Harlequins, Dark Eldar, and Ynnead

So, the Craftworlders gather the souls of their dead in the Infinity Circuits to eventually birth Ynnead, who's supposed to do battle with Slaanesh and finally free the Eldar species from her grasp.

Awesome. But, the Harlequins and Dark Eldar should be just as interested in seeing Slaanesh's demise, so why don't they pitch in in any way?

My pet theory is that the Harlequins already have some other plan to free the Eldar of Slaanesh inspired by Cegorach, and the Dark Eldar probably just think the thought is foolish and have made peace with their (and Slaanesh's) existence. Maybe Cegorach, through his heart, is pushing Malys against Vect to replace him as lord of the Dark Eldar so that he has their support in whatever scheme he's got planned?

I'm curious if there's been any official reasoning why the other Eldar factions aren't helping out the Craftworlders there, considering seeing the end of Slaanesh is very much in their interest too. If not, what other sorts of fan theories are out there that make sense? Personal fluff for my Haemonculus is that he doesn't care to help the Craftworlders because he's convinced that through "researching" species with an irregular Warp presence (Tau, Demons, human blanks) he can eventually puzzle out a way to completely strip away his soul so as to avoid Slaanesh, while at the same time remaining just as happy and healthy as before.

Actually, the whole Ynnead thing isn't that well known, pretty much only Eldrad and a few of his pupils took it seriously. The Infinity Circuit was intended to be a continuation of the Soul Stones, just a repository for the souls away from the Warp and Slaanesh. They've since learned how to use the souls to help run the Craftworlds/ships/wraith-constructs, Ynnead seems to just be a possible unintended consequence.

Ynnead was originally introduced as a possible thing that might be true. Unforunately, this being GW, actual confirmation of anything is hard to come by!

Quote :

Actually, the whole Ynnead thing isn't that well known, pretty much only Eldrad and a few of his pupils took it seriously. The Infinity Circuit was intended to be a continuation of the Soul Stones, just a repository for the souls away from the Warp and Slaanesh. They've since learned how to use the souls to help run the Craftworlds/ships/wraith-constructs, Ynnead seems to just be a possible unintended consequence.

I'd agree with this. Ynnead has been treated as gospel by some GW writers of course, I'll just briefly mention the one whose name rhymes with flat board, but even here there are variations: Ynnead is the coalescence of all the dead souls in the Infinity Circuits that is gradually happening, like some kind of semi-conscious gestalt (the same way Slaanesh originally rose); Ynnead is the natural consequence of a ton of dead Eldar souls piled in one place; all Craftworld Eldar must die to make Ynnead; Ynnead is what will save the Eldar race who will then be reborn; Ynnead is what will kill Slaanesh but at the cost of literally every Craftworld Eldar. That last one is so silly that it only makes sense as a Dark Eldar plot to get rid of Slaanesh and the Craftworld Eldar at once, but this has never been suggested in canon.

Contrary to this, or at least in contrast to it, we have the idea that the Harlequins, as an extension of their ability to travel between the various flavours of Eldar, are also working to unite them for Cegorach's grand plan. This makes a lot more sense to me.

What do we know about Cegorach?

He's a Trickster God.

He is an Eldar god.

He survived the Fall by using cunning and guile and not being afraid to run away to live another day.

He knows all about the webway.

He's a hands-on god - there are tales of people who thought they met a Solitaire, who later discovered that it was the Laughing God himself. So he's very much active.

In some way, he protects his children without the use of a waystone ('daring feats without the aid of a safety net'?).

We don't _know_, but it looks very much like he met Lady Malys and gave her a shiny new crystal heart.

He likes pretty colours.

I'd say we can attribute a certain perspective to an individual who is immortal - he can play the long game. (Though who's to say how long it's been since the Fall in god years?)

I think Cegorach wants to defeat Slaanesh and possibly rescue the Eldar gods by doing so - and he isn't going to do this by a head-on confrontation. That's not how he works. So it will be something subtle, clandestine and behind the scenes.

The Dark Eldar aren't powerful enough to defeat Slaanesh on their own, and nor are the Craftworld Eldar, which is why they haven't done it. Vect is too self-interested in maintaining Commorragh as his own personal sanctuary (I think at the heart of Vect's personal motivations lies fear, but that's a subject for another time) to use the semi-unity he's enforcing to make everyone pitch into an all-out assault. Given the fact that getting rid of Slaanesh would definitely suit the Dark Eldar, there has to be a reason why they're not doing it, and I'd go with simple lack of numbers. Likewise if the Craftworlds could do it, they would - witness the martial, Empire-rebuilding desires of Biel-tan, for example. It suits no-one to have Slaanesh still around.

