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As far as we know, the Imperium and the Eldar have a grudging respect for another. Reasons include, but are not limited to: 1) What is good for Mankind is sometimes good for the Eldar, and what is bad for Mankind is sometines bad for the Eldar, and vice versa. 2) The Imperium respects the fact the Eldar's small population, they are still a major race, and a dangerous, if not priority threat to Mankind, while the Eldar know well the Imperium's iron fist, and consider it a useful weapon to maintain some form of the order in the galaxy. And 3), the Eldar apparently consider Humans the best neighbors among the galaxy; they're not blindly ignorant and naive like the Tau, more reasonable than Necrons, and are definitely better better neighbors than Orks, Tyranids, or the Forces of Chaos and the Dark Eldar.

Question now is: how far are both sides willing to take it?

I think its something like this.

"KILL THE XENOS FILTH!!!

But on a serious note, I think that it depends on who your talking to.
The GK codex says that GK's maintain treaties with alien parties, that others in the imperium would not. SO I think it truly would depend on who you talk too. Not everyone, Eldar, or imperium is of the "WE R THE BEZT END U R DIIIEEEZZ!!!" Mentality

I think humanity's big failing is that few are able to realise that Craftworlds have differing mentalities or that there is even any differentiation between the Eldar at all.

Some Craftworlds are more reasonable than others and, of course, Dark Eldar do not represent the Eldar as a whole. Yet humans will call the Eldar fickle, unpredictable or hostile because of bad experiences with corsairs, pirates or DE. Of course, even Craftworld Eldar can be perceived as belligerent thanks to examples such as Biel Tan.

I think Inquisitors and other 'educated' Imperial sorts can forge a working relationship, to a degree, with the Eldar once they establish relations with particular sects. But when it comes to general policy, the Imperium (rightly) perceives the Eldar as a random force.

And hell, even if you DO have cordial relations with a craftworld, it only takes one Farseer having a bad dream for the Eldar to randomly arrive somewhere and blow everything to hell; often without even explaining their actions as it'd be beyond human comprehension.

So I think the Imperium has various reasons to be at loathe to associate with Eldar.

They see them as arrogant and mysterious alien race, they also see them as one of the deadliest enemies of Men.

Mostly they hate them because of the torture, raids and stabbing in the back. But some people ( like high ranking Inquisitors and Imperial Generals with some Space Marine Chapter Master and Commanders ) respect them, and in that respect often is mutual relationship drawn ( like Blood Ravens and Biel-Tan Eldar ). But Eldar thinks about Humans as children who don't know what they are doing, and they often have a strange ways of dealing with Humanity ( liek sending entire Ork WARGHHH to Armageddon instead of asking Imperials for assistance or at least warning them ).

I personally think that they are biggest idiots in 40k. As they have shown that more then once...

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About that far

About as far as they can throw them.

"I wouldn't put much stock in what the Eldar say. They are deceitful, and manipulative by nature."

-Sergeant Tarkus

The few who are "in the know" about the Eldar probably respect them a great deal. Certain inquisitors and other scholars who have reason to be studying them. See Inquisitor Ravenor, or Inquisitor Czevak.

Overall, I don't think there is much respect for the Eldar. There's too little understanding on the part of the average Imperial commander. Dark Eldar raiders, Eldar pirates, and Craftworld Eldar randomly attacking to avert a disaster 500 years in the future, they all seem the same. The Eldar are untrustworthy and rely on deception and treachery. They will help you one year and come back to raze your settlement the next. I think most commanders will ally with the Eldar only under desperate circumstances.

The Eldar, likewise, don't have much respect for humans. The attitude is more disdainful. We are upstarts, we are a plague, we are sometimes useful but mostly annoying or downright impudent. Our culture and our intellect are below their notice. We are better than cattle but less than fully sentient. It's like how we'd view it if monkeys learned to talk and started building a civilization out of poop and sticks, and took over 3/4 of the world in the process. There's nothing to respect. Humans are like that, just a part of nature to be dealt with.

