Dark Eldar Appreciation Thread

Well when you put it that way, it all makes sense.

Okay full disclosure before I start this - DEldar are my absolute favorite faction. Dark Elves are "bad elves." Dark Eldar are something unique, and symbolize one of the best things about 40k. When GW ported Fantasy into the 41st millennium, there was no race in Fantasy that simply became "space orks" or "space chaos" or "space elves." When they made 40k they sat down and thought "How to we explain how these races came to be? And how do they interconnect?" The orks and Chaos gods and dark elves in fantasy exist because orks and gods exist in fantasy, and dark elves do too. The orks in 40k exist because the old ones created them to be an entire society of living weapons, and the reason they eternally fight is because orks are literally made for fightin. Their whole culture exemplifies the nature of bravado and conflict. The Chaos gods exist not just because they had to be there, but because they are the embodiment of the absolute worst emotions and desires of sentient life, that have accumulated in the warp over the eons into a force and will physically destroy the universe the same way those sins spiritually destroy everyone who devotes themselves to them. But I love the Eldar the best.

The Dark Eldar don't kidnap and torture just to kidnap and torture. They do so because pain is literally power for them, because their collective sins created a god that is eroding their very souls the same way their addictions corrupted them. If they don't kill and torture and experience the true heights of emotion, they wither, they die, and then they are doomed forever to eternal torment themselves. If they subject other life to pain, then they can live forever, even come back from the dead. But they have to keep doing it. They have to orchestrate greater and greater blood baths, and more convoluted atrocities just to feel something and stave of ennui, the curse of a people accustomed to ecstasy. And so they kill, and torture, and slaughter.

That story gave me a weird fetish or two.

But it's never enough. They are only ever staving off the inevitable, and no matter how many individuals they gruesomely destroy, they will never satisfy the all consuming hunger inside them, and they are never going to be able to evade a god. There is a screaming pit awaiting each and every Dark Eldar, and the only chance they have to avoid it is to give themselves wholly over to the actions that doomed them in the first place. The Dark Eldar belong in 40k because they are a species that tortures and slaughters because it has a biological need to. They are a species that didn't merely get away with atrocity, they are a species that is empowered by it. They aren't pathetic - they are a whole people which has a tangible material benefit for being atrocious, but they have gone past the point of no return. They could maybe join up with those Craftworld aesthetics, but even they need soul stones just to avoid falling into the abyss, whereas the Dark Eldar can live forever. But that abyss is waiting for all of them, in the end, and if they don't feed their own hunger then it will destroy them in the end.

Orks are a society ruled by conflict, Chaos a society ruled by base desire, and Dark Eldar - They are ruled by Fear. So they subject every living thing around them to mortal terror, because they live eternally under it themselves, and they have a way to outrun their doom, so they are going to rape, maim, and slaughter, they are going to love every minute of it, and they are going to show no remorse, because they ruined any chance they had to escape their end long ago, and they are so consumed by their sins that they still can't see that they are doomed to begin with. They are fear personified - a people so consumed by evil that they are doomed to eternal suffering, and who have no way possible to change it.

Or they can be cool guys and join the Ynnari and make the afterlife a moot point

I never said they were a rational people. Plus a nation of egotists aren't going to commit suicide just to give up their individuality. But I haven't been keeping up with that Ynnari stuff.

It's not that they're giving up their individuality, it's that Yvraine prophesied that the proper way for Eldar to live is to go through a cycle of life as Craftworlder, Commorite, and Corsair. Possibly exodite and Harley as well, but the point was to live a holistic existence.

Excellent posts user

This was also what I loved most about them but then they changed their fluff to be test tube babies and the ability to regenerate from a pinky.

They were much better when they were just a damned race that needed to torture a soul before eating it like vampires.

Aaaaaaaaand then age of girlymen came along and most Dark Eldar magically became the good guys. Waving their rainbow flag they fought alongside space marines because Chaos is bad.

What the fuck are you even on about, nigga? If anything, DE became even more evil. Decapitator raised a daemonhost, no one trusts fucking mandrakes anymore so they're becoming even more insular and psychotic, Commoragh is infested, the haemonculi are getting even more souls as payment for their regeneration archaeotech, the Black Heart is actually being forced to do some politicking again now that borders have to be redrawn, and now the Incubi are getting ready for a schism between the Ynnead supporters and Khaine loyalists.

