- "The primates tried to slay us, and they could not. One cannot so easily extinguish the chosen of the Prince. We live, we thrive, and by the Prince, we shall have our revenge."
- —Unknown Laer
Thought to be extinct millenia ago, the Laer species has survived in extremely small, rare enclaves into the 41st Millenium. Despite the scouts and projections of the 28th Expeditionary Fleet of the Emperor’s Children, the Laer were not localized to a single star system, however their expansion was slow and very deliberate, meaning that only an incredibly small percentile of their species survived Fulgrim’s xenocide. Small and barely colonized bases were all that remained of the depraved xenos, which slowly made their way toward the various Warpstorms in the galaxy, to set up small nests of serpents that continued to worship She Who Thirsts.
History[]
- "You'd think after one little xenocide, they'd take the hint and go extinct. Alas, the universe is full of my brother's unfinished messes."
After the Cleansing of Laeran in the Great Crusade, the surviving Laer remained in hiding, learning for the first time that superior numbers and force were a match for even a society that devoted itself from birth to grave to perfection. Over the millenia, their small colonies grew slowly, defending their remaining civilizations with a viciousness matched only by their own intense obsession with perfection.
The Laer never abandoned their ideals of genetically engineering their species from birth to serve certain functions, and this adaptability allowed them to defend themselves against marauders, other xenos, and other worshippers of the Ruinous Powers. For its part, while Slaanesh clearly cares as little about the surviving Laer as any of its other worshippers, it never withdrew the blessings that it granted.
Through the sponsorship of one of the Great Four, their own tenacity and warpcraft, and ferocious discipline combined with genetic engineering, the Laer Remnant is a small but extremely deadly xenos force, incapable of threatening any of the more established species, but a lethal threat to those that run afoul of them.
Biology[]
- "I have always found these xenos fascinating. They, among all we have encountered, understood the idea of adaptability."
- —Fabius Bile
Laer biology is variable depending on the function it is to serve in society, however it remains true to their racial shape of a four-armed serpent, with a nightmarish, insectoid head. The average Laer is roughly 3 meters in length, and possesses a nearly supernatural degree of agility and toughness. Their genetics are more flexible than others, allowing them to be easily altered by their Fleshcrafters, who have mapped the Laeran genome and all its variations. The standard Laer can be modified for any environment, including the addition of wings, gills and other, more exotic organs.
Unlike many Chaos worshippers, Laer suffer from mutation less than the average heretic. This is not to say that they are in any way exempt from the depredations of their patron’s caress, but skilled surgeons and Fleshcrafters in their number are rather adept at removing unwanted mutations and fixing the genetic codes of those Laer they deemed necessary.
After the fall of their species and the destruction of their homeworld, it is believed that many Laer became Sslyth, and made an alliance with the Dark Eldar. While this is unconfirmed, some of the surviving Laer have made trades with Dark Eldar Haemonculi, who’s work they view with a professional interest, and vice versa. Through these trades, the Laer have managed to improve their already formidable species even more, and are often addicts of combat drugs.
Society[]
- "Do not speak to me of the depravity of Chaos, little one. Perhaps your kind are too weak to bear the blessings of the chosen. Perhaps your kind should have been content to remain prey."
- —Laer Duelist
Laer society is marked by two things, an intense obsession with perfection and intense paranoia. The second of these things was born with the Emperor’s Children’s xenocide of their home system, which left the survivors incredibly cautious and xenophobic. Laer view cultures weaker than them with contempt, and at times will take slaves and playthings from them. They tend to hide from more powerful civilizations, having remained off the radar of the Imperium of Man for more than ten thousand standard years. Laer view humans with a cold, seething hatred that lasts even into the modern day, and when humans of any kind fall into their clutches, they die slow, agonizing deaths after months of torture and experimentation.
