A squad of Skyweavers of the Masque of the Midnight Sorrow, fighting against the forces of Nurgle
A Skyweaver is a specially modified Jetbike utilised exclusively by the mysterious Aeldari Harlequins. These heavily armed and incredibly fast vehicles accommodate both a pilot and a rider, with each playing a specific role.
While the pilot steers the Jetbike with incomparable grace, the Harlequin on the rear deals death with his specially designed melee weapons. In battle, squads of Skyweavers outmanoeuvre their foes before cutting them to pieces with concentrated firepower.
Their ripping streams of shuriken fire and crackling bolts of electromagnetic energy slaughter foot troops and reduce enemy tanks to sparking wrecks with equal ease. When they deign to close with the foe, Skyweavers are equally lethal, their players hurling Star Bolas or lashing out with Zephyrglaives.
The enemy can do little in return, for the Jetbikes move faster than the eye can follow. Furthermore, they are wreathed in holographic fields and psychodisruptive mirages that confound sensors and tug at the sanity of those who dare to fight back.
History[]
The Skyweaver Rune of the Aeldari Lexicon, which also doubles as a signifier for wilfully spread confusion and havoc.
In Aeldari mythology, the Skyweaver was the youngest and most capricious of the Cosmic Serpent's brood. Depicted as a gestalt being composed of hundreds of small flying serpents, the Skyweaver spoke always in riddles, and was forever hurried and distracted by his myriad desires. As a boon to the Laughing God, the Skyweaver is said to have scattered himself across the heavens, each facet telling a subtly different tale of Cegorach's deeds.
Thus did the Skyweaver spread confusion amongst the Laughing God's foes, striking down many with its fiery bite when their backs were turned. In battle this is exactly how the Skyweavers fight -- Shuriken Cannons loosing a torrent of mono-molecular discs to scythe through armour and sever limbs. Enemies who cower within armoured vehicles are not safe either, for a Skyweaver can swap the customary shuriken cannons for Haywire Cannons when circumstances call for specialised wargear.
Skyweavers descend upon the enemy like a prismatic storm, trailing cloaks of hallucinatory colour and light as they punch through the enemy ranks. Skimming dangerously low, their pilots whoop with glee and an eerie moan fills the air as the Players spin their star bolas in rapid arcs before letting the weapons fly.
Harlequin masques typically use a system of numerical runes to distinguish individual vehicles within their squadrons of Skyweavers. The transition of the Aeldari numbering system from the diamonds of unity to the arrows symbolic of their race is heavy with meaning.
Guns blazing, the Skyweavers tear onward, the thumping concussion of plasmic blasts lighting their wake. Where the traditional Jetbikes of Craftworld Guardians or Commorrite Reavers are single-seat craft, Harlequin Skyweavers accommodate both a pilot and a rider, each playing a specific role. While the Skyborne Prince steers the arrow-fast craft and fires the main gun, the Great Falcon fights from the Jetbike's rear.
Many wield Star Bolas: weighted plasma charges that are hurled to wrap around necks, limbs or gun barrels. The ferocious detonations of these wicked devices can easily tear a Space Marine in two, or sever the leg of an armoured walker. Though star bolas are undeniably powerful weapons, their main disadvantage is that they can be hurled but once, so some Players choose to go into battle bearing long-bladed zephyrglaives instead. These weapons are wielded with consummate skill, carving arcs through the air as they lop heads from shoulders or bisect torsos in fans of blood.
Traditionally, a masque incorporates two bands of Skyweavers, their aerobatic prowess serving to add a breathtaking edge of speed and danger to the Harlequins' performances. However, there are those masques, such as the Masque of Soaring Spite and the Masque of the Leering Moon, who prefer to field great swarms of Skyweavers, their deployment a ritual acknowledgement of the multifarious nature of the serpent that the Jetbikes are named for.
During conflicts such as the Gorlian Scourging or the Bladed Curtain's Fall, these tactics have proved incredibly effective, the enemy outflanked and overrun by hosts of light grav-craft performing the Dance of the Cosmic Serpent's Brood.
Unit Composition[]
- 2 Skyweavers
Wargear[]
- Skyweaver Jetbike
- Holo-Suit - Harlequins in battle transform into dazzling blurs, their outlines exploding into blizzards of light that leave the foe's aim confounded and their thoughts bewildered. The Holo-Suit, or dathedi -- meaning "between colours" -- is responsible for this transformation. The device incorporates a programmable Holo-Field that breaks down the wearer's profile into a fractal lightstorm as they move; the faster they travel, the more pronounced the effect. So it is that a charging Harlequin appears as nothing more than an indistinct, prismatic storm that is nigh-on impossible to hit, allowing them to simply avoid blows that would otherwise lay them low.
- Star Bolas - Star Bolas, or tredalil, are melee weapons that mount three weighted plasma charges at the end of mesh-weave cords. These charges arm when the bolas is spun with sufficient vigour. The weapon is designed to be hurled in a scything arc, tangling about its target before its plasma charges explode with the fury of a dying sun.
- Mirage Launchers - These pods launch holo-grenades that veil Harlequin vehicles from sight, surrounding them in a confusion of light and colour.
Sources[]
- Codex: Harlequins (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 12, 34, 48-49, 64, 94-96, 151-152, 184-185
- White Dwarf Weekly 54 (07 Feb. 2015), "Skyweavers," pp. 4-10
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