Dark Eldar

In fictional universe of Warhammer 40,000, the Dark Eldar are a Kindred of the Eldar, an ancient and advanced race of elf-like humanoids. Their armies usually have the advantages of speed and technology, though they are often lacking in resilience and numbers. They are the equivalent of the Warhammer Fantasy Dark Elves. The Dark Eldar revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme. Dark Eldar armies make use of various anti-gravity skimmers such as Raiders and Ravagers to launch high speed attacks. They strike with little or no warning, using an interdimensional labyrinth known as the Webway to traverse the galaxy safely and far more quickly than most races are able to with their Warp jumps.

The Dark Eldar are unique amongst the Warhammer 40,000 factions in the sense that they do not occupy many planets, but rather one dark city - Commoragh. They are mainly pirates, though are sometimes used as mercenaries.

Dark Eldar, like most Eldar Kindreds, make use of advanced technology, including anti-gravity devices, dark matter weaponry, nano-technology and psychic artifacts. While Dark Eldar do make use of psychic devices, they do not use psychic powers themselves. Psykers are treated as playthings in Commorragh, and given the twisted sadistic nature of the Dark Eldar, this necessarily involves pain and torment for the psyker.

Over time, Dark Eldar begin to suffer more and more from 'the Thirst'. They develop an all-consuming and ever-increasing need to drink the souls of other beings. The Codex makes it pretty clear that this is to escape death and their souls being devoured by the Chaos God Slaanesh, She Who Thirsts. While their Craftworld brethren escape this fate by trapping their souls within Soul Stones when they die, the Dark Eldar drink souls to prolong their lives and stave off death in the first place. As they age it becomes more difficult to sustain their unnatural state (they should be dead), and by the time a Dark Eldar becomes an Archon he or she may be consumming thousands of souls a day simply to stay alive. This is filling the ever-growing void within them. When a Dark Eldar does die, in battle or not drinking enough souls, his body loses its firm and young appearance and withers into the shape appropriate for his age. His soul is drank by other Dark Eldar around him, and in this way his soul is recycled rather than be devoured by She Who Thirsts. Of course nowhere enough Dark Eldar die every day to sustain the rest of them, and so most souls for this purpose are obtained from captives taken on their many raids.

In the game, many of the Dark Eldar units are similar to the units used by the Eldar army, but twisted to fit in with the darker nature of the Dark Eldar. For example, instead of having Aspect Warriors Dark Eldar have drug-using gladiators called Wyches. Rather than having their heavy weapons systems transported by walkers or minature anti-grav floaters, they are carried by specialised Warriors wearing jetpacks- these are called Scourges. The mecha-like Wraithguard and Wraithlords of the Eldar are replaced with the Talos, a bizarre mechanical weapon which is half grav-tank and half floating torture device, powered by the suffering of the tortured creature bound into its "cockpit".

External links

• Official UK Dark Eldar page (http://uk.games-workshop.com/40kuniverse/warhammer40k/darkeldar/darkeldar.htm)
• Official US Dark Eldar page (http://us.games-workshop.com/games/40K/darkeldar/default.htm)