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Okay so I'm starting to really expand my dark eldar army and I am currently working on my faction (name and story still currently pending kind of) However I have officially named my main Archon, Shadow Othelius Zetki (why? I havent the slightest idea but it does sound pretty cool to me) Anyway so I'm reading over the fluff in both the old and new Dark Eldar codex (the stories were definately worth the 29.00 USD + tax)

Anyway I'm still unclear on how to properly use the fluff to make a legitimate Dark Eldar faction/army thingy and I need some advise and help, because while I'm confident I could probably barely slide by as far as fluff goes I'm not exactly looking into "cheesy fluff" so can anybody give me pointers? Like does age matter, can my army be operating anywhere in Commorragh or would it be better if they were operating somewhere other than Commorragh?

ShadowZetki wrote: Okay so I'm starting to really expand my dark eldar army and I am currently working on my faction (name and story still currently pending kind of) However I have officially named my main Archon, Shadow Othelius Zetki (why? I havent the slightest idea but it does sound pretty cool to me) Anyway so I'm reading over the fluff in both the old and new Dark Eldar codex (the stories were definately worth the 29.00 USD + tax)

Anyway I'm still unclear on how to properly use the fluff to make a legitimate Dark Eldar faction/army thingy and I need some advise and help, because while I'm confident I could probably barely slide by as far as fluff goes I'm not exactly looking into "cheesy fluff" so can anybody give me pointers? Like does age matter, can my army be operating anywhere in Commorragh or would it be better if they were operating somewhere other than Commorragh?

Commorragh or one of its interlinked vassal domains in the webway would be a certain for bases of operations. I guess if your going for a full on real to fluff army it all depends on what you want to field? An Archon with his kabal forces of warriors? Is he a trueborn in origin? ( Not accelerated maturation in a tube like a lot of Dark Eldar are now ) meaning him being born into nobility and aristocratic lifestyle of upper Commorragh? Or did he have to build his power-base up from nothing using guile, intrigue and bloodshed like Vect did beginning as a slave? He could also be among the few Archons old enough to remember the fall. If a Haemonculus or Succubus are also in your army. What is the balance of power? As this can be a good dynamic to reflect in the background. Just because they are part of the same force in realspace doesn't mean they don't in-fight and bicker/spin schemes when back in Commorragh. Are they tagging along with your Archons fleet to get a cut of the plunder? Or has your Archon founded a shady alliance with them to further his own power?

Just some thoughts you might want to try to get ideas on where you want to go. Hope it helps.

Ah Commorragh. Such a wonderous place.
It is a collection of cities in the webway. The Ancient Eldar at one point made giant palaces so that they could escape the others and live at these beautifully designed cities.
I actually believe the Dark Eldar are one of the better well written races.
But You should check GW's Youtube page they explain it pretty well.

Thankyou for bringing these thing to my attention and yes I am looking to make a true to fluff army. Well he is most definately a true born in origin, he wasnt of noble origin but he did not start as a slave like vect he was just a regular warrior and he quickly showed to a truly skilled fighter and due to abnormal (so smarter than your average Dark Eldar) cunning, crulety, and skill he quickly became an influence in the other archons army he served. So he essencially divided loyalties among his former masters army either through murder, public show of force, or cunning wording. He had also formed an alliance with his former masters Haemonculi they felt that the current Archon did not play well into their best interest (shortage of things to experiment on and whatnot they didnt like that) so Shadow Othelius Zetki felt having an agreement with the Haemonculi would best serve his interest so he pretty much told them they would have double the resouces the current Archon gives them if they help him.

Later on things start to get really heated and the opposing Archon begins to know that his forces are beginning to split and soon after he grow paranoid and kills all his higher ups (Succubus, ect) in an attempt to restore order and fear into his former army, but it does not work as he intended and Shadow decides to strike soon after and begins to decimate the opposing Archons army, anyone left of that army was captured to be tortured or given to the haemonculus for experimentation. The last of the opposing Archons forces are held up in his fort and when they were expecting Shadow to be leading his forces into the fort mandrakes appear from the shadows while the haemonculus swarm in with their personal army of wracks and grotesqes. After that Shadow kills the opposing Archon, consumes his sou, and takes his head as a trophy.

Right now off the top of my head this is all I've got but I feel like I'm off to a good start (luckily any un-fluffy aspects can be changed to fit the fluff easily) I would say the balance of power for Shadow's army is in favor of the Kabal, and there is only Succubus. I would also say the army follows his fleet hoping to get a good amount of the plunder and to be honest Shadow does not mind at all the way he sees it more people to die for him and they hope to get extra plunder well they have to survive the battle to be able to even get anything so it more helps his personal interests. As for location of the army hmm I'm not sure but I was thinking one of the lesser populated domains for now. Also when I said loyal in regards to his army please note that I use this term VERY loosely seeing how they are Dark Eldar and all. Feel free to critisie and advise as you see fit (its my first time trying to make a full on fluff army let alone an army with a story)

Sounds fine. Though remember a succubus would likely be leader of her own wych cult/force of wyches. Meaning whoever took over from her death might take kindly that you inadvertently engineered her predecessors demise. Nice setting and sounds pretty fitting for the race. Backstabbing and deal making about. Schemes within schemes etc. And doesn't write you into a corner and leaves things open enough to justify taking pretty much anything on the field.

