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I have a simple question. What is the fate of an eldar child who is half dark eldar and half craftworld eldar (or exodite or corsair) ?

More specifically, what happens with their soul? Does it drain away like the dark eldar? Also what happens with any potential psychic abilities? Does it depend on which parent was which species?

And yes I know Eldar and Dark Eldar are not different species, but in the lore it looks like its going that way. Dark Eldar are usually stronger, and quicker, but are losing there psychic abilities due to non use.

Yriel is half Dark Eldar (father) and half Craftworld Eldar (mother). He seems to do just fine.

What happens with the soul seems to be more a factor of lifestyle. We have an Outcast in the Andy Chambers Dark Eldar trilogy that starts experiencing the draining as he falls in with the Dark Eldar. We have a Dark Eldar in Gav Thorpe's trilogy take up the Craftworld life and seems to suffer no further draining.

Interesting, Thanks.

I'm pretty sure that the Dark Eldar are faster, stronger etc because they're generally always fighting to stay alive in Commoragh so it's a result of exercise rather than anything genetic. Like a man who goes to a gym everyday to work out is fitter than someone who never goes to a gym.

It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Take a soulstone off a CWE and give it to a DEldar and the CWE will have his soul drain away while the DEldar is protected.

pm713 is right that the physical differences and psychic atrophy is environmental.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Or the Laughing God, in the case of Harlequins.

Eldar paths to surviving She Who Thirsts: soulstone, whips and chains, mime school.

ryzouken wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Or the Laughing God, in the case of Harlequins.

Eldar paths to surviving She Who Thirsts: soulstone, whips and chains, mime school.

The mime shall inherit the Earth. And the Galaxy.

Exodites also do fine as they deny their full mental potential with hard physical labour. The faction that an Eldar is born into determines the survival mechanism they are most likely to adopt but there is nothing to stop them changing. The survival mechanism is a philosophical choice, not a genetic predisposition.

Your 'dark' and 'light' eldar are the same race, their not different genes. The difference is culture.

Craftworld eldar use soulstone to trap their souls upon death. Until that point they live their life focused on one thing at a time. If they do not, very bad things happens. They focus on everything and probably end up with the eldar equilant of the 'up'side of a bipolar human.

I do not know how dark eldars keep themself in check. But they either feed slanesh pain to throw her off, or they drink pain and souls and then need to continue riding the 'pain train' so to speak.

You can not combine the two. The meditative state of the craftworld eldar does not mix with the drain of the dark eldar. I am not sure if a medative mind is important to jump inti a soulstone. I see very few other reasons for dark eldar to not use a soulstone.

You can trap a Dark Eldar inside a soulstone but it's unlikely they consider it a solution as you're trapped in there and you could just get a Haemonculus anyway.

 Niiai wrote:
Your 'dark' and 'light' eldar are the same race, their not different genes. The difference is culture.

Craftworld eldar use soulstone to trap their souls upon death. Until that point they live their life focused on one thing at a time. If they do not, very bad things happens. They focus on everything and probably end up with the eldar equilant of the 'up'side of a bipolar human.

I do not know how dark eldars keep themself in check. But they either feed slanesh pain to throw her off, or they drink pain and souls and then need to continue riding the 'pain train' so to speak.

You can not combine the two. The meditative state of the craftworld eldar does not mix with the drain of the dark eldar. I am not sure if a medative mind is important to jump inti a soulstone. I see very few other reasons for dark eldar to not use a soulstone.

You can move from culture to the other.

 Niiai wrote:
Your 'dark' and 'light' eldar are the same race, their not different genes. The difference is culture.

Craftworld eldar use soulstone to trap their souls upon death. Until that point they live their life focused on one thing at a time. If they do not, very bad things happens. They focus on everything and probably end up with the eldar equilant of the 'up'side of a bipolar human.

I do not know how dark eldars keep themself in check. But they either feed slanesh pain to throw her off, or they drink pain and souls and then need to continue riding the 'pain train' so to speak.

You can not combine the two. The meditative state of the craftworld eldar does not mix with the drain of the dark eldar. I am not sure if a medative mind is important to jump inti a soulstone. I see very few other reasons for dark eldar to not use a soulstone.

As far lore or novels depict it, there is no real requisite to use a soul stone aside getting sure it is correctly attuned with the wearer and it remains close enough (wich means any Dark eldar can just use those if they wish) but Dark eldar often see it as a weakness since the last they want is anyone having full access to their soul.

In Jain Zar:storm of silence there is a Dark Eldar who for a brief time consider how *convenient* it would be able to own one of those soul stones and toy with the soul inside for it's own amusement as example.

The Dark Eldar are also against soul stones because being trapped in one is like a spiritual hell. It would be like being in a solitary confinement cell forever, cut off from the intensity of sensations they are used to.

