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Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence, is the Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees. She was the first student of Asurmen and is now pledged to the Ynnari.
She wields the Blade of Destruction and the Jainas Mor, a triple-bladed throwing weapon called the Silent Death. Her war cry, amplified by her mask, paralyses enemies' nervous systems. She has appeared in battles across the galaxy, always where the fighting is fiercest. Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence, is the Phoenix Lord of the Howling Banshees and one of Asurmen's first students. She is fast, ferocious and bonded to the Silent Death, a triskele she hurls, and the Blade of Destruction. During the Gathering Storm she aligned with Yvraine and the Ynnari, a choice that shocked many craftworld traditionalists. Like every Phoenix Lord she can be killed, and her armour can still be reborn.
Origins
She was the feral child Faraethil, rescued by Asurmen after the Fall and trained by him on Asur.
As the first student of Asurmen, she learned the discipline of the war mask but channelled her own fury into a swift, deadly style of combat. That style became the foundation of the Howling Banshees. She later left Asur to found her own shrine, and her pupils carried the Banshee Aspect to the craftworlds.
Gav Thorpe's novel Jain Zar: The Storm of Silence tells her early life in detail. She was born Faraethil on Eidafaeron shortly before the Fall, left as an infant at the Kurnussei arena and raised as a blood-dancer gladiatrix, knowing little beyond the sand and the crowd. About a year after the Fall she realised her master no longer wanted a fighter, only an executioner of helpless victims, and she fled into the dying city. At an old temple she interrupted a stranger who was about to kill himself. Years later, chased by her former master's servants, she returned to the temple to find him still alive. Together they killed her pursuers, and the stranger introduced himself as Asurmen. Seeing that her reckless rage would get her killed, he took her as his pupil and renamed her. The two escaped Eidafaeron on her Drukhari pursuers' pleasure yacht and settled on the moon they called Asur.
Key events
- Was among the first Asurya and founded the Howling Banshees.
- Was sighted with a hundred Banshees during the Pyre of Kiliak's Bane, when Imperial looters of an Aeldari maiden world were annihilated.
- Hunted the Night Lord Talos Valcoran to prevent a prophecy against Ulthwé.
- Fought to save Biel-Tan from the Masque of Slaanesh, then joined the Ynnari.
- Was cut in half by Drazhar in Aelindrach, then restored when Yvraine sought to undo her death.
She is the most active Phoenix Lord in the war against Chaos and has mustered Banshees from several craftworlds at once. During the Psychic Awakening she protected Yvraine from Drazhar during the raid on Saim-Hann and from Shalaxi Helbane on Iathglas. She pursued Drazhar into the Webway realm of Shaa-Dom, where he had made a pact with the Mandrakes of Aelindrach to hide her armour in their shadow-realm so that she could never be reborn. The plan failed. Yvraine asked Ynnead to restore her, and the Exarch Quitui'yenh put on the armour and merged with the Phoenix Lord's composite soul. Jain Zar then found Yvraine on the lost craftworld of Zandros, tied a red armband to her armour as a sign of the bond between Khaine and Ynnead, and later killed Drazhar when he attacked her camp at night.
Battles & campaigns
- Tsagualsa: She fought the Night Lords amid the ruins of their old fortress.
- The Gathering Storm: She joined the Ynnari cause.
Personality
Ferocious, disciplined and fiercely loyal.
She is fierce and fearless, but disciplined in her rage. She has a reputation for appearing without warning and vanishing as quickly. Her choice to join the Ynnari suggests that she believes the Aeldari must take risks to survive, and that tradition alone will not save them.
Weapons & Vehicles
A master-crafted blade sheathed in a crackling molecular disruption field that parts ceramite, bone and steel with effortless lethality…
The graceful wraithbone gravitic-accelerator firearm of the Craftworld Aeldari, slicing targets to ribbons with silent, monomolecular s…
The psycho-crystalline force-blades and hurled Singing Spears of Craftworld Farseers and Warlocks, humming with resonant Warp-harmonics…
All-female Aspect Warriors founded by Jain Zar whose psychically amplified war cries paralyse enemy nervous systems before their power …
Stealthy Aspect Warriors who embody Khaine the patient stalker, ambushing prey from deep shadow with whispering chainswords and stingin…
Aspect Warriors who leap through the Warp itself to ambush the enemy, risking their souls with every jump.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Connections
Characters (3)
Factions
- Craftworld Aeldari primary faction
- Ynnari also affiliated
Related units (5)
Also in this faction
Some links are thematic parallels (marked "parallel") rather than recorded meetings. See the connections web.
Legacy
Jain Zar is the Storm of Silence, founder of the Howling Banshees and one of the most active Phoenix Lords. Her decision to stand with Yvraine shows how even the oldest heroes of the Aeldari are being drawn into the struggle over their race's future, and her choice has lent the Ynnari much of their credibility among craftworld warriors. As the first of the Howling Banshees, she is the source of every Banshee shrine's traditions, and each Exarch of that path carries a fragment of her teaching. Even Phoenix Lords die. That is why their rebirths matter.
She declined Yvraine's offer to lead the Ynnari together, leaving only her red ribbon behind, and has since distanced herself from a cult that demands ever more Aeldari souls. Terror's Lament, her helm, was the first Banshee Mask, and every other mask is a copy of it.
Appearances & sources
- Void Stalker (Aaron Dembski-Bowden)
- Codex: Craftworlds / Codex: Aeldari