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Hello people. As the topic says i'm a noob in the hobby from the distant land of Brazil. I still haven't even began building my own army as i already have plenty of LOTR minis to paint. But i've being voraciously reading all books i can get into my hands and searching over the web. I've decided my first army will be Eldar i like the fluffy, the hit and run style of fighting and don't want to play an imperial faction (I do like them ,but there's already too much people playing them here in Rio so i think it would be nice to get something different).

So i went and looked at the various Craftworlds and while i liked some none really god into me. Not a problem at all as i love creating new things, love to write and create fluff as i did countless times with other properties. So my yet unnamed Craftworld was born.

First came one idea, that it tries to "convert" exodites to and sort of adapt them to their society, so most of the guardians are allied exodites but the aspect warriors are mostly "pure craftworlders". This rbrings the to a rivalry with the Biel-Tan that mostly want the Exodite ways left untouched, altought they some times ally themselves when some greater threat looms over a Exodite World.

After that small idea i looked into finding a color scheme. After seeing the Eldar titan i noticed something odd. Eldar look like Eva Units from the Evangelion anime! I'm not an anime fan (altought i wsas really addicted to it when i was younger) but i got the idea of using one of the evas as inspiration.

Based on EVA unit 01 came the first color scheme. There you see a comparison of the two (the colour scheme as made at inkscape after i vectorize the line art of the old eldar army painter i found on google):


After that i was happy but i still didn't have most of the fluffy. While thinking about the symbol i had one neat idea.

Asuryan is called the Phoenix Lord and associated with the sun. The sun in associated with many deities that die and return (Osiris, Baldur and some say even Jesus) and the Phoenix rebirths from it's askes. Not too hard to think that somebody might believe Asuryan will be reborn someday.

This resulted in an important believe for my Craftworld. Asuryan has let Slaanesh kill him so he could be reborn, this reborn Asuryan is the Ynnead of Eldar legends. Until the Phoenix Lord rises it's my craftworld responsability to see that the Eldar will both survive, work on empowering the Infinity Circuits and weaken the enemies os Asuryan (specially the powers of Chaos). They believe that by avenging the fall of Eldar with the deaths of their enemies and by making valuing the Eldar traditions they draw the day of Asuryan's rebirth closer.

They believe that they are the keepers of this Asuryan flame of vengeance and of this greater eldar destiny. The reason they do those "missionary" activities amount the exodite is both to further their own objectives (being a small craftworld they have to supplement their recruits with exodite allies) and to make sure that the eldar will be strong and be prepared for when Asuryan finally comes back to fight Slaneesh once and for all.

After that i tought: "Ok, they have all that association with fire, the sun, phoenix and rebirth. So why purple and black for color scheme?", i did them a small modification, the strong greens became strong purples. The dark colors are used to "mourn" over the darkest days of the eldar and to represent the great night in the ausence of the light of Asuryan, those small contrasting dots of orange represent the flame of Asuryan keep alive by the daily battles and sacrifices of the Eldar of that craft world.

Here goes the revised color scheme:


Now about the symbol i decided to use a stylized phoenix, it seemed to simple so i've put it on a black backgroudn and added a solar disk. The problem is that i doesn't looks very Eldar.

First proposed symbol:


My first questions for you guys are the following:

1 - What you guys think about the fluff? Where i could improve? Is it true to the spirit of the eldar or it's too odd? It contradicts any source i don't know about?

2 - Name suggestions, somebody have any?

3 - What can i do about the symbol? It looks very "tauish" to me, how can i make it look more eldar?

I really like your paint scheme and symbol.

I'm pretty sure that an Eldar killed by Slaanesh would be utterly devoured and therefore would be unable to be resurrected.

i think it looks great!

Monster Rain wrote:I really like your paint scheme and symbol.

I'm pretty sure that an Eldar killed by Slaanesh would be utterly devoured and therefore would be unable to be resurrected.

