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Asking because I just began to delve deeper into Aeldari fluff and learned that Biel-Tan lost theirs and it kinda sucks for them and the aeldari in general (considering how they were populous compared to other craftworlfds).

Hey man. I have thought about this before. Allegedly the necessary technology and know-how to build craft worlds has been lost in the fall as the home systems of the Eldar got gobbled up up slanesh.

However, I always had my reservations to this line of though.
Surely, the Eldars traveling on the craftworlds who departed on the said craftworld would have to know how to do maintenance on them and repairs, and therefore would have understood how it works and therefore how to replicate. Also the people who built the craftowrlds in order to take part in the grand exodus surely would have travelled on them also.. I somehow don't envision the ones foreseeing the fall is coming and building the craftworlds and then just saying "nah im not going.." Its like a prepper building a massive bunker and then the gak hits the fan deciding they are not going into the bunker...

So even if they themselves have passed on due to war/disease - A) they would have passed on /recorded the knowledge B) they still live in the infinity circuits so surely new generation Eldars could just ask them how to make and repair.

Considering the Eldar are immortal as far as I know, I see no reason why this knowledge would be lost.

Sure it made sense in the OG 40k gridmark because gridmark.. Both the IOM and the Eldar were all declining and were stuck with Eldar being much more advanced but stuck due to depleting numbers and constant fight for survival...

For what's it worth I created my own homebrew craftworld Nesh-Navar who have been flung faaar out by fall warp energies and got caught in a temporal time anomaly so they re-emerged to a shattered universe.. They are looking to rebuild the empire and are expanding their craftworld and trying to weaponize it as well as bringing exodite worlds into the fold. because they remember.

It's not necessarily a matter of "Do the Eldar still have the knowledge to build a craft world?" as "Do the Elder still have the resources/concentration of manufacturing to build a craft world?"

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Eldar building craft worlds may be a bit like going to the moon for modern people--an impressive marvel at the time that they don't have the will to duplicate because there are other, more immediate priorities to deal with.

From what I understand, what allowed the eldar to build their most impressive stuff was their psychic powers; they pretty much wished things into existence. After the fall, using psychic powers on that scale would get them eaten by Slaanesh in no time.
Apparently, they can still make things out of wraithbone, but it's hard to tell if building a craftworld is out of reach or not...

Another aspect is that maintenance is different to construction. It's possible to maintain things in a good state of operation, but lack the skills to actually construct the whole device again. You can keep it going and invent new ways to fix things that break that you can't replicate. Which done enough times might introduce weakness or other issues that you have to work around.

Furthermore there might be superstructure elements of the construction that are very hard to impossible to rebuild again. Especially without a huge resource base and industry setup.


Eldar could likely build something similar, but the resources, will and drive to construct such a thing might not be there. Remembering that at large they are a population on reduction/maintenance not expansion and that they are without a powerful seat of power. In addition there's the construction time. It might take hundreds of years to build a new craftworld and thus that's a lot of resources you've got to focus on one area and a lot of construction that you've got to hide and hope doesn't get interrupted or attacked.

Potentially but it would be more like the impirum building a new Gloriana class battleship, or a close facsimile to the class. Maybe even a star fort. Sure they can be built but there a gigantic undertaking.

They can still build ships but this was massively larger and more complicated to construct, require the effort of multiple craft world's to lend support and bone singers, probably large scale operations to aquire materals. They cannot grow everything and take centuries or longer of work. Not that the Eldar cannot live 10k+ but its no mere minor project.

Also it might not be quite as powerful as the originals.

The original where built by a empire at zenith. Not the refugees of that empire.

Lastly.
One. You need a spot you can say will be safe enough to work for a few centuries. It needs to be able to have conditions to construct a giant shipyard. And remote enough to not notice multiple craft world's and battlefleets or the gathering of resources and such.

Finally. You need to avoid she who thirsts when many thousands of Eldar are gathered in one area and dozens of not hundreds of ships, craft world's and bone singer crews working.

Bonesingers can build *anything* given enough time to work in peace. For something the scale of a Craftworld however, we're talking likely centuries of dedicated work, and would almost certainly preclude upkeep and maintenance of everything else they're normally working on.

In short, its possible, bot not feasible.

I think for the Eldar build a Craftworld it's no different than build a new starship and they could easily make new ones.
Of course some systems may not be as effective as current Main Craftworlds (huge fixed webway gates and such) but it would be a fully operational and decent Craftworld.

The question here it's not if they can or not but Why they should?

Eldar aren't living in overcrowded spaces, their reproduction is slow and the threats so constant that most of the Craftworlds lack a population that would make them consider such option so they rarely bother in waste their time and efforts on building something useless that won't help at all in their chances of survival.

They want to rebuild their home. Some nutty zealot waltzed in, broke the place and wandered off.

So next time maybe dont build a spaceship out of a sword?

I was under the impression the aeldari population as a whole was declining due to the finite number of souls that go through cycle of reincarnations was being devoured by Slannesh?

 skchsan wrote:
I was under the impression the aeldari population as a whole was declining due to the finite number of souls that go through cycle of reincarnations was being devoured by Slannesh?

