Dark Eldar as a new race? Suggestion thread

[Swift]

Everyone has to have a war god. And Khaine just happens to be a complete arse to everyone he meets.

Dark Eldar work by feeding off the psychic essence of others. Since technically they do not have a soul themselves, they inflict pain to sap the psychic essence that is emitted from someone else, which rejuvenates and replenishes them. Killing someone is no good as the soul leaves all at once and must be taken in over time, since a deathblow is a very swift psychic imprint, not good for them at all, so the longer and more someone is in pain, the more the Dark Eldar get from it. Souls don't work like there is a finite supply of energy, there is no limit until the person whose soul it is finally expires. Dark Eldar hide from Slaanesh, the reason they appear close is because Slaanesh was a by product of their excess.

[Mngwa]

I'm not sure is there anything psychic about the soul-feeding.
It is a thing that probably shouldn't work on Necrons, but they should be able to rejuvenate from Tau just fine.

That would be one thing that GW could clarify on their lore a bit. It could technically not work on tyranids or daemons as well.

[Swift]

In the codex it says psychic essence. I am going by what they write.

[Mngwa]

Hmm...
So would it affect daemons?


BTW this is pretty off topic but oh well

[Mngwa]

Looks like the lore-corner is dying out.

Oh well, I will be happy as long as people don't think Dark Eldar are slaanesh-worshipers. Gets on my nerves sometimes when assumptions on lore are made based on their aesthetics.


Does anyone have anything to say about my Tier 3 unit-suggestions?

[Dalakh]

Dark Eldar are not going to leech out the souls of deamons since they are doing it precisely to avoid having to deal with daemons (and slaanesh in particular).

[Aertes]

Looks like the lore-corner is dying out.

Why?, the lore is one and is written, it won't be affected by opinions.

[ChrisNihilus]

Why?, the lore is one and is written, it won't be affected by opinions.

Well, almost. Fluff-raping is some real issue in Wh40k.
Many writers, and sometime happen that one say something that is against the pre-existing lore.

When things get rectified completely is easy to understand (like the new Necrons' lore) but sometime, for example when there are only partial contraddictions, it is open to discussions, opinions and hypothesis.

[BaptismByLoli]

[ChrisNihilus]

Exactly.

[Mngwa]

Looks like the lore-corner is dying out.

Why?, the lore is one and is written, it won't be affected by opinions.

I didn't mean it as in that our opinions affect it at all ^^ I simply meant that there wasn't any discussion then on this thread.

Other than that, there's plenty of different views of the lore and conflicts, as well as a few things that can be debated and GW has given no clear answer (such as can DEldar torture necrons. If they can, can they do that to both or just newcrons etc.)

I mostly don't see novels as a source for lore when it comes to what the people can do. Otherwise I would also start claiming that the imperium isn't in any kind of trouble and they live in a nice utopia because the space marines can do anything.

And when it comes to some authors such as C.S. Goto, I am refusing everything that could even remotely be called lore in his books. I am actually worried some guys have picked up Dark Eldar as fanatical Slaanesh-worshippers from him.
I don't want to pick a stance on Matt Ward, because I am not too interested in neither newcrons or oldcrons. The Blood Angels-alliance is stupid though.

[ChrisNihilus]

I am actually worried some guys have picked up Dark Eldar as fanatical Slaanesh-worshippers from him.

Ah yes, that was very stupid indeed.

[Mngwa]

I am actually worried some guys have picked up Dark Eldar as fanatical Slaanesh-worshippers from him.

Ah yes, that was very stupid indeed.

I don't know if that was sarcastic or something, but C.S. Goto hasn't done any research on it.

Dark Eldar are not worshipers of Slaanesh, and are still anti-chaos just like CWE.

[ChrisNihilus]

No Sarcasm.
Dark Eldar worshipping Slaanesh is very stupid.

I completely removed that from memory.
C.S. Goto do so many errors is disturbing and quite infuriating sometimes.

[Swift]

Indeed. Who is C.S.Goto?

[Mngwa]

Indeed. Who is C.S.Goto?

An author who is known of backflipping terminators, vehicles changing their type (I think it was razorback to a landraider and then back again), special weapons appearing on characters out of nowhere and some other stuff.

And, of course, eldar trading slaves with dark eldar who make big gladiatorial arenas into random planets so they could sacrifice stuff to Slaanesh.

I don't want to bash him too much, I admit I have only heard of his work (not read any), but none of it sounds very good.

[ChrisNihilus]

Just a incomplete list of mr C.S. Goto 's heresies:

Space Marines have tons multilasers
D-Cannon fire bullets
Eldars can't handle human languages
Dark Eldar worshipping Slaanesh
Fire Dragons can't pierce thru light barricade even at point-black
Eldars stealing and using Imperial Tanks (lol, Eldar looted tanks) and charging into battle

[BaptismByLoli]

Just a incomplete list of mr C.S. Goto 's heresies:

Space Marines have tons multilasers

Space Marines will be Space Marines

D-Cannon fire bullets
Eldars can't handle human languages
Dark Eldar worshipping Slaanesh
Fire Dragons can't pierce thru light barricade even at point-black
Eldars stealing and using Imperial Tanks (lol, Eldar looted tanks) and charging into battle

[Swift]

He sounds like an idiot heretic to me.

