Dark Eldar

The Dark Eldar are the forsaken and corrupt kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies, like their Eldar counterparts, usually have the advantages of mobility and advanced technology, though they are often lacking in resilience and numbers. The Dark Eldar revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme. Dark Eldar armies make use of various anti-gravity skimmers such as Raiders and Ravagers to launch high speed attacks. They strike with little or no warning, using an interdimensional labyrinth known as the Webway to traverse the galaxy safely and far more quickly than most advanced races are able to with their Warp jumps.

The Dark Eldar are unique amongst the intelligent races of the galaxy in the sense that they do live on a settled world or worlds within thw galaxy, but rather one dark city - Commorragh - which lies within the "ordered" Immaterium of the Eldar Webway. The Dark Eldar are mainly pirates wh prey on targets across the galaxy, though they are sometimes used as mercenaries by other species.

Origins
The origins of the Dark Eldar can be found in the Fall of the Eldar, the great cataclysm that nearly destroyed the entire Eldar race. It was an event so terrible that not only did it kill trillions of Eldar, but it breached the gap between real space and the Warp, and gave birth to the Chaos God Slaanesh.

To understand the reasons for the Fall, it is necessary to know something of the Eldar mind and soul.

An Eldar's mind is incredibly complex. Their senses are extremely sharp, able to perceive incredible levels of detail. Their emotions can be so strong that a human’s are merely pale shadows by comparison. They are extremely intelligent; their thought processes are much faster than a human’s. All of this means that an Eldar experiences the universe and all its sensations to a greatly heightened degree compared to a human.

Similarly, an Eldar's soul is much brighter in the Warp than those of 'lesser' sentients. Eldar are able to affect the nether-realm of the Warp much more than most other intelligent races. Every Eldar is a latent psychic and has the ability to become a very powerful psyker with training. It is the strength of the Eldar's souls that was one of the causes of their downfall.

Before the Fall during humanity's Dark Age of Technology, the Eldar had an immense galaxy-spanning empire comprising millions of worlds, larger and more powerful than even the Imperium of Man at the height of its power. The Eldar lived in relative peace—barbarian races such as the Orks were kept at easily manageable numbers and never had the strength to threaten the might of the Eldar empire. The humans were not yet virulently xenophobic and did not have a large domain, and the Tyranid Hive Fleets were unknown. The C'tan and Necrons, ancient foes of the Eldar, had been defeated long before and still remained dormant.

Life on the Eldar worlds was idyllic, with fantastically sophisticated machines that took care of all the labour and manufacturing required to keep an advanced society functioning, leaving the Eldar free to indulge in other, more aesthetic pursuits. With all menial work taken care of for them, the Eldar became indolent and decadent. They began to explore more deeply the arts of pleasure, delving ever deeper into hedonism. This descent into decadence spanned millennia. Tradition and order disintegrated as the Eldar pursued the limits of the pursuit of pleasure. Sects called Pleasure Cults were formed, dedicated to achieving the highest levels of hedonistic sensation, and their ceremonies and practices became ever more wild, eventually devolving into violence against one another and even the ritual sacrifice of their own kind. Some Eldar hated what their race had become and left the Eldar homeworlds for the virgin Maiden Worlds, or left on the newly-constructed Craftworlds, leaving the Pleasure Cults to their madness.

Meanwhile, something terrible was stirring in the Warp. The long millennia of Eldar hedonism had made a massive impact in the psychic realm of Chaos. Within the Warp the decadent Eldar civilization was giving shape to a Power of Chaos, which grew and grew over thousands of years, getting stronger and more defined until suddenly it sparked into an intelligence – a shatteringly huge and malign intelligence, with an immense and bottomless thirst for Eldar souls. This was the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh.

The process lasted for thousands of years, corresponding to mankind's Age of Strife, although when Slaanesh finally came into being, the results within the material universe were apocalyptic and sudden. An almighty psychic shockwave scythed across the galaxy. The souls of almost every Eldar were stripped from them in an instant and devoured by the new-born Chaos God. There were few survivors. Most were driven mad, their minds trapped half in the real world and half in the swirling insanity of the Warp. A great Warp rift was created in the material universe, encompassing almost the entire Eldar empire and creating the Eye of Terror.

Of the few survivors of the Eldar Pleasure Cults, some remained sane and able. They found to their horror that Slaanesh had not yet finished with the Eldar – he was slowly draining their souls while they still lived because of the psychic resonance between the Chaos God and the souls of those Eldar who engaged in those activities that fed his power. To escape this fate, these survivors fled in small groups to the Webway, the system of sealed conduits that run through the Warp and enabled the Eldar to traverse the galaxy safe from attack by daemons and other Warp entities. Deep in the Webway, these small groups came together and laid the foundations of the new city of Commorragh. More and more survivors began to arrive, and added their own parts to the new city, making it even larger and more heavily populated.

Some Dark Eldar Kabals can trace their history back to the creation of the Dark City, including Asdrubael Vect’s Kabal of the Black Heart.

Culture
Dark Eldar, like most Eldar Kindreds, make use of advanced technology, including anti-gravity devices, dark matter weaponry, nanotechnology and psychic artifacts. While Dark Eldar do make use of psychic devices, they do not use psychic powers themselves. Psykers are treated as playthings in Commorragh, and given the twisted sadistic nature of the Dark Eldar, this necessarily involves pain and torment for the psyker.

