. Wherever she went, she left the battlefield with minimal casualties and returned to the Craftworld with more than she left it with. While the seers were far more cautious and typically decided against intervening in conflicts around the stars, Thalinia jumped in feet first.

Before long, the fruits of her labours started to show. The Craftworld's population stabilised, despite getting involved in more conflicts than before, and even started to increase. Furthermore, every time they brought back the spoils of their conquest, the Craftworld got richer and more powerful. The Craftworld prospered for the first time in millenia.

However, this drew the attention of a small splinter group of Tyranids that attacked the Craftworld. Fortunately, it was not a tendril from a larger Hive Fleet, but seemed to be the remnants of an invasion force that had been cut off from the rest of the fleet. That said, it was no small amount of Tyranids and Thalinia mobilised the Craftworld's Aspect Warriors and Guardian hosts in their defence. Her time on Amarah Prime had honed her ability to hunt the Tyranids, as they had been the main force that attacked her excavation efforts there. Without the innumerable reinforcements that made Tyranids such a huge threat during most conflicts, it was more an opportunity for Thalinia to display her skills to those who still doubted her.

Leading the defence from the front lines, something that some hoped would lead to her death, she engaged in an extermination campaign against any Tyranid organism that dared set foot on the Craftworld's surface. She wanted to find the Tyranid Hive Tyrant, the leader beast for the swarm, and defeat it for all to see. She was done with trying to appease the seers who still hated everything she represented and decided to take an approach more akin to her time in Commorragh.

She located the Hive Tyrant and instructed her Aspect Warriors to cut a path through the swarm to get her to it. They obliged, following her orders without question since she had proven herself time and again with her military conquests, as she led a spearhead through the Tyranid lines, aiming to pierce the heart of the swarm. Instructing her warriors not to get involved in her battle with the Hive Tyrant and delegating command to Lireia, Thalinia leapt into combat with the towering behemoth. In that moment, she was no longer an Autarch of Craftworld Ithyl-Loc, she was a Bloodbride of the Cult of the Crimson Dance. She dodged around the Hive Tyrant's attacks, weaving with unmatched agility around its deadly claws. As Lireia managed command of the Craftworld's forces in Thalinia's stead, knowing what her sister aimed to do all too well, Thalinia made a spectacle of her battle with the Hive Tyrant. Her blood raced as she did battle with the beast and she never felt more alive as she did in that moment.

As the swarm thinned around them, Thalinia eventually dealt the killing blow to the Hive Tyrant, thrusting her power sword deep through the head of the Hive Tyrant and controlling its descent to the ground while it thrashed about in its death throes, much as a beastmaster might wrangle a captured beast. As the dust settled on the Craftworld, the Tyranid swarm had been eliminated and the Hive Tyrant lay dead at Thalinia's feet, the spectacle visible for all to see.

### Her One Weakness

With the Craftworld enjoying a time of prosperity, Thalinia took a step back from her constant warring. While she had joined with the new faction within the Aeldari known as the Ynnari, she largely stayed away from conflicts unless she felt it was a worthwhile endeavour. She entered a relationship with an artisan named Kerathin Nelariei, who had served as part of her Guardian host both on Amarah Prime and during the defence of their Craftworld. Together they raised a daughter, Lyanna Narésiel, who inherited more of her mother's personality than Thalinia wished. The two constantly butted heads as the young girl did everything she could to eclipse her mother's reputation, even going so far as to hijack a Cruiser-class ship from the Craftworld and form her own Corsair band, the Stardancer Corsairs.

However, despite their constant bickering, Thalinia cared for Lyanna more than anything she ever had. Even as she galavanted around the stars as a Corsair, Thalinia found herself keeping track of her rogue daughter and safeguarding her from a distance. She would deploy to distant warzones were it to pose a significant threat to the young Corsair as she developed and built up her fleet, though to her surprise these instances were few and far between. She expected the young Corsair to get into more trouble than she could deal with, but Lyanna proved a competent leader.

