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So at my school, where I game weekly, I am currently playing a large DE force I bought off Ebay. As they are unpainted, I painted one oldschool warrior a nurgly coloyr scheme. This got me thinking: although Eldar and Dark Eldar have links to Slaanesh, Coukd I link squads to other gods? Not rules wise but would it look cool and make a great background story?

Point the first. I really don't care about colour schemes on armies. If you wanted an army of flamboyant SMs (more so than Noise Marines) go for it.
Point the second. If anyone does have a problem with it as long as you have a backstory for them you'd be fine.

For example, I played a team game a couple of weeks back - Eldar and Nids vs Orcs and CSM. Now of course rules-wise the Nids and Eldar cannot team up with anyone, so I said that my partners Eldar were psychically controlling the Nids. Or so they thought...

The vast majority of Dark Eldar don't worship the chaos gods, or any god, thinking themselves far above worshipping someone else! But of course, like any race, there are variables and in some hidden sub realm of hell there will be DE worshipping Chaos, just not openly. But also, just cause your colour scheme is nurgle-y doesn't mean you have to be.

Slaanesh already has a claim on all eldar souls. If an Eldar were to declare its soul to a different god, presumably there would have to be some special ritual done to transfer the soul over.

That's how the Harlequins transfer their souls over to the Laughing God instead of Slaanesh, at least. Even even then, in the Solitaire's case, the Laughing God has to fight Slaanesh for the soul in the end. The rest of the souls fully belong to the Laughing God, instead, though.

My plan is to paint a warrior squad and a wych squad to each god. I will write fluff and backstory for each unit too

Eldar and Dark Eldar culture are based on fighting Chaos. There is no current evidence of even a single Chaos Eldar. Many people know that. So expect some frowning when you kick current fluff straight in the face.

Although im sure there are still some pleasure cults in Commagh sub realms, so IF you are going for a chaos god, Slaanesh is your best choice. What do the other gods have to offer? Nurgle makes you live forever, Hello, Dark Eldar are functionally immortal. Tzeentch, better psychic powers, Dark Eldar don't have any psykers. Khorne, if people wanted to worship him (When actually, I guess some do) they'd Worship Khaine instead.

Wow, I hadnt thought about it like that!

As Kroothawk said Chaos is actually the arch enemy of all Eldar so they would never worship any of them. DE will sometimes ally with Chaos Marines because they are both jerks but that's different from being an actual cultist.

Dark Eldar are a culture that have taken the sado-masochistic extremes displayed in Clive Barker's "The Hellbound Heart" and "Hellraiser" to even further extremes, cranked way up past 11.

You don't think there aren't Dark Eldar with ambitions, plans and goals to oust their social superiors and take over their jobs? You don't think there are Dark Eldar who wallow in the pain and agony they inflict on other races? Or each other? You don't think there are Dark Eldar who yearn for the endurance to withstand ever-greater torments and experiences? Or who have taken to blood-letting like a religion?

Chaos can corrupt anything. I say go for it.

People make up all sorts of stuff to subvert the current fluff. So feel free to do so. You will get looked at wierdly by fluff bunnies as they will know some key points;

There is no chaos worshiping eldar in the fluff. If anyone can contradict this I would love to see it.

Eldar and D.Eldar society are much more vigilant about removing chaos worship. D.Eldar are so fearful of chaos getting into commorragh that they completely removed psychic powers and potential from their genetics...that would be like humans removing their entire sensory system as eldar where all psykers and mostly powerful psykers. If they go this far what do you think will happen when they find a worshipper of chaos? We are talking about the masters of torture and pain here.

Pleasure cults have nothing to do with worship of slaanesh. You can eat crackers without worshiping as a catholic and you can have an orgy without worshiping slaanesh or aphrodite. They may give power to slaanesh but that is the D.eldar way, they trade what slaanesh likes for it not eating their souls.

Eldar souls are like crack for slaanesh. It will go out of its way to devour them and the only way to avoid that is to not let their souls touch the warp (soul stones to store it or live forever) or to have a god trick slaanesh and steal the soul away. Slaanesh does not respect any "dedication" to a god. The laughing god literally is going around the warp and snatching the harlequin's souls from slaanesh's greedy little palette.

