Sylhfer wrote:How powerful were Humans before dark age of technology? and how would they fair today in
40k. From what I understand the technology they had back then, could never be replicated now, because of how religious they became.
Also would they be the dominant force in the galaxy, and how did they compare to the Eldar in their peak and Krorks in theirs.
DAoT humans were star trek level advanced, with crazy time tech, anti grav etc. The length of the DAoT wasn't very long though, so they didn't hold onto that tech for long.
The eldar effectively controlled the galaxy before humanity reached DAoT levels. They had planets and colonies stretching to the western and southern borders of the galaxy (from their homeworld in what is now the eye of terror). The outer most worlds were maiden worlds terra formed to be paradises. Many of them became exodite planets, as they escaped the Fall and retreated as far from their empire as possible. hence why the exodite maps put their worlds in a semi circle around the outside of the south western galaxy.
Eldar technology has never been comparable to human technology. It was all built around psychic control and feedback. The centre of eldar tech was their psychic engines, effectively warp syphons, that drew warp energy safely into reality and powered all their tech. They had perpetual energy.
As their tech was so manifestly different to human tech it's hard to make direct comparisons. While humanity had black hole guns and time matrixes, the eldar had thought machines that could turn themselves into whatever an eldar desired or needed. The realm of commorragh has several stars captured powering it (as they shy away from psychic energy entirely). They could reshape worlds, extinguish stars and/or move them at will.
They were already a very well established empire the galaxy when humanity started spreading out.
Given that there are 100-400 billion stars in the galaxy and according to modern estimates most will have planets, it's possible for each star system to be inhabited and controlled. Even if the eldar empire spread out and controlled a quarter of the galaxy, that's between 25 and 100 billion systems. Leaving 75-300 billion left for everyone else.
It is highly unlikely the eldar controlled that many though, making their spread across the galaxy even more thin. So it's entirely possible humanity never encountered the eldar, having never moved into systems they controlled during this time. Even if they did run into them, there's so many systems out there that they would not need to fight over who owns them.
In the event the humans did try to take a system from the existing eldar, they would be up against:
Perpetual energy machines in their psychic engines
Perpetual materiel in the form of wraithbone and psycho plastics (wraithbone is solidified warp energy)
Automaton legions, which, when powered and produced by the above 2, become an endless swarm
It would be easier for them to form a non aggression pact with the eldar and move on to another system to colonise. The eldar had also perfected terra forming so may even take on planets that humanity didn't want anyway.
The Krork don't seem to have survived to the DAoT. We don't really have an explanation for what happened, unless you take the loss of the brainboyz to mean that they devolved after the war in heaven 60 million years ago.
Their technology was probably comparable to the DAoT if not more advanced. They had been programmed by the old ones with their tech levels while facing necrons, so they'd need something effective to combat them.
The eldar seemed to have been left as the sole advanced race at the end of the WIH, although whether they dominated the galaxy for 60 million years or not is unknown (I'd prefer not as it makes the possible stories far more interesting). Either way, by the time humanity left Earth, the eldar had dominated the galaxy for an unknown amount of time.