Not sure if this is in the right place, but help me with my Exodite fluff!

Well, as you do when you've got time bored at work, I've been coming up with some more fluff for my exodites (with the view to building up to an exodite codex). I've been thinking about how to make the exodites truly different from the other Eldar cultures, what what's known about them in the fluff would do to them as a society and what real-world cultures I could use as inspiration (like the rest of the official factions do).

To come up with this, I've taken one assumption and run with it,. which is that exodites are Eldar that have basically descended into technobarbarism in the generations following the fall. Not a fantastic logical leap, but one that lets me play with a load of cool possibilities for them

Now, as with all fan-based stuff, it's a work of pure fiction, but I'd like to get some feedback on whether you think it fits with the general feel of 40k, what other ideas I could use, or just whether you like it or not!

The first thing is how do the Exodites deal with Slaanesh? The Craftworlders were shielded from the initial shockwave by their wraithbone ships and protect themselves today by spirit stones and the Path. The Commorites were protected by being in the webway, and replenish their souls with what is effectively vampirism.

So, how would the exodites deal with Slaanesh? Initially, I expect that their world spirits and simple distance would have protected them. As for protecting themselves now, that

Starting from what we know, although all sorts of survivalists fled in the exodus, but basically the Exodites were led by what amounts to doomsayers and fanatics. How would a devolved society led by religious fanatics deal with the out of control eldar psyche and the temptations of Slaanesh?

That led me to look at how real-world societies in a (loosely) similar situation behaved: witch-hunts in the Middle-Ages.

The idea being that it's fear of reprisal that keeps the otherwise free exodites from falling into the clutches of excess. In my mind, that would neatly explain two otherwise conflicting descriptions of exodites in the fluff (that they're wild, free and welcoming of Corsairs and Outcasts, and that they're dour fanatics). They can be as wild and free as they like, but overstep the bounds and you will be hunted down by your community.

That neatly dovetailed with the little dudes I'd converted (pic below) for my Cult of Kurnous/counts-as Striking Scorpions, and also ties in a little with the Wild Hunts of Warhammer Fantasy Wood Elf fluff so I wrote them a little codex-style fluff piece:

The rune-concept depicting the Cult of Kurnous hints at its true function within exodite society. Although it sports the horns of the Hunter, it also evokes Khaine the Kin-Slayer. If an exodite oversteps the bounds of excess and invites the gaze of She-Who-Thirsts, shadowy members of the exodite clans will gather in the shrines of Kurnous. Adorning themselves with blood and feathers, they don the masks of the Hunter God and slink off through the shadows, mercilessly hunting their kin.


What do you think?

It also leads me onto the next core aspect of the Eldar that you'd need to address: how they protect their heightened psyches from the horrors of warfare. The Commorites simply revel in the pain and anguish around them, while the Craftworlders enter a dissociative state becoming unfeeling psychopaths. For the exodites, I doubt the former method would work, so I ran with the 'dissociative state' idea. That brought me to the Berserkergang of Norse and Germanic history. Berserkergang was the trance-like state Berserkers entered prior to battle, aided by the use of psychotropic drugs and animalistic ritual.

The idea being that, rather than the cool calculating psychopathic War Mask of the Craftworld Eldar, the exodites would through ritual and drug use whip themselves up into an animalistic frenzy, completely dissociating themselves from their peace-time personality and forming their minds into the shape of the predatory animals that frequent their worlds. Their War Mask isn't a War Mask, more of a Predator Mask (and not the gribble four-mouthed thing with dreads...). Again, I wrote a couple of little codex-style fluff pieces to get the ideas across. The second one is still a bit WIP so I'd appreciate some feedback

1.
Heralding the drums of war, many disparate clans and groups of exodites commune in ruined temples to their old gods. There, during barbaric rituals of psychotropic drugs and bloodletting, they whip themselves into a primal frenzy. Bedecked in blood and warpaint, the Wild Hunt pours forth through the webway, sweeping all before it in animalistic fury.

