Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

== Exodites and the Maiden Worlds ==

When the Eldar joined the Imperium, one of their key terms was that the Imperium recognize the Eldar’s prior claim to the Maiden Worlds. The Eldar put a lot of work into terraforming those worlds for future settlement, and they didn’t appreciate the idea of someone else coming in and snatching up the fruits of all their hard work. The Imperium agreed, on the condition that the Eldar do the same for any worlds that had been clearly terraformed by humanity. As a result of this agreement the Craftworlds drew up a list of all the known Maiden Worlds in the galaxy. To the Eldar, this let humanity clearly know which worlds were “theirs”, though the Imperium pushed for it as well so the Eldar couldn’t suddenly show up when humanity colonized a planet and claim “this was a Maiden World all along”.

The Eldar's interest in keeping humans off Maiden Worlds was not entirely a matter of self-interest (though that was still the primary reason). It was also a matter of safety. Terraforming a Maiden World often involved such things as subtly tweaking the orbit of a comet to smack the planet to provide water, or causing massive supervolcanic eruptions to alter the planet’s atmosphere, which would be devastating to anyone on the planet’s surface. The Eldar didn’t want people to go squatting on an unfinished Maiden World, get wiped out by a preplanned terraforming event, and then go complaining it was the Eldar's fault, when the Eldar had warned them that unfinished Maiden Worlds were not safe.

In the last few millennia (read: in the millennia since the romanticization of the alliance), the Eldar have allowed small numbers of other species to live on Maiden Worlds, but only after they have been extensively settled and colonized by Eldar first. To the Eldar, the Maiden Worlds are Eldar worlds first and foremost, and members of other races are only allowed on them because the Eldar permit it. The Eldar never allow Maiden Worlds to be settled by other races first. The only “exception” to this is New Tanith, but that was more due to Prince Yriel than anything else. Officially, New Tanith was given to Prince Yriel on behalf of Biel-Tan as a gift, who then in turn gifted the planet to the refugees of Tanith, as was his right. Yriel was both Eldar and crazy enough that Biel-Tan recognized he would not back down. Anyone else would have been told to go screw themselves.

The Maiden Worlds themselves are typically allied with one of the Craftworlds, and these Craftworlds are typically the ones that speak for them when their voices need to be heard in the Imperium.

The Exodites are kind of like a combination between the Amish and Sakoku Japan. There is perhaps one major settlement on the planet that allows advanced technology, primarily as a spaceport to allow trade with the rest of the Imperium. The rest of the planet is explicitly low-tech.

In some cases the Eldar prefer human goods because although they are lower quality they are often cheaper and can be made more quickly. The Exodites take this a step further. Much like many simple living groups (e.g., Amish, Mennonites), the Exodites often prefer human goods because they are crappy, and thus force the Exodites to work harder for their living. In addition, trading for tools made offworld means that an Exodite does not have to break from their austere lifestyle to make the tools necessary for such a lifestyle to be possible, and can devote more of their time to work. The Exodites mostly trade for these goods with surplus food (what little they usually produce) and handmade goods. Any surplus food that cannot be used for trade or stored for hard times is generally donated to the war effort.

The Exodites are rather picky about who they allow on their worlds. If an outsider wants to visit the world and watch the dinosaur jousting and is willing to do so respectfully and without disrupting the Exodite way of life (read: no high tech), fine. If one of their Craftworld kin gets fed up with the rigidity of the Paths and wants to adopt the Exodite way of life, fine. If a human wants to do the same, they may allow it, though the Exodites are often skeptical of the ability of a human to tolerate an Exodite’s low tech lifestyle.

However, the Exodites do not tolerate anyone trying to industrialize their world and disrupt their way of life, whether it be a Craftworlder or a human. Those who try to do so are summarily booted off the planet at best. Trying to invoke the protection of the Imperium to protect you in these matters does not work, as Imperial representatives are quick to say that the Exodites are the ones who make the rules on their worlds, and if you break the laws you are on your own.

The Exodites of the Maiden Worlds are very different from the enclaves the Craftworlders set up, which are essentially normal Eldar dwellings with all of their technology on an uninhabited Maiden World rather than dinosaur-riding space Amish.

