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So just how evil are the Dark Eldar, anyway? It sounds like a stupid question. You can go to many a thread on this very forum where the DE are considered the pinnacle of evilness. They horribly torture sentient races for fun (with incredible skill), they're a group of constantly lying backstabbers, and they do it all just because they choose to. Heck, they’re codex is subtitled: “The Book of Immortal Evils”. But I was just today struck with a sudden epiphany. Maybe there's more to the DE than meets the eye.

Now I'm not going to argue that the Dark Eldar don't do really evil things. That's incontestable. In terms of people you wouldn't want to hang out with, their some of the worst in a setting that's full of people you wouldn't want to hang out with. But why are they that way? How can a whole population of billions (at least, given Commoragh is big enough to be lit and powered by three suns) ALL be irredeemably, mustache twirlingly, evil? The Craftworld Eldar, the Exodites, and the Harlequins aren't, and they're all the EXACT SAME race. Why the seeming lack of any moral complexity among the Dark Eldar?

To get the answer, you have to look at the Dark Eldar not from the point of view of a victim, omniscient narrator, or an Archon bragging about how bad and awesome he is, but from a man on the street (of Commoragh), a typical Dark Eldar. Or alternatively, put yourself in a typical Dark Eldar's shoes and imagine if YOU were a Dark Eldar. That's how this whole thing started. I was thinking of how to write a story from a DE perspective and I needed to figure out what makes them tick.

Firstly, you don't really have any parents. If you're a trueborn, your parents almost certainly won't want the trouble of raising you since you'd just slow them down. But more likely, you're a test tube baby who was cloned in a vat. You're probably raised in a Kabal, with slaves taking care of the menial tasks of raising you, while Kabal members teach you things like how to fight, either because you might be useful to their own schemes, or because someone higher up is forcing them to train you to be a future Kabal Warrior. But Kabal members will also torture and kill you for fun without a second thought. And if you're not in a Kabal, you grow up on the streets of Commoragh where life is even WORSE.

Now here's another really important part of Dark Eldar psychology, death is cheap. Cheaper than it is for a comic book character. DE are one of the only races that can keep getting killed and keep getting resurrected (the others being Necrons and Daemons, if you count banishment). And you're going to die the most while you're still young and lack the skills to defend yourself. So while still an adolescent, before becoming a full fledged Kabal Warrior, you've been killed and regrown multiple times. Does death hold the same meaning for someone who's been raised like that? Sure, there's the threat of final death and having your soul consumed by Slaanesh, but most of the time "death" is far from permanent. Torture is cheap in Commoragh too. It's always happening to people around you, to slaves, to prisoners, to your fellow Kabal members, and it's probably happened to you a bit too. Maybe you've even conditioned yourself to LIKE getting tortured to keep yourself from going insane. In other societies this would be seen as sick and wrong, but in Commoragh it's normal. Killing is normal and usually not permanent, and torture is normal. You have no other baseline to go by.

This is also the point where I should bring up Dark Eldar physiology. Due to the effects of Slaanesh, and not having the same protections as the Harlequins or Craftworld Eldar, the Dark Eldar start to physically waste away over time. Now, whether due to some biological engineering that they performed on themselves long ago, or just another quirk of Slaanesh's corruption, it's not really clear in the fluff, the Dark Eldar can rejuvenate from the effects of this by causing fear and pain in other sentient beings and feeding off the energies they release. DE can even absorb this energy beyond their normal limits and grow physically stronger, faster, tougher, etc. than they would normally be. So, getting back to your life as a Dark Eldar, when you torture or terrorize someone, whether another Eldar or a member of a "lesser" race, you feel AMAZING. All morals aside, it gives a you a feeling of euphoria, a burst of energy, and you're faster and stronger than you were before. On the other hand, if you abstain from tormenting anyone else, you can feel yourself physically starting to waste away. Left unchecked, this will turn you into an ugly, weak, shambling husk until you finally die, drained of all life. So yeah, it’s like a drug. A drug that you’re born addicted to and that you will die a slow, wasting death without. Oh, and that energy from torture is what makes that resurrection machine that has brought you back to life all those times possible! Yay, torture! It’s our most precious natural resource! Seriously though, we’d all be dead without it, and our souls would be getting something done to them by Slaanesh that’s so bad even WE’RE freaked out by it, and in case you didn’t get everything before this, we’re pretty messed up and have seen some stuff.

