A place for Eldrad's sprue and Cheap Harlequins

That's clearly about the new god. And that he will take the souls in but not consume them.

I think a new god is a great way to bring all the branches together. My Dark Eldar already worship Khaine after all. The dark eldar are known as the children of Khaine after all.

With all due respect: F*%$ Khaine. I worship one lord and only one lord: The sleeping prince who will bring retribution and salvation, not our lesser facsimile of Khorne.

Not sure what to think after that Part II of V. Sounds like some sort of re-combination or re-birth, they want to shift the 40K storyline forward, don't they, would bringing the branches closer together again be a possibility?

Seems a little strange on one hand - they have so many outstanding issues (read armies) to fix in the 40K universe, whereas CWE and Harlies, and even DE, still have relatively fresh codexes. Putting a lot of effort into them again so soon, does that make sense?

I don't really buy into aggressive role play in this particular medium so... yeah.

So maybe this is what they are planning, all factions now become one and form a new Eldar Empire. The gate opens and Demons invade Commorragh, during the confusion Vect is killed by Lady Malys who leads surviving Dark Eldar to other places in the webway or amputates a big chunk of the city with their gates being destroyed and unites with the Harlequins. Mean while some kind of mass dying happens with the Craftworlds, most of their souls go to Ynnead and the survivors bring what remains of their people into the webway to also join up with the survivors of the Dark Eldar and Harlequins. In the mass dying Ynnead is born. The God of the Dead and the Laughing god unite (as in an alliance) to assist the survivors.

Using Dark Eldar technology they rebuild the numbers of their race, the strict disiplines of the Craftworld Eldar are gone with their craftworld and they start to resemble the Eldar of old (more similar to the Eldar Corsairs) who force the Exodites to join by compliance or be conquered in an Eldar form of the Great Crusade lead at the forefront by Ynnead or Ynnead's Avatar.

(Just some speculation and not really a fan of it)

As long as a "rebranding" of the Eldar into a single faction is just changing the name (after all, no Elf models got removed when they became "Aelf" in AoS) I would be alright with that. As long as we could still field mono Deldar/Harlequin lists etc. I would hate for our faction to just get sucked into the Eldar. They are just boring. Every other army is taken to almost comical extremes in their fluff. The Space Marines are always superhuman badasses, the Ad Mech are borderline psychopaths when it comes to obtaining knowledge, the Tyranids are evolution incarnate, the Necrons purge every lifeform and even send nanobots to kill the last bacteria on a planet - and the Eldar? Well they are potent psychers but other than that they are a fairly blank piece of paper. They are always portrait as (struggling to) stand above the other races and are thus never as relatable to as any other race. They try to always be removed from the inherent misery that an existence in 40K brings with it and whilst I can appreciate that this creates an interesting struggle, it never appears to be deeply threatened. Sure there are occasionally Eldar who wander of to Commorragh because they are sick of what is essentially lobotomy - but I never get the feeling that there is any more depth beyond the "once near-godlike race fallen tragically from grace theme" to be explored.

The Deldar are the epitomy of an edgy emo teenagers fantasies - but our fluff is so over-the-top that it becomes amusing and interesting again.

TL;DR: One Eldar race = good, if the subfactions' identities are still preserved within.

Massaen wrote:

I think its more about them being able to copyright and protect their own IP then anything

If I am not mistaken the issue with WHF was that GW could not trademark things like "Orcs", "elves" and all the other fantasy cliché races.

However, with 40k where you got Necrons, Tyranids, Orks and Tau you have a completely different starting point. They have and always will be sole property of GW.
Seriously, the only term GW could theoretically benefit from changing is "Space Marine" and they are NOT going to alienate (no pun intended) their core player base.


Edit: I wonder what would happen to the thirst of the Dark Eldar if Slaanesh is going to perish. The consequence would be that the DE lose their ability to gain "power from pain" since this whole thing is both a blessing and a curse from Slaanesh.
I think the whole DE society would collapse in an instant.

