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I'm really interested in Dark Eldar lore, so I've been wondering if there are any novels centered around average Dark Eldar folk living in Commorragh?

I read stuff about DE nobility, Haemonuculy and warriors, but I haven't caught much information about Bob The Janitor.

I've often wondered the same thing.
From what little snippets I've read; its roving anarchic gangs of feuding Archons. I'd imagine its the survival of the fittest "Kill or be killed"

There is safety in numbers. That is why there are gangs, Wych cults, Kabals, Haemonculi Covens in the first place. That is also why there are limits to the infighting and conspiring within these organizations. Too much risks inefficiency leading to losing out to rivals or even the destruction of the organization.

Kabals are the main source of order, and Kabalite Warriors are the elite of the Kabals. The Kabals act as patrons to the Wych Cults, and the Wyches provide the bloody spectacles for the average Dark Eldar to feed. The average Dark Eldar working for the Kabals likely receives admission to the local arena as part of their payment package.

Hellions and Reavers are the ones that live in gang warfare, though the more successful ones probably can survive off their Wych Cult arena performances.

The Dark Eldar Codex also mentions the poor Dark Eldar that survive by fishing corpses out of the rivers in order to sell them for processing into slave food.

I imagine dakkadakka is pretty close. Just need more killing.

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll

Broly wrote:
I'm really interested in Dark Eldar lore, so I've been wondering if there are any novels centered around average Dark Eldar folk living in Commorragh?

I read stuff about DE nobility, Haemonuculy and warriors, but I haven't caught much information about Bob The Janitor.

DE society revolves around combat and power relationships. Everyone fights. Everyone oppresses others.
DE possess a very high level of technology, they dont need too many Janitors. When they do need one, they have slaves.

Try Midnight on the Street of Knives.

If you're not part of a Kabal and you're not a sensation-starved wretch, you're generally doing odd jobs for whoever will hire you (there's never a shortage of Archons and Haemonculi both major and minor looking for unattached agents to do their work) while going to the arena to feed.

For the dregs of Dark Eldar society not under Kabal control/protection, life probably revolves around getting the next meal of pain. They either need to trade skills or services for that or lie/cheat/fight their way for what they need. There would probably be informal networks of business relationships for mutual aid and protection though like with all Dark Eldar relationships this is motivated more by self interest than by caring for your neighbor.

The Wych Cult arenas can be viewed as the canteens/cafeterias of Dark Eldar society. Although there are starving wretches in the slums, the price of admission to the arenas has to be somewhat manageable for the bulk of Dark Eldar society otherwise society would collapse.

Commorragh is a thriving trade port and manufacturing powerhouse with a large population of not just Dark Eldar, but also many other different xeno species and of course lots of slaves. I imagine that a lot of the xenos as well as Dark Eldar that are not full-time warriors are engaged in trade on behalf of the Kabals. Other non-combat occupations for Dark Eldar will probably be along the line of administrative or technical jobs in service to a Kabal, or to a Haemonculi Coven or Wych Cult. Slaves probably provide most of the low-skilled manpower for the factories and other mundane tasks. Most Dark Eldar themselves are probably way too haughty to be doing simple things unless they are poor and absolutely desperate.

Iracundus wrote:
There is safety in numbers. That is why there are gangs, Wych cults, Kabals, Haemonculi Covens in the first place. That is also why there are limits to the infighting and conspiring within these organizations. Too much risks inefficiency leading to losing out to rivals or even the destruction of the organization.

Kabals are the main source of order, and Kabalite Warriors are the elite of the Kabals. The Kabals act as patrons to the Wych Cults, and the Wyches provide the bloody spectacles for the average Dark Eldar to feed. The average Dark Eldar working for the Kabals likely receives admission to the local arena as part of their payment package.

Hellions and Reavers are the ones that live in gang warfare, though the more successful ones probably can survive off their Wych Cult arena performances.

The Dark Eldar Codex also mentions the poor Dark Eldar that survive by fishing corpses out of the rivers in order to sell them for processing into slave food.

Pretty much this. The Kabals are the fabric of Dark Eldar society. It is likely that virtually all Dark Eldar are aligned to a Kabal in some way or another.

The Kabals struggle among themselves for territory. What does this really mean for those living in these territories? It likely means who they are paying protection money (or some equivalent in goods or services) to. Kabal membership is what Hellions and lowlife Dark Eldar strive for. It is like the difference between street gangs and being a "made man" of an organized crime organization.

The truly destitute who fail utterly to get regular feeding are said to be the "Parched" because they look dehydrated and wasted. The previous Dark Eldar Codex talked of how the Parched lurk in the run down areas of Commorragh hoping to prey on an unlucky soul and thus restore themselves from their Parched status (The canonical Kabal of the Baleful Gaze is in fact made up of these lucky Dark Eldar that have recovered from being Parched).

Just my own head canon, I imagine Commorragh to be something like

1) Rupture Farms - Abe's Oddworld - A planetary industry engineered to pleasure. Souls and suffering are harvested on a means of production almost unimaginable. Death traps lurk at every corner

2) Mogadishu - Black Hawk Down - Citizens lying around, high on drugs, sex, suffering, death. Waking from their stupors to kill, steal, threaten. In gangs, militias, crews, they band together in small territories, owned by uncaring kabals. Warring is common amongst the smaller warlords, but if a balance is upset, the kabals awaken to slap things down.

3) Blade Runner - Slums and sewers and mass poverty below, topped with spires of immense wealth and pleasure. The kabals rule like the 1%, oblivious to the lesser sufferings, whilst living the life of luxury. Those who ascend to their status from the lower rungs are distrusted by class warfare akin to Sharpe meets Game of Thrones.