Now on that note you should realize that iIsha the eldar goddess of fertility and rejuvenation was "saved" from Slaanesh's grasp by nurgle in a long war between the two chaos gods. She is now trapped in the garden of nurgle in a cage and supposedly nurgle "loves" her as only nurgle can. You should read the lexicanum; http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Isha#.UgmCctKsiSp

I could see a case for some exiled eldar worshiping chaos and if they worshiped chaos then nurgle would probably be the god to worship. Khorn would also be semi reasonable as he is constantly in a state of hatred for slaanesh, therefore dangling slaanesh's favorite food before it and snatching it away all the time would have to be fun. He also can bait slaanesh into more direct confrontation with them.

I think all Dark Eldar have had their souls advance ordered by Slaanesh, I don't think any other Chaos God is going to have much influence.

 Stormphoenix wrote:
I think all Dark Eldar have had their souls advance ordered by Slaanesh, I don't think any other Chaos God is going to have much influence.

I prefer to think Slaanesh loudly called 'DIBS' on the Eldar souls.

And ansacs has it spot on. Eldar/DE dont worship Chaos in any way. The inflicting of pain rejuvenates DE and lets them stave off Slaanesh noming their souls, they dont do it as an offering to him/her.

There is one dark elder that was a main antagonist of a novel who embraced Slaanesh. ...he found out the hard way that that doesn't really save you from her.

Slaanesh does call dibs on the Eldar souls apparently though. When Ingrel, a daemon prince(ss) of Chaos Undivided was talking to Logar, she made it very clear that the Edlar souls by rights belong to Slaanesh while discussing why humanity should embrace Chaos or whatever. As she was speaking on behalf of Chaos Undivided, presumably the other Chaos Gods don't have much of a problem with this arrangement on the grander scale. Or maybe they do and are lying out their teeth, but we haven't seen any evidence in the fluff about this.

Like I said earlier, if an Eldar did declare for any other god (Chaos or otherwise), they'd have to perform some special ritual to free their souls from Slaanesh or have their new god fight Slaanesh directly for it. The Chaos Gods actually don't fight each other directly that often (It's implied that they see it as inappropriate to get directly involved in the Great Game).

TiamatRoar wrote:
There is one dark elder that was a main antagonist of a novel who embraced Slaanesh. ...he found out the hard way that that doesn't really save you from her.

Sounds like a novel by "The Author Who Shall Not Be Named". Even BL now tries to ignore his existence and work.

Even if that is the case, that example serves to fulfill the conditions of the challenge.

I, personally, don't take anything I find in the Ciaphas Cain stories to be even remotely "canonical". I read them as a satire of 40K, simply because the suggestions the books make don't fit my interpretation of the setting. That doesn't make them wrong, per se, just not something I adapt to my version of 40K.

I would note in the Dark Eldar path books they have many, two that I can think of off the top of my head, instances of Eldar being possessed. The second time, while not standard possession its the best word i can use, involved a Craftworld Farseer turning into a spawning vessel for a Lord of Change. Now this is Black Library, so take it at that, but the author ADB is generally one of their better ones. (Despite saying this I've yet to read his Night Lords which I hear I should). Still back onto topic As far as Chaos Worshiping Eldar I think that isn't a likely prospect, but Eldar with Chaos is something that can be managed when presented right I feel.

 Kroothawk wrote:
Eldar and Dark Eldar culture are based on fighting Chaos. There is no current evidence of even a single Chaos Eldar. Many people know that. So expect some frowning when you kick current fluff straight in the face.

The Dark Eldar Codex has several instances of Dark Eldar lords using Demons as allies / minions (or so they think) - they hate and fear Slaanesh but are no above using its or other Chaos powers demons if they have to or if it will give them an advantage. They don;t fight Chaos as a matter of course but rather try to survive and prosper - whatever they need to do - they will do.