2. After the latest failed interrogation attempt, the eldar captive paced the cell like a caged beast, blood dripping down its tattered shirt. His Catachan auxiliaries said they'd seen the look in its eyes before, in the predatory beasts that stalk their homeworld. A blank stare of animal cunning, lacking all higher though, no thought but evaluating ways in which it can sink its teeth into you. Sadly he thought, as he nursed the wound on his arm, he hadn't taken that particular comment as literally as he should have done.

Any thoughts?

Going back to the protection from Slaanesh aspect, one train of thought that I went down was why the exodites remain on their worlds if it makes them so vulnerable. My idea, to try and add a little of the doomed helplessness that pervades all the Eldar fluff, is that they're trapped there. I doubt the exodites would have the military might to be questing into the Eye of Terror for Spirit Stones, so their only protection would lie in the great psychic shields of their World Spirits. If they leave the sanctuary of their worlds, they're subject to the same draining of spirit that afflicts Corsairs. Cue another fluff piece

All Eldar must protect themselves in some way from the predations of She-Who-Thirsts. The Dark Kin torture their prey to replenish what is lost, and Craftworld Eldar undertake perilous missions into the Eye of Terror to retrieve new spirit stones for each generation. Spirit stones are a rarity on Exodite worlds, being so far from the crone worlds at the heart of the old Eldar empire. Instead, great veins of wraithbone run through Exodite planets, channelling their world spirits in a great psychic shield from The Great Enemy. However, once an Exodite leaves the sanctuary of their worlds, they are subject to the inexorable draining of their lifeforce that befalls all unprotected Eldar.

While Craftworlders and Commorites may slip away like ghosts in the webway, the Exodites fight a desperate battle for survival, shackled as they are to their worlds.

The next thing to answer is that if they're so backward (comparative to the other Eldar factions), how can they maintain and produce the technology to allow them to be a player of any sort of significance on the scale of 40k? Reading the first few pages of the Path of the Warrior by Gav Thorpe where food from exodite worlds was eaten by Eldar on Alaitoc, the answer struck me as trade. I can see the Craftworlders providing arms and armour to the exodites either through trade or in a similar way to which modern governments arm particular groups in areas of conflict where they have interest. For the Dark Eldar, it would have to be a more sinister trade. The first thing that sprang to mind was beasts and drugs native to exodite worlds. Then, I thought that if the exodites viewed humanity in the same way as other eldar (closer to vermin than equals), they would have no qualms about selling any captives to the Dark Kin for weapons and armour. Another fluff piece

Although many exodite worlds are able to craft rifles and blades for their warriors, they lack the industrial base to manufacturer more complex eldar technologies, he majority of which is traded with their Craftworld and Commorite kin. There is a strong trade of rare delicacies, exotic furs and live wild beasts with both the Craftworlds and Commorragh. However, trade with the latter is often in darker materials.

Raiding parties of exodites hunt through their webway vicinity for backwards, feral or feudal worlds. Using psychic enchantments they lure unwitting people into dark woods or deep lakes, whereupon they're sold to their dark cousins to sate their needs. Despite authorities' searches continually finding no hard evidence of them, local myths and legends persist of the 'fey folk of the woods' who prey on the unwary and the impious.

What I've tried to do there is weave in some of the old gaelic folklore about 'fey folk' who would abduct lost travellers in the woods. Doing a little more research into it showed that many real-world cultures have some very similar myths about beings that lure the unwitting to their deaths in dark forests or deep waters. So, I came up with an idea for that interstellar map page they have in every codex:

Throughout the frontier worlds of the Eastern rim of the Imperium, myths abound of various fickle and fiendish forest folk. Stories of hunters lost in the woods, stumbling upon parties of beautiful human-like xenos. Some tell tales of being guided back to the safety of forest paths, while others were hunted through the boughs and branches by whooping and screeching wildmen.

