When voidfarers in the Expanse speak of the fickle and vicious ways of Eldar Corsairs, their tales most often speak of the Corsairs known as the Children of Thorns. Clad in glossy beetle-black armor, the proud and capricious warriors of the Children of Thorns are merciless in combat and are said to slaughter their enemies to the last once battle is joined. It is said that one is fortunate to hear the keening war cries of the Children of Thorns and live to tell of it. The leader of the Children of Thorns is a female who long ago cast herself from the strictures of the Eldar Path to lead her Children of Thorns in bloodshed across the Halo Stars. Her true names long ago discarded, she is now simply known as the Mother of the Shadows. When attacking in the void, the night-black ships of the Children of Thorns prize stealth above all tactics.
Only once they have ensured complete surprise and a perfect position of attack, they strike with ferocity and precision, crippling their prey and leaving the ship reeling and boarded by screaming, dark, and graceful shapes that kill and kill until there is nothing left alive and the prize is theirs. Despite their terrifying reputation, the Children of Thorns have had dealings with a number of Rogue Traders in the Expanse and have even made compacts with a few or fought as mercenaries for a those brave enough to seal such a bargain. It is perhaps these ties that give the Children of Thorns the phenomenally accurate information that allows them to strike at human craft close to the Maw with such accuracy. One or more Rogue Traders have sealed a compact with the Children of Thorns---one paid for in the blood of their rivals.