Just Exactly how Naughty are we?

A lot of folk really have it in for us poor benighted True Kin...

Not really. Dark Eldar are literally the embodiment of pitiless cruelty. They torture/kill children just as much as adults, and some groups even prefer it since the young can experience pain and terror so much more intensely. They're so evil that they can make daemons beg for mercy, and even Chaos Marines have been described as 'heroic' in comparison. Some of the lore has been (unsuccessfully) attempting to integrate them into a more relatable circumstance, but they are pretty much evil incarnate. wrote:

(A PM.)

I think this is a bit harsh.

We fight Chaos.

We Keep the Webway safe for all pointy eared gits to use.

We only occaisionaly wipe out planets.

We are ultimatley damned...Yet we dont snivel and whine about it like some folk do.

We laugh at all the Harlequins jokes.

What have we done to deserve so much hatred?

I know a lot about DE lore and none of these claims are true. Groups preferring torturing children?
While I see the reasoning behind this, I find it hard to imagine that GW would want to have such things stated directly.
And to make accusations like that in our grimdark universe with full of extremes and horrors, is out of place.

Daemons begging for mercy? I guess a Master Haemonculi could be able to perform such a miracle, but given enough resources they can basically do anything anyway.

Well, about the heroic thing... we are not. But we got enough arrogance to make up for that xD

And of course, from an Eldar point of view, we are desperately needed. The day Commorragh falls is the day the webway collapses and with it all that remains of the Eldar race.


Well, we are xenos after all and in general only little is known of us. Heck, some even think we are Chaos Eldar!

But can we really expect lesser races to grasp our superior minds?

In my personal opinion the Dark Eldar are the ultimate evil. They love to inflict pain and are masters of cruelty and torture.

That said I do not believe they have the ultimate goal as an evil faction. I think that's Chaos. Everybody else can go suck a popsicle

In my opiniion DE are Chatotic Neutral and Chaos is Chaotic Evil. Chaos does evil for the love of its gods and for self furtherment, we do whatever we want because we want to/ a certain torture method might tickle a certain Archon.

We are the unfortunate result of the Heightened Eldar psyche and the horrible curse that has been laid upon us by the Thirster.

We posess all the cool traits that allow us to do whatever we want. We live in an awesome trans-dimensional labyrinth system from which we can strike out at the galaxy; and that we can hide in once the carnage is done and vengeance is on its way. We are arrogant and treacherous and murderous but in the most delightful of ways. Not like Chaos, where they are forced to serve the will of higher beings.

I think Dark Eldar are without a doubt the most evil race in 40K. Whilst it isn't stated directly exactly how horrendous some of the things they do are, you have to keep in mind that this is a race who became so depraved they birthed a dark god of excess and then just carried right on. Games Workshop/Black Library cannot go into too much exact detail about what they get up to as it would read like a cross between American Psycho and Hostel where the cast are all Cenobites. Their darkest acts are best left to the imagination, if only for the sake of real world decency...

Cavash wrote:

In my opiniion DE are Chatotic Neutral and Chaos is Chaotic Evil. Chaos does evil for the love of its gods and for self furtherment, we do whatever we want because we want to/ a certain torture method might tickle a certain Archon.

We are the unfortunate result of the Heightened Eldar psyche and the horrible curse that has been laid upon us by the Thirster.

We posess all the cool traits that allow us to do whatever we want. We live in an awesome trans-dimensional labyrinth system from which we can strike out at the galaxy; and that we can hide in once the carnage is done and vengeance is on its way. We are arrogant and treacherous and murderous but in the most delightful of ways. Not like Chaos, where they are forced to serve the will of higher beings.

This just changed my opinion on our dark race. My life is a lie

We rock. Who cares what lesser races think? Commorragh is a fun place, especially compared to a craftworld *yawn*

Yes, we kill, torture, destroy and do lots and lots of very bad things... but, we keep the numbers of disgusting things like Orks, Tyrannids, Humans and Chaos thingies down a bit. You'd think the boring cousins would be thankful.