Actually Eldar, from what I can tell was first used by Tolkien so that might be the issue there. And Space Marines have had their name changed, Adeptus Astartes just like the Imperial Guard are now Astra Militarum.

I like that idea.

CurstAlchemist wrote:

Actually Eldar, from what I can tell was first used by Tolkien so that might be the issue there. And Space Marines have had their name changed, Adeptus Astartes just like the Imperial Guard are now Astra Militarum.

Aaron Dembski-Bowden said on another forum that GW told the Black Library authors to back off on the name "Astartes" and use Space Marine instead, which I think was a mistake as Astartes sounds much better and is far more likely to be copyrightable.

amorrowlyday wrote:

With all due respect: F*%$ Khaine. I worship one lord and only one lord: The sleeping prince who will bring retribution and salvation, not our lesser facsimile of Khorne.

I hate to break it to you - But GW has been dropping hints for as long as I can remember that Ynnead is actually just the emperor reborn.  I won't go too much in to it, but in xenology Ynnead appears in the mythology of multiple races including the eldar, kroot, and hrud as the "child of starlight" who ultimately defeats chaos.  In the imperial cult and inquisition there are factions which believes when the emperor does actually die, he will be reborn, potentially as a true god with the added strength of his dead worshipers - This being is known as the "Starchild".

Ynnead is also supposed to be manifest in multiple dimensions at once although will emerge in the webway.  While the emperor is split, with a chunk of his soul being lost in the warp (but remaining intact and taking on the aspect of...  a child) - and well he's been sitting on a web way portal for 10,000 years.  Don't forget either that the emperor has always been an amalgamation of psykers and that he is connected to all the craftworlds via the only means they have to link their infinity circuits in order to birth Ynnead (the webway).

8 minutes of poorly recorded speculation, but he hits most of the major points in the second half of this video.

In some ways I seriously hope we've been wrong for the last decade or so and the eldar get their own end times god (which... by the way would mean every single craftworlder was dead), but in others I don't want such a huge hairy deal to be heralded by 5 lousy facebook posts with typos in them either.

Imateria wrote:

Harlequins, and I think Scions, are from 7th. Inquisition I think is the only mini codex from 6th and thats download only.

Good catch on the harlies, but the inquisition, scions, and legion of the damned were all 6th edition and by my standards mini-dexes.  This was also the edition of "let's fix it real quick", 12 page supplements too making 6th the mini-dex edition in my mind and I'm not upset that trend its over.

Appropriately cued up wiki page

stilgar27 wrote:

amorrowlyday wrote:

With all due respect: F*%$ Khaine. I worship one lord and only one lord: The sleeping prince who will bring retribution and salvation, not our lesser facsimile of Khorne.

I hate to break it to you - But GW has been dropping hints for as long as I can remember that Ynnead is actually just the emperor reborn.  I won't go too much in to it, but in xenology Ynnead appears in the mythology of multiple races including the eldar, kroot, and hrud as the "child of starlight" who ultimately defeats chaos.  In the imperial cult and inquisition there are factions which believes when the emperor does actually die, he will be reborn, potentially as a true god with the added strength of his dead worshipers - This being is known as the "Starchild".

Ynnead is also supposed to be manifest in multiple dimensions at once although will emerge in the webway.  While the emperor is split, with a chunk of his soul being lost in the warp (but remaining intact and taking on the aspect of...  a child) - and well he's been sitting on a web way portal for 10,000 years.  Don't forget either that the emperor has always been an amalgamation of psykers and that he is connected to all the craftworlds via the only means they have to link their infinity circuits in order to birth Ynnead (the webway).

8 minutes of poorly recorded speculation, but he hits most of the major points in the second half of this video.

In some ways I seriously hope we've been wrong for the last decade or so and the eldar get their own end times god (which... by the way would mean every single craftworlder was dead), but in others I don't want such a huge hairy deal to be heralded by 5 lousy facebook posts with typos in them either.

Imateria wrote:

Harlequins, and I think Scions, are from 7th. Inquisition I think is the only mini codex from 6th and thats download only.