Craftworld Eldar are terrified that the Fall will happen again - hence the Path and cotnrol over their people - but it fails on occasion and at least one Craftworld that fell as Eldar within were seduced by Chaos - plus there is the Path of Damnation and references to Eldar who practice the old ways - plus of course any Eldar pawns of Slaanesh that remain on the Crone Worlds. Lastly an Eldar that strays from the Path is no more protected than any other mortal and perhaops the only way one could ensure your soul is not claimed by Slaanesh is to sell your soul to another Chaos god who allows you to keep your physical existance in its service.

re Isha - its a myth from a single Craftworld but seems ok as thats pretty much what happened to Khaine - Khorne and Slaanesh had equal claims to his power and fought over him, allowing him to escape - one could argue that all the Eldar Gods are trapped in their "parent" Chaos powers

If all goes well i have a friend who works at a GW store who said it could never happen, so I really wanna rub it in his smug little face

if you want, you could even have the "Eldar" as mere shells of those that were soul drained in the Eye of Terror that the Chaos powers have animated again to mock the real Eldar

 Mr Morden wrote:
Craftworld Eldar are terrified that the Fall will happen again - hence the Path and cotnrol over their people - but it fails on occasion and at least one Craftworld that fell as Eldar within were seduced by Chaos

Which craftworld and which source?

 Mr Morden wrote:
plus there is the Path of Damnation and references to Eldar who practice the old ways

Old ways is a reference to Dark Eldar, not to Slaanesh worshippers.

 Mr Morden wrote:
plus of course any Eldar pawns of Slaanesh that remain on the Crone Worlds.

The Codex is explicit that nothing survived on the Crone Worlds.

 Mr Morden wrote:
if you want, you could even have the "Eldar" as mere shells of those that were soul drained in the Eye of Terror that the Chaos powers have animated again to mock the real Eldar

AWESOME

 Kroothawk wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:
Craftworld Eldar are terrified that the Fall will happen again - hence the Path and cotnrol over their people - but it fails on occasion and at least one Craftworld that fell as Eldar within were seduced by Chaos

Which craftworld and which source?

 Mr Morden wrote:
plus there is the Path of Damnation and references to Eldar who practice the old ways

Old ways is a reference to Dark Eldar, not to Slaanesh worshippers.

 Mr Morden wrote:
plus of course any Eldar pawns of Slaanesh that remain on the Crone Worlds.

The Codex is explicit that nothing survived on the Crone Worlds.

Previous Chaos Demons Codex - Kher-Ys (I don't have the current Chaos Codex as mostly stopped buying them) -"The Daemons of Slaanesh assembled around Kher-Ys, and spoke with Enchanting voices to those within. Many ignored the siren calls, but a few were lured from the sanctury of their craftowrld, their spirits fired with whispers of decadent adventure. "

re those Eldar who worship Chaos - same codex:
"Most of these survivors have become sworn enemies of the Dark Prince yet a few of them have formed isolated cabals that still behave as their ancestors did, perversely following the way of excess". This I read as completely different to the Dark Edlar but is part of the point of the Paths - to protect against falling into the old ways of Chaos worship

The Crone Worlds are places that Daemons still torment the souls of the Eldar - they can create or destroy bodies for them at will................nothing is impossible in the Eye of Terror

Previous Eldar Codex - p54 The Crone Worlds "It is said that there re still worlds where Eldar still live." I need to get my Eldar Codexes back as on loan at present and see if its still there. There is also the whole debate about Altansar and its inhabitants................

Lastly the same Codex describes a Fallen Pheonix Lord as "The Fallen Pheonix who burns with the dark light of Chaos" p56. (although I agree most of the other fluff tends to popint towards him as the founder of the Incubi...........)

Isnt the fallen phoenix lord Drazarh, Master Of Blades?

He might be - its not clear

Hi, DRC! Nice to find fellow countrymen (paisanos) here!

Imho, Eldar background is one of the finest pieces of writing in this game. I would like to encourage you to enjoy it!

