Editing Eldar (section)

===The Fall=== 
The Fall happened gradually between c.M18-30 and if ''Farseer'' by [[William King]] is to believed, it all really started with an Eldar called Lord [[Shaha Gaathon]] (or as he would be later called, The Harbinger of Slaanesh) - he was to [[Slaanesh]] what [[Yvraine]] is to [[Ynnead]]. Shaha Gaathon was the first to start what was to become the cults of pleasure and he would later become the first [[Daemon Prince]] of Slaanesh. It may seem strange for the Fall to take place over what is a comparatively very short period of time given the insane length of their rule, but the rate of the Fall can be directly compared to the increasingly violent Warp storms that would eventually lead to the collapse of the DAOT; according to the Lore, when humanity first started using the Warp to travel it was considerably more calm and peaceful, only to eventually end up so volatile that Warp travel became impossible (those lightweights just couldn't last one night at an Eldar empire house party). The Fall really did take place over the course of thousands, not millions, of years, with many Eldar witnessing the slow degradation take place over a single Eldar life time. It is weird that it happened so suddenly, like practically overnight, but it is perhaps possible Slaanesh causes The Fall. Time is a joke in the Warp and all the Chaos Gods always existed even before they were born.

Ironically, those who sought to delay the coming doom that some among their seers had foreseen actually in some ways accelerated its coming. As first the Exodites, then the Craftworlds and like-minded Eldar fled the heart of the Eldar Empire in greater and greater numbers, what rational, cautious and puritanical elements there were in the Eldar Empire as a whole were effectively stripped away from their society. Without their calming, cautionary influence, the rest of their civilization likely slipped further and deeper into depravity.

:{{topquote|Shaha Gaathon is one of the greatest of the servants of He Who We Do Not Name. He existed before the Great Enemy came. Since before the birth of his master, he has a terrible hatred for the eldar, and I believe, he wishes to use your people as a weapon against mine. There are futures waiting to be born in which the followers of the Emperor will turn on my people and destroy them utterly. There are timelines in which the eldar respond with our forbidden and ultimate weapons and both races are so dramatically weakened that Chaos overwhelms them.<br>
:''Your people are numberless as the grains of sand upon a beach. It does not matter how powerful our weapons are, you will eventually overwhelm us, for the Harbinger of the Lord of all Pleasures knows the location of all our hidden home-vessels.''|Farseer, ''William King''}}

Throughout the Eldar civilization, a profound degradation in moral discipline and a gradual slide into sensual excess commenced, undermining the foundations of the once-great Empire. With the rise of the cults of pleasure over the once-great ruling councils, worship of the Eldar gods declined, many even considered themselves to be gods in their own right; there are even pits near the entrances to the dark city into which the status of the gods were hurled, now thousands of years later they are buried under religious relics stolen from species from across the galaxy, just going to show the utter contempt that the [[Dark Eldar]] held towards their racial pantheon. We are told that most of the Pantheon could do nothing but watch events unfold with growing horror, Isha wept for her children, Khaine raged and the lord of the Eldar gods simply turned and walked away. As the quest for excess crossed into outright evil, a perverse new god began to stir in the Warp. That is not to say the Eldar at the time of the Fall were quite like the Dark Eldar. They were certainly similar but more like a hybrid of Dark Eldar and [[Eldar Corsair|Corsair]] in terms of personality and culture. The Dark Eldar became what they are due to a combination of desperation to stave off Slaanesh and naturally choosing to do so in ways they were most familiar with (i.e. torture and hedonism) cranked up to eleven even by their own standards (not that they didn't enjoy it).

As Eldar civilization became more and more excessive, it began to resemble the world of a [[FATAL|certain godawful assault on the dignity of the human creative impulse]], and the Eldar made a science and a cultural centerpiece out of indulging and refining every perverted sensual desire they had. As their race descended into mindless slaughter, lawlessness, depravity, and evil, little did they know that all of it was nourishing a new entity in the Warp. Some Eldar decided to forsake the ways of their kin and left to settle other planets at the fringes of the galaxy; this turned out to be a pretty smart move, since the planet-wide orgies and [[Heterosexual Sex in the Missionary Position|other assorted debauchery]] going on back home culminated psychically in a gargantuan Warp storm that resulted in the birth of the [[Chaos]] [[Chaos Gods|god]] [[Slaanesh]] and tore an enormous hole in the fabric of realspace that is now known as the [[Eye of Terror]]. This calamity also resulted in the deaths of most of the Eldar still on their homeworlds.
[[Image:FalloftheEldar.jpg|thumb|left|500px|"At least we perfected time travel so we can go back and fix this... Wait, what do you mean you ''all'' gave that up and spent the last thousand years having sex instead? I swear, you guys!..."]]

