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Elite · Ethereal Undead

Cairn Wraiths

Malevolent spirits of the murderous dead — drifting scythe-bearers that no mortal blade can touch and no wall can bar.

Cairn Wraiths are the bound spirits of the wicked dead, murderers, oath-breakers, and tyrants whose crimes tethered them to the mortal world instead of releasing them from it. Wreathed in cold mist and clutching great spectral scythes, they drift across the battlefield with a slow and dreadful patience, passing through walls, shields, and armour as though such things were smoke. Steel cannot touch them; only magic, or weapons blessed and enchanted, can harm a creature that is already no more than hateful memory given shape. Where a Cairn Wraith passes, the temperature plunges and the courage of living men fails, and its scythe reaps with a chill that stops the heart as surely as any edge. The vampire lords bind such spirits to their armies as executioners and terror-weapons, setting them against the enemy's bravest and best, for there is a particular despair in facing a foe that cannot be struck and does not tire. To see a wraith glide unhurried through a hail of arrows, untouched, is to understand that some deaths cannot be fought, only fled, and the wraith is always faster.

Notable Vampire Counts charactersMeet the heroes and legends who lead this faction.