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I've been a gamer for a very long time, and I was wondering how much I can justify harlequins going without their helmets. For some reason, I had the impression that they never remove their masks (or get out of character) but when the new kits were released, I think the white dwarf people did a head-swap on one.

Would it be fluffy for me to make a harlequin troop without their masks?

In battle they'd not remove their masks, because every battle is a reenactment of an Eldar Myth Cycle where every Harlequin plays a character of legend, hence the need for the Masks.

However they are not preforming all the time, and would remove their masks when out of combat. Unless you are a Mime, who uses their Masks to communicate their emotions and apparently Solitaires, who have something marked upon their forehead which disturbs other Harlequins.

Go ahead, take the masks off - half the 'bareheaded' models in 40k actually would have helmets on if it were 'real life', they're just modelled without for aesthetic purposes on the board.

In the Fear The Alien anthology there is a story by Matthew Farrer called Faces where some humans manage to get their hands on Harlequin masks. The story ends with the deaths of the humans as the Harlequins track them down to recover their masks.

In path of the outcast there is a solitaire who pretends to be a ranger so yes it appears they do.

Harlequins are the Alpha Legion of Eldar society. You can't effectively infiltrate places without takin' off da mask, so I'd say that yes, they do remove masks when in disguise, but would never do so when undisguised in battle alongside the rest of their troop.

How else would they brush their teeth?

Trystis wrote:
How else would they brush their teeth?

Clearly, that counts as a covert operation.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Go ahead, take the masks off - half the 'bareheaded' models in 40k actually would have helmets on if it were 'real life', they're just modelled without for aesthetic purposes on the board.

This, pretty much. It's not very fluffy for them to have masks off tho.

 odinsgrandson wrote:
I've been a gamer for a very long time, and I was wondering how much I can justify harlequins going without their helmets. For some reason, I had the impression that they never remove their masks (or get out of character) but when the new kits were released, I think the white dwarf people did a head-swap on one.

Would it be fluffy for me to make a harlequin troop without their masks?

For the Harlequins themselves? Not really.

Gav Thorpe's "Path of the Outcast", however, has an Alaitocii Ranger meeting a Harlequin amongst the crew of a ship he goes in. It's kind of a big spoiler-y detail, so I'm going to hide it. Peek if you want but don't say I didn't warn you...

In the Daemonifugue graphic novel the Harlequin introduces himself to Ephrael Stern with no mask on, so you can see his face as well as read about it ;-)

Masks are an important part of Eldar culture. I recall that no Eldar removes his warmask for the duration of a conflict. I imagine the Harliquins are even more strict about it, they might not remove their masks at all.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Masks are an important part of Eldar culture. I recall that no Eldar removes his warmask for the duration of a conflict. I imagine the Harliquins are even more strict about it, they might not remove their masks at all.

When they go to war Aspect Warriors use ritual and masks to help attain a different psycological state that enables them to make war far more effectively, suppressing for the most part emotions and drives such as pity anf mercy..

The original story about Harlquins and now back in again IIRC where they perform "The Dance without end" the Solitaire has lived amongst other Eldar unregarded and unnoticed as a Infiinity Circuit Tech for decades.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Masks are an important part of Eldar culture. I recall that no Eldar removes his warmask for the duration of a conflict. I imagine the Harliquins are even more strict about it, they might not remove their masks at all.

They might get caught off guard however and have to do battle without.

In combat they wouldn't, outside of it there's no reason why not.

Just like Space Marines, do what looks cool.

The harlequins don't wear masks, they are the masks.