The Eldar race are highly psychically gifted, and as the corruption spread [[/d/|the echoes of ecstasy and agony rippled through time and space]] and in the Warp the reflections of these intense experiences began to coalesce unknowingly into an unimaginably foul and sickening shadow of what the Eldar, their pride and their nobility had become, brought low by perversity and shamelessness. In the twilight years approaching the Birth of the Dark Prince the Eldar were riven with madness. Worlds burned as the Eldar slew and laughed and feasted upon the dead.

:{{topquote|Yet how mightier is Khorne than his delight-filled sibling! Oldest of Gods and greatest of warriors, Khorne’s armies stretch from infinity to infinity to infinity, and the pleasure God may not rival him. But this was not always so. For in the days when the Slaanesh, last born and most beautiful, strove for existence, his power waxed stronger than all gods, be they separate or together, and it seemed as though his spiteful triumph would destroy the balance in the Warp.|from Liber Chaotica - If you ever wondered why Slaanesh was able to consume the Eldar gods just after its birth, it’s because at its birth it was stronger then all the other gods of the Warp combined; the other three members of the Chaos pantheon secretly fear that he may eventually become so again.}}

[[Grimdark|Most of the Eldar gods were wiped out along with their race]]. The newborn Slaanesh, a creature without equal in perversion and heinousness, rampaged through the Warp, devouring everything Eldar that he/she/it/they could get its hands/tentacles/claws/many [[/d/|phallic appendages]] on. The gods who bit the big one were [[Asuryan]], [[Kurnous]], [[Lileath]], [[Morai-Heg]], and [[Vaul]]. The three that survived are the [[Cegorach|Laughing God, Cegorach]]; the shattered [[Khaine|God of War and Fire, Khaine]]; and the [[Isha|Goddess of Healing and Fertility, Isha]], also known as the Mother.

During this mass deicide, Khaine fought against Slaanesh and found himself evenly matched. Before a winner could be decided, however, [[Khorne]] appeared and declared Khaine his property. Whether this was due to the slight similarities in their names, or the fact that Khaine was another god of war is unknown. What is known is that Slaanesh refused, resulting in the first of the many regular beatings Khorne gives Slaanesh. ([[C.S. Goto|Which pleases him/her/it/them.]]) While Khorne was curb-stomping the proper order of things into his new compatriot's head, Khaine was [[Derp|shattered into many pieces and flung into the mortal realm]] (probably due to being used as a convenient club by Khorne to beat sense into Slaanesh's head). These shattered pieces of Khaine found their way to the Eldar [[Craftworlds]] and are now used to summon the [[Avatar of Khaine]] to fight for them (a fate very similar to the Burning One).

Cegorach famously ran from Slaanesh in a [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHmskwqCCQ very Benny Hill-like fashion] before Khaine showed up. It was at this point [[Troll|Cegorach told Khaine "you got this" and fled to safety]]. Cegorach now spends all his time getting into [[Just As Planned|"Just As Planned"-]] competitions with the other dicks of the galaxy. The rest of his time is spent reading books in the [[Black Library]] and trolling [[Ahzek Ahriman|Ahriman]] by denying him entrance to it. He also usually plays [[Paradox poker|Paradox-Billiards-Vostroyan-Roulette-Fourth Dimensional-Hypercube-Chess-Strip Poker]] with [[Tzeentch]], [[C'tan|the Deceiver]] and the [[Emperor]] once every week. It's not exactly known how three dimensions managed to contain that much dickery in a single location without imploding. The Warp did it.