And the Ynnari aren't even the good guy faction. Lots of Eldar distrust them and Eldrad.

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I just really love some of the coven art.

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I'm not looking to fuck a haemonculus.

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I just like the fact that the Dark Eldar can fight Space Marines without Power armor or anything like that. I mean, Wychs literally go into battle almost naked with nothing but a weapon in hand and barefoot on almost any planet

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I'm done

Thank you for your cervix.

This is actually a decent metaphor for addiction, i.e. the need for greater doses just to achieve the same high.

Now I almost feel sad for the poor S&M space elves....

To be fair, they use drugs.

DARK ELDAR A SHIT! A SHIT! CRAFTWORLD IS BEST!

Just kidding. Dark Eldar was my first 40K Army ever, back in 3rd edition, so I have a soft spot for the little drug addled elves.

They use drugs that make them able to fight on different worlds without armor or protection? That's even more awesome!

It's never really stated why some of them have gas masks, rebreathers and other seemingly environmentally protective gear and some don't. It's easier to just handwave that DE are able to survive on pain alone.

I think the Dark Eldar would have worked a lot better as actual followers of Slaanesh. Think about it: a splinter group of the Eldar who were so afraid of the god their debauchery spawned and so unwilling to restrain themselves and their passions that they took to sacrificing their brothers and sisters, inflicting horrific torture on all who cross paths with them, and desperately nipping at the heels of "mainstream" Chaos cultists all in panic-induced worship of a literal monument of their sins. Imagine Dark Eldar competing with each other in a ruthless, cut-throat society and frantically trying to claw their way to the top all in the slim, foolish hope that they might achieve Slaanesh's favor and be spared the fate that the rest of their species is doomed to suffer. To me, that makes a lot more sense for them as antagonists and for the setting as a whole than them just being edgy elves who thanks to pure coincidence actually somewhat benefit from doing the exact same shit that destroyed their empire and decimated their species in the first place.

The Dark Eldar as is are probably my least favorite faction. They just don't make any thematic sense when it comes to the story of the Eldar and it's hard to think of things that they offer that the other races/empires can't.

Since you are clearly knowledgeable about this, what are some good books to read to learn more about the Dark Elder?

They're still that. Them being mostly bred in vats and being able to regenerate (if they're wealthy enough to pay a Haemonculus for it and get their remains brought to said Haemonculus before their soul loses its hold on the remains and gets eaten by Slaanesh) is just to justify why they haven't gone extinct due to constant backstabbing combined with low birthrate. The same problem Drow have in DnD, where it was handwaved away with Lolth micromanaging their society as if she's playing a demented version of Sims to keep their numbers from falling too low.

It leads to some interesting concepts that could be fleshed out more. Like the DE consider being able to have children the normal way or being a "trueborn" to be symbols of status, since it implies you have enough wealth and power to do things the slow, inefficient, and dangerous way just to show that you can do it.

The birth thing is probably my favorite thing to play with in my headcanon. If Vect and/or Hesperax each had kids the old fashioned way, that'd be a *huge* deal in DE society. AFAIK they don't have any offspring.

In Rogue Trader RPG, they can, at least for a shor period of time, at high enough rank. One of the abilities the playable DE can get lets them spend pain tokens to temporarily get the trait that makes them immune to environmental effects, like heat, cold, or lack of oxygen. It only lasts for a few rounds, but a DE PC could theoretically jump naked out of a ship's airlock and survive if they're hopped up on pain.

Vect might, as far as we know. It's known he has multiple mistresses (lady Malys used to be his favourite before he got bored of her and dumped her, which si why she hates him), so for all we know he could have had children with some of them. I'd say its very likely that he has, given how having trueborn children is a big status symbol.

Lelith, very unlikely since I can't see her taking a break from gladiating for the several years it'd take for her to have a child. Although Lelith being Lelith, I'm quite sure she wouldn't have any difficulties dodging bullets and decapitating terminators with a butterknife even when the equivalent of 9 months pregnant.

