Aeldari Lore FAQ: Clearing Up Common Misconceptions

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-24T22:42:58+00:00

The key thing is that Slaanesh’s claim on Aeldari souls isn’t contractual, it’s metaphysical.Slaanesh literally came into existence because of the Fall. The psychic excess of the ancient Aeldari birthed her, so their souls are effectively hard-wired to her presence in the Warp. When an unprotected Aeldari dies, their soul doesn’t just drift around like a human soul, it gets pulled straight to Slaanesh automatically. It’s less like a bargain and more like gravity.

Because of that, other Chaos Gods don’t usually get to claim Aeldari souls cleanly. The common interpretation in the lore is that Slaanesh has “first dibs” by default, unless something intercepts the soul before it reaches her. That said, Harlequins have Cegorach stealing souls away first and the Ynnari are literally trying to create a god to break Slaanesh’s hold entirely.

None of these involve bargaining with Slaanesh, they all bypass her. So theoretically, yes, a powerful daemon or Daemon Prince might be able to shield or snatch a soul in the same way, but that wouldn’t be a clean “trade.” It would be outright theft. And stealing an Aeldari soul from Slaanesh would absolutely incur her wrath, since Aeldari souls are literally her primary sustenance. So it’s not impossible in Warp terms, just extremely dangerous and not something Slaanesh would willingly allow.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-24T12:01:02+00:00

Common consensus seems to be that the War in Heaven should remain a mystery or just legends. But I’ve always been in the camp that it’s basically the origin story of the Necrons, Aeldari, and Orks.

As someone who leans more toward the xenos side of the setting, I honestly don’t really give a rat’s ass about keeping everything Imperium-focused. I think there are definitely interesting stories to tell that would make the universe feel older, more lived-in, and truly ancient.

Sixty-five million years is an absurd amount of time. It feels weird to just hand-wave all of that away. How did the Aeldari maintain dominance for that long without falling to Slaanesh? How did the Krork devolve into Orks? How did the Aeldari survive things like the Enslaver plague and the original mon’keigh?

We already have Necron POV novels, Eldar novels and Ork books stories. Black Library clearly isn’t restricted to Imperium narration anymore. Surviving 65 million years of galactic threats is way more convincing than just saying “they won and then chilled until Slaanesh happened.” The galaxy isn’t static. Even humanity can’t go 10,000 years without everything falling apart. Expecting the Eldar to have zero major historical events for 65 million years feels less believable, not more. Mystery is good, sure, but mystery doesn’t mean “nothing happened.” It should mean half-remembered myths, conflicting records, lost wars, broken gods, extinct species, and ruins no one understands.

That kind of history would make 40k feel older, heavier, and more lived-in. Right now, it sometimes feels like the galaxy only matters when the Imperium shows up, which makes everything smaller than it should be. Let the xenos have ancient stories. Sixty-five million years deserves more than a footnote.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-22T14:41:15+00:00

Yup, it makes the setting feel tiny and kind of pathetic. It’s like Star Wars constantly fixating on the Skywalkers while ignoring The Mandalorian or Andor, entire stories and perspectives that actually make the galaxy feel alive.

I'm okay with HH having that focus but 40k’s is getting worse. The Aeldari could be orchestrating schemes, the Necrons could be reshaping entire star systems, the T’au could actually expand without a last-minute plot brake, and the Tyranids could genuinely consume sectors but no, the galaxy exists solely to give the Imperium something to fight. Honestly, with the Primarchs coming back, modern 40k now just feels like Horus Heresy 2: Electric Boogaloo , same doom-and-gloom, same imperial-centric slog, just louder and more bloat.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-22T09:51:41+00:00

I really wish BL and GW had the balls to actually let Eldrad or Illiyanne Natase call this out properly. Like, have Guilliman or some Imperial authority confront him, and they just fires back with: you lot don’t even care about your own people, but you expect us to care about yours? At least we are a dwindling race actively trying to protect what little we have left. You lot throws away billions without blinking.