The fertility goddess, Isha, was saved <s>from [[Slaanesh| the lusty Argonian maid</s>]] {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|'''''NO!!'''''}} by none other than [[Nurgle|Papa Nurgle]]. Isha now endures as [[Poxfulcrum|the test subject of Nurgle's plagues]] and as of the 6th edition Daemons codex is kept company by a small forest of the agonizingly petrified Seer souls of the one [[Craftworld#Lugganath|craftworld]] that believed she still existed/survived and that [[Derp|were supposedly her descendants]] (at this we should note that ALL Eldar are descendants of Isha). The disease that set them in that state, one capable of degrading [[Wraithbone]]—and divinely created versions of the stuff, no less—is mysteriously absent from any other lore. Her subsequent weeping was pathetic enough for one [[Death Guard]] [[Plague Marine]] who observed her plight to learn what pity was. Sleep tight, Life Mother. (You could also take the story allegorically, with the Eldar's life goddess, and thus their continued existence, tethered to the god of death and hopelessness.)

In mere moments the Eldar Empire that had ruled the stars for time immemorial imploded in spectacular fashion. The Eldar that remained were a broken race, who fell from undisputed mastery of the Galaxy to a people barely clinging to the precipice of existence. Those that escaped upon the Craftworlds suffered even further unforeseen consequences; where the fragments of Khaine landed and rooted, his rage and fury lashed out to the souls and minds of the Eldar, infecting them with a bloodlust that turned them upon each other. Craftworlds burned as Eldar fought Eldar. Driven by their own maddening grief and the impulses of a shattered god, the Eldar tore themselves apart, until the [[Phoenix Lords]] introduced the Path system, enabling Eldar to at least regain mastery over themselves.

:{{topquote|No! We shall not be enslaved by gods or ourselves again.|Jain Zar}}

The Eldar present in the 41st millennium are the descendants of those who left to settle other planets or are the mercantile group that travelled around in their enormous ships called [[Craftworld]]s. They are dedicated to their fight against the forces of Chaos spawned by the folly of their ancestors. They are extremely long-lived; the average Eldar has a natural lifespan of at least a thousand years, and the most powerful of their psykers can survive to be tens of thousands of years old. Most Eldar die in battle while still in their prime, and their population continues to dwindle. So [[grimdark]]. The Craftworld Eldar are now mostly focused on using their collective deceased souls, interred in each craftworld's [[Infinity Circuit]], to birth a new god into the Warp, [[Ynnead]], whom they hope will be powerful enough to destroy Slaanesh once and for all and save the Eldar race. The [[Dark Eldar]] are those who have continued to embrace the vices that led to the destruction of the Eldar Empire; they still exist largely in the state in which the Empire left off. Other Eldar, like the Corsairs (see below) and the [[Exodite]] Eldar (the ones living on fringe planets unaffected by the cataclysms of the Fall) are somewhere in between ideologically. The [[Harlequins]], yet another sub-group, devote themselves to preserving what they can of their pre-Fall history via plays and oral tradition, minimizing chances of successful communication. They also act as respected diplomatic intermediaries between the other factions of remaining Eldar in the 41st millennium. And last but not least, there are the [[Ynnari]], who get all the spotlight [[Warhammer 40,000 8th edition|these days]].

In humanity the Eldar see history repeating itself and fear the bitter destiny that they will reap and know that they no longer possess the strength to prevent it. 

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Which is strange, because in the [[Grimdark]] of the 42nd Millenium, humanity [[daemonhunters|isn’t partying.]] [[Witch Hunters|At all.]] The Eldar should be less concerned about projecting their failures on others and more concerned with what happens when humanity awakens as a psychic species. Human psykers can be powerful, but incredibly vulnerable to being overwhelmed/corrupted by the Warp. A very, ''very'' bad combination; now imagine quadrillions of them, which is essentially exactly what they mean by humanity walking the same dark path as the ancient Eldar. It's not supposed to be taken as an exact one for one scenario, but the idea that although the scenery may change the path remains the same. In interviews with members of The Black Library team, they tried to clear up some misunderstandings; it's not that humanity (on an individual level) will become that notably powerful upon becoming a full-blown psychic race, but more that the sheer number of them will be the problem. Humans are highly corruptible and although they can be powerful, they simply do not have the ability to handle it well (there are the odd one or two, but we are looking at humans as a whole). Humanity in 40k exist in unimaginable numbers, spread across the entire galaxy; if they were to become a psychic race, every one of them will become an unprotected gateway for the Warp, and all that exists within. Humanity's psychic awakening will see a new 'Eye of Terror' style event occur, but due to how humanity now exist across the entire galaxy, so will this new cataclysm. The galaxy will be drowned by a galaxy spanning Eye of Terror, and the time of the [[Rhana Dandra]] will begin.

