The icon representing the Asuryani.
The Rhana Dandra or "End of All Days" in the Aeldari Lexicon, is the legendary final battle of the Aeldari species against Chaos that will end with the destruction of both, as prophesied in Aeldari mythology.
An account of the battle is given in the sacred Aeldari text called the Asuryata, which predicts the destruction of the Aeldari and their remaining gods in the battle.
Through the Asuryata's verses, the Aeldari learn the legends of the Phoenix Lords, the greatest warriors of their species. Each of the Phoenix Lords of the Aspect Shrines plays an important role, and their actions are reflected in the methods and approaches of the Aspects made in their image.
It is Fuegan, the Phoenix Lord of the Fire Dragons, who will gather together the others of his kind for the final battle, and it is he who shall die last of all, burning brightly until the final moment. It is said that Baharroth of the Swooping Hawks Aspect will also fall during this apocalyptic final battle.
All Aeldari secretly fear that the long foretold events of the Rhana Dandra will be played out within their lifetime. Given the portents of the Farseers, and the frequency with which the Phoenix Lords have been sighted in recent years, their fears may yet prove well-placed.
However, after this battle, it is prophesied that within the Infinity Circuits of the Asuryani craftworlds, the souls of all the surviving Craftworld Aeldari will merge to form a new god in the Warp -- Ynnead, the Aeldari god of the dead, who will be powerful enough to defeat Slaanesh once and for all and bring about the end of the reign of She Who Thirsts over the souls of the Aeldari.
After the Rhana Dandra, the Materium and the Immaterium will once more fuse into a single reality and a new Aeldari race will be born to seek out a better destiny. It is unknown whether any of the other younger species will take part in the Rhana Dandra or even where it will occur, but it is a continuing and potent theme in Aeldari mythology since the Fall.
It is also rumoured by Asuryani Outcasts that the oldest amongst them, Illic Nightspear, wanders the galaxy, pursuing some hidden agenda that his acolytes whisper is the only thing staving off the Rhana Dandra.
The Final Act
At the very heart of the Black Library, the secret craftworld governed by the Harlequins that serves as the Aeldari's repository of forbidden lore concerning the Ruinous Powers that exists somewhere within the labyrinthine passages of the Webway, there lies a silver-lit vault. Therein stands a plinth made of finely graven obstinite, upon which rests a crystalline book said to contain the words of the Laughing God Cegorach himself.
For 10,000 Terran years after the Fall, the tome's covers remained closed, sealed shut with flickering chains of light. Yet now, long-awaited portents have come to pass. A fallen sorcerer sought the lore of the library. A king stirred in his court of death and silence, and rose once more.
Within madness' eye, the champion of the Ruinous Powers seized a realm long denied. As these signs each came to pass with the coming of the 13th Black Crusade, so the bands of light about the tome flickered and died.
Now, at last, in the Age of the Dark Imperium, the tome has fallen open. Within its pages the Harlequin Shadowseers have found a script, a secret final act that changes utterly the tale of the Fall. Penned in inks of light and shadow, these words present a slender hope, detailing an intricate, galaxy-spanning performance with the potential to change the fate of the Aeldari race.
Always, the strands of fate have pointed toward the victory of Chaos during the last, mythic battle of the Rhana Dandra. Yet within the pages of the crystal tome is recorded Cegorach's ultimate jest, a way to trick Slaanesh into expending all her power not to destroy the Aeldari, but to save them.
How such an impossibility could come to pass is unclear, for on this matter the final act is infuriatingly vague. Yet the Harlequins take their god's words on faith alone, for their devotion to Cegorach is total and his methods beyond question or reproach.
Thus they have begun the steps of this final dance, and will see it completed, or else face absolute destruction in the attempt.
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Sources
- Codex: Craftworlds (8th Edition), pp. 53
- Codex: Eldar (6th Edition), pp. 36, 55, 59-60
- Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pp. 56-57
- Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pp. 84-85
- Codex: Harlequins (7th Edition) (Digital Edition), pp. 21, 32