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I'm not really familiar with either army, and there's probably another thread on this already.

Why can the Dark Eldar and the Eldar ally?

Because they're both Elves in SPAAACE!!!

Who would you rather work with, a rapist murder but is still human (comparitivly) or a monkey/dog which try to kill you just for being human. At least you can talk with the rapist and convince him not to rape you...

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
Who would you rather work with, a rapist murder but is still human (comparitivly) or a monkey/dog which try to kill you just for being human. At least you can talk with the rapist and convince him not to rape you...

Neither.

I dunno. Setting the Rapist Murderer on the Monkey Dogs so less 'Normal Eldar' die doing their job has merit to a farseer/autarch

dark eldar and eldar does not equal chaos marines and space marines.

Eldar and Dark eldar see each other as cousins who live strange ways. But if needed, they will stand by each other, for mostly personal gain, in a crisis. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and also related to me" to paraphrase

It seems to be a rather common misconception. The imperials are the ones who reference dark eldar as 'dark'. Eldar call them their fallen kin, but kin nonetheless

Von Chogg

In Gav Thorpe's Eldar trilogy, the Eldar call the Dark Eldar 'Commorraghans.'
Eldar are not enemies with Dark Eldar. But they don't hang out together much either. They mutually understand that circumstances at the time of the Fall led them to different lifestyles, but they are still family.
They are also free to choose the other side if they want. A Craftworld Eldar can take the Path of the Renegade and join a Dark Eldar Kabal. Or a Dark Eldar can go to a Craftworld and be accepted. In one of Gav's books, there's a Striking Scorpion who was formerly a DE Incubus. Such dramatic changes are rare for the culture shock factor, but all Eldar are very big on the freedom of personal choice.

Look at it this way:

You're at a family reunion. Almost everyone else there is a child. The only real "peer" you have to talk to is your creepy-ass cousin you haven't talked to in a long time. You don't really share any interests, but at least you're the same age and have some shared culture. Better than talking to a five-year old, right?

That's a lot like Eldar. All the other races are either idiot children or ancient monsters you can't relate to at all (Necrons, Tyranids). Who else are you going to work with? It's not like you're BFF, but they're a lot more palatable than your other options, and hey, at least you have a shared culture, right? Sort of?

 Archonate wrote:
In Gav Thorpe's Eldar trilogy, the Eldar call the Dark Eldar 'Commorraghans.'

That's a terrible name. lol

Something like "The/our Dark Kin", or what not, sounds a bit less silly.

Throrpe completely changed the fluff on the Eldar - Dark Eldar relationship. A Dark Eldar is not psychic, so there would be no way for it to interact with the infinity circuit. It's unlikely that Dark Eldar could develop psychic powers by just changing over.

I was under the impression that the dark eldar have just supressed psychic powers so long that they cant really use them anymore meaning the psychic connection is there for things like the psychic triggers and such the eldar use but heavily unused and supressed.

A long time ago Eldar where one race. They where super talented in everything and had enormous psychic potential. Complete wickedness run unchecked birthed Slanesh and the eldar where doomed. They where divided in at least 5-6 factions.

Dark Eldar are soul vampires. Just because their gods warped into an evil version and where eaten by Slanesh it just proves that they where not worthy of worship. Of course being truly arrogant bastards they did not see that as a wake up call and carried on. They need to keep eating souls and hope that they can out eat the eternal hunger. They are ultimately doomed.

(Craftworld) Eldar are buddist. Because their god was warped into and evil version and eaten by Slanesh and they must not give in to the feelings that birthed her. They talented accomplish that by focusing their super talented consciousness on only one thing at a time. They are ultimately doomed.

Dark Eldar are cheap and they cheat. Poison negates thoroughness, lances negates amour value. They have good range and fast speed. They die very easily.

(Craftworld) Eldar are expensive and they are specialists. Awesome technology gives you what you need when you need it. They have good range and fast speed. They die very easily.

The other eldar factions are pirates/corsairs, harlequins, exodites and rangers/wanderers. They are all ultimately doomed and die very easaly.

Edit: After re reading the other replies people are really spot on. However, the eldar are part of the same race (or used to be). A eldar at the hight of the golden age would probably have the better stats of a dark eldar (weapon skill and initiative) and the psychic potential of a psyker. They would be scary to meet. All of the eldars still hail from this and still share a lot of traits and culture. And while they all have taken very different approaches to having a fate worse then death. The dark eldar by keep betting they can outlive. Regular eldar by taking themselves out of the sykel of rebirth (or a late night meal for slanesh as it is in these days since they would get eaten and not be re birthed). Harlequins still have their god...although I do not know if they bother with spirit stones or what they do with them. Exodites becomes part of the planet. (Like a super ecosystem watchers.) Rangers use spirit stones I believe...and there is not much information on the pirates.

