![]() However, this is evened up with pale, anorexic-thin MALE dark eldar with bare midriffs, and the reasons for their skimpy dress are justified in-fiction. As with the Dark Elves in Warhammer, the Dark Eldar too often seem to be the 40k faction of choice of those who want their women in genre games to be pale, anorexic-thin and with bare midriffs as their "armour". Some other things about this faction have also worried me. When I saw the special character Kruella the Vile I winced at the terrible pun: I wanted to know why was there a 101 Dalmatians reference in 40k, and I hypocritically condemned the lowbrow humour, despite myself having painted an Eldar warlord I had dubbed Lon’don of the Even Standard. This was just dark elves in space, and I felt at the time that 40k had only just moved past being “Warhammer in Space” and that this was a step in the wrong direction, design wise. The dark lance was a bright lance with a “dark” label added on to impress angsty teenagers. The kabalite warriors were ugly, as if someone had messed up an eldar sculpt and put blades and spikes on the armour. My initial reaction against them was visceral horror of the wrong sort… How dare they mess with my precious Eldar? How dare they compromise their fiction? Reading the codex and seeing the miniatures deepened this disgust for me, for various reasons. The Dark Eldar were introduced in 1998, three years ahead of the Tau, and were one of the first real shake-ups of the fictional background of the lore of 40k that I personally encountered. I also took objection to their aesthetics on multiple levels, and in short, never liked them much. The Dark Eldar just didn’t strike a chord with me as much, and indeed I’ve often seem them as being ridiculously “grimdark”, over the top in their evil for evil’s sake and underdeveloped in their fiction. While the Craftworld Eldar have always appealed to me, with their ancient culture, their witchcraft and their rightful superiority, its also been the case that the primary part of their appeal to me is their dignity of self denial and self control, and the sense of sacrifice and noble bearing in the face of extinction. I will admit openly here – this was once one of my least favourite factions in the wargame. Not the Craftworld Eldar, however, but the Dark Eldar of Comorragh, an altogether different culture and people. We began the Chime of Eons with the Eldar, and (aside from a smattering of neutral and planet cards that we must cover for completeness) we end with Eldar again. ![]() Perhaps it is those that we left to perish are the lucky ones. We of the craftworlds deny all such urges, and in doing so become less than ourselves. In truth, unless our cousins in the webway feed upon a constant diet of extreme emotion they will slowly wither away, leaving naught but a soulless husk. Some have even managed to convince themselves of this. Instead, they maintain that they act only upon their own desires. ![]() The scions of the Dark City would never admit that the unceasing hunger at their core is what drives them to such heights of cruelty. But not a single skull was to be found taken as sick trophies by these despicable attackers. Their innards were hung from control panels like grotesque decorations of some insane celebration. Their blood was slick upon the walls and floors of the dormitories. The bones of five thousand brave men lay scattered about the winding corridors. I will never forget what I saw at Obsidian Station. Archon Vraesque Malidrach of the Kabal of the Flayed Skull We shall only set foot upon the soil these vermin call home in order to place our bladed heels on their throats. Not for us a grubbing crawl through the mud and filth of battle.
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