Eldar havent reincarnated since the Fall (barring internal wackiness related to Exarch / Phoenix Lords). They either get put on the shelf in an Infinity Circuit or get nommed by Slanny.

Sterling191 wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
I was under the impression the aeldari population as a whole was declining due to the finite number of souls that go through cycle of reincarnations was being devoured by Slannesh?

Eldar havent reincarnated since the Fall (barring internal wackiness related to Exarch / Phoenix Lords). They either get put on the shelf in an Infinity Circuit or get nommed by Slanny.

Or get put in a wraith construct.


But the aeldari population of Biel-Tan was way bigger than the one of other craftoworld. Don't know why thought.

When did Biel-Tan get destroyed? That is huge. I can't remember one of the other major craftworlds being destroyed. Iylanden was half wrecked by the tyranids, and that was one of the most dramatic bits of background in second edition.

 Khornate25 wrote:

Sterling191 wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
I was under the impression the aeldari population as a whole was declining due to the finite number of souls that go through cycle of reincarnations was being devoured by Slannesh?

Eldar havent reincarnated since the Fall (barring internal wackiness related to Exarch / Phoenix Lords). They either get put on the shelf in an Infinity Circuit or get nommed by Slanny.

Or get put in a wraith construct.

But the aeldari population of Biel-Tan was way bigger than the one of other craftoworld. Don't know why thought.

No expert by any means but I think it's infinity circuit wcracked open to summon the floaty, Eldar god thing or broke as a result. I think that might be it.

 jhe90 wrote:

 Khornate25 wrote:

Sterling191 wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
I was under the impression the aeldari population as a whole was declining due to the finite number of souls that go through cycle of reincarnations was being devoured by Slannesh?

Eldar havent reincarnated since the Fall (barring internal wackiness related to Exarch / Phoenix Lords). They either get put on the shelf in an Infinity Circuit or get nommed by Slanny.

Or get put in a wraith construct.

But the aeldari population of Biel-Tan was way bigger than the one of other craftoworld. Don't know why thought.

No expert by any means but I think it's infinity circuit wcracked open to summon the floaty, Eldar god thing or broke as a result. I think that might be it.

Pretty much that. The Craftworld still kind of exists as the people left live on a bunch of ships. Although weirdly half of them are gone to demons or the Ynnari and the Swordwind wandered into the Webway. Which doesn't seem silly at all.

Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

Well, there's still a lot of Aeldari from Biel-Tan going around. Their craftworld might be destroyed, but they aren't.

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

Their home would be in one piece? If someone smashes a hole in a wall of my house I'm going to want to fix it regardless of whether it causes actual problems.

 Khornate25 wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

Well, there's still a lot of Aeldari from Biel-Tan going around. Their craftworld might be destroyed, but they aren't.

Also a craft world is a valuable structure. It's a powerful defensive platform. Logistical base, and they have docks and repair yards for ships, web way gate to travel.

A craft world is not just a home but a space going station of sorts, it can supply many of their needs, repair there ships and support there fleets and such.

Even a small craft world is greatly supioror to a ship, even a capital class warship or flagship..

The craftworld s were originaly just that: worlds that have been crafted. Their size was unfathomable to me when I got into 40k way back when.. There were continent sized gardens and shiz and although my memory is hazy, I remember these being the size of small planets terraforming superstructures. Is it me or have they shrunk a bit in the new lore? Maybe I was really small myself lol..

What about all the maiden worlds and exodite worlds though? Werent these settled by countless craftworlds orginaly? So these craftworlds would still be on thos eplanets in theory?

Why would some of them not have small empires by now and have the resource to re-build a craft world? I don't think they would do it for the purposes of exodus, but for the purposes of war and conquest? Strip away the hippy paradise aspects and retrofit into bad ass death stars.

The question is does the technology, knowledge and resource exists to build new craft world sized infinity circuits? I think I read that this is no longer an option as they don't have the psychic strength/knowledge to think these into existance any more.

When the psychic awakening campaign book comes out- and it's likely the first one given the model release- background for the eldar should be getting a bit of an update.

It will tell us more about how Biel-Tan survivors fair in the wake of their caftworld's destruction, May have some answers.

Aren't there a ton of abandoned craftworlds floating around the webway? Why not just grab one of those?

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

If the Dark Eldar can test tube breed gazillions then they actually have the technology to vastly expand the population if they want. Considering the high level of technology the DE also have, they should be able to build new world ships if they desired. Likely not in the same manner as a traditional craftworld (grown as noted above), but they could be manufactured.

 Frazzled wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

If the Dark Eldar can test tube breed gazillions then they actually have the technology to vastly expand the population if they want. Considering the high level of technology the DE also have, they should be able to build new world ships if they desired. Likely not in the same manner as a traditional craftworld (grown as noted above), but they could be manufactured.