When she heard of the incident at the Great Rift, Thalinia entered a panic. She had heard of the Stardancer Corsairs and their plight as they were caught too close to the Rift, narrowly escaping with huge casualties. The thought that her daughter was among those casualties was hard to bear and when the Stardancer Corsairs returned to Craftworld Ithyl-Loc, Thalinia was one of the first to ask if their Corsair Princess was among them. When she lay eyes on her daughter, relief swelled within her and she was happy to just be able to embrace her daughter again. When Lyanna asked her mother if she would accept the soulstones of their fallen into Ithyl-Loc's Infinity Circuit, Thalinia agreed in a heartbeat.

### The Excursion to Hallax I

Thalinia was proud to hear of the exploits of her daughter and her band of Corsairs. They had enjoyed many conquests and rebuilt their strength to a point where they had undertook a large campaign in the Ardraxis sub-sector. Thalinia felt proud to see her daughter, while still very young, was developing into a competent leader in her own right.

She did not anticipate intervening in the Ardraxian Campaign, though when Lireia brought a threat in the Hallax system, on the border of the Ardraxis sub-sector, to Thalinia's attention and she couldn't ignore it. A prolific Inquisitor of the Ordo Xenos had been deployed to the system to combat a Tyranid infestation, having taken charge of the Imperial military as well as deploying with a contingent of Deathwatch Space Marines. Lireia warned that without interference there was a strong possibility that Lyanna Narésiel and her Stardancer Corsairs would be killed, either consumed by the Tyranids, or captured by the Ordo Xenos.

Deploying with a small force to avoid detection by either Tyranid or Imperial, Thalinia made her way to the system with a small strikeforce of Aspect Warriors and grav-vehicles. Similar to her triumph on Amarah Prime, Thalinia identified the primary Tyranid spawning pools and led a lightning strike against it, razing the entire sight and fleeing before the Tyranids could muster significant reinforcements. However, she underestimated the ferocity of the Tyranid creatures here and was caught out by a large force that vastly outnumbered her own. She battled bravely, but it was clearly a losing battle, or at the very least it was far too costly. It was not a hopeless situation, as they fended off wave after wave of Tyranid creature as they attempted to break contact, but it was unlikely they would escape with their lives. Furthermore, the Tyranid creatures seemed adept at hunting down psykers, with Lireia finding herself unable to harness her powers to guide their forces to safety.

It was then that Thalinia noticed an all too familiar sight. The combination of purple and crimson hulls skulked out of the shadows, as Archon Myrthanil Narésiel and Master Succubus Arinella Eranwyn led their raiding force out to engage the Tyranids from behind, along with a band of Stardancer Corsairs. She had no idea if they were in league with each other and she wasn't keen on the idea of meeting with her parents again now that she was an Autarch for Craftworld Ithyl-Loc, however their assistance saved the lives of her and her warriors, although she expressed her distaste that Lyanna had got involved in the first place.

Shortly after the battle was concluded, the Drukhari quit the field without much of a word, beyond both of Thalinia's parents watching their daughter rally the Craftworld forces with somewhat predatory gazes. Unfortunately, Thalinia's job was only half done, having crippled the Tyranids on the planet, she now had to break through the Inquisitor's base of operations in order to reach a suitable location to extract back to her ships. He had recently deployed to counter the Tyranid threat, so Thalinia believed the battle would be easy.

However, without Lireia's guidance thanks to the Tyranid presence heavily suppressing her psychic abilities, she could not foresee the Inquisitor pulling his forces back and the fortress was heavily manned. However, she had to push through, both to reach the spaceport that she could use to evacuate her troops, but also to weaken his forces enough that they would no longer pose a threat to Lyanna. Once again, the Stardancer Corsairs dropped into the battle, aiding the Craftworld forcesin their efforts to break through the fortress. Once again, Thalinia told her daughter to stop interfering, leading to an argument since Lyanna had saved her mother's forces twice now. She refused to leave until Thalinia and her warhost had extracted, perhaps out of a desire to protect her mother, or perhaps out of a desire to upstage her. Either way, Thalinia could see that arguing with her was going nowhere ane eventually relented under the condition that Lyanna follow her lead.

