The 40k Lorecast - Episode 45 - Eldar pt 2 - What is an Eldar, their Craftworlds. and their Psychics

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

On today's cast we continue our deep dive into the Eldar. We start with what an Eldar is, what they look like, how they move, live etc. Then we dive into the main craftworlds in the game. We also spend some time talking about what happens when GW allows the table top rules to match the lore (oopsie). We then move onto the Psychers of the Eldar.PatreonMerchandiseDiscord Link:Our WebsiteRetro RecallOur Sponsors:* Check out BetterHelp: https://www.betterhelp.com* Check out Pebl: https://hellopebl.com* Check out Pebl: https://hipebl.ai* Check out Shopify: https://shopify.com/loreAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to the 40K lore cast. Welcome to the 40K lore cast with me, John Barcotti and Bradchester. This guy. On today's episode, we're going to try again after John actually presses the record button. It's a real thing that happened, by the way. We're not joking. We did this entire cast. Entire cast.

I looked over my shoulder to make sure it was recording, saw the red button, thought it was recording, and realized afterwards I never pressed said red button. Have I gotten up four times to check the red buttons and pressed? Yep. Am I going to check more times during the cast? Have also, yep. Have we been talking for one hour and recording the entire conversation? Yes, to make sure.

Does any of it have to do with 40K? Absolutely. Good news for all of you is our second round. It is usually better than our first round. True story. So there we go. All right. So before we get going, as always, please follow and leave a positive review in the cast.

It is actually really pumping our audience. I think we're over half a million downloads now. It's Spotify is recommending us all over the place. And that's really just because you guys say like and then you listen. So thank you for doing that. Please, like, one of the big things, leave a comment. It actually is great for the analytics. It puts it out to more places for whatever reason.

I don't know how it works, but talk about us and like. The nanomachines of Spotify. I don't know. Nanotechnology. Nanotechnology. So with that, also, other thing too is in the show notes, there's a link to our Discord as well. If you haven't joined it already, please join the Discord. Again, totally free.

It's just a great repository for us. We're getting a lot of both positive feedback, but also really good constructive criticism in there. Some of the changes we've made to the audio balancing came out of there. There's also a really good community in there. It's so far been really, really positive. A lot of people coming in with, hey, this is my favorite literature. This is my favorite topic. Can you guys cover it?

But also talking to each other and saying, hey, is anyone else read this? Is anyone else, hey, I like, I like X. Does anyone have a resource for me on more? And I want to throw it out there for people that are also hobby people. Hobby people may be looking to get in the game or either one. not even looking at the game, but just loving to do the hobby. We've got channels for that, and people are very supportive. Also, please, if you're in the Discord or you're joining the Discord,

throw up your mind. I love seeing projects. Yeah, look at your model. Show us what you're working on. Actually, I was about say later tonight, I'm going to put up photos, but it'll be like a week and a half ago. I'm going to throw up some pictures. I'm playing tonight on my new board where I read it all the terrain or playing someone.

So I'll be some photos up tonight of that. I just, I love the journey. I love journey picks. do not give a shit if your models are the best painted, the worst painted, the whatever. I just like, I really do enjoy it. I know it's cheesy. Somebody to say it. I just like the journey.

Exactly. Also, there's a link in here for our Patreon. For those of you who's joined our Patreon, thank you. We're talking to you via new microphone. Via Patreon. Yeah, via Patreon things. This is stuff we're doing. Our Patreon is simply, it's your choice.

Sadly, we don't give you anything for joining our Patreon other than a thumbs up behind the scenes. If you are looking to play 40K at any level, Brad is a 40K coach. He does everything from, I've never played this game in my life. Can you make it so I don't embarrass myself on day one? All the way up through, I've got a 600-person five-day event coming up. I'd like to win it. Can you help me out? Brad covers all those areas.

He's a very, very good coach, the luxury of playing the game for 30 years. He knows it pretty well. And being one of the top players in the game, actually. So it's not just even playing it for a while. There's a lot of people who've done that and haven't been top five ITC. I mean, that's stuff. Exactly. So if you want to reach him, you can go to, you can email him at.

Old man, Brad 40K at gmail.com. Or go to our website and click his link. Anyway, on to the elder. You know what? I think that most people are typing in what I have said. I am sure they are not. I need to know that for now. You're going to hold of Brad, old man.

There's a lot of people with Gmail address. This has gotten very random emails. I've been very confused by. I'm going to start just putting my IP address up. Exactly, yeah. It's 172.198. All right. Anyway, on to the Eldar.

So, as we said in the last cast, the Eldar are one of the first playable races in the game. That means that from a lore standpoint, I believe they're number two to the Space Marines. This is in the 90s, early 90s. Yeah, if you're going to go down the late 80s. Oh, yeah, they were always afraid about this. We would say late 80s.

It's 89. It's 80. Yeah, but it counts. Yeah, it made it into the 80s. In my mind, they wore technical or sweaters. Rootrader was first. When I think 40K, I of course think when I started playing, which was second edition. Yeah.

But second edition was 90. I should probably look at the screen. 94. 94. Yeah. So the second edition came out in 94. So if you started in second edition, you wouldn't play in the late night. It's actually when I was playing.

I played right to start a second edition. I do want to throw out that between both, John and I, if you, play us and you're a young lad. I have models on the board frequently. Yeah. That are older than my- I have a number of, it's only my imperial units, but I have, I have Imperial Guard units that are older than most of you. I have metal Eldar that is over 25 years old. I have an Eversora assassin. I believe I bought. Yeah, right on 94. It would have been right around that era. I'd have to check, but yeah, he old. Anyway, speaking of the Eldar line, who, the Eldar line in this regard actually falls that same category of they have not changed very much.

Give me some new scopes. You know what? I'm taking that back. I'm going to call them out, but I'm giving props. The new scopes they're doing for the Eldar are spot on Primo. However, the same commercial in that I see in a white dwarf from 30 years ago has the same, I was a striking score of me, but they just got a new line. Wap, Warpswriters. The same warp spider. Shining Spear. They're all the same. They change the base.

Warlock, Varsier. Come on, man. Raith. Oh, no, the Raithords the Gen. Raithor's the change. They changed. It's right, yeah. When writing the notes for this, so the way I write, the way we write notes for

the cast is I pull the old codexes. So I'm looking at second edition codexes. And I'm looking at images of, here's how you paint your army. And I'm looking at the closet behind me going, it's the same model. Although the one I have in the closet is at least a resin so it weighs less. Yeah.

Like, this game used to, you could be able to harm people with this game, like an old, like, all metal baby, beautiful days. All right, but let's dive into the Eldar. So we'll start off what is an Eldar because we should have covered this in the first one. So Eldar are just,

they're elves. It's Tolkien elves, but with a little bit of a twist. But in Tolkien elves were shorter in the Eldar are actually taller than humans. They're taller. That's it. They're taller and thinner, but they're not weaker.

They're actually stronger and faster. Oh, that's right. Yeah, I forgot. In Tolkien, they are a little bit weaker. They're just, they're more accurate. Yeah. The elder are superior. Let's just call it what it is.

They're taller. Well, they're stronger. They're not faster. They're not more durable, though. Like, they're wildly not more durable. Yeah. Are they, his thing, than a guardsman? Well, when I talk Imperium, I don't talk us.

That's what I'm getting. It's only I'm getting it. It's like, I hear you, but like, reverse the space marine. If you went Brad versus random Eldar, I would get tooled up so quickly. That's all I'm getting. And kind of to that end, let's talk about the Eldar physiology. So some of this, as any time we talk about how GW writes physiology, any of you with degrees in science gets sad.

