Craftworld Ulthwé

Ulthanash Shelwé
Capital	Ulthanash Shelwé
Official Languages	Eldar
Power	Minor Power
Size	Craftworld
Head of State	High Farseer
Head of Government	Seer Council
Governmental Structure	Meritocratic Magocracy
State Religion/Ideology	Eldar Mythology
Demographic	Eldar
Military Force	Craftworld Guardians Craftworld Fleet Aspect Warrior hosts Black Guardians

Craftworld Ulthwé (a contraction of Ulthanash Shelwé, "the Song of Ulthanash") is one of the major Eldar Craftworlds in Warhammer 40,000, famous for its use of Farseers and Black Guardians. Its most famous scion is Eldrad Ulthran, the former Chief Farseer of Craftworld Ulthwé and known as being one of the biggest dicks in 40k, which, all things considered, is quite the statement.

History

Everyone's favorite pseudo-egyptian crying symbol. (It's called "Wadjet".)

Ulthwé was one of the last Craftworlds to hightail it out of the Segmentum Obscurus, and as a result is within spitting distance of the Eye of Terror. In the last ten thousand years, Craftworld Ulthwé has suffered thousands of attacks by the daemons of Chaos and the teaming armies of the ruinous powers, earning its nickname "Ulthwé the Damned"; the Craftworld itself is covered in scars as a result of countless dark crusades. The Craftworld's primary enemy, unsurprisingly, is Chaos, and it has placed a high emphasis on the Path of the Seer and training Warlocks, allowing the Seer Council to predict when attacks will come and better prepare Ulthwé for it. As a result of focusing on the Path of the Seer, Craftworld Ulthwé has far fewer Aspect Warriors than other Craftworlds. To compensate for this, Craftworld Ulthwé has a standing army of Guardians called the Black Guardians, a much more thoroughly trained Professional army ready to respond at a moment's notice.

Craftworld Ulthwé has occasionally worked with the Imperium of Man to better fight the forces of Chaos, but this relationship, like all Imperial-Xenos relationships, is an alliance of convenience and usually breaks down within moments of achieving either sides objective. This stems from failed first contact with the Imperium, when Eldrad attempted to warn the Imperium about Horus Lupercal's fall to Chaos, but instead of warning the Emperor himself gave his message to the Primarch Fulgrim, who was already in the throes of Slaaneshi corruption thanks to the daemonic sword he kept after the Cleansing of Laer. It resulted in a firefight and left several Eldar not just dead but lost to Slaanesh (You would think that he would have been able to foresee that, but apparently not; it's not as if the powers of Chaos could mess with his foresight... the Dark Prince was directly hiding Fulgrims true fate thread, it was only when standing directly in front of the Primarch that Eldrad was able see the gods interference), along with the numerous atrocities heaped upon their race, both during the time of the Great Crusade and in the next 10,000 years by the forces of the Imperium has left a very sour taste. The Craftworld has been responsible for things like the Second War of Armageddon, as it was Eldrad who diverted WAAAGH Ghazghkull to Armageddon, instead of towards a isolated Craftworld; so their not blameless here either. Craftworld Ulthwé also has a secret alliance with House Belisarius, a Navigator house with exclusive rights to fly to the starships of the Space Wolves. In M31, Craftworld Ulthwé saved the fortunes of House Belisarius, which began an arrangement where Belisarius gave Craftworld Ulthwé seven coins to call upon the debt. If an Eldar of Craftworld Ulthwé gives a Navigator of Belisarius one of the coins, the Navigator immediately drops whatever they're doing and helps the Eldar, taking the coin and paying back the debt. So far, this has happened five times in past ten thousand years. Naturally, House Belisarius makes an effort to keep the Space Wolves unaware of this agreement. They also have a working relationship with elements of the inquisition, and human agents throughout the Imperium, including Terra itself.

Once trapped in orbit around the Eye of Terror, Ulthwé now finds itself able to travel across the galaxy. This would normally be monumental moment for Ulthwé, being able to travel outside the orbit of the Eye of Terror for the first time since the Fall of the Eldar but seeing as the same incident also let Chaos run rampant across the galaxy... let’s just say that Chaos may have gotten that better deal here. The Ynnari have royally screwed up the social order of the Craftworld, with many leaving to join their number, and with the Exile of Eldrad (He and Ahriman should really team up, both tried to make thing better with a ritual but ended up getting exiled for it. The two could end up being bros for life) many more have chosen to follow him instead.

