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It can't be daily or even weekly, otherwise the billions in Commorragh would be too much of a problem for the IoM to let go un-exterminated?

I've read in a few lore books that some sort of essence of suffering can linger in an area if enough people were tortured in the area. (from Fire and Faith mainly)

Thereby cutting back the need for slaves again.

I think it gets more intense the longer they're alive. Not that it necessarily impacts the IoM enough to make them want to exterminate the DE. That's pretty beyond them and DE raid everyone not just humans.

The IoM already have plenty of reason to want to exterminate Commorragh, but they simply can't because it is located in a different dimension.
I don't think we have ever been told how long exactly DE can go without replenishing their soul. I imagine it is pretty long though, as DE are described as starting to look more and more aged the longer they go without suffering. Drinking souls is noted to have a rejuvenating effect on them. It also depends on how old and jaded they are. Their thirst for suffering is described as 'ever-increasing'.
So what I think is the case is that Dark Eldar that do not drink souls eventually age and die, forfeiting their souls to Slaanesh. Drinking souls reverses the aging and prolongs their lives, but the more often they do this the more souls they will require to reach the same effects. So basically, this would mean that a Dark Eldar could go without souls for whatever the natural lifespan of the Eldar species is.

The Dark Eldar described in FFGs 40K games needed their fix "once per session", which could be a long or short time. If they didn't manage to get even a single Pain Token they'd lose Willpower (and other stats if they've failed Malignancy tests from Corruption) and be unable to heal the lost stats until gaining at least one token.

So if unlucky it could be once per day, but more likely weeks or even a few months. Particularly badly affected or ancient dark eldar probably require it more often, and in greater doses than a newbie.

I'd always pictured Dark Eldar as having a shorter unaugmented lifespan than their cousins. The fluff describe's Slaanesh as having a leeching away effect on their souls, which the craftworlders avoid by using soulstones.

Shall try and get some fluff extracts for that though as it's just from memory.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
I'd always pictured Dark Eldar as having a shorter unaugmented lifespan than their cousins. The fluff describe's Slaanesh as having a leeching away effect on their souls, which the craftworlders avoid by using soulstones.

Shall try and get some fluff extracts for that though as it's just from memory.

Yeah, I also imagined something like that. It could be something to do with the loss of their psychic powers. Maybe normal Eldar use their psychic powers to prolong their lives? I am not very knowledgeable on Eldar fluff outside of the DE.

Considering Eldrad and Farseers live until they crystallise it could just be that using psychic powers make you live longer so 'natural' Eldar live longer because their psychic powers are used daily.
So Dark Eldar live shorter lives because they're missing the psychic powers.

That is a definite possibility, and would go some way to bridge the irritating fluff disparity between eldar lifetimes being roughly 1000-2000 years and Eldrad being over 10,000.

Not that it makes me less annoyed about it mind. But hey, I digress and we've hashed that out before.

I wonder, is there fluff precedent for human psykers having a longer than expected lifespan?

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
That is a definite possibility, and would go some way to bridge the irritating fluff disparity between eldar lifetimes being roughly 1000-2000 years and Eldrad being over 10,000.

Not that it makes me less annoyed about it mind. But hey, I digress and we've hashed that out before.

I wonder, is there fluff precedent for human psykers having a longer than expected lifespan?

I'd presume the more important ones would get rejuvenants and the ones who pecialise in biomancy could very well with mastery make themselves biologically immortal

 Ynneadwraith wrote:


I wonder, is there fluff precedent for human psykers having a longer than expected lifespan?

Malcador comes to mind.

Using psychic powers and 'drinking suffering' seem to be two mechanics of drawing 'emotion/soul power'.

In one instances you are drawing the soul power from an open resevoir (at the risk of being attacked by the monsters of the lake; daemons) in the other, you're drawing the soul power directly from another being/beings.

I wouldn't be suprised if eldar could 'drink happiness' to top up their souls, happiness also being an emotional state. The problem being that eldar are capricious elves, and it is much easier to make a subject experience extreme suffering to feed of compared to extreme happiness.

nareik wrote:
I wouldn't be suprised if eldar could 'drink happiness' to top up their souls, happiness also being an emotional state. The problem being that eldar are capricious elves, and it is much easier to make a subject experience extreme suffering to feed of compared to extreme happiness.