People are about to be mad at us for just saying. Some of this is just quotes. The Eldar heart beats at twice the speed of a humans. Now, does that, is there lung capacity different? Which would have to be? Which would not mention. How about their, but you didn't mention the brain a little bit. But anyway, according to the GW, this allows them to move at basically impossible speeds.

They move at Anne Rice vampire speeds almost. Where are you? And the biggest thing is that one of my favorites is in the codex that they talk about, Inquisition seeing Eldar, talk me, Eldar. Yeah. And their movements are disconcerning. They actually, they move so fast and so precise that it actually puts you at. at unease. The example I liked was in one of the codexes said that watching an Eldar move at full speed is like trying to watch the wings of a hummingbird move. It's just visually we can't do it.

Does that translate to the tabletop? Well, we'll talk about it. Sometimes it has. So we'll get in that in a little bit here. But I want to go into, because it goes into the fall. Yeah. We want to talk about physiology, but also the Eldar mentality. But I want to dive into a little bit, though, was with the Eldar physiology and the the way that they move, like the speeds they can move at, the actors they move at. It's kind of funny. The stories get kind of funnier on the system, but Brad just made a really good story about the Inquisition talks about, like, watching the Eldar move is unnerving.

The Eldar write the same things about the humans, but in a negative, it's the viewpoint of like, hey, is every human injured? Like, why would they walk like that? One of my things is, if you've seen the ring, when she gets out and she moves all crazy, but she keeps paws moving. that's pretty much how Eldar feel that humans move. And by humans, we're like space marines. I'm talking like a guy who's at the bottom of a hive city.

We're talking about a space marine. They're like, why are you walking like that? Are you injured? Like, you should get help for that. Don't you guys have doctors? They should fix it. So with that, the Eldar physiology, though, is a little extreme. And by a little extreme, I mean, they actually can jump higher and farther than space

Marines. They can move at speeds primar struggle to do it. This is where we get to the end solitaire, things of that nature. Where is my armor better? Absolutely not. Does anyone touch me? Absolutely not. I'm doing Matrix stuff against your bullets.

Matrix is a good example. That's how the Eldar move. And the Eldar, for once, G-Dow, we didn't rip that off because Matrix came out after the Eldon. But it's a big thing on this. But that's everything about Eldar is extreme. Yeah. In their mentality, what they do.

And we're going to talk about aspects. Well, yeah. And I think talking about aspects in the test, but like the, the area I just want to really dive in on Eldar here, because it's going to get into a point I'm going to make in a second here. In the lore, there is nothing in the universe, barring maybe an orc war boss who could stand toe to toe with an Eldar in hand-to-hand combat. They are so fast, so strong, so flexible, so perfect.

Wait for it, though. And two other things, because they're cheating. Yeah. Well, one's not cheating. One is they put in hundreds, possibly thousands of years of work. A practice. So, of course, you're better than everyone else. And here's the cheating part.

They can kind of Jedi see in the future. They can say those in the future. So one thing about the Eldar is that that piece of in the lore, some stuff we're going to talk about here is you're just like, wow, they really couldn't lose anything other than Slanesh. Honestly, yeah, that's how it was written to be. Is this idea that the only reason the humanity even exists in the universe is because the Eldar, I've lost too many people to do anything about it. They're basically, again, the necrons are actively hiding from the Eldar.

The Eldar Empire was, I'm going to again, date myself on this, Elric, and I'm going to screw this up because Melibonian, Elric was Stormbring. Oh, yeah, there we go. His race was, that was the Eldar. They're the race that dominated the entire world and then just kind of went and hung on on their island, which Eldar kind of hung out in their section of the galaxy

and just went, we conquered everything, everyone serves us, and people didn't even know they existed effectively. And we're like, we rule everybody. And they're like, we don't know who you are. But if we wanted to go over there, we could. We could. And you're like, but are you? You're not going to, right?

So I'm going to keep doing our thing. One of the little fun piece about the Eldar that I do enjoy is the Eldar obviously are very touched by the warp, to say the least. And the challenge with this is that they actually use, they don't communicate just by voice, but via everything. Because they understand. Yeah. Legitimately, so Eldar, tiny things of body language speak volumes for an element. Yes.

Just their position, how they're sitting, whatever. They expect you to also understand everything about their tone, their posture, how I said it, the volume, and not a volume of yelling. just a slight inflection. Little bits of pitch and inflection meaning the world. You should clearly understand. Anyone who speaks to Mandarin actually understands this really well.

Mandarin has this problem where they'll say something to someone and they're like, did you mean this? No, obviously I didn't. But where this gets to be funny is that the Eldar, because of this, they can communicate very, very quickly with each other. They can, you know, what would take us multiple paragraphs, they can say in three or four words,

but using body language and what have you. The Eldar forget a lot. about that they can't do this with humanity. So there'll be some sort of like chaos or xeno incursion coming down on humanity. The elder will rush over to tell humanity about it. And after five minutes of trying to explain something that should have taken the elder 30 seconds, they realize it would take them two hours to explain to humanity. And they just decide to just kill all the humans there along with the chaos.

It's just easier. Or not even that. They'll just let the fight happen. Yeah. And then kill whoever's left. We'll deal with this after the fact. It actually comes up. It comes up a lot.

We should circle back to the brain. The Eldar brain is significantly different. The most important part about the Eldar in modern 40K is the path that they're on. And the reason they're on the path is because of the way their brain functions. Which is very, very different from humans. Because while the Eldar are precise, they do all this, also the Eldar effectively, we're supposed to be poets. sculptors, the philosophers, and they became warriors.

But the Eldar is, they feel everything. They said in multiple books, they said this, 10 to 50 times more in loss, in joy, and whatever, which is why you had pleasure cults, which is why they get so driven to be the best sculptor, warrior, torture, whatever it is. Yeah, a lot of that. Yeah, I'm just saying, like, they're looking to be the best, but they also get there's OCD and then Eldar go, hold my beard. The elder is.

They feel pain when they fail at something. And they can't let it go either. If there's a failed thing, they have to finish it and they have to finish it in a painful. Also, I have forever to know that I didn't finish this. And they'll do whatever it takes to do that. And because of this, again, they broke the sky. My bad, we have the paths, which are the Eldar leaders. the Eldar scholars saying, we need to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Let's dive into the path. So at the core, the path is a result of the fall of the Eldar, where the Eldar realized when they just chase their own impulses and their own desires, they have a tendency, oopsies, to go a little bit extreme. A little? Yeah. The problem is at the Eldar, that is their natural state. The Eldar need a direction.

So they create what they call the path. And the path is you decide to be. become specialized. But by specialized, we mean, like, you become a specialist. It's probably a better way of taking than saying specialized. And the thing is, is the path in the game, obviously, it's the path of the warrior. Yeah. But elder society isn't just the path of the warrior.

Elder society could be, and we talked about the last time I recorded. But the biggest thing is, is like you could be a specialist in the guy that literally cleans. We're going to do that. No, we're going to, we are. But I'm saying that it goes into everything. So I just want to point out that everybody thinks that the path of the Eldar is only. Oh, no, there's numerous paths.

The idea is that when I'm on the path and my goal is to be the greatest, we're going to go through the paths on second, the greatest, whatever it is, that keeps me from falling to my impulses or chasing this endless, what is basically a descent into decadence because when I'm the path I'm on is not a path of decadence. It's a path, it's a pursuit of success. It's a pursuit of success. something that benefits the society because if I just leave you alone, you will obsess on something and that something might be terrible.

