A new faction

The Rogue Bands are groups of creatures, that, for one reason or another, decided to leave the Equusian Lands and become independent. They ignore the Council's rules and form their own entirely separate identity, often with VERY different values from those of general Equusian society.

First, let's look at the ones who first left the Equusian Lands.

THE PIRATES OF THE MUSIC

Across the galaxy, there are various creatures who have decided to embark on a life of adrenaline and adventure, becoming pirates or corsairs. Some examples of this are the Aeldari Corsairs or the Ork FreeBooterz, both of them with different (but also similar) reasons to take this route.

The Pirates of the Music are Equusians who decided to lead this lifestyle, motivated by a great desire for FREEDOM, as they believed that the Equusian government had become too authoritarian. Of course, they would later withdraw this statement, but that didn't make them abandon their new lives.

Anyway, a group of these creatures gathered together and hatched a plan to escape from the Equusian Lands and their "repressive" government. They carried out this operation during the first century of the eleventh millennium (approx. 10.100 a.C. or 40.600 for the Imperials), successfully stealing (albeit with great difficulty) several spaceships with which they escaped from equusian territory and headed towards new confines!

Since then until now, the Space Branch has been searching for them as fugitives, but has never been able to find them. It must also be said that the attempts to find them have become less intense than before.

This great separation from the Equusian Lands allowed these creatures to create their own separate identity, becoming pirates with an obsession with music and rhythm! As well as very greedy. They travel through the galaxy in The Home for the Notes of Piarcy, a gigantic pirate ship created from the spaceships they stole. Its deck is protected from the vacuum of space by a special magical field that allows the crew to see the wonders of the cosmos without risk. It's like the ship from Treasure Planet, but MUCH bigger. And at its core is a togetherness tree called The Crew Tree, a symbol of great importance to the pirates.

Plus, it has an invisibility field that the pirates use to perform one of their favorite activities. Boarding other ships! They appear suddenly, thus surprising their victims and raiding them with spaceboats they deploy, and once they get a good loot, they disappear just as quickly. They are skilled thieves, disrespectful towards others and each other, and possessive of their belongings. However, they will never take slaves, which they consider a barbaric act, nor do they take orders from any other faction, no matter how much they may be paid. They still value freedom greatly, almost too much, sometimes forgetting the phrase: "Your freedom ends where the rights of others begin."

But there is another activity that the pirates love, this one not only reserved for the warrior crew, as the boardings are. The CONCERTS!!!

One of the values of the Equusian Lands that the Pirates of the Music preserved was the appreciation for all kinds of music. It's a bit hard to explain, but they believe that music is powerful and beautiful, that a good melody can motivate those who listen to it and bring out their strongest emotions. The pirates have taken this to the extreme, spending much of their time playing songs, even while they're fighting.

But they also want to share their passion for music with the rest of the galaxy. They lack the distrust and hatred towards aliens, although they are not naive either. To do so, they go from planet to planet organizing concerts as part of the Neverending Tour, an eternal journey among the stars, with their next destination chosen at random and the purpose of making the entire galaxy contemplate the power of pirate music!

Within the pirates, there are several music bands, each with a different style, sometimes battling each other to entertain themselves and improve their music. They also decorate their amazing songs with colorful, flashy clothing and unnecessary details. And so far they have played for several races, Orks, Eldar, the Imperium, even races that had not yet discovered space travel! But of course, to get into these concerts, you have to pay an entrance fee. Music isn't free.

Their musical pursuits have earned them a rivalry however, with none other than the Noise Marines. These Space Marines were once part of the 3rd Legion, until, following their Primarch, they betrayed the Imperium and became worshippers of Slaanesh. With the consequent depravity. These specific traitors use sonic weapons with which they destroy the organs of their enemies or drive them mad with their horrible sounds. It was because of this that upon hearing of the pirates' musical activities, their wrath was unleashed. They swore to wipe out these Xenos in the name of the Prince of Excess and revel in the feeling that killing them would bring them, thus proving that the music of these creatures was pathetic and incomparable to the works of the Noise Marines. Basically, they felt their pride threatened.