And with that as the backdrop, is it really a surprise that so much of Dark Eldar culture revolves around creative ways to inflict pain and fear? After all, the more intense the pain and fear, the more they can feed, the greater the euphoria, the safer they are from wasting away. If the pain stops flowing, if you don't have a front row ticket, you're doomed. At the same time, witnessing and participating in that constantly completely erodes any feelings of empathy and turns a DE more and more into a complete sociopath as he or she goes throughout life, if not outright driving them insane. And being surrounded by complete sociopaths, you’ve got to look out for number one. After all, as you’ve learned your whole life, even you’re closest friend or lover will gladly feed you to the dogs if it will improve their own lot, so you better be prepared to do the same if you don’t want to be everyone’s punching bag/fall guy. Whelp, looks like you’re a complete sociopath too, or good as one. Congratulations.

Now, some people say the Dark Eldar could choose another path. Say that you get tired of all this backstabbing and general awfulness in the Dark City. Let’s look at the “choices” you have as a Dark Eldar:

Join the Craftworld Eldar- How are you going to contact them? They probably wouldn’t trust you enough to take you in, let alone give a you the valuable Spirit Stone you need to shield your soul from Slaanesh (they have to run raids onto Chaos corrupted Crone Worlds to get those, they’re valuable!). And adopting the CE’s incredibly strict path system to keep your soul from getting drained? That’s going to be like a junkie sex addict taking lifetime vows of celibacy, temperance, and adopting an all flavorless gruel diet. Even for the very determined, it’s gonna be tough.

Join the Harlequins- Harlequins are shielded from Slaanesh by the Laughing God, they come to Commoragh, and the fluff has clearly stated that former Dark Eldar are among the Harlequins, so this looks promising. But, um… how do you join the Harlequins? They’re a notoriously secretive bunch. It’s likely that they’re an invitation only group. Maybe wait for them to perform somewhere in Commoragh (which isn’t the most common occurrence) and hope you can get there in time to talk with them. If they say no, tough luck.

Join the Corsairs- First you’ve gotta get the chance to contact them, like the Craftworld Eldar, but they do have plenty of former DE in their ranks. This is probably the most promising option. But how do you protect your soul from getting drained? I’m not familiar with any special fluff regarding this for the Corsairs, so I assume that Corsairs use the same methods they used before joining the Corsairs. So you’re still torturing, but curbing some of the worst excesses and not torturing other Eldar unless they’re into that. Basically, you’ve become DE lite. Also, if you get killed your soul goes to Slaanesh with no resurrection. So that sucks.

Strike out on your own- Whelp, you’ve still got to torture sentient races to survive, you can’t resurrect anymore, you have no resources, and you’re completely and utterly alone. Yay?

So while you can leave in theory, it’s going to be difficult to impossible in practice, and there’s a good chance you’ll be worse off than you were before. It’s kind of like saying, if life is so crappy for Imperial citizens, why don’t they all just join the Inquisition? They can’t. That’s not how it works.

So that’s life as a Dark Eldar. Literally everyone and everything is out to get you, you’ve been subjected to death and torture almost since birth, and you need to constantly torture others to survive and feel good. But, you still cling to the hope that if you can just make it to the top, you’ll be safe and life will be awesome. Commoragh is a miserable, desperate place, filled with miserable, desperate people whose only happiness comes from their next high, and yet at the same time it’s marked with this insane optimism and hope. Everyone in Commoragh thinks that he or she can become the next Archon, or Hellion gang lord, or whatever. Never mind that very few become Archons, and most that do end up coming to a horrible end and are replaced by other Archons who come to a horrible end, etc. Not to mention that the higher you climb the more you have to live in a constant state of fear paranoia about everyone around you. But everyone’s quite sure that when they make it, it will be different and their rule will last forever. This completely misplaced hope and optimism is the only thing that keeps the DE from worshipping Slaanesh en masse. Because that would be the final defeat: admitting that they are and always will be nothing more than slaves.

