vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Astropaths - The Pits of Voices: At the other end of the Maw from Port Wander can be found the void settlement known as Footfall. Unlike its opposite number, Footfall lies outside of the domains of the Emperor, and the laws of the Imperium hold no more sway there than the rule of the despots, recidivists, and assorted scum who call it their home. Without an official Adeptus Terra presence, there can be no conventional Astropathic Choir in Footfall.Despite, and perhaps because of its outland status, Footfall is host to a group of Astropaths, though one quite unlike any within the Imperium's borders. The so-called Pit of Voices is a tragic, ramshackle imitation of a true Astropathic Choir, one served entirely by outcast or masterless Astropaths. While few are actual Renegades, the majority of Astropaths serving the Pit of Voices are broken in some manner. Some have been judged wanting in their abilities, or perhaps unsuitable in some other way, and somehow escaped being shipped to Terra to fuel the Astronomican.Travelling incognito beyond the reach (or so they hope) of their erstwhile masters, these outcasts come to such places as Footfall in the hope of fulfilling their destiny. Like many psykers, Astropaths who do not exercise their abilities grow afflicted by a cruel malaise known as "psisickness," and so a position in the Pit of Voices is to them a blessed release. Even if they court madness and worse under the direction of the Pit's mistress -- the soothsayer Attar Soloket -- the Astropaths are content to be plugged into the rusty, blood encrusted psi-caskets and to add their voices to the atonal dirge of Footfall's Astropathic Choir.On several occasions, the Choir's Astropaths and their leader have come under attack or been subjected to brutal assassination attempts. Most are carried out by bounty hunter scum, while others are the work of highly proficient assassins. On at least three separate occasions, a force of highly professional warriors clad in black Carapace Armour and bearing no insignia have infiltrated the void settlement and assaulted the Pit of Voices. In each case, it was only the mobilisation of the various underworld organisations that rely on the outcast Astropaths that fought them off.Very occasionally, Mistress Soloket recognises in one of her reject Astropaths a talent that, in her belief, should not have been rejected by the Scholastica Psykana. Though it is not actually within her power to do so, she lifts the choirmember from his station and declares him a "true" Astropath, perhaps using her celebrated powers to discern something in his future that may yet serve Humanity. How many Rogue Trader dynasties have unknowingly taken on an Astropath formerly rejected by the Imperium cannot be known, and most Rogue Traders who might have done so know better than to ask too many questions when taking on crew at Footfall.
Astropaths - Explorator Choir: Most examples of Humanity to be found beyond the borders of the Imperium exist there because they shun the light of the Emperor -- pirates, rebels, Heretics, and worse. Others are there because they know no other existence, including lost human worlds that have every reason to believe themselves the sole survivors of the wars that shattered the galaxy during the distant Age of Strife. Only a small number go beyond the Imperium's frontiers with the blessing of the High Lords of Terra, and these include the Rogue Traders, far-ranging Space Marines, and the Explorator Fleets of the Adeptus Mechanicus.When the Adeptus Mechanicus travels into the outer void, they often leave behind them a trail of way stations. Staffed almost entirely by mono-tasked Servitors overseen under the care of aged Explorators approaching the end of their service to the Machine God, these way stations act as storage depots, repair facilities, data depositories, and often as astropathic relays.Those Astropaths seconded to service in choirs operating under the Adeptus Mechanicus are often left aboard the way stations seeded by the Explorator Fleets across the empty void as they plunge ever further into the darkness. They exist and operate in a very different way to their compatriots serving in more conventional Astropathic Choirs elsewhere in the Imperium. The way stations are almost exclusively served by mind-scrubbed menials and those few Tech-priests attending them have often undergone the Rite of Pure Thought or are otherwise so advanced in their service to the Machine God they are incapable of interacting with those outside of their order.It is a lonely existence indeed and, to make matters worse, when the Choir does receive a message to relay back to the Imperium, it is inevitably formed according to the unique frame of reference of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Many of these Astropaths go mad through a combination of exposure to the soulless grating machine code of the Adeptus Mechanicus that drowns out all other sensory inputs and the sheer isolation of their existence. Those few that survive their service are changed forever, but are invariably stronger for their ordeal.
Astropaths - Astropathic Relay: The task of an Astropathic Relay is to serve as a conduit through which the astrotelepathic traffic of entire sectors is sent and received across the vast, trackless depths of the void between each sector. The psychic interchange is relentless and constant, and the burn-out rate phenomenal. At times of all-out war or other calamity, dozens, even hundreds of Astropaths might be sacrificed each solar day, simply to keep the relay open and communication flowing to and from the affected region. Were the relay to fall silent for even the blink of an eye, untold thousands of lives might be lost and entire worlds could fall. Needless to say, such relays are vital to the continued existence of the Imperium and the members of the Astropathic Choirs are fortunate indeed to survive them.An Astropath who has served, and indeed survived, in an Astropathic Relay is a rare individual indeed. He is able to withstand the raging torrent of the Warp, to shape it to his will, and send it onwards towards its ultimate destination. His mind-voice is strong and clear and other Astropaths find his messages much easier to rapidly comprehend than those of others with different histories.