So they chased them down, finally reaching them during one of their concerts. After a brief battle of the bands against the Melody League, one of the pirates' bands, the Noise Marines decided to get serious and carry out an utter slaughter of their enemies, feeling extreme pleasure from their pain. After this, the surviving pirates fled in The Home for the Notes of Piracy, and went from repudiating these traitor Marines for their sick practices and disrespect for true music to ABSOLUTELY hating them.

But The Guide, leader of the Pirates of the Music, along with other high-ranked ones, decided to not retaliate and instead avoid a new encounter with the Noise Marines at all costs.

HOLLOWCAVE

Do you remember the Pony of Shadows?

Wasted-potential villain from the end of season 7 who was banished to Limbo. Do you?

Yes?! Well, guess what? He's back.

Okay, let's do a quick brush up. The Shadow is an ancient entity of darkness and a mysterious origin, whose goal is to extinguish all light in the world and plunge it into DARKNESS. But being some kind of a parasite, it cannot do this without a host, so it seeks out creatures with negative emotions to put them under its command in exchange for power. This is how the Pony of Shadows is born.

It is known that The Shadow was banished millennia ago to a dimensional prison in Limbo, the realm between realms where time does not pass. However, it seems that it managed to escape, although it is unknown how or when. Only that it was before the Equusians went into space for the first time. Since it escaped, it got a new host and remained hidden, waiting for the perfect moment to return, which came after the War of the Devourer.

In Hollow Edge-system, lay the world of Hole Haver (HE-5), also called the Green Elysium for its beautiful natural landscapes and abundant resources, although it also had a curious system of giant natural caves, all connected to each other. However, everything changed when the Tyranids attacked. The planet was defended with EVERYTHING it had AND MORE, and yet, after the War of the Devourer, Hole Haver was just another rock in the H.E.-s dead zone.

Following this war against the Hive Fleet Ungulo, the Council decided to carry out Project Resurrection, which aimed to bring life back to the attacked worlds. Although this obviously failed. But it was during this time, that something strange happened in Hole Haver...

"And for one brief, eternal moment, when silence ruled our dead world, a tower of lightlessness rose from the depths and touched the sky, before claiming it for itself and bringing blessed, holy darkness."

– 7:26~3-8, Manuscript of Shadows

This moment was called "The Darkening". Hole Haver losing every ray of light and plunging into the purest darkness conceivable. The one responsible for this was, of course, the Pony of Shadows, who renamed himself as King of Shadows, since he would henceforth be the supreme ruler of, Hole Haver? No. Under the wishes of its King, the planet would now be called Hollowcave.

As expected, the Equusian Lands did not like that what was once one of their worlds was now an independent planet ruled by a villain believed to be a myth. But they had just gone through a devastating and desperate war and could not go to a new one. This was taken advantage of by the King of Shadows, who was satisfied and with his purpose fulfilled. He had plunged the world into darkness, even if it was only one world. He managed to get a treaty of mutual non-aggression between the Equusian Lands and Hollowcave. Although relations between the two remain tense and they are just one step away from a larger conflict.

But what is a kingdom without citizens? You might ask. Well, the inhabitants of Hollowcave are known as Shadowits. They are the creatures that were on the planet during The Darkening, as part of Project Resurrection. Most of which were previous inhabitants of the planet.

These creatures felt sad and unmotivated, but most of all, betrayed. The Council was supposed to protect their home, and yet here they were, standing over the corpse of what was once their precious world. So when the planet darkened and the King of Shadows appeared, offering them new and improved protection in exchange for servitude, they accepted.

Not only that, they created a religion, a faith around their savior, worshipping the King of Shadows as if he were a God. They built Greek-style temples for him in the middle of their villages, which they call Poli, perform sacrifices in his name and wrote a holybook that collects all their tales and legends, the Manuscript of Shadows. In addition, they exclusively use dark magic as part of their creed.

Dark magic is also used in the Equusian Lands, but with great restrictions and limitations, and it is also very unpopular. This is because using it enough generates physical and mental malformations in the user, only the Umbrum are immune to these side effects.

(Speaking of the Umbrum, many of them moved to Hollowcave as soon as they learned of its existence.)

The Shadowits seek out and embrace these mutations, celebrating them in their mysterious festivals. It is also thanks to dark magic that they are able to see into Hollowcave despite the lack of light.