>Lelith, very unlikely since I can't see her taking a break from gladiating for the several years it'd take for her to have a child. Although Lelith being Lelith, I'm quite sure she wouldn't have any difficulties dodging bullets and decapitating terminators with a butterknife even when the equivalent of 9 months pregnant.

Isn't DE and normal Eldar pregnancy something like 2 years? Even more impressive. Hell, the tickets to see her fight in the arena while pregnant would cost nothing short of a small moon of slaves.

I don't think it's ever been specified exactly how long it lasts except it taking several years.
I'd definitely pay good money to see that, though (where's a drawfag when you need one?)

Can you imagine a DH game where you find yourself stopping a Corsair and when you go to interrogate him he bemoans the fact he won't get to see Lillith fight because she's pregnant. To your characters immediately it probably wouldn't mean anything unless you had some Forbidden lore about dark eldar but man that would be a fun bit for the players.

lelith is a cutie

Dark elves > Dark eldar

But don't forget that resurrection doesn't work all that well - Dark Eldar that do it too much lose significant parts of their memory or skills.

whats the story behind this?

1d4chan.org/wiki/Hesperax's_Pet
Happy fapping.

Lot of her official art looks kind of bad, though, especially as she is supposed to be very attractive.

At last someone acknowledges my genius! But ohhh, sin friend, honestly, by far the BEST Warhammer story about DEldar is "A Cage, Shattered." It's a fanfic, and I found it on 1d4chan. >1d4chan.org/wiki/Story:A_cage,_shattered
And the pdf if you like.
>1d4chan.org/wiki/File:A_Cage,_Shattered.pdf?page=7

>what's not to love
The horrifying torture and slavery?

Really? Honestly I think it works better without Chaos. I mean, it infuriates me that there are no Chaos anything besides human-borne ones, but I think DEldar have a better background as hating Slaanesh. It makes sense that the people that so arrogantly considered their pleasure more significant than the lives of everyone they were torturing before the fall wouldn't bow to a god. If they were so self-absorbed before then, it probably came as a massive slap in the face when their addictions created a bloody god with an unbreakable claim on their souls, so instead of bowing down, they save face and try to cheat her, all the while feeding her with the torment they inflict as much as themselves. They think themselves above Chaos, but more than anyone they are the real slaves, and Slaanesh cares nothing for them because she's already got their souls, what does she care if they actively worship her by name if they already do by action?

Good read, although it suffers a little from pic related at the beginning.

Oh, your not familiar with Eldar much at all? If that's the case mate really I just recommend going on Warhammer 40k wiki and reading the "Dark Eldar" article. The story is really good for seeing how Deldar work in something narrative but if you want to get something comprehensive then the wiki is the easiest way to do it. Not lexicanum though, that seems to be less thorough as far as story stuff goes, at least from what I've seen

Mm, what do you think about the Black Guard mate? Do you think they are compelling enough storywise? I mean, GW always hinted at Ynnead but I always thought the point was to leave it as a glimpse of possibility in the background to justify having wacko Phoenexes killing their own race as they go extinct because they found some desparate hope in avoiding extinction through it (somehow). Even then I think most Dark Eldar are still too selfish to put their lives of rape and torture aside for any higher calling.

I think the main draw for DE joining the Ynnari is that they offer a way to avoid Slaanesh sucking up their soul bit by bit without having to become an aescete with self-inflicted autism or a space-amish. That and Commorragh experiencing a particularly bad daemon invasion and their whole society being in turmoil so many chose going with Yvraine over staying and getting killed by daemons or in the fighting to fill the power vacuum.

The DE followers of Ynnead probably aren't in it for a higher calling, aside maybe for the Incubi who are odd by DE standards anyway, but simply because they offer a way to avoid Slaanesh without being forced to abandon their old lifestyle. The non-DE Ynnari then just channel their murderous tendencies towards useful ends, and probably hope to eventually wean them off the whole murder-raping habit, given enough time.

why, she looks cute in that pic :3
well eldar should be elegant by motion, that cannot be shown in picture

Fuck off dude, nobody even posted about sex with deldar until you appeared.

You make a show of getting triggered over nothing in every fucking thread. We all know you're the same guy because you post the same shit over and over.

Here, have some Beckjann to soothe your crispy anus.

I just like them because they're Space Pic Relateds.

Unf, I know I would.