Yet others tell of beautiful xenos who through deceptive magics lure the unfaithful or the unwitting into the heart of forests, or the depths of lakes, never to be seen again. Punitive expeditions against these xenos rarely find more than a fleeting trace of their presence. The myths of many disparate worlds share similar themes. Some members of the Ordo Xenos have theorised that these beings may in fact be one and the same species, if they exist at all beyond the folklore of backwater worlds. Below is a map charted by the discredited xenobiologist Milesus the Fourth of these myths, recorded during his extensive travels among rogue trader fleets operating on the Southern and Eastern rims of the Imperium.

Below that is the standard galactic map with little blurbs of these myths, based on the various myths that abound in real-world folklore about these beings that abduct, capture or lead astray the unwary. For example:

Lessk of Novgoria III
Locals talk of fickle men of the woods, sometimes helping other times hindering lost and weary travellers

Keelpa of (need a Scottish-sounding name)
Said to appear to lone wanderers on the shoreline with promises of companionship, only to drag the unwitting and unfaithful to the depths of their lakes

Satryadii and Syrenii of Southern Ultramar
The former is said to spirit away women in wild revelry, while the latter appears to seafarers luring them to the depths with enchanting songs

There's loads of others that I can draw on too, just need to come up with names for them the idea being that you could build up a map of exodite activity from the Imperium's perspective using the ramblings of a discredited Ordo Xenos explorer. Various other galactic maps show the location of known exodite worlds which we can use to plot the locations of these myths.

I've got other cool ideas that I wanted to incorporate too, like how many statues of Ares in ancient Greece are often depicted in chains as if they were afraid that he would escape, and how that might tally with the exodites' racial memory of Khaine as the killer of Eldar:

While the Craftworld Eldar embrace Khaine as a necessary evil, and the Dark Kin deride him as a label placed upon them by the dour fanatics of the old empire, more than anything the Exodites fear Khaine. Throughout their lands, great statues of the War God stand in chains. Exodites lay gifts to placate the slayer of eldar, in the hopes that the gaze of the War God will fall elsewhere.

I've got loads of other little snippets of fluff that I've come up with, but those are the basics just thought I'd share them to get some sort of critical response and see if anyone else has any cool ideas

I really do like this fluff, I've been dabbling with having Exodites as part of my Kabal so this could be useful. Have you thought about taking influence from the Drow in any way? Or perhaps Norse influences? Because the "Dark" elves in norse mythology lived underground separated from the beautiful elves. AKA have you thought of having Exodites that live underground and maybe come up with an organization or reason that some may do that?

How do you plan on having the power structure handled with your Exodites? Does it have a centralized power? And Oligarchy of the different organizations?

Thanks man I'm glad it could be of use to someone!

I had thought of having them (or at least some of them) as subterranean, but more from an Aos Sidhe perspective. I'd always thought that the Dark Eldar drew their inspiration from the Drow and the Dokkalfar/Svartalfar (living in an alternate dimension, and some interpretations of 'dark' elves put the description closer to 'pale/dingy' which fits with the Dark Eldar).

Saying that, in general I envisage exodites to be a fantastically broad set of societies that vary a lot between worlds. That would allow for pretty much anyone's interpretation of them to be true (in the best 40k fashion): from Exodite Knight Worlds all the way to my technobarbarians

Having darker, more twisted exodites living underground would fit really nicely as allies to a Dark Eldar kabal love the idea.

One of the ideas that I was working with, linked to the fear of Khaine thing, (a manifested racial trait based on the exodites' preference for hiding rather than conflict) is that exodites prefer to hide from their enemies in the first instance. Things like structures hidden by flickerfields that appear like sunlit groves of falling leaves and suchlike.

Descending underground to avoid a human settlement on the planet above would certainly fit with that, and would allow you to work some of the D&D Drow background of them manipulating the human civilisations above them

You could have a ton of fun converting up some subterranean exodites too I've found the arms from Sylvaneth Tree Revenants are readily available on bits sites and look damn cool as wraithbone bionics, and you could make some really cool Spider Riding Jetbikes (or proper Driders if you wanted to go further down the body modification route, given the precedent for Scourges).