But they ARE all slaves whose every desperate attempt to break free has just led them deeper into the arms of Slaanesh, which is why they’re completely obsessed with freedom. The Dark Eldar disdain rule of law, morality, and religion. They set up and perpetuate a might makes right system because it gives them the illusion of freedom and power. But none of them are free. They’re all slaves to their superiors, their need to feed, and to the constant need to defend themselves from everyone around them. And Slaanesh wouldn’t have it any other way. So they pretend they chose this, that they wanted it to be this way cause they’re so big and bad and beyond normal morality, and they actually LIKE it like this. And that’s the great lie that DE society runs on. It’s their final, meaningless act of rebellion against the being that their entire lives revolve around feeding.

Being taken by the Dark Eldar is a horrible fate, but BEING a Dark Eldar ain’t much better.

The Dark Eldar may be products of their environment, but, just like we can't blame the polio virus for doing what it does, we should still wipe it out. Same for the DE.

But they ARE all slaves whose every desperate attempt to break free has just led them deeper into the arms of Slaanesh, which is why they’re completely obsessed with freedom. The Dark Eldar disdain rule of law, morality, and religion. They set up and perpetuate a might makes right system because it gives them the illusion of freedom and power. But none of them are free. They’re all slaves to their superiors, their need to feed, and to the constant need to defend themselves from everyone around them. And Slaanesh wouldn’t have it any other way. So they pretend they chose this, that they wanted it to be this way cause they’re so big and bad and beyond normal morality, and they actually LIKE it like this. And that’s the great lie that DE society runs on. It’s their final, meaningless act of rebellion against the being that their entire lives revolve around feeding.

Good analysis and observation on the real truth of DE life. For all their alleged "freedom" they're probably worse off than any other race in the galaxy.

Overall, I find the DE the dullest of the 40K bunch, especially since the ability to be resurrected by Haemonculi if slain kind of defeats their whole motivation. They'd be far, far more interesting (and even understandable to some degree) characters if DE only got one shot at this whole "Staying alive as long as we can" thing. It would really add depth to the paranoia and slave-taking and really make the risks that DE take have value. Now? It's "Meh....I'll be back later..."

Well, while resurrection is possible, it is not cheap. I'm thinking that most DE only get that one life, but the powerful get do overs.

I'd say this is spot on, Dark Eldar are victims of circumstance. They HAVE to preform these evil acts, and they ACT like it's their idea and they ACT like they are proud of them, but realistically they have very little choice about it. Is a Tiger evil for eating a Zebra or a Cat evil for 'torturing' a bird with a broken wing?

One thing in your idea needs tweaking. Dark Eldar are terrified of dying. Being resurrected is the province of the Trueborn and the Wealthy, not everyone is entitled to it. A hellion dies, he is being tortured forever in the depths of the Warp. The same with the average Dark Eldar citizen, not even most Kabalite Warriors can afford the price of Regeneration. But you'd imagine any Dark Eldar of import would, Trueborn would have mommy and daddy pay, any Wych worth their salt in the areana would pull a diva if it wasn't in their contract and Scourges are rich enough to afford wings, i am sure they are basically on mates-rates with the Haemonculi.

But those are the 'Elite', even the Basic Kabalite Warrior are considered above the masses, the vast majority of the Dark City, when they die, are dead. This is why Dark Eldar are so intent to live forever, because they know what's on the otherside. Something they can't outsmart or outfight or flee from, something that is coming for them since they were born and something they can't get away from. And the ones rich enough to afford these regeneration contracts? How do you think they got rich in the first place, they continue simply because they enjoy it!

