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Let's say Asdrubael Vect wants to make a new Eldar Empire except ruled by the Dark Eldar. Currently, there's no way he could do this, so what would he need to get done before he can start a huge galactic campaign to rebuild an ancient empire?

Obviously he would need a bigger army, but what else comes to mind?

More actual co-operation between and amongst the clans and kabals of the DE to start with. He doesn't have enough "control" over all of them to install himself as an absolute ruler (DE society is rife with assassinations of your superiors as a promotional tool. It's hard to expand an empire when you're always having to watch your own a$$ more often).

A replacement for Divine Right of Kings.

Dark Eldar are Eldar - they're the closest to pre-fall Eldar of all the surviving Space Elves.

Probably the biggest difference, aside from no longer dominating the galaxy, is that the Eldar Empire was feudal. Vect himself, though, was not a noble AFAIK. He basically ended the feudal rulership of the Dark City.

So Vect could build an Eldar Empire. He'd just need to switch from soft power (where nobody is dumb enough to oppose him directly) to hard power (where it's illegal to not do what he says, and it's openly and directly enforced), and then expand. Of course, he'd then be facing the majority of Cormrrgah directly - and while he's the most powerful, it's not clear that he could win that fight.

Bharring wrote:
A replacement for Divine Right of Kings.

This is a fair point to be honest, even the mightiest dark age warlord understood the importance of legitimacy beyond 'me strong'.

Surely the biggest impediment is the leeching effect of Slaanesh. This effect is much reduced within the webway and the Dark Eldar can stave of the absorption of their souls through the suffering of other beings, but this stops them from recolonising the galaxy as it were. That is why the Ynarri are such a revelation in Eldar society, their souls are free from the constant pull of Slaanesh.

Rebuilding the webway is the way any of the eldar win. Even if DE could come out of the webway, would they? I think they would just rebuild it to the point that they can hit and fade against any target, anywhere, anytime.

Similarly, if the DE didn't have to feed on suffering, do you think they'd stop?

PenitentJake wrote:
Rebuilding the webway is the way any of the eldar win. Even if DE could come out of the webway, would they? I think they would just rebuild it to the point that they can hit and fade against any target, anywhere, anytime.

Similarly, if the DE didn't have to feed on suffering, do you think they'd stop?

No. They can stop feeding from pain now. They can just start using soul stones and be like Craftworlders. They choose not to. The reason Dark Eldar are evil isn't because they feed on pain and suffering, they didn't choose to start that, it's that they intentionally enjoy it.

pm713 wrote:

PenitentJake wrote:
Rebuilding the webway is the way any of the eldar win. Even if DE could come out of the webway, would they? I think they would just rebuild it to the point that they can hit and fade against any target, anywhere, anytime.

Similarly, if the DE didn't have to feed on suffering, do you think they'd stop?

No. They can stop feeding from pain now. They can just start using soul stones and be like Craftworlders. They choose not to. The reason Dark Eldar are evil isn't because they feed on pain and suffering, they didn't choose to start that, it's that they intentionally enjoy it.

Indeed. There is movement across all the Eldar societies. Just as Craftworlders may go wild and become Corsairs, or go even darker and start suffering from the soul draining of the Dark Eldar (and thus need to feed off suffering), the Dark Eldar can also move away from their lifestyle. Gav Thorpe's books have 2 examples of that. One is a Dark Eldar that goes Corsair (and limited feeding on suffering according to Gav Thorpe), and another is an Incubus that becomes a Craftworlder. There are also the Harlequins, who are stated in their Codex to recruit from across all Eldar societies, so a Dark Eldar can also pledge themselves to the Harlequins and Laughing God and free themselves from the thirst.

The Dark Eldar that don't do any of these, have made a choice to do so, whether consciously or not. They have chosen not to restrict their actions and behavior in any way beyond the barest minimum necessary to sustain their civilization. All the other branches of the Eldar make sacrifices to avoid suffering from the soul draining effect that effectively bars the Dark Eldar from remaining in realspace for prolonged periods without feeding.

All of the Eldar view their way as the best way forward into the future. So they don't unite for anything more than short term alliances because they view each other as misguided, even though as per the example in the Craftworld Codex, if they did unite they could probably beat the stuffing out of Chaos as they did for a Chaos incursion. Unfortunately, as soon as they finished quickly defeating the Chaos invasion, they fell back to arguing among themselves.

If the question is "What would Vect need to create a realspace DE empire?" then the biggest answer is 'motivation.'

As it sits he is the de facto ruler over a larger sphere of influence than any autarch in existence. (And maybe larger than any single Eldar pre-Fall.)

He has a ton of plates spinning in Commorragh, and despite his façade to the contrary, a lot of daggers at his throat. Expanding into realspace conquest just adds more dangers to his list, and he's not quite that crazy just yet.

Vect, or the other leaders of Commorragh, would need a VERY compelling reason to leave the (relative) safety of their extradimensional empire to go grubbing around in the dirt with the lesser races.

While Vect probably would not want to deal with any realspace real estate, especially with the great rift splitting the galaxy (neighborhood's gone downhill), I cannot see Vect being entirely happy with the current state of affairs either. Though there would be plentiful opportunities for raiding with the Imperium distracted and split, all Eldar hate Slaanesh. I could see the Dark Eldar attacking Chaos forces just to keep things in check.

But Vect wouldn't have been happy in the Eldar Empire, either - he was lowborn.