Dark Eldar background fluff.

[Valkerie]

With the new Dark Eldar codex on the horizon, a question occurs to me. The recent codexes, IG,the various Space Marines, etc., have all had sections on 'The Glorious Battles of the force in the codex."

Given that the Dark Eldar are a fast but lightly equipped piratical raiding force given to hit and run attacks to take slaves and spread terror across the galaxy, what kind of glorious battles will be listed in the new codex?

Here's one of my ideas: Two Dark Eldar drinking and talking together about their missions.

DE1 'Remember when we hit that farming settlement on Aksarben last month? The one we hit in the middle of the night?'

DE2 'The one where everyone was sleeping and that didn't even have any guns?'

DE1 'Yeah. That's the one. Remember when that farmer came out of the barn with that pitchfork? Boy, was he surprised when we shot him apart with our splinter cannon. Now THAT was a raid.'

DE2 'Oh yeah, good times.'

I'd love to see other's ideas. Just remember, this is BoLS, so keep it PG.

[gwensdad]

In the background, they could create a "prestige" thing where more prestige is gained when a harder target is hit. So in the above example those DE would be laughed at but a group that hit an Imperial shipyard or Ork Kolony would be seen in higher regard-even if they took fewer slaves.

And maybe we'll get a clue in that book as to where a Primarch might be now...

[Sitnam]

And maybe we'll get a clue in that book as to where a Primarch might be now...

There was/is a fairly popular fan fiction of the Black Library forums called Rise of the Tau, In which the Dark Eldar returned Jaghatai Khan to fight in the end battle. Pure fanwank really, but maybe thats the route GW will take. We already know that one Eldar Goddess is still alive from the Chaos Daemons codex.

[Grailkeeper]

I recall reading fluff in a very old white dwarf ( circa second ed- so before there was a codex dark eldar) where it was suggested that the dark eldar sometimes do craftworld eldar's dirty work.

An imperial governor had a necklace made of soulstones- he refused to hand it over to the eldar leading to a conflict in which he was captured. he was then handed over to their "cousins" in Commorragh. He was then tortured for over a thousand years.

This predates bhe dark eldar as a force but I wonder if this type of thing will come up again?

[Old_Paladin]

I recall reading fluff in a very old white dwarf ( circa second ed- so before there was a codex dark eldar) where it was suggested that the dark eldar sometimes do craftworld eldar's dirty work.

An imperial governor had a necklace made of soulstones- he refused to hand it over to the eldar leading to a conflict in which he was captured. he was then handed over to their "cousins" in Commorragh. He was then tortured for over a thousand years.

This predates bhe dark eldar as a force but I wonder if this type of thing will come up again?

I've read this; but I'm pretty sure it was for the release of the 3rd ed. Craftworld Eldar mini-dex.
The humans had colonized an world that held an eldar superweapon (a star killer). Everytime they sent a messanger (asking them to leave the planet, asking where the old messanger went, asking for the soulstones back), he killed it and used it's soulstone as a jewel (he didn't know that souls are kept inside them).
They not only captured him, but used the weapon hidden on the planet to cause the star to go nova, destroying the whole system and every human living there, just so the human could never discover the weapon (which no humans even had a clue was hidden there).
I found it very interesting; it showed the utterly alien mindset of the whole eldar race very well.

He was also given to the Harlequin, which then gave him to the Dark Eldar. I wouldn't say the dark eldar do the dirty work of the craft worlds; but they don't put up with even the smallest insults to their race either.

[Javin]

I find I really can not understand and thusly, enjoy anything dark eldar. Their fluff - we are twisted so we must kill and enslave. Wow, very original, not at all like.. say Chaos Space marines, Chaos deamons, or Orks. They are fast but delicate with powerful weapons, not at all like say... Eldar or Tau. They make no sense fluff wise.

They only have a few planets are far as I know. Dark Eldar are not players on even a systems wide scale, let along sector or larger. I do not really see the purpose of adding this race into 40K. I know most 40k factions were directly copied off of fantasy but seriously, Dark Eldar?

[eldargal]

In my opinion the problem with the DE fluff is it went too far into sadism. DE do what they do (harvest souls) to protect themselves from Slaanesh. I think DE would have been far more interesting if a hidden sense of self loathing had be en hinted at. The Dark Eldar know what they are doing is perverse and verging on Slaanesh worship but they can't stop themselves. Too desperate and too scared of Slaanesh and too far gone down that path to turn around and become good little Craftworld Eldar.

I find I really can not understand and thusly, enjoy anything dark eldar. Their fluff - we are twisted so we must kill and enslave. Wow, very original, not at all like.. say Chaos Space marines, Chaos deamons, or Orks. They are fast but delicate with powerful weapons, not at all like say... Eldar or Tau. They make no sense fluff wise.

They only have a few planets are far as I know. Dark Eldar are not players on even a systems wide scale, let along sector or larger. I do not really see the purpose of adding this race into 40K. I know most 40k factions were directly copied off of fantasy but seriously, Dark Eldar?

[Nabterayl]

In my opinion the problem with the DE fluff is it went too far into sadism. DE do what they do (harvest souls) to protect themselves from Slaanesh. I think DE would have been far more interesting if a hidden sense of self loathing had be en hinted at. The Dark Eldar know what they are doing is perverse and verging on Slaanesh worship but they can't stop themselves. Too desperate and too scared of Slaanesh and too far gone down that path to turn around and become good little Craftworld Eldar.

Quoted for truth.

[Freefall945]

What Eldargal said. Too much sadism, not enough... well, depth, I guess.

There's a portion in the DE codex somewhere where it is suggested that Dark Eldar torment people for, amoung other reasons, to torment Slaanesh. After all, they are causing pain, and pain is the opposite of pleasure, and that logic works for a couple of seconds...

...Until one thinks about it even a little bit, and it becomes pretty clear that if you're getting your rocks off by torturing folk (and they are) then Slaanesh probably AIN'T too annoyed.

[Nabterayl]

In my mind the thing that makes the dark eldar tick is that they're scared. I don't have a problem with the sadism; I think that's a key component, but it's only one. The tragedy of the dark eldar in my mind is that they really do genuinely enjoy their sadism, and their genuine enjoyment of that sadism has birthed (in part) a monster that hungers for their souls and who views their sadism as worship.

So the dark eldar are, in a way, like sad little addicts. They love their torture and snuff porn, and they don't want to be devoured by a warp-monster. Except that their torture and snuff porn attracts the warp-monster. But the warp-monster can be put off by feeding it other souls, so they ramp up the torture and snuff porn in order to harvest souls in order to fend off the warp-monster, which attracts the warp-monster, which forces them to ramp up the torture and the snuff porn.

So they're stuck ... that which they love draws that which they fear, and even if they wanted to stop doing that which they love, it's too late - they had a chance to run, and they didn't take it. And as the monster slavers at their doorstep and what was once a pleasurable game turns to ashes in their mouths, they don't know what to do other than to continue the self-destructive cycle of fending off the monster by giving it what it wants. That's the desperation and the futility that underpins the dark eldar psyche in my mind, and transforms their sadism into something pathetic and interesting. You almost feel sorry for the things.