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Named after the screaming spirit-omen of Aeldari myth whose wail heralds inescapable death, the Howling Banshees are the fastest and most acrobatic close-combat Aspect Warriors of the Craftworlds. Founded after the Fall by Asurmen's first and most fiercely devoted disciple — Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence — the Aspect draws its initiates almost exclusively from female Aeldari, for the Banshee of legend is a female spirit and the lithe, high-voiced war cry of the shrine demands a grace and vocal pitch few males ever master; on the rare occasions a male Aeldari walks the Path of the Banshee, he assumes a female warrior persona beneath his War Mask for as long as he remains within the shrine.
Where the Striking Scorpions embody Khaine's patient, crushing strength, the Howling Banshees channel his swift, inescapable fury and the terror that precedes the blade. In their shrines they train endlessly in high-velocity acrobatics, blade-dancing and vocal projection, learning to pour raw psychic dread into a single unified shriek. When a squad charges, that cry is amplified through their helmets into a psycho-sonic shockwave that curdles the air, shatters spirit stones and crystal, and short-circuits the central nervous systems of mortal foes before a single sword has touched flesh.
So deeply are the Banshees tied to the cycle of death and lamentation that when Jain Zar was reborn through the grace of Yvraine during the fractured wars of the late 41st Millennium, scores of Howling Banshee shrines across the Craftworlds pledged their blades to the Ynnari, viewing their Phoenix Lord as the living herald of Ynnead's awakening.
Appearance & wargear
By ancient tradition across almost every Craftworld, Howling Banshees wear bone-white or ivory Aspect Armour accented with blood-red or emerald sashes and a towering, wild mane of crimson, orange or sable hair that streams behind them like a comet's tail. Built into the jaw of every helmet is the Banshee Mask, a psychosonic amplifier that turns the wearer's battle cry into a nerve-paralysing scream, while Exarchs often wear the horrific Triskele-visaged mask of Jain Zar herself. Every warrior fights with a Shuriken Pistol and a glittering Banshee Blade — a master-crafted power sword whose disruption field cleaves ceramite with effortless grace — while Exarchs wield the Executioner, a long-hafted two-handed power glaive, twin Mirrorswords, or the razor-edged three-bladed throwing star known as the Triskele.
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…
The rarest of the Aspect Shrines, jetbike-riding lancers who embody the spear of Khaine and strike like lightning.
A towering wraithbone walker steered by two Asuryani twins, one living and one dead, who fight as a single mind.
Explore all 48 entries in the Weapons & Vehicles armoury.
Battlefield role & tactics
Howling Banshees are lightning-fast shock troops and elite-killers, frequently carried into the heart of the fray aboard Wave Serpents or striking from the Webway. Vaulting over barricades and twisting past overwatch fire in a blur of bone-white armour and scarlet manes, they unleash their collective psycho-sonic howl as they close; while even Space Marines stagger with numb limbs and bleeding ears, the Banshees' power swords decapitate and dismember the front ranks in seconds. They never fight war of attrition, relying on blinding momentum to slaughter a priority target and leap clear before the enemy line can recover from its paralysis.
Notable battles & users
- Jain Zar, the Storm of Silence — The first of the Asurya chosen by Asurmen and founder of every Howling Banshee shrine across the galaxy.
- 992.M41 (Battle of Gnosis Prime) — Sixty Howling Banshees of Biel-Tan answered the distress call of a single shrine sister on Gnosis Prime and carved through an entire Ork warband in a hurricane of bone-white steel.
- Shrine of the Screaming Blade and Shrine of the Crimson Wind — Famed Howling Banshee shrines of Craftworlds Ulthwé and Biel-Tan.
Related
Characters (3)
Jain Zar · Storm of Silence
Eldrad Ulthran · High Farseer of Ulthwé
Yvraine · Emissary of Ynnead, Daughter of Shades
