Craftworlds, the Early Years

[simison]

Greetings from Brotherhood of the Lost.

 

One of the side projects we have is the monthly fluff challenge. For a month, each of us take a shot at writing a story for a specific faction. The Aeldari are the faction for this month, and I wanted to work on the early Craftworlds to better integrate them into BotL. 

 

I have discovered a significant hole in easy-to-find information regarding this early period. These are some of the challenges I've run into that I've mentioned to other project members:

 

"I suppose what's also confusing the issue is when did Wraith constructs come into existence. In the earliest fluff, the Craftworlds predate the Fall of the Eldar by thousands of war, used as odd trading vessels. More recent fluff emphasizes that they were built to escape the Empire as its degeneration accelerated. In either scenario, the Craftworlds predate the Fall which means Bonesingers and wraithbone have been available then. Yet, wraith constructs are in this weird spot. Several of the Horus Heresy novels establish their existence, but don't explain how they come to be. Perturabo faces off against a Wraith army in Angelus Exterminatus. Supposedly, the planet, Iydris, is an Aeldari tomb world, aka, a waystone/spirit stone storage facility.

 

Which, I guess implies that waystones have been used since the Eldar Pantheon has been around since it's suggested Lileath likes the place. (Which utterly baffles me since she is supposed to be the Eldar goddess of Dreams, Prophecy, and Fortune. What's any of that got to do with death and zombies?) The only other mention of a Wraith-being is Eldrad's Wraithlord friend, Khiraen Goldhelm in Fulgrim. There's also an Avatar of Khaine in that fight, which I'm a little uneasy with. I suppose 200 years is enough time to figure out how to create an Avatar of Khaine. 

 

Side note, there's also an Avatar of Khaine in Aurelian. This one is half-dead and was among the ruins of a Craftworld that didn't escape the cataclysm in time. I'm not sure if this one makes any sense. So, Slaanesh is birthed, while the Craftworlds are running for it. This one doesn't escape in time, but just enough time for Slaanesh to shatter Khaine, and for a a shard of Khaine to land on the Craftworld Zu'lasa? Keep in mind, the Fall kills most of Zu'lasa's population, which is why it ends up crashing into the planet next to it. Who would be around to create an Avatar of Khaine? In Path of the Warrior, it takes the sacrifice of an Exarch to even make one of these Avatars. There are no Exarchs at the time of the Fall because Asurmen hasn't created the Path of the Warrior and become the first Phoenix Lord. So, no Exarch, and who would be around and sane enough to figure out how to make an Avatar of Khaine? Does Khaine immediately explain how to make an Avatar whenever his shard arrives on a Craftworld?

 

End of side note. (No, the Avatar of Khaine in Aurelian makes no sense.)

 

So, we have no idea when Wraith constructs became a thing or why they became a thing. 

 

In regards to the Infinity Circuit adaptation as a soul storage unit, I suggest that maybe we can have it occurring at the same time as the Insurrection. Shows the Aeldari adapting to post-Fall life, and it's a major victory for them even as the Imperium is threatening to implode. 

 

Also, a big thing that came up yesterday are additional Phoenix Lords. Darkcommander/Rowboat has claimed dibs on working on the Warp Spider Phoenix Lord. GW still hasn't made a Phoenix Lord for the Shining Spears or the Crimson Hunters, so that's something else we can address. That includes a timeline of when Phoenix Lords come into being. We know Asurmen is the first with Jain Zar as the second. Outside of that, we're not sure who else is in the first batch. Actually, we don't even know if anyone comes after the first batch. For all we know, it was a one-time blessing by Khaine since we have no idea how anyone can become a Phoenix Lord. It obviously has to have Khaine involved on some level since a Phoenix Lord is essentially a Daemon Prince of Khaine. For that matter, we don't know how one becomes an Exarch either. What standard does a warrior have to meet to become a living armor?"

 

Does anyone here have any insights/information they'd care to share or offer?

[Slasher956]

From the 3rd Ed.. both codex & BL books..

 

wraith constructs are just that constructs grown using the same Technics that bone singers have had since before the fall, powered by the soul stone instead of something else.  There is nothing to say that they are not a repurposed tool from before the fall, as a means of getting the dead back in to the fight /mobile.

EDIT two - the Infinity circuit is a resceptical for housing the soul stones, IIRC it was not apparent when they first started using it that they could use it to talk to the souls within the soulstones.  It is the job of the spirtseers to keep these souls calm otherwise they could damage the craftworld

 

On the Avatar front, they are a fragment of Khane and not created on or by a craftword, they just landed there & grow in to the avatar of khiane, there is nothing to say that fragments cant have landed on exodite worlds etc etc.  The old fluff had the Exarch sacrific being the surest way of WAKING an avatar in time of need*, but there is a couple of books where the avatar wakes themselves.. hint its not good news for the craftworld when that happens!

