Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm beginning to collect a Dark Eldar army, but unfortunately hate their story and background, despite finding their rules and models awesome. So here is a bit of fluff I wrote for my Cult of Damnation, a tiny sect of Eldar who fight in a somewhat less sadistic manner, without ignoring their unique obsession with pain and violence.

Cult of Damnation

The Dark Eldar as a race embody the malice and hate that has festered in one of the galaxy’s oldest species. Setting out on raids from their Dark City, they enslave the ‘lesser’ races and feed of the pain of the innocent. But hope is not lost among certain members of this depraved society. Some Dark Eldar have not become completely consumed by the horrible cruelty that spawned a God of Chaos. These individuals are exceptionally rare, nearly mythical. They are simply unknown amongst most of Dark Eldar, and usually regarded as humorous objects of fiction by Dark Eldar leaders.

They are all too real, however. They embody a living struggle; the struggle of the disturbed joys of their culture against the suppressed urge for righteousness. They could almost be said to represent nobility amongst the Dark Eldar, an ideal that elicit chokes of revulsion among their contemporaries. For this reason they find it impossible to exist within Commoragh, instead taking to the stars in pursuit of a cause worth their efforts.

By no means should their unique brand of nobility be confused by the pursuits of the Blood Angels of the Imperium or the Tau Empire of the Eastern Fringe. They slay lower beings mercilessly, and still harbor the primal desire to inflict pain instilled upon them by the true Dark Eldar. But their support is lent not to the furthering of such a depraved culture. The Cult of Damnation fights for the Eldar race (as well as their own enjoyment); not the race of sick killers and slave masters, or the weak and broken Eldar of the Craftworlds. Instead they nearly mix these philosophies and seek to find the true nature of the Eldar race, which they believe lies between timidity and sadism.

The Cult of Damnation sees the True Nature of the Eldar as a combination of the primal and the noble. They embrace ferocity, tearing apart their opponents, but choose their targets. A member of the Cult will disembowel a warrior of the Imperium, gleefully reveling in the gore his blade spreads around him, and then pause, blade poised above a helpless and terrified civilian, retract his sword and bound away, in search of an opponent that can be slain with honor. They constantly seek a challenge, fighting with zeal against the armies of Man, Ork, and any other race, plunder the wealth of a world, a quickly disappear before reinforcements can arrive to save dazed survivors who were inexplicably spared. There is no joy like battle, and there is no horror like the blood of an innocent.



So let me know what you think. Is it too ridiculous to have "noble" Dark Eldar?

I'm not as well-versed as I should be to comment on Eldar backstory, but to me, it sounds like you are developing the equivalent of "Eldar corsairs", but from a Dark Eldar starting position (see Forgeworld for reference). If there exist Eldar who live in exile outside the Craftworlds, and who dabble in the excesses of the Dark Eldar, then there's really no intelligent reason why the Dark Eldar couldn't similarly have such exiles.

The Eldar Corsairs were actually the perfect analouge I had in mind while creating this.

Sounds very reasonable then. I wouldn't even bother with the "super rare legend amongst Dark Eldar" bit, just say that they are Corsairs who are a bit more honorable than their Dark Eldar kin.