This isn't even considering that Slaanesh did indeed orchestrate its own birth, deliberately bringing about the 10,000 years of slow decline that saw the Eldar delve into truly horrific hedonism, that saw the Dark Prince hijack Ynnead's birth, who was supposed to be born from the Eldar. Like the Eldar, Humanity has spent around 10,000 years flooding the Warp with - instead of pleasure and pain like the Eldar - suffering, hatred and all those other lovely emotions so prevalent within the imperium of man. whose to say that humanity won't suffer a similar fate? You may be expecting the Emperor to burst forth into a divine being, but what happens if the negative emotions humans have pumped out during these past 10,000 years were to result in humanity giving birth to something else, a new dark god, a twisted warped version of the Emperor just like Slaanesh is a twisted version of Ynnead.

This of course may not be where [[GW]] chooses to go, but it's worth consideration.
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As the [[Time of Ending]] approaches the remaining Eldar must contend with a galaxy that is no longer theirs. In the bloody wake of the Fall, the race of Mankind has grown to preeminence. The Imperium has ascended, conquering much of the galaxy in the name of the [[God-Emperor of Mankind| corpse-god]] it calls Emperor. The Aeldari, whose maturation patterns span nearly a century, cannot compete in numbers with a race whose generations multiply with the frantic pace of vermin. In their weakened state, the Eldar have watched as the Imperium’s uncompromising hatred, hunger for power and constant wars have created rich fodder that only functions to swell the [[Gods of Chaos|Dark Gods]]’ power and ripens the galaxy for conquest by the forces of Chaos.

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Of course, if the Eldar had perhaps intervened to deal with literally everyone trying to kill or enslave humanity, this wouldn't have been a problem as the Imperium wouldn't have had to fight for survival against everyone for ten thousand years and wouldn't have grown to hate everyone for trying to murderize them for merely existing. The Eldar were kind of busy with their own problems during this time, like the slow corruption eating away at the core of their race and the small event that saw their near complete extinction, and the fallout that occurred in its wake. The Eldar first encountered humanity in the short period of time between M18 and M22; M18 when humanity first started using the Warp to travel, too M22 when humanity was already collapsing. The Eldar aren't responsible for the wellbeing of humanity, and although we do have examples of Eldar indeed helping out, even against their own kind (as seen during the Heresy) they have no responsibility to do so. M18 is when the cults of pleasure began to spread across the Eldar Dominion, running roughshod over the warnings of their own kind who warned of the dangers that such a path might lead. By the time humanity was being assailed during the age of strife the Eldar were essentially at war with themselves over the very soul of their race; even after Humanity's complete collapse the Eldar Dominion would continue too fall further into hedonism, so they were a bit preoccupied. After the Fall and the soon to be rise of the Imperium the Eldar that remained were a broken and shattered species, a spent force in the galaxy, trying to pull themselves together in a desperate attempt to survive. They would go through a turbulent period of adjustment in the wake of the collapse of everything they had ever known, and the near extinction of their entire species; they neither had the time or the inclination to pay much attention to the going's on, and worries of someone else. Then after they had entered into a more stable period, the Great Crusade came a knocking, bringing with it even more death and sorrow. Why the hell would they feel any need to offer help to Humanity, when humans have proven themselves all to willing to show nothing but hate and violence to anyone different to themselves (some did anyway, and got a bolter to the face for their trouble)? The period of the Fall may have played an unintended but significant roll in the collapse of the DAOT, but it is Humanity's choices in the aftermath that have led them down the path that they now walk. (why is it that it's only when they help humans that they are considered "good", surely it's time that that the Imperium started helping out for a change).

