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Alright. So the eldar have/had a bunch of gods, and they mostly got gobbled up by Slaanesh. But despite this, we've still seen glimpses of what some of their priests look(ed) like. So I'm curious to hear your thoughts on what pre and post-Fall priests of various eldar deities might be like. I'd say variations on the canonical "priests" are fair game as well given that there's more than one way to worship a cat.

Some examples of priests we've seen:
* Harlequins. Based on the harlequin codex (7th/8th edition), I get the impression that these guys were big on the story telling/performance thing but didn't necessarily have the militaristic bent of modern harlies. Modern harlies (can) incorporate weapons and violence into their performances. Their souls are bound to Cegorach. Their masks seem to help them "program" themselves to be in-character (there are stories where humans putting on the masks makes them hallucinate that they are the character of the mask), but it's also clear that putting on the mask doesn't (completely) overwrite your personality; putting on the mask of your troupe's dead death jester doesn't make you behave exactly like that death jester. Their goals in the modern day seem to be vague and sometimes contradictoroy, but they do appear to be generally acting as Cegorach's agents in furthering some grand plot. It seems that troupes may set their goals based on divine inspiration given to their troupe masters. I'll also throw out that Great Harlequins are "avatars" of Cegorach and appear to basically be mortal harlequins that are possessed by Cegorach.

* Exarchs. Sometimes called "priests of Khaine". The Path of the Warrior series suggests that exarchs were basically eldar-slayers once upon a time; that they were so busy doing Khaine things that they were happy to kill other Eldar in furtherance of Khaine's goal of wiping the eldar out. At some point, they seem to have become absorbed into the path system and now occupy the roles of teachers trying to train up new recruits and (hopefully) help other eldar avoid becoming exarchs themselves. They aren't all-anger-all-the-time (we see an exarch in a wraith lord body palling around with Iyanna Arienel), but a lot of their social interactions seem to be filtered through a prism of violence. Ex: They have trouble asking where the bus stop is without somehow managing to make it sound like a threat. Exarchs seem to feel some sort of genuine "loyalty" towards Khaine or at least the role of exarch as we see a bunch of them giving the Visarch a hard time for ceasing to be an exarch.

* Priestess of the Morai-Heg. We see one show up in Commorragh to gank Yvraine during a battle royale. Iirc, she fought with needles? We don't know much about her, but apparently she was good enough in combat to take on an injured Yvraine and talented/exotic enough to warrant being allowed into Lelith's arena in the first place. Combine that with the fact that Yvraine happened to have history with a bunch of different eldar communities AND happened to have history with the Visarch AND happened to get killed by the priestess at the exact right time to become Ynnead's herald, and I'm inclined to think that the priestess has some sort of fate/prophecy powers going on.

* Asurmen, the phoenix lord. This guy claims to feel the presence of Asuryan and to be acting on divine inspiration from the same. Apparently he and the other asuryata (phoenix lords trained by Asurmen) have a weird effect on fate where they can radically throw off the predictions of farseers and the like. Combine that with their knack for not having their armor destroyed and some of the straight up supernatural stunts they've performed (Maugan Ra using soul fire to free Altansar from the warp), and I'm inclined to think they do, in fact, have some sort of divine assistance going on.

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And to spitball some possible takes on other priests:

Isha: I feel like priests of Isha would be related to healing and/or agriculture. I could see those lost on the path of the healer being considered "priests of Isha." If there is an agricultural "priesthood" for Isha, I imagine it would be among the exodites, although the agricultural aspect of Isha is pretty under-explored at the moment. If we wanted to dive all the way into fanfic territory, I could see Isha casting part of her essence into an eldar "avatar" on battlefields where Nurgle's realm is close to the skin of reality. I'm picturing something like a Great Harlequin, but with healing/growth powers and an intense hatred for the daemons of Nurgle threatening Isha's children.

Kurnous: As with Isha, I feel like anything resembling a "priesthood" would most likely be found among the exodites who presumably do a lot of megafauna hunting in their day-to-day lives. I could also see something like a ranger/corsair off-shoot that worships kurnous as a relentless hunter, wandering the galaxy/webway in search of... something. Basically some Illic NIghtspear/Pathfinder types who see their wandering and exploring and sniping as a mystical thing rather than just an excuse to enjoy a roadtrip.

Asuryan: I kind of like the idea of there being a path of the arbiter where craftworlders focus on resolving disputes in peaceful ways. I could even see such a path being tasked with learning about non-eldar cultures for the sake of spying and diplomacy; basically an eldar water caste.

The Great Harlequins are not possessed by Cegorach, I have no idea why you think so. However, the harlequins existed before the Fall, they performed for the hedonistic society of the Eldar to teach them humility and resist all the feth that was going on, however they were often attacked for this and they learned how to fight




According to Jane Zar's book, the Farseers used to be the Oracles of Morai-Heg until Eldrad invented the Path of the Seer.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Wyldhunt wrote:
supernatural stunts they've performed (Maugan Ra using soul fire to free Altansar from the warp)

Wait what?

darkoms wrote:
The Great Harlequins are not possessed by Cegorach, I have no idea why you think so. However, the harlequins existed before the Fall, they performed for the hedonistic society of the Eldar to teach them humility and resist all the feth that was going on, however they were often attacked for this and they learned how to fight




According to Jane Zar's book, the Farseers used to be the Oracles of Morai-Heg until Eldrad invented the Path of the Seer.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Wyldhunt wrote:
supernatural stunts they've performed (Maugan Ra using soul fire to free Altansar from the warp)

Wait what?

Hmm. Seems my brain has been getting creative with some of my lore recollections. I could have sworn that there was a time when the great harlequin (aka "Avatar of Cegorach) was suggested to be Cegorach reaching out through a mortal body to take action directly. But I can't seem to find anything suggesting as much, and more modern lore definitely shows that that isn't the case; "great harlequins" these days seem to just be the main leader of a masque.

Wait, were the seers in Jain Zar's novel not already on the path of the seer? I thought Eldrad's big contribution was expanding on the system of scrying runes; not inventing that entire branch of the path. What path did these craftworlds who lived concurrently with howling banshees think they were on? Or am I forgetting something?

4th edition Eldar codex on Maugan Ra's page. There's a section talking about how he "left a trail of soulfire in his wake" on his way to find Altansar in the Eye of Terror and guide it back out again. Might just be poetry or something. Looking at it now, it doesn't seem to suggest that "soulfire" was somehow an important part of guiding Altansar back to realspace.