Aeldari Titans

An Aeldari Titan overlooking the battlefield.

Aeldari Titans are large, bipedal combat walkers produced by the Craftworld Aeldari, the Asuryani. Similar to the lumbering Titans that are the greatest war machines of the Imperium of Man, Aeldari Titans combine grace, speed and deadly firepower.

These tall, slender war engines are built to be aesthetically pleasing as well as fully functional, like all Aeldari technology, and possess a grace and beauty rarely seen amongst the deadly implements of Mankind. Aeldari Titans move with a smooth agility and grace unachievable by the Imperium's Titans.

Revenant Scout Titan

An Aeldari Revenant Scout Titan destroying an Imperial Hellhound during the Battle of Betalis III.

The Revenant is the smallest grade of Aeldari Titan, comparable to the Imperial Warhound-class Scout Titan. All Aeldari Titans are agile and graceful constructs, but the Revenant's compact size allows it to move with a swiftness and smoothness quite simply impossible for the massive war machines of the other intelligent races.

An Aeldari Revenant Scout Titan armed with two Pulsars.

In addition to their speed and agility, Revenant Titans are also well-armed, making them formidable foes. Their primary armament are a pair of Pulsars, immensely powerful laser weapons, although some are instead armed with Sonic Lances.

Secondary armament consists of shoulder-mounted Revenant Missile Launcher, loaded with plasma warheads for defence against infantry. In place of the heavy armor of lesser races' Titans the Revenant is principally protected by an image-distorting Holo-field projected from the Titan's fins which confuse auspexes of all types.

The Revenant also mounts a number of powerful jump jets on its slender frame, turning its movement into a series of drifting leaps, or even gentle floating sweeps over the battlefield. Despite this almost ethereal grace, Revenant Titans are well-armed, powerful adversaries. Their pace, agility and ability to leap difficult terrain allows them to harry the enemy lines in quick scouting raids before disappearing back into cover with the same terrifying speed.

An Asuryani Steersman of a Revenant Scout Titan.

Revenant crews are small, guided partially by the spirits contained within their Wraithbone core, as is the case with all Aeldari Titans. Where the larger Aeldari Titans are sometimes crewed by twins or triplets, the smaller Revenants are often manned by just one member of a pair of siblings, the second of whom will pilot another Revenant, leading to the Titans hunting in packs, psychically linked to one another by the inherent bloodties of their twin pilots.

Incredibly versatile, the Revenant is deployed in a variety of ways. When serving alongside the larger Phantom it can operate in a forward scout role. Its jump jets give it the speed to be deployed in support of assault waves of Asuryani armour, or it can act as extra force support for defensive squads of Guardian militia.

A noted tactic for the Aeldari is to pair their Titans together. Linked telepathically by the blood-ties of their pilots or "Steersmen," they always fight side-by-side.

Paired Aeldari Titans often have joint names. Long and complex by the standards of the Imperium's Titan Legions, these war machines bear elaborate titles which when translated from the Aeldari Lexicon into Low Gothic read as Hearts Armoured for Battle, Eagles Born of Flame, Revenge upon Ancient Wrongs, Guardians of the Gates of Infinity, and Protectors of the Fallen.

Phantom Titan

An Aeldari Phantom Titan armed with a Pulsar and a Titan-grade Distortion Cannon on its arm mounts.

Aeldari Titans are very different from the machine-constructs of the other intelligent races of the galaxy. They benefit not only from the experience of their crew (who are raised with their Titans from birth), but from the collective consciousness of the Spirit Stones contained within the Titan, housing the souls of numerous dead Asuryani.

Phantoms are built around a Wraithbone core which permits the spirits contained within it to flow freely through the whole construct. This gives the Aeldari Titan a consciousness of its own which, combined with its living crew, transforms the Phantom into an unusually deadly fighting machine.

Aeldari births are rare, and new generations emerge only every few hundred Terran years, so every child is cherished in a manner the other, younger races, find hard to understand. Most revered of all are the rare occurrences of Aeldari twin, or even triplet births. Such sets of siblings are considered fated for greatness by the Craftworld Aeldari, and invariably find positions of great power within Asuryani society.

Many of these twins and triplets form crews for the Aeldari Titans, where the natural emotional bonds between siblings, the Aeldari's latent psychic power and the special relationship between pilot, machine and the spirits of the dead contained within the Titan construct, combine to create a mastery of control few amongst even the Aeldari could hope to achieve.