Good catch on the harlies, but the inquisition, scions, and legion of the damned were all 6th edition and by my standards mini-dexes.  This was also the edition of "let's fix it real quick", 12 page supplements too making 6th the mini-dex edition in my mind and I'm not upset that trend its over.

Appropriately cued up wiki page

The Emperor does not sit on the Webway, he was trying to creat his own version of it and it is not connected directly into the Eldar webway, even if the Golden Thrown is linked with Eldar tech.

I highly doubt your theory there, it just doesn't fit the xenos hating Emperor of Mankind who is a perpetual and would be able to regenerate (maybe) if he could get off that thrown.

I hadn't realised Scions dates back to 6th, but Inquisition suffer from the fact they were split off from the Grey Knights (a mistake IMO). We've also had Skitarii and Cult Mech during 7th as well, and frankly I like the idea of mini dexes for those factions that dont warrent a full size force of their own .


Whats with all the rubbish lately about the Eldar factions being rolled into one? Seems like people are getting their wires crossed between the wild speculation (and thats all it is because there hasn't remotely been any kind of relaible rumours on this) on what will happen in 8th and the Deathwatch vs Harlies + Eldrad boxset that will be coming out next weekend.

Also, in Sigmar the Elf factions weren't all rolled together into a single faction, but have been split inot 11 different factions like Eldritch Council, Phoenix Temple, Daughters of Khaine and Wanderers, hopefully with the Shadowkin to join them in the near future.

^This.^

Although to be fair they were all rolled into 1 for end times.

I also want to add that I firmly believe that you're misidentifying idea reclyclation which hints of sameness. Games Workshop only works with a scant number of storyline archetypes, so stuff gets recycled all the time.

Imateria wrote:

The Emperor does not sit on the Webway,

Well... technically it's a gateway, and it's broken but it makes an excellent life support unit?  Seriously think about that though - it *was* creating tunnels through the warp to tap into the webway, and now it's plugged in to his who-knows-what and keeping him alive(ish) with the souls of sacrificed psykers.  Now imagine the gateway re-opens and/or is overflowing with the souls of billions of dead eldar.

Imateria wrote:

he was trying to creat his own version of it and it is not connected directly into the Eldar webway, even if the Golden Thrown is linked with Eldar tech.

The webway isn't eldar tech, it predates them by millions of years and since the disappearance of its creators - is basically it's own, capricious entity.  However the old ones did teach the eldar how to force portals and spaces within the webway open (like Commoragh).  Most importantly they were taught how to manufacture (highly prized) stable gateways.

This is what the emperor was trying to do, create an anchored gateway from terra in to the webway.  So ya, he's a xenophobe but obviously isn't above exploiting alien technology if it truly matters.

To quote the wiki on it... "This greatest of the Emperor's many works was intended to open up the Eldar Webway to Mankind by establishing a portal into its network from Terra.".  Ya i know, it's a wiki and he said eldar webway so it's already somewhat inaccurate... unless he was just trying to get to Commorragh for the weekend.

I can find quite a few other quotes like that without necessarily digging through the entire internet/HH series again, but if you can find something to the contrary please post it.  40k is often contrary to itself depending on the account, it's just that as I understand there has only ever been one webway.

I will be really annoyed if Ynnead is in fact the Emperor.

Rejoice Eldar, your entire race needs to die for the glorious ascension of the Imperium of Man. Each of you shall die to make me greater and I'll send out my agents to eradicate you but you can be happy in knowing that you die for me.

Or is it, I the reborn Emperor, who hated religion and tried to eradicate it, am reborn as a god of the Eldar but that is okay because I have become a tolerant Man and no longer seek to destroy all Xenos life in the Galaxy for Human dominance.

Either way it sounds like a terrible direction to go.

As I undestand it, the Starchild shtick has kind of been cut loose. Much like the half-eldar Space Marine, I'm not aware of an official retcon, but unless there's something I've missed recently (quite possible) it hasn't been mentioned in the recent past.