It might be really shitty. So again, we broke the sky. We're trying to not do it again. A key thing on the path, though, is that as much we talk about Eldar being OCD, the paths do for most Eldar have a completion point. We'll talk about the ones who don't in a second a little bit. But the idea is that I would join one of these paths and I would do it. until the point that I have decided that I have achieved the path.

And the elder aren't lazy. So they say they've achieved the path. They've achieved it. And then because you're living thousands upon thousands of years, you would then pivot to the next path. That's the normal thing. So when we talk about a path, once you decide to be like the first one we'll do is a path of the artisan,

you will not be an artist likely for your entire life. It could be. But the funny thing about that is there's supposed to be a completion and then you're supposed to learn something else. And that is what LDA is supposed to be. the problem is if you become too good at your path, then you never leave it. Exactly.

And you not only are you probably not going to do it your own self, but other people won't let you because you become too. And it doesn't matter. Whatever you were doing, if you become the greatest at it, Eldor are like, sorry, you're too good to leave. You're too good. This is what you do now.

So let's dive into some of the non-combat paths for a little bit. So the first one I would talk about is a path of the artisan. And this one's important, I think, because this is my favorite actually one of my favorites well i find this one really really critical because when we talk about the elder fall the elder fell because they were chasing decadence and all these things why because they were actually before they were uplifted by the old ones they were poets and artists and that has never left they were the best they were the exact there that never left the elder and what happened was even post fall despite the fact they're in a constant state of hellacious war

they still have a need for beauty and a need for the things. And that's what the path of the artisan is designed for. Just in everything about it. I think this needs to be said in the path of the artisan is so important because when you look at Eldar armor, Eldar weaponry, the Eldar just day to day, where there's ships that are supposed to be made for a constant state of war are still, again, they think that everything the Imperium does is a nightmare. Yeah.

Everything we create, they're not making. taking fun of it is like, oh, you guys make bad stuff. No, they think that must be a torture device. And we say that we're talking about like imperial cathedrals. Yeah, they work through an imperial cathedral and they're like, why do you hate everyone who comes here? What is this a prison? Yeah. And the thing is that Eldar, again, because they're psychically resonance with everything, everything in Eldart society, ships, everything, you basically have interaction with everything.

you can feel everything from the wall to the structure to the weapon, the whatever. You have a sense of interaction with this. I can sense that because all of their things are made. Well, we'll talk about more later, but the wraith, the wraith ball. You know what I mean? It's all sung and created. So that's why the path of artisan is really critical within the Eldart community, because it does.

It keeps them, the people on the path, the artist and make everyone on the other paths happier. Yes. That's what they do. Because they tell them, this is. are even your structures. You walk into an aspect shrine. We have a whole cast about this, but you walk into a warrior shrine,

and it is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen in your life. The next one, though, actually, I like a lot is, because it's one I hadn't thought of until I read the codex. Like, of course, they'd have a path of command. In order to lead the Eldar, you need to, it's not just a like,

oh, Eldar Tim has been here through a few battles. We'll pop him in charge. No, every commander, this is, and leaders on multiple levels, You could also be leading other paths, don't forget. Eldor do not. I don't even know if they have the word for nepotism in Eldon. Yeah, exactly.

If you're on the path of the command, it is a hard path. Because it's incredibly important path. You are on the path of command. You are overseeing the survival of your race. Yeah. And so these are, these are, I was going to say, they're the most committed, but they're not. They're all equally committed to their paths in all candor. but the people on the path of command, their goal is to be the kind of leader who never makes a mistake

ever, has nothing but the full support of the people behind them. They're amazing. And they don't get put into this. The path of command isn't like you went to a school for a couple of years and now you're in command. No. No, you went down the path. Yeah, exactly. This, again, you're a long live, a wildly long live race. Yeah. So they don't go, hey, you did well in the last five, years you're like the well you're in your freshman year and they're giving you command of squad it's like oh yeah how long have you been on the path of command 750 years okay we're going to do a mild incursion over here we'll let you lead these three people because they take this yeah well they take all of very serious they elder are very serious but yeah but one of the big thing is

about path of command is they they they know that they and they're very serious about the fact that they think that these people are in charge of the survival of our race yep so they don't give any chances. So when you see an autark on the board, that's why he has those rules. Yeah. He's getting CPs doing things because of the fact that, oh yeah, this guy's been in training for, yes, multiple, so many human lifetimes before he was given in charge of anything. Another one that I like a lot is the path of service. Oh, this is fantastic. Because I refer to it as, you know, ditch diggers. These are the ditch diggers. These are the ditch diggers. the janitors, whatever it is, the maintenance staff of the Eldar.

Except the difference is when these guys dig a hole, it's the best hole that you would cry at the beauty and the perfection of the hole that they dug. One of my favorite things to think about, because the term Exarch, we're going to say it like a lot. And Exarch means a person that has, I guess, perfected, but he is now, there's no other path. The term they use is they call it fall into the path. And Exarch is someone who cannot leave the path. For whatever reason, they just cannot see a life outside of this.

But there's X-Arx effectively in every path. So the guy that cleans and he cleans so well. There is an X-Arc janitor. Yeah. And he's so awesome. And it is. People are just like, I don't even understand what just happened. Yes.

But this is, nothing's ever been this clean, this anything. And again, these people, think about like none of the elder function without this, too. So I also want to put out, like, there's no tears in the paths. No one's like, oh, you're. path of service. It's a, oh, thank God, he's here. Thank God, we think it's the idea,

if we didn't have enough people who were on path of service, they'd be saying, hey, can more of you go down this path because it's so helpful. Yeah. And everyone here loves their job. We're going to circle back to this.

Eldar do a fantastic job of Eldar and Elder interactions. Yeah. And then we'll continually go back to and also their dicks. Horrible dicks. Last one I got my touch on is the path of Savant,

which is also really a funny one to me. This is the last of like the non-combat Eldar paths. the path of savot are the scientists, engineers, and historians of the Eldar. Which historian is fantastic and they do this. But also the elder historians will rewrite their history. We won't get that. And also, I'm always like, me, Black Library.

I'm not sure how many Eldar historians there are. Well, they try to, but the biggest thing is, is this and the elder scientists, the other scientists are actually working with shittier technology than they had before. Yeah. Because they don't use their full technological abilities because they can't use the war. Oh, yeah. Because we broke the sky. What we used to be able to just think about something and that created.

But that is a real thing. Also, people that want to say this and, you know, you read some of the lore, old Eldar would legitimately make reality happen. Yeah. By effectively thinking about it. If old Eldar hadn't really known Slanesh was coming, they would have been able to kill Slenesh before. Like quickly. Yeah. One of my favorite stories, though, about Eldar scientists.

And we'll cover this more in a later cast. But there have been a few examples of the Admec getting a hold of Eldar technology, trying to replicate it. And the Inquisition has to get involved pretty quickly because of they couldn't replicate it correctly. And now there's a full-blown demon incursion or a planet has ceased to exist. 100% of all old Eldar technology. It used to be, how did the coffee maker work? I cast a magic spell and then the technology worked in all things that they did. I love reading stories of the ad mex interaction with current Eldar technology.

They also don't realize that every time I push the set, I want dark coffee. And you're like, you just clicked summon the warp. And you're like, but I push dark coffee. I push dark coffee. Sorry, that's what happens. That's what happens. Yeah, it's like you had to press it all kind of with your back in a certain angle.