A Phantom Titan armed with twin Distortion Cannons on its arm mounts.

Most sorrowful, yet most skilled of all, are those Aeldari who have lost their kin to the depredations of a violent galaxy. These mourning Aeldari often inter the Spirit Stones of their dead brothers and sisters within the wraithbone shell of a Titan and then take to the machine themselves, seldom emerging, preferring instead to remain within the Titan where they can yet commune with their lost siblings.

Phantom Titans are similar in most ways to Imperial Battle Titans but show typical Aeldari design attributes. They are slimmer in build and much faster than their Human-built counterparts. Their weaponry is less about raw firepower and more about well-aimed crucial hits. For defence they use a Holo-Field emitter which makes them harder to "see" and thus more difficult to target; the advantage is that they can avoid damage completely.

However, Holo-Fields do not actually deflect firepower like Imperial Void Shields and Ork Power Fields. What makes Phantom Titans distinctive from those of the other races is their crew. In addition to the living, the souls and memories of ancient Aeldari warriors are maintained in the wraithbone matrix of the Titan.

War machines of such size and power as the Phantom are not deployed for the Aeldari race's usual lightning raids and surgical strikes. These massive war machines are reserved for the heaviest fighting, when a craftworld must engage in a pitched battle, when fast hit-and-run raiding will not suffice and the Aeldari wish to wreak terrible destruction upon their enemies. Only then do the Webway portals open wide and allow the Phantoms to stride forth. Times must be desperate indeed for a craftworld's Farseers to decree the deployment of such engines of war.

The Phantom's primary arm mounts can be fitted with some of the Aeldari's largest and deadliest weapons. These include twin Pulsars, Distortion Cannons or a special sword-like Power Glaive known as the Ashuna-Valcry'le. Secondary weapons mounted in its shoulders include Phantom Missile Launchers and either a Pulse Laser or Titan-grade Starcannon. It is also protected by a Titan-grade Holo-Field projected by the large rear wings.

Warlock Titan

A Craftworld Aeldari Warlock Titan armed with a Titan-grade Psychic Lance and a Titan-grade Power Fist.

A rarely encountered variant of the Phantom is known as the Warlock. It contains within its wraithbone core the spirits of mighty Asuryani Farseers and Warlocks. As they were powerful psykers in life, so too are they in death. The psychic strength of these dead spirits, focused and amplified by the Titan's Wraithbone structure, is phenomenal, far outstripping the powers of the living.

This potent psychic ability combined with the smooth agility of the Aeldari Titans and their sophisticated weaponry, places the Warlock Titan at the very pinnacle of Aeldari achievement in the realm of psychic engineering.

Warlock Titans, as a result of the precognitive power of their possessing Seer spirits, possess an insight into the shape of the future or possible future and they act in conjunction with the ebb and flow of the fates, moving with them in perfect synchronisation to assault the enemy at the most propitious time and place.

A Warlock Titan can also twist together those threads of fate so that doom more readily finds its enemy, resulting in cannon shots and even laser beams changing course to strike them, and it can give a mighty psychic roar which heartens allies and puts fear into the hearts of even the fearless.

The psychic energy crackling through the Warlock Titan's body can ward off blows, instantly destroy Greater Daemons in close combat, and give power to its most feared weapon, a Titan-grade Psychic Lance.

The Psychic Lance uses a short burst of psychic energy directed through a crystal mounted in the Warlock Titan's visor. The resonance set up in the crystal acts to wipe out aggressive instincts from the creatures in its area of effect.

This weapon was originally used by Exodites to pacify local wildlife, but the effect can be amplified to launch devastating assaults on the minds of sentient enemies, particularly when backed by the full psychic might contained within a Warlock Titan.

The Warlock Titan is also armed with twin Missile Launchers and either a Pulsar or Titan-grade Power Fist, and is protected by reinforced wraithbone armour plate and a Holo-Field emitted from projectors mounted on its large rear wings.

Sources

• Warhammer 40,000: Apocalypse (6th Edition) (Digital Edition), pg. 279 (Revenant Titan Steersman picture)
• Codex Titanicus (2nd Edition), pg. 88
• Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara, pp. 203-205, 207
• Epic: Swordwind Part 1, "Eldar Forces", pg. 24
• Games Workshop - Specialist Games, Epic: Eldar Warlock Titan
• Forgeworld: Eldar Phantom Titan
• Forgeworld: Eldar Revenant Titan with Pulsars
• Forgeworld: Eldar Revenant Titan with Sonic Lances