Cavash wrote:

In my opiniion DE are Chatotic Neutral and Chaos is Chaotic Evil. Chaos does evil for the love of its gods and for self furtherment, we do whatever we want because we want to/ a certain torture method might tickle a certain Archon.

We are the unfortunate result of the Heightened Eldar psyche and the horrible curse that has been laid upon us by the Thirster.

We posess all the cool traits that allow us to do whatever we want. We live in an awesome trans-dimensional labyrinth system from which we can strike out at the galaxy; and that we can hide in once the carnage is done and vengeance is on its way. We are arrogant and treacherous and murderous but in the most delightful of ways. Not like Chaos, where they are forced to serve the will of higher beings.

The defining characteristic between CE and CN is whether you take joy in the pain you cause, or do it beacause you just don't care. DE are squarely CE, just like drow. Just not as evil as actual daemons.

The Strange Dark One wrote:

I know a lot about DE lore and none of these claims are true. Groups preferring torturing children?
While I see the reasoning behind this, I find it hard to imagine that GW would want to have such things stated directly.

Certain subject matters are implied rather than outright stated. (Otherwise, BL humans would reproduce through asexual mitosis.) BL fiction is pretty notorious for staying away from certain things. It's never stated outright, but I think we can put two and two together and assume Emperor's Children do engage in intercourse (or at least, they murder people with their genitals).

There is more than one reference to entice populations being taken by the DE: every man, woman, and child. I dont think it's unreasonable to assume the children weren't given over to a pocket dimension built from rainbow kisses and puppy farts.

Yes, but since this is 40K, I think the fate of your average lump in the Imperium is probably pretty dire.

The DE are just convenient baddies to blame.

Anyhow, onto the CWE...

U Legruin wrote:

`I never did like smartass Utopians, always so much healthier and saner and fitter and nicer and smarter than me and my family and friends.  People who have the answers are boring, boring.

I think some people undersestimate how evil dark eldar are, they need suffering to survive, as much as they need food, the older they get the more thirst they have. Heamonculi resort to some extreme stuff to get their needs, same goes for the big archons.

On the kids thing, yeah they probably aren't too kind with kids, though Gw stays away from kids in general (and sexual material), though we all know dark eldar are very likely to be rapists, they simply take what they want.

Chaos torture people because they enjoy it, but dark eldar both enjoy and need it. A lot of deamons will go straith for the kill and consuming of the soul, while dark eldar take they time, wyches might be more the killing type, but they still take their time, while covenites take forever to kill.

A pocket diemension built of Rainbow kisses and Puppy farts does sound rather Grimdark, doesnt it?

At the risk of pointing out the obvious but we only do what is necessary to survive. Sure we could let She Who Thirsts eat us and then turn is into mindless husks to do its bidding but then we'd get blamed for that.

So yes we torture lesser races and indulge in hedonism and debauchery but its only to stop ourselves from becoming tools of She Who Thirsts. So ultimately She Who Thirsts is the evil one we just do what we need to do. Once She Who Thirsts is out of the way we can get back to more important matters the rebuilding of the Eldar Empire.......just with less chance of She Who Thirsts 2 growing.

Lol, except there are two other Eldar factions surviving just fine without being psychic vampires.

Yeah but they had to sacrifice all the fun stuff right, I mean the craftworld crew are always chunttering on about their zen and all that discipline nonsense and the Harlequins have to run around doing chores for the laughing god to even have a chance at not getting nommed by She Who Thirsts.

You mind of make my point. The Dark Eldar don't do what they do "just to survive," they do it because they think it's fun. They like it.

Yeah but there's not really a great choice if you think about it I mean there's servitude to a diety who may or may not even save your soul in the end or there's sacrifice a big part of your sensations and life-experiences constantly keeping yourself in check. Dark Eldar stay true to themselves despite the price.