| Eldar (Aeldari) Empire | |
| Head of State: | Unknown |
| Capital: | Crone Worlds now in the Eye of Terror |
| Official languages: | Eldar Lexicon |
| Governing body: | Unknown; included the first Haemonculi |
| State Religions: | Eldar Mythology |
| Major Species: | Eldar (Aeldari) |
| Military Forces Unknown | |
The Eldar Empire was the great interstellar empire of the Eldar species, who were known instead as the "Aeldari" at its height. The Eldar Empire was the dominant power of the Milky Way Galaxy in the years after the end of the War in Heaven until the Fall of the Eldar in the 30th Millennium A.D. The Eldar Empire held almost complete control over the galaxy, even during Mankind's Age of Technology, and was characterised by both its highly advanced technology and the increasingly cruel and hedonistic excesses of its people in its final years. It was this excess that ultimately brought about the empire's destruction when its people's psychic resonance in the Immaterium birthed "She Who Thirsts," the Chaos God of Pleasure, Slaanesh. Slaanesh's birth was a catastrophic event that consumed the heart of the Eldar Empire's homeworlds within the newborn Warp rift called the Eye of Terror, as the Prince of Pleasure sought to absorb every Eldar soul.
Some survivors of the catastrophe fled the empire's core worlds in their massive, continent-sized voidcraft called Craftworlds, creating the Infinity Circuits and pursuing the Eldar Paths to safeguard their life essence from Slaanesh's thirst -- even after death. Other survivors, the hedonistic adherents of the Aeldari pleasure cults who had been protected from She Who Thirsts by settling within the interdimensional framework of the Webway, became the Dark Eldar of Commorragh. Among this group of survivors were many members of the empire's leadership, who would become the first of the Dark Eldar Haemonculi. Other Aeldari survivors included the Harlequins, the servants of Cegorach, the Laughing God, who roamed the far reaches of the Webway and moved between Commorragh and the Craftworlds at will. The final group were the Exodites, Eldar who, like their Craftworld brethren, had fled the excess of the empire's heart, surrendered much of their advanced technology and lived peaceful, largely pastoral lives on the Maiden Worlds. All of these survivors surrendered the term "Aeldari" as a name for their species, casting it off as a reminder of their lost glory. Instead, they became the Eldar, and their empire is now little more than a forgotten dream.
History
Millions of Terran years ago, as the galaxy emerged from the defeat of the Necrons in the War in Heaven and the disappearance or extinction of the Old Ones, their creations, the Aeldari, emerged as the new masters of the galaxy. The technological prowess of the Aeldari soon eclipsed that of all the other civilisations of the galaxy, and they pushed the existing menaces of the time, such as the Orks, to the far fringes of their realm. The Aeldari became increasingly arrogant and condescending towards other intelligent species. Their empire spread across the galaxy, eventually encompassing at least 10,000 star systems and millions of colonised planets, many concentrated in the region of the galaxy that would one day become the Eye of Terror.