Otherwise, you get. Everyone knows that when you're making dark coffee, you do a protective ritual also. Otherwise, of course it's going to summon Scarborough. Everyone knows that. Next thing you're going to say you made two cups of coffee. And that's a different protective ritual. Now, one thing before we dive into the warrior path,

which is the bigger one, is that no matter the path you're on as an Eldar, you are always a guardian. So the Eldar have two levels of military effectively. The level one is their militia, which every single member of the Eldar, every living Eldar is trained in the ways of battle. On the tabletop, they're called Guardians. Also, in the Lord, they're called Guardians too. But they are taught how to fight, and they fight almost as well as a space marines.

So for the record, these are incredibly accurate, incredibly good fighters. This is not like your overweight uncle who's in a militia on the weekend. Let's also talk about the fact that not only of these are very long-lived, But just like elves in all of fantasy, the elder don't need to sleep like we do. They basically do the elf meditative trans deal. So they have significantly more time every day to do all this. They also can't be poisoned, I don't think. Screw you.

They can see in the dark. Night fight doesn't affect Tom, because why not? Because why not? But let's dive into the first one of the big ones. which is the warrior path. So we're going to do, our whole next cast is actually going to be on this, but I just want to kind of touch on it really quickly.

The Eldar have a pretty strong sense of guilt. Strong sense? Yeah. Oh, they feel a little bad about this? About breaking the sky and creating slash. And also killing trillions of Eldar? Yeah. So the warrior path was created by Osirman.

And the idea is that they're going to turn themselves into the greatest warriors that have ever existed. And this ends up becoming, They eventually become Aspect Warriors. I'm going to make it sound so dumb, even though I love Eldar. Effectively, Aserman said, we're going to punch our way back to salvation. Yeah. And that's what they did.

So that's the warrior path. And we're going to dive into that our next cast pretty in depth. We'll be right back after a quick break. In my professional life, one thing I know well is how challenging managing a global team can be. Just the act of creating one has been an extreme challenge over the years. because one thing you learn quickly is a difficulty of hiring global talent and how unclear those costs can be. It looks simple at first, but then the fees start to stack up with compliance worries, contractors versus employees, and a host of other regulations. Pebble brings clarity with upfront, all-in hiring costs and enables you to hire the world.

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risk and founders use it to scale faster without feeling like they need to become HR compliance experts. Bottom line, it simplifies global people operation so you can spend more time growing the business and supporting your team. Pebble's new standard discounted pricing is only $39.99 US dollars per month per employee. That'll help you contain costs. Go to highpebble.aI to get a free estimate. That's high p-e-b-l-a-i for a free estimate. The next one is the gravtank path because the Eldar actually utilized graph tanks. The main one is the Falcon platform. I was to say occasionally.

Well, there's one platform that they base everything off of. Those pilots are also on a path to be a pilot. Which is why a bunch of their bullshit rules have happened in freak in past conditions. This is why they have tanks that fly and can move 12 inches and fire and fade. And do spins. Incredible things. It's because they're the greatest pilot. it's in history. Which they should be.

Which they should be. And we're going to, I'm going to do a little dive in a minute on Eldar and the rules. But there's also the path of the seer who's probably, I think, when we think on the tabletop of what Eldar are most known for. I'm going to get my cheat together for this. Warlocks should have 10 attacks and a warlocks are the only Eldar that have incorrect rules. Like banana. They have two. I know. They're the only ones though. And we're going to dive into that in a little bit here. They are literally the only disappointment in the codexes over. over time of not being more about us. You have to prove yourself over a long span of time to even be considered for the path of this area.

Yeah. Oh, I agree. You know what? Fine. Wait a way to you guys hear us talk about Alay talk and some of their rules. The last one, though, that actually is important here is the path of the outcast. So as much as all these paths exist, they are pretty restrictive. And you could imagine like an adolescent Eldar being like, well, I don't want to just.

just so funny because you're like, analysts and Eldar and someone that's wildly older than I am right now. Those are the years 100 to 300. Yeah. It's like, in my wild youth years. In my wild youth years, I watched a thousand humans die of old age.

But anyway, the Eldar, some Eldar on this who are newer to the path or even some forever will eventually leave the path. And they leave it. And when they do, it's to go kind of chase more of their basal instincts. And we'll get,

Don't worry. You know where we're going. We'll get there in a minute. This is called the path of the outcast. They all usually become Rangers and some will become Pathfinders. This is a pretty big catch-all, though, because this includes Pathfinders, Rangers, which are doing, continuing on with the betterment of elder society. But it also includes, I don't know, corsairs. Yep.

Which are, hey, is a Corsair good? Roll 2D6 and see what happens. They see what happens. Exactly. The thing about most people on the path of the outcast, is a lot of them do end up going back later. So once you've joined the Path of the Outcatch, just like any other path,

you may at some point go back your craft world to rejoin the original path. In some of the older codexes, there actually are stories of some of these Eldar who join the Path of the Outcast, actually falling to chaos and then serving chaos gods. But I haven't seen that in any codex. Forever.

I mean, I saw in the second, and I think I saw it in the fourth edition codex. So this all predates, Y2K. So it might not be there. I'm going to throw a GD a bit under the bus just for a second here because we don't have enough middle ground here. And this might be because John and I debated politics for an hour before we decided to go live. Because why not? But in the recent, we used to have a blending in the old, in the old lore. And now we have Eldar this,

dark Aldar of this. And that's not how the lore is worked. But that's because there was no dark Eldar in the second. That's why. Dark Alder were added in the thing is that all of the. people that are bad are Dark Eldar and all the people that are good, are Eldar, but there's not. The Corsairs are very, are the great blend. Yeah, and let's talk about the Corsairs, because the Corsairs actually disappeared from the game for a while, and then they brought them back in.

They brought them back twice. Yeah, they just came back again recently, and I couldn't be happy that they're back. Rules are interesting. Yeah, great models. So Eldar Corsair is a fancy term for pirates, and they're called pirates because that's actually what they do. They tend to, they have these small ships, and they're in little fleets, and they fly around the galaxy invading ships, small colonies, doing small raids. We'll go to the, this is again one of the things where, oh, there are kind of dicks, because Eldar don't think it's a big deal when they take something from the lesser races,

because why wouldn't I? You're a bug to me. Exactly. You're going to die before some of the, before my favorite program doesn't have any more seasons left. I don't care. Yeah. Like me taking some stuff from you, why? You're going to be dead before I noticed.

When you read the rules for Corsairs, or so when you read the lore for Corsairs, you realize it's ripped pretty heavily off 16th century 17th century privateers. That's what they are. They're pirates slash privateers because they tend to still, most of the Corsair fleets still have a good amount of affinity and even in some cases direct. They're attached to craft ones a lot. Yeah, not always, but a lot of the time.

How about this? Most of the time. Exactly. They have a pretty. big. How about this? If something happened to their cough, cough, cough, cough, prince Ariel. Yeah, they come back with quickly, you know what I mean? They are. Like, hey, we're our own thing and then you're like, hey, you attack my craft world? No, no. It's more for anyone

knows what a privateer was, they're much more privateer than they, in the sense that they have, and they operate independently, but if they called back to the main craft world, they do. But that being said, not all do. The downside of Corsair is where it becomes a little bit, And there's some cool lore on this, we can dive into another cast, mostly once we've covered Drew Kari. One of the big fears Kraft Worlds have about their Corsair fleets that work around them is that Corsairs and Drew Carrey don't differ that much.

