“It was like a nightmare that you can’t wake from. They came from nowhere and in seconds half of us were gone...”
–Jessen Ral, one of the few survivors of the Massacre on Harron’s Hold
The first rumblings of Dark Eldar involvement in Askellon came from the far off world of Harron’s Hold, a minor colony on the very edge of Askellian space. This planet had little direct contact with the Imperium, only visited every few decades by the agents of the Adeptus Administratum to collect tithes. On their last routine outing to Harron’s Hold, they found the colony almost devoid of all life. The buildings and other structures were untouched, with food still on the table in many locations. After searching for hours, the team was finally able to locate a family hidden deep within a cellar, terrified beyond belief. They spoke of nightmarish forms arriving in the middle of the night, taking the townsfolk and disappearing as quickly as they came. A more detailed search revealed small amounts of blood and other signs of fighting, along with a few barbed shards that appeared to be a form of splinter ammunition common to the Dark Eldar. The family was relocated under the orders of a grim, nameless individual for further interrogation and examination concerning their encounter, while the colony was abandoned and “cleansed” from orbit out of precaution.
After the incident at Harron’s Hold, there were no confirmed Dark Eldar sightings or incidents for some time, leading most to believe that the loss of the colony was an isolated incident. Other populations, such as Kalto's, had vanished throughout Askellon’s history, though, and there have been other incidents since Harron’s Hold, leaving many now to believe the Dark Eldar have been more active than previously believed. Their presence in Askelline space is a mystery for xenos scholars, for they are known to hold any region prone to the Warp storms in abject terror. To the Dark Eldar, to be trapped in a Warp storm is to suffer their very souls being torn apart by countless sets of infernal claws and devoured for all time by Slaanesh, their thirsting bane. Some hold that there are a very few who are in fact attracted to it. To beings who have fled Slaanesh for so many long ages and sated every dark urge imaginable, to daringly stand before the oncoming storm is perhaps the greatest thrill of their long lives. Some carry out slave raids and opportunistic attacks right at the leading edge of the Pandaemonium, descending upon frontier settlements and trapped void ships and delivering their captives not to safety, but into a brief existence of unbearable pain and degradation.
Ancient Emnity
The differences between the Dark Eldar and their craftworld brethren have always run deep. The two factions have fought together on many occasions against common foes, but the differences in the core beliefs of each group are usually too great to overcome for any lasting interactions. This holds true for the Eldar factions operating in the Askellon Sector. Both groups of Eldar have scoured the sector looking for any signs of lost technology. The Dark Eldar are intent on undermining their kin in all endeavours in order to gain access to these relics before they do, and have gone to great lengths to make this happen. They have even employed a number of human mercenaries to aid in their schemes, working through intermediaries to hide their involvement and presence. These individuals spread false information and cold trails for the Aeldari of Unknown to pick up, moving them away from any real leads the dark ones discover.