Astropaths - Colony Choir: The Koronus Expanse is scattered with the ruins of colonies established as some grand endeavour and laid low by the countless perils that haunt the outer voids. Most of these settlements were built according to some Rogue Trader's vision of building a new society, even the foundation of a new empire, with himself as the sole ruling authority. Almost all colonies founded in this manner fail within a generation, most within a solar decade and a significant number within a single season.No planet is without some danger to Mankind. Hostile fauna and flora can wipe out a colony overnight, especially if the initial survey overlooked it due to some unusual migration or breeding cycle, but numerous other threats exist. Aggressive bacteriological factors can destroy even the most well-prepared colony, as can environmental ones. Needless to say, the deathblow is often delivered by the hand of marauding xenos, in particular the Rak'Gol, but even more common are attacks by other human factions, from brutal slavers to bitter isolationists. Most of these colonies are little more than a few thousand "volunteers" desperately trying to survive in a hostile environment.A smaller number are provided with some basic resources, such as a light defence force, sub-stellar fleet assets, and, in some cases, a small Astropathic Choir. To acquire such a choir, a Rogue Trader dynasty must be exceptionally rich, influential, or just plain lucky, for the masters of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica are none too keen to risk their valuable Astropaths in such a way.Astropaths who have served in the lonely Choirs beyond the frontier have lived a life of extraordinary privation and danger that few others of their order could imagine. Cut off from the greater Imperium by the Great Storms, they have led an existence finely balanced between survival and extinction. Tasked with communicating with their masters, they have had to learn when to send their mind-voice singing out across the void and when to fall silent lest reavers and xenos be drawn to them. These individuals are blessed of a taciturn self-reliance rarely seen amongst others of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, and, as such, are highly prized by ambitious Rogue Traders.
Astropaths - Psychic Disciplines: There are many different psychic powers that a psyker may possess, for the mutability of the Warp is as limitless as the human imagination itself. Some examples range from telepathy -- the power to communicate between one living mind and another -- to rarer and more occult arts such as the destructive force known as pyromancy, astral projection of the soul away from the body, the summoning of daemons, and the transmutation of matter at will. These abilities usually begin as a basic, almost rudimentary form of the power -- the first technique of the psychic discipline -- and over time, a psyker can learn more ways to fine tune that power for a greater variety of effects.Astral Telepathy - As part of the Soul Binding process, Astropaths become able to send and receive messages across vast distances using the Warp as a medium. Using astro-telepathic abilities in this way requires careful concentration, meditation, and freedom from distraction, and so cannot be done "on the move," let alone during combat or strife. Astropathic communication in this way is a matter of sending and receiving messages that must themselves be encapsulated and encrypted lest they become lost in the Warp, hopelessly garbled, or worse yet, intercepted. As a result, messages sent over long distances are often "packets" of information, akin in some ways to letters or brief recordings from the real world absorbed and sent on their way to be (hopefully) caught and possibly relayed on by other Astropaths to their intended destination. This process is not instantaneous. However, it is considerably faster than Warp travel -- an astropathic signal will cross a solar system in moments, across a subsector in solar hours, a sector in solar days and, if strong enough, a Segmentum in weeks and so on. An Astropath's "signal strength" broadly refers to how far, in average conditions in the Warp, they are able to clearly transmit with a successful focused use of their power.Smite - Lethal bolts of bio-lightning leap from the psyker's fingertips, tearing his foes apart.
Astropaths - Psykana Discipline: Terrifying Visions - The psyker fills his enemies' minds with nightmarish images and visions of torment, seeking to send them fleeing in terror.Gaze of the Emperor - The psyker cages the immense power of the Immaterium within his physical form, and his eyes blaze with the Emperor's vengeful fury, unleashing pure psychic energy to smite the Master of Mankind's foes.Psychic Barrier - The psyker weaves an aegis of pure psychic energy around his allies, against which enemy fire sparks and spatters harmlessly.Nightshroud - Calling upon the power of the Empyrean, the psyker cloaks his allies in a flowing curtain of shadow, concealing them from the enemy.Mental Fortitude - Drawing on boundless reserves of inner strength, the psyker shields his allies' minds from mortal fears and the threat of sorcerous assault, dramatically improving morale.Psychic Maelstrom - The psyker unleashes the full telekinetic might of his mind, summoning a roiling psychic tempest that envelops his enemy, lifting them from the ground and wrenching them about like a rag doll.
Astropaths - Other Astropathic Disciplines: Among the stars of the Koronus Expanse, thousands of Astropaths plumb the depths of the Warp as they pass messages between those loyal to the Imperium of Man. The vast majority of these psykers utilise the central disciplines of their training -- particularly the telepathic path. However, these worlds are incredibly distant from Terra and the training that transformed their minds.As they travel the distant stars, often far from others of their kind, many Astropaths experiment and develop new ways to engage their abilities. Through the centuries, these experiments have led to countless new techniques. Only a subset of these have been properly documented and classified into formal disciplines. While it is entirely possible for an Astropath to develop alternative techniques, the Voidfrost and Soul Ward disciplines presented below represent two that have become better established among the Koronus Expanse.It is not uncommon to encounter an Astropath who knows one of these Disciplines, and some may even be willing to pass on their knowledge. In addition to the existing repertoire of Disciplines and Techniques, an Astropath may also choose to learn powers from the Voidfrost and Soul Ward Disciplines.