And a Corsair can fall to the path of Drew Carrey. And once you fall to the path of the Trachari, we'll cover this when we do Dracari, it isn't just a fall in namesake. It is a fall in, oh, I have to. to do certain things to stay alive. And then you're like, oh, shit, am I just doing evil so I don't die? And now, oh, yeah, I've been alive for thousands of years. And I'm fairly compromised now.

Yeah. And this can happen, although this is, I mean, this is a fairly big rip into fantasy. I mean, specifically D&D, like the fact that elves can just become drowl. Yeah. Yeah. This is, this is the Drukari are the drowl, and we'll cover that when we cover Droucarry. And the thing is that Kamara and the Drukari also do represent a much more, what I would call traditional mercenary element of the corsairs.

So, for example, if you were a corsair and there was a mutiny on your ship and you found yourself stranded, you might find yourself in Kamara fighting in the fighting pits of Kamora as a witch. And you become a succubus. And Brad's laughing because I'm foreshadowed a couple episodes ahead. but that's where we're going. I'm going to drop it at that point. I'm just saying, we're going to the end of the alphabet, as I'm saying.

Exactly, yeah. So you're going to who those characters are. One thing we mentioned before, and we're going to dive into it again a bit further, is the path, like we just said, is not the end for most Eldar. Most Eldar work multi-path. So those of us who play D&D,

Eldar multi-class. They multi-class real well. You can theory could have been on four or five paths before you die. And a lot of these paths, again, are on the path of the survival. on the path of service, the path of whatever. It's just whatever was the thing that you were doing. And you, again, have such a long life that you might be on multiple paths.

And you're expected to do this. And the whole time, you were still expected to know the basics. And the basics are pretty hardcore about being. That's actually a really key thing there. Eldar don't forget. So also, yes, I'm 7,000 years old. They have a dead of memory. The things I learned, I learned 4,000.

thousand years ago are still there. So the artisan, let's say I did path of the artisan, and I did it for a thousand years. Fast forward three thousand years. I'm on the path of the warrior. I can still sculpt as good as I could when I was at the end of that path. That never goes away. So the next thing we want to dive into are the craft worlds themselves. And before we dive into this, I just want to make a little kind of side note about Eldar. There's a lot of people who've been playing the game for a while who don't play Eldar, who really don't like Eldar. And the main reason that they feel this way is the Eldar have been so epically broken in rules over the years. I mean, multiple times, game shifting to the point.

People don't want to play the game anymore because of the Eldar broken rules. That's never happened, tough edition. And I'm going to defend the Eldar with one simple thing. It's not that the Eldar had broken rules. It's the Eldar were the only army whose rules match their lore. And the reason why some of the, the truth is, this is, it's a fact. Some of the earlier rules writers for Eldar were also the lore writers for Eldar. Yeah.

And the thing is that, and this is the argument, and this has always been the argument for elves in any fantasy game and Altsinai game. If you do anything for 500 years plus, you should be amazing at it. Yeah, you should be better than ever. If I just, hey, what happens? on Wednesdays I work the jab at John's house. How long you've been doing that? 500 years. No one blocks my jab.

Yeah, it's a really damn joke. Yeah. You just like, of course you're the best at it because you've done it longer than anybody else has done. And so I bring that up because as we cover the craft worlds, we'll probably make a few comments here and there about some incredibly broken elements of the craft worlds. We're going to start with one. Yeah, we're going to have a few in there.

They're all pretty bad. So one of the other, another quick note before you know in the craft world, is Eldar players, a lot of them feel very strongly about the craft worlds. And so they will paint their entire armies to match the craft worlds. So as we go through couples, I'm going to call out the color scheme you're going to see. You will see people with that color scheme quite a bit. And they will lean heavily into that. But I want to give the quick note on this.

Don't feel that you have to. You do not. Yes, I don't. Yeah. Mine are black and red. You get your own. Mine are black and red. Make your own.

Yeah. Do your own thing. I do not like when people say that you have to do anything. No, not at all. But these craft worlds have deep and long lore, just like when we cover Guard. And in Space Marines, too, people will say, okay, this is my, this is my Space Marine Army. This is my Salamander Army. This is my Ultraman Army.

This is my Army. Craft World have the same thing. So I just want to point that out to people so we know it. But anyway, let's start with the former poster boys of the Eldar, the BLTAN. I do like their color scheme probably the best because I can see it. Yeah, it's all white with green highlights. And yeah, does that suck to paint? oh yeah it sucks to paint white's rough you know who's the biggest craft world dick sorry bealtan fans but

oh they're such dicks wow they hate everybody oh the b l tan so let's talk about the b l tan so the bl tan are the warrior craft world that's what they are when we talk about warrior craft world we're not just talking that they mobilize for war all the craft worlds can mobilize for war yeah of course beel tan thinks that anybody that's not on the path of the warrior the aspect shrines they have more aspect shrines than anyone else does. Yeah. And like, not even close. It's just by a magnitude.

It's a lot of path of warrior going on in Bealtan. And because of this, they take very seriously the fact that the only way that they're going to fix the galaxy is by punching it in the face. Oh, they want to kill everything. And what makes them a little bit funny to me, because they're dicks, is the BLTAN also view every race in the galaxy as, less than them. Not less than them.

Like wild. It's not important. Insignificant to them. B.L. Tan are also fully confident that the Eldar are going to rise again and reclaim this. They do not think this is a we, maybe we can.

This is a we are going to happen. It's just a matter of time. Also, the Bealtan are the ones that actually have said, and this is a quote, one elder life is worth an infinite number. Yeah. Of non-el-Dar lives.

They actually were saying it to humans, but they were just like... Yeah, it's implied. The town, no, it also applies. The town, they understand. The reason it gets to be funny is that BLTAN, in all of their goals and stuff,

also are trying to protect Eldar Kronworlds. And the best about this is, you have no idea. There's no markings, there's no nothing. Yeah, and Eldar Kron World fell 10,000 years ago. Every structure on it has been destroyed. You just, found a planet that's decent distance from the sun and we'll go ahead and colonize this.

And out of the sky or webways you didn't know were there arrive an entire Beeltan army who don't say a word to you, but just kill everybody and then leave. And they're like, basically, we call dibs. Yeah. And they're like, what is happening right now? What happened? Where does everybody go? Also, you could just be, the best is they give no shits.

Oh, they could have done. Because they're not looking for fair fights. They just went, oh, a bunch of settlers there on this place. Yeah. Yeah, you're all dead. Yeah, bye. What even happened? You're like, I'm about to die, but I don't even know why.

One side note with them on that is that because they're obsessed with protecting Eldar crone worlds, they have a special hatred towards orcs because the Eldar, you know, know the orcs, better than any race knows the orcs. They know that once an orc infestation has begun, it's never going away. And so the Eldar are very aggressive whenever they sense an orc presence. And I want to say that they, we talked to have a little bit of, about this last time. We talked about a little bit about this because Bealtan will try to engage the orcs in space. Yeah. Because once orcs are on a planet, they ruin everything.

Oh, yeah. B.L. Tan and Orcs are some epic battles because the B'L Tan are basically hunting orcs down. And orcs don't really hunt stuff down. They just kind of mosey through a galaxy. They're happy to fight. They don't even know why you're fighting, but they're okay. Yeah, this works for me. I was looking for a fight anyways, so cool, but whatever. The next, which cover is Iyandin. And in case you thought painting BL10 was a pain in the ass, let's do yellow and blue. I'd like you to point out that I ran all Iyandin in 2001 and 2002 GTs. Wow. Turn on the circuits. What were the rules, Brad? I ran two 10 men units of Raith guard with Magan Ra and Eldrad with Uriel and Wilkett and three wraith lords.

