Commorragh, the Dark City, isn’t one place so much as a patchwork of realms stitched together inside the Webway. Each district, spire, and satellite port has its own rulers, its own dangers, and its own way of feeding the city’s endless appetite for pain and souls.
What Commorragh’s realms actually are
Commorragh started as a Webway port-city during the old Eldar empire, and it grew by swallowing other Webway settlements, private estates, and sub-realms. That’s why it’s better described as a collection of realms than a single city.
Each realm keeps some independence. Kabals, Wych Cults, and Haemonculi Covens carve out territory, and the borders between them shift whenever an Archon gets ambitious or careless.
The satellite realms are the far-flung pieces: smaller ports and hidden pockets tied to the Dark City but not physically part of its main sprawl. They give Commorragh reach across the Webway and a place to stash things it would rather not keep at home.
Why the realms matter
Commorragh sits deep in the Webway, the space between realspace and the Warp, which makes it almost impossible to attack directly. That isolation is the whole point, and the realms extend it outward like tendrils.
It’s also the reason the Dark Eldar survived the Fall. The Webway shielded them from Slaanesh’s birth, though not from the slow erosion of their souls. Raiding realspace for victims became the fix, and the realms are the machinery that makes those raids possible.
Politically, the realms are a knife fight in slow motion. Asdrubael Vect, Supreme Lord of the Kabal of the Black Heart, dominates the city, but his grip depends on playing the realms against each other.
Key events that shaped them
An Imperial raid in M35 wiped out much of the old aristocracy, which cleared the way for Vect’s rise. He’s claimed ever since that he founded Commorragh and discovered soul-draining, though he’s the only being old enough to know if that’s true.
In 227.M38, the Ork Warboss Zoggit led hundreds of thousands of Orks through a Webway rift into the port of Blackblood. The Kabals eventually destroyed them mob by mob, but several districts were wrecked. The Dark Eldar still found ways to profit from the mess.
Notable realms and features
- High Commorragh: the capital region and seat of Vect’s power.
- Satellite realms: smaller Webway ports and sub-realms tied to the Dark City.
- Blackblood: a Commorrite port, famously breached by Orks in M38.
- Kabal territories: shifting zones controlled by Archons, Wych Cults, and Haemonculi Covens.
Key facts
- Commorragh is the Dark Eldar capital, hidden deep in the Webway.
- It began as a Webway port-city in M18 and grew by absorbing other realms.
- It survived the Fall because the Webway shielded it from Slaanesh’s birth.
- Asdrubael Vect has dominated the city since around M35.
- An Ork invasion in 227.M38 destroyed several districts.
- The realms include High Commorragh, satellite ports, and shifting Kabal territories.
FAQ
Where is Commorragh located?
It’s deep inside the Webway, the labyrinth between realspace and the Warp. That location is what kept it safe from the Fall and makes it nearly impossible to invade.
Who rules Commorragh’s realms?
Asdrubael Vect of the Kabal of the Black Heart is the dominant figure, but individual realms are run by Archons, Wych Cults, and Haemonculi Covens who answer to him only as much as they have to.
Why do the Dark Eldar raid realspace?
Because Slaanesh slowly drains their souls. Inflicting pain on others tops them up and keeps them alive, so the realms exist partly to launch and support those raids.