Astropaths - Astropath Shipboard Actions: The following actions can be used in starship combat by an Astropath. Any Astropath or Astropathic Choir aboard a vessel can perform these actions provided that the primary Astropath meets the individual prerequisites, given the scale of power required to have a noticeable effect in the cataclysmic battles between voidships.Control the Mind - The Astropath reaches out and temporarily controls the mind of a gunner on the enemy ship, making him fire on a chosen target.Dark Labyrinth - The Astropath disguises the interior of his ship, shrouding it with dark shadows and illusory twists and turns.Flash Fire - The Astropath attempts to cause psychic flames to burst alight aboard the enemy vessel.Ill-Omens - The Astropath spreads unnatural terror among enemy boarders, blunting their assault by eroding their will to fight.Mask of the Void - The Astropath makes his ship appear to perform a manoeuvre to trick his foes. The vessel shimmers and warps, seeming to be in more than one place at once.Psychic Deflection - The Astropath attempts to deflect an incoming shot with his psychic might, turning aside a blow that might fell his ship.Quell Flames - The Astropath dampens a fire within the ship with his mind, willing the flames to sputter and die.Unnatural Resolve - The Astropath dampens the crews' primal instincts with psychic energy, making them supernaturally fearless.
Asur - Asur: Asur was a barren moon located in a pocket-realm of the Webway briefly settled by some of the Craftworld Aeldari who survived the Fall of the Aeldari and the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh -- "She Who Thirsts" -- in the 30th Millennium. Settled by the first Phoenix Lord Asurmen and his disciples after he helped lead many of the craftworlds away from the remains of the Aeldari Empire during the Fall, it was named Asur in honour of its claimant.Asur was the site where Asurmen established the first Aspect Warrior Shrine and the first Exarchs who would go on to become the first Phoenix Lords -- the Asurya -- were trained.
Asur - History: Asurmen, the "Hand of Asur," was the first Phoenix Lord of the Asuryani. Prior to the Fall of the Aeldari, Asurmen was the Aeldari who led the craftworlds away from the ancient homeworlds of their now lost interstellar Aeldari Empire and it was he who founded the first of the Aspect Shrines, the Shrine of Asur, upon a barren world of the same name his people initially settled.Asurmen found that he could not give up the Path of the Warrior to follow a different Asuryani Path, for he desired to use his skills to protect what remained of his species after the birth of the Chaos God Slaanesh, "She Who Thirsts." From the Shrine of Asur sprang the first Aspect Warriors, and the Path of the Warrior was opened for the very first time to all Asuryani.Those Asuryani who wanted to follow this new path learned at the feet of their master, and in turn they assumed the mantle of Exarchs before spreading throughout the craftworlds of the galaxy. The first Exarchs, the Asurya, the children of Asurmen, were the greatest of his students and went on to become the Phoenix Lords of the other Aspect Shrines, the first masters of the other specialised Craftworld Aeldari combat disciplines.Arhra, the "Father of Scorpions," founded the Striking Scorpions Aspect Shrine, which came to epitomise its founder's dark nature; its warriors were cunning, merciless and deadly. Arhra taught the warriors of his Aspect the ability to stalk the shadows, creeping ever closer to their prey before falling upon them like the wrath of the war god Khaine himself.Eventually Arhra's murderous nature consumed him, and he became lost to his Aspect, becoming known as the "Fallen Phoenix." Arhra was lured by darkness and betrayed Asurmen and the other Asurya, the first Phoenix Lords, by bringing Daemons into the First Shrine to wage war upon his fellows. Those loyal to Asurmen were defeated and scattered across the stars, but Arhra himself would eventually flee into the Webway, becoming "the Fallen Phoenix who burns with the dark light of Chaos."It is believed that after he began walking the Path of Damnation, Arhra fled to the Dark City of Commorragh where he became the first Drukhari Incubus Hierarch and founded the first Incubus shrine. Many Asuryani believe that Arhra survived into the present and became Drazhar, the Master of Blades, the greatest champion of the Drukhari Incubi.Karandras, a Striking Scorpions Exarch and the greatest student of Arhra, took over control of the Aspect Shrine after the corruption of its original Phoenix Lord. Karandras taught the Striking Scorpions the patience and discipline they needed so that they would not follow in their founder's wake and lose their immortal souls to She Who Thirsts when their bloodlust and murderous desires overtook them.
Asurmen - Asurmen: Asurmen, born Iliathin,  whose name means the "Hand of Asuryan," is the first and oldest of the legendary Craftworld Aeldari Phoenix Lords, those most ancient of Exarchs from whom the Aspect Warriors themselves were created and who are the absolute masters of their Aspect's form of combat.Each Phoenix Lord is a demigod of battle whose legend spans the stars, imbued with supernatural powers that grant them the ability to cheat death. Asurmen himself is the living embodiment of the warrior, just as the Avatar of Khaine is the incarnation of the Bloody-Handed God himself.It was Asurmen who founded the first of the Aspect Shrines, the Shrine of Asur, the forerunner of what became the Dire Avengers Aspect Shrine. Asurmen is the forefather of the Dire Avengers, most noble and vengeful of all the Aspects. Today, this Warrior Aspect is the most common amongst the Craftworld Aeldari, and their shrines are the largest amongst all the craftworlds.