Jimsolo wrote:

As I undestand it, the Starchild shtick has kind of been cut loose.  Much like the half-eldar Space Marine, I'm not aware of an official retcon, but unless there's something I've missed recently (quite possible) it hasn't been mentioned in the recent past.

Honestly I have not heard the name starchild much recently other than in conversation about this particular theory.  The resurrections though are still a pretty major part of the inquisition (though mostly thorians) and depending on their sect they still believe the emperor's soul can be returned/rejuvenated/reincarnated/reupholstered.

At this point I'm honestly torn between wanting to be right about another crazy theory, and hoping it's just an elaborate red herring.  Stuff does start to add up pretty quick when you look at it that way though.

If they want to change the faction name, they already have a name for eldar that is not "eldar", from the 3rd ed dex I think.  Eladrith Ynneas is dark eldar in the Commoragh dialect if I'm not mistaken. They could name the new dex Eladrith Otesh or just Eladrith.
If they do mash the dexes together to 'Codex Hodgepodge Eldar' I'll allow it, as long as they retain the possibility to field an army motivated to fight solely by a common murder fetish.

stilgar27 wrote:

I should mention at one time I argued that warhammer fantasy was just a single world in the 40k universe and sigmar was probably a primarch.  Then of course they made that true (sort of), and then they changed it back again.  Think I might have got punched over that one actually - good times.

I think they meant for Sigmar to only be a regular space marine since they said he crashed down from the heavens wearing a strange humming plate armor and basically having a thunderhammer.
As far as I know all the Primarchs crash landed on the worlds as babies.
Also, never underestimate the nerd rage.
I hope they bring back the Starchild, give him a bop gun and a mother-ship that he frequently needs to reconnect with.

CurstAlchemist wrote:

I will be really annoyed if Ynnead is in fact the Emperor.

Rejoice Eldar, your entire race needs to die for the glorious ascension of the Imperium of Man. Each of you shall die to make me greater and I'll send out my agents to eradicate you but you can be happy in knowing that you die for me.

That would be pretty lame, but it actually sort of makes sense based on the fluff for Ynnead. Consider this coven doctrine  "Phoenex: A hidden offshoot of the Ever-Nemesines. They seek to forge the Eldar race anew by the means of exterminating their own kind, be they Commorragh, Craftworlders, Harlequins, or Exodites. They believe that should the Eldar become extinct, Ynnead will be awakened and the spiritual malaise of the Eldar lifted forever [...] It is rumored that their philosophy is not limited to Commorragh, and that the Harlequins and even Craftworld leaders may share their goal".

CurstAlchemist wrote:

Or is it, I the reborn Emperor, who hated religion and tried to eradicate it, am reborn as a god of the Eldar but that is okay because I have become a tolerant Man and no longer seek to destroy all Xenos life in the Galaxy for Human dominance.

As I understand it the emperor suppressed religion because he knew that the chaos gods feed on worship, and was trying to weaken them by taking that away from them.
That said, let's hope they don't resurrect the emperor for any reason, because it would not be good storytelling unless they plan on ending the story shortly after.

Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse:

Count Adhemar wrote:

Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse:

Nope. Nope. Not allowed. He should be banned from GW. By Khaine's flaming armpits why is this happening?

Truly these are the end of days!

Maybe he will finally bring order to all this mess that happened after he left?

To be fair to him, whilst his fluff was excruciating, his rules were actually quite decent as long as they were only compared to other rules written by him. Unfortunately, they were massively OP compared to everyone else's! So he'll probably be employed to write the next Eldar, Tau, Necron and Space Marine codexes!

They were op because there were a tons of rules on each unit, while other writers use basic SRs. He made the game less tournament, that is true, but the game itself felt much different. And thet wil be The Ultramarines, no space marines. Only Ultramarines~
But actually that means he can actually make ne AoS, if we remember, he made the 8th edition of all elves and The End Times: Khaine, that is my favorite for it's fluff, even after few plot holes.