Humans may "respect" Eldar, or even think they understand them or even share goals or common enemies with them.

But this is not returned, Eldar do not think of humans as a child race, more of a race of semi-advanced primates, even the term the GW writers have chosen for Eldar to refer to humanity "Mon'keigh" has the ring of monkey to it, as stated many times the eldar would sacrifice millions of humans to preserve even one of their own lives.

A race that predicts the future (or at least thinks it can ) is the last one to trust, especially one that lives for eons, and is in no rush to hatch its plans, the favor they do for you now, may be repaid a thousand fold a few centuries from now.

The Eldar care only for the eldar, humanity to them is just a huge amount of pawns to sacrifice to continue their own existance.

Never forget that.

Respect them at your peril.

Never noticed that xD

Generally the IoM leaves the Eldar alone if it can help it, on the basis that they kick arse even considering their relatively small numbers, and the occasional aid Imperial worlds have recieved from them when fighting Chaos incursions. I suppose they're a mistrusted party at best, though, overall; like some have said, you shouldn't trust them with too much.

For any Imperial who ends up knowing about the Eldar (most Imperial citizens are fairly left in the dark about individual xenos races, though they are taught to hate them), what they are taught isn't very respectful.

The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer for instance describes the Eldar as a decadent, cowardly, fragile, and arrogant race with overly complicated and poorly-made technology that is heretical in origin.

There are some radical inquisitors of the Ordo Xenos which have close ties to the Eldar though, and one of them (forget the name) has even been given access to the Black Library, which is a huge deal.

When I meant 'grudging respect', I meant the form of respect given between enemies who don't really want to confront each other without restraining themselves. Without a doubt, the Imperium could destroy all the Eldar Craftworlds/break into the Webway and destroy Commoragh, but the drain on resources will send the Imperium reeling, perhaps enough that they couldn't repel another Black Crusade/weather another Hive Fleet. Likewise, the Eldar could destroy the Imperium with a single, overwhelming strike at Terra, but doing so would exhaust all Craftworlds, effectively meaning the end of the Eldar as a power and as a species. As such, both sides respect the other enough to 'leave well enough alone'.

Eldar, pretty high level. Dark Eldar, they are just scared of. Then again, a race with black hole bombs is pretty scary.

Tadashi wrote:When I meant 'grudging respect', I meant the form of respect given between enemies who don't really want to confront each other without restraining themselves. Without a doubt, the Imperium could destroy all the Eldar Craftworlds/break into the Webway and destroy Commoragh, but the drain on resources will send the Imperium reeling, perhaps enough that they couldn't repel another Black Crusade/weather another Hive Fleet. Likewise, the Eldar could destroy the Imperium with a single, overwhelming strike at Terra, but doing so would exhaust all Craftworlds, effectively meaning the end of the Eldar as a power and as a species. As such, both sides respect the other enough to 'leave well enough alone'.

First off, as long as Failaddon is in charge we never fear the BC. Humanity doesn't show much restraint when fighting Eldar, although I can see where you're coming from. In Prospero Burns, a Imperial Army captain is talking to the scribe for the Vlka Fenryka, relaying why he hates working with the wolves. The story is that there was an attack on an Eldar coloniized planet and the advancement was failing. The IA called in the Rout, otherwise known as the Emperor's Executioners, to help move things along. They razed the world to the ground, even after the Eldar called in begging for, at the least, the preservation of some of the knowledge stored there. Doesn't sound like too good of a working relationship.

In the ultramarines omnibus it is obvious that only the most high ranking officials know even the most basic facts about eldar.The see both eldar and de as the same race and even when the difference was explained to the captain his response was explained "It dosn't matter they are still xenos scum"not very respectful if you ask me.Although in my opinion the imperium would have respect for the eldar but the line of respect that stems from fear.

Rocky1 wrote:In the ultramarines omnibus it is obvious that only the most high ranking officials know even the most basic facts about eldar.The see both eldar and de as the same race and even when the difference was explained to the captain his response was explained "It dosn't matter they are still xenos scum"not very respectful if you ask me.Although in my opinion the imperium would have respect for the eldar but the line of respect that stems from fear.

