Hello, I'm Ghost59.  Your guide into the lore of Warhammer 40k. This is another post, in a collaborative effort to spread Warhammer, TES and the Witcher all through #Gaming.  My good friend  cyber and  Veration handle  the elder scrolls as well as the  witcher  lore.  Links below to check it out  out their work.   (note I don't detail everything in here, if I was. It would take eight posts instead of three to cover everything that involves Eldar.) [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/212283255?page=0&sort=0&showBanned=0&path=0]cyber[/url] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/212212758?page=0&sort=0&showBanned=0&path=0]Veration [/url] Today we will talk about the fall of the Eldar empire and the birth of a dark god. [b]Decay and Degradation[/b] The Eldar were technologically advanced humanoid race,  generally considered the most intelligent species in the galaxy before the founding of the Imperium of man. Their ancient empire spanned the milky way galaxy and the only intelligent race that could challenge them were the Necrons that lay within their Tomb Worlds across the galaxy in the wake of the end of the War in Heaven. The Eldar had unparalleled mastery of the Immaterium (the physical reality). So much so that they could even mold the mystical energies of that hyperdimensional nether realm into the physical materials like wraithbone. When mankind was still long millennia way from building the Egyptian pyramids, the eldar already ruled a vast unchallengeable interstellar empire. The fall of this massive empire came not from another race but literally from the conflicts that had lay within the Eldar themselves.Eldar technology had advanced so fat by the height of their empire that little to no work was required by individual eldar.  As a result, at some point around the 24th or even the 25th millennium,  groups of Eldar Started to form. They were called pleasure cults dedicated to the pursuit of  experiencing every sensation, pleasurable or pain that life had to offer. As the Eldars emotions are often more powerful that those that humanity can experience.  They were capable of dedicated pursuit of sensation in a way that even the most sybaritic members of the human race would find it difficult to comprehend.    These pursuits becomes more extreme, hedonistic and depraved as time went on. Full blown torture and murder came to be seen as art forms every bit as worthy as poetry, music and painting. The Eldar were extremely long lived almost immortal before they were cursed by the Nightbinger, never have they suffered from senility or disease and their superior intellects deep emotional resonance and potent psychic powers allowed them to perfect their skill to a degree far beyond that of even the most talented humans. The Eldar were able to devise cunning new ways of torturing and killing their fellows at rates never imagined. The government within the Eldar empire soon collapsed and degeneration of their homeworlds and colonies into utter deprvity continued unimpeded. As the pursuit of ever more extreme experiences reaches its height,  death reigned in the streets of the Eldar cities,  hunter and hunted each being part of a twisted ritual of chaos which consumed millions of lives. Some eldar were able to see that now their corrupt society was destroying itself, and fled in disgust; these would settle in distant planetary colonies of their empire and would be later known as Exodites [b]The Fall[/b] Upon dying, the soul of any sentient decased being would traverse bounds of the phyiscal realm and go to the warp for the final resting. Generally this has no effect on the pyhsical realm. The eldar however are quite different.  The psychically gifed Eldar have powerful souls and register a much stronger presence in the warp than the vast majority of humanity, whom most possess no psychic abilities. The deaths of hundred of thousand of their kind in extremely pleasurable or painful ways, the concomitant entry of huge numbers of their souls into the war had an intended and catastrophic side effect.  The restless souls of the dead Eldar cause the formation of terrible Warp Stroms which made interstallar travel extermely difficult in the physical realm.  A far worse effect however would see these souls coalesce into a larger entity, a living psyhic embodiment of corruption that had take their lives. As more and more died to fuel the decadence and depravity of their now socity,This  entity would continue to grow and warp storms would be worse over time.   In the early 30th millennium, this great warp entity finally attained full sentience.  In the last few years before its birth, many Eldar were driven insane by the uncontrolled psychic energies possessed by this embryonic entity. Many eldar who had stayed behind on their homeworlds would try and turn their race away from this  path of chaos. They had saw what was happening and knew something terrible was about to occur. The Eldar left the empire behind, fleeing the aboard colossal spacecrafted called Craftworlds and taking any plants, animals or other pieces from their culture and home worlds environments within them. At long last the entity would suddenly come to life and was said to have “taken its first breath.”;this first breath instantly slew the overwhelming majority of Eldar who live in the empire as their souls were inhaled by the entity. The death tolls were so massive within the Eldar empire that the warp energy literally spilled into the physical realm and creating a permanent interface of real space and warp space that would be known as the Eye of Terror.  Even the Eldar who had fled their empire were affected, many Exodites and craft worlders fell dead as their souls were also sucked from them as well many   of the other races were driven insane or killed by the power that had been unleashed. Their newly born entity became the fourth major Chaos god, Slaanesh, Prince of pleasure and from there the Eldar empire was no more. [b]The Prince of Chaos[/b] Slaaneshs first act after annihilating so many Eldar was to hunt down their gods(which I will cover in another post.). Who also existed in the warp as they had with Slasnesh.  The psychically gifted Eldar ad previously created their own pantheon of gods from their collective desires and beliefs.  Affect upon the energies of the warp space but with the sudden deaths of the Eldar, the old gods were drastically weakened. Slasnesh took advantge of this weakness and destroyed them.  Assimilating them into itself. Unlike the other intelligent races of the galaxy who see this chaos god as male,  the Eldar consider Slaanesh to be female and refer to her as “the great enemy” or “she who thirsts.” Ancient Eldar gods such as kurmous, isha, vaul and asuryan were hunted down and devoured by Slasnesh. However amoung the death and destruction  three of the original Eldar gods survived.  It is said that Eldar god of war, khaine fought Slaanhes and neither was able to defeat one another. Khaine being a war god could not be bested in combat but Slassnesh was far to powerful for khaine to defeat.   Some tellings say the story state in the end, the chaos blood god, khorne, interceded on Khaines behalf likely with the aim of  absorbing the Eldar god of war himself.  Regardless of the actually event,  the result was clear.  Rather than be devoured by the more powerful chaos gods,  Khaines form was shattered and exiled  into the mortal realm as statues called Avatars,  which rest in the of various craft worlds. While  pieces of Khaines soul reside in the infinity circuit of the craft worlds and can be called in time of extreme emergencies would become animated though the price is high in blood for this boon. The other Eldar god to survive would be the trickster god, Cegorach also called the Laughing god.  He was said to have hidden himself with in the web way during the fight between Khaine and slaanesh. With in the labyrinthine confines of the webway where he still resides.   There is one more who survived, well is believed to have survived thanks to the help of Nurgle. That is Isha, Eldar goddess of healing. Nurgle would be rumored to be using her for his experiments, since she has instant healing and there for is immortal. she is immune to all sickness, so he uses her as his testing ground before freeing a new sickness into real space. After the birth of Slassnesh and the war with the Eldar gods, very few Eldar survivors found their society in ruins. They were now split into five factions and were forced to find ways of protecting themselves from Slaanesh; with her existence so closely tied to their race, any Eldar who died had his or her soul instantly consumed by the ever hungry “Great Enemy”. These new factions were the Craftworld Eldar, Dark Eldar, The Harlequins, the Eldar Outcasts and the Exodites. Each found their own way of dealing the curse of Slaanesh. My master post: [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/212418068?showBanned=0&path=0]Master post[/url]