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So i was looking at the DE and Eldar ranges and i see they can both take harlequins.
Who exactly are they if they dont take sides?

I believe a mercenary type eldar. I maybe wrong as my codex isn't with me.

They are not mercenaries, they are dedicated to the destruction of chaos and will do whatever necessary to protect the universe from it. They are the ones which control the black library

They are what amounts to a "secret" eldar coalition. They are servents of the only remaining member of the original eldar pantheon, Cegorach the laughing god.

They are depicted as being masters of the webway, the location of their "home." They operate as keepers of history and travel to eldar every where too reenact the story of the fall, through dance and theater.

On top of masterful command of dancing and acting talent, they all possess incredible martial ability as well and often lend a hand to a battle they see as necessary to the survival of the eldar race as a whole (they do not really distinguish between dark eldar and craftworld/ exodite eldar.) Heaven help you if you threaten the survival of the eldar race, and are near a harlequin.

The Harlequins are a group of Eldar who tell stories of the Eldar race, keeping tradition alive through dance. They are also the only ones who know the location of the Black Library in the webway, the repository of all lore that the Eldar Race has stored on the forces of Chaos. They worship the Eldar God "The Laughing One" who was the only one to survive the Fall intact and free. They appear when they will, assisting in the fight against Chaos, and then leave again. They are apart from the rest of Eldar society, belonging to neither Craftworld, Commoraghan, nor Exodite societies.

They like the eldar secret police in a way. They act for the good of their race and against chaos but they have no qualms about how their goals are achieved.

They're not evil or anything like that. They don't really have a moral compass, the way they see it, they just do what has to be done.

They ought to be a whole lot more powerful than they are in the books, as they really are the best of the best eldar fighters. And not only incredibly fighters and martial artists, they are armed to the teeth with all sorts of technological tricks like hallucination grenades, stealth fields and illusion casting devices

lunarman wrote:They ought to be a whole lot more powerful than they are in the books, as they really are the best of the best eldar fighters. And not only incredibly fighters and martial artists, they are armed to the teeth with all sorts of technological tricks like hallucination grenades, stealth fields and illusion casting devices

Agreed. Why they don't have "Preferred Enemy: Chaos" I have no idea. But certainly they could afford to be alot more powerful. Character level statlines with an appropriate cost would be nice (and naturally a 0-1 restriction to keep them suitably rare and unspammable.)

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Harlequin

And they travel freely through the webway to both Craftworlds and the DE, and recruit skilled warriors and performers from both.