Iracundus wrote:
The Dark Eldar are also against soul stones because being trapped in one is like a spiritual hell. It would be like being in a solitary confinement cell forever, cut off from the intensity of sensations they are used to.

Yeah it's basically purgatory.

The dark eldar's solution to what's waiting for them when they die is 'b*tch please i'm going to live forever'.

Definitely the more metal faction

Love that scene in path of the archon with lady Malys:

"You dare accuse me of mortality?"

But yeah difference is completely cultural/technological.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
'b*tch please i'm going to live forever'

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Take a soulstone off a CWE and give it to a DEldar and the CWE will have his soul drain away while the DEldar is protected.

pm713 is right that the physical differences and psychic atrophy is environmental.

Not quite. The short story that went along with Gav Thorpe's Path of the Warrior, showing how the Incubus ended up as a Striking Scorpion, heavily suggested that Soul Stones are "bonded" with their owner at birth, or at least at a young age. It shows the bonding process to be an extremely painful and mentally taxing process to go through when older due to having to relive every detail of their lives (I'm a little hazy on the details, it's been a while since I read the story).

Basically, you can take the Soulstone off the Craftworlder and give it to the Commoright but it still belongs to the Craftworlder, whether it would still protect them if it's no longer in their possesion though is an interesting thought.

 Imateria wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Take a soulstone off a CWE and give it to a DEldar and the CWE will have his soul drain away while the DEldar is protected.

pm713 is right that the physical differences and psychic atrophy is environmental.

Not quite. The short story that went along with Gav Thorpe's Path of the Warrior, showing how the Incubus ended up as a Striking Scorpion, heavily suggested that Soul Stones are "bonded" with their owner at birth, or at least at a young age. It shows the bonding process to be an extremely painful and mentally taxing process to go through when older due to having to relive every detail of their lives (I'm a little hazy on the details, it's been a while since I read the story).

Basically, you can take the Soulstone off the Craftworlder and give it to the Commoright but it still belongs to the Craftworlder, whether it would still protect them if it's no longer in their possesion though is an interesting thought.

Interesting, although a bit of a shame. There's a lot of narrative potential in soul stones being valuable fare for Corsairs and Commorrites who want that extra bit of protection. I have a bit of headcanon that Eldar Outcasts have a particularly dangerous time of it out in the webway in part because other eldar know that they usually have soulstones to be stolen. Same with Corsairs, with those who possess soulstones having to be secretive about them otherwise their treacherous compatriots might steal them.

I think I shall continue with that headcanon as anything that breeds genuine tension/conflict between groups of eldar in usually good by me perhaps I'll square it that soulstones are paired, but the pairing can be broken. The whole painful and mentally taxing process sounds like something the Craftworlders would put someone through because they find it distasteful to torture the soulstone into submission as a Commorrite might...

 Imateria wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Take a soulstone off a CWE and give it to a DEldar and the CWE will have his soul drain away while the DEldar is protected.

pm713 is right that the physical differences and psychic atrophy is environmental.

Not quite. The short story that went along with Gav Thorpe's Path of the Warrior, showing how the Incubus ended up as a Striking Scorpion, heavily suggested that Soul Stones are "bonded" with their owner at birth, or at least at a young age. It shows the bonding process to be an extremely painful and mentally taxing process to go through when older due to having to relive every detail of their lives (I'm a little hazy on the details, it's been a while since I read the story).

Basically, you can take the Soulstone off the Craftworlder and give it to the Commoright but it still belongs to the Craftworlder, whether it would still protect them if it's no longer in their possesion though is an interesting thought.

In Asurmens novel when he finds soulstones they seem to be usable for who ever is closest and in Path of the Archon Motley traps a Wych with a soulstone he just brought along.

pm713 wrote:

 Imateria wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Take a soulstone off a CWE and give it to a DEldar and the CWE will have his soul drain away while the DEldar is protected.

pm713 is right that the physical differences and psychic atrophy is environmental.

Not quite. The short story that went along with Gav Thorpe's Path of the Warrior, showing how the Incubus ended up as a Striking Scorpion, heavily suggested that Soul Stones are "bonded" with their owner at birth, or at least at a young age. It shows the bonding process to be an extremely painful and mentally taxing process to go through when older due to having to relive every detail of their lives (I'm a little hazy on the details, it's been a while since I read the story).

Basically, you can take the Soulstone off the Craftworlder and give it to the Commoright but it still belongs to the Craftworlder, whether it would still protect them if it's no longer in their possesion though is an interesting thought.

In Asurmens novel when he finds soulstones they seem to be usable for who ever is closest and in Path of the Archon Motley traps a Wych with a soulstone he just brought along.

Interesting. Definitely suggests that what Morr went through was unnecessary, and probably concocted by the Craftworlders as a test of his resolve/spirit rather than a necessary step.

 Ynneadwraith wrote:

pm713 wrote:

 Imateria wrote:

 Ynneadwraith wrote:
It's specifically a soul stone that prevents their soul from draining away, as supported by Corsair fluff.