To add to the above point, the Imperium currently stands as the single most powerful force in the setting. As much as GW want to pretend that the forces of the Imperium are the plucky underdogs, fighting against impossible odds, it simply isn't true; the Imperium holds more territory then anyone else and has numbers that put the Orks to shame, the best and most powerful warriors, armour and weapons, <s>and now has more powerful psyches then the Eldar and apparently tech that may even surpass the Necrons</s>. Farseers are still more powerful than librarians, it's just that they are less of them and secondly Necrons have the Celestial Orrery, the Imperium doesn't have shit on that, all in all there really isn't any area that the Imperium isn't just simply better then all the other factions (the Imperium's new faith based powers for example are just a superior version of the Orks belief abilities), according to the current GW writers. Whenever we see the Imperium fighting someone we are actually seeing the Imperium punching downwards, it's actually the other side who are the underdogs in these fights. The idea that everyone should simply forgive the most powerful and dominant power in the setting its many, many transgressions and stop being "mean" to it is just laughable; given their position of power it is the Imperium who should be the ones who should be seeking to mend bridges and aid those weaker then themselves (they might actually make some allies), instead of expecting all the other factions to just drop everything and hand everything over to the "poor" Imperium.

This all comes down to poor narrative story telling on GW's part, as it robs any feelings of sympathy towards the Imperium (you're really not supposed to, but still), instead of watching the Imperium heroically fighting against overwhelming odds, GW have turned the Imperium into what is essentially a school yard bully, who picks on the weaker kids, beats them up and steals their lunch money, but expects everyone to feel sorry for them when one of their victims dares to fight back.

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Not only Chaos but the Imperium’s blind aggression has also contributed to the rise of the Ork threat -- Mankind fails to realise that they only strengthen the Orks with every *direct* conflict they engage them in. Many Eldar fear that their numbers are now too large for even the most protracted cull to have any real effect, and should the Ork hordes unite their efforts, all the artifice and cunning of the Aeldari would not be enough to stop them drowning the galaxy in blood. To a point, at least. The Imperium is fully aware of how Orks spread and cleanses the areas tainted by their spores. Help from a species with the ability to purge worlds entirely of Ork spores would be appreciated but they prefer to sit back and watch while telling the humans how important it is to destroy the spores instead of actually helping with that; which is essentially what happened during the union of Biel-tan and Iyanden, that saw them cleanse massive areas of the galaxy of Orks before Iyanden grew uncomfortable with Biel-tan's increasingly extreme behaviour, and although the Eldar do perform controlled cullings in an attempt to limit the might of the green menace they don't really have any motive in preventing Orks and humans killing each other.

With the Eldar now a mere shadow of their former might, old and new foes alike are now stepping forward to stake their claim; like sharks drawn by the smell of blood they move to take advantage of the Galaxy's former masters' demise. From the terror of the emerging Tyranid fleets, to the young dynamic T’au in the east (who offered friendship a while back but were laughed off) - to speak nothing of the Necrons, ancient enemies of the Aeldari whose lords are eager to renew their war against their much-diminished rivals - the few Eldar that remain find themselves beset on all sides by those that would see every single one of them dead. Perhaps if they hadn't spent their entire existence making enemies of absolutely everyone that wouldn't have happened.
 
Not since the days of the Fall have the Aeldari been so fragmented and assailed, and for those who yet survive, war remains their only hope. While their many foes lack the technology, wisdom and skill of the Children of the Stars, in numbers alone they seem insurmountable. Yet the Aeldari are a proud race, determined that the flame of their people will blaze brightly once more rather than flicker and die out.

*Between the final act of the Fall and the time of the Horus Heresy there is a period of time, roughly around 300-500 years (200 years for the [[Great Crusade]] + however long the [[Unification Wars]] took + a bit of buffer time between the Fall and the [[Emperor]] making his initial move), in which the Eldar would eventually pull themselves into something similar to how they appear in modern 40k; Aspect Shrines, although new, were now firmly established ( they originally did not have an Exarch leading the shrines, they would be an unforeseen consequence of the Warrior Path), and the young seer known as Eldrad would have bought about the Path of the Seer as we now recognise it (Eldrad, if he was born just before or after the Birth of the Dark Prince, would have been in his late teens, early twenties (by Eldar standards) by the end of the Horus Heresy).