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 Kroothawk wrote:
Counterquestion:
What is more plausible:
A muslim pope or a jewish pope?

A Jewish pope - someone can be of the Jewish race without being of the Jewish religion.

Well, Dark Eldar are essentially Slaneesh Eldar.

They spread and disseminate and thrive on excess, decadence and debauchery in much the same way a Noise Marine would.

Yes, their motives may be different, and they do it to stave off Slaneesh, rather than begging for gifts or boons, but the result is the much same and ultimately furthers the goals of She Who Thirsts in much the same way as non-Eldar Slaneesh-Worshipers do.

Conscious devoutness to the Chaos Gods is not necessary to "serve" Chaos (or Abaddon, Fabius Bile and a few others wouldn't count as "Chaos" either).

Nurgle.

Think about it: The last remnants of a dying race, for milenia fighting a loosing battle against their enemies, and their only hope is, that when they have all died, their mistakes might be redeemed.

If there's any race which should be suspectible to the Lord of Apathy, it's the eldar. ^^

Kroothawk wrote:Counterquestion:
What is more plausible:
A muslim pope or a jewish pope?

Let's be honest: Official fluff doesn't support the existence of ANY Chaos Eldar, not to speak of a whole army.
Either ignore fluff or don't.

I feel you are making an apples and oranges comparison, here. In person, I usually end heated discussions of 40k fluff when I realize all parties were right at different points in time, until somebody's point got retconned. Often times the party arguing the retconned point (myself sometimes) just doesn't know it has been changed. I love 40k fluff, but it is so riddled with plot holes; because of retcons, you can justify anything. I see nothing against cherry-picking fluff, BL Authors do it all the time.

Dakkamite wrote:Cheers for the input guys. I'll try find Path of the Incubus because that seems like a good starting point.

I think you can get all three DE Novels in an Omnibus, now. If you haven't read Path of the Renegade yet, I'd start there. Not as many possessed DE (two in Commorragh, more in warp-tainted Shaa-dom) but they are given more detail, you get a better view of just how little DE know of Chaos in this novel, as well as seeing what happens when Slaanesh decides to keep an Eldar soul instead of just eating her. It also explains how the Chaos invasion of Commorragh (from Path/ Incubus) starts. Why it took me this long to remember El'Uriaq's possessed handmaiden (not one of the two daemons in Commorragh) is beyond me. Though the handmaiden isn't a champion and is more of a trophy.

 Farseer Morlengal wrote:
In person, I usually end heated discussions of 40k fluff when I realize all parties were right at different points in time, until somebody's point got retconned. Often times the party arguing the retconned point (myself sometimes) just doesn't know it has been changed. I love 40k fluff, but it is so riddled with plot holes; because of retcons, you can justify anything. I see nothing against cherry-picking fluff, BL Authors do it all the time.

There hasn't been a single Chaos Eldar in official fluff since at least 3rd edition (1998, 16 years), and only one misinterpteted sentence in 2nd edition (about Crone Worlds). So if you accept that the Imperium doesn't have jetbikes en masse and Eldar don't use Land Raiders and bolters, you should also accept that there is not a single Chaos Eldar. The one disputed case of Arhra was now been clarified several times, a.o. in the Dark Eldar Codex.

Your choice though if non-existant Chaos Eldar follow Khorne or Slaanesh.

Mandrakes have been described as union of Daemons and Eldar as recently as the 6th Edition book.

They are basically Gal Vorbak with pointy ears.

MajorWesJanson wrote:It's also not too far a shift from Khaine worship as well.

Yeah, that too.

The god of the Eldar is a god of warfare and violence whose blood of his slain enemies is constantly pouring out of him.

Doesn't sound like Khorne at all...

A GW employee said in an interview that Khaine could be considered an aspect of Khorne and an aspect of Slaanesh, simply because the entire warp is in some ways one giant entity (which is why worshipping the big four as aspects of the same being is a valid form of Chaos Undivided worship. ...I guess you could say this entity suffers from a severe case of multiple personality disorder), then went on to explicitly state that Khorne fought Slaanesh over Khaine during the fall because Khorne felt this part of his power being ripped away from him, which ticked him off.

The statement's somewhere in Dakka's forums from a few months ago? I forget.

Nurgle would be...different looking.

 Kroothawk wrote:
There hasn't been a single Chaos Eldar in official fluff since at least 3rd edition (1998, 16 years), and only one misinterpteted sentence in 2nd edition (about Crone Worlds). So if you accept that the Imperium doesn't have jetbikes en masse and Eldar don't use Land Raiders and bolters, you should also accept that there is not a single Chaos Eldar. The one disputed case of Arhra was now been clarified several times, a.o. in the Dark Eldar Codex.

