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The codex states that the dark eldar feed on the pain of others to revitalize themselves, because of the whole slannesh leeching their souls thing. How is this achieved? They don't use psychic powers and no tools are mentioned.

Is it that the draining effect of their own souls pulls in negative emotions released by other souls thus refilling them and in some cases overcharging them temporally (power from pain).

While they are not psychic, they are still Eldar, and thus experience everything at a vastly higher level than a human ever could. I think you're pretty close in that proximity to extreme emotion, such as what you get in torture and terrified slaughter, re-energizes them. It's like a drug, all Dark Eldar need their fix, but it never lasts.

 curran12 wrote:
While they are not psychic, they are still Eldar, and thus experience everything at a vastly higher level than a human ever could. I think you're pretty close in that proximity to extreme emotion, such as what you get in torture and terrified slaughter, re-energizes them. It's like a drug, all Dark Eldar need their fix, but it never lasts.

Indeed, But how is it that they absorb this negative emotion from others in proximity?

I think it comes back to the nature of Eldar.

I'm sure at some point, you've experienced or witnessed something that left you emotionally charged. Whether it be positive or negative doesn't matter. The thing with Eldar is that they experience many, many, many times more intensity than you could possibly feel, which in turn would mean that emotional charge would be just as highly amplified. I think it isn't a far leap that a charge that big, and since it is Dark Eldar here it needs to be huge, could re-energize them. You need to remember that an Eldar soul is strong and cognizant enough to still be aware of itself and conscious after death, which makes those charges to the spirit far more intense and gives them much stronger effects.

Couple that with living in the Webway, where things are already a bit screwy on the whole time and space department and there you have it.

 curran12 wrote:
I think it comes back to the nature of Eldar.

I'm sure at some point, you've experienced or witnessed something that left you emotionally charged. Whether it be positive or negative doesn't matter. The thing with Eldar is that they experience many, many, many times more intensity than you could possibly feel, which in turn would mean that emotional charge would be just as highly amplified. I think it isn't a far leap that a charge that big, and since it is Dark Eldar here it needs to be huge, could re-energize them. You need to remember that an Eldar soul is strong and cognizant enough to still be aware of itself and conscious after death, which makes those charges to the spirit far more intense and gives them much stronger effects.

Couple that with living in the Webway, where things are already a bit screwy on the whole time and space department and there you have it.

I understand that they get charged by the extreme negative emotions of others and why, but I still don't understand how they harvest this negative emotion such as pain for others to charge themselfs in the first place.

They are all really Slaaneshi Worshippers in disguise.

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
They are all really Slaaneshi Worshippers in disguise.

Are you saying that the dark eldar are more like noise marines, in that its there own extreme emotion they get from being around pain that feeds them rather then it being them somehow leeching that pain directly of others?

Dean_G117 wrote:

 Tactical_Spam wrote:
They are all really Slaaneshi Worshippers in disguise.

Are you saying that the dark eldar are more like noise marines, in that its there own extreme emotion they get from being around pain that feeds them rather then it being them somehow leeching that pain directly of others?

Yes. They are just super sadistic and being super sadistic keeps them alive because they get off on people suffering.

Yes. They are just super sadistic and being super sadistic keeps them alive because they get off on people suffering.

This does seem to contradict some lore, such as the spirit probe on the cronos:

"A spirit probe is a conductor for agony; a device that ensures no scrap of pain or misery escapes the Cronos’ contra-empathic net. Running hot on tides of excruciation, it boosts the resilience of nearby Dark Eldar, allowing them to stride laughing amid volleys of fire and rains of blows that would otherwise tear them apart. "

and the power from pain rule:
"As Dark Eldar feed on the souls of their foes, they become imbued with supernatural might, eventually turning into killing machines. "

seems to imply that they do directly feed on the pain essence of other people somehow

Dean_G117 wrote:

Yes. They are just super sadistic and being super sadistic keeps them alive because they get off on people suffering.

This does seem to contradict some lore, such as the spirit probe on the cronos:

"A spirit probe is a conductor for agony; a device that ensures no scrap of pain or misery escapes the Cronos’ contra-empathic net. Running hot on tides of excruciation, it boosts the resilience of nearby Dark Eldar, allowing them to stride laughing amid volleys of fire and rains of blows that would otherwise tear them apart. "

and the power from pain rule:
"As Dark Eldar feed on the souls of their foes, they become imbued with supernatural might, eventually turning into killing machines. "

seems to imply that they do directly feed on the pain essence of other people somehow

Yes, because they are secretly Slaaneshi Worshippers.

Yes, because they are secretly Slaaneshi Worshippers.

Noise marines need there own extreme emotions so satisfy them cause they can only feel in extremes due to all the excess, they do not feed of emotion of others.


dark eldar are stated to feed off the negative emotion of others, primarily pain.

They don't use intentional or overt psychic powers, but they are still inherently psychic beings with psychic abilities, both conscious and unconscious. I think the emotional vampirism would most likely be a passive and involuntary psychic trait the race has. The craftworld eldar are also probably capable of it.

