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What I've been able to find says that an exarch may lead a squad of aspect warriors, but is also the leader of their shrine. The background also says a craftworld can have multiple shrines to one aspect.

So how many aspect warriors would there be in one shrine? It doesn't seem like it could be too many, as the only real leadership position is the exarch, and having only 1 leader for a lot of squads seems impractical, but having only up to 10 models in each shrine seems like it would make exarchs far too common.

Also, do Exarchs ever command more than one squad of aspect warriors, sort of like an autarch, but on a smaller scale and only for warriors from their aspects? Do they ever issue commands to guardian squads?

This is entirely depended on the Shrine itself.

In Path of the Warrior, the main Character joined the Shrine of the Hidded Shadow which ended up being a small shrine of 6 Scorpions and the Exarch. However there was a rival Shrine that taught the Aspect like a Yoga Class, with something close to 30 Scorpions.


As for Exarchs acting as force commanders, this does happen quite often. Or rather, younger Exarches would differ to older Aspects on what to do, but they wouldn't have to do what the Elder says.

One to three squads seems reasonable.

Someone has already cited path of the warrior, so I won't repeat that. One thing I will say is that the Dire Avenger Shrine formation from the latest codex consists of 3 squads of aspect warriors, with only 1 including an Exarch. Bearing in mind the formations that form up a warhost are meant to represent a fluffy craftworld army (and sell lots of models), you could take this as fluff, implying an Exarch could have a shrine of up to 30 warriors (like the other shrine in path of the warrior).

One of the best indicators for the number is actually the dire avenger formation in the codex: you are restricted to 15-30 aspect warriors and one exarch.. which is probably about right... I have a feeling it is meant to be a shrine because if how "dire avengers" are the most numerous.

As to how many there are in a craftworld? Being an eldar player for 25 years I think it would be normal to say about 20-30% of the military might would be aspect warriors.. about 50-60% mechanised in various forms and about 20-30% guardians on foot, on bikes, vauls support, war walkers etc etc...

So if the craftworld was small and had a few thousand guardians on foot it would probably still have hundreds of shrines


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Haha ditto lol *reads* above post made at the same *time *


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Also, as to Exarchs giving orders.. no I don't think so they are stuck on their path and will never leave it, so they are somewhat alien in mind set to the other eldar (other than their path brethren) they would appear obssessed and see everything through their aspects lense.. i.e. value those abilities they already possess undervalue anything not in their aspect..

Also exarchs represent something that is dangerous to eldar .. namely being stuck on a path... the eldar path is part of how they avoid a repeat of the fall.. i.e. falling into hedonism and depravity.. the whole point of the paths idea is to NOT get stuck on one path.. so exarchs are not really trusted fully outside of their war work.. they just know how to deliver a result in one dimension

Lastly, I believe I read once that the phoenix lords are exarchs who put on the armour.. I know this is the same premise as the avatar.. but I am sure I am not confusing the two: If I recall I read that the phoenix lords are long dead but their spirit lives in a sort of mini infinity circuit in the suit and an exarch wears it and becomes sort of part if that suit: sort of immortal as part of it adding to the whole.. if he dies another exarch puts it on etc.. the reason this matters is that a phoneix lord IS a HQ choice so he IS able to lead a whole army.. probably a reflection on the original owner of the suit.. and his/her broader world view