To understand the relationship between Eldar and Slaanesh, let's go back to the Fall. It was the cataclysm that almost erased the Eldar race from the Galaxy and certainly erased them as a major power. They provoked it by unrestrainingly abandoning themselves to hedonistic exploration. The Eldar Codex tells about Blood Cults, but you can imagine that they practiced any kind of sensual transgression ("of what?" is a very interesting question): sex, drugs, violence and lot's of mounts of rock & roll, probably. Anything you or Passolini could imagine and more. Dark Eldar are, in many ways, the followers of Eldar pre-Fall culture.
Slaanesh is the chaotic deification of all that hardcore partying. It is the worst part of the always curious and experience-thirsty Eldar soul. As such, it devoured most of the race during his/her birth and has a claim on the souls of the remnant Eldar. He/She owns them. They are doomed to become devoured/integrated with a Chaos God as no other race is. Even Chaos Traitor Marines have, in one way or another, chosen to become what they are. Eldar cannot choose anything, probably because they are, in fact, slaaneshi -vicious desirers- in nature. Only by eternal life -DE way-, or by encapsullating themselves in a conscious self-restraining life -Craftworlders and Exodites way-, can Eldar avoid their Doom. But remember, even the most straight (pun NOT intended, seriously... or maybe yes ) Craftword Eldar desires, in the deepest corners of his/her soul, to behave like a Dark Eldar, to let loose in a whirlwind of satisfaction and lust. They all are a tiny part of Slaanesh, even more than they are warriors, mourners or plotters. That's why all of their Gods are dead. Khaine, God of war and destruction, very similar to Khorne, remains only as sparks -Avatars- which only burn fiery from time to time. With the strange exception of the Loughing God -a nice metaphore of the unexpected, the unexplainable and the venturesome-, the only Eldar god still alive is Slaanesh. Metaphorically, it is a way to tell us that the only relevant aspect of the collective Eldar soul nowadays are their slaaneshi aspect and their ocasional warmongering. Significatively, in a corner of the last Eldar Codex, it states that some Farseers are starting to foresee the birth of a new Eldar God: the God of the Dead. If Slaanesh is pure, unrestrained, savage life, you can see that this new god, created as a warp mirror of the current "dead" Eldar soul, is the logical answer that could in the future balance the Warp. In fact, the Craftworlders remain alive only by "sacrificing" their wild souls in the rigid Path's system.
So, serving another Chaos God could prove impossible for any Eldar. Serving a Chaos God means not only painting runes on your gear, screaming and wearing spikes. It means focusing your unchained soul in the prosecution of it's aspects that best fit that God. Are you ready for an eternity of destruction for the plain objective of destroying? Khorne welcomes you! You prefer to keep everything unchanged forever, dead, static, inactive? Nurgle is your God. But all Eldar want change, unending changing and novelty above anything else. This novelty can come through violence, of course, as violence changes souls as few things do, but it's not blind khornate violence. It's for the purpose of change. And not just a tzeenztian change, but an intimate one. The ultimate question for an Eldar is not "How much can I change my enviroment?" They know they can do it a lot. Hell, they could "create or kill stars with a thought" before the Fall! The ultimate question for any Eldar is "How far can I go?". This is pure Slaanesh.

So, I guess no, they cannot really, intimately, follow any other Chaos God. They would never be in tune with each other. However, can they follow Slaanesh? They would excel at it, certainly. There are those old quotes about Chaos Eldar still lurking in the Eye of Terror. I like the idea. On the other hand, why would Slaanesh want them as servants if he/she already owns their souls?

All that said, it's your army, your paints and your story. I firmly believe that, when you buy such expensive miniatures as GW's ones, you also buy the right to tell with them the story that better pleases you. I would never complain if I had to fight Nurgle Dark Eldar, but I would ask you for a good story behind them

DRC wrote:
Isnt the fallen phoenix lord Drazarh, Master Of Blades?

almost certainly, but who says he worships slannesh. He got new fluff when the new codexes came out.

There's a bit of fluff in the newest Daemon codex about how a certain Dark Eldar Archon named Ysclyth tried to harness Daemons to his cause. Asdrubael Vect doesn't like this and seals off Ysclyth's territory from the rest of Commorragh. Ysclyth and his Kabal are slowly torn apart by the Daemons. Dark Eldar can even ally up with Chaos marines and Daemons in the rules though it's a desperate ally setup. So yeah, your spiky emoboyz can worship and tag team up with chaos. It's just highly likely that it will bite them in the ass.

 Happyjew wrote:
Now of course rules-wise the Nids and Eldar cannot team up with anyone-

I really don't think this should be applied to doubles games. We tried this in a local double tournament: ally rules are in effect for teams, meaning Tyranid players could only ally with Tyranid players. Afterward, we agreed to drop it for future rules since we almost didn't get enough guys to sign up and we actually have quite a sizable Tyranid player base.