It really does sound awful. And do not think of regular eldar as nice, they still feed some poor up and coming warrior to the Avatar of Khain once in a while. All Eldar are while, craftworld eldars are just trying to focus on one aspect of life at a time and having a big "feth-all" hedonistic party where they most likely kill you and each other like they used to in the old days just is a bit to distracting. If the dark eldar has learned anything at all it might be the old slogan "Do not get high on your own supply/kind."

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Throrpe completely changed the fluff on the Eldar - Dark Eldar relationship. A Dark Eldar is not psychic, so there would be no way for it to interact with the infinity circuit. It's unlikely that Dark Eldar could develop psychic powers by just changing over.

yes and no....

There still seems to be an ability for the Eldar to cross between the two "races" - how this is done is not clear....



It maybe that Eldar science is able to subdue/eactivate the psyker part of their genetics/souls as needed - as I think the DE codex says that their psyhic has atpohied to near vansihing rather than totally lost?

Also Dark Eldar are merely Eldar without rigid self control - there are references to jealousy about the DE life style by Eldar observers - which is also likely why some Eldar turn to Chaos despite the safeguards of the Path.

@Mr Morden:

DE use the pain of slaves to extend their own lives thereby avoiding slaanesh; I can guarantee that there is some sort of psychic activity involved. Slaanesh doesn't just gobble them up if they aren't torturing people; it's a waiting game. When a DE dies it's soul goes to slaanesh.

Same way with the regular Eldar. When they die their soul goes to slaanesh; however, the soul stones are a technology which captures the soul upon death thereby sidetracking the soul before it can get there. Note that if the soul stone is destroyed then the soul continues its journey to slaanesh.

Finally, DE are not E without rigid self control. DE have purposely decided that gaining extended life through torturing others is more preferable than getting stoned... That's a decision, not a lack of ability.

Regarding the rape-murderer analogy it should be noted that the rape-murderer prefers to rape and murder people from other species. So the question is "while in grace danger or in a situation of opportunity, would you ally with someone who likes to rape and then murder people who do not look like you do?" Rape in this case is a metaphor for what they do to their victims' soul, which is rape it, and murder is a metaphor for what the victim wish for during torture. Dark Eldar aren't a friendly bunch.

Clively, Soul Stones are a transportation device, not a delaying action. And Dark Eldar are Eldar without rigid self-control, but they aren't THE Eldar without rigid self-control. Craftworlders take self-control to the utter extreme and just as the Dark Eldar the Craftworlders are lesser for their chosen path of self-preservation.

 Archonate wrote:
In Gav Thorpe's Eldar trilogy, the Eldar call the Dark Eldar 'Commorraghans.'
Eldar are not enemies with Dark Eldar. But they don't hang out together much either. They mutually understand that circumstances at the time of the Fall led them to different lifestyles, but they are still family.
They are also free to choose the other side if they want. A Craftworld Eldar can take the Path of the Renegade and join a Dark Eldar Kabal. Or a Dark Eldar can go to a Craftworld and be accepted. In one of Gav's books, there's a Striking Scorpion who was formerly a DE. Such dramatic changes are rare for the culture shock factor, but all Eldar are very big on the freedom of personal choice.

That Striking Scorpion subplot is a rather large part of the book drama, would be kind not to reveal it to potential readers, perhaps. Suffice to say, though, that Eldar coming and going between the factions isn't unheard of even on Alaitoc, but that particular Striking Scorpion... culture shock isn't the right word for it.

clively wrote:
@Mr Morden:

DE use the pain of slaves to extend their own lives thereby avoiding slaanesh; I can guarantee that there is some sort of psychic activity involved. Slaanesh doesn't just gobble them up if they aren't torturing people; it's a waiting game. When a DE dies it's soul goes to slaanesh.

The DE don't die very easily, though, especially the higher up, more wealthy kabals and rich families, due to the regrowth process that haemonculi use to keep a DE warrior from dying, but agreed, when they do eventually die, which is potentially a very long way away for lots of them, they do go to slannesh

As I read it - Slaanesh is constantly leaching the DE vitality and they use the tortured/drained souls of others to replace their own being drained? It might only be the ones that have outlived normal life span however?