Asurmen - Wargear: Phoenix Armour - Asurmen's ancient suit of Exarch Armour makes use of vambraces that possess integrated Shuriken Catapults. These weapons are connected in such a way that they can be fired by either hand without sacrificing accuracy. This arrangement also leaves his hand free so that he can grasp his Diresword with both hands. The helmet contains the Spirit Stones of Asurman which hold the souls of every Dire Avengers Exarch to become the Phoenix Lord since Asurmen left the First Shrine on Asur himself millennia ago.Sword of Asur - Asurmen carries the first known Aeldari Diresword, called the Sword of Asur, which contains the Spirit Stone of his long-dead brother, Tethesis, who was killed by a Daemon, that he might continue to fight against the minions of the Great Enemy until the end of time.Master-crafted Shuriken Pistol - Despite being the Phoenix Lord of a Warrior Aspect more renowned for delivering punishing short-range volleys of fire, Asurmen is a phenomenal opponent at close quarters, effortlessly switching between one-handed and two-handed fighting styles with the Sword of Asur and his ranged weapon. This master-crafted Shuriken Pistol serves him well as a secondary ranged weapon when he favours a one-handed fighting style.
Asurmen - Rune: The rune worn by the Phoenix Lord Asurmen is an ancient symbol of the Aeldari warrior spirit.Representing the balance between the fury of emotion and the cold surety of skill, it is synonymous with the Path of the Warrior.
Asuryan - Asuryan: Asuryan, sometimes called the "Phoenix King" and the "Father of the Aeldari," was the ruler and the most powerful deity of the pantheon of Aeldari gods. Asuryan is known as the father of the gods and the ancestor of all living things. He was believed to embody the psychic might of the whole universe. While the ancient Aeldari mythic cycles seem to indicate that he held sway over all other gods, he was nevertheless consumed by the Chaos God Slaanesh after the Fall of the Aeldari.Asuryan's twin brother is the god of war, Kaela Mensha Khaine. The goddess Gea is said to have held both Asuryan and Khaine as her double consorts.Asuryan is often depicted in relation to fire and light, his chief symbols. Asuryan is a key player in many of the legendary cycles of Aeldari Mythology. Asuryan was the third primary contributor of knowledge to the Aeldari, after Kurnous, the god of the hunt, and Isha, the goddess of the harvest. Among Asuryan's gifts to the early Aeldari after their creation was wisdom and the ability to manipulate psychic energy. The psychic power bound into the Aeldari by Asuryan brought both boon and bane. Though the Aeldari's lifespan and already potent mastery over psychic energies increased following Asuryan's gift, it also decreased their fertility, leading the species to begin a slow decline.In the wake of the Fall, the Asuryani craftworlds found a new way of life focused on the pursuit of highly-structured careers and interests intended to channel their extreme emotions and quest for perfection into constructive activities. These interests became known as the Asuryani Path, and the people of the craftworlds renamed themselves the Asuryani, "the Children of Asuryan." To outsiders they called themselves the Eldar for many Terran millennia, choosing a diminished name for a diminished people.Some of the Aeldari's greatest Farseers, like Eldrad Ulthran, theorised that when all the Farseers gather together and focus the psychic might granted to their species by Asuryan, they can create and accomplish anything, such as giving shape to Ynnead, the recently awakened Aeldari god of the dead, or perhaps even one day reviving Asuryan himself.Craftworld Iyanden's world-rune, "Light in the Darkness," is a reference to the ever-burning flame of the shrine of Asuryan which is maintained by that craftworld and is the most sacred place still dedicated to the Phoenix King among the Aeldari.The first Phoenix Lord Asurmen, the founder of the Path of the Warrior, acted as the immortal scion of Asuryan, who he chose as his patron.The Craftworld Aeldari created the Sunstorm Squadrons in recognition of the ancient tale of Asuryan battling the Destroyer of Worlds and took their name from the legendary solar flare or "sunstorm" that the Father of the Aeldari brought to bear in the battle that all but destroyed Kaelis Ra, the Aeldari name for the C'tan called the Nightbringer (see below).