Well... Khaine was himself dismembered by Khorne and his pieces scattered over the universe. Asuryan was the leader of all Eldar gods and probably the stronger of them. There are legends about Isha surviving too. Maybe my craftworld has a legend where maybe by cheer power or by Tzeench or another chaos god intervention Asuryan spirit was not eaten by Slaanesh. Maybe a piece of his soul lives at every Infinity Circuit cautiously waiting to have enough power to be reborn, at least it's what they believe...

When you said Asuryan, I read Asurmen. Never mind.

After trying lots of combinations based on this English-Eldar dictionary(not sure if it's fanon but it's good anyway) i finally decided upon a name.

It's Yirr-Khalian meaning Luminous Celestial Heralding/Presaging. What you guys think?
I thought about retaining the same pronunciation while simplifying it as Ir-Calian, Yircalian, Yirkalian and some alternatives but i'm not sure yet how it's going to be.

What you guys think?

I like it, the name sounds Eldar-like and has a cool meaning. Very nice work!

I like the fluff, its obvious you have tried hard to make it fit as well as you can with the current lore. Someone said Isha might have survived: She did, she is held by Nurgle in his realm within the Warp, where he tests all his new diseases on her.
I like the symbol, it has meaning and it still looks Eldar.
Overall its very good. I like the idea behind the colour scheme too, the whole orange thing to represent the flicker of a flame of hope is very good.

Win all round, looking forward to seeing some painted minis.

Thx for the comments guys, it's nice seeing that people liked the Yirr-Khalian.

darthmatty wrote:Win all round, looking forward to seeing some painted minis.

Sadly this is not happening this month. I already have a lot of LOTR minis to paint and after buying the WH40k Corebook and the Codex Eldar i'm short on money for this month (i'm only a university student, don't have a job to back my hobby, just my parents help and there are also the difficult of getting minis here in Brazil).

But there goes an Extra. The final version of both the Color Scheme and the Symbol, still have to make the decision about the gems but aside from that it's finished:

These are some pretty fancy pics you're posting already. How are you making them?

I hope you'll set up a blog on the site of your army's progress.

Green gems look way better btw.

Monster Rain wrote:These are some pretty fancy pics you're posting already. How are you making them?

I hope you'll set up a blog on the site of your army's progress.

Green gems look way better btw.

Inkscape mostly. I only used photoshop for adding texture to the symbol, altought i'm sure GIMP would work rather well to the same job.

Both programs are open-source and completely free.

Inkscape: http://www.inkscape.org/
GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/

The eldar guardian image was done by drawing over the image from an old eldar army painter i found on the web.

Nice idea about the blog. It's specially good because i don't have to make separated posts here and in Warhammer Brasil, just making the posts in different languages.

Hello people, i'm back and with the native guardians and most of the craftworld fluff finished (still gotta put it in one comprehensive document) i didn't have much work to do in the army until the distant day when the minis will arrive.

So i decided to make some planning on how my Exodites will look like and the resulting brainstorm gave this:



My first idea was having them use their own color scheme but i them decided that this made them look something entirely separated form the army, so i'm toying with the idea of having them use the normal color scheme (after all, their equipment is mostly provided by the craftworld) with just some details changed like the tribal markings and the soulstones.

i like the green gems on the reg eldar, and for the second group i like the change in the head rather than a whole new color scheme.

i really like all the work you've put into this, good luck! will keep tabs on your ideas, and get a PandM blog running!!

First off, Well done you've really got into the character of your army and used your imagination. I planned out my chapter and had my characters in mind and that made me plan my miniature purchases plus the focus allows you get into the feel of your army and then you can honestly say does it fit? Should i change this or that or keep it original. SHould i avoid this this and embrace maybe fast moving assault troops and Jetbikes or maybe a mobile armour strike force. Or should i go for a heavy shock army with Wraithguard + Avatar+ Exarchs?

Hello people. Those last posts went unnoticed for me until now. Thanks for the complements. I'll make a blog as soon as the first minis begin to appear. Right now i don't have much work i can do. I'll begin thinking about an army list after i have a decent read over the books (Remember, i don't have any idea about the WH40k rules and never played a wargame before).

