What would a Dark Eldar write on?

besides a table (or the back of a slave!)

I'm really asking what would they use instead of paper, or would they use paper?

I thought that they might write on flayed skin, but that seems a bit impractical as it'd be heavy, and not easy to scribe.

there is a reason for asking this, rather than wierd curiousity but since walls have ears (usually cut from the head's of slaves) I don't want to reveal my reasons yet!

They probably have some sort of Paper in Spaaaaaace. Maybe they don't use paper per er but have tablets or something like that. Duke Sliscus HAS been known to carve poems into his captive's skin though.

Good chance they do use skin, it is used in real life to. Parchment and vellum are made of animal skin, chemically processed to change properties. Wouldn't be much of a stretch for them to make parchment out of the dead slaves, or those killed on raids. Haemouculi can probably do all kinds of things to the skin to make any kind of paper needed.

They would probably have many tablets readers for mundane everyday use. The actual parchment used for art, literature, and ceremonial/official documents. Stories of real space raids might be published on the skin of those killed on them. The way in the modern world bussnesses are going paperless, but people will pay for recreational items on good quality paper instead of .pdf files, like the Imperial armour series and art books.

i'd think being a highlyintelligent, technologically advanced race they would have electronic (or equivalent) means of producing, reproducing or sending information.

maybe even some kind of soul-driven technology too, a kind of anti-thesis to the eldar's use of wraithbone and spiritstones.

for special items of written or artisitc work i also think flayed skin would feature heavily.

I'd agree that the dark eldar would have access to and make use of high technology for data collection. Citing the codex pilots utilize pict capture equipment in targeting systems to replay satifying kills.

There is also a place for written records on flayed skins, scribed bone or and other gory medium. An earlier post mentioned information technology advances not negating written media; the cultural implications are also worth mentioning. I could see worthy documents being maintained in a more weighty manner. I'm sure there would be a ceremonial quality to contracts detailed on the remains of a hated rival or worthy opponent. In a society like this a charter, work of art, agreement would seem more binding and carry with it a totemic quality/power.

Thanks for all the replies, I'd not thought of vellum, but that is exactly what I need!

Flayed skin. Dead skin. Living skin. Skin. Maybe some high tech tablets, or just get a slave to do it for you.

One idea that I'm playing around with is the Dark Eldar using devices that directly stimulate the recipient's brain so that they understand the message without actually hearing it or reading it. That way, the communications of the Kabals can only be intercepted by physically touching the message boat and having the proper mental engram to decode it.

I've even got an origin for the technology thought up. One Haemonculus noticed that certain species were unnerved by the screams of their fellow prisoners, but were even more mentally wounded if they understood the language that the current victim was screaming in. So she invented a device that would record and translate languages into brain activity automatically and implanted it into their skulls. When they would wake, they would only hear noise, but as they slept, they would hear the desperate pleading and broken whimpers in their dreams, in the voices of the ones they knew.

i think a Dark Eldar would write on flayed skin. the main reasons being that slaves are cheap and that they'd have a good time flaying the skin from them!

Be careful what secrets you write down in the Dark City!

Yadahr of the Stolen Star wrote:

i think a Dark Eldar would write on flayed skin. the main reasons being that slaves are cheap and that they'd have a good time flaying the skin from them!

Yeah or at least a Mandrake would.

depends really, my thoughts would be that they'd use something like a holo-tablet for everyday communications/official documents, but if its meant to impress like art or a party invitation then it would be on skin, or maybe just carved into the back of a slave then send the slave running though the streets to their house.