Who the fuck are the Eldar
Posted: Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:13 pm
And why does the corpse emperor hate them?
The Aeldari or the Eldar as they were long known to outsiders, are an ancient and highly advanced species of humanoid xenos whose vast empire once extended the width and breadth of the known galaxy.
In its time, the Aeldari Empire was without equal in the galaxy, spreading across both realspace and the Webway. They counted themselves masters of the stars and every Aeldari was born a potent psyker, their abilities often used to both create and power their almost magical technology.
Even death was no barrier, for when the Aeldari's spirits eventually left their mortal bodies they dissolved peacefully back into the Immaterium to be reborn again in new forms, for the Warp did not thirst for Aeldari souls then as it does today.
But ten millennia ago, the Aeldari's overweening pride and their fall into amoral and hedonistic practices led to a cataclysm that all but eradicated their kind and resulted in the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, known as "She Who Thirsts" to the Aeldari.
Despite their boundless power, the heart of their civilisation was torn out by this catastrophe of their own making, forcing many of the surviving Aeldari to pursue different strategies for survival to protect their souls from being consumed by She Who Thirsts. These strategies have shaped the nature of the surviving Aeldari cultures.
In the 41st Millennium there are five major sub-cultures or kindreds of the Aeldari species: the Asuryani or Craftworld Aeldari, the Drukhari, the Harlequins, the Exodites, and the Ynnari.
There are also bands of independent Aeldari who survive by raiding other species' shipping and commerce, many of whom are Asuryani who have left the often rigid and confining culture of their people behind. They are known as the Asuryani Outcasts and the Aeldari Corsairs.
The Asuryani fled the original homeworlds of the Aeldari Empire in great, continent-sized starships called craftworlds. These craftworlds are now scattered across the galaxy, only connected to each other by the labyrinthine corridors of the Webway. The Asuryani seek to protect themselves from the hunger of She Who Thirsts through the use of a soul-capturing psychocrystalline technology known as Spirit Stones and a rigid code of behaviour called the Asuryani Path.
The Drukhari are the descendants of those Aeldari who originally settled within the Webway, particularly the ancient city of Commorragh. The Drukhari protect themselves from the hunger of Slaanesh by following what the Asuryani call the "Path of Damnation"; these piratical people revel in the physical and emotional pain of others, for feeding upon the psychic residue of suffering is the only way they can stave off the slow consumption by She Who Thirsts of their own souls.
The Harlequins are the servants of the Aeldari Laughing God Cegorach who fled into the Webway at the time of the Fall of the Aeldari and were protected from the thirst of Slaanesh by their god's power.
The Harlequins are the keepers of the Aeldari repository of Chaos knowledge known as the Black Library and they are the only Aeldari who still move freely among all of the other factions. Their purpose is to maintain among their fellows the knowledge of the Aeldari mythological cycles that form the foundation of all Aeldari culture.
The Exodites are those Aeldari who fled the ancient homeworlds before the Fall and chose to settle on verdant, unsettled planets known as Maiden Worlds. The Exodites are protected from the soul-thirst of Slaanesh by unifying their souls upon death with the World Spirits of their home planets and from the darker impulses of the Aeldari psyche by pursuing lifestyles marked by more hardship and less labour-saving technology than any of their brethren.
The Ynnari, also called the Reborn, are a religious sect of Aeldari drawn from all of the other factions who serve the partially awakened Aeldari god of the dead Ynnead. Led by Ynnead's high priestess and chosen prophet, Yvraine, the Daughter of Shades, the Ynnari came into existence just before the birth of the Great Rift and the start of the Era Indomitus.
The Reborn seek nothing less than the full awakening of Ynnead, who will then do battle with Slaanesh, destroy the Chaos God and restore the Aeldari people to their lost greatness. Ynnari no longer need fear Slaanesh's thirst, for upon death they become one with Ynnead.
I am personally a fan of the Harlequins, as they remind me of the clown from ss13