You're welcome. What broken ass rules did I end and have then? I got a two-up, re-rollable save and an in-oh. Oh, I forgot to mention I also got a five-of-field-lamp pain. Okay. So in order to harm you, I had to hit you, I had to wound you. Then out of six options on a dice, you had to roll anything that wasn't a one. If you rolled the one, you could then try again.

If you rolled the one twice, then one-third of the time you could make the damage go away. I feel like this was fair about. I love Eldar. I just love Elthar. What? That isn't even all the psychic, psychic cast on my... Oh, God. Weirdly enough, I did really well with it.

For some reason, they were really successful. Good God. So Iyand are actually interesting lore-wise, because they were one of the largest craft worlds. And as we covered the Tyrannid cast, Cracken hit them and wrecked them. Well, again, Cracken didn't hit them. And this is where the Sears did not do good things.

things from. Yeah, it's a species that can see into the future. The craft world decided to power pivot into the middle of the Cracken. Yeah. High Fleet. Not, we hit the edge, we'll fight and disengage. We got all of it. We went

directly into the middle and just Queensberry rules did and try to fight our way out. But, Your Real, Prince Uriel came back and everything is kind of okay. They did beat the shit out of the Nitz. Yeah, they actually, they destroyed I mean, they got

But also, when you're talking about the death toll is catastrophic for the Neds. One of the most important pieces historically about Allendon is that they were the ones who discovered the waystones. That's the way to preserve the other. They created the Infinity Statute. They did save the species, period. And this is a cool thing about the way Eldar functions. So we talk about like space marine chapters and some other ones. They actually don't communicate that well with each other.

Like they'll do little bits of stuff. Well, they'll do little bits of stuff. The Eldar are totally the opposite. it. When Nyandin figured out a way to save their souls with the waystones and with even they immediately hold every single elder. This is how you do spirit stones. This is how you put them into constructs. Here's the blueprints. There's not a lot of intellectual property like filings that are being done here. It was like everyone do this now. Because for Eldar, Eldar lives are precious. Exactly. Like very, very precious. And again, dying race even though there's billions of

them. But they don't want their soul. They're again, And to reiterate, every time an elder dies if you don't have the infinity circuit working, which is what the is effectively the collective where Eldar souls go and then you put them in spirit stones and these waystones where you can do it the same. Waystone, Spiritstone is the same thing. But they, if you don't do that, your soul immediately goes to Slanesh's dinner. Yeah. Like, Slanesh eats your, it's a really heat your son.

For eternity, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. You get murdered every day. Hey, if you watch the good place, is this, is this where, is this the flattening zone? We always used to like to flatten it. The Iyandin, other important thing about Iyandin is that they're the most diplomatic of all the races. So they actually, they work with humanity.

They work with the Tao. There's the only two you can actually work with. A lot of their, a lot. Yeah, I was to say a lot of their, the stories, especially originally, of meetings with Eldar are because Ianda. Yeah. And again, I want to point this. out a craft world is not one ship. It is a...

It's a fleet of ships. And a big ship. It's not like one big ship and a bunch of fighters. It's... No, it's... Well, we talked about it last time. It's the quarians from Mass Effect. They stole the idea from,

in all honesty. The last piece I want to touch on an Iyandan is that they're very... While every Eldar craft world uses wraith constructs, the Iyandan use them more than anyone, because they took such heavy loss against the tyranids, they have a lot of them. So they're also,

people who build IAND in armies, they tend to be very heavily in wraiths. They're also wildly skilled in it, too. Yeah. Oh, yeah, their rates are better than others. And we're going to cover rates in a couple casts because I love rates. I think their lore on them is amazing.

From there, though, we'll jump into Samhahe. Sam Hine. I enjoy saying it wrong because it makes people send me messages. It's S-A-I-M, so S-A-I-M, and then Hahn, H-A-D-N. So I'd go with Sam-H-H-H-H-N, but let's go Sam-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-N. Who cares? Anyway, I'm out. So their colors are red with black highlights, and they just go fast.

Oh, well, fast. They go real fast. Rie-Bobby. Real fast. It's the Ricky Bobby of the Kraft Wals. You're the first of your last. Everybody knows that. And the Sam-Hane are interesting, because there are actually a couple of things about them that make them unique.

First, they were one of the first craft worlds to grab all. all their people from the original crone worlds and boogie out. So they exist the furthest from the eye of terror and spend the most time with like. But they also spend the most time besides dark Eldar. Yeah. Doing the old Eldar. Exactly. Ways of thinking, basically.

Because they have, they left before any of the shit happen. So they were already, this is how Elder Society works. Yeah. We're going to continue a lot of them. We'll keep doing that. And that's manifest itself in a very key way in the way they're structured. So, Samhain aren't a, like, kind of pyramid structure where the top leadership goes down.

They're feudal. They're clans. Yeah. They're just, they're straight up clans of guys. Exactly. They're effectively, this is this to be heresy. I mean, they're effectively war bands. Yeah.

Well, that's what they're in there. There are a collection of war bands who sit within one big area. To this end, the other Eldar don't really like them very much. It's because they don't like it. They just don't trust them. Yeah, it's because they're not reliable. It's not that they don't think of them like, oh, they're evil or bad. It's just that the way of these war bands function, whereas most craft worlds, if you say to it,

if you say a craft world, hey, we've got a danger, have got a problem, come solve it. The craft world would then kind of unify itself behind it and come help. The challenge with Sam Hane is that some of them would, because some of the wild riders would come help. They're basically, they're step clans. They effectively were going to war. and then each clan decides whether they're going to war with you. And a lot of times you get 50%, sometimes you get 80%, you know, but there's probably never a time.

I'm going to say this and people are going to message me. This is the five times that they've always come together. Which is good. Message away. But like the thing is that you get some of them to come. And sometimes they just decide not to bother. And so through that end, this is why the other craft rules, It's not that they don't, maybe when I said they don't like Sam Hain, that's an unfair assessment.

It's more they don't rely on or really interact much with them because they're just not viewed as reliable to them. Well, because also again, we go back to that, Eldar lives are precious. So Sam Hane goes, hey, you're in a losing war. If I show up, I will lose a bunch of Eldar lives. I'm just not bothering to do it. And the thing is that they're proud warriors and they just don't want to do things that don't. have a, basically Samhane goes, if I don't have an upside, I'm not showing it. And that second part is really important with Sam Hain.

Sam Hain are more obsessed with, like, honor and dignity than any other craft world, which is another reason why the other crowdswells don't like them. They get Eldar in trouble a lot because Sam Hane's not just honor dignity. It's also pride. It's a lot of pride. A lot of pride. They will sit there and they will engage in battles and fights that they do not need to engage and fight in.

Because they want to show you that we're the best. Yeah, instead of this blasting. They're huge show-offs. Yeah, they're not big orbital bombardment craft world. They're much more. Get down and dirty. There's tons of stories where Sam Hane has legendary, heroic stories about the crazy, you know, John the X-Arc of the Shining Spears tooled up this demon.

But yeah, while you were doing that, like 10 other things got killed because you could have just shot him in the face, but instead you decided to duel him. Yeah. And that happens a lot, actually. How about this? Not every time, but enough times where you're like, ah, the autark said to do this. And you're like, yeah, but it'd be super sweet because I have a bard with me right now.

