Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi,
I have a really hard trouble imagining a dark eldar army. I understand now that its not a professional wage driven army.
Instead it's a bunch of warriors who get together to pillage and enslave. But what makes them follow an Archon ?
Where does an Archon gain so much money, influence to have a massive army that can enslave a world ? I need answers !

Thank you >:

They don't use money, quite. It comes down to how the DE exist. They live a very long time but they are mortal...And they don't have the kind of mechanisms the Craft World Eldar have to save their souls from Slaanesh (The Chaos God who devours all Eldar souls in the Warp). The Craft World Eldar have spirit stones to keep their souls out of the warp and away from eternal pain and damnation. The DE don't, when they die, that's it. To hell with you!

Luckily, the DE figured out a way to become functionally immortal. They can rejuvenate their bodies with pain and suffering, basically leeching off the expended life force of other beings. Like vampires but with souls and pain and such. Unfortunately, this makes DE society extremely violent. So, much like gangs in lawless slums and tribes in lawless wilderness, they formed Kabals. It's for protection. You don't kill a Kabalite because his entire Kabal will come and kill you, your family, and everyone you've ever loved. Of course, these Kabals have to raid real space (DE inhabit the webway exclusively, almost) for the one commodity that matters to the Dark Eldar: Slaves. That's why they fight...Well other than the fact that all the pain and despair really juices them. But they need slaves to hurt. As the Kabal gains more slaves and prestige from real space raiding, it gets wealthier, more powerful, and more renown and thus more DE seek to join up, la la la, the successful Kabals gets very powerful. Also, I believe that the DE also make use of cloning technologies to stretch out their numbers since natural birth takes the eldar a hell of a long time.

The Archon is the leader of the Kabal. DE society is STRICTLY merit based nowadays (Though there is still some bloodline sort of things going on, those bloodlines have to maintain their power by force). You become Archon by being the hardest, baddest, and most efficient member of your Kabal...Basically by showing everybody else who is boss. People are constantly trying to take over by any means necessary, so really, holding onto the job and your head proves that you're worthy of leading. If someone kills the Archon or otherwise disposes of him, they're the new leader! Presumably this only applies to members of the Kabal, otherwise they hunt you down and rape everything you ever cared about...

Thanks !!!!! Very informative and straight to the point.

Not quite cloning. In-vitro fertilization and accelerated growth to get 'halfborn' second-class citizenry. One sperm and one ova, so every halfborn is still different from each other halfborn and from trueborn Dark Eldar. They just skip uterine development and childhood to pop out in a birthing hive in some Haemonculus' underground lair.

Should also be noted that "enslaving an entire world" is a very delicate operation for the DE. They usually (almost always) choose very vulnerable/defenseless worlds, carefully plan it for months in advance, then launch raids directed at only the most heavily populated areas. They also utilize weapons specifically designed for capturing people in mass. While their deadly weapons are the most well-known due to its presence in the wargame, they use a lot of nerve gases, crystals which freeze people in their tracks, stasis fields/nets, and so on that incapacitates but doesn't kill large numbers of people.

And given how long it can take the Imperium to respond to a crisis (sometimes centuries). They can occupy the world and herd up the citizens quite at their leisure if the right world was selected. A planet with poor communication, that has just paid all its tithes and isn't expecting another Imperial delegation for centuries, a fringe world, a world whose Astropaths have been disabled preemptively, and so on. And given the carefulness and precision with which the DE operate, it probably was the right world. They can easily have months if not years to have "fun" with the planet if they did their planning right.

You're right when you say you have difficulties imagining a Dark Eldar army, as they do not deploy armies and wage war in the conventional sense. They constitute raiding parties to sporadically launch lightning assaults on juicy targets, then sail back to the safety of the Webway when their need for souls, slaves and suffering has been sated. Their goal is not to conquer and hold territory as they are much more at ease in their private dimension thank you very much ; their approach of battle is completely alien to defense and war of attrition, pretty much the opposite of the Imperial Guard.

They're space pirates, really.

Exactly, which is why I when I saw a Apocalypse battle with around 15-20k points of DE in it I thought.

"Are there even this many fighters in the entire DE race?"

The entire mobilization of one of the 5 Great Kabals of Commorragh (Black Heart, Flayed Skull, Obsidian Rose, Dying Sun, Bloodied Claw) could fit "Apocalypse" levels translated into tabletop, imo.

Alexzandvar wrote:Exactly, which is why I when I saw a Apocalypse battle with around 15-20k points of DE in it I thought.

"Are there even this many fighters in the entire DE race?"

Probably. The Dark Eldar aren't dying out; they grow batches of menials, they can bring their fallen back from the dead, and their 'city' is immeasurably bigger than the largest Imperial hive, spread out in different 'sections' of webway across the entire galaxy.