Of the main Eldar societies of Craftworld, Dark Eldar, Exodite, Harlequin, the Dark Eldar seem to offer the least protection to the average Eldar on the street, which from a rational perspective should make it less popular, if it were solely about avoiding Slaanesh. The average Craftworld Eldar has a good chance of going into the Infinity Circuits upon death, and same for the Exodites with their world's World Spirit. The Harlequins are all protected as part of the process of becoming a Harlequin. Yet it is the average Dark Eldar that is most at risk of permanent death and being consumed by Slaanesh. These are the Dark Eldar that lack the influence to ensure their regeneration reliably, which means then they essentially only have 1 life. While the Dark Eldar may be callous, I could see one obvious ploy to get more popularity among the masses by promising more accessible regeneration for everyone.

While the Kabals may enforce some sort of order within themselves, if only to prevent excessive infighting leaving them vulnerable to outside enemies, very little is actually known about day to day average Dark Eldar life. All we know is that Kabalite raiders are the elite of each Kabal, meaning the average Kabalite probably spends their time in doing more boring things such as standing guard. We know the very poorest of the working Dark Eldar are found fishing for dead bodies in the rivers to sell for rendering down. I would imagine much of Dark Eldar daily life would revolve around doing whatever tasks demanded by one's superior in return for admission tickets to the local Wych Cult arena. If so, the average Dark Eldar might very well have less freedom than a Craftworlder, who is free to choose their Path.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
I'd say this is spot on, Dark Eldar are victims of circumstance. They HAVE to preform these evil acts, and they ACT like it's their idea and they ACT like they are proud of them, but realistically they have very little choice about it. Is a Tiger evil for eating a Zebra or a Cat evil for 'torturing' a bird with a broken wing?

One thing in your idea needs tweaking. Dark Eldar are terrified of dying. Being resurrected is the province of the Trueborn and the Wealthy, not everyone is entitled to it. A hellion dies, he is being tortured forever in the depths of the Warp. The same with the average Dark Eldar citizen, not even most Kabalite Warriors can afford the price of Regeneration. But you'd imagine any Dark Eldar of import would, Trueborn would have mommy and daddy pay, any Wych worth their salt in the areana would pull a diva if it wasn't in their contract and Scourges are rich enough to afford wings, i am sure they are basically on mates-rates with the Haemonculi.

But those are the 'Elite', even the Basic Kabalite Warrior are considered above the masses, the vast majority of the Dark City, when they die, are dead. This is why Dark Eldar are so intent to live forever, because they know what's on the otherside. Something they can't outsmart or outfight or flee from, something that is coming for them since they were born and something they can't get away from. And the ones rich enough to afford these regeneration contracts? How do you think they got rich in the first place, they continue simply because they enjoy it!

Fair enough, although I still think that the Kabal itself would foot the bill for many of their best Warriors. There's a reference in the fluff to huge resurrection chambers being chock full of pods of regrowing DE during times of war. It just makes sense. If you want your Kabal to survive, you NEED a lot of trained warriors, not the DE equivalent of conscripts. It's not being charitable, it's being pragmatic. This of course, creates even more of a motive for Kabal slave raids. Take lots of slaves to the Haemonculi to get a bulk discount on regenerating your warriors, so the other Kabals don't descend on you in a weakened state and pick your bones clean. And Wyches who have a decent win record, Scourges, Trueborn, Archons, etc, are all going to get the resurrection service for the reasons you've listed above. So while there are still a ton of dregs for whom death is permanent (along with people from all of the above groups who fell out of grace and whose enemies don't feel like keeping them alive in eternal torment), that still amounts to a whole lot of Dark Eldar who have died and been brought back.

As for the comment about being a Dark Eldar being less "popular" because it offers less protection, it's not really a choice. Based on the fluff we have, Vect is one of the oldest DE, and he was a child when the Fall happened. So most of the original residents of the vice dens that would become Commoragh, the ones who chose this life, have been whittled away over the centuries and are all gone now. The current generation grew up there, were created or born because there was a need for more bodies to run this hellhole, and have a tough time leaving for all the reasons I listed above. And while a Dark Eldar who's a slave lackey to an Archon is by no means free, the Paths of the Craftworld Eldar require immense amounts of self control, including controlling one's very thoughts, which is a whole different can of worms. So no, the DE definitely aren't freer than Craftworld Eldar. They're actually the LEAST FREE Eldar, and their freedom is a complete self delusion. But that doesn't mean that a Dark Eldar can just switch over to the Path system on a whim.

 fallinq wrote:

Strike out on your own- Whelp, you’ve still got to torture sentient races to survive, you can’t resurrect anymore, you have no resources, and you’re completely and utterly alone. Yay?

