+++THE ELDAR+++

Although humanoid in appearance, the Eldar are actually quite unlike humans. An Eldar stands a little taller than a man, with long graceful limbs and elegant elongated features. Their metabolism is faster than that of humans, so they are swift footed, quick thinking, and in many respects superior to mankind. However, they are on the whole a little more fragile and perhaps not quite as strong physically, although as in all species these qualities vary enormously from individual to Individual, and some Eldar are very strong indeed. They are very long lived as a species, some surviving for a thousand years, but they are not prolific.

EARLY HISTORY

The Eldar are an ancient race; their spacefaring history predating humanity's by many thousands of years. In the distant past, the Eldar encountered the Old Slann, the greatest of all spacefaring peoples, and learned many arcane secrets about the universe from them. After the passing of the Old Slann, which itself happened thousands of years before man's first stumbling attempts at spaceflight, the Eldar continued to flourish and their civilization expanded throughout the galaxy.

Eldar space travel, like that of the Old Slann, is based around the principle of warp-tunnel engineering. Tunnels were constructed from star to star, passing through the warp and allowing spacecraft a means of moving rapidly throughout the galaxy. Warp drives, as used by human spacecraft, were not used by the early Eldar and this kind of travel within the warp rather than through tunnels was regarded by the Eldar as dangerous and impractical.

RACIAL DISASTER

The Eldar civilization collapsed at its very height. Today, its remnants reflect, but cannot hope to equal, the achievements of that long past era. The Old Slann are said to have forewarned the Eldar about the dangers that they would face. They taught how every living thought and feeling creates an echo in the warp, and how like characteristics re-echo together, creating a unified circulating wave of energy. Such waves form vortices of pure energy manifesting a collective consciousness and will. The Slann called these conscious warp creatures the Powers of Chaos.

The Eldar fell victim to the monster created by their own racial inclinations: a Power of Chaos raised by their common ambitions and motives. As the Power grew stronger, its echoes began to permeate the minds of the Eldar themselves, reinforcing the qualities upon which it fed and furthering its own growth. The natural ambitions and ideals of the Eldar, healthy enough in moderation, were soon reinforced to a point of obsession and insanity. Within a few generations the extremes of behavior overthrew all other considerations and the whole civilization fell into madness and decay.

Only a few Eldar rebelled against the life of sybaritic ease now almost universal amongst their kind. These were the few that had heeded the warnings of the long vanished Old Slann, turning their minds away from their natural inclinations and towards the aversion of racial disaster. In order to escape the decaying civilization around them, they constructed many vast spacecraft, self-contained worlds where they could live wholly untainted by the mass of their race. These craft worlds were the only portion of Eldar society to survive the fall of the Eldar race. All the living Eldar are the descendants of these brave and hardy people.

The fall of the Eldar is said to have happened in a single orgy of destruction. When the Power of Chaos finally achieved sufficient energy, it began to draw all Eldar consciousness to itself, literally draining the minds of the Eldar. Every Eldar world was emptied of life, and almost the entire race perished. The energies of the Eldar passed into the warp, and became the creature known as Slaanesh, the Power of Chaos given form by the dreams of the Eldar. This relationship is important to those Eldar who survived, because in Slaanesh they perceive the worst side of their race, the side of their character which caused their downfall and to which even the survivors are inclined.

THE CRAFT WORLDS

Today the entire Eldar civilization is located on board the giant craft worlds that float throughout the galaxy. The size of these worlds varies tremendously, some are almost the size of a small planet whilst others are little more than a city floating in space.

The craft worlds still preserve the warp tunnel technology of the Eldar, and every craft world has many entrances to warp tunnels inside it. Some warp tunnels are large enough only to admit a single Eldar, others are large enough to drive a substantial vehicle through. The largest of all are located outside the craft worlds, either contained within or suspended in space nearby. They are virtually invisible of course, little more than a patch of darkness, but they allow whole spacefleets to move between the different craft worlds, and from craft worlds to solar systems throughout the galaxy. In this way the Eldar can move easily and quickly through the galaxy.