As for power structures in my exodites, there's various cults to the old gods, of which the Cult of Kurnous is one. The Cult of Asuryan is sort of a theocratic class of clan leaders and princes, descended from the original fanatics and priests that led the exodus. I'd imagine that, like Saim Hann, the power structure would be fairly decentralised with various autonomous clans that come together to fight as larger units when it suits them/if they have a charismatic leader to unite them.

Also, I'm absolutely stealing the idea of Drow-exodites who go big into Scourge-style body modification bat-wings and spider legs and suchlike. Currently looking for a name-dropped exodite world that was invaded by the Imperium, forcing the natives to go underground (when the Imperials thought they were wiped out). You could also work in references to the Yuuzhan Vong with biological body modification if you wanted

Got one! Apparently the exodite world 'Baran' was conquered by the Orks in late M40. In 224 M41, an imperial crusade passed through the system, liberating it from the feral orks that roamed its surface.  The Imperial regiments were granted right of settlement, and the military fortifications became imperial cities.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Baran

There's more detail on the Baran War here, which included warfare between Orks, Imperials and the Eldar of Biel-Tan: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Baran_War

Basically the eldar are victorious on the former exodite world, and one of the things they do is reactivate the dead webway portals. Here's where your Drow-exodites could come in

During the early battles for Baran, reports reach Autarch Mauryon of strange eldar forces assaulting the flanks of the Ork hordes. At first, his Rangers believed the Dark Kin had come to their aid, although he could not fathom what would draw them here other than gleeful violence.

Throughout the conflict, scattered rumours abound of surrounded Eldar forces being saved by allies that seemed more animal than eldar. It was only after the conflict had reached its culmination that the truth emerged.

Striding up to the victorious eldar forces, Lolithian the great queen of the Baran exodites greeted the bloodied Autarch. He surveyed the battered warhost through multifaceted eyes, and invited their saviours down to the great vaults of the underdark.

As Mauryon and his retinue descended through the depths, he noticed glittering eyes peering out through the darkness and the chittering noise of arachnid legs on stone. As they walked, Lolithian recounted the history of her people.

The first Ork Waaagh had slaughtered their defenders and cut off their webway portals, the battered survivors fleeing into the caverns beneath the surface of the planet. There, they found their eldar bodies to be ill-suited to life underground. Through pre-fall technomancy they were able to modify their bodies to better suit their environment and divorce themselves from the savage conflicts occurring on the surface.

Although he could barely make out shapes in the gloom, Mauryon could feel the vastness of the space they had entered, and feel the psychic presence of millions of eldar. A great cavern expanded around him, home to the much-changed exodites of Baran. As he walked through the buildings carved from the bedrock, he saw bat-winged eldar reminiscent of the Dark Kin perched on rooftops. More alien were other eldar, bedecked in bespoke armour, who appeared to be arachnid from the waist down.

Reaching the central chamber of her great palace, Lolithian gifted Mauryon with a blade made of blackest wraithbone. A thanks given to the warhost that defeated the Waaagh, and for the saviours that reconnected them with the greater webway.

The expansion of the underdark had just begun.

Ynneadwraith wrote:

Also, I'm absolutely stealing the idea of Drow-exodites

Steal away! It's why I sugguested it. so have fun with the Drow I look forward to seeing what you come up for them if you do any conversions on them(You could make them Eldar Corsairs if you want to make models for them) . The lore you came up for the Drowxodites is excellent. I'm now trying to brainstorm ways I can help come up with more for them xD

The reason I mentioned the Cult thing is because I've been following your Exodite Log, I really do love some of the conversions. (I'm working on conversions myself but I'm a bit tight on money ;( )

On another note do you think it's possible that there are forgotten maiden worlds that have been forgotten or "lost"?