 GKTiberius wrote:
They don't use intentional or overt psychic powers, but they are still inherently psychic beings with psychic abilities, both conscious and unconscious. I think the emotional vampirism would most likely be a passive and involuntary psychic trait the race has. The craftworld eldar are also probably capable of it.

I see, so you argue that it is an emphatic trait the eldar race have. Could very well be, havent seen anything stating eldar emphatic ability's though.

Dean_G117 wrote:

 GKTiberius wrote:
They don't use intentional or overt psychic powers, but they are still inherently psychic beings with psychic abilities, both conscious and unconscious. I think the emotional vampirism would most likely be a passive and involuntary psychic trait the race has. The craftworld eldar are also probably capable of it.

I see, so you argue that it is an emphatic trait the Eldar race have. Could very well be, havent seen anything stating Eldar emphatic ability's though.

The word you are looking for is empathic, and I think by being a psychic being that experiences emotion at a higher degree than humans do, would mean that Eldar, of the both vanilla and dark varieties would be very, very empathic. In fact the reason the craftworld Eldar limit themselves to their "paths" is because the emotional empathy is so strong that it can force them to become obsessed and over indulge in the weird psychic-emotion things and cults that caused the original fall of the Eldar and gave birth to Slaneesh.

 GKTiberius wrote:

Dean_G117 wrote:

 GKTiberius wrote:
They don't use intentional or overt psychic powers, but they are still inherently psychic beings with psychic abilities, both conscious and unconscious. I think the emotional vampirism would most likely be a passive and involuntary psychic trait the race has. The craftworld eldar are also probably capable of it.

I see, so you argue that it is an emphatic trait the Eldar race have. Could very well be, havent seen anything stating Eldar emphatic ability's though.

The word you are looking for is empathic, and I think by being a psychic being that experiences emotion at a higher degree than humans do, would mean that Eldar, of the both vanilla and dark varieties would be very, very empathic. In fact the reason the craftworld Eldar limit themselves to their "paths" is because the emotional empathy is so strong that it can force them to become obsessed and over indulge in the weird psychic-emotion things and cults that caused the original fall of the Eldar and gave birth to Slaneesh.

Ah yes thank you. I see, that is a very good explanation.

While not strictly true to the lore I have taken it to be that the DE basically sacrifice the souls of the people they capture and torture in place of their own soul being taken by Slaanesh.

Basically by torturing and making their existance horrofic it kind of makes that soul a more tasty morsel to Slaanesh than the DE who is offering it up.

hence why as an individual DE gets more and more powerful and hence of more and more interest to Slaanesh he must offer up more and more souls to compensate.

Its slightly contradicted by the suggestion that the DE also need the torturing of the other souls to feel alive and that the more and more they do it the more and more they need to do it. Kind of like getting used to a drug, the kick from one soul used to work but now you need two for the same effect or ten or twenty etc

I think it is a trait that DE gained by the atrophy of their psychic powers combined with the slow leeching of their own energy by Slaanesh.

As mentioned, all Eldar are psychic to some degree. DE just choose not to use psychic powers because it would invite the attention of "She who Thirsts". CWE protect themselves with spirit stones, but DE prefer to live in the Webway and "refill their soul cup" with the pain and suffering of others.

DE are far from Slaanesh worshipers, but they are inevitably tied to Slaanesh. If anything, since Eldar "created" Slaanesh. the Eldar race is the god that Slaanesh should worship

From what Motley has said, the Dark Eldar are the closet thing to Prefall Eldar. Which means they're basically the living embodiment of slaneesh. So all that emotional turmoil that feeds the Chaos gods is the same thing they're getting.
They are all mini slaneesh's.
They live the same lifestyle that gave birth to a Super Dark Eldar aka Slaneesh.
Pretty much what I've gotten from all of it.

Galef wrote:I think it is a trait that DE gained by the atrophy of their psychic powers combined with the slow leeching of their own energy by Slaanesh.

As mentioned, all Eldar are psychic to some degree. DE just choose not to use psychic powers because it would invite the attention of "She who Thirsts". CWE protect themselves with spirit stones, but DE prefer to live in the Webway and "refill their soul cup" with the pain and suffering of others.

DE are far from Slaanesh worshipers, but they are inevitably tied to Slaanesh. If anything, since Eldar "created" Slaanesh. the Eldar race is the god that Slaanesh should worship

Yeah this seems to be my line of thinking from what I have read. That the draining of there souls seems to give them the pain drinking trait.

Blitzen the Solitaire wrote:From what Motley has said, the Dark Eldar are the closet thing to Prefall Eldar. Which means they're basically the living embodiment of slaneesh. So all that emotional turmoil that feeds the Chaos gods is the same thing they're getting.
They are all mini slaneesh's.
They live the same lifestyle that gave birth to a Super Dark Eldar aka Slaneesh.
Pretty much what I've gotten from all of it.

That is another good view.