If brute force can't do it, then I'd say that Cegorach is trying to achieve it in his own way. Whether this does involve getting the Eldar as they are now to such a point that they can ally enough to bring Slaanesh down, I'm not sure - it's possible that he wants to achieve a more synergistic cooperation by having the races gradually re-unify. A shattered mirror, after all, reflects only chaotic fragments.

MHaruspex wrote:

So, the Craftworlders gather the souls of their dead in the Infinity Circuits to eventually birth Ynnead, who's supposed to do battle with Slaanesh and finally free the Eldar species from her grasp.

You got it a bit wrong; Ynnead is an entity born out of the death of an eldar. The eldar souls have nothing to do with it. The reason why they're stored in the infinity circuit and in spirit stones is because otherwise they get eaten by Slaanesh. Whether the soul is eaten or stays stuck in a stone, doesn't matter, it's the death that matters. Dark Eldar use suffering to keep it inside their body, it's a different technique, but with similar results, the webway also has different consequences on eldar souls. It's also possible to use a spirit stone within the webway and it's possible to switch in between the techniques, eldar switch from one faction to another.

Harlequins donate their soul to their god, here the soul matters, but the god already exists. The souls are a form of energy, they increase his power in short. The Solitaire willingly offers his soul to She who thirsts.

Lady Malys wrote:

Ynnead was originally introduced as a possible thing that might be true. Unforunately, this being GW, actual confirmation of anything is hard to come by!

Actually GW has been dropping hints here and there in the last fluff pieces, we've gotten more fluff in the last 6 years than in the previous 20 years before that. In 2006 GW finally revealed in detail what the Fall was, but in 2010, 2011 they started releasing solid novels with genuine fluff (written by people who worked on rules & codices, basically 99% close to actual fluff)

Ynnead isn't a rumor or a Myth, you find it in several fluff pieces, novels x GW rulebooks.

In the Iyanden supplement, at the end of the timeline, last paragraph is: Ynnead is slowly being born. There's also some of this fluff in the Valedor Novel. His essense is slowly being formed up.
The old fluff that said All eldar should die in order for Ynnead to be born a false I believe as he's already being born, though slowly. It's a bit like Slaanesh, but the opposite, it's because of Slaanesh that Ynnead is being born.

Lady Malys wrote:

I'd agree with this. Ynnead has been treated as gospel by some GW writers of course, I'll just briefly mention the one whose name rhymes with flat board, but even here there are variations: Ynnead is the coalescence of all the dead souls in the Infinity Circuits that is gradually happening, like some kind of semi-conscious gestalt (the same way Slaanesh originally rose); Ynnead is the natural consequence of a ton of dead Eldar souls piled in one place; all Craftworld Eldar must die to make Ynnead; Ynnead is what will save the Eldar race who will then be reborn; Ynnead is what will kill Slaanesh but at the cost of literally every Craftworld Eldar. That last one is so silly that it only makes sense as a Dark Eldar plot to get rid of Slaanesh and the Craftworld Eldar at once, but this has never been suggested in canon.

I don't get why you say craftworld Eldar per se, fluff says all eldar need to die, never mentioned craftworlders specificly.

The current fluff also goes a bit further, Eldar will all unite, Craftworlds, Dark Eldar, harlequins, corsairs, exodites. All Eldar will unite with humanity and Tau. Necrons will also fight chaos, but refusing to work together with the other races they will die first. Ironically nothing on nids. I'm guessing Orks just die out of stupidy (but actually because they're just not united as one and it's impossible to work with them)
Ynnead destroys Slaanesh, frees the remaining eldar gods (a few are still alive as prisoners in the warp) and that's when the real fight starts!

Current fluff is heading towards Ynnead being born, not because of the complete extinction of the eldar race, but with enough eldar death (enough is a huge number though)
The current fluff on the Rhana Dandra (final battle against chaos), does imply Ynnead is alive, leading the forces of "good" against chaos, eldar still being alive, all united as one race once again.



The Coven supplement also has a very interesting piece of fluff: The Phoenex
(my personal favorite piece of fluff in this book)
It's a secret brotherhood of eldar from all factions: craftworlds, dark kin, harlequins, corsairs & even exodites. They have a very simple goal: the birth of Ynnead, by actively exterminating their own race. (yeah you heard me)

We have a lot of new fluff on the eldar factions, we know that certain craftworlds act very secretly, some are completely isolated, some work together with mercenaries; dark kin, corsairs, harlequins, whoever is willing to help their dark goals. You have Ulthanash who came out of the warp, Biel-tan who loves to wage war. Not implied in fluff directly, but a craftworld attacking another craftworld isn't completely impossible.