I think a clever DE would go this path. The trick would be to leave with enough gear/tech/slaves.

The entire point would be to sell the xenos tech- either to a Rogue Traders, black markets or extremely wealthy collectors. Get yourself set up and rich on some backwards planet and spend your time hiding away in your palatial estate. All your inflicting pain needs can be fulfilled by simply purchasing slaves. I mean, this is the Imperium, slavery is common as dirt and being turned into a automaton is a common punishment. In fact it's always been curious to me that DE don't in many cases extort certain settlements. 'Give us 50 slave offerings or we'll come in the dark and take everything...' I could see some very prudent Imperial rulers clearing out the prisons in a heartbeat if it meant no DE strike fighters in the sky.

 Kojiro wrote:

 fallinq wrote:

Strike out on your own- Whelp, you’ve still got to torture sentient races to survive, you can’t resurrect anymore, you have no resources, and you’re completely and utterly alone. Yay?

I think a clever DE would go this path. The trick would be to leave with enough gear/tech/slaves.

The entire point would be to sell the xenos tech- either to a Rogue Traders, black markets or extremely wealthy collectors. Get yourself set up and rich on some backwards planet and spend your time hiding away in your palatial estate. All your inflicting pain needs can be fulfilled by simply purchasing slaves. I mean, this is the Imperium, slavery is common as dirt and being turned into a automaton is a common punishment. In fact it's always been curious to me that DE don't in many cases extort certain settlements. 'Give us 50 slave offerings or we'll come in the dark and take everything...' I could see some very prudent Imperial rulers clearing out the prisons in a heartbeat if it meant no DE strike fighters in the sky.

It's happened before. Numerous little DE kingdoms in real space have been carved out this way. It usually ends with the Inquisition getting wind of it and nuking everything, or the DE getting greedy and coming in the dark to take everything regardless.

How do the Corsairs stay safe from Slaanesh?

Hollismason wrote:
How do the Corsairs stay safe from Slaanesh?

From the Lexicanum article on Corsairs:

"Outcasts must bear the terrible burden of their heightened Eldar consciousness without the protection of the Eldar path, set free within the universe they are dangerously vulnerable.

...experience the full gamut of emotion and sensation accessible to the Eldar’s sensitive psyche. Most ... eventually return to their homes older, wiser and tempered by warfare. Some, however, embrace the raider’s life completely and fall further still, becoming ever more bloodthirsty and psychotic, indulging their darkest impulses and eventually seeking out the infamous Dark City."

Soooo, they kinda don't. Basically, Corsairs do what Eldar Rangers do, try to walk a fine line between the discipline of the paths and depraved addictions of the Dark Eldar. From the sound of it, this usually doesn't work in the long term. It also makes Corsair an incredibly dangerous career choice for an Eldar.

 fallinq wrote:
How can a whole population of billions ALL be irredeemably, mustache twirlingly, evil?

It's just not possible that all DE are bad. Out of trillions, there has to be atleast a few thousand DE who can be considered good.

Even if DE were genetically modified to be evil, there will still be a lot of individuals with some kind of genetic flaw that makes them not evil.

 AdeptSister wrote:
Well, while resurrection is possible, it is not cheap. I'm thinking that most DE only get that one life, but the powerful get do overs.

That's my interpretation of the fluff as well - the scum of Commorragh (Hellions and the other unfortunates who make up the "lower class") basically don't have access to resurrection, and so lead a pretty desperate existence. Even lower-ranking members of kabals or wych cults wouldn't necessarily be able to afford it (other than willingly becoming a plaything for a homunculus or something like that). No, I think the resurrections are something they pay dearly for, so death is only cheap for Archons and the like.