Shadowitan culture is based on many other things too, especially faith, but also philosophy, arts, especially literature and architecture, and battle. All always having shadows and darkness as a common point. However, this does not stop the Shadowits from being very respectful towards other cultures and civilized.

Their society is divided into Ágōs or Skhols, organizations that teach and practice a trade, similar to a guild. These teachings vary, from being a monk, to a philosopher or a warrior. But belonging to an Ágō does not mean anchoring yourself to it, a Shadowit can be a member of several Ágōs to have more knowledge. For example, you can be a farmer artist (they somehow preserved agriculture) or a troubadour warrior, there are many possibilities.

Now, turning our attention to their army, we find two main types of forces.

The Black Knights, specialists in melee combat who refuse to use any kind of ranged weapon, instead using dark magic to enhance their physical qualities. The most prestigious in this group are the Black Knight Lords, true and noble warriors with a territory of their own.

And the Enchanters. Powerful dark sorcerers who cast curses and illusions on their enemies. However, their overuse of dark magic drives them mad, so they lock themselves away in high towers until called into battle. And when one of these sorcerers finally becomes a danger to the others, they subdue them with Dark Stone to disable their magic and burn them in a bonfire with black fire, which burns with shadows.

And yes, that Dark Stone is the same material that Chrysalis' throne was made of. For some reason, Hollowedge has quite a bit of that.

Another use that has been given to this stone is to create the Autolyc Armor, which is the armor of the King of Shadows himself, protecting him from all magical attacks. Although this makes us wonder, why can the King of Shadows still use magic, even with his armor on?

From this arises a theory that says that the Shadow's host is a changeling, since the magic of this species is not affected by the Dark Stone. But it is still only a theory and there could be other explanations.

However, this armor is only an accessory for the King of Shadows. Because being in a world of darkness, his powers have reached unprecedented levels. His strength and speed are enormous, he has such a regeneration that few weapons can cause him true damage, in addition to possessing powerful magic and several abilities such as a certain degree of shapeshifting, umbrakinesis, which allows him to control the shadows, including the darkness of Hollowcave, apart from having a general idea of everything that happens in his world, although without details. However, these powers can be weakened if the King of Shadows is outside his planet.

But there is one more thing at Hollowcave's disposal, an awesome tool of incredible power...

The Limbic Gate.

A door that the Shadowits can open and close as they wish, leading directly to Limbo. It is a very powerful tool, but they operate with caution, because through Limbo they could contact other universes. And we already know that that cannot end well.

THE DARK FRATERNITY

Among the many strange qualities of the Equusians, their lack of presence in the warp stands out. Not a weak one, but completely non-existent.

But make no mistake, this does not mean that Equusians are soulless creatures. Their soul simply has no traces of warp energy, but is connected to ÆTHERIUS.

This is a very positive thing for them, as it makes their souls untouchable to the Immaterium's spawns. However, their bodies and minds can still be corrupted and contaminated by warp energy.

When this happens to an Equusian, they become members of the Dark Fraternity, an organisation that brings together various cults to creatures of the Warp, whether a Slaaneshi cult or a Nurgle cult, with the creatures of authority being the leaders of said cults and their close ones.

These cultists or "Fraterns" are, basically, a bunch of hyprocrites, overmelodramatic edgys with emo trends who think they're a huge threat and dangerous villains. When in reality their direct exposure to the warp has turned them into idiots who don't know how to do anything on their own. They make pathetic plans, have ridiculous ideas, don't even know good what they want, and the few times they have a clear objective, they forget it to try to be more "intimidating and dark" instead.

As well as being obsessed with the idea that the universe is a bleak and hopeless existence that doesn't let you be good. All those who are "good" are just hypocrites who lie to themselves, and if they saw the truth like the Fratens did, they would join them, because everyone has a dark side inside them that will take over at some point.

This is what they tell themselves so they don't feel so guilty about betraying the Equusian Lands and doing bad things for stupid reasons.

The Dark Fraternity also claims to hate the Council, the Equusian Lands and everything they stand for. Yet they still have various values from their former lives.