Dark Eldar attack anyone that moves, including craftworlds, harlequins, etc...Having an understanding close to that of harlequins, they can hack craftworld webway gates to go steal some stuff and get out.

Harlequins in the current fluff are sometimes very dark, some of them refusing to work together with other eldar, while some Masques work actively with the major eldar factions (various craftworlds & dark kin factions) Harlies used to be small troupes, now they're a major player in the 40k universe, ok still small compared to other factions, but still very big armies. Current harlies can now wage longer planetary wars without any outside help. You check their artwork, you see hundreds of Sky/Star/VoidWeavers on the same picture.
It's good to remember they recruit from all other eldar factions, which means they have a huge manpower resource to pick from.

Corsairs can be nice, neutral or just plain evil, as evil as their dark kin cousins.

Exodites can also go dark we find out in the Masque of Vyle novel, though they're always farmers kinda, they don't always have to be nice. Exodites even raid other worlds using the webway. They're not as nice as you thought they were.



More and more the birth of Ynnead is being felt as more eldar die.

The end of M41 999999 has many many events going on/unfolding. All the major craftworlds are busy somewhere, the major Kabals are busy, Vect's Kaval is busy in several places, harlequins come out more than ever.
The Mechnicus made some kind of bargain with chaos to keep the Throne alive a little bit longer, they entered the warp using an ancient gate called Khain's gate, deep within the core of Commorragh. the Gate is about to burst open, Vect tried his best to keep it closed, harlequins & others are watching closely as well.

Biel-tan and Iyanden united once again to fight tyranids, Alaitoc is busy at Carnac.

It's noteworthy that Vect and all the Dark Eldar also started major Real Space Raids, unlike anything they did before. One reason is their numbers, bigger than ever and second reason is the fact that Imperials are being swarmed from all sides and they don't have the manpower to protect everything.

Vect already made his Neo-Commorragh and Urien prepared unlimited amounts of slaves by stockpiling entire realms with slaves, Rakarth even went as far as abducting entire planets within the webway. Once Khaine's gate burst open a lot of eldar will die. This even might just be the trigger (combined with other eldar wars) to bring forth Ynnead.


The whole thing really reminds of Age of Sigmar/Entimes. Who knows if GW might do something like that eventually? The Emperor being born once again? Eldar Getting a huge awesome Ynnead model, Cegorach should also get a smaller less powerful version. Necron C tan might go big and powerful once again? It will be up to GW to move the timeline forward or not, but I think they'll be forced to eventually. The timeline has been stuck at M41 999999 for some time now. Each new edition events are moved a bit, new major events are added. It's more of a question when.

Tau is expanding more and more, making more dangerous weapons every day. Necrons all awakening and uniting thanks to their greater leaders very slowly. The Eldar factions are working together more and more, Dark Eldar with their huge numbers are quite helpful to their other cousins. In the end their excess wasn't all bad, it resulted in a subfaction of huge armies of experienced killers.
Nids are pooring in more and more, unsure what GW plans to do with nids. I don't really buy into the nids will eat everyone, I feel like at some point, like in the Hollywood movies, 40k factions will find a way to get rid of nids.

My personal favourite theory is based on this comment

YoungArchon wrote:

Slaanesh is the purest representation of eldar during the fall, the knowledge that all you strive for eventually descends into a maddening pursuit of perfection, we still see it within commoragh, but even more so within the exarchs of the craftworlders, lost upon their path. Slaanesh is eldar, until the eldar can learn to stop being Slaanesh

Thus, the only way to defeat Slaanesh would be the death of all her most dedicated unwitting worshippers: the Eldar.

That is the concept of Ynnead.

On the Harlequins and Cegorach, remember there are no 'good guys' in 40k.

Personally, I think Cegorach's grand plan is to unite all the Eldar factions so they can be destroyed utterly in a single fell swoop, destroying Slaanesh in the process.

Remember, he is the Trickster god.

There are no good guys.

Cegorach is gonna rescue the Eldar via some elaborate combination of 4th wall breaking writing, some old Marx Brothers gags, and a few Looney Tunes standbys where Slaanesh and Khorne will be locked in an eternal Abbot & Costello routine.

Hah perfect.

Unless Cegorach is actually a transcendent shard of The Deceiver...