Sha'vakan marauders

The Sha'vakan Marauders were a loose ethnicity of Sangheili pirates most active during the Primeval Period.

Culture and society
The Sha'vakan were known for their obsessive acceptance and adaptation of technology. They willing to dissect and apply it to any need they could envision, and only Forerunner god-machines were given some limitations due to their rarity and ethical taboos in some clans. Technical proficiency was present in most individuals, as were cybernetic implants. Resource limitations meant that the more extensive ones that replaced or were incorporated into their limbs were limited to elders or celebrated heroes. The specialists that manufactured them, or those who devoted their lives to the upkeep of a ships, were deeply respected in Sha'vakan society.

Given their criminal livelihood and their communal living conditions, the Sha'vakan were inclined to obeying only those they personally knew and respected, and had no concept of universal laws. Their desire to carve their own path in life meant that each degree of separation weakened the loyalty a given lord could command over a given faction. For this reason, alliances were fleeting and clans frequently broke apart over minor disagreements, making it impossible for a Sha'vakan state to stay unified for long - indeed, none had ever existed.

Their reputation for madness and barbarism originated from the challenges of deep-space living, where resources had to be tightly-rationed and every person had to pull double or triple weight to survive. This contributed to a core Sha'vakan belief that roughly translated as the "Great Cycle" in their language. All materials, energy, and spirits were reassembled at the end of their lives to create and aid future generations. Sadly, this meant that there were few clans that respected the dead, and reports of cannibalism (though exaggerated) were not unknown during trying times. Nor did they keep prisoners, as the burden they presented to the rest of the clan could not be sustained for long.

Like all Sangheili clans at the time, the Sha'vakan had a strong connection to their past and traditions. Skills were often passed on from generation to generation, with only the most necessary or treasured knowledge stored aboard the databanks of their ships.

The Sha'vakan raiding style relied heavily on their use of ramships, which were crudely-built, one-of-a-kind starships usually adapted from some captured freighter. In spite of their appearance, they were surprisingly fast, and had a reinforced prow to absorb both gunfire and collisions with each. They often laid in wait near uninhabited planets or asteroid fields, where the gravitational interference prevented the use of blinker drives, or mask themselves as derelicts on the outskirts of interstellar jump points, where the pickings were far more abundant. In any case, once their target has been caught and disabled, they would latch themselves to their target and board it. Through a combination of tactics, including combat, deactivating airlocks, and filling a ship's ventilation system with toxic substances such as clouds of Subanese crystals, the crew were normally quickly defeated. Should this fail, or a ramship was counter-boarded instead, then traps and fortified positions could be used to defeat the crew that way.


 * Literally "vicious pseudo-cyberpunk anarchist pirates" and considered boogymen by law-abiding Sangheili.
 * Most famous for their ramships
 * These would be fast and very heavily armoured. Weapons would often be minimal to increase speed.
 * Often converted from prizes they captured.
 * Task is to beeline for a target, disable it if possible, and immediately board them. Then, the enemy would launch a counter-boarding action, where they would be thinned out by traps. Or, if they try to hole up, the crew takes bags of blamite microshards and throws them into the ventilation to kill them that way.
 * Has its roots in pre-Skyfall Suban penal colonies. One of the few resistance groups that fought against the return of Sanghelios-based clans (mostly on religious and cultural grounds).
 * Nomad.
 * Often modify themselves with cybernetic enhancements. Getting your first implant is considered a great event.
 * Strictly adhere to a tribal structure, where the captain is in charge of everything. However, like everything Sangheili, successions are heavily ritualised, with each ship having its own bespoke traditions.
 * Somehow always have enough Blamite to spare - these are drawn from third-rate crystals that are considered useless in weaponry.
 * Divided with the War of Beginnings - some sided with the Council of City States, some withdrew themselves from raiding for the duration of the war, some sided with the San'Shyuum, and still others decided to keep raiding as was traditional for them.
 * Initially very successful raiders - the clan navies simply weren't expecting to fight them while they're facing such an overwhelming threat.
 * Those who raid are shunned from Sangheili society, considered traitors. Neutral stations no longer open their docks to them. The name itself becomes associated with this.
 * Mid-way through the war, the Clan Navies, with their superior tech, divert a significant chunk of their fleet to eradicating the raiders. Thanks to Sha'vakan pirate lords often coordinating these actions, they were very successful, and independent Sha'vakan ships would not be seen after 890 BCE.
 * The few survivors either change their names to rid themselves of the traitorous connotation, exile themselves into hidden planetary/asteroid settlements, or have changed so much that the Sha'vakan culture is effectively extinct.
 * Their name is mutated in common Sangheili into something that means "backstabber opportunist"