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DE-drive themselves into destruction-when summat bad happens to Asdrubael, everyone will start to hissy fight with giant guns over the throne
Exodites-get invaded by someone and get daemon invaded/tyranid consumed at some point, as they refuse to actually advance
Craftworld Eldar-are too righteous to actually become tau-for the greater good-and so don't advance, and slowly die out and get invaded
Corsairs-if they start to be significant, people will start to take notice and hunt them down
Harlequins-nobody knows

Necrons get into the webway, and start doing stuff

Daemons get into the Dark City, as all that bloodshed will mean that they will find it, and breach.


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Basically, it doesn't look good.

Pretty much. They are the High Elves of the setting. Or the Melniboneans if you like Moorcock.

Anything I missed out that will eventually cause their demise?

The Imperium doesn't like Xenos. The official policy is that it is Mankind's manifest destiny to rule the stars, alone and unopposed.

yeah, but I thought the Imperium was too big to function for that much longer.

 Hexyn wrote:
Anything I missed out that will eventually cause their demise?

Yup. It's basically all hoggwash.

Dark Eldar are not at all on a path of self destruction like the humans are, they are in fact prospering beyond all reason. The Exodites live an ascetic life but are protected in a very big way by the Craftworld Eldar but also somewhat by the Dark Eldar and the Harlequins, even though they are very much capable of defending themselves since while they distanced themselves from their imperial kin's comfort they still brought their technology and capacity for industry. The Craftworld Eldar know that they are incapable of going back to their imperial past and realize that this is in fact something that may eventually cause an even greater gakstorm than the Eye's birth in the first place and invading an Eldar Craftworld isn't exactly easy thing to do. The Corsair are bound both by blood, industry and trade to Covens and Craftworlds alike and stand as a very potent threat to mankind albeit they are held back in a very big way by constant psychic predation. Indeed, the Harlequins are an unknown, but this is nothing strange when it comes to the Eldar. What is known about the Harlequin is that they aren't stagnant like the Craftworlds nor do they build empires within the Webways, but there is great artistic license for the Harlequins having supercommunities within the webways.
What is known is that the Eldar (and the galaxy, I should add) are dying. While the primary concern for the Craftworlds is their own survival, somehow somewhere, they are also trying their best to hinder the forces that will gak the universe over such as The Eye expanding, the Orks reaching critical mass, the Tyranids gaining too strong a foothold or the Human Imperium creating their very own version of the Eye.

The Webway is a lot stronger than you give credit to and the Eldar are capable of repairing it. Hell, it doesn't even take the Eldar psychers that specialize in that stuff, Phoenix Lords can do it. The Dark Eldar cities are also built in some of the most secure locations of the Webway - with exception of wherever the Black Library is or where the Harlequins in general are holed up.

It's dark, but what you're painting is worst case scenario. What it actually look like is Craftworlds will die*, Exodites will die, Corsairs will eventually be more Dark Eldar, Dark Eldar will live on, Harlequins will live on. Once the galaxy has been wiped out by either Necron or Tyranids the Dark Eldar/Corsair will die as well, of course. Harlequins will live as long as Cegorach doesn't get caught.

* Best case scenario for Craftworlders and maybe Exodites as well is that they will die - but death is not the end.

In the Dark Eldar Codex, it heavily implies that Vect is losing his grip on the Dark City. While he is in power, yes, the dark eldar do stupidly well. But when he loses power Iirc it says something along the lines of the archons will consume the Dark City in war, and bad stuff will happen. Its in the entry on Asdrubael Vect, right at the end (I think). wow it would be embarassing if it wasn't.

Since you're speaking to someone who's not got that codex, I can't hold you to it

Either way, with the new Dark Eldar fluff they'd still be in a far better position than they were with the previous codex

But you are still painting with black on a black background, so to speak.