Asuryan - History: In the oldest myths of the Aeldari, it is said that the goddess of dreams and fortune Lileath had a vision of the future in which Khaine, the god of war and murder, would be torn asunder by an army of mortals. In his rage, the god of war turned his wrath against the Aeldari as their divine mother, the goddess of fertility, nature and healing Isha, wept tears for her children.The Phoenix King heard her cries and upon learning of Khaine's plans to exterminate all of the Aeldari, created a great barrier that separated the realm of the gods from mortals for all eternity, thus creating the barrier that still exists today between the Immaterium and realspace. After he crafted this barrier between the mortal Aeldari and their gods in the Warp, Asuryan's heart was said to be heavy with reluctance at the separation.Isha was left even more distraught after being separated from her children and thus she, along with her husband, Kurnous, the god of the hunt, went before Vaul, the god of crafts and smiths, who fashioned from her tears the Spirit Stones through which she spoke to the Aeldari. After overhearing Isha speaking to her mortal children, Khaine informed his brother. Asuryan was enraged that his command for the gods to stop interacting with mortals had been broken. In his anger at their betrayal, he told Khaine to do with Isha and Kurnous as he pleased.During the events of the Aeldari's mythological "War in Heaven" that followed, a battle raged between the gods and their mortal children and the race of immortal giants known as the Yngir (C'tan). This is believed by most Imperial scholars who have studied the Aeldari xenos to be a legendary remembrance of the actual ancient war between the Old Ones and the Necrontyr that is also called the War in Heaven by the Necrons of the 41st Millennium. According to the myth, at that time Asuryan came to regret his hasty condemnation of Isha and Kurnous to the tender mercies of the war god.Even so, he refused to take sides during the conflict and neither favoured Khaine nor the mortal children of Isha. In this way, he remained as the impartial lord of both sides.It was said that the Father of the Aeldari battled the Yngir Kaelis Ra, actually the C'tan better known as Aza'gorod, the Nightbringer, but neither side was able to gain supremacy. In desperation to save his children, Asuryan rearranged the suns themselves to create a constellation that spelt out an ill omen for his foe and harnessed their might into a solar flare that mortally wounded Kaelis Ra.
Asuryani - Nomenclature: The entire species of beings who once ruled the galaxy-spanning Aeldari Empire for millions of Terran years are called the "Aeldari." In the wake of the Fall of the Aeldari, the survivors of the great cataclysm adopted new names for their varying sub-cultures or kindreds.The Aeldari who fled their ancient empire in the craftworlds eventually called themselves the "Asuryani" since their culture was redefined by their decision to pursue the Asuryani Path that they believed had been laid out for them by the chief Aeldari god, the Phoenix King Asuryan.Linguistically reflecting their diminished status, the Asuryani made themselves known to outsiders as "Eldar," a name which came to be applied to the entire species by Imperial scholars for many millennia.Likewise, the Drukhari were the malevolent faction of the ancient Aeldari who had chosen to remain within the Webway after the Fall and continued to pursue the decadent and hedonistic ways that nearly led to their extinction.However, they were often referred to by outsiders as "Dark Eldar," a term which they rarely used for themselves and which was first coined by Asdrubael Vect, the supreme overlord of Commorragh, from the Aeldari phrase "Eladrith Ynneas" in the 32nd Millennium.Those wilderness-loving Aeldari who settled on Maiden Worlds many solar decades before the Fall in the hope of avoiding the worsening corruption of the Aeldari culture are known as "Exodites."The servants of the Aeldari Laughing God Cegorach, who were protected by his influence within the Webway from being slain during the Fall, are called the "Harlequins" in the most common translation of the Aeldari term for the faction into Low Gothic.In recent years, since the formation of the Ynnari faction which contains members of the Aeldari species from all of the other kindreds, it has become common for many of the Asuryani to once more refer to themselves using the ancient term "Aeldari."This reflects the Ynnari belief that with the awakening of Ynnead, the Aeldari god of the dead, their species is once more on the path to resurrecting its lost glory.In the Era Indomitus, the term Aeldari has come to be preferred to Eldar, though the original name for the Asuryani best known by the Imperium of Man is still often used interchangeably.However, it is now more correct to refer to the Aeldari of the craftworlds as simply "Aeldari," "Craftworld Aeldari," or when comparing them to the other Aeldari kindreds, the "Asuryani."The Drukhari are still often referred to in the Imperium as "Dark Eldar."
Asuryani - History: The ancient history of the Eldar, or Aeldari as they were known before their Fall, stretches back over the millennia to a time when they dominated the stars completely.Yet, for all their splendour and might, the Aeldari brought a terrible curse upon themselves that sundered their empire forever, leaving the ravaged fragments of their race teetering on the brink of annihilation.All of the Aeldari alive today are essentially a refugee population, the scattered remains of a formerly vast interstellar empire. Even in such straits, however, they are still a deadly and influential force in the galaxy. Once, over ten thousand Terran years past, the Aeldari were perhaps the most powerful starfaring species in existence, dominating a significant portion of the galaxy and secure in their prosperity.Although there were other intelligent races who possessed advanced technology and potent military power in the galaxy, none were in a position to seriously threaten the state of the Aeldari Empire. When it came, the disaster for the Aeldari people was self-inflicted.Lost in the vastness of space, the craftworlds float in utter isolation like scattered jewels upon a pall of velvet. Distant from the warmth of sun or planet, their domes gaze into the darkness of empty space. Inner lights glisten like phosphorus through semi-transparent surfaces. Within them live the survivors of a civilisation abandoned aeons ago amidst terrifying destruction.These are the Craftworld Aeldari or Asuryani, who for so long called themselves the Eldar to outsiders, a race that is all but extinct, the last remnants of a people whose mere dreams once overturned worlds and quenched suns. The starfaring history of the Aeldari is long indeed, and encompasses glories and sorrows alike.When their empire was at its height, their homeworlds were paradises, their powers godlike and their armies unsurpassed. As the centuries slid past, their status as lords of the galaxy bred an arrogance that led to a cataclysmic end.A proportion of their species survived that dark time by fleeing from disaster upon the great vessels known as craftworlds. Others settled verdant planets far from the heart of their empire, and still more hid in private, interdimensional realms of their own making. Yet there was no real escape from what was to come.