When the final battle came, Thalinia stared in horror at the sea of bodies that marched for their position. She was prepared to die, she did not fear her own death, but Lyanna was still present and she could not bear to see her daugher resigned to such a fate. Ordering her daughter back to a rearguard position as Thalinia made sure to concentrate her forces away from the enemy artillery, since there was no way she could strike at them without overextending her lines, Thalinia watched in horror as a Deathwatch sniper team took aim at the young Corsair Princess. Thalinia kicked her jetbike into life, speeding in front of her lines and firing her Reaper Launcher at the offending snipers, who turned their attentions to her instead. Large sniper rounds impacted with her armour and tore through it, splattering her blood all over the jetbike, but allowing Lyanna to retreat to their more fortified position unharmed. Thalinia managed to speed to the position as well, though her wounds were grave. It was a wonder she maintained consciousness long enough to direct the Aeldari defence and then extraction, collapsing as soon as she and her warriors had made it onto their extraction vehicle, though at the end of the battle many Corsairs and Aspect Warriors lay dead upon the field of battle. It was a success, but a costly one for both parties.

## Wargear

Being an Autarch, Thalinia has a wide selection of wargear to choose from, taking whatever combination will help her to achieve her battlefield objectives for that particular deployment.

* Aeldari Jetbike - Aeldari Jetbikes are single-person anti-grav vehicles commonly used by Aeldari, Drukhari, and occasionally Harlequin, warriors in battle.
* Forceshield - Forceshields are force field generators worn by Aeldari warriors, most commonly Autarchs, though some fall into Corsair hands. The force field generator is a wrist-mounted device, setting it apart from the more clunky and restrictive armour used by other races.
* Fusion Pistol - The Fusion Pistol is an Eldar Fusion Weapon. The Fusion Pistol is the compact pistol version wielded by Harlequins. The weapon has a short range, but its elegance is matched only by its potency. This is Thalinia's sidearm of choice as pulling it out during a melee fight has been the end of many opponents where its short range is incredibly devastating.
* Power Sword - Power Swords are one of the preeminent types of Power Weapons. When its power cell is activated, the blade becomes sheathed in a lethal haze of a disruptive energy field. This field allows the blade to easily rip through armor and flesh alike.
* Fusion Gun - The Fusion Gun is a melta weapon developed by the Aeldari and commonly used by the Fire Dragon Aspect Warriors, as well as Storm Guardian units. This powerful weapon has a short range, but is capable of reducing an enemy battle tank to a pile of molten slag or vaporize an enemy soldier in under a second.
* Banshee Mask - A Banshee Mask is a sonic weapon of terror worn by the Howling Banshee Aspect Warriors. The mask uses a special psychosonic amplifier, turning the Banshee's raging battle cry into a devastating psychic barrage.
* Reaper Launcher - The Reaper Launcher is an Aeldari weapon used by Dark Reapers, the Aeldari path devoted to providing long range fire support on the field of battle. The Reaper Launcher is a fast firing heavy weapon which launches a barrage of armour-piercing missiles to devastate the enemy, and utilizes Dark Reaper Range Finder equipment which allows the user to "see" from the muzzle of the weapon itself.
* Laser Lance - The Laser Lance fires a highly focused laser beam to to deliver an intense blast of energy, discharged either at short range or upon physical contact with the enemy. This makes the weapon ideal for the devastating charges employed by Shining Spears and Dragon Knights, but in addition to its short range the weapon is otherwise useless in hand-to-hand combat.
* Swooping Hawk Wings - Swooping Hawk Wings are specialized Aeldari jump packs used exclusively by the Swooping Hawk Aspect Warriors. Composed of vibrating feather plates, these wings combine an anti-gravity lifter with jet propulsion motors to give the Swooping Hawks their impressive flight speed and maneuverability.
* Warp Jump Generator - A Warp Spider Jump Generator is an Aeldari warp generator used by Warp Spider Aspect Warriors housed within the armoured backpack of their Aspect Armour.