I don't have the quote to hand, but this is stated in the fluff. Dark Eldar can indeed 'top up' their souls using other extremes of emotion. It's just that causing extremes of fear and anguish are a hell of a lot easier than creating extremes of happiness and love.

That and they'd hardly fit into the 40k universe if the fearsome Dark Eldar suddenly switched from raiding to running wellbeing workshops

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

nareik wrote:
I wouldn't be suprised if eldar could 'drink happiness' to top up their souls, happiness also being an emotional state. The problem being that eldar are capricious elves, and it is much easier to make a subject experience extreme suffering to feed of compared to extreme happiness.

I don't have the quote to hand, but this is stated in the fluff. Dark Eldar can indeed 'top up' their souls using other extremes of emotion. It's just that causing extremes of fear and anguish are a hell of a lot easier than creating extremes of happiness and love.

That and they'd hardly fit into the 40k universe if the fearsome Dark Eldar suddenly switched from raiding to running wellbeing workshops

What if a Dark Eldar, not G/Mork, is responsible for Ghazgul's "picture headaches"? The Dark Eldar is creating billions of 'happy orks' by exposing them to constant war, and feeds off their battlejoy?!

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
That is a definite possibility, and would go some way to bridge the irritating fluff disparity between eldar lifetimes being roughly 1000-2000 years and Eldrad being over 10,000.

Not that it makes me less annoyed about it mind. But hey, I digress and we've hashed that out before.

I wonder, is there fluff precedent for human psykers having a longer than expected lifespan?

I still head-cannon that 'Eldard' is essentially the Farseer version of a Phoenix Lord, so whilst he's existed for a long time, physically its been maybe a dozen bodys

I think by fluff someone's this fear can be a drug. Energy is a drug.

The oldest dark eldar need more extremes, more suffering to top up there souls ans enjoy it.

The whole excess requires more excess to feel excess as excess becomes normal.

Okay, so here's how I understand it. The Eldar soul is like a pot with a small hole in the bottom. At the beginning of their life, their pot is full, but slowly drained by the constant thirst of Slaanessh.

Each faction has their own ways of dealing with that.

The Harlequins pledge their soul to the Laughing God, or the pot equivalent of making sure that the water never hits the ground to begin with.

Craftworlders/Exodites secure their souls in Stones/their own world. This is the equivalent of just giving the water to someone else.

The Dark Eldar on the other hand just find it easier to let the water drain, and filling it up every so often. In this sense they're immortal, so long as they can keep it filled. A lot of Dark Eldar, most notably Urien Rakarth are older than Slaaneshh itself through this.

Really, DE can be sustained off of any extreme emotion, it just so happens that the easiest and most universal emotion in the demented world of 40k is pain. Think Monsters Inc, except when Kabalite Mike suggests using laughter instead of screams, he just gets a thousand paper cuts before being tossed into a vat of salt and lemon juice.

Finally, Dark Eldar don't die when their pot empties. I can't remember the exact terms, and my Codex isn't near me, but they remain physically alive, but lose any sense of self. They're not comatose, rather, they become empty, feral, husks, desperately trying to gain the least bit of sentience by viciously attacking anything nearby.

You know, as one does.

I heard it's three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food and three months without souls.

In fracture of biel tan, Yvraine travels in webway corridors with some wyches. These wyches are fine at first, but eventually start to look older and become more aggressive, as they start to really feel the need to feed on suffering.
I think the time that passed between them leaving the arena and starting to feel these ill effects isn't specified (although I might just not remember it). But if I recall correctly, after they've left the webway and done some other things, we're told that a few months passed. So I would say it takes a few weeks to a few months for a dark eldar to get seriously affected by the lack of sustenance. But they entered the webway after a pretty big fight, so they were probably fully nourished at that time.

Isn't the bleeding less severe in the webway than in true realspace?

I think so. The Webway protects from the effects of the Warp a fair amount which is why the Dark Eldar are actually alive rather than dying with most of the Eldar.

nareik wrote:Isn't the bleeding less severe in the webway than in true realspace?

pm713 wrote:I think so. The Webway protects from the effects of the Warp a fair amount which is why the Dark Eldar are actually alive rather than dying with most of the Eldar.

But Commoragh is also in the webway; dark eldar spend the vast majority of their time in the webway. I think that's the space in which the time length should be measured.