Great work on going in depth with your Craft-world story line and background. I find when people do this for an army it only enriches the game for all involved when people write this well and think it through. Rather than "X and Y reasons are why were awesome and the best. Even though you've never heard of us before!"

Great idea - it really seems well planned out.

I think that the idea of Exodites leaving their world to fight for a craftworld is a bit unlikely though - it's much more common the other way around, since Exodites have to stay on the planet to care for the world's World Spirit.

However, if the craftworld has an affinity with Exodites, then that could be reflected in the uniform and culture of the Craftworld itself. Say, the craftworld has strong ties with Exodites and encourages the population of newly discovered Maiden Worlds from it's own populace, which it's why it's so small.

Instead of having two different 'colours' of Guardians, have the army in the same scheme, but introduce lots of 'Exodite' bits throughout the whole army. You could use bits from the wood elves box sets.

ArbitorIan wrote:Great idea - it really seems well planned out.

I think that the idea of Exodites leaving their world to fight for a craftworld is a bit unlikely though - it's much more common the other way around, since Exodites have to stay on the planet to care for the world's World Spirit.

However, if the craftworld has an affinity with Exodites, then that could be reflected in the uniform and culture of the Craftworld itself. Say, the craftworld has strong ties with Exodites and encourages the population of newly discovered Maiden Worlds from it's own populace, which it's why it's so small.

Instead of having two different 'colours' of Guardians, have the army in the same scheme, but introduce lots of 'Exodite' bits throughout the whole army. You could use bits from the wood elves box sets.

So the world spirit is the equivalent to the Infinity Circuit? At first i tought maybe the world spirit and the infinity circuit would sort of merge when a Maiden World is fully converted. But thinking now i sort of sounds a little "evil" for the Eldar. Maybe the Craftworld promises to protect the given maiden world when need. It would also give technology and weaponry to help the tribe in it's defense of the world. In exchange some Exodites may serve in the Yirr-Khalian army, which protects not only the craftworld but all maiden worlds they can (Allied maiden worlds have priority, of course). In this they sort of learn "the way of the craftworld" before deciding if they want to live with them or come back to their maiden world more experienced and acknowledged.

Yirr-Khalian doesn't want to be the only force the Eldar have, it also doesn't want to conquer the Maiden Worlds. It does wants for the maiden worlds to be integrated in the Eldar society and better prepared to defend themselves against any threads that might surface. Ok... it's not ONLY a mission for the good of the Eldar race. Yirr-Khalian needs the manpower that the exodites provide, it benefits greatly from resources found at the Maiden Worlds, from trading with them and from the defensive alliances. It might not have survived this long without them.

BTW, it's important to remember that even the craftworlds have their Path of the Outcast. And yes, some Exodites, specially the younger ones, use the Yirr-Khalian Craftworld as a mean to know the galaxy and see what it has to offer them, many come back to their maiden worlds but some are integrated in the Craftworld per se. In the our world amish have their Rumspringa and i sort of try to think about it in a similar way. Younger eldar go to the craftworld to decide what their place in Eldar society really is. This is in no way an obligation or exodite tradition, just a choice many exodites do take. Many of the exodites seem fighting in the Yirr-Khalian army are passing throught this period or passed throught it and in the end decided to abandon exodite live. This is specially true about the ones on the Aspect Shrines.

There are sure some entirely squads of exodites sent from their Maiden Worlds to serve temporarily in the craftworld. Those are mostly common deployed as guardians. Those expeditionary squads usually do this period of service with the Craftworlds as a way to learn how they do war and gaining experience. They also receive and learn to use craftworld weapons. This is seem as helping them better protect their maiden worlds.

I usually think what the Yirr-Khalian are doing is partially comparable to what the European powers did in China and Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are not invading like they did in Africa or America, but they are sort of influencing them politically and culturally. Of course their intentions are not so selfish as the colonial powers of out earths past. They sincerely want to protect and help the exodites, but they do gain a lot from those "eldalitarian" missions. After all, this is the 41th Millenium. There sure is some good and hope, but even amount the Eldar it's still grim and dark.