Also, I'm assuming that you need a physical dead body to resurrect... or do they do some sort of "psychic" resurrection, where they just suck the soul into a new body?

 fallinq wrote:
Join the Corsairs- First you’ve gotta get the chance to contact them, like the Craftworld Eldar, but they do have plenty of former DE in their ranks. This is probably the most promising option. But how do you protect your soul from getting drained?

I wish they would flesh out Corsairs a bit more. DE are clearly affected by some sort of spiritual/physical wasting, but the Corsairs seem to just wander around the galaxy, and don't seem to need to do anything special to avoid spiritual/physical decay. I wonder if the DE are caught in sort of a vicious cycle - they are wasting away because of their moral depravity, but they need to be morally depraved to keep from wasting away? That would at least explain why Corsairs and Rangers can be relatively unaffected by this wasting - they're like the mountain men of modern Eldar society, rugged individuals who live off the land (rather than the crazy drug/torture addict city folks of Commorragh, or the stoic monk-like Craftworlders). The dangers to Corsairs and Rangers are more simple - the lions and tigers and bears in the woods (who also devour your soul after they kill you).

 AdeptSister wrote:
Well, while resurrection is possible, it is not cheap. I'm thinking that most DE only get that one life, but the powerful get do overs.

also with all the treachery going around in Commogarth, dying isnt a good thing. It might be just the right time for one of your subordinates to seize power and leave you dead for good.

Broly wrote:

 fallinq wrote:
How can a whole population of billions ALL be irredeemably, mustache twirlingly, evil?

It's just not possible that all DE are bad. Out of trillions, there has to be atleast a few thousand DE who can be considered good.

Even if DE were genetically modified to be evil, there will still be a lot of individuals with some kind of genetic flaw that makes them not evil.

Except DE weren't "genetically modified" to be evil, their souls were tainted by a god. A "genetic flaw" ain't gonna undo that. Also, if you're anything approaching what most people would call "good" in Commoragh, you die horribly and you ain't coming back. A Dark Eldar that's still alive and is "good" by DE standards is still doing horrible things on a daily basis just to survive. That was sort of the point of this thread. The Dark Eldar are FORCED to be evil if they want to survive. Take Lelith Hesperax. If she were born on a Craftworld, she would be a great Exarch or Autarch, the kind of character who runs in to save the day when all hope is lost. But she was born in the Dark City, so she murders to provide sick entertainment. And arguably, by Dark Eldar standards, Lelith IS "good". She mostly just kills, and mostly people and things that are trying to kill her right back. By DE standards, that's downright pleasant. "Death is a mercy" after all.

The ability of Dark Eldar to make the transition to Corsair or even Craftworld Eldar (as shown in the Path of the Eldar books) shows the Dark Eldar lifestyle is not totally forced upon them. The books also showed the existence of apparent Eldar settlements in the Webway where the different Eldar intermingle and trade, sort of neutral ground for all the different branches of Eldar.

One common misconception is that Craftworld life is monk-like. The Path books show the existence of a Path called the Path of the Dreamer, which is literally spending all day sitting around daydreaming (with or without the aid of psychotropic drugs). It is only monk-like in comparison to the Dark Eldar and Corsair lifestyle in that Eldar have to make a choice and stick with it for a reasonable length of time instead of changing around as their whims dictate.

Iracundus wrote:
The ability of Dark Eldar to make the transition to Corsair or even Craftworld Eldar (as shown in the Path of the Eldar books) shows the Dark Eldar lifestyle is not totally forced upon them. The books also showed the existence of apparent Eldar settlements in the Webway where the different Eldar intermingle and trade, sort of neutral ground for all the different branches of Eldar.

One common misconception is that Craftworld life is monk-like. The Path books show the existence of a Path called the Path of the Dreamer, which is literally spending all day sitting around daydreaming (with or without the aid of psychotropic drugs). It is only monk-like in comparison to the Dark Eldar and Corsair lifestyle in that Eldar have to make a choice and stick with it for a reasonable length of time instead of changing around as their whims dictate.