Fear and the knowledge of the Eldar's own military might compared to the Imperial war machine. A full-on confrontation would destroy both sides.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:Generally the IoM leaves the Eldar alone if it can help it, on the basis that they kick arse even considering their relatively small numbers..

Most likely not out of choice. The Eldar are pretty apt at foretelling the future, so surprising them is hard. However, not impossible.

In the "Path of the Seer" novel, Craftworld Alaitoc is outright invaded by a Space Marine chapter (who's name escapes me right now) and I recall that the Invaders chapter orchestrated another one of these assaults on another Craftworld, utterly annihilating them.

For the most part, trying to take the fight tot the Eldar is like hunting ghosts; they're always one step ahead of you.

Iranna.

Iranna wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:Generally the IoM leaves the Eldar alone if it can help it, on the basis that they kick arse even considering their relatively small numbers..

Most likely not out of choice. The Eldar are pretty apt at foretelling the future, so surprising them is hard. However, not impossible.

In the "Path of the Seer" novel, Craftworld Alaitoc is outright invaded by a Space Marine chapter (who's name escapes me right now) and I recall that the Invaders chapter orchestrated another one of these assaults on another Craftworld, utterly annihilating them.

For the most part, trying to take the fight tot the Eldar is like hunting ghosts; they're always one step ahead of you.

Iranna.

Sons of Orar.

And not always. Precognition is not perfect, especially when you're dealing with Chaos and Space Marines. Tzeentch and his Champions, and powerful sorcerers like Ahriman can cloud precognition or confuse it, and can also use precognition of their own. Librarians can do the same on smaller level, unless they're really powerful; Blood Ravens, Ultramarines, Blood Angels...those are the only Chapters I know with Librarians powerful enough to match the Eldar.

Iranna wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:Generally the IoM leaves the Eldar alone if it can help it, on the basis that they kick arse even considering their relatively small numbers..

In the "Path of the Seer" novel, Craftworld Alaitoc is outright invaded by a Space Marine chapter (who's name escapes me right now) and I recall that the Invaders chapter orchestrated another one of these assaults on another Craftworld, utterly annihilating them.

The Invaders Chapter also took horrific losses in the attack on Craftworld Idharae. Then - still rebuilding - they got hit by a retaliatory attack on their main fortress 43 years later, Alaitoc forces destroying their assets and leaving no more than 300 marines that became a space-based chapter after this. And funny enough, this meant they were so weak when they walked into Ahriman's sorcerous trap on Jollana that only a dozen survived. Probably extinct by now.

Its known that the Imperium chooses to largely ignore the Eldar these days... The last Imperial assault against a Craftworld ended as a disaster at the Blood Nebula which saw the loss of an entire sector fleet thus leading to the Imperium of adopting the stance of dealing with individual threats of the Eldar rather than provoke an entire nest of them. BRB, page 119.

I'd imagine it would be about as far as a guardsman could throw one, aka, not very far.

EDIT: Ninja'd! Fething eldar trickery I tell you!

I think that out of all the alien races in the galaxy the Imperium is most likely to ally itself, in any situation, with the craftworld Eldar. If, ofcourse it fits their needs and isnt a part of some 600 year snowball effect or whatever.

I dont think that is saying alot though since it would only happen in the most dire of circumstances. The Eldar are not really understood by anyone but themselves and this makes them seem volatile and dangerous to anyone else. Especially to an empire of xenophobic fanatics.

No there is little in the terms of respect. Example. Cain and Vail saw two Tau was infected by Genestealers. What did they do?

Alternative A: Warn the Tau, and foster good long-term relationship.

Alternative B: Drinking game laughing about how they had screwed the Tau over.

Beaviz81 wrote:No there is little in the terms of respect. Example. Cain and Vail saw two Tau was infected by Genestealers. What did they do?

