Eldar

The **Eldar**, or **Aeldari** as they are called in the ancient Eldar Lexicon, are a psionically powerful race created by the Old Ones prior to the War in Heaven.

## History

The Eldar were created by the Old Ones to help them emerge victorious from the War in Heaven. When their creators lost the war, the Eldar were driven to their homeworld. Although they ventured into space, they dared not face another defeat -- avoiding confrontations with the Ring Builders and the Leviathans. The Eldar looked on as the Leviathans fell to the Reapers, and learned of the traps laid by those synthetic lifeforms. To ensure their own survival, the Eldar actively avoided the mass relays and any species that chose to use them.

However, as the galaxy fell into chaos with the rise and fall of the Terran Federation, the Eldar knew their time had come. They quickly established a massive empire that sprawled across the Milky Way. Just as quickly, they came to believe in their superiority -- that they deserved to reign over the galaxy. Their pride was not unjustified -- they were more powerful and more technologically advanced than any race in the galaxy. No faction or species posed any threat to them. They were the masters of all, including the Webway.

It was from this hubris that the Eldar descended into decadence. They felt they should indulge every whim, for no one could prevent them from doing so. They no longer needs labor or agriculture to survive, and so they could spend all of their time indulging themselves. Cults began forming, dedicated to hedonistic pleasure or forbidden knowledge. This, inevitably, led many Eldar down a much darker path. Some grew uneasy with this -- and Seers warned that the Eldar race itself would suffer as a result. But many refused to listen. As their culture slipped further into anarchy, a collection of Eldar left the colony worlds on Craftworlds to escape what they saw as the inevitable downfall. These became known as the Exodites. Still others remained behind, desperately attempting to save their species from itself.

### Birth of Slaanesh

While all of these hedonistic pleasures would have been dangerous for an ordinary society, the effects proved even worse for a society as psionically powerful as the Eldar. The psychic reverberations of the Eldar's debauchery grew within the Warp -- making the subspace realm almost impassable due to terrible Warp Storms. These made travel through space difficult, if not impossible, for many species -- including humans.

But this was not even the worst of it. The tremendously dark psychic energies soon gave rise to a new being: Slaanesh, the Devourer of Souls. The ramifications of this birth were cataclysmic -- the psychic scream unleashed by Slaanesh's birth obliterated every Eldar within a thousand light years. Only the Exodites -- on the distant fringes of the galaxy -- and the hedonistic cultists who had taken up residence within the Webway itself were safe. Even other species with psionic powers were ripped apart and suffered severe losses. Slaanesh joined the Chaos Gods, and set upon wiping the rest of the Eldar from the universe.

The Warp Storms that had plagued subspace for centuries, however, subsided and space travel became much more feasible. And so, the Emperor of Mankind began to launch his Great Crusade. The Imperium of Man rose to power, once more giving humans dominance in the galaxy.

In their fight to survive, the Eldar have split into two species -- the Exodite Eldar who merely seek to survive, clinging to what they can of their once great culture; and the Dark Eldar, still hidden away in the Webway and biding their time until Slaanesh comes to claim their lives.

## Physiology

Eldar are a humanoid race -- although they stand taller than any human and have longer limbs. Though seldom seen without armor, Eldar are physically quite beautiful with pale, unblemished skin. They have pointed ears, not unlike those of Vulcans, and slanted eyes.

Physically, the Eldar are considerably stronger than humans and move with an elegance and grace that would be unnatural for any other species. Their reflexes are astonishingly fast. Their hearts beat at twice the speed of a human's, and their brains process thoughts and emotions at dizzying speeds. Despite this, the Eldar have extremely long lifespans that are mostly free of disease or illness.

The most startling difference between the Eldar and most other species is the sheer power of the psionic capabilities. Though their powers were once even greater, the Eldar are able to create matter out of mental energy, and much of their engineering is built around their powers. Unfortunately, the price of such power is steep: the Eldar mind is prone to jump to extremes. When an Eldar is sad, they experience soul-crushing sorrow, but their joys are just as intense.

It should be noted that the Eldar refer to many other species, such as humans, as "mammals" and do so in a derogatory sense. This implies that the Eldar are evolved from a non-mammalian species. Their attributes imply this could be an avian or aquatic creature,or perhaps something more advanced. It is possible they did not evolve at all but were, in fact, truly created by the Old Ones.

## Source

The Eldar are derived from *Warhammer 40,000*. For canon information visit the Warhammer 40,000 Wiki.