http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/31.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10406850.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10406850.page GMT 40K background forum]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10406851.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10406851.page GMT
Eldar are basically a post-scarcity society. If you want to spend a few decades on the path of the dreamer, that’s OK. You will still have a place to live in eat. You don’t need to chase a paycheck.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10407011.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10407011.page GMT Path of the Eldar novels for the most detailed description we have of civilian life on a Craftworld. Another good one is Guy Haley's novel Valedor as it shows some detail about Iyanden and Biel-tan.

Of all the factions in 40K, the standard of life on a Craftworld seems to be the highest as there is no need to work and all physical needs seem to be provided for. The Craftworld through its Infinity Circuits has a gestalt intelligence and monitors the situation everywhere so there is physical safety everywhere. A character contemplates jumping off a bridge as a form of suicide but rules it out since he thinks the Craftworld would create a force field to break his fall. Everyone pursues a path, seemingly out of free will, though Gav Thorpe's novels suggest that the gestalt of the Craftworld may nudge people onto the Paths that best serve the needs of the Craftworld. For example if there is a shortage of Aspect Warriors, then more Eldar will start finding they need to control their anger and dark dreams and end up gravitating to the Path of the Warrior.

As far back as the 2nd edition Codex Imperialis and the 1st Codex Eldar, the short stories were portraying Craftworlds as peaceful and serene...So peaceful in fact, that one character Karhedron wondered whether the Craftworlders were so quick to heed the Farseers' predictions and call to war because it would relieve them of their ennui. I would imagine what conflict there does exist to be social and diplomatic conflict rather than physical violence. Outcasts in their Codex entries are described as leaving Craftworlds either on their own or as exile for some misdeed. While there might be physical violence or physical intimidation aboard human ships, I see the Craftworlds as a place of enforced serenity, where some Eldar live lives of quiet desperation under stifling etiquette and social pressure. In a society where everyone, including the dead spirits inhabiting the walls around you, is psychically empathic, the idea of thought crime can exist. While maybe not literally reading thoughts, the empathic environment means individuals have to at least try to keep their discontent from being emotionally broadcast around them. In the novel Valedor, there is mention of Paths of Solitude, Wandering, Mourning, Lament, Eulogy, Forgetting, Remembrance, Dreaming (some of which were also mentioned in Gav Thorpe's novels). Rather than physical violence or death, the conflicts and stresses of Craftworld society seem to result in self imposed (or peer pressure imposed) introversion or exile.

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The entire path system enforces massive discipline to keep Excess and thus slaanesh at bay.]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10407137.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10407137.page GMT ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10409923.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10409923.page GMT http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10409924.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/773815/10409924.page GMT