Dark Eldar Numbers?

I've recently read something on another forum about an email from Gav about the numbers of craftworld eldar munbering in the low millions per craftworld, with tops of 100 craftworlds this means that the CE number no more then 100million, no more then a large hive world. But my question is how many dark eldar make there home in the dark city? It says that to compare Commaragh to a hive world would be to compare a mountain to a termite mound, but this seems grossly optamistic to me, at least population-wise. Given that the dark eldar way of reproduction, can we assume the DE race is growing, not shrinking or is it mearly replenising?

So could we assume there are over 100million DE in the Dark City, more? Im stuck with so much contradicting fluff. Is the size of the dark city, if you think we could even use such measurments, greater then that of a large planet if packed into one realm (suns excluded of course)?

Help.

I don't tend to stick to any one number.

Commorragh does not obey physics, goes on for almost an eternity and is named the 'Impossible City' by some. It has spires that seemingly rise forever lage expanses of land that house millions at a time in the form of factory workers and slaves.

Seeing as it can be argued that Commorragh is transdimensional in places and could go on forever it is impossible to really know.

I tend to stick to trillions, although you have to bear in mind that there are far more DE that are enslaved than Kabalites or Wyches due to the constant warfare. Commorragh is almost endless and is ever changing. It must house the entire Dark Eldar race. Also, Dark Eldar reproduce at a much higher rate than Craftworlders because of the lack or morals and the amniotic tubes. I would say that it could possibly house as many people as the Imperium does, but not all of these Dark Eldar are given the freedom of Kabalites, only a relatively small percentage are.

These are just my thoughts. I hope that they help.

As Cavash has said artificial reproduction boosts out numbers, two, being a race of hedonists boosts our numbers, and three the craft worlders were a small percent of the eldar empire, most of the eldar empire fallen to pleasure cults housed in the eather web, which through the lack of sun and their tastes became the dark eldar, four, with the heamonculi the elite are effectively immortal...ish. As they can bring them back from a hand (fluff said this once done once) So the D.E. Numbers started with more then Eldar, and have been adding to their numbers. I would compare total D.E. race being equal or close to imperium.

Also, Phil Kelly seems to give an entirely different order of maginitude for the numbers of Craftworlders than Gav Thorpe. He mentioned that a large Kabal can have millions of warriors and military force equal to a small Craftworld, which would imply even a small Craftworld having millions of Eldar living in it, with the largest ones possibly being in low billions. Commorragh is compared to a Hive City (specifically it's absolutely huge compared to one), and considering Hice Cities can have a populations of several tens of billions, I'd expect Commorragh's population to be hundreds of trillions (not quite as high as the Imperium, which is probably in low quadrillions), altough a significant part of that figure is probably saves and low-class Dark Eldar.

'Commaragh to a hive world would be to compare a mountain to a termite mound'

Ok so an average terminte mound is say 4x2x2 meters = 16 m^3
The average mountain according to ask.com is 300 m high 1200 m base so 130000 m^3

Hive worlds have around 5-20 hives per planet each hive housing 10-100 billion people.
So the bottom end of that; 5 hives, 10 billion per hive gives 50 billion people and that is the termite mound.

So the population of Commorragh on the low end using my assumptions is around 542 trillion minimum.
At the high end 100 billion per hive 20 hives per planet 21666 trillion maximum.

^^ LOL, i like your thinking.

Steffo wrote:

'Commaragh to a hive world would be to compare a mountain to a termite mound'

Ok so an average terminte mound is say 4x2x2 meters = 16 m^3
The average mountain according to ask.com is 300 m high 1200 m base so 130000 m^3

Hive worlds have around 5-20 hives per planet each hive housing 10-100 billion people.
So the bottom end of that; 5 hives, 10 billion per hive gives 50 billion people and that is the termite mound.

So the population of Commorragh on the low end using my assumptions is around 542 trillion minimum.
At the high end 100 billion per hive 20 hives per planet 21666 trillion maximum.

This. Absolutely this.

Also, as established in 'Soul Reaver' there are many other settlements outside of Commoragh.

Don't even try to get a number on any kind of Eldar. It's never been stated, and there's no way of even guessing. We have literally no information that would lead to a reasonably reliable conclusion. Gav did pretty poorly in terms of numbers, the sheer scale of a Craftworld and what he was writing goes completely against his guess on numbers.

Well, Kelly said in the WD article about different Kabals that came out right after the DE codex that large Kabals can have millions of warriors and a military force equal to small Craftworlds. Which would logically mean a small Craftworld would have the population of several million, and the large ones presumably much larger. Thorpe's numbers (where a large Craftworld has maybe a few million Eldar) don't really fit with that, and make no sense anyway (if there's only a few million Eldar living aboard Alatoic, then why make the Craftworld so big it can't fit through Webway gates? Sure, the Eldar wouldn't want to live in a cramped space, but with a population of a decently sized city you don't really need a craft the size of a continent to not feel crowded).