And he's writing my story, my biography. And I really would like. And I need him to see what I'm about to do here. This is critical. I'm going to look awesome. And he's like, yeah, but this is not what we're trying to do. Yeah, but I'm going to look sick. Let's dive into my favorite.

So next we're going to jump into what is actually my favorite craft world. It's not because of the rules they used to have, which we're going to discuss in a second. You know what? We're not going to discuss it. Well, let me talk about it. So we'll do a lay talk. Let me just sit before you shit on them as they have as they deserve from. I'm going to shit on you for what you deserve on that.

We'll be right back after a quick break. Anyway, the LA talk, they are a blue with yellow trim. I like them a lot. At their core, the LA talk are actually kind of a funny story. I'm holding Brad off because what he's going to tell you makes more sense if I give you a bit more of their lore. All right. The Alley talk are they actually are kind of the most zealot of all the craft worlds about the path. Like they're really kind of, they're extremely anal retentive about the path, which means a lot of their people leave.

I'm like, no, you guys are nuts. So I would say the majority of the Allay talk are actually on the path of the outcast. So they're the whole craft world basically. Effectively, yeah, the whole craft world is on the path of the outcast. And so what they are is this craft world of Rangers, Pathfinders, Corsairs that are spreading themselves throughout the galaxy, trying to, you know, first of all, find themselves, but they're not in, they don't hate their craft,

they love the craft world. They're trying to improve the Eldar. So they're actually always, they're hunting down relics. They're hunting down changes in the warp, changes in the empire. Yeah, they are. And as a result of this, they end up partnering really well with my other favorite part of the Eldar, which is the. harlequins. So these two tend to go hand in hand. The harlequins, because there are actually not a lot of

harlequins, are the keepers of the knowledge, and they tend to choose their battles very wisely. And if you're going to choose your battles wisely, the best thing to do is to work with the craft world that knows the galaxy better than any craft. And this is a big thing that L.A. talked to us better than all of the other elder does, which is the galaxy is at war. Things are changing all the time. It isn't like, hey, we scouted this years and years ago. And this is an elder flaw. because they're so long live, they go, well, what's over here? Well, obviously it's this. Well, no, man.

It's been 300 years. It's been 300 years since you were last there. Yeah, that's not that long. Why would anything change? Why would anything be different in 300 years? This is literally, what the hell's wrong with you people? This sector has changed hands three times. Yeah.

Like, oh, yeah, there are elder who were born before the towel. And now. All right. So as a result of this, a little bread shit in a second, the way the allay top, the The way the Alatatatat wage war is actually hilarious in which what they do is they scout deploy out all of their Rangers and outcasts, snipe and pick apart the entire enemy, put the whole enemy in disarray, and then open a webway and harlequins just come rushing out to finish the battle. This is the greatest way to wage war that probably exists in all of 40K, and I have run these lists. Okay, this army was totally bullshit.

This army had a few rules. A couple rules here and there. This is going to be fun. That you could interpret as being unfair. So John says, oh, this is super fun, super awesome. Let me tell you what happened in the game. So you brought your army. You have it on your cart next to the table.

And before you get to do anything, John goes, hey, I got to run through your list because I get to shoot you before you get to put your models on the board. I have a shooting phase before the game. Not just before the game, before you put models on the board. Oh, I forgot to mention that some of the things he can do is not just shoot you. He can tell you that some of your units aren't allowed to be deployed on the table. You're like, I'm not even playing the game yet.

You're like, yeah, you're not allowed to use those guys. Until when? Later in the game. Why? I just, I miss information. I shot some people. You're like, what is happening? Why are you getting to shoot me while I'm at home?

apparently while you were painting your miniature at your house, John shot your sergeant. None of you can see the ear to ear grin I have right now. It was such trash. It is so pretty. It is the, oh, this was,

I think of all the, we'll do a cast on the most broken rules, but I think of all the, it was so irritated. As all the lore to tabletop transitions. Oh, it's perfect. This was absolutely perfect.

The writers did an amazing job. They nailed it. How would the LATOC wage war? Well, Lytok wouldn't just wage war by fighting you in the battle. They'd make it so you weren't even at the battle. They'd shoot you on the way. Yeah, on the way to the battle.

They would disrupt it so Eunice you that you were relying on to be at this battle are late. And so they wrote a rule for that. Did the rule mean I played with 2,000 points and you played with 1100? Yep. Yeah. Yeah, I totally did that. And that's complete bullshit. Did you also get to shoot me, again, on my cart?

Yeah. Nothing's more annoying than getting a model shot. You know what? I was going to hide this model. Well, you should have hit it better on your car. For those of us who, you know, don't play at your level, Brad, one of the most stressful parts of the game is the deployment phase. So I'm there helping you with your deployment phase by reducing it.

So you don't have to think about as many models you have to deploy. You know what? You're a real humanitarian. Yeah, Alatuck lost this rule. However, in 8th edition, they did get the rule back of Army-wide minus one to hit. They could stack. Just Army-wide. Yeah, you could stack.

You know what? I'd rather be shot than be my. minus four. On a six-sided die. Yeah. The L.A. talk word, and I'd say this,

because I played them in a edition for this reason. I could make it so you had to, on a six-sided dice, roll a seven to hit me. And I would put that model in front of your army and just say, well,

I don't know what the time. Your favorite crowd is why people hate Elvis. Yeah. And again, I didn't play him because of that. I actually played them because they actually. they actually played on the tabletop the way that they were supposed to play. Okay, I'm going to give you props on this because one of my favorite things, and I'm not a

necrone hater, but I do love the fact that they have dedicated their lives to killing all the necrons. They killing all the necrons. That's the, that's the big one is they don't like the fact that necrons are back and decided we're going to solve this problem. Them and the harlequins are just hunting down Eldar, unawakened. in Eldar Tomb Worlds and ending them. Nickrotho.

But the thing is, is that the best part about this is they love to find unawakened tom worlds and just ruin them. And just go in there and blow them up completely. And then just, but also even the ones who are awakening, they just go there and F with them. My thing is, is like, in my mind, they bomb the places and just go, you should have known that you already lost. I beat your 65 million years ago, bitch. Bitch, what's up now?

I didn't forget. Yeah. You know who hasn't been asleep the whole time? This guy. That is their, by one of their key purposes in the world is defeating Slanesh and the necrons. And they will achieve those two by shooting the necrons before they can deploy. Give me my fun rules back, GW.

All right. Now, as we talked about my favorite craft world, who did have broken rules, now we're about Brad's favorite craft world, who've also had some broken-ass rules, Brad. But we'll talk about the Ulth Way. So real quick, who the Ulth Way are. They are black, they wear black with white trim. They are the largest craft world by a wide margin. I believe they were even larger than Iyand in before Iandan fell.

They've always been the biggest. They are also the new poster child for, when you look at Eldar, when you look at the paint schemes, when you look at what GW promotes, Uthway is now the go-to-el-Dar craft world. Uthway are, there's a lot of reasons behind that largely Yonari-based. but the Ulth Way craft world's a little bit weird because this, yeah, Brad, you heard both of us go, I know, but you're going to get, I would have just glossed this over. Nope. You know what? I'm never glossing over the dumb shit.

You know, you did this in the last one. Somehow the eye of terror, the whole in space that connects to the Imperium, literally a gate to hell, has a gravity well. Yeah. None of us never explained. Just has it. And the Ulthway entire craft world. Which is a world.