Laer society is broken into a strict caste system where every Laer is assigned a duty from birth, and spends their lives perfecting themselves in both mind and body to most efficiently achieve this duty. Because of this, Laer society is fiercely streamlined and disciplined, as seen when they inflicted immense casualties on even Fulgrim’s personal fleet. The Laer have never considered that their culture or practices were to blame for their fall, seeing it as brutish and disgusting primates arriving to sully their perfect vision of utopia.
Despite all this, the Laer focus on perfection has made their society something truly breathtaking. Technology is the hallmark of Laeran culture, and worlds that are colonized by the serpents are known for incredible machines, breathtaking, grotesque beauty and works of art as hypnotic as they are haunting. Laer take great pride in their Slaanesh-tainted art, and often create large temples and exhibits to house these blasphemous masterpieces.
Despite being open and enthusiastic worshippers of Slaanesh, the Laer are fairly high-functioning, as far as Chaos worshippers go. With strict discipline and and an inbuilt caste system, with every Laer serving its function in each enclave, the Laer have managed to reach an equilibrium, worshipping Slaanesh while resisting the usual depravity that causes societies to implode. Laer see Chaos worship as a perfectly reasonable way of life, one that has never backfired before the nascent Imperium set its eyes on them. While worship of the Dark Prince does not seem to end itself to focused, disciplined work, Laer are altered neurologically upon the choosing of their caste. Their pleasure centers are stimulated whenever they perform the task they were created for.
The more decadent and debauched activities of the Pleasure God are reserved for festivals, which serve the mutual function of recreation and reproduction, as following the ritual orgies, Laer tend to lay braces of eggs that will become the new generation of their kind.
One thing deeply ingrained into Laer culture, is that they will never reveal the existence of the rest of their race to their enemies, the only thing that allowed them to survive into the modern age. Every Laer enclave will fight silently to the death, content to let their enemies believe that they have been rendered extinct.
Technology[]
- "To a Laer, there is no distinction between technology and art. Each work is a masterpiece, poetry of steel, silica and sorcery."
- —Laer Forgemaster
- —Laer Forgemaster
Laer technology is both extremely efficient and lethally effective, befitting their culture. Their cities usually utilise casual anti-gravitic technology to create floating, gorgeous, alien paradise cities. Laer aesthetics insist that each of their cities be a perfect work of art as well, to better glorify Slaanesh. In ten thousand years, Laer technology has improved exponentially since the early days of the Horus Heresy, becoming roughly comparable, if still inferior, to Eldar technology. Like the Krylithids, Laer see no problem with using Warp energy in their creations, and many of their weapons look elegant, beautifully made, and often sporting some kind of grotesque and unsettling organic component.
In the theater of War, Laer have mastered energy weapons, creating handheld weapons that fire beams of exotic, Warp-tainted antiparticles, capable of rupturing and vaporizing Ceramite on contact. Like Noise Marines, Laer are masters of Sonic Weaponry, and have created devices that outstrip the bastardized versions used by the Third Legion. Many heavier weapons of the Laer involve discordant, Warp-twisted harmonics, and their greatest weapons can focus their twisted symphony into a blast of sound capable of molecularly discorporating those caught in it.
Despite their advances in ranged weaponry, like the Emperor’s Children, the Laer have a great respect for duelist culture, and dedicated, genetically augmented Laer duelists can wield four sets of mastercrafted power-blades and are fast enough to keep up with an Eldar.
As mentioned, Laer are also masters of genetic engineering, and warrior-dedicated Laer are incredibly agile, tough and strong, usually adapted to thriving in whatever environment they find themselves in.
Laer ships are small, elegant, and have an organic layer of Warp-hardened, serpentine scale tissue for armor. They are capable of Warp-Travel, though they work more slowly than the Imperium, as precision-minded Laer only use the safest and most precise Warp channels.
Allies[]
Laeran are very slow to trust, and hesitate to ally themselves with other races. With their population in decline and extinction nearing, however, the serpents have seen fit to establish relations with other xenos species.