Take a soulstone off a CWE and give it to a DEldar and the CWE will have his soul drain away while the DEldar is protected.

pm713 is right that the physical differences and psychic atrophy is environmental.

Not quite. The short story that went along with Gav Thorpe's Path of the Warrior, showing how the Incubus ended up as a Striking Scorpion, heavily suggested that Soul Stones are "bonded" with their owner at birth, or at least at a young age. It shows the bonding process to be an extremely painful and mentally taxing process to go through when older due to having to relive every detail of their lives (I'm a little hazy on the details, it's been a while since I read the story).

Basically, you can take the Soulstone off the Craftworlder and give it to the Commoright but it still belongs to the Craftworlder, whether it would still protect them if it's no longer in their possesion though is an interesting thought.

In Asurmens novel when he finds soulstones they seem to be usable for who ever is closest and in Path of the Archon Motley traps a Wych with a soulstone he just brought along.

Interesting. Definitely suggests that what Morr went through was unnecessary, and probably concocted by the Craftworlders as a test of his resolve/spirit rather than a necessary step.

It could also be that if you bond with a stone then only you can use it and from any distance whereas unbonded stones just take the closest person who dies. It would be awkward if an Aspect Warrior died and their soul was lost because their stone was holding some Guardsmen.

I'd assumed that soulstones only worked on Eldar, but that would be awkward.

I'd also thought that it basically was a 'closest dead guy gets the stone' jobby, although i'd say would have to be in direct contact. Sort of like old Norse heroes having to die while holding their sword to get into Valhalla.

Could equally be bonded and unbonded stones too...

pm713 wrote:
It could also be that if you bond with a stone then only you can use it and from any distance whereas unbonded stones just take the closest person who dies. It would be awkward if an Aspect Warrior died and their soul was lost because their stone was holding some Guardsmen.

I'm pretty sure spirit stones only work on Eldar, bonded or not. Anything not an Eldar being caught in a spirit stone has never happened in the fluff, to the best of my knowledge. Also, they only come from Crone Words and are suggested to have some kind of strong link to the Eldar race.

I don't think they've ever really gone into the origin of spirit stones, which is kind of a shame. If it's Eldar tech, why can't they make new ones? Or is it some kind of weird natural growth.

Also you'd think there'd be more fluff mentions of Craftworld Eldar doing raids into the Eye of Terror. Since they can only get new stones from Crone Words, it's a NECESSITY for them, and that's kind of a big deal.

 fallinq wrote:

pm713 wrote:
It could also be that if you bond with a stone then only you can use it and from any distance whereas unbonded stones just take the closest person who dies. It would be awkward if an Aspect Warrior died and their soul was lost because their stone was holding some Guardsmen.

I'm pretty sure spirit stones only work on Eldar, bonded or not. Anything not an Eldar being caught in a spirit stone has never happened in the fluff, to the best of my knowledge. Also, they only come from Crone Words and are suggested to have some kind of strong link to the Eldar race.

I don't think they've ever really gone into the origin of spirit stones, which is kind of a shame. If it's Eldar tech, why can't they make new ones? Or is it some kind of weird natural growth.

Also you'd think there'd be more fluff mentions of Craftworld Eldar doing raids into the Eye of Terror. Since they can only get new stones from Crone Words, it's a NECESSITY for them, and that's kind of a big deal.

In Asurmen or Jain Zar novel the origin of the Spirit stones it's sligthy mentioned, mostly as appearing out of nowhere after the fall and the Eldars who touch them finds themselves bonded to those. Hence why they claim they are Isha's tears and can't just manufacture them at will.

Going back to very old fluff, Spirit stones form in areas of realspace/warp overlap. In essence, they are crystalised warp energy. Small quantities can be harvested from around Webway portals but the main source of Spiritstones are the Crone Worlds, deep within the Eye of Terror. Missions to collect them are dangerous but also essential to the long-term survival of the CWE's souls.

There is inconsistency or unknown rules about how stones function:

In Bill King's novel Farseer a human character gets trapped in a soulstone. Though it is more like he touches a stone that holds an Eldar character's soul and then they swap with the Eldar then possessing the human's body.

In Gav Thorpe's prequel short story Dark Son a Dark Eldar character wanting to join the Craftworlders has to have a new stone bonded to him.

In Andy Chamber's Harlequin story The Masque of Vyle, a Dark Eldar character is sucked into a soul stone held by a Harlequin. A similar thing happens in the ending of his Dark Eldar trilogy.

Path of the Outcast shows Tears of Isha to be the congealed souls of Eldar who died in the birth of Slaanesh. The dead Eldar are essentially ghosts, and when tricked(?) into standing in the glowing light of...some sort of Eldar psychic manifestation, they curl up screaming and harden into little gemstones. And thus, some of Slaanesh's toys are taken, either rescued or destroyed by the transformation.