 

The Phoenix lords are in current 40k just an old suit of armour that acts like a giant soul stone so when the occupant dies the armour lies there until another eldar is called to don it, once they have they become the phoenix lord and add their experiences in to the gashalt entity that is the pheonix lord.

EDIT - The phoenix lords are the pinnacle of their aspect, and (most of the time) the founder of the the aspect.  They are basically the oldest and best of an aspect ... basically super exarchs.  They are not 'khaine demon princes' they follow a trait or way of making war to the exclusion of all else (side note - in game the aspect warriors should only standard eldar WS/BS in the field they dont specialise in... eg Dark Reapers should be WS3... as they dont train in it).

 

The first pheonix lords are the warriors who took the skills of khaine and focused on them to prevent the excesses of their nature (which is what caused the fall in the first place) and honed those skills in to the way of making war and founded the first shrines.  There is nothing to say that as time goes on new pheonix lords of the existing aspects cant arise... ie the 1st exarchs who where taught by Jan Zarr.

 

Exarch are (again 3rd Ed) just warriors who are trapped on the path of the warrior and can no longer leave it.  They are treated with respect that their skills and experience demand yet fear that one eldar could give themselves that totally to one thing.  As an aside Autrachs are Eldar who have given themselves totaly to the path of command

 

 

*3rd ed codex - court of the young king waking the avartar of Bel Tain.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Slasher956

[simison]

1. Okay.

Very interesting, do you know which books state that the Avatar can waken itself?

I can't agree with this. The Phoenix Lords clealy have an originating personality, and a singular one unlike the gestalt ones existing in the Exarch suits. And this still doesn't address how an original Phoenix Lord comes into being. 

Again, they have to start somewhere. How does the first warrior become an Exarch?

[Slasher956]

Its been a very long time since I read the avatar awaking itself (10+ years!) sorry

 

however this might be a good link for you https://gavthorpe.co.uk/2010/09/23/introspections-on-perfection/

 

edit - again all of that is off a very hazy memory of a number of codexs (not all eldar, plus a couple of suplements) which I dont own any more... :(  

anyway my take on the pheonix lords is that the new wearer adds them selves, or rather their experiences, but is subsidary to the original wearer.

Edited June 17, 2019 by Slasher956

[Karhedron]

1. Wraith constructs: Iyanden was the first Craftworld to repurpose its Infinity Circuit (originally just a psychic power grid) into a repository for the souls of the dead. This happened very quickly after the fall and spread to other craftworlds. It was mentioned in the 6th edition Iyanden Codex that this innovation happened in M33 and had taken 300 years of work by the Bonesigners, led by Mehlendri Silversoul who also retrieved the first Waystones from the Crone Worlds. This means that the earliest true Wraith Constructs would not have been seen until around 1000 years after the Horus Heresy. The simplest explanation is that the things Perturabo fought was some sort of precursor. A Wraithbone body driven by some sort of IA rather than the soul of a dead Eldar. This makes sense from the POV of other sources that mention that the Eldar had no need to fight personally during the height of their empire, even when performing "pest control" on the Orks. Why the Eldar do not continue to use IA constructs in the 40K setting (rather than risking the souls of their ancestors) is unknown. Perhaps the technology to create AIs was lost in The Fall.

 

3. This is from the 2nd edition Eldar Codex. The wording has only been tweaked slightly even int he latest codex.

 

"The Phoenix Lords are the most ancient of the Eldar Exarchs. Like the Exarchs of the Shrines of the Warrior Aspects, the Phoenix Lords are immortal after a fashion. When a Phoenix Lord dies his place is taken by another Eldar who assumes his costume and identity. In this way the Phoenix Lord is reborn into a fresh cycle of existence. His suit contains a spirit stone which contains the spirits of all the Eldar who have become that Phoenix Lord. Yet, no matter how many different individuals a Phoenix Lord may have been, his mind is forever the same, driven by the dominant personality of the first and greatest to wear the suit."

