My take on the Dark Eldar

[Ranwulf]

I just wrote this for 40Klore on reddit, where the OP asked "How do you fell about the Dark Eldar", and I thought I shared here too:

 

I see them like Space Vampires. Not Twilight vampires, but Vampire:The Masquerade Vampires. Believers of their own superiority, but yet hidding inside the webway and almost ready to succumb to heir weaknesses.

 

They are also the Fae, mostly the Winter Court, cruel, malevolent and hunt people and their children so to devour them (or as is the case, do worse).

 

And here is the thing, they can actually muster a huge army, but the thing is, to do so, they must unite different Kabals. Its sort of like trying to unite the Yakuza, the Triads and the Mafia all on one place to fight the cops. Can they do it? Of course they can. It ain't easy, because they are always fighting their own shadow wars amongst themselves, delinaeting influences and having this really cutthroat engagements. I'm not a specialist in the Triads, but I believe they have the Red Pole, a leader of sorts, a lieutenant if you will. A Sybarite is closer to this, and he must keep watch of his/her own territory of all the other Dracons, specially from their own Kabal. And when I mean territory, i don't just mean space, I mean both physical as well their own small Powerbase. Lets say a Dracon decides that he wants to equip his followers better, and a fellow Dracon has slaves and even a full workshop of weaponry. What can he do? Maybe kill the other Dracon? That is obvious, but what if the Dracon only owns that workshop because of favors or due to her own mastery and understanding of how to build those weapons (say, the materials and the perfect techinique). Maybe killing her is a terrible idea, maybe he can gather favor with her. Make trades of slaves, promises of alliances against the Archon, or even just old blackmail. Maybe there is no need for this, maybe this Dracon is quite a charming fellow and he could even SEDUCE her. Or maybe she is letting him think he is seducing him to get something, and maybe she has a plan, maybe she KNOWS of his interest and wants to put him into a delicate and dangerous position. You know that promise to help to fight the Archon? Maybe that is lie to set him up and getting him killed by the Archon. Or maybe she really wants help, and the alliance comes to fruition. And what if she becomes the next Archon? Then new plans and power balances must come to the fore just so the Kabal can once more work.

 

That is only the Kabals, I'm also kinda into everyone else.

 

Wyches are awesome simply because they are the artists of the Dark Eldar, and you know how :cussed up is a civilization when their creativity is all about killing and making these huge displays of gore. And the Kabals actually give their own support towards Wych Cults, specially because they keep their soldiers fed when not in war, but because they can fight alongside them. And of course, the Wych Cults benefit from a Kabal support both as patronage, but when they must test their skills or need to raid get better slaves, its is always good to have the support of a Kabal. If you watched the Daredevil series you know that mobsters are usually very tight with boxing rings and other fights (like MMAs). Well, the Wych Cults are the MMAs and Boxers of the Dark Eldar, they are the awesome and perfect dark mirror to our own society, where we send these people to literally punch each other inches to death because its fun to watch and satisfy something dark inside many people. Oh, and I always like the idea of warriors that are so fast that they don't need armor, their reflexes are their own armor.

 

And then we have the Haemonculi. The crazy :cussed up scientists. They are the fleshmakers, and I just love that is their skill of science that keeps all of the Dark Eldar society afloat. When death is literally the WORSE thing that can happen to you, specially in a race the whole galaxy has a motto of to not let them take you alive, it is quite telling when someone can resurrect you from the dead and how much power that means. Its obviously a bit more complicated to tie it to real life, but they are the street doctors of our era, the back alley medics that clearly should never hold a knife, but hey, you are a mobster or even a low rank boxer. You NEED this person to survive the gunshot, or the broken jaw you got in the last fight. Now imagine this, imagine that this back alley doctor not only can ressurect people, but can also make all these modifications on a person, make them more beatiful or hideously attractive (the Dark Eldar have strange tastes). And imagine, that as a mobster, how profitable is having someone that can keep your people alive, and even make them better. How much would you pay for it? Well, the Dark Eldar pay wherever amount the Covens want, because Slanessh will devour you at the end of life. And the best part - these back alley doctors are not only part of the great game, but they are basically immune to it. You don't :cuss with the Covens unless you are part of it, either because a Kabal will go after you or worse, they will come for you. And believe when I say this, their malpractice wasnt a mistake, it wasnt a misjudge or error of thought, it was full of purpose, spite and vile cunning, and they will do it again and again if they think it interests their own :cussed up desires.

 

TL;DR: The Dark Eldar are awesome because they pick clear :cussed up examples of our society and just tuned a lit bit closer to fantasy, tying it with some old mythology.