Spiritseer

A Spiritseer is an Eldar psyker, who walks the Path of the Seer in a specialisation that allow him or her to commune with the souls of deceased Eldar preserved in the Craftworld's Infinity Circuit. In times of peace, the Spiritseers serve as bridge between the living and the dead, ensuring the wisdom of the past remains available to those still able to influence the present. In time of war, the spiritseers entreat the souls of the deceased to empower Wraithguards and Wraithlords, using the deceased to protect their still-living kindred.

History
After their cataclysmic Fall during M30, the Craftworld Eldars started to use both the psychological protection of the Eldar Paths in life and the bulwark of Spirit Stones in case of death to protect themselves from the unwanted attentions of Slaanesh. When an Eldar dies, his or her Spirit Stone is reverently grafted to the Wraithbone core of the Craftworld in the place known as the Dome of Crystal Seers, joining and mingling with the countless already present souls of the past Eldars. The resulting gestalt entity is known as the Infinity Circuit, and is an integrant part of a Craftworld's life, subtly providing guidance to the still-living Eldar dwelling within the Craftworld and protecting them against Warp-spawned perils.

With the souls of the deceased "trapped" into the Infinity Circuit, and with their numbers dwindling rapidly, the Eldars eventually turned to their deceased kin as a source of knowledge, wisdom and in time of dire need energy and assistance. The Spiritseers are those Eldar following the Path of the Seer that specializes themselves in communing with the spirits of the deceased present in the Infinity Circuit.

The Path of the Spiritseer is one of the, if not the most difficult of Paths to walk for an Eldar. Like all specializations of the Path of the Seer, it require the Eldar to call on his or her psychic powers with all the risks it entails. But more specifically, the Spiritseer must have a mental discipline and fortitude beyond pair, for communing with the deceased is extremely taxing. Depending on the spirit's past life and manner of death, it can be cooperative, but often is either unresponsive, racked with grief, jealous of the still living or even malicious, and the Spiritseer must adapt himself to commune with the intended spirit without being refused or even worse, possessed. Another, more subtle danger of this Path is that the Spiritseer must be mentally steadfast enough to alwas ask and never demand from the dead, how dire his need might be. Demanding from the deceased, enthralling them to the living's will is an abhorred practice amongst the Eldar, who view it with the same extreme loathing the humans show to those Sorcerers who practice necromancy, or the use of corpses as thralls to its will. Although the line between Spiritseeing and Necromancy is sometimes very thin, the Spiritseer must always remain aware of his place, and that the dead must only give assistance willingly.

In time of peace, the Spiritseers overview the reverent addition of the Spirit Stones to the Infinity Circuit, and serve as go-between when an Eldar requires the assistance of the dead. In times of war, the Spiritseers beseech the spirits of the warriors of the past to lend their assistance, and install them in specially prepared Spirit Stones that are bound to the war machines of the Eldar. The experience of the dead is a much-needed assistance to the Guardian pilots of the Eldar machines, ranging from the War Walker to the Phantom Titan. If the situation is terribly dire for the Eldar, exceptionally strong spirits can recieve a body of their own, be it a Wraithguard, Wraithlord, Wraithseer or even Revenant Titan with which they can participate in the fighting. The Spiritseers themselves accompany these haunted constructs on the battlefield to heigthen their perception of the material world and focus their perspective, next to the more mundane assistance of their own martial and psychic prowess. The very concept of giving a body to the spirits of the dead is disturbing in the extreme to most Eldars, who consider it no better than true Necromancy despite the careful entreatment of the Spiritseers. It is for that reason that the Eldar reserve the use of undead warriors to those times where their very survival is threatened.

Amongst the Craftworld Eldar, it is the inhabitants of Iyanden who makes the greater usage of Spiritseers and their undead wards. The population of Iyanden has been threatened with total extermination for quite a long time, and the few inhabitants have simply no choice other than to let the dead fight their battles, lest there will remain no living soul in the whole Craftworld. Strike forces composed exclusively of Spiritseers and Wraithguards are a common sight where the Eldar of Iyanden are concerned, to their great dismay. Their collective angst at this situation is actually so strong that it has attracted the attention of their Dark Eldar kin, who have intervened to assist Craftworld Iyanden against an Orkish invasion, just in order to preserve this (to them at least) highly entertaining situation.

Famous Spiritseers

 * IyannaArienal.jpga Arienal - Iyanna Arienal, called "the Angel of Iyanden", is the greatest and nominal leader of Iyanden's Spiritseers. Despite the psychic angst and censure of her kin she constantly must endure, she is steadfast and resolute in her task, and never hesitate to lead squads of Wraithguards into battle, devoting every of her waking moments to the restoration and betterment of her Craftworld.