The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Although the council had previously established the four armed forces of the Royal Court—the militia, the Queen's Guard, the Phoenix Army, and the Hand of Isha—currently, besides a small number of militia, the Queen's Guard, and the Hand of Isha, the main body of the army, the Phoenix Army, is just an empty shell. As for the reason...

Doral didn't say, but Sorshan knew very well.

To maintain order, Doral had to fill the Hand of Isha with his limited original personnel, on one hand, to carry out various special missions, and on the other hand, to act as a kind of inspector for the Royal Court, monitoring and correcting any violations of the Royal Court's laws that might occur in various settlements, and arresting violators when necessary. This greatly diluted Doral's armed forces. The 1,000 people sent on the expedition were only gathered with great difficulty by leveraging relationships with various families and with the support of the Dark Reapers and Howling Banshee shrines.

Sorshan was quite moved when he heard this. He had always thought that the Eternal Royal Court should already be very powerful. After all, it had been supplemented with such powerful warships, two Blackstone Fortresses, and had absorbed so many Eldar, and the addition of two Craftworlds should have far surpassed all Eldar forces outside of Commorragh.

Remember the original website domain name 𝕥𝕨𝕜𝕒𝕟.𝕔𝕠𝕞

But reality is not a simple game of addition and subtraction, especially when it comes to military politics. This is something that he and Veronica may have overlooked. The Eldar Empire has been destroyed for over ten thousand years. Except for those ancient beings, the vast majority of Eldar today were born after the fall of the Eldar Empire. They no longer have the concept of a nation, and they are even less aware of themselves as "citizens." Even the seers don't know how to organize a real country, simply imitating the institutions of the ancient empire.

Of course, this is inseparable from the long-term offline status of the Phoenix King and the Eternal Queen. Normally, the entire Royal Court's situation should have fallen into internal strife long ago with the two playing like this. But here, it must be said that Doral, as an Archon who travels between the Craftworlds and Commorragh, and who has endured humiliation and climbed from the bottom to the top echelons of the Dark City, his political struggle and power skills do indeed crush that group of Craftworld Eldar who are accustomed to clan life. On the other hand, the essentially theocratic or even theanthropic system of the Eternal Royal Court ensures that even when the sovereign is "offline," there won't be major chaos. At least no one dares to deny Veronica's legitimacy for any reason.

But prestige alone cannot make the people form a sizable army on their own.

In this case, considering the possibility of larger-scale wars in the future, Doral had to turn his attention to mercenaries. This is also a continuation of his flexible thinking as an Archon of a Kabal, because for various purposes or special battlefield needs, the Dark Eldar Kabals are filled with various non-Eldar mercenaries, the most famous of which are the Sslyth.

Speaking of Sslyth, it is necessary to mention the dozen or so that Doral brought out of Commorragh. They, who were originally Kabal mercenaries, seem to have undergone some changes under Veronica's influence, but Sorshan didn't bother to find out, only hearing Veronica mention it occasionally.

So Doral's reason is very simple: if it's just defense, then the forces at hand are indeed more than enough, but if you want to launch offensive actions, then the current situation simply does not support it, unless Sorshan can quickly reorganize the Royal Court's armed forces, but no matter how you look at it, this requires a lot of time. Therefore, the most convenient way is to use the power of mercenaries.

Sorshan accepted Doral's point of view. After all, he also hired Demiurg in the Great Maelstrom expedition, but he was very curious about what mercenaries Doral had found. After all, the Eldar still despise other races very much, and how to pay these mercenaries?

So Doral took him to see the mercenaries who were temporarily staying in the orbital facilities—

"This is..."

Sorshan, wearing the armor of the Phoenix King and a mask, looked at the large group of creatures in front of him, looking very surprised.

They had strong bodies, huge rhomboid heads without necks, black eyes on their heads, gills on both sides of the back of their heads, four webbed limbs, and a long, finned tail. In their mouths, which almost split to the back of their heads, could be seen a mouthful of sharp teeth. Standing up, they were a little taller than a Space Marine. They all wore indigo metal armor, with a water tank similar to a power pack on their backs. This water tank was connected to their gills through tubes, and they had swords and weapons that resembled bolters hanging from their waists.

But these are not the point, the point is—

They look too much like fish!

Or rather, they are fish with legs!

Still sharks!

Sorshan has seen a lot, but he has never seen fish-men with legs who walk upright.

"Your Highness, these are the Saharduin. Their homeworld was destroyed by the Space Wolves Legion of the Imperium in the past. Although some worlds have survived, they are very short of survival resources, so they often act as mercenaries in the galaxy, exchanging various survival materials for their distant home. Their individual weapon level is equivalent to that of the Imperium, but they are very united. The mercenaries who venture outside are called the Pisces Warriors. They usually receive employment in units of tails, with one tail being ten Pisces Warriors."

Listening to Doral's introduction, Sorshan glanced over, there were probably several hundred of them.

Many, yes, indeed many, but it doesn't seem like that many.

"Ning is Phoenix King, m?"

At this time, an exceptionally large Saharduin, half white and half brownish-green, walked over. It was a small section taller than its surrounding peers, the exposed cloak was full of scars, one of its eyes was also gone, leaving a terrifying scar and a black hole, visible that it was a veteran warrior who had been through many battles, and naturally it was very likely to be the leader of this group of Saharduin mercenaries.

It's just that it speaks very strangely, but Sorshan can understand it with the help of a translator.

"Really tall ah, Ning is Eldar, m?"

Standing in front of Sorshan, this one also had to look up, with rows of barbed sharp teeth in his slightly open mouth.

"Impudent!"

Several Sea Guards behind Sorshan immediately tapped their spears lightly on the ground, rebuking, but Sorshan raised his hand to signal not to be nervous.

"Since I am standing here, there is nothing to question. Why have you come here?"

That Saharduin leader glanced at Doral, and then said directly:

"Treasure, m."

Okay, Sorshan can confirm that this race speaks with a strange verbal tic.

At this time, Doral explained:

"Your Highness, in the eyes of most backward races, Eldar handicrafts are rare treasures, which is also our main commodity for galactic trade."

Sorshan knew this. Even the Imperium, which officially hates the Eldar the most, has a large number of nobles and rulers who are enthusiastic about exquisite Eldar handicrafts and ornaments, and as a result, an extremely large smuggling network has been born, spanning the entire Imperial world.