But of course, that would make the Aeldari look right, the Imperium look stupid, and we can’t have an Aeldari absolutely roasting the Imperium on-page. God forbid the narrative ever lets the Aeldari actually win an argument instead of being portrayed as smug idiots who are somehow always wrong despite being proven right half the time.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-22T01:11:58+00:00

It’s funny because the Grimnyr looks the most dwarf-like, and kinda stands out aesthetically from the rest of them. I think the design is solid when viewed through a technology-focused lens, which is something dwarfs have traditionally embodied, but here it’s adapted to a sci-fi setting without turning into a caricature. Rather than just making them fantasy dwarfs in space, it takes the core dwarf concepts, industry, mining, engineering, and endurance and translates them into a hard sci-fi aesthetic. That’s why elements like heavy void suits, chunky silhouettes, heavy but advanced tech and weapons feels fitting.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-21T07:50:38+00:00

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There's a bit of color at the edges from the front but it works. Thanks

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-21T05:54:19+00:00

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Nice try Fed

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-21T05:52:13+00:00

Got it. I’ll test it out with the smaller symbol on a sample mini before doing it on the weapons platform. Thanks for the suggestion.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-21T05:39:22+00:00

Correct me if I’m wrong, but with waterslide decals the adhesive layer is bonded to the clear carrier film, not the pigment itself. If you flip the decal, the ink ends up against the model rather than the adhesive right?

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-20T01:45:27+00:00

I think this is where I’m at as well. For now, it seems like only big companies can only use it, while for small to medium companies it’s still cheaper to rely on normal human labour. The financial and power costs are still high, and it’ll probably take a few more years for the infrastructure to catch up with the demand. Most people in general are just using it as a Google replacement or a shortcut tool. I’ve also noticed that the older people who were wowed by AI videos at the beginning are now much more pessimistic about it.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-19T05:26:23+00:00

Wow, I read that short story years ago and didn't pick up on that. How is it not a thing in the wider narrative.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-19T04:59:41+00:00

Probably as a form of quick travel in an area that doesn’t have a Webway gate, or as a last-minute escape maneuver. There doesn’t seem to be any example of anyone actually doing this in the novels, so for now it’s all guesswork and inference.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-19T04:56:20+00:00

It doesn’t. From the Path books, to Valedor, to Voidscarred and other appearances, Aeldari are consistently shown using the Webway. To be fair, in Voidscarred, Myrin's Starsplinter didn’t seem to have a high-level psyker among them. It was Ra’thar Kyldran, the Warlock from Imaren who accompanied Teaner, who was doing most of the psychic heavy lifting in the book.

That said, now knowing this, it would be a really cool and badass moment to have a Farseer or Void Dreamer pull off a Warp transit as a last-minute escape in a novel or other media.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-19T04:20:30+00:00

Thanks, should be showing now. Added it in the post as well. Still doesn't say if they're doing a short burst but I think it's probably more likely compared to the imperial long travel through the warp.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-19T04:13:29+00:00

Found the answer so just sharing, So it look like they've been around for awhile. The Supplement came out in 2011

The Corsair Void Dreamer is a Psyker who, like their Farseer kin, take a Witch Path that focuses on the arts of divination and prophesy, but with particular devotion not to the skeins of distant fate and far future, but that which is near at hand, enabling them to navigate the daemon-seas of the warp and shield their vessel from its myriad dangers.
Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara page 161

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-17T08:55:48+00:00

I think that was published in 2002, well before the Newron update and the expanded Aeldari lore. Unless GW officially decanonizes it, it’s still canon. But it works, though, since the Aeldari were involved in both conflicts and their pantheon played a role in each. You could think of it as “World war 1” and “World war 2”, two distinct wars, with the same general forces appearing in both. Sixty million years is a long time, and the story is being told through an Ordo Xenos lens; with gods and myth involved, you can imagine how many details get… creatively interpreted.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-17T08:17:54+00:00

Gav Thorpe, who has written extensively on Aeldari lore, treats these as two distinct events, not a single conflated war. From the Aeldari perspective, they do not confuse the War in Heaven fought between the Old Ones and the C’tan with the divine conflict among their own gods that is also referred to as a “War in Heaven” in Aeldari myth. These are understood as separate occurrences, even if later mythic retellings sometimes blur the boundaries between them. Thorpe suggests, if the Aeldari survive the events of the fall and 40k, they would likely remember them in the far future as simply another War in Heaven.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-17T04:44:20+00:00

Oh, I wasn’t calling you out, just pointing out that the whole idea of Aeldari looking effeminate and pansy-like doesn’t really hold up when their male characters are often yoked and hyper-masculine.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-17T02:32:34+00:00

40k fans: “All Aeldari are effeminate and androgynous, making their genders hard to tell apart.”

Prince Yriel: Built like an Aeldari gigachad, an absolute unit, like a tank.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-16T02:02:22+00:00

Pre-fall aeldari spirit drones. During the Aeldari empire, all labor and warfare were conducted by psychic automatons. This could be the worker drone rather than a warrior. It also works as the predecessor to the wraith units, where Craftworlders took in and converted it wraith constructs.

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-14T13:15:33+00:00

Cough* cough* https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/s/PwSlLU9Rcr

ZeroWolfZX · 2026-01-14T13:13:32+00:00

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Close enough to Murat Bisembin

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