THE INFINITY CIRCUIT

While the Old Slann taught the Eldar about the dangers of the warp, they also taught them about its many positive aspects. They taught how the mind of a living creature passes upon death into the warp, where it may, if the individual mind has achieved power, remain whole and immortal as a spirit in the warp. The Old Slann believed that the object of life was to perfect the mind, and thereby achieve conscious immortality as a spirit in the warp. Once created an immortal spirit could reincarnate as a living creature, and would always return to the warp as a whole spirit upon death. However, the Old Slann also warned that such an existence was impossible if an individual's own thoughts were too close to those of a Power of Chaos, for when that happened a deceased consciousness would be devoured by the greater Power, losing its identity and melting into it.

Today the Eldar know that upon death their consciousness will not survive, but will be devoured by Slaanesh and further invigorate that which is the eternal shame of their race. They can have no immortal life as a spirit, and in death can only hope to serve the creature they regard as their most potent enemy. It was as a response to this fate that the Eldar developed the Infinity Circuit.

The Infinity Circuit is a repository of Eldar minds, a collection of objects called Spirit Stones. The consciousness or spirit of one or more Eldar is preserved in each Spirit Stone. Of course, a consciousness is not quite like a living mind, so many Eldar minds can occupy a single Spirit Stone manifesting a collective consciousness, or pool of knowledge. Although Stones are individual repositories, all share the energy of the entire Infinity Circuit, and are linked by that energy flowing between them. When an Eldar dies his spirit passes into a small temporary spiritual repository called a Way Stone. The Way Stone can only hold the spirit for a limited time, during which the Eldar's spirit must be transferred to a Spirit Stone for it to survive. All Eldar wear a Way Stone, a small stud or decorated emblem which will hold their spirit if they die, usually on their breast.

Each craft world has its own Infinity Circuit, spread over many Spirit Stones where the consciousness of its past citizens resides. The craft world's Infinity Circuit represents a vast repository of wisdom and experience, and it is treated with ultimate respect by the Eldar who live upon that craft world. Every Eldar knows that his fate is to join his forefathers in the Infinity Circuit when he dies. If an Eldar dies before his spirit can be gathered, this is regarded as a great loss and a terrible fate. The Infinity Circuit of the craft world is regarded in many respects like a living creature, which in some ways it is, contributing its own undying wisdom to the government of the living.

There are many small Spirit Stones containing one or only a few collective minds. These smaller Spirit Stones sometimes lie at the heart of machines, spacecraft, or other mechanical devices in such as way that the consciousness they contain can join and harmonize with the minds of living Eldar. The relationship is a useful one to the surviving Eldar, and one that has grown to be entirely natural for them.

The ultimate examples of Eldar meshing with Spirit Stones is that of the creatures called Avatars. Every craft world has a number of Avatars, battle-suits built around a Spirit Stone housing the idealized spirit of an Eldar principle. Such stones contain only the parts of consciousness that most embody an aspect of the Eldar character. An Eldar who becomes an Avatar melds his own personality with the idealized spirit of a racial principle, becoming a living manifestation of that attitude of the Eldar character. Once an Eldar has donned the suit of an Avatar, he and the Spirit Stone are united until he dies, the Eldar simply forgets he has his own personality and becomes enmeshed within the single-minded thoughts of the Avatar. Upon death, the Eldar's own spirit passes into the stone and awaits a new Avatar. The Avatars are important to the Eldar, they are living virtues, the embodiment of what they see as worthy about their race. The Avatars are the most important occupants of a craft world.

A further example of this melding of Eldar and Spirit Stone is the Phantom Titan, where the minds of its living crew meld into the Spirit Stone of the Titan itself, and are governed by its vast fighting experience. Unlike the Avatar the melding is only temporary, but it still enables the crew to fight with all the battle-wisdom and ferocity embodied by the spirit in the stone.

THE LAST HOPE

Although very long lived, Eldar are not a prolific race. This may be one side effect of their spiritual fall. As a result most Eldar populations are in a state of slow decline, and many craft worlds are all but deserted. The Eldar nurture one last hope. They believe that when the Infinity Circuits hold all the spirits of their race, all of the craft worlds will unite into one Infinity Circuit, and the collective spirits of the Eldar will join to form a new Power of Chaos that will battle and subdue Slaanesh, so that Eldar spirits may once more be able to merge with it and form a single, balanced entity. By doing so, if such a thing is possible, they hope that this will allow the Eldar race to be recreated in a better form. Meanwhile the Avatars of the craftworlds must guard the Spirit Stones from harm and continue to survive, so that all Eldar can see and form in their own minds a concept of the Eldar virtues that will enter along with their spirits into the Infinity Circuits.