Asuryani - Children of the Stars: Over a million Terran years ago, the Aeldari alone ruled the stars of the galaxy as the undisputed masters of their own destiny. Such a position was their right, they thought, and their preeminence was beyond doubt.In many ways, the Aeldari had good reason for such hubris, for no other species had posed a serious threat to their wealth and stability for time immemorial. They were convinced that they no longer had anything to fear from the galaxy at large, and they may have been right, but the real danger came from within.The doom of the Aeldari, when it came, took a form far more subtle and dangerous than that of alien invasion. At that point in Aeldari history, nothing was beyond their reach and nothing was forbidden. The ancient race continued their glorious existence unaware or unwilling to acknowledge the dark fate that awaited them.They plied the stars at will, experiencing the wonders of the galaxy and immersing themselves completely in the endless sensations that it offered them. Such was the technological mastery of the Aeldari that worlds were created specifically for their pleasure, and stars lived or died at their whim.On hundreds of idyllic planets seeded across the stars, the Aeldari pursued their inclinations as they willed, indulging every dream and investigating every curiosity. They mastered the labyrinth dimension of the Webway, expanded their realms into the furthest corners of reality and learned much about the universe that has since been forgotten.Even death was no barrier, for when their souls eventually left their mortal bodies they dissolved peacefully back into the Immaterium to be reborn again in new Aeldari bodies, for the Warp did not thirst for Aeldari souls then as it does today.There were, of course, many wars. Even when the galaxy was young there were upstart species seeking to gouge out petty empires of their own, and the Aeldari waged wars against the sprawling Necron dynasties that ravaged dozens of star systems and cost trillions of lives.Most of these conflicts, though, were so short-lived that the ease of their victory left the Aeldari ever more sure of their ascendancy and superiority. Even the greatest of all their wars, known in the mythic cycles of the craftworlds as the War in Heaven, did not humble them. In their hearts the Aeldari reigned supreme, and no other power could end their dominance.
Asuryani - Birth of a Dark God: The torture cults eroded the future of the Aeldari as a viable galactic empire. While this debauchery would have been destructive within any society, it was even more damaging for the Aeldari because of their powerful psychic abilities. Within the parallel dimensional realm of the Warp, the psychic emanations of these perverse activities began to gather, strengthened by the souls of departed Aeldari hedonists and pleasure cultists.As the Aeldari's vices grew, this dark mass of negative psychic energy did as well, producing the terrible Warp Storms that defined Humanity's Age of Strife and made all interstellar travel and communication impossible for the human colonies of this period. What an unimaginably foul and sickening thing it was that the Aeldari unknowingly raised in the Warp; it was a dire shadow of themselves, of what they had become, of nobility and pride brought low by perversity and shamelessness.Worlds burned as the Aeldari slew and laughed and feasted upon the corpses of the dead. Slowly, the Great Enemy stirred towards wakefulness. Too late, the Aeldari realised that they had created a god in their own image, a god grown immense and potent by suckling upon the dark fodder of the Aeldari spirit.Eventually, this growing mass of negative psychic energy came into a life of its own and came to consciousness over ten thousand standard years ago at the end of the Age of Strife as the newborn Chaos God Slaanesh, the Devourer of Souls and the doom of the Aeldari. When Slaanesh finally burst into divine consciousness, there was not one Aeldari alive who did not feel its claws in his soul.With a howl of raw power, Slaanesh roared into supernatural life. A psychic implosion tore at the universe. The psychic scream of Slaanesh's birth ripped the souls from the bodies of all the Aeldari within a thousand light years of it, sparing only those sheltered in the wraithbone hulls of the craftworlds, the Exodite inhabitants of the farthest flung Maiden Worlds, and those members of the pleasure cults who had taken up residence in the protected sub-realms of the Webway like Commorragh.Countless billions of Aeldari screamed aloud and fell dead. In a heartbeat, the shining Aeldari civilisation that had lasted for aeons had its heart ripped out, leaving a pulsing afterbirth of pure chaos in its place. The spirits of the Aeldari were drawn from within them and consumed as their blasphemous creation took its first infernal breath. Intoxicated with this draught, Slaanesh, named by the Aeldari as "She Who Thirsts," laughed and looked upon a universe ripe for the taking.
