Da Boss wrote:By that token, Craftworlders should be even more invisible. They'd be avoiding conflict with everyone wherever possible, and using their farseeing to just not be where trouble is. And there are far fewer of them, and they're self sufficient with no need to raid.
But that's not really what we see.
No because the Eldars do not want to just survive. They are in realspace where trouble tends to find you and second they actually want to fight and destroy Chaos (especially Slaanesh) as well as get a semblance of empire and society back together. They have grand objectives and are holding on to the hope that they can make it if they play their cards perfectly (which they can). That's why they colonize maiden worlds or even just ordinary planets. That's why they create alliances and the like. Some Craftworld did sought to just hide and some have even succeeded there was mention of in the 4th/5th edition codex of Craftworld who outright chose to leave the galaxy or live in places of it devoid of life, but nor all Craftworld chose this path.
Dark Eldars, on the other hand, have been fairly poorly characterized in my opinion. They are basically Slaanesh worshippers in all but name instead of being psychic vampires and pirates. It makes their relatively cordial relationship (as far as cordial relationship exists in
40K) with the rest of the Eldar very stupid. No matter what though, due to the fact they have no grand design, most Dark Eldar spend their time assaulting by surprise poorly defended world for captives and sometime a couple of death world to get interesting beasts to produce new venoms for their weapons or fight in the arena for sports.
While I am at it, I must say that the existence of Wytches, while really cool (even if their models are absolutely terrible in my opinion), doesn't make much sense for Dark Eldars. Dark Eldars should be extremely, pathetically afraid of dying since the overwhelming majority of them do not have the resources and power to get resurrected by the Homunculus and if they die, they go straight to hell. That's why they attack poorly defended world to get their captives. That's also why they don't have plans to rebuild an empire in realspace. But, to be a Wytch is basically to fight, almost naked, armed only with long knives or trick weapons like glade whips, bidents, spears, glaive and punching daggers against some of the galaxy's most dangerous warriors which includes other Wytches and monsters. It's a very dangerous occupation and I would recon that Wytches seldom live long lives and most of their casualties probably come from those fighting their first few fights making becoming a Wytch very unappealing for any person afraid of death since early in your career you certainly don't have the money or fame for resurrection. The reward may feel great; you terrorize and kill enemy with your own hands and the crowd views you as both a hero and a sex symbol. That's big reward, but to get that you must survive an attrition rate of 50% in your first five fights and only then can you claim such prize (and perhaps keep it until you meet your match which might be sooner than later). I don't think any Dark Eldar would ever make such a choice except perhaps the most unhinged one's and these tend to overestimate their skills and die even faster.
Furthermore, a defeated Wytch basically looses an enormous amount of reputation; the higher they rise the higher the fall. Should Lelith lose a fight, her life is basically over. Even if she is resurrected (and she certainly has the means to ensure it), her career, life and prestige is basically gone. She no longer is the Queen of Knives, she's just another loser to add to the pile. Some Succubus might consider hell to be basically just as appealing as being viewed as failures and keep resurrection only as a trump card in case of death in a raid or via cheating. Wytches are not described as slaves like actual real life gladiators and nothing seems to prevent an Eldar from changing from a members of a Cult to members of a Kabal or member of a Coven; the models from the Hand of the Archon and Corsair kill team suggest the exact opposite. If they had a means to not go straight to hell when they die that was exclusive to Wytches (as the name Wytch might imply) or if they were actual brainwashed religious fanatics of some sort as the term cult might imply or both, it would make more sense, but so far it doesn't seem to be the case.