[Atlas]

Just a incomplete list of mr C.S. Goto 's heresies:

Space Marines have tons multilasers

Sounds to me like Mr.Goto just wished SM get Sentinels in T1

[ChrisNihilus]

Vault of Terra just released a video about the Dark Eldar.
This is the best channel by far about the Lore of Wh40k.

[Swift]

It is, but as a Dark Eldar fanboy he didn't cover the right points in my opinion, not mentioning how the Dark Eldar and Eldar, no matter how much they hate each other, are like brothers, so when an Eldar Craftworld is threatened in extreme circumstances, the Dark Eldar will often turn up out their own amusment at their Craftworld kin.

[Mngwa]

I just started watching this video when!

Otherwise, pretty well made vid. Mentioning that there was no civil war between CWE and DE and they were separated from themselves by the fall instead (unlike in WHFB) would have been good.

[Mngwa]

Okay, next up, I thought about global abilities.

The Power from Pain is a tough call, and there are indeed numerous ways to implement it. Orks already have Waaagh! on about every unit, so having an ability for it on each unit wouldn't be impossible or silly.

My suggestion is a T1 global skill. Since it is about the rule, we can call it "Power from Pain".

The duration should be long. Not too long but enough that the effects can stack up.

The effects would be a small damage increase and moderate health regen increase on each kill made by the unit while active (maybe per the model who kills, or the whole squad? Lorewise could be both). I don't recall are there any abilities that scale up depending on what is killed, but the ability would not only have use for, but would actually pretty much require scaling. If you kill a guardsman the buffs should be smaller than a nob or a terminator. Otherwise it could either be too good (OP) against a large blob of fragile things or pointless when you are only going to get one or two kills.

The way the ability would be used would be about in the middle of the engagement. Best effects would of course be right before the unit kills a model, so timing would be key. Depending on how far the battle is going, it could be used to make a unit last longer before it has to retreat, or it could be used to fight on for a moment and then kite away to regain health (possibly combining with fleet-ability). Or, if the fight ends by the opponent routing, if they managed to kill something (the opponent could maybe have made the ability go to waste by running before anyone died though), the unit can now sit back for a sec and regain their health.


Other skills, night is a very iconic thing for Dark Eldar. I again have no idea how possible it is but a way to temporarily "fade" the battlefield sounds interesting. Probably no, though.

Scourges, incubi, possibly mandrakes, could have a global call-in. In the case of scourges, no grenades like the autarch-drop but a simple landing would help. Maybe some disruption where they land to make it useful to use in combat.

For a nuke, I thought for a while and I think there is one that would fit the dark eldar well and which is already in the game.
Rocket Run, replaced by Razorwing Strafe ("strafe" not likely a proper term but name is in progress...). The initial signal of the nuke could be the same, perhaps modified smoke (green or purple?) and four monoscythe-missiles flying on a straight line arranged by the player. Repeat.
The missiles would go more in a straight line towards the target rather than fall from the sky. The difference with the IG-nuke could either be related to how much it disrupts and/or how much damage it causes?
Seeing the actual razorwing to fly by seems like a cool feature but hardly necessary for the nuke.

I have no other ideas for other global abilities, but I would say that at least the nuke, scourges or mandrakes, and some kind of version from PfP would work for any DE-commander.
I will try to write up some Archon-specific stuff next time (that incubus-call in would work for him, like the seer-council for the farseer).

[Alexwellace]

Another idea for the nuke along the same lines could be the Void Mine. It is actually written in the fluff to be the Dark Eldar's ultimate weapon in terms of battle field support, what it does is when the mine drops, first it creates a force bubble around the AOE, then releases a single molecule of pure Dark Matter. BOOM! The force bubble around the mine? That is to *contain* the devastation to a single area so the explosion doesn't take the Flyer with it!

I think this would be a rather unique nuke, with a small radius, but big damage and most importantly, if it hits, inescapable! Say the marker shows up first (gotta have a marker to be fair), if the enemy doesn't move his unit (small AOE, will rarely hit more then 1 unit) out of the way then the mine hits home. The mine creates a force bubble around the area (we have the animation in the WSE Shimmer Shield Orb thing) and the unit cannot leave or fire out of that bubble. Then, BOOM (Singularity animation scaled up?) . Maybe not enough damage to instantly wipe Termies or a Nob squad, but like, a lot of damage. For example the amount of damage that is done to whatever is in the middle of the storm when Eldrich Storm hits.

Just an idea, but i thought it might be a little more unique then a rocket run and we already have usable animation which of course makes things easier.

[Swift]

Other skills, night is a very iconic thing for Dark Eldar. I again have no idea how possible it is but a way to temporarily "fade" the battlefield sounds interesting. Probably no, though.

CL does this already with his global.

As for void mine, could be comboed with stuns of snares to make it inescapable for termies, I like the sound of a rather more restricted nuke.

[fankater]

Dark Eldar Warrior model here :
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread. ... 1045517646

[Swift]

This news is most pleasing to a certain Archon...

[Ar-Aamon]

Yes Shuma is back. Good news!

[sterling]

Yep, its awesome.

He's working through stuff for a Siam-Hann and Exodite "DLC" pack and then lots of Dark Elder stuff. Hope he sticks around and gets it all done.