Wych Cults - Beyond the Arena: Almost every Wych Cult enjoys the patronage of a powerful Archon, for there is much glory to be had for the founders of the feast. More than this, however, the Wych Cults are powerful allies. After all, each is comprised solely of trained killers who enjoy nothing more than to prove their consummate skills in battle. This mutually agreeable arrangement ensures that the Wych Cults never run short of slaves and exotic combat stimulants.A good patron is always generous lest his stable of warrior athletes decides to bite the hand that feeds them. Meanwhile, the Archon gains the allegiance of a sisterhood of exceptionally trained Hekatarri to lend their blades to his raids upon realspace.The Wych Cults take every chance they can to prove their martial skills superior to those of the "lesser races," both within the arena and without. Though they profess nothing but contempt for the warrior castes of realspace, the Wyches get an undeniable thrill out of matching themselves against any suitably impressive opponent.The trophy halls of a successful Succubus will thus boast the heads of Adeptus Astartes heroes, conquering Ork Warbosses and Tyranid Hive Tyrants alike.There is much more to a Wych Cult than its arena. Below the elegant spires and weaponnodes of each cult stronghold's exterior are academies and training complexes devoted to every aspect of the close quarter kill. Anti-gravity hemispheres and gruelling "living landscapes" ensure each Wych is at the peak of physical fitness.Each cult keeps an extensive menagerie, re-stocked by its Beastmasters with an endless supply of alien captives and dangerous species. Different Wych Cults practise their own specialities, endlessly discussed by the arena's crowd. The Bladed Hand, for instance, hones the art of the unarmed kill (though they are famous for blurring the line), whilst The Stilled Heart specialise in the use of poisons, venoms and paralytic elixirs.A Wych Cult will often stage realspace raids purely at the behest of its Succubus. These raids are not only to gather new fodder for the arenas, but also to provide a chance for the Wyches to match their skills against the finest warriors of the lesser races.A Wych Cult raid is considered high art by many Drukhari, who will pay handsomely to fight alongside the massed gladiators, alien beasts and speeding aerial acrobats that each Succubus unleashes upon her prey.Other raids are quite literally performances in their own right. While the Wych Cult's Raiders and Venoms scream down into the foe's midst and force their desperate victims to fight for their lives, Commorrite pleasure-barges drift high above. Aboard these craft, wealthy spectators swill intoxicating nectars and offer polite applause to the high points of each bloody slaughter, while bets are won or lost on the performance of favoured combatants.Such spectacles are especially popular amongst the smirking ranks of the Drukhari Trueborn, who delight in watching others do the work for them while soaking up the psychic miasma of agonies that rises off the battle below.Yet for all their foppish hangers-on, Wych Cult raids are veritable blizzards of violence. They are direct and unstoppable strikes that -- like the Wyches themselves -- scorn the cumbersome protection of armour in favour of the safety that pure speed provides.Like a perfectly placed knife-thrust to the heart, a raid by a Wych Cult is swift, deadly and precise, capable of felling even the largest and most dangerous foes before they even realise they are under attack.Amid hurtling squadrons of Reavers and Hellions, overswept by the half-glimpsed shadows of Razorwing Jetfighters and Voidraven Bombers, the Wyches leap and plunge into the midst of their enemies with joyous abandon, and leave mountains of corpses in their wake.Only when the foe's numbers become overwhelming, or there are no further victims to face the fury of their knives do the Wyches retreat, disappearing as suddenly as they came and leaving absolute carnage in their wake.