- Eldar - Precursors of the Laer species, the serpents have a complicated view on the Eldar. On one hand, they hold the species in great respect for giving birth to She Who Thirsts, however, they also hold them in contempt for rejecting Chaos. Laer are obviously not open about their religion around the Eldar, and generally give them a wide berth, unless they can get away with feeding a few souls to Slaanesh. They even occasionally pass themselves off as Sslyth, working with Dark Eldar, before sending their ‘masters’ to Slaanesh at a key moment.
- Tau - Laer are open to working with Tau, keeping their religious beliefs to themselves and passing themselves off as xenos mercenaries. They refuse to join the Empire, seeing themselves as the only civilization of any value, but are happy to be hired out to strike at the Tau’s enemies, especially if those enemies include the Imperium of Man. For their part, the Tau see the few Laer that have helped them as a rare, strongly psychic xenos race with strange customs.
- Sslyth - Laer and Sslyth seem like natural bedfellows, however, both groups keep each other at arm’s length. The Sslyth have seen firsthand the results of Chaos corruption on a race, their own world being devoured by She Who Thirsts, as well as the Dark Eldar they serve. The Laer for their part, see the Sslyth as aberrations who have turned from enlightenment and sold themselves into slavery. Nontheless, perhaps because of an affinity for other reptilian races, Laer and Sslyth often ally against common enemies, and the Laer often employ Sslyth as mercenaries and bodyguards.
- Loxatl - Both races of reptilians, both fallen to a god of Chaos, the Laer and the Loxatl have much in common. While serving opposed gods, Laer have often been known to hire the Loxatl mercenaries to aid them, and sometimes even return the favor, though they never make themselves known to the Khornate’s Blood Pact allies.
Enemies[]
- Humanity - Laer view humanity with utter, cold hatred. To them, humanity were primitives who destroyed their perfect world and almost drove their race to extinction. While very aware that they pose no threat to humanity as a whole, the primates are their favorite sacrifice to Slaanesh, and any human who falls into a Laer’s claws is in for a very painful fate. Laer often conduct raids on the Imperium, but these are carried out with the Laer’s signature discipline and effeciency, leaving no one alive to report on their survival.
- Emperor’s Children - The actual instigators of the Laeran Xenocide, Emperor’s Children are the Laer’s true archenemies. Laer see the Emperor’s Children as disgusting, corrupted pretenders to their legacy of Slaanesh, and even worse, they seem to be favored by their goddess. There are some within the Laer that fear that their race was never important, merely a tool to insure the fall of the defiler Fulgrim. Nontheless, the Laer are sure that when the last of the pretenders breathes his last, flayed and mutilated by his serpentine masters, the Dark Prince will turn Her eye fully on the Laer again, to be exalted as His chosen race. The Laer are especially fanatical about retrieving the Laer Blade carried by Lucius the Eternal, viewing it as a treasured relic stolen from them. Recently, they have run afoul of Vritra the Howler and his assembled Slaaneshi, who appear to be bastardizing their ancient temple in order to create a doomsday device. To say that the Laer find this offensive is an understatement, especially considering that they have searched for Incubo, the Wailing World for centuries, believing that the Lavender Serpent who founded it is a Laeran Daemon Prince.
Quotes[]
Feel free to add your own!
- "It is in your vapid, wasteful species' nature to cut down those who exceed you, jealously trimming the fields of perfection. One day, you shall face an enemy that can withstand the avalanche of mediocrity you use as a weapon. On that day, everything you have ever stood for will come crumbling down, and we will be waiting to devour the survivors."
- —Stryszak, Laer Blademaster
- "In the early days of the Crusade, our Legion faced the serpents at their very strongest, and won. On that day, their cities burnt to ash, their temples were broken, and their blood ran in the street. All of this because they had dared to consider themselves more perfect than humanity. 10,000 years later, their broken remnants are unable to overcome even the fractured remains of the Third Legion. I am not terribly concerned."
- "I really hate working with snake-people. "
- —Korkuuz, Sslyth mercenary