Recent Events

Due to having a large portion of their population either leaving to join Eldrad or the Ynnari, the Craftworld of Ulthwé now finds itself having to deal with the massive escalation in Chaos activity but with a much-reduced force to deal with the situation. In a move that stinks of desperation, the Seer council is now forced to send its remaining forces out across the galaxy in the hopes of countering the Ruinous powers by aiding the struggling forces of any faction still fighting the rampant forces of the great enemy. The Warhosts of Ulthwé appear on battlefields across the galaxy, providing aid and support, this includes helping out the Dark Angels and the Space Wolves, the T’au Farsight Enclaves and the Grey Knights. Ulthwé is determined to preserves as many allies that it can, all are needed for the future battles against Chaos, even if it means leaving Ulthwé itself in harm’s way. This would end up biting them in the ass when a combined force of Slaaneshi and Tzeentchan Daemons led by Kairos Fateweaver invaded the poorly defended Craftworld, only being driven off thanks to the intervention of Eldrad and his fellow exiles.

During the course of the Psychic Awakening, Ulthwé seers have been making a point to watch over a myriad of Imperial worlds and purge corrupt governors/councillors who through negligence or incompetence allowed Chaos to take root within their cities. In doing so, they often endeavored to ensure a more proactive, capable replacement would take charge before departing. This interventionist attitude hasn't been without cost however, with instances of retaliatory Imperial attacks against the Ulthwéans occurring due to the Seers often resorting to lightning strikes and assassinations over a more diplomatic approach. One notable instance of this occurred after a raid on an Imperial world known as Cadmas Tertius, where an Ulthwéan strike team eradicated a Slaaneshi cult lead by the rulers of the planet that would've brought their world to ruin. The governors who succeeded their predecessors knew not of the corruption of their predecessors, so when Ulthwé ambassadors attempted to parlay with them to explain, they were forced off the planet by gunpoint. The Adonis navy would follow this up with an ambush against the Ulthwé ships still monitoring them, destroying several of them before they could retreat.

Tactics and Military Doctrine

Ulthwé tends to do what it can to either avert or divert threats to their people by attempting to manipulate other factions into fighting their enemies for them. This particular approach has earned them no small degree of enmity from not only the Imperium (whom Ulthwé seems to attempt to trick and deceive at every conceivable turn almost on a whim to fight enemies the Imperium would have fought anyway), but even from other Eldar as well, as even they tire of Ulthwé's plotting; most of the time the manipulated forces will have no idea that they have been working for Ulthwe, for example no one in the Imperium knows anything about their involvement with Armageddon. When Ulthwé finds itself forced to intervene directly, they'll often rely strictly on their Black Guardians supported by Warlocks and Farseers when conducting war. Despite the relative lack of specialized Aspect Warriors native to Ulthwé, the professional soldiers of the Black Guardian's makes them far more efficient at flexibly engaging a wide variety of threats that other Craftworlds Guardians and even certain Aspect Warriors would struggle with. Their skills are also very heavily supplemented by the Warlocks and Farseers leading them into battle; the Craftworld has a standing army of War-walkers, support weapons, tanks, Air/voidcraft, wind riders and void fleets.

Unique Forces

• Black Guardians - Due to their immediate presence to the largest focal point of Chaos activity in the galaxy, even the lowliest public servant must be ready for combat at a moment's notice. As such, Ulthwé goes one step further and actually has a professional army made up of actual soldiers, not a citizen militia like every other Craftworld. Much like standard Guardians fielded by other Craftworlds, Black Guardians are fielded as either Storm Guardians or Guardian Defenders and are often tasked with operating Support Weapon Platforms and light vehicles. They often tend to work in tandem with Harlequin forces as well, utilizing the Webway for rapid (re)deployment as the signature Eldar lightning-fast assaults are known for.

Famous members

• Eldrad Ulthran
• Taldeer
• Ronahn
• Caerys