"Their howls turn even the bravest sailors stark white, spearing their souls like a lance through the heart."
- —The deathly Syreens of the sea.[1]
A Syreen
Syreens are powerful, seafaring Undead spirits that accompany the Undead fleets of the Zombie Pirates.
Role[]
In the dark, dingy taverns of filthy, pirate-infested places like the island of Sartosa, tales are told of the ethereal horrors that haunt the most cursed corners of the oceans. The Vampire Coast of north-eastern Lustria is the most notorious of such places and around its perilous shores and rocky outcrops where many a galleon has met its end, there lurk the ghostly Syreens. They are said to be a form of Banshee that haunts the seas.[1][2a]
With howls that can turn even the bravest men stark white, spearing their souls like a lance through the heart and causing them to die of shock, Syreens are like the Tomb Banshee of the Old World –- tortured souls of evil sorceresses and witches who fear crossing the void to face whatever punishment awaits them for their malevolence.[1]
When a witch is drowned it is said that her soul persists as an anguished shade. The souls of witches reliably take on such ghostly shapes because they fear punishments that await them in the Realm of Morr, or it may be that they are so infused with Dhar that they return as a variant form of Spectres.[2a]
A single Syreen is a horrific thing to encounter, but it is not unheard of for the necromantic lords of the sea to bind them into terrifying groups to serve their nefarious purposes.[1]
The Sarl tribe of Norsca are suspected of throwing petty magic-users into the waves to create stretches of coastline haunted by Syreens. On the other side of the Great Ocean, the Vampire "Arch Grand Commodore" Luthor Harkon is also aware of the necromantic rites needed to create a Syreen, and the mad Vampire Lord seeks witches to drown and bind them to his fleet of the Undead.[2a]
Notable Syreens[]
- The Brine Wife - A Syreen who was a witch killed by the Vampire Lord Luthor Harkon in life, the Brine Wife rules her own island off Cape Ruin in Lustria, drawing nearby ships near with her song.
- Cylostra Direfin - Direfin is an Undead Ghost who is the self-obsessed madame-captain of the ghost galleon Lamprey and a powerful sea witch.
Sources[]
- 1: Total War: Warhammer II (PC Game)
- 2: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th Edition: Sea of Claws (RPG)
- 2a: pg. 145
Gallery[]
![A Syreen as depicted in Total War: Warhammer II.[1]](/wiki/File:Wh2_dlc11_cst_syreens.png "Wh2 dlc11 cst syreens.png (88 KB)")