You're looking at this Path of the Dreamer thing the wrong way. You're thinking "Wow, they have a path that is just daydreaming? Following Eldar Paths is super easy!" But what you should be thinking is, "Holy crap, the Eldar have to have a DEDICATED PATH to daydreaming because if an Eldar just daydreams whenever he feels like it, his soul starts to drain out of his pointy ears!" That's the level of control and structure we're talking about here. An Eldar's mind works about a hundred times faster than a human’s (source: 6th Eldar Codex). And as you said, these guys spend all day, every day, sitting around daydreaming. To get an idea of what that's like for an Eldar, consider dedicating twenty years of your (human) life to sitting in a room, daydreaming, only stopping for food, sleep, and the minimum amount of exercise you need to keep your body from withering away. How long can you keep this up before you get bored? Start going stir-crazy? No, you can't watch TV, surf the net, or paint little toy soldiers. You're on the Path of the Dreamer, you've got to sit and ing DAYDREAM, and that's all you get to do, for the set minimum amount of time you're on that path (paths have minimum time periods, the Path of the Seer is really long) before you start on another path, at which point you have to stop daydreaming entirely and focus entirely on your NEW path. I doubt a human is even psychologically capable of that. There are tons of quotes from Craftworld Eldar that make it clear that, while the Path system is necessary, it kind of sucks. "Become less than ourselves," a Spiritseer described it as in the 5th Ed DE codex. Why would there be so many Rangers, Corsairs, and Outcasts if it were so easy to follow the Paths?

And why does the Path system even work, anyway? I have a theory. By focusing obsessively on one thing at a time, the Craftworld Eldar turn everything they do into a chore. There's a saying, "When it becomes your job, it's not fun." Not always true, but definitely true in this case. It's not pleasurable, or hardly pleasurable anymore. Slaanesh is the god of pleasure and excess. The Craftworld Eldar protect themselves from him/her by cutting all excessive pleasure out of their lives. They may feel some small measure of pleasure or satisfaction when things go well, but they can't do what they want, when they want, and they don't get to stop doing a task when their satisfied, they have to keep at it for a set period of time. This extends to their very thoughts. Pleasure is never felt in excess (excess that most of us would consider a fairly normal, healthy, and desirable amount for a happy life). It's curbed, controlled, and kept to an absolute minimum. But when you look at the outward actions of an Eldar, or the whole of Eldar civilization, that’s not obvious. It doesn’t look “monk-like” because they haven’t sacrificed anything material; they’re still making art and babies and whatnot. The sacrifice is entirely emotional. Because of the Path system, CE get to live full, productive lives, doing many different activities that help keep their civilization going, without all the soul draining that such actions cause for the Dark Eldar. They can be artists, warriors, musicians, architects, lovers, or just sit around thinking. They'll accomplish more than a human could in ten lifetimes. But they don't ever get to fully enjoy any of it.

And I wouldn’t use the word "monk-like" to describe Eldar Paths. That's a human concept, and it's misleading. The Eldar Paths aren't about vows of temperance, or celibacy, or living in isolation. They're about complete, single minded focus of thought and action.

I feel like people in the real world it ranges from person to person.

All DE are slaves to their corrupt lifestyle one way or another and have essentially no choice in the matter.
However:

Homunculi enjoy what they do (that is for certain)

They seem overly excessive on a lot of fronts

General unpleasantness

However an alternative explanation is that all this "Pain 4 LIFE" stuff is out of a blind fear of Slaanesh and are just trying to do all they can to stave him off.

. They HAVE to preform these evil acts, and they ACT like it's their idea and they ACT like they are proud of them, but realistically they have very little choice about it. Is a Tiger evil for eating a Zebra or a Cat evil for 'torturing' a bird with a broken wing?

Ehm... no they don't. CWE seem to get on just fine not doing these things. The DEldar *choose* to live these lives.

To be fair the Craftworlds might as well be a universe away from Comorragh. Most DE will never see a craftworld and the only Eldar "culture" they will ever know is is the crazy DE one. So saying that CWE get along find and using that to condemn the DE is a bit far fetched as a lot of DE never leave comorragh except for brief realspace raids.