I agree. It fits very well with the scheming as described in the codex. But could you explain what you mean by "there is only Succubus"? Do you mean that there is only a single Wyche Cult the Kabal supports? If so; it is uncommon for a Wyche Cult to have an actual allegiance with a Kabal since they are very independent cults themselves. What is the relation between the Kabal and the Cult?

Shadows seems like a very respectable self-serving guy, befitting a true Dark Eldar.

It might also be interesting to expand on the relation between Shadow and the Haemonculi after his coup is completed. As that is mayor part of the background.

Thankyou so far things seem to be going good. As for the new Succubus she is very happy that my Archon indirectly killed the previous one, so she and her forces have joined up with him feeling that he and his talk of conquest best serves their interest and to prove their approval of their new found power the succubus and her witch cult had thrown a lavish arena showing to pay respect to the new Archon to gain his trust in hopes of a better hand in power and to further their own interest which as of now are unkown, infact to make the festivities truly lavish they had found a roaming Harlequin Troupe that had decided to join the Archon in order to provide entertainment and a different combat style to help them but such a time where they fight is rare.

My Archon however is weary of the Harlequin Troupe and their willingness to follow them around for he does not understand them, or their laughing gods plans so he keeps a closer watch on them often needless to say he always enjoys their preformances, and so does his troops so he thinks of them as a good way to "pacify" his army to keep them abit more controllable.

As for fights between the Kabal and the Cults the Archon tends to stay out of their squabbles feeling such a thing is beneath him and they tend to have smaller scale fights, however on the occasion that they do fight he sometimes fights with his kabal just so because he can. The Haemonculus coven usually keep to themselves gleefully experimenting on and tortureing the new subjects the Archon has given to them (new being space marines, orks, and on occasion eldar) so many slaves have been given to the haemonculus coven that for now it is quite rare when the Archon hears about his warriors or something like that go "missing" although sometimes they still do go "missing" as is the haemonculis nature (and personally I think it is really funny)

So for now I have been able to add these back stories without really breaking any fluff (I think) which is very good and my Archon is still making plan after plan and sofar his tactics for dealing with his own army are going well, that and he recently publicly killed a warrior that had challenged him and when I say killed I mean bit the warriors tounge out of his mouth then proceeded to kill him by ripping his own thumbs off and pressing them into his eyes until he died (died screaming in agony) so most tend to fear him big time. On the bright side my Archon now has a new cup for drinking out of (yes his skull)

-EDIT-
Thankyou very much Enginseer I'm glad Im doing things right sofar, and not to worry the Haemonculus Coven will definately play a big role soon, because my Archon has a grand use for them and their troops (which he finds to be a grand asseset) so I'm getting close to that and this part was to get in some of the extra back stories (and explain some troops for my army composition)

ShadowZetki wrote: Okay so I'm starting to really expand my dark eldar army and I am currently working on my faction (name and story still currently pending kind of) However I have officially named my main Archon, Shadow Othelius Zetki (why? I havent the slightest idea but it does sound pretty cool to me) Anyway so I'm reading over the fluff in both the old and new Dark Eldar codex (the stories were definately worth the 29.00 USD + tax)[/quote=ShadowZetki]

Othelius Zetki - gotta be a Mr T with Soviet overtones :-)





Automatically Appended Next Post:

ShadowZetki wrote: Okay so I'm starting to really expand my dark eldar army and I am currently working on my faction (name and story still currently pending kind of) However I have officially named my main Archon, Shadow Othelius Zetki (why? I havent the slightest idea but it does sound pretty cool to me) Anyway so I'm reading over the fluff in both the old and new Dark Eldar codex (the stories were definately worth the 29.00 USD + tax)

Othelius Zetki - gotta be a Mr T with Soviet overtones :-)

Great! I'll be following this thread.

I like the Harlequin bit, no doubt influenced by the Vect/Lady Malys relation?

Seems I'll have to come up with some of my own fluff (or at least a Kabal name).

This is definately good to hear, and I'll just have to use this going topic as a proxy until I get my blogspot thingy ready. I should have the blogspot ready today (roughly) and it will primarily follow my fluffy dark eldar but I will also share the first look into a project I have been working on for a few years going now, thankyou to everyone for your advise and encouragement I'm glad to hear that I'm not screwing anything up

-EDIT- Scratch that I think I may just not make one of those blogspot things it seems like way too much work for me but I'll just proxy this topic thingy as my DE blog. Also yeah the bit on the Harlequin is influenced by the Vect/Malys relation.