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I’m looking at doing a small Eldar force of a Spiritseer, a Wraithlord, and 10-15 Wraithguard/blades.

My question is: could a Spiritseer and 10-20 wraith constructs leave their home Craftworld and strike out on their own? Or do the various Wraithwhatevers NEED to return to a Craftworld fairly often?

If they can’t go completely “rogue” could they join/lead a group of Corsairs to meet their needs?

I’m hoping that I can safely integrate them into my personal backwater system that has several flavors of Heresy running rampant that is just too small to attract the attention of a group that would actually DO something to clean it up and drawing the attention of even a small, crippled Craftworld would probably be a death sentence for it.

As far as I'm aware, there's never been any mention of an external "power source" for wraith units. I'm pretty sure they just use their own souls as a sort of battery. As long as the spirit seer can get ahold of the occassional meal, they never need to go home again.

If you want them to have "gone rogue" and/or joined some corsairs, great! However, eldar do leave craftworlds to pursue personal agendas all the time. Generally speaking, it doesn't seem like the craftworld is likely to stop them from leaving or to hunt them down just because they left. They might mourn the loss of a talented spirit seer and a legendary hero (the wraith lord), and they might be worried about the wellbeing of the spirit stones in the wraith guard, but leaving the craftworld to go do your own thing seems to be relatively "normal."

So if you'd prefer, you could absolutely say that the seer secured her own small ship and the assistance of some dead people to help her out. The ship could have its own hydroponics bay (like the gardens seen in Path of the Outcast) to support a single spirit seer.

Thanks Wyldhunt! I’m still working out the nitty gritty details but I wanted to make sure Lexichanum hadn’t missed semi basic lore that would nix my idea right off the bat.

Fluff-wise it wouldn't make much sense, but there are ways you could justify it.

Keep in mind that using wraith units is a tragedy for the Eldar, a last ditch effort. They hate having to do it - basically dragging souls of dead warriors back into service. They're often returned to the infinity circuit after service (much like marine dreadnoughts are put into stasis - well most of them).

Wraithguard's original and true lore is that they cannot operate without the guidance of nearby Eldar. They don't have actual vision, but see the world in a kind of blue of emotions and energies. They used to go catatonic whenever living Eldar were not present. Dreadnoughts were the exception, being such powerful heroes that they were able to exist on their own in battles when needed, etc. They didn't require a shepherd like Wraithguard.

Lore-wise you could more or less do what Wyldhunt suggested - some task is so important that the Spiritseer has been sent with a wraith host to do X, Y or Z. Even worse you could say that a smaller, lesser known Craftworld was destroyed and perhaps the Spiritseer and his/her wraithhost are all that survived? That would be a proper Eldar idea - being tragic and all. Wandering, trapped now in their shells...maybe the Spiritseer is seeking another infinity circuit to retire them into? The wraith units being unable to rest as their original infinity circuit was destroyed? I dunno.

Iyanden is basically multiple noble "houses" of wraith ladies and wraith lords; when Yvraine had to take them on a trip of hers she had to sit during their council meeting where they would argue what to do and who is coming and who not or who has their own business or is going back to sleep.

In Path of the Warrior, one eldar split their soul into multiple wraithbone constructs who acted on their own will; he was living in some pirate webway city. One of his clones traveled on a ship together with the protagonist.

That's still the lore. Without guidance wraiths either go still or wander around trying to act like normal Eldar, splashing drinks into their faces or staring into nothing because they think it's a play or reliving a memory or something.
A nearby Seer defines reality for them so they know that the weird blob running at them is actually a squad of Marines and they need to fire or chop at them or whatever.

Possible story hook:
A SpiritSeer (or other small band, per your force) came across a grove connected to a World Tree left behind by the local Exodites, who were eradicated by [Imperium/heretics/xenos/whatever]. Not knowing what the World Tree was (basically the Exodite Infinity Circuit), the [whatever] did nothing to it.

The SpiritSeer grabbed some Wraith Constructs (as he/she doesn't know how to sing into existance the Exodite-equivelant) from his Craftworld (without Spirits in them, Wraith Constructs aren't that important - they're dormant). The Exodites wish to clense their homesystem - they care nothing for the Seer's Craftworld - so the Spirit Seer stays in-system to help them on their quest.

You can work in Corsairs, smattering of Exodite and Craftworlders, and anything else into that story fairly easily. And the focus would be on the Wraith Constructs (or rather, the spirits operating them). With the Spirit Seer assisting.

There is ton of possibilities, quick example a destroyed/damaged wraithguard couldn't be able to move and remain dormant for years after a battle lost but we know wraithbone self regenerate itself.

After a while the wraith would become operative of sort and some pirate/corsair choose to develop his own version of a spiritseer in order to guide them as an advantage for his fleet

Any Eldar outcast (Corsairs are outcasts, just like Rangers) could, in theory, start embracing their psyker abilities, and have the same game-rules as a seer. Although they *very* much risk damnation (demonic corruption and/or consumption) on very short timescales, if they do so.

Such a damaged (or lost) group of Wraithguard may have already regenerated a millenium or two ago. But then what? They'd have no purpose, no drive. So they'd be likely to just stand still not doing anything - until another Eldar came by. They just won't care about anything, in the absence of living Eldar.

I believe that the new fluff gives any wraith unit way more awareness and sense of self if they have interacted with Yvraine to the point of wraithguard joining her of there own volition.

However I don’t remember any fluff on what happpens after she leaves and if they fade again or remain effectively fully functioning elder who happen to be wraiths.

Thanks for all the responses!

Taking it into account my current working idea is either a tiny Craftworld or really big ship with a group of maybe 1000 living Eldar tops just can't handle it anymore. Between dying warriors, refusal to return to combat, and the awfulness of using wraiths they just can't field a practical combat force. First use of D-weapons was the last straw and the Farseer basically said "SOP going forward is run and hide, no fighting. If fighting is absolutely necessary none of those thrice damned D-weapons. "

Dedicated Spiritseers were already something of hated pariahs locally and this essentially made them redundant. Mine did NOT like this, also felt it was disrespectful to the warriors residing in the Infinity Circuit. They put the Spirit Stones of the 20 most warlike into bodies, gave the Farseer a piece if their mind, and left. The Farseer wants to bring them back, by force if necessary, but realizes that it would take resources they just cant spare. So he lets the common theory circulate unopposed that he wasn't happy but felt it wasn't his place to stop the Spiritseer / saw some good coming from this.

As for why they don't try to get help from another Craftworld or fleet, they are. The direct path would be a running battle so it's going to be a long, slow, circuitous journey to even arrive mostly intact for either group and it would be risky for the closest Craftworld to try and send appreciable assistance directly to them.