Alternative A: Warn the Tau, and foster good long-term relationship.

Alternative B: Drinking game laughing about how they had screwed the Tau over.

Have you read the OP and title? It's the Imperium and the Eldar, not the Imperium and the Tau.

It was an example Tadashi. I didn't know of any Eldar-examples, so I choose the Tau, but the Eldar xenos is likely treated the same way.

Beaviz81 wrote:It was an example Tadashi. I didn't know of any Eldar-examples, so I choose the Tau, but the Eldar xenos is likely treated the same way.

Maybe not quite the same way, since Eldar are less ignorant about "galaxy's dark" and as such are to treated with more caution than the Tau.

Well the dagger in the back is the basic Modi Operati for anyone. Though individually Eldar and Mon-Kiegs might work great.

For example, there is a house of Navigators that have given the Eldar seven coins, and they would serve the Eldar once for each coin. So that's some manner of quite the promise. The Eldar saved that house once under circumstances I'm not aware of. The source is Wolfblade.

Beaviz81 wrote:Well the dagger in the back is the basic Modi Operati for anyone. Though individually Eldar and Mon-Kiegs might work great.

For example, there is a house of Navigators that have given the Eldar seven coins, and they would serve the Eldar once for each coin. So that's some manner of quite the promise. The Eldar saved that house once under circumstances I'm not aware of. The source is Wolfblade.

Craftworld Eldar and Imperials are more likely to work with each other than with others, since they usually have more common causes and reasons to work with compared to other races. Necrons and Orkz are too unreasonable, while the Tau are too naive.

Well they sort of are cousins, the humans and the Eldar since half-Eldar do exist, so there aren't just pure racism out there. At least 99% of the genomes are the same for humans and Eldar, which in turn would make each race more likely to cooperate. Of course they still regard us at best as irresponsible children, at worst as vermin.

Beaviz81 wrote:Well they sort of are cousins, the humans and the Eldar since half-Eldar do exist, so there aren't just pure racism out there. At least 99% of the genomes are the same for humans and Eldar, which in turn would make each race more likely to cooperate. Of course they still regard us at best as irresponsible children, at worst as vermin.

Well, that's an interesting argument. We might want to discuss it sometime. But open create thread for it. I had a thread about it a year ago, so re-opening it would be thread necromancy. The ancestors of the Humans were created by the Old Ones from the same genetic stock as the Eldar were created from. But note that in 'real world' genetics, 99% does not guarantee compatibility; but since both Eldar and Humans, as well as most races that survived the War in Heaven (so far, only Tyranids and Tau and their client races are non-Necron/non-Old One influenced/created races in 40k) are custom built, it's certainly possible even through normal means. However, half-breeds existed only in RT, so it's canon is in doubt. But, while the half-breed in RT is de-canonized, the idea has not actually been contradicted by later Editions, like the Emperor's origins from 3rd Edition. So while it's no longer mentioned, it certainly has not been removed/contradicted, so it still remains canon.

And only one race in the galaxy is vermin: hrud. The worst Humans are considered by other races is 'primitive'. Even Dark Eldar would consider Humans 'civilized' compared to hrud, and that's certainly saying something.

Actually, Da Rules state that it's thread-necromancy if not new input comes in, or the author tries to keep the thread alive with non-sense. If I comment on it, I severely doubt it to be thread-necromancy. But I shall read Da Rules carefully before posting.

I go for Necromunda-stuff, there you have a half-Eldar-ranger dude hunting for his mommy. The genology is more my knowledge of DNA speaking. Chimps and humans share 98% of the DNA, well I haven't heard about a half-chimp, but I wouldn't be surprised if they exist.

For the Dark Eldar humans are playthings. Is there anything they love, then it's to overload our mon-kieg senses.

The IoM and the Eldar can have peaceful enough relations, as long as enough is at state. I sort of developed an Eldar Farseer in my own fluff who was quite instrumental in saving an Imperial world, and she only did that due to that a guy saved her life from the Nids a few times.