Dark Eldar: Corruption of Nobility

In order to understand how the Dark Eldar came to be, one must look back at the Fall of the Eldar and understand what they once were. Before the Fall, the Eldar were a noble race. Long-lived and technologically-advanced, they once held an empire that could be described as paradise.

Their enemies practically non-existent and hard labor unnecessary, the noble race soon turned to hedonistic pleasure. This change occurred gradually, the descent into lusts spanning millennia.

Some members of the Eldar race had recognized what they were becoming and left their home world. Still, the hedonism continued and the descent of this once noble race has had a huge effect on the psychic realm of chaos.

All of the lusts and desires of the Eldar began to give birth to a power of Chaos in the warp. When this power grew to a point that it achieved intelligence, it became Slaanesh, the chaos god of lust and desire.

During the birth of Slaanesh, s/he released a psionic attack that immediately ripped the Eldar’s souls from their bodies. Slaanesh feasted on the souls of the Eldar and only a handful escaped: the Exodites who have left their home world and a few surviving members of the pleasure-cults. The latter group is where the Dark Eldar come from.

The survivors of the pleasure-cults soon found out to their horror that though their deaths were not immediate, Slaanesh was slowly consuming their souls while they yet lived. In order to escape this dreadful fate, they hid in the webways – tunnels used by the Eldar to traverse the warp. Coming together, the survivors built the dark city of Commorragh and became the first Dark Eldar.

The Dark Eldar are considered to be twisted and corrupted Eldar. Their twisted nature is easily seen in their corruption of the noble forces of the Eldar. While they utilize much of the same technology of the Eldar, the Dark Eldar often use bizarre versions powered by pain and drugs.

Another notable characteristic of the Dark Eldar is their thirst for souls. They feel the need to devour souls more acutely because their own souls are being drained by Slaanesh.