Not an eldar expert at all but this has always kinda rubbed me weird. I know only the DE vat grow new people but how can a race be dying if they should have access to the same tech. Is there any fluff that explains a down side or side effect of cloning a new populace ?

HoundsofDemos wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

If the Dark Eldar can test tube breed gazillions then they actually have the technology to vastly expand the population if they want. Considering the high level of technology the DE also have, they should be able to build new world ships if they desired. Likely not in the same manner as a traditional craftworld (grown as noted above), but they could be manufactured.

Not an eldar expert at all but this has always kinda rubbed me weird. I know only the DE vat grow new people but how can a race be dying if they should have access to the same tech. Is there any fluff that explains a down side or side effect of cloning a new populace ?

I always assumed it was a morality thing. After the Fall the Eldar abandoned lots of technology like their automata so vat born could just be another version of that. Even Dark Eldar look down on vat born.

HoundsofDemos wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

If the Dark Eldar can test tube breed gazillions then they actually have the technology to vastly expand the population if they want. Considering the high level of technology the DE also have, they should be able to build new world ships if they desired. Likely not in the same manner as a traditional craftworld (grown as noted above), but they could be manufactured.

Not an eldar expert at all but this has always kinda rubbed me weird. I know only the DE vat grow new people but how can a race be dying if they should have access to the same tech. Is there any fluff that explains a down side or side effect of cloning a new populace ?

I think the vat-grown eldar are used mostly as workers and cannon fodder while the properly born ones are the elite of Commorite society. I'm not sure if it's because being vat-grown has some downside or if it's just gratuitous discrimination...
One possible reason to explain why craftworlders don't do that: maybe being grown in a tube messes with an eldar's psychic abilities. The dark eldar don't care about that since psychic shenanigans are a big no-no for them, but the craftworlders would care.

HoundsofDemos wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

If the Dark Eldar can test tube breed gazillions then they actually have the technology to vastly expand the population if they want. Considering the high level of technology the DE also have, they should be able to build new world ships if they desired. Likely not in the same manner as a traditional craftworld (grown as noted above), but they could be manufactured.

Not an eldar expert at all but this has always kinda rubbed me weird. I know only the DE vat grow new people but how can a race be dying if they should have access to the same tech. Is there any fluff that explains a down side or side effect of cloning a new populace ?

Exactly. It, like well most of 40K doesn't actually make sense. If you look at Craftworld and DE technology in the entire, its very advanced, far more than anything just this side of Necrons.
Personally head canon: Its Imperium PR. There are lots of eldar. Thats why you seem them on the table top so often
They are just hanging on craftworlds, their own planets, and webway bubble worlds. They don't come out because they are hyper advanced and have no reason to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

One possible reason to explain why craftworlders don't do that: maybe being grown in a tube messes with an eldar's psychic abilities. The dark eldar don't care about that since psychic shenanigans are a big no-no for them, but the craftworlders would care.

That would be a nice touch.

Just put the whole damn thing through the Rubicon Primaris. After all, that's GW's reckless rationalization to do whatever they fething feel like with Space Marines.

GW can call it the Rubicon Prima-web-is-way?!? The Craftworld will be healed and all the Eldar will come out supper swoll like they didn't skip leg day. It'll be fething great, you'll see.

 Frazzled wrote:

HoundsofDemos wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 skchsan wrote:
Right, so it would theoretically possible to rebuilt the physical environment, with no new population being able to populate the world, what good would it do?

If the Dark Eldar can test tube breed gazillions then they actually have the technology to vastly expand the population if they want. Considering the high level of technology the DE also have, they should be able to build new world ships if they desired. Likely not in the same manner as a traditional craftworld (grown as noted above), but they could be manufactured.

Not an eldar expert at all but this has always kinda rubbed me weird. I know only the DE vat grow new people but how can a race be dying if they should have access to the same tech. Is there any fluff that explains a down side or side effect of cloning a new populace ?

Exactly. It, like well most of 40K doesn't actually make sense. If you look at Craftworld and DE technology in the entire, its very advanced, far more than anything just this side of Necrons.
Personally head canon: Its Imperium PR. There are lots of eldar. Thats why you seem them on the table top so often
They are just hanging on craftworlds, their own planets, and webway bubble worlds. They don't come out because they are hyper advanced and have no reason to.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

One possible reason to explain why craftworlders don't do that: maybe being grown in a tube messes with an eldar's psychic abilities. The dark eldar don't care about that since psychic shenanigans are a big no-no for them, but the craftworlders would care.

That would be a nice touch.

The majority of dark Eldar grown are the cannon fodder and low end of society. The ones who lead, commanders, coven and faction leaders are all born.

Depends on side effects, can they manifest psyket abilities, alot of Eldar gear is semi psyker in a way. Even down to the materals they make them from. Do you need a psyker spark to use there kit?

However if you could, it would not stop the craft wpelders building a numerous, almost CDF force, maybe not fully up to craft world standards but they are a more disposable force than the born Eldar.

Or is it because they do not want to be seen as a military threat to impirum? They are pretty extremely outnumbered in real space. Crude as it is, the impirum can do hefty damage.