For example, they continue to seek unity by wanting to unite all Chaos-worshipping Equusians into a single organization. Although they do not even call the Ruinous Powers 'Chaos', they refuse to do so, claiming it is an insult. This is because 'Chaos' is associated with Discord, who is an ally of the Council of Creatures, so they prefer to say "The Ruinous Powers", or "The Dark Forces" and "The Dark Gods" instead. However, the rest of the Chaotic warriors see such things as blasphemy or just nonsense.

To them, the Fraternity is nothing more than a useless and pathetic joke, whose members only serve as servants or cannon fodder. Although they don't usually do this either, as they find them irritating and annoying. Not to mention that they find the Fraternity's symbol, a mix of the symbols of the four Chaos Gods and Chaos Undivided, disgusting.

But there is more, as the Spirit of Harmony itself hunts them relentlessly. Ever since the Demona Incident, Harmony has been HORRIFIED at what the Warp could do to an individual and vowed to never let that happen to any creature AGAIN. So she seeks out the Dark Fraterns to redeem them thanks to her powers. Discord uses chaos magic to cause chaos, while to cause harmony, Harmony uses the magic of friendship, which she has a special connection with. This magic does not brainwash the Fraterns to redeem them, as some might think, but rather brings out the best in them, increasing their positive qualities so that they become the best version of themselves. Which, obviously, does not include worshiping daemonic deities.

However, as with everything, there is a limit. There comes a point where a creature's mind can be SO corrupted that not even the purest friendship can redeem it. In this case, the Fratern would simply be disintegrated, although Harmony does not know when some creature has passed this "limit of corruption", so she puts special effort and haste into this task to redeem the Fraterns before it is too late.

Anyway, the Dark Fraternity is terrified of her, because they don't want to be good. So they are always worried that she will appear whenever they are in realspace. Luckily for them, Harmony never enters the Warp. She manipulates realspace, but has no power over the Immaterium, so if she were to enter, she would surely be killed. But she is still a danger to be reckoned with and another reason why the Dark Fraternity is despised by other Chaos worshippers.

There is only one member of this organization who is respected by daemons and other servants of Chaos. Avernus Doomflare, the arsonist of doom and Anadeer's archenemy. A tall kirin who is a mix of his normal state and his nirik form, but his body is also incredibly corrupted by warp energies. He is a proud creature, but not overconfident, although easily angered, who has long since passed the limit of corruption and thus is a monster without hope of redemption, too stained by the Warp.

He has corrupted his body and mind to colossal levels with warp energy, causing him to grow mutations such as several horns and antlers, spikes all over his body, an extra pair of eyes, sharp fangs and claws. His nirik flames have become warpfire, which he can manipulate at will and form two daemonic wings with it.

The origin of this villain dates back to when he was a member of The Followers of Demona, the Slaaneshi Cult that caused the Demona Incident. However, he had many more ambitions than his "brothers and sisters" of the cult. After the incident, he fled to the warp and with its energies, he extended his own life and became what he is now.

The most warp-corrupted Equusian. But not as corrupted as he wants, for his greatest desire and obsession, his final goal, is to become a Daemon Prince at the service of Chaos Undivided. However, because of what has been already said about the equusian soul, this is impossible.

Yet Avernus has never stopped searching for a way to achieve his goal. He has worked alongside demons like Be'Lakor, whom he greatly respects, admires, and fears, and he has attempted to enlist the aid of sorcerers like Azhek Ahiriman. He has earned the respect of other servants of the Gods by not being like the Fraterns. He does not seek equals, but servants. He refers to Chaos properly and takes things seriously. Although this does not mean that they admire or appreciate him. The only ones Avernus can fully count on are the Dark Fraterns themselves.

Because although Avernus is not a Cult Leader, he does have great influence. The Fraterns see him as their greatest idol, and he makes sure it stays that way. However, this respect is not mutual, because like many others, Avernus only sees in the Dark Fraternity, a bunch of idiots without ambition, but perfect to serve him. This is also why, every time someone with a minimum of common sense appears within the Fraternity, Avernus kills them so that they do not threaten his power.

Currently, the Dark Fraternity is... quite inactive, carrying out no attacks against the Equusian Lands and taking refuge in the Warp.