The main problem is the DE don't just do what they do to survive. They enjoy it immensely.

Being a "good" Dark Eldar has absolutely nothing to do with being good.

Really good analaysis of the DE, and does explain a lot of their underling motivations, but I still think their lifestyle conditions them to be sadists, and no matter how much they want to leave, they can't (for the most part) so they remain long enough to not care about leaving.

Dark Eldar choose their lifestyle. So they're evil. A tiger will always be a tiger. A dark eldar, however, chooses to be a dark eldar.

Yes, becoming a CWE or an Exodite or a Harlequin is not easy. Guess what. NO ONE EVER SAID BEING A GOOD GUY IS EASY (or at least, a "not as evil" guy)

Saying "I'm gonna choose the route of evil because the nicer routes are so hard!" is NO EXCUSE.

Really, there's a reason why even their codex calls them the most evil.

(although from the perspective of Eldar, for whom morality to the "lesser" races doesn't apply for some of them, it's more of a grey area, as pointed out in the Rogue Trader RPG series. A lot of the Dark Eldar's "evil" morality goes out the window if you don't believe torturing lesser races is evil. Not that some Dark Eldar don't torture Eldar either though and practically all of them are jack asses, regardless, as opposed to CWE where only "a lot" of them are jack asses )

Hold on a sec it can be up to debate whether or not CWE are as evil as DE.

Now DE are mass torturing sadists no doubt about it but...

-CWE INTENTIONALLY caused Armageddon.
-CWE have caused more human deaths in the long run than DE ever could (Armageddon casualties alone is enough to make the DE shudder.)
-Randomly destroy and slaughter frontier worlds, cuz theyz wuz there first.

I feel like CWE might not enjoy killing, but have definitely killed more people.

I like this take on the Dark Eldar, who as an entire race of mustachio-twirlers don't make sense. It fits my headcanon that all the GW and BL fluff is in-universe propaganda of some kind. In the DE's case, the fluff is them saying "Yeah, we're EVIL and TRANSGRESSIVE and SUPER-COOL and did we mention EVIL and we do WHATEVER WE WANT" over and over -- in the hopes you can't hear their faint whimpering make it stop make it stop make it stop......

 SisterSydney wrote:
I like this take on the Dark Eldar, who as an entire race of mustachio-twirlers don't make sense. It fits my headcanon that all the GW and BL fluff is in-universe propaganda of some kind. In the DE's case, the fluff is them saying "Yeah, we're EVIL and TRANSGRESSIVE and SUPER-COOL and did we mention EVIL and we do WHATEVER WE WANT" over and over -- in the hopes you can't hear their faint whimpering make it stop make it stop make it stop......

Same. No one can escape the Grimdark. Not even the Grimdark itself.

One of the best (possibly apocryphal) stories I've ever read about how addicts make their lives miserable -- DE being basically addicted to evil -- concluded with the cocaine addict telling her shrink, almost in shock, "you mean, I don't have to do what I want to do?"

 SisterSydney wrote:
One of the best (possibly apocryphal) stories I've ever read about how addicts make their lives miserable -- DE being basically addicted to evil -- concluded with the cocaine addict telling her shrink, almost in shock, "you mean, I don't have to do what I want to do?"

They are not addicted to evil. Their mortal and immortal lives depend on it. Its not that they want to be evil, they require it to survive.

Pretty sure there are no fluff stories whatsoever of a Dark Eldar not enjoying the evil things s/he's doing (and by now there's been quite a few stories from a DE's perspective). I could be wrong but... yea. They might have to do it to survive, but they love doing it too.

Again, if they really really didn't like it, there are other options, even if not easy ones. And sometimes, some DE actually DO take those other options too

...actually, that might be one of the reasons you never see any DE that don't enjoy the evil things they do. Any DE that doesn't enjoy the evil things s/he's doing probably already went on to become an exodite/CWE/harlequin or even a corsair (though most DE corsairs are just as bad) in the first place

Or jumped off one of those spiky towers in Commorragh....