Craftworld Arborist

[TheOneTrueZon]

I've had an idea for a DIY Craftworld for some time now and didn't really have any kind of sounding board for it until just now since I don't cruise many of the other boards...

 

++ Craft World Arborist ++

 

Well before the great fall of the Aeldari, during the zenith of their reign over the stars, a great undertaking began to build a Craftworld like none other. It's purpose was not that of escape, as many of the latter were to become as the end drew near. No, this project was to create a vault of life, a curated world of all the many things that grow in the galaxy contained in one place for study and preservation. In the Age of Technology, Humanity would have called the construct a "Dyson Sphere" - a gigantic, solar system size sphere that compasses a star as a means of collecting the massive amount of energy. An ambitious construct even for the Aeldari at their peak, centuries of study and planning resulted in a design of a miniaturized synthetic star - a stabilized fusion reaction essentially - which would provide billions of years worth of energy. The reactor in the center of the sphere, about five times the size of Jupiter, made from a composite of collected asteroid rock weaved among a lattice of immense wraithbone. A choir of bonesingers that numbered in the millions, over hundreds of years, crafted the lattice while enough material was gathered to finally complete the enclosure and start the reaction to bring this artificial planet to life.

 

Many thought it to be a frivolous waste of time and resources. For even after the construction was complete, the process of turning the inner shell into geographical areas able to support the wide variety of verdant life meant to populate this place seemed a terraforming project too daunting even for the patience of the Aeldari. But still, a devoted following became the caretakers of this rare and wondrous marvel.

 

They became known simply as "The Keepers", curious and quiet souls who cared most for all things that grow. As time wore on and the centuries passed, the craftworld of The Keepers slowly drifted along the solar winds of the galaxy, the home fleet branching out to all the world it passed, looking for specimens to add to their living museum.

 

At the birth of She Who Thrists, The Keepers were far on the rim of the galaxy. Even among the Aeldari, The Keepers had all but fallen from memory to mention. And to The Keepers, they were all the better for it. Their insight into how life in all it's varied form had elevated to such a degree that they could shape plants like bonesingers. The most gifted among them could even create complex structures that enhanced Jetbikes and other technology. Eventually a symbiotic realtionship between plant and Aeldari existed. And so through the millennia it has slowly wandered the void of space while the exploration fleets search for what little life is left in a galaxy ripe with rot....

 

 

SO, that's the backstory. In terms of actual army, I've got about 9 Windriders and 6 Shining Spears, 10 Dire Avengers, 8 Howling Banshees and 15 Rangers. 

 

I want to convert the jetbikes to have the appearance of "bark armor" and other dendrites growing around it, all the troops will in a dazzle style camo paint...

 

Thoughts?

[The_Chaplain]

Neat concept, and lots of conversion potential for sure.   The new sylvaneth dryads could make for some interesting base models for wraith constructs