File: Eldar

"Trust not in their appearance for the Eldar are as utterly alien to good, honest men as the vile Tyranids and savage Orks. They are capricious and fickle, attacking without cause or warning. There is no understanding them for there is nothing to understand -- they are a random force in the universe."

—Imperial Commander Abriel Hum

The Eldar or Aeldari as they were known in the Eldar Lexicon before the fall of their lost realm, are an ancient humanoid alien race whose vast empire once extended the width and breadth of the known galaxy. Their empire was without equal, and they counted themselves masters of the stars. But millennia ago, their overweening pride and their fall into hedonistic practices led to a cataclysm that all but eradicated their kind and led to the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh. Despite their boundless power, the heart of their civilisation was torn out by this catastrophe of their own making, forcing the surviving Eldar to flee upon gigantic, continent-size starships called Craftworlds. Now they cling to survival by a thread, fighting the horrors of the galaxy with ritualised discipline and consummate skill.

The Eldar race has a long and complex spacefaring history, so long in fact that little is known for certain about the course of their physical evolution and early planet-bound existence. The original Eldar homeworld was destroyed during the catastrophic collapse of the Eldar civilisation known as the Fall of the Eldar. The remnants of Eldar culture that survived the cataclysm preserved much of their species' history in the form of traditional stories, songs and dance. Written records, monuments and visual records were almost completely destroyed except for a few instances where they were taken aboard voidcraft fleeing from the doomed worlds.

As a humanoid race, Eldar are physically similar to humans, although not entirely identical by any means. They possess longer and cleaner limbs, and fine ascetic features with penetrating and slightly slanted, almond-shaped eyes. Their ears are also slightly pointed, but otherwise they could pass as human at first glance. The most obvious difference between humans and Eldar can only be seen when they move, for the movements of an Eldar radiate a subtle grace which is impossible for a human to emulate. This can be seen in even their slightest gestures or the dexterity with which they manipulate small objects.

The Eldar mind, while similar in general to the human psyche, is far more inclined towards extremes. Because of this, Eldar are more intelligent but also far more intense than humans. Although an Eldar and a human can both feel grief or joy, the Eldar's experience is likely to be far more extreme.

This natural inclination towards emotional extremes is both a blessing and a curse to the Eldar. On the positive side, it gives them an unparalleled appreciation of life and an unrivalled ability to express themselves through music and other creative endeavours. A melody or gesture made with grace and skill can elicit an intensity of pleasure which is unimaginable to a human. But this potential for joy is paralleled by an equal capacity to feel despair, ambition and even hatred. Confronted by grief or other personal setbacks, an Eldar suffers mental torments which far exceed the boundaries of human anguish. The extreme nature of their temperament makes it very important that the Eldar maintain a measure of self-control at all times, for it is dangerously easy for them to become entranced by and ultimately dependent upon the experiences that their culture offers them. They must learn to control the darker side of their natures, which is no less an essential portion of the Eldar psyche -- and the source of the catastrophe that nearly caused their extinction.

The Eldar are a naturally psychic race, and all Eldar possess the potential to become powerful psykers if they choose to pursue this path. The Eldar can use these innate abilities to shape matter, which lies at the foundation of their extraordinary command of technology.

Though highly advanced and feared across the galaxy, the Eldar are still a dying people -- a shadow of their former glory -- and their race teeters on the brink of final annihilation.

Guardians are the militia troops of the Eldar Craftworlds. In times of peace the Guardians pursue their normal civilian roles. All adult Eldar, however, are trained in the arts of warfare and can be called to arms if their Craftworld is threatened. It is a painful irony that, in the Eldar race's endless quest for survival, the very civilians the warhosts fight to protect are all too often forced to take up arms. Every Eldar is trained and ready to fight as a Guardian if need be. In some Craftworlds, Ulthwé foremost amongst them, the Guardians are the most common of all Eldar warriors. As the number of dedicated, professional Eldar troops -- the Aspect Warriors -- in a Craftworld are simply too few to meet all threats, those Eldar dedicated to a civilian path serve as Guardians in battle, forming the bulk of the Eldar armies. Guardians are also called upon to pilot and crew the majority of the Eldar’s many war machines, providing vital armoured support and transportation for the warhost in battle. Guardian forces consist of two main types; the tactically flexible Defenders, and the more assault-oriented Storm Guardians. Both are equipped with Eldar Mesh Armour.

A Wraithlord is an Eldar robotic combat walker or mecha that contains no living warrior; rather, it is merely a robotic shell, a repository of the animating soul of a dead Eldar hero. Wraithlords are graceful but mighty giants that dwarf their Wraithguard cousins. These large constructs are extremely precious to their Eldar Craftworlds and have a supernatural toughness due to being made from the psychically-active substance called wraithbone. Summoned into being by the necromantic processes of the Eldar Spiritseers, only a true hero of the Eldar race has psychic power enough to animate the gigantic wraithbone shell of a Wraithlord.

History abounds with tales of enormous statues magically coming to life in defence of primeval crypts or to avenge ancient wrongs. The image of these towering constructs shuddering into animation is ingrained in the human psyche, and explains the visceral reaction most humans have when first encountering the Wraithlords. A graceful statue of Eldar manufacture, each Wraithlord is encrusted in glittering gemstones and scrolling alien glyphs. With a smooth, featureless head sweeping back from broad, fragile-seeming shoulders, the inhumanity of the gigantic statue is immediately evident. Their armour is decorated by arrays of gleaming precious stones, which Imperial scholars believe both power and guide these daunting constructs. A Wraithlord's seemingly delicate armour is nearly impossible to breach without the heaviest of military-grade weapons, and in battle they form mobile strong points, spearheading assaults as they lead elite Eldar warriors against their foes.