Over time, the Dark Eldar begin to suffer more and more from the Thirst. They develop an all-consuming and ever-increasing need to drink the souls of other beings. It is postulated that the cause of this is the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Great Enemy of the Eldar, who leeches the soul-essence of the Dark Eldar while they still live because of their pursuit of activities that strengthens the power of the Dark Prince. Dark Eldar "drink" the souls of other sentient beings to stave off this leeching - perhaps by sating the thirst of Slaanesh, or perhaps by replenishing the essence of their own souls with that of the consumed one. Slaanesh will also consume the souls of Dark Eldar whole should they die. Dark Eldar are long-lived but not immortal; drinking souls has a rejuvinating effect that reverses aging, thus Dark Eldar need not fear falling into the clutches of Slaanesh due to death from old age, if they have a constant supply of souls. The usual source of souls are those of the many captives taken during Dark Eldar raids.

Gameplay
In the game, many of the Dark Eldar units are similar to the units used by the Eldar army, but twisted to fit in with the darker nature of the Dark Eldar. For example, instead of having Aspect Warriors, Dark Eldar have drug-using gladiators called Wyches. Rather than having their heavy weapons systems transported by walkers or miniature anti-grav floaters, they are carried by specialised Warriors wearing jetpacks - these are called Scourges. The Wraithguard and Wraithlords of the Eldar are replaced with the Talos, a bizarre mechanical weapon which is half grav-tank and half floating torture device, powered by the suffering of the tortured creature bound into its "cockpit".

More than anything, Dark Eldar are known for their speed and fluidity on the battlefield. Almost all of their units are focused on a combination of speed and power. Even the heavy support units, the winged Scourges and the mighty Ravager, are as agile as they are dangerous. The Dark Eldar are capable of completely redeploying their army faster then any other army in the game, thanks to their plentiful transportation. With access to the flying Raiders, the Dark Eldar are capable of delivering their elite close combat units like the Wyches to where they will deal the most damage, and placing plentiful anti-tank weapons where the enemy's armored sections have gathered.

=Dark Eldar Army=

Archon
The leader of a Kabal, a standard Dark Eldar raiding force, the Archon is the most cunning and ruthless of all the Dark Eldar. The reason why the Archon must be audacious and sometimes reckless is because he himself can be ousted at any time for being weak and complacent or failing the Kabal by not sustaining them with souls and slaves. Therefore most of the Archons are surrounded by a retinue of Incubi Bodyguards who are only loyal to him.

Archite
The Archite is a leader of a Wych Cult. They are often supported by a retinue of their finest Wyches, and in battle they lead a Wych Cult rather than a traditional Kabal.

Haemonculi
Masters of torture, Haemonculi are the last thing you want to see when you are a captured slave of the Dark Eldar. Depraved, the Haemonculi think that their torturing is a form of art that issues a chorus of screams and wails of pain.

Mandrakes
Thanks to their Warp-tinged skin the Mandrakes can hide well in the shadows. They will often pop out of the shadows to slay their prey even if the prey itself is another Dark Eldar. They have been known to wear the skins of their enemies as a cloak or robe.

Wyches
The Wyches are Dark Eldar gladiators who fight for survival. Honing their skills in the Colliseums of the Dark Eldar capital of Commorragh, Wyches are fearsome warriors who are used to fighting for their lives. To watch over the Wyches lest they rebel are the Succubi, a group of elite gladiatorial warriors.

Grotesques
The Grotesques are the twisted figures sent to shamble forth towards the Dark Eldar's Foes. While their innate stupidity requires close supervision, it also allows them to ignore small arms fire.

Dark Eldar Warrior Squads
The Dark Eldar are the fastest army in the game and the Dark Eldar Warriors themselves epitomize this by striking fast and killing quick then disappearing with those who are unlucky enough to become their slaves.

Dark Eldar Raider
The transport of the Dark Eldar, the Raider, is the fastest anti-gravitational vehicle known to any intelligent race of the galaxy. Its speed is used to transport Dark Eldar Warriors, Wyches, or even the Dark Eldar Lord to crucial areas where the most harm can be caused, but most of all Raiders are used to haul back slaves that have been captured.

Dark Eldar Hellion
These Dark Eldar ride upon sky boards wielding weapons that enable them to strike then disappear before anyone can retaliate. The hum of their Sky Boards strikes fear upon those few who have survived a Dark Eldar Raid.

Reaver Jetbike
Dark Eldar who ride the ultra light and fast Jetbikes are known as Reavers. Amazingly Reavers are astounding combatants even on their Jetbikes. They are usually seen ahead of the main forces of Dark Eldar sowing destruction and havoc while the bulk catches up.

Dark Eldar Scourges
With their bat-like wings they fly through the night sky and then drop upon their prey sowing destruction and chaos before they jump back into the sky and strike again. Even though Dark Eldar Scourges wield heavy weapons they are still renowned for their speed.

Talos
A creation of the Haemonculi, the Talos have found service on the front lines, powered by the psychic suffering of a victim subject to a multitude of tortures within its armored shell. its victim's agony propels it towards the enemies of the Dark Eldar, not stopping the brutal assault of its vicious claws and stinging tail until it either has no more targets or has been destroyed.