Iyanden - The Last Debate: So it was that Kelmon, in his moment of self-doubt, compounded Iyanden's danger a hundredfold. Once opened up to debate in the Place of Answering, the chief representatives of each Path were entitled to give voice to an opinion on the matter at hand -- only when consensus was reached would a course be chosen. The ensuing debate was heated and prolonged. Few of the Craftworld's inhabitants truly recognised the scale of the danger. Most believed that Iyanden was a far more dangerous prey than Malan'tai or Idharae could ever have been, and that their home could weather the storm coming its way. In the end, after much wasted time that would have been better expended preparing for war, Iyanden argued over two potential courses of action. The more conservative elements of the Craftworld argued for a policy of isolation, shielding the Craftworld behind a powerful psychic barrier in an attempt to avoid all contact with the Tyranids, while the more aggressive elements wanted to attack the enemy immediately, dispatching the fleet to destroy the Tyranids before they reached the Craftworld. Both courses of action were badly flawed, however, because they greatly underestimated the sheer size of the Tyranid swarm. It took a speech from Irillith, a Ranger who had mapped the scale of the Kraken during a lonely and terrible voyage. She drove home to all present that the hive fleet was far greater in size than Naga had been; it was too vast to hide from or for the Eldar fleet to defeat on its own. It would take the combined efforts of every Eldar on Iyanden to have any chance against the Tyranids, and even then, they might not succeed.Mute terror fell upon the hall as Irillith finished her speech. No more needed to be said, for all the Eldar had recognised the truth in the Ranger's words and now realised the sheer enormity of the task ahead. Quickly, the meeting reached consensus: all elements of the fleet would be recalled, and every single Eldar would take on the Warrior aspect of Warlock, Guardian or Aspect Warrior. Help would be requested from the other Eldar Craftworlds. The Avatar, the embodied spirit of the Craftworld's war god, would be awakened to take part in the battle. Iyanden itself would be fortified, for there could be no doubt that the Tyranids would breach their outer defences and land on the vessel. Throughout the debate, Kelmon listened approvingly, but he perceived a fatal flaw in the plan and, at last, rose so that his voice too would be heard. Kelmon warned the assembled crowds that the living Eldar were not enough to hold the Tyranids at bay; only by awakening the ghost warriors could victory be achieved.The crowd thought Kelmon had misunderstood; the ghost warriors had fought alongside the living for millennia, and would surely do so again. Actually, Kelmon told the masses, it was they that had misunderstood. He was not proposing that only the willing souls be awoken as ghost warriors, as had previously been tradition, but that all capable spirits from the Infinity Circuit be roused to war. By risking the destruction of the Craftworld's spirit stones, Iyanden risked the obliteration of its culture and racial memory, but all knew that just one ghost warrior could make the difference between victory and defeat. Thus, in an act considered by many to be little better than tomb robbing, every last spirit stone of Iyanden was plucked from its resting place; every ancestor was arrayed in Wraithbone shell to fight alongside its still-living descendants.