Dark Eldar & Sun Quenching (minor spoilers)

[eldargal]

Well, anyone familiar with Eldar history knows that the old Empire had the technology to birth and 'quench' suns at will, what we didn't know was that a Dark Eldar kabal claims to still possess this technology. The Kabal of the Dying Sun is famous for its 'wild' claims re this technology, but in their support the sun Echillos suffered presumably rapid deterioration during something called the Aleuthan Persecution.
So what do people think, could a Dark Eldar kabal still maintain such awesome technology or is it just wild boasting? If true, or even if not, it could make for some fun campaign ideas.

[BuFFo]

This is classic story writing where the outcome is left open ended, in which the player can insert what they need/want for a game/story.

I do love GW for this.

[Blackyujiro]

I could see a powerful Kabal still having the technology to do this. But the resources or energy needed for would be so immense that I don't think it would be a "common" practice. I do love the "stolen suns" bit in the new codex, THAT has to be one of the evilest acts I've read about in 40k.

I don't care what anyone else says, Dark Eldar are just plain evil. People can put whatever motive behind their actions that they want, but in the end, these guys are like Bond villians...mixed with a Saw and Hellraiser...on crack.

I can't wait for the 20th to get my 40 Hellions and start playing these guys. >:)

[Old_Paladin]

I find it pretty hard to believe, for several reasons.

Mainly, these weapons tended to be very large. A story I recall in which one gets used, the thing was the size of a small city and anchored deep into the crust of the planet.
There might be several kinds and many sizes, maybe taking a differing amount of time to work.

The other reason is; why are they not a, or the, dominant kabal?
It just doesn't make sense in such a competitive social system, if they have the power to unleach such distruction. If the Kabal of the Black Heart announced they had one, that'd make sense; but a lesser house?

[BuFFo]

How would quenching suns make one kabal more powerful than another? It is not like you can quench suns in the webway, since there are no suns?

[eldargal]

Well, Vect has banned the use of Old Empire technology, so if a Kabal has such a powerful piece that could be why Vect has let them alone. Or, they don't have it and he knows it.:)
It wouldn't really impact on intra (or inter, its too early:mad:) Kabal relations and the suns in the Webway are trapped in their own little thingamies and siphoned for energy. But I can imagine a Kabal contacting a heavily fortified Hiveworld or some such and saying something along the lines of 'Hi, see your sun, watch this, dimmer switch yay! Our slave barges will be with you momentarily, if we do not have one hundred thousand of your strongest men and prettiest women on them within a week, no more sunshine for you'.


I find it pretty hard to believe, for several reasons.

Mainly, these weapons tended to be very large. A story I recall in which one gets used, the thing was the size of a small city and anchored deep into the crust of the planet.
There might be several kinds and many sizes, maybe taking a differing amount of time to work.

The other reason is; why are they not a, or the, dominant kabal?
It just doesn't make sense in such a competitive social system, if they have the power to unleach such distruction. If the Kabal of the Black Heart announced they had one, that'd make sense; but a lesser house?

[Farseer Uthiliesh]

Essentially, you have to shut down - or drastically reduce - the fusion reactions in the heart of the star. That is difficult, because as soon as the fusion process is reduced, the star begins to collapse upon itself which increases fusion reactions (possibly in the outer core area). Possibly ways of doing this include altering the kilovolt threshhold for fusion as per the Maxwell-Boltzmann law, so that it takes greater energies for fusion to occur, or maybe something esoteric, such as creating a webway portal in the heart so that the energy generated escapes the sun. In the latter condition the sun would again collapse, but the increasing pressure would only 'bleed' more energy away. Eventually, the star would become a red dwarf, with most of its mass lost via the portal.

A final process for stellar engineering would be altering the star's opacity, resulting in less energy being released. The star would begin to darken, but there are issues. Our sun has an opaque layer where energy from the core can only travel outward via convection. Radiative energy is slower. Making the mantle and outer layers more opaque would only increase stellar turbulence, resulting in the star swelling and ejecting most of its mass. In this scenario, we'd have a red giant.

You can see that most processes would not be ideal. Bear in mind I'm theorising using modern stellar mechanics and ignoring possible advance/arcane methods.

Oh, the Kabal of the Dying Sun is my chosen Kabal.

[BuFFo]

Essentially, you have to shut down - or drastically reduce - the fusion reactions in the heart of the star. That is difficult, because as soon as the fusion process is reduced, the star begins to collapse upon itself which increases fusion reactions (possibly in the outer core area). Possibly ways of doing this include altering the kilovolt threshhold for fusion as per the Maxwell-Boltzmann law, so that it takes greater energies for fusion to occur, or maybe something esoteric, such as creating a webway portal in the heart so that the energy generated escapes the sun. In the latter condition the sun would again collapse, but the increasing pressure would only 'bleed' more energy away. Eventually, the star would become a red dwarf, with most of its mass lost via the portal.

A final process for stellar engineering would be altering the star's opacity, resulting in less energy being released. The star would begin to darken, but there are issues. Our sun has an opaque layer where energy from the core can only travel outward via convection. Radiative energy is slower. Making the mantle and outer layers more opaque would only increase stellar turbulence, resulting in the star swelling and ejecting most of its mass. In this scenario, we'd have a red giant.

You can see that most processes would not be ideal. Bear in mind I'm theorising using modern stellar mechanics and ignoring possible advance/arcane methods.


Or, the Dark Eldar point a device at a Star, and press a button, and the Star vanishes.

[Faultie]

Or, the Dark Eldar point a device at a Star, and press a button, and the Star vanishes.This was my understanding of it as well.

I presume there is a good bit of devious laughter involved at each step of the process as well.

[bryce963]

I really like the concept behind the Kabal of the Dying Sun, if I were to start an army I would be working on them. I see them as being heavily involved with the Haemonclui with the whole keeping dark technology alive and running.

Maybe raiders with weird guns on them. Big on darklight technology.
Now for colors...
Maybe dark eldar with bright colors? Black as a base, oranges and yellows and dark reds. Sounds like it could be interesting.

[Farseer Uthiliesh]

Maybe dark eldar with bright colors? Black as a base, oranges and yellows and dark reds. Sounds like it could be interesting.

I went with dark green, black chest and shoulders with green highlights.

[Orannis]

Considering the wild theories that the Dark Eldar have on their darklight weaponry, i think it might be that if they have this technology they may not fully understand the workings which is why it hasnt been used.