Asuryani - Fall of the Aeldari: The epicentre of the psychic apocalypse lay within the gilded heart of the Aeldari realms. All Aeldari within thousands of light years were reduced to lifeless husks, their souls forever claimed by the newborn Dark God. Even those who had foreseen the catastrophe and fled upon the craftworlds were overwhelmed, with only those furthest from the devastation surviving.The remote Exodite worlds remained largely untouched, but within the space of a single moment, the Aeldari had become a doomed people. Their nemesis was born and would hunt them for the rest of eternity. Though the psychic shockwave focused upon the Aeldari, billions of humans, Orks and creatures from other races were obliterated as well. Warpspace convulsed as a cosmic hurricane raged across the galaxy. The fabric of reality was torn apart and the Warp spilled from the newborn dimensional rift into the material universe, turning hope into despair and paradise into hell.Psykers of all species howled with pain as their people died in storms of blood and madness. The roiling wound in realspace spread outward until it completely encompassed the Aeldari realms of old. This gaping lesion would come to be known as the "Eye of Terror;" the largest area in the galaxy where the Warp and the material universe overlap until the birth of the Great Rift in 999.M41.Within its reaches daemons bathe in the raw energy of the Warp, whilst Daemon Princes and the worshippers of Chaos rule over Aeldari planets turned into nightmare worlds of fire and darkness.For ten thousand long Terran years before the Fall, the Warp had been riven with storm and tempest, making it almost impossible for the vessels of the lesser races to travel between the stars. With the birth of Slaanesh, the Warp was becalmed, its rage temporarily spent.A new equilibrium was reached as Slaanesh joined the ranks of the Chaos Gods. With the Warp Storms around ancient Terra dispersed, the Emperor of Mankind was able to launch His Great Crusade. A new power took its place in the galaxy as isolated human worlds from across the stars were united under the same banner. In this way, the Fall of the Aeldari heralded the rise of the Imperium, and Mankind inherited the stars.
Asuryani - The Fight for Survival: In the aftermath of what became known as the "Fall of the Aeldari," the Aeldari have faced a long and painful decline. On far-flung planets teeming with natural life, the Exodites have carved themselves a survivalist niche. Savage, primal places where everyday life was hard, these realms helped the Exodites to remain focussed on the ascetic lifestyle they had chosen.At first, many of their number fought and died against dangerous aliens such as the greenskinned Orks and even the soldiers of the nascent Imperium, but many others survived, reaching equilibrium and living in harmony with their adopted worlds.In the darkness of space, the remnants of the Aeldari Empire cling onto what was left of their once-mighty culture, preserving the art and architecture of their people within the craftworlds and passing their ancient history from generation to generation via song, dance and the recital of myths and parables. Aboard their continent-sized vessels, these fragments of the Aeldari race sail the sea of stars, always seeking to stay one step ahead of She Who Thirsts and to somehow survive in a galaxy more hostile than ever.Cloistered deep within the hidden city-realms of the Webway, those survivors who concealed themselves in their palaces of depravity still revel in the debauched lifestyle that led to the Fall. In that twilight realm between the material universe and the Warp, the Drukhari mock and jeer those ravaged by the downfall of their race. Even though they would never admit it, they know in their hearts that, try as they might to allay their fate, Slaanesh will claim them in the end.The slow decline into powerlessness is what the Drukhari, the so-called "Dark Eldar," fear most of all, for in birthing Slaanesh from the endless tides of the Warp, the Aeldari have created their greatest enemy. Slaanesh, in its dire awakening, has developed a taste for the souls of the Aeldari.Where before, when an Aeldari died, their soul would pass peacefully into the Warp in order to be reborn and reincarnated ina new body a short time later, now they face eternal torment, for Slaanesh has a perverse and twisted appetite that can never be sated.Unless extraordinary measures have been taken to prevent it, whenever an Aeldari dies, Slaanesh will be waiting on the other side to consume them. She Who Thirsts will not rest until it has claimed every Aeldari soul in the galaxy. The Aeldari are doomed, and they know it well.
Asuryani - Time of Ending: As if the unnatural hunger of a voracious and sinister god was not a dire enough threat, the Aeldari must also contend with a galaxy no longer theirs. In the bloody wake of the Fall, the race of Humanity has grown to preeminence. The Imperium of Man has ascended, conquering much of the galaxy in the name of the corpse-god it calls the Emperor.The Aeldari, whose maturation patterns span nearly a Terran century, cannot compete in numbers with a species whose generations multiply with the frantic pace of vermin. Raw manpower is the Imperium's greatest strength, but also its weakness. The teeming armies of Mankind, carving up the galaxy with the enthusiasm of a demented butcher, have swept aside many dangers whilst stamping their mark upon the stars.In the process they have awoken many more. Now, more than ever, the gods of Chaos find the galaxy ripe for conquest, for weak-willed humans make easy playthings, and they are truly without number. The Aeldari see in Humanity their own failings and fear the bitter destiny that they will reap, for the race of Man unknowingly feeds the Dark Gods with their constant wars and the rich fodder of extreme and dark emotion that results.The Ork race has spread across the galaxy from end to end, fighting with insane vigour purely for the sake of violence itself. The greenskin race has become so prolific that many Asuryani Seers believe it has reached critical mass, their numbers too large for even the most protracted cull to have any real effect. Should the Ork hordes unite their efforts, all the artifice and cunning of the Aeldari would not be enough to stop them from drowning the galaxy in blood.As the 41st Millennium draws to a close, new foes and old emerge in force -- foremost amongst them, the invasion fleets of the Tyranids. As hostile and inimicable to life as a plague made flesh, the Hive Mind has crossed the interstellar void purely to feed. Each craftworld and Exodite planet represents a bounty of biomass the Hive Fleets covet greatly. They will expend billions of weapon-beasts in order to devour Aeldari realms, fashioning ever deadlier creatures from the remains of their foes.However, at least the Tyranids are confined to the fringes of the galaxy. Not so the Aeldari's oldest enemies. From their tombs the dread Necrons awake -- nigh-immortal foes from before the Fall, their lords eager to renew their timeless war against the Aeldari race.For those Aeldari who yet survive, war is their only hope. Their foes -- both new and old -- lack the technology, wisdom and skill of the Children of the Stars; in numbers alone are their enemies insurmountable. Even when staring extinction in the face, the Aeldari will not flee nor yield. They are a proud people, determined that the flame of the craftworlds blaze brightly once more rather than flicker and die out.
