It is not enough to be fast, to be the best. No … We need more precision and discipline. The speed of the attack is only an artifice that allows to overcome the nuisance which may cause us the target, but the key lies in the accuracy of the coup because that is where lies its effectiveness. And this accuracy is based on strict discipline, because you have to know as much of the body weaknesses of your target as the capabilities of your own body. This is what your Heavenly expects you … and that‘s what I’ll teach you. Jiè Shao, guardian of the Guard Cobra apprentices

Shadows of the Cobra Guard embody a brutal and invisible death. They inspire fear deaf to all members of the empire, from the humblest peasant to the wealthiest lord. Nothing announces the imminence or the nature of their assault; shadows can run their victim with the lightness of a breeze or the fury of a typhoon.
The dignitaries of the Blighted Moon often have two or three of these elite assassins in their suite, ready to give up their disguise and sacrifice if necessary, in a wink. Speed, surprise and terror are the hallmarks of strikes conducted by these secret warriors.
Shadows of the Cobra Guard are selected from the best promptings of the Moon Blighted. Their training even further than the murmurs of form in the murder of all kinds but also acrobatics. The hardest part, however, is not to learn to bend his body to his will or to dress up as a member of the opposite sex: a shadow must first disappear from the world of the living. Their death is simulated during the suicide attack which is the final test of their initiation. Their only family is the empire and the satisfaction of accomplishment, their only reason for living. They lose all their rights; until they forget their names and dates of their existence.
For all these reasons, tradition demands that the shadows of the Cobra Guard wear a mask. The individual gives way to function: to kill.