The relationship between the Craftworlds and the Exodites is kind of like that between the ancient Greek city-states and their far-flung colonies (e.g., Syracuse). Typically, one of the larger Craftworlds claims sovereignty over a Maiden World, and is expected to provide for their defense and represent them in Imperial politics. This is largely imperialism on the part of the Craftworlds. To be honest the Exodites like the idea of their Craftworlder cousins expressing sovereignty over them about as much as they would humans, but they aren’t foolish enough to look a gift horse in the mouth when they show up with military aid in their worst hour and the Craftworlds mostly avoid interfering. They can and will, however, go to another Craftworld and ask for their patronage if they feel their claiming Craftworld is being too overbearing. Most of the smaller craftworlds won’t mess with one of the big five, but Saim-Hann tends to be much more lax and is more than willing to politically tweak Biel-Tan or Alaitoc’s nose. They tend to not meddle with issues with the Maiden Worlds unless the native Exodite population asks them to.

During the Great Crusade, the eldar were very proactive in keeping the Imperium and humanity off the Maiden Worlds.Even Biel-Tan, who sees the current Imperium is the rebirth and continuation of the Old Eldar Empire, in fact they were some of the loudest about it. Biel-Tan was always interested in rebuilding the Empire and this was in the days before the formation of the alliance. In those days the Maiden Worlds were seen as the future of the eldar people. Of course, in this timeline they don’t jump straight to genocide, instead they either tended to call up the Imperium and go “these are your people, they’re your problem” or just round the human population up and dump them on the nearest human-populated world regardless of their wishes. Even today Biel-Tan, pre-Kraken Iyanden, and Alaitoc are still twitchy about the idea of significant human populations on Maiden Worlds. Although Biel-Tan sees the Imperium as the New Eldar Empire the Maiden Worlds were the life’s work of many of the eldar people and by their reckoning it would be unfair for any other species to profit from the fruits of their labor.

There are some planets with significant populations of coexisting humans and Exodites. Planets where either the native Exodite inhabitants either died out or significantly decreased in population and humans moved in, or human worlds where Exodites have planted wraithtrees after their own world was destroyed. Aghoru and the medieval world where Isha was nearly kidnapped by the Conservators are examples of the former. Rynn’s world is an example of the latter. There was a population of Bronze Age or Medieval-level Nocturne-descended humans on Caldera, who the Exodites freed during a counter-attack on a Dark Eldar raiding party and granted them asylum on the planet. The Nocturneans gratefully accepted and the two had been coexisting for centuries by the time the Great Crusade arrived. Both Biel-Tan and Vulkan called for the humans to be forcibly deported and resettled on Nocturne. The people who would actually be affected by this decision didn’t like it, the Exodites likewise felt that Biel-Tan was overriding their sovereignty and telling them what to do, whereas the humans on Caldera had lived there for so many generations that the planet was their home, Nocturne being but a distant memory, and they preferred to be on a planet that was not a tectonic time bomb. It has not been yet decided out-of-universe what happened to them. However, human-Exodite worlds are pretty rare.

The general stereotype among the non-eldar parts of the imperium is that the Maiden Worlds are an idyllic place to live, a place where food grows from the ground at a whim and the inhabitants want for nothing. This is not the case. It is true that the Maiden Worlds were engineered to be a paradise for eldar by the Old Eldar Empire, with plentiful food and resources, perfect climate, no diseases, etc. However, properly Shaadomeiforming a world requires a lot of subtle tweaking and constant maintenance and the last time anyone checked to make sure these systems were maintained was thousands of years ago. Since the Fall, many of the climate and environmental systems intended to turn the Maiden Worlds into paradises have broken down. The Maiden Worlds were also intended to be settled by Eldar using Old Empire technology, with ‘modern’ medicine, agriculture, infrastructure, etc.

No one expected a bunch of crazy Luddites to settle there and start raising the dinosaurs, especially given the forefathers of the Exodites deliberately picked the worlds that were half-finished and harshest to live on. This was done both because [[Nobledark_Imperium_Notes#Asurmen|it was the last place any roving raiders from the Old Empire would look for them]] and because they wanted their descendants to have to work to make a living to keep from falling into decadence. Starvation and want are not unknown on Exodite Worlds, and birthrates have to be maintained carefully to prevent overpopulation. Violent disputes between clans are not uncommon, though in general they are willing to resolve differences between ceremonial combat between dragon riders (which nevertheless can still result in death) than all-out warfare. In addition to seeing the Craftworlders as decadent and insufficiently distancing themselves from their old ways, Exodites [[Wood Elves (Warhammer)|also often see their Craftworld kin as soft and weak compared to them]].