And for the record, some neckbeard who isn't even playing telling you "YOU'RE BUTCHERING THE FLUFF!" is infinitely more acceptable than asking if you can get your Tyranids in on a doubles game with a non-Tyranid player and have the guy in charge of house rules tell you "Sorry, donkey-cave. You picked the wrong army. Enjoy not playing."

Mr Morden wrote:Previous Eldar Codex - p54 The Crone Worlds "It is said that there re still worlds where Eldar still live." I need to get my Eldar Codexes back as on loan at present and see if its still there. There is also the whole debate about Altansar and its inhabitants................

Lastly the same Codex describes a Fallen Pheonix Lord as "The Fallen Pheonix who burns with the dark light of Chaos" p56. (although I agree most of the other fluff tends to popint towards him as the founder of the Incubi...........)

As said, since 3rd edition, Eldar Codices are EXPLICIT that nothing survived on Crone Worlds during the fall.

And the Dark Eldar Codex is as explicit as they can be in such a case that Arhra, the presumedly fallen Phoenix Lord, returned as Drazhar.

Wilytank wrote:There's a bit of fluff in the newest Daemon codex about how a certain Dark Eldar Archon named Ysclyth tried to harness Daemons to his cause. Asdrubael Vect doesn't like this and seals off Ysclyth's territory from the rest of Commorragh. Ysclyth and his Kabal are slowly torn apart by the Daemons. Dark Eldar can even ally up with Chaos marines and Daemons in the rules though it's a desperate ally setup. So yeah, your spiky emoboyz can worship and tag team up with chaos. It's just highly likely that it will bite them in the ass.

Being a desperate ally is not the same as worshipping. Using Chaos Forces in your schemes doesn't make you friends with them. The Ysclyth example is clear enough.

 Kroothawk wrote:

Mr Morden wrote:Previous Eldar Codex - p54 The Crone Worlds "It is said that there re still worlds where Eldar still live." I need to get my Eldar Codexes back as on loan at present and see if its still there. There is also the whole debate about Altansar and its inhabitants................

Lastly the same Codex describes a Fallen Pheonix Lord as "The Fallen Pheonix who burns with the dark light of Chaos" p56. (although I agree most of the other fluff tends to popint towards him as the founder of the Incubi...........)

As said, since 3rd edition, Eldar Codices are EXPLICIT that nothing survived on Crone Worlds during the fall.

And the Dark Eldar Codex is as explicit as they can be in such a case that Arhra, the presumedly fallen Phoenix Lord, returned as Drazhar.

Wilytank wrote:There's a bit of fluff in the newest Daemon codex about how a certain Dark Eldar Archon named Ysclyth tried to harness Daemons to his cause. Asdrubael Vect doesn't like this and seals off Ysclyth's territory from the rest of Commorragh. Ysclyth and his Kabal are slowly torn apart by the Daemons. Dark Eldar can even ally up with Chaos marines and Daemons in the rules though it's a desperate ally setup. So yeah, your spiky emoboyz can worship and tag team up with chaos. It's just highly likely that it will bite them in the ass.

Being a desperate ally is not the same as worshipping. Using Chaos Forces in your schemes doesn't make you friends with them. The Ysclyth example is clear enough.

Except of course the Explict quote from the 6th Edition Codex p50 which says" It is even said that there are crone worlds where Eldar still live."

All the Codexes are specific that no Eldar souls were left unclaimed by Slaanesh (repated in new Codex on p8) but that does not preclude Eldar champions of Chaos as per the earliest fluff or that the remaining husks can not be reanimated by the Chaos powers. Again the new codex says on p13 refering to the Fall and the Maiden Worlds:

"Their Eldar populations were erradicated by the psychic shock-wave of the warp rift and destroyed or else changed in ways too horrible to contemplate"

Altansar was absorbed directly into the Warp but its population still endures - in some form which the other Eldar are deeply suspicious of.

The curent Eldar states explictily on p58 that Arhra was the most sinister of all the Pheonix Lords; the fallen Pheonix who burns with the dark light of Chaos" Whats interesting then is that same page hints heavily that Arha did indeed become Drahzar but then on p22 Karandras and Arhu (not Drahzar) clash in 928.M41