Your choice though if non-existant Chaos Eldar follow Khorne or Slaanesh.

I am under the impression that BL books enjoy a beta-cannon (if not necessarily true) status. They don't hold the same priority as Codecies (considered alpha-cannon) but none-the-less are a part of the universe. You an always take whatever you like and drop whatever you don't, because of that.

For instance: I liked it better when The Lion was a possible traitor, but (as far as I know) in the Horus Heresy Novels he was late to Terra, because he was preoccupied chasing around the Night Lords. So, because the Novels are cannon but not necessarily true, I can just claim that bit of information is just an excuse passed around within The Unforgiven. Or for your Eldar Example, in Path of the Incubus, the Exodite World Ushant abandoned their ways of war to take up the enemy's 'crude, indiscriminate and effective machinery' that was described as inaccurate but still dangerous. Sounds like Imperial Tech to me. So Eldar do use Boltguns and Land Raiders, until Ushant died. Or it's the insane ramblings of an Incubus who hates his Exodite heritage. Your choice. Cherry pick the fluff as you see fit.

With so many... let's call them something-to-be-desired BL Novels out there, it's not that hard to find an author who wrote something bad or just not-right-with-cannon, and build your army or idea off of that. I'd say you can't Cherry-Pick the Codecies, except that they occasionally contradict each other too, meaning you're likely to agree with the fluff in your Codex and disagree with the counter-point displayed in a rival Codex. (The little bit in the Chaos Daemons Codex about Slaanesh corrupting an Adeptus Astartes in Silver Armor who happened to be in the warp. Some people like to think it's Draigo. Some Don't.)

My point is, when it comes to designing your own faction, there will inevitably be some piece of fluff to back up your point that you can build off of. It's also why I've been asking for as much to do with the Eldar as Possible in the background I'm working on. (See signature.) If it matters any, I actually don't like the idea of Chaos Eldar; believing that any to be 'corrupted' (where possible) to be culled by their kin, regardless of what faction they are. Except the Mandrakes, because there are hints that Mandrakes are not daemons, Mandrakes are from another 'shadow' plane or something weird like that. That doesn't stop me from decrying my DE friend for foul pacts with daemons when he decides he wants to waste points and field his Mandrakes. In my view, Eldar Senses are just too fine, their attention far more subtle than our's, they can pick up on even the subtlest of changes caused by even low-levels of corruption to Chaos. That's my view.

But the point of the thread is Chaos Eldar: Khorne or Slaanesh? In my view, there is just more beta-cannon fluff to support Slaaneshi Eldar. But I've got a lot of books yet to read, so I may be wrong there.

There are many official statements that BL novels are not canon.

 Ailaros wrote:
Khorne by a long, long shot.

Eldar do whatever it takes to prevent themselves from being eaten by slaanesh. This includes behaving like slaanesh, or thinking like slaanesh, or feeling like slaanesh. I mean, the entire point of the aspect system is to get people to focus on the minutia of getting slightly better at something and learning to distinguish subtleties rather than succumbing to the baser instinct of MORE! MORE NOW!!!

Behaving in a way the opposite of slaanesh, surprise surprise, means behaving in a way pleasing to khorne. The farther they go from mindless hedonism towards perfecting a craft, the closer to the god of triumph and trophies that they get.

You can even see it in dark eldar. Some of what they do is a result of the inescapable pull of slaanesh. They need to ingest vast quantities of sensation because of their tainted souls. But look at the rest of what dark eldar does. The parts they do voluntarily. It's pure khorne for the same reasons.

This

Khorne hates slanesh for the sloth aspect of it and eldar in trying to avoid or hate slanesh would be drawn to Khorne.

Khorne and Khaine are very similar, the only difference is the level of control over the bloodlust.

Personally I don't see either being likely. Khorne being well noted for his disdain for psychic powers, and Slaneesh's longing for eldar soul food.

Mork.

Khaine is just an aspect of khorne and Witch elves are devotees of Khaine.

 Zweischneid wrote:
Mandrakes have been described as union of Daemons and Eldar as recently as the 6th Edition book.

They are basically Gal Vorbak with pointy ears.

I always kinds thought this (however heretical it may be). I like to imagine that the collection of skulls Kheradruakh is building up will open a portal to the True Warp, letting the forces of whichever major-or-minor chaos power into Commorragh.


All this aside, i think that if you were too hollow out some Dark Eldar Warrior armour, and maybe add in some sorcerous flames comming from joints, they'd look like warriors who'se souls have been consumed and then armour/bodies infused with a daemonic entity. Then you can use them as anything you might want without any egregious fluff violations.