Harlequin - Harlequin Masques: Most of the Aeldari live with the bitter knowledge that their gods are gone, having abandoned them or been destroyed in the Fall. Almost unique among their kind, the Harlequins know that Cegorach survived the Fall, and even now plans for the salvation of the Aeldari species. With every passing Terran year more Aeldari are drawn towards the way of the Harlequins, erasing their past identity and taking up the mask and motley of the Laughing God.A masque is an army and a company of dramatic players both. It has no formal leaders, being instead a collective of like-minded devotees of Cegorach. All know their duties through their familiarity with the traditional roles of the characters they have adopted. No Harlequin rules their fellows for long, for all possess an equal voice.A Harlequin masque unleashed upon the battlefield is a thing of boundless fury and mind-boggling precision, the ultimate melding of cold, alien wrath and preternatural agility. It is a spectacle of destruction as beautiful as it is murderous, as Troupes of warriors leap and bound through the enemy, slaughtering the foe even as Skyweavers cut off lines of retreat, herding the enemy onto the waiting guns of the Voidweavers and Death Jesters.A masque possesses a synergy unmatched in almost any other fighting formation, an instinctive bond grown between the Harlequins as they travel and perform together and unleashed on the battlefield in times of war and strife.The organisation of a Harlequin masque is unusual by the standards of the most of the forces fighting in the Dark Millennium -- after all, it is formed from multiple bands of dancers, mimes and other dramatic performers. The organisational strictures of a masque hail from ancient days, when Cegorach's devotees were theatrical performers first and foremost.Since the Fall, a place has traditionally been reserved in a masque's structure should a Solitaire lend their considerable abilities to a cause, but they are otherwise unchanged, centred around three distinct Troupes: the Light, the Dark, and the Twilight. Each contains a different cast of characters, grouped by outlook and symbolism.The Light, for example, is especially associated with swift action, the heroic protagonist, the sky and the day. By comparison, the Dark represents villainous antagonists, violent endings, and the night, while the Twilight is transitory, like the Webway or the fateful journey, comprising characters that bestride multiple or shifting worlds. This structure ensures that each member is aware their fellows' roles, upon both stage and battlefield.This mutual understanding allows Harlequin masques to fight with near-prescient efficiency. Without the need for orders, each warrior knows both his own and his comrades' duties, as well as who will require support and who can provide it. Indeed, despite the lack of a formal military chain of command, masques are capable of acting with far greater synchronicity and discipline than most standing armies.In battle, a masque seems less a group of individuals, and more a single, perfectly coordinated entity. Further enhancing this incredible efficiency is the fact that each of a masque's mythic plays has its battlefield counterpart, known by the Aeldari as its saedath. Essentially a strategic battle plan with an allegorical edge, these inform target priority, overall strategy, and whether the conflict should be led by the Light, Dark, or Twilight.The appropriate saedath will be chosen based upon a range of factors; in some cases, masques specialise in certain mythic cycles, and will rely upon these to the exclusion of all else. In others, the ritual significance of the foe, the battlefield, or even such factors as time of day or quality of light will inform this decision. Whatever the choice, each saedath is an intricate and brilliantly conceived strategy.While Harlequin masques tend to follow a time-honoured structure, established by the followers of Cegorach in ages past, each also has a distinct identity that reaches from their performances and onto the battlefield. For instance, the Masque of the Leaping Stars go to war heralded by the same kaleidoscopic displays that accompany their performances, while the Mourning Mist advance in ghostly silence, as ominous as the shadow of Ynnead from Aeldari legend.This adherence to tradition and connection to their ancient legends strengthens the masques in battle. Every tactic they implement is a counterpart to the mythic plays, known as a saedath, a battlefield plan with an allegorical edge. These inform the masque's tactics and which Troupes will take the lead. Each Harlequin knows these saedaths on such an intricate level they are able to enact these strategies with flawless precision.