Chaos Dark Eldar?

[Retalitus]

Hey folks... to be honest, I'm not 100% sure if this is an appropriate topic for this board, but what the hell...

 

As a committed follower of Chaos, regularly playing both Daemons and CSMs, I've recently picked up a third army - namely Dark Eldar. I'm not totally into making my armies completely fluffy, but I like to have some sensible fluff linking them all together. I was going to opt for a Traitor Guard army, but I fancied something a little different...

 

I was wondering if you folks can think of a fairly reasonable way that a group of Dark Eldar would willingly choose to fight for Chaos? I'm pretty sound on their background, and their desire to take souls to avoid falling prey to Slaanesh, but would it make sense for them to potentially fight for the other Chaos Gods in an attempt to save themselves? Perhaps slaughtering in honour of Khorne, to somehow gain his favour? Worshiping Tzeentch, to convince the Lord of Change to alter their doomed fate? I'd love to hear any thoughts anyone has on this!

 

On another note... does anyone have any good Dark Eldar forums they could recommend?

[Ashe Darke]

Them working to gain slaves sounds good. Invading an Imperial prison or something.

[Dreachon]

De are one of the races least likely to fight for chaos given that Slaanesh is hell bent on munching on their souls, the DE raid to get enough souls to feed Slaanesh so it's attention is for a moment drawn elseware.

It's like throwing your bakpack to the grizly that's been following you for the last 24 hours and your only attempt to prevent from ending as it's lunch.

[Spacefrisian]

Dark Eldar and Chaos is a big NO (i'am quite good with Dark Eldar mind you). If you want a good Eldar/ Dark Eldar forum try 40konline. that site contains the eldaronline forum you seek.

[Zeruel]

Yeah there's one thing Eldar and Dark Eldar share besides lineage, their complete and utter hatred for all that is Chaos.

[Adarul Greystalker]

As a former eldar and dark eldar player myself, I've thought about this before, and I have to admit that I think that there might be some room in the galaxy for a chaos eldar army. Now it's true that most eldar (of all sorts and sub-factions) hate chaos passionately and obsessively as only an eldar can. However, remember that Slaanesh was born out of the hedonistic excess of the ancient eldar empire - a depraved culture that has continued in a practical sense with the dark eldar kabals. The ancient eldar worshiped and devoted themselves to a set of ideals that embodied and gave life to the Dark Prince. The dark eldar are still obsessed with those ideals, and although they hate and fear Slaanesh, they do accept their own damnation in a way. The dark eldar do not attempt to save their souls within infinity circuits or world spirits or by devoting themselves to the surviving eldar gods. They continue to feed and strengthen Slaanesh through their excessive debauchery, and although they sustain themselves by devouring souls, there can be no doubt that every dark eldar's soul will belong to Slaanesh in the end.

 

Therefore, I can see two ways in which a warband of chaos eldar may come about. They may represent a group of dark eldar who consider themselves "enlightened," and devote themselves willingly to Slaanesh, but who are outcast and reviled even by the dark kin of Commorragh. On the other hand, they could be slaves to the Dark Prince, devoured and tormented souls who have been broken over millennia of suffering in the warp and have since been restored to their mortal forms by Slaanesh as a twisted mockery of their former selves. Either way, you could use dark eldar to represent them.

 

The first example is intriguing to me, personally. Although the eldar tend to be an extremely emotional race, they are also highly intelligent, and the idea of a logical and methodical individual becoming lord of a kabal through subtle planning and manipulation, then corrupting it from within in the name of his darkly logical philosophy is tantalizing and could make for fascinating characters and storytelling. The core of such a philosophy would be simple. Slaanesh embodies everything that the dark eldar stand for, and all of their souls belong to him in the end, so why not devote themselves to him? Of course, as always, devotion to chaos has its price, and that price is all too well-known to the eldar race, so such an individual would be despised and reviled by the dark kin. The damned archon, concealing himself and his kabal in the heart of the twilight city, spreading the corruption of his dark master and formulating subtle plots and machinations against his enemies is almost too grotesquely evil and gothic a character. But that's just what one would expect from the combination of chaos and the dark eldar, isn't it?

 

The other option could be interesting as well. Eldar devoured by Slaanesh only to be molded and repurposed to his will. They could have been almost anyone originally, perhaps even having been killed in the Fall during the great dying of the eldar race. I can see how Slaanesh would relish remaking them, commanding them, sending them out into the Galaxy to spread fear as ghosts of a dead empire and harbingers of the wrath of the Dark Prince, they themselves serving as dread testament his terrifying power.

 

Of course, a combination of both concepts would work as well :P

[SirTainly]

How about DE mercenaries? If it's good enough for Mr. Abnett... :)

[Retalitus]

Adarul, I like your thinking!

 

In the 40k universe, I think it's practically 'anything goes' as long as you can find a sensible and reasonably plausible way to justify it! After all, Space Marines still turn traitor, and these folks have been brainwashed since birth to worship the Emperor and revile Chaos... Despite their supposed intellectual superiority, and history with Slaanesh, I can't see how - somewhere, somehow - a Cabal of Dark Eldar can't have turned to that which they despise and fear the most.

 

As for the army itself, I was looking to go for something a little different to that which I usually play. My CSM warband is very much a Chaos Undivided force, with enough fluff behind it to justify the various Cult troops working together. It's pretty much the same for my Daemon army. I've found that, to have a competitive force against my opponents (who always field armies designed to be tough to beat), I can't go all out on building an army solely on background fluff alone. Whilst it would please a part of me to do so, the regular beatings that would ensue would take the fun out of it pretty quickly! As such, my Chaotic Dark Eldar force represents a superb opportunity to go all out and have a nicely consistent paint scheme across the entire force.

 

When I first considered doing this, my gut reaction was to go for a Tzeentch themed army... I think that, as the undoubted master of subterfuge and subtle plots, the thought of a group of Dark Eldar being corrupted by the Lord of Change seemed somewhat plausible in my mind... and don't forget, Tzeentch is also the Chaos God of hope... I can well imagine, as part of the Great Game, Tzeentch using the Dark Eldar's fear of inevitable oblivion at the hands of Slaanesh to turn some of them to his service, with the promise of changing their fate should they follow him. Does this argument change the minds of any of you convinced that an Eldar would never turn to Chaos...? Or would you still shake your head in disbelief should you ever encounter a Dark Eldar army dedicated to the Changer of Ways?! ;)

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

Sorry to say but with Dark Eldar not having the abilty to take Power Armour, they are sadily not allow here (same happy to any Tau turn chaos or Orks turing Chaos topics)

 

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Insane Psychopath