Disappointed by 6th edition Codex: Eldar fluff?

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**Sir Arun**

I certainly was. If you disregard the full-page artwork, the latest Eldar codex only has 17 pages of actual fluff, one of which is of course your introductory "why you should collect Eldar" page.

Now compare this to the old Codex and you will see that it had 19 pages. Now 2 pages may not sound like much, but we're really talking about 2 A4 pages of additional fluff present in the old 4th edition Eldar Codex here. Actually, make it 6, because the 6th edition Codex: Eldar adds 4 NEW pages of background material detailing the history/glorious battles of the Eldar race like what you find in Space Marine, Tau, Tyranid etc. codices that were not present in the old Eldar codex. So yeah...6 pages of fluff are not present in the new one. Among the things that didnt make it into the new codex was a more detailed description of the cultures and traditions of the Exodites (including their own version of the Infinity circuit) and a more detailed description of the War in Heaven involving Khaine imprisoning Isha and Kurnous, and Vaul forging 999+1 swords for Khaine in exchance for their release. I also resent the fact that the star map showing the approximate locations of various Eldar Craftworlds on page 15 and the awesome artwork on page 58 of the old Eldar codex didnt make it into the new one. Also, did you guys notice how the Kaelor Craftworld has been replaced by the Mymeara craftworld in the new codex?

Cheers

**Silverthorne**

Yes. In general I felt like the codex was a missed opportunity for transformation. It's functional without really being fun. Eldar probably need the biggest update to their background, because I feel like there really isn't a compelling reason to collect them anymore. They have been loosing marketshare to the Necrons since around 2000 in terms of the background. I feel that this was probably due to Phil Kelley writing both the newer eldar books. Craftworlders really need pretty much a complete rethink but it doesn't look like that is ever going to happen. The ghost of Gav Thorpe seems to demand more mediocre updates to his total botch job in 3e.

**Sir Arun**

The previous Eldar codex was an immense improvement over the 3rd ed one, where we had like 1 page of fluff. So I was kinda hoping this one would be even better, but it really is quite spartan.

In fact the majority of the fluff that did make the transition is a ctrl+c ctrl+v copy paste of the previous book.

Even the Dark Angels got 22 pages of pure fluff and the Tau 26.

**Silverthorne**

Which one? There were 2 codexes in 3rd, including the one were you could actually like, specialize your warhost depending on which craftworld you took. 4th took care of that in a hurry.

That is what I mean about fluff-- they have basically been written out. Anything interesting in the past is now 'oh, the necrons did it.' And they can only write so many pyrrhic victories before the author gets bored I guess. GW has boxed them in to the extent that I think there is really very little freedom of maneuver for the authors.

**the shrouded lord**

this is why eldar are awesome. you write fluff, it IS better then the official. beacause to official doesn't exist.

**Formosa**

The missing bits in the New one detail now retconned necron fluff doesn't it, vauls blades was about taking down the nightbringer?

**Sir Arun**

nope, it was about vaul forging them for khaine to release isha and kurnous.

the one blade that wasnt forged was then taken up by eldanesh or vaul himself (I think) who fought against khaine but was ultimately slain

**Kroothawk**

The Iyanden supplement alone has 28 pages of fluff. And the quality is not bad.

**chromedog**

Vaul wanted Isha and Kurnous freed.

Khaine told him he would do it for 1000 of his finest swords - in x amount of time.

Vaul couldn't get them all done in time, and at the end of this period, slipped in a blade made for his mortal followers in the hope that Khaine wouldn't notice.

When he DID finish the remaining 1000th magic pigsticker, it was THAT sword that Eldanesh took up, to do battle with Khaine.

That was from the 2nd ed codex - or possibly the RT background from 1990 when the aspects and current eldar outlook comes from.

**Captain Spitzenberg**

I was also disapointed with the Codex.

The fluff is almost the same as in the codex before, with only a few few timelines of real new fluff. I would have liked some fluff about how they fought battles or how farseer lead the eldar.

**Sir Arun**

Actually, screw what I said. You'll find the Vaul, Isha and Kurnous fluff among the various unit entries further inside the new codex. You'll also find that bit about the crone worlds and morai-heg cutting off her hand.

But I think the exodite fluff was a bit more extensive in the previous dex (them riding some kind of giant lizards and all that) as well as the star map.

**BlaxicanX**

Yeah, the 6E codex had terrible fluff, very dry and most of it just summarized rehashes of stuff we already know (and direct copy-pastes from 4th edition in some instances).

Compare it to the 6E Daemons codex, where you have multiple sweeping, full-page long short-stories for Tzeentch and Slaneesh, with multiple pages of fluff dedicated to each God and his realm.

Even the Tau codex had great fluff, with multiple sections dedicated to the history of the Tau from their caveman days up to the present, multi-page descriptions for individual special characters, etc. And most importantly, you can feel the enthusiasm Vetock had for the Tau's fluff when he was writing it. Every part of the fluff read like it was feverishly written by some Tau propagandist doing his best to make the tales sound bombastic and epic.

6E Eldar by comparison was just so dull, uninspired and phoned in. The 6th Edition CSM codex wasn't much better, so I begin to wonder if Kelly is just falling off as an author.

Dark Eldar had the best fluff of 5th Edition, so maybe he's just bored. It can't be fun, as an author, to have to write basically the same fluff twice.

**Silverthorne**

BlaxicanX wrote:

Dark Eldar had the best fluff of 5th Edition, so maybe he's just bored. It can't be fun, as an author, to have to write basically the same fluff twice.

Thats what I was thinking. He even came out at a Gamesday and said that it would be strange for him to write the update. Obviously he did end up doing so but you can tell he wasn't rilled up about it. I think Gav really painted the CWE into a corner all the way back in 3rd and since then nobody has figured out how to fix it without going to a straight new-cron level reboot.

**soupfly**

im sure other than the stuff for the new units it has all been in the previous dex's