This suggests that the difference between an Exarch and a Pheonix Lord is the nature of the mind behind them. Exarchs are gestalts whereas Phoenix Lords are so driven by their original minds that this personality subsumes the psyches of subsequent wearers. This explanation is simple and fits the available fluff. It also explains how Karadras became a Phoenix Lord, despite not being the originator of the Striking Scorpions. If we follow this logic then you could have new Phoenix Lords arising. But it also means that not every Aspect will necessarily have a Phoenix Lord. Founding an Aspect is not enough by itself to acquire PL status. It is the determination of the soul of the original wearer to subsume subsequent wearers rather than simply merge with them to form a gestalt (like a normal Exarch). Presumably this requires a rare an phenomenal act of willpower. PLs are not DPs of Khaine though. They achieved their status through dedication rather than by being elevated by their patron. By the time Asurmen trained the first PLs, Khaine had been shattered and his fragments had taken refuge in the hearts of the Craftworlds. He no longer existed as a conventional warp-entity in a way that could "elevate" a follower to Daemonhood. Also, if the PLs were DPs, their deaths would result in them being banished to the Warp for a time, rather than leaving an empty suit for the next wearer. Whilst there are parallels with DPs, I think it is clear the Phoenix Lords are their own class of entity.

[Beren]

I've already discussed this with Simison as part of the BotL project, but the non-existence of Wraith Constructs is strongly undermined by Horus Heresy: Inferno. The Craftworld of Magc'Sithraal is explicitly stated to have an army of soul animated wraith constructs lead by a Warlock Titan in the Ordo Sinister fluff. Furthermore, the fluff for Legio Xestobiax both in Inferno and John French's Spirit of Cogs story strongly indicate that the Black Iron Core Technology was capable of holding the souls of former princeps. Given that the Black Iron Core Technology was reverse engineered from Eldar technology, it follows that the Eldar probably had some form of access to soul capturing technology at the time.

 

My personal view is that the Craftworlds may have possessed a dwindling supply of waystones from before the fall, but was unable to either replenish them or intergrate them into a collective network.

[The Yncarne]

30 years of different authors and concepts make a lot of the requested info contradictory. The OP putting their own spin on a story is unlikely to lead to a bunch of canon fights (at least I hope not).

 

Write what you want. There’s plenty of room to shoehorn it into all the other ret-conned and evolving background narrative.

[simison]

30 years of different authors and concepts make a lot of the requested info contradictory. The OP putting their own spin on a story is unlikely to lead to a bunch of canon fights (at least I hope not).

 

Write what you want. There’s plenty of room to shoehorn it into all the other ret-conned and evolving background narrative.

 

While this is true (and I'm not afraid to wield the meta option), it helps to do a survey of existing lore to better figure out the parameters before making a final decision.

 

 

3. This is from the 2nd edition Eldar Codex. The wording has only been tweaked slightly even int he latest codex.

 

"The Phoenix Lords are the most ancient of the Eldar Exarchs. Like the Exarchs of the Shrines of the Warrior Aspects, the Phoenix Lords are immortal after a fashion. When a Phoenix Lord dies his place is taken by another Eldar who assumes his costume and identity. In this way the Phoenix Lord is reborn into a fresh cycle of existence. His suit contains a spirit stone which contains the spirits of all the Eldar who have become that Phoenix Lord. Yet, no matter how many different individuals a Phoenix Lord may have been, his mind is forever the same, driven by the dominant personality of the first and greatest to wear the suit."

This suggests that the difference between an Exarch and a Pheonix Lord is the nature of the mind behind them. Exarchs are gestalts whereas Phoenix Lords are so driven by their original minds that this personality subsumes the psyches of subsequent wearers. This explanation is simple and fits the available fluff. It also explains how Karadras became a Phoenix Lord, despite not being the originator of the Striking Scorpions. If we follow this logic then you could have new Phoenix Lords arising. But it also means that not every Aspect will necessarily have a Phoenix Lord. Founding an Aspect is not enough by itself to acquire PL status. It is the determination of the soul of the original wearer to subsume subsequent wearers rather than simply merge with them to form a gestalt (like a normal Exarch). Presumably this requires a rare an phenomenal act of willpower. PLs are not DPs of Khaine though. They achieved their status through dedication rather than by being elevated by their patron. By the time Asurmen trained the first PLs, Khaine had been shattered and his fragments had taken refuge in the hearts of the Craftworlds. He no longer existed as a conventional warp-entity in a way that could "elevate" a follower to Daemonhood. Also, if the PLs were DPs, their deaths would result in them being banished to the Warp for a time, rather than leaving an empty suit for the next wearer. Whilst there are parallels with DPs, I think it is clear the Phoenix Lords are their own class of entity.

 

 

 

There are some good points here. In my mind's eye, I was assigning most of the transformation to Khaine. However, I think it wise to shift a large aspect of the agency to the would-be Phoenix Lord. That said, I'm not sure I'd go as far as the Second Edition went because of the ending scenes in Path of the Warrior, which imply that there is a level of supernatural energy/status involved other than heroic willpower.