Asuryani - Psychic Awakening: Barring only those dark kin of Commorragh whose powers have atrophied, all Aeldari possess some degree of psychic ability. Since the Great Rift split the galaxy, those gifts have burgeoned in a variety of different ways.It is generally accepted amongst the Farseers of the craftworlds that this is a direct result of the Dathedian introducing a vast bleed of psychic energy into the galaxy. Of all the Aeldari, the craftworlders are most in tune with matters psychic, and without the Asuryani Path system -- that cultural process by which an Asuryani focuses his or her mind upon a single pursuit or skill to avoid the temptation of all others -- they may have found this flare of psychic activity maddening, and possibly even disastrous.Yet the discipline of the Path was developed precisely to turn the Aeldari mind into a fortress against such unfettered activity. Of all the civilisations in the galaxy, the Asuryani could be said to have ridden out the swell of psychic energy the best, for in many ways they had been ready for it. Their entire culture was built around discipline, guardianship and self-denial, to prevent their worst excesses rising to doom them all.Those Asuryani who trod the Witch Path found their prophetic glimpses escalating into full and potent visions, magnifying their ability to parse the skeins of fate and react accordingly. On every craftworld their Runes of Warding burned out at a daunting rate, the protective symbols being used up almost as fast as they could be regrown from psycho-reactive material. But for now at least, the inner psychic threat posed by their daemonic nemeses was held at bay.With this influx of psychic energy came other new abilities for the Asuryani. Even those warlike souls who honed their physical skills over the mental found their talents blossoming when they brought the two into perfect balance. Aspect Warriors channelled the echoes of the Aeldari war god Khaine and focused the resultant energies through the lenses of their glorious Exarch leaders.When Howling Banshees charged en masse, the wind itself screamed its fury alongside them; when Striking Scorpions gathered in the shadowed recesses of the battlefield, they became all but invisible to the naked eye until they leapt from cover and fell upon the foe.Always the Asuryani had possessed such powers and employed them in battle, yet now they manifested in a heightened and doubly lethal form. Everywhere potential turned to talent, talent to mastery, mastery to supernatural prowess. The stage was set for the sacred phoenix of the Aeldari people to rise once more.
Asuryani - Path of the Outcast: Sometimes the rigid constraints of the Path are intolerable even for an Eldar to bear. Such individuals leave their craftworlds and voluntarily become Asuryani Outcasts. Many Eldar spend Terran years or decades in exile before they return to the Path. During this time, they must bear the terrible burden of their heightened consciousness without the protection of rigid self-discipline. Their psychically-sensitive minds are a beacon to predatory daemons and in particular to the Great Enemy Slaanesh, so only Eldar of especially strong character can survive for long. After years of adventure, wandering, and sailing the seas of space, most Eldar eventually return to the sanctuary of the Path.There are many kinds of Outcast, each with a varying degree of dissociation from their kin. They leave their craftworlds to carve out lives elsewhere, often wandering the galaxy and visiting the worlds of Men or the Exodites of the Maiden Worlds. These inscrutable nomads are welcome aboard Craftworlds only briefly, for their minds are dangerously unguarded and can attract predators from the psychic realms of the Warp. Outcasts are also disruptive in another sense, for simply by their presence they can distract the young and inexperienced from the Path, as romantic tales of travel and freedom follow in their wake. Some Eldar yearn for the undiscovered vistas of open space. They join fleets of exploration and disappear into the untrammelled warp space tunnels of the webway. Most do not return, though a few come home laden with alien treasures. They bring tales of new worlds, fabulous discoveries, and battles on the edges of the galaxy.The wildest of all the spacefaring Eldar become Corsairs and raiders. They often continue to trade with and visit their craftworld whilst plundering the ships of humans, Orks and even other Eldar. These mavericks may even sometimes hire out their services to alien races, while many a voyage of exploration has turned into a military venture. As home -- and the Eldar Path -- become increasingly remote, the naturally wild and amoral character of the Eldar resurfaces. Eldar pirates are quick-tempered and unpredictable, equally inclined to magnanimity and wanton slaughter. Fleets such as the Eldritch Raiders, the Steeleye Reavers and the Sunblitz Brotherhood are greatly feared as a result.To the ignorant, there is little to distinguish between the ships of the Craftworlds, the Corsair fleets of Outcasts and those of Dark Eldar pirates. All are seen as a constant, elusive menace that bring sudden death to the unwary. On occasion, Corsair fleets will join with the ships of a Craftworld in response to a common threat, while at other times a Craftworld may aid its Corsair cousins on a mission of war, all of which adds to the illusion that the Eldar as a whole are little more than a race of piratical raiders hell-bent on indiscriminate slaughter.