- "We follow our own path. Be it for profit, for the Emperor, for Chaos, or for nothing at all. We have true freedom from all."
- —Kondo Madora
The Dream Eaters are a mercenary warband under the leadership of Kondo Madora. Located in the Singul Sector, and leading members of the Singul Brotherhood, the Dream Eaters have been highly active since the Horus Heresy. Starting off as Kondo's personal guard, the band grew into an army over the course of the Heresy, and made up of heretics, traitors, sellswords, mutants, pirates, and even xenos, the Dream Eaters grew into a powerful force as time past. Since those ancient days, the warband has come to form a power threat to the Imperium's fringe worlds, and as of recent, even mighty hive worlds in the galactic east are in danger of be attacked by this mighty army. What goals the Dream Eaters have are many, and whether or not they will pursue them is unknown to all.
History[]
- "Look at how far we have come. We have our armies, our own empire, our own will, and our own power. We are self-made out of the stew that is this wrecked galaxy, and we did it for we could!"
- —Speech given by Rigel Canis
Early History[]
Following his decision to explore the space beyond the Xyon Directorate in M30, Kondo Madora left his home with only a small ship, the clothes on his back, and the determination to follow his own path in the vastness of the galaxy. He opted to see what he could with the little he had and found himself visiting the isolated human worlds during the Age of Strife. He joined a group of pirates that had established themselves in the region of space known as the Maelstrom, seeking to make a name for himself. Kondo's arrival was considered a gift from beyond, as the pirates he had joined, known as the Darkstar Cosairs, where suffering from a local conflict in which they were losing. Kondo took charge after the captain of the pirates was killed in a skirmish with the local warlords. He reorganized the bands of robbers into a professional military force almost overnight, and fought off a number of attacks that resulted in the corsairs' first victory in years.
The pirates were grateful to Kondo and his timely arrival that prevented their destruction, and declared him their permanent leader. The Darkstar Cosairs began their new role as rulers of their solar system, and had great dreams for their plans for the future. Kondo had their ships retrofitted with Xai'athi FTL nodedrives so they could begin taking over nearby systems as well. The young pirate armada went from system to system, conquering and destroying as they grew. By the turn of the millennia, the Darkstar Cosairs had made a name for themselves as iron-willed conquerors, and were collecting tribute from over fifty worlds. However, their days as the hegemonic power near the Maelstrom would be numbered, for a larger and more powerful force was on its way to bring the light of their Emperor.
Surviving the Great Crusade[]
The Darkstar Cosairs were living the high life for more than sixty years, and were the proprietors of their own little empire. However, their glory would be short-lived as the Emperor of Mankind and his forces went about reuniting humanity forcibly. Kondo was aware that this would not be a battle the Darkstar Cosairs, despite their recent conquest, could win. However, he did not act on that acknowledgement. Whether this was deliberate or a poor act of judgement on his part he has stated, regardless, it would cost his organization dearly. In late M30, the fleets of the early Imperium of Man arrived, and demanded Kondo and his corsairs to bow to the authority of the God-Emperor of Mankind. Unaware of the actual extent and power of the Imperium, Kondo's men refused, and attacked the Imperial expedition fleet, driving them off, but making an irreversible mistake. They would find out to late what that mistake would cost them.
The Imperials would return shortly after the attack, but not as the invaders. Instead, the Imperials would be defenders for a short time, for Kondo had made yet another poor decision to invade the Imperium, and punish them from making demands of the Darkstar Cosairs. Thankfully for him and his group, the Imperium did not respond with Space Marines, who busy elsewhere in the galaxy. Instead they sent a force of the Imperial Army, which by itself was larger and better equipped than the entire force of the Darkstar Cosairs. The corsairs were forced back to their worlds, and worst still, they were forced back to their homeworld. The Imperial Army besieged the planet, and sent down troops to crush the resistance, and end the pirate threat there once and for all.
As the Imperial bombarded his fortress on the surface, and killed his men as they retreated across the planet, Kondo recognized that he and the corsairs could not survive where they were, and needed to leave immediately. Choosing only his most loyal soldiers and allies, Kondo and the leadership of the corsairs boarded their only operating vessel, and fled their homeworld. Behind them, the organization watched as their empire crumbled under the might of the Imperium. As they left, they watched as the Space Marine Legions they had heard of entered their little empire, and annihilated the forces still loyal to them. Outraged, the survivors swore that they would never forget the Imperium's destruction of their empire, and would return to fight them in the future. However, until then, the corsairs needed to go into hiding.
The Horus Heresy[]
As the years passed, the corsairs had not forgotten their defeat at the hands of the Imperium. Having rebranded themselves the Dream Eaters, they planned to destroy the dreams of the Imperium to rule the galaxy unopposed and without any fears of an external or internal agressor. The Dream Eaters would be ruthless in their devotion to avenge themselves and their fallen brethren, but could not do so less the whole weight of the Imperium fell upon them like a lead weight. Instead, the group travelled the galaxy looking for recruits, those who had lost everything in the Imperium's mad drive to conquer the galaxy. Kondo was able to get his sisters Shyama and Ibada Madora, both of whom had run into troubles of their own, and Kondo's timely intervention as always, had saved them. They as well as many other individuals, would serve to make the Dream Eaters into a lethal force that would stand against the Imperium in the future.
In 007.M31, the favorite son of the Emperor had turned to Chaos, and plunged the Imperium into civil war. The time the Dream Eaters had been waiting for had come, and they had more than enough time to prepare. Kondo and his advisory council agreed the it was time to strike, and later that year, decided to join the fighting on the side of the traitors. The Dream Eaters along with hundreds of other armies marched alongside the Arch-Traitor Horus, and burned and ravaged worlds unnumbered to this day. The Dream Eaters returned to their home sector as conquerors rather than liberators, as they found that their former subjects had been ungrateful for the group's "benevolent" rule, and they burned the planets to cinders. With no home to return too, they opted to continue their drive to take Terra with the traitor armies, and make the Imperium suffer.
During the Battle of Terra, Dream Eater forces fought beside the armies of Horus and his supporters, and were even fighting during the attack on the Imperial Palace. Kondo was delighted to hear that Horus had engaged the Emperor, but was again aware that something was amiss. He knew that the worst was going to happen, and rather than ignore that feeling as in the past, he accepted it, and ordered his troops off the planet, past the blockade, and into the Eye of Terror. As he would soon discover, the traitors had lost, and Horus was wiped from existence by the Emperor. Droves of traitor marines, Dark Mechanicus, and various other groups, entered the Eye of Terror to escape their Imperial pursuers. With their only chance of destroying the Imperium gone, the Dream Eaters realized that they needed to accept their new position, and adopt a new way of life.