Marta. The giant, yeah, giant fleet of ships is stuck in his gravity well and can't escape it. Because they leave all the time. It doesn't matter of the webway. They leave consistently. Yeah. Uthway cruises to so many different places all the time. Eldrad, while my favorite Eldar character by a mile,

yeah, sticks his fingers where they shouldn't be, consistent. Constantly, always. It's all over the galaxy. So Ulthway leaves this thing all time, but if you read the codex, as it says, the Ulthway Craft Worlds are stuck in the orbit of the eye of terror. They're so not. Until they don't, unless they need to go somewhere else. Yeah, unless they need to go literally anywhere. Like, oh, no, we're stuck in this gravity well.

Hey, we're out of milk. Yeah, I'll just drive there right now. I'm like how we got milk. I'll be right back guys. Like, why don't we all just leave? Yeah, but that guy leaves, why don't we go that way with him? No. So the flip side, though, to this whole thing. about being stuck next to the eye of terror, is it, as a result, it actually makes the oath way

the most psychically gifted of all the Eldar races. Being this close to the Imitarium. It's both. So it promotes, they've already have a huge psyche presence. We've already talked about with all Eldar have a psychic presence.

It increases their psychic potential, but it also means that they have to constantly be on guard for the fact of corruption. So they have some of the most gifted psychers in the galaxy, probably the most gifted psychers in the galaxy. They have, the Ulthwa are the most powerful

non-chaos psychic in the galaxy. Yeah, and they have the most power that's the most controlled. And they do some pretty bad ass shit to be honest. They're incredible. So the funny thing about this, they actually have too many psychers to the point where they actually don't have, they have the least amount of aspect wars. So they're the largest craft world,

but they actually have the least amount of aspect wars because they're all psychers. So everyone's path of seer. Well, because of that, though, effectively, if you're Ted, well, sorry, Ted, you've now had to up your guardian game. Yeah. And so what they did was they flipped their guardians around a little bit, whereas everyone has guardians and all their guardians are militia. The Wolfwig Guardians are called black guardians because the black armor. And these guys in the lore are bad ass.

Well, they've been badass on the table, too. They've been broke. The table on top, yeah. Oh, seven. The black audience came in. But one of the biggest things about the black audiences, the black guardians aren't just badass because they're awesome guardians. The black guardians are badass because they work hand in hand with the Sears,

warlocks, farseers. So they're basically shooting into the future, effectively. Yeah. Like, hey, everyone in this unit should shoot right there. There's nobody there. there will be yeah the black guardians are famous for that where they will they'll pop out of out of a webway immediately open fire just as an enemy comes around a corner yep into that fire and then they and then and then walk right back through that webway and it's like they just like they're the ninjas

and they've had some crazy rules in the game but if they made the lore you would have people throw stuff at you yeah the black guardian rules are annoying yeah the black guardian not but black guardians in the or legitimately show up and shoot you and then immediately leave. So you get to do absolutely nothing. They are. The Black Ulth Way and the Black Guardians made Abadon kind of their bitch a couple times. I mean, like, and Abadon like literally in the or the around the eye of terror. Yeah, Abidon hates Eldred.

Oh, like bad. He hits the emperor the most. Number two might be Eldred. Yeah, he's got a poster that he throws darts at. Yeah, it is pretty rough. And so this is what makes the Ulthway amazing, is that Ulthway, because they've got so many psychers, and they have these special Black Guardians, they wage war a little bit differently than everybody else because they have so much foresight.

Now, does that foresight fall apart at the most key elements possible when writing the lore of 40K? Yep, always does. Good job. Good job, Eldred. But aside from that problem, they do use them in combat quite a bit, and the Ulthway are incredible at this. Add to that, the Ulthway spend most of their time fighting kids. chaos because of the location, they may be the pre- Well, I just get the location.

Eldrad is committed to, which is one of the many reasons why I love my do-gooder characters, by the way. You do. Eldrad is committed to writing the wrongs of the sins of Eldar. You know what I mean? He wants to make things happen. He is really willing to work with other races. He just does a shitty job of it.

Well, let's talk about Eldrug, because. Brad Brad loves him I love this dude I just want to kind of hit you know in the U.S. we call it a resume

the rest of the world you call it their CV let's just go through some of the things Eldred's done in the lore I'm gonna bring the bad stuff he's not so many cool things up we'll start with the bad one

the dumb one was yeah he did meet with Fulgram to tell Fulgram not to prevent Horace turning to heresy but did it had already after Fulgram was

had returned to HADRENT He might as well have had tentacles on him yeah exactly so not not his best work, but that is he's in, Eldred's in, I believe that's the first book of the entire Horace El Dred's in. So he's over 10,000 years old. However, we'll cover in a future cast a secret organ called the Cabal, who were a hidden force in the galaxy that were not really sure if they're

for good or for evil. They were not. But anyway, Eldred killed almost every single one of them. He hunted them down and killed almost all of them. Eldrad was involved, the War of Armageddon, kind of started it, that's a side note. Maybe. Maybe sort of started it possibly. He was really trying to help out. Himself. Well, yeah. Definitely not.

He was not helping the members of the people who live in Armaged. Like when Revin, you know, invaded the Republic to get them ready for things. You know, it's how it happens. It's one way of interpreting it. Yeah. It's one way of interpreting it. He also fought and defeated Abidon numerous occasions. He also died.

And they got. Oh, that's actually, oh, that's my favorite. favorite part. At one point, Eldred in the lore died. I think it was sixth edition. He sacrifices himself into a blackstone fortress. In fifth or sixth edition, I actually will tell a story better. In one of the codexes, Eldred just dies in the codex. Straight up. Like not a black library book. No, I'm just dead. In the blackstone, he literally sacrifices himself into a blackstone fortress. In the very next codex, they go, they don't even address it. They're just like, hey, what's up? It's Eldraud. Yeah, Eldra's right there. And people,

Well, didn't he die? And do you're like, no. What are you talking about? Read the codex. They literally do the Austin Powers. That's not my bag, baby. It's not my bag, at all. Like, there's, I don't know what we talking about.

It says right here, this is my bag, baby. Yeah, yeah. Your sixth edition codex, he died. And maybe in these additions wrong. So if I'm wrong, guys, jump into Discord and tell me, but I'm 90, but it's a six-th edition codex. He dies. And then seven-th edition codex, he's just not dead anymore.

Not comes back to life. He's just no longer. He's just not, it never happened. Yeah. Because they effectively went, oh, this guy's the most popular Eldar character by a landslide. He's also really critical to the lore. So not only does he not die, but then in the 8th edition Codex, he awakens a new god. The god of death.

The God of death. And also he is then semi-retcon Abidon style effectively responsible for about a hundred different huge 40K events. by him Kaiser Sozaying shit in the background. Eldred just whenever Eldred appears in the lore, it's important. That's the best way to explain it. Well, also, one of the biggest things about when Eldred shows up, shit's going down. You're happy that Eldred showed up.

And also, I should load every gun I own because you never, nothing ever good happens when you show up. He doesn't go in trading missions. So I think talking about Eldar and the Ulth Way is a really good transition. to talking about the last thing we're going to cover here, which is Eldar Psykers. So really, of all the weaponry the Eldar bring to bear on the battlefront, the most important piece for them is their psychers. That's their greatest asset by a long.

100%. The thing is, is that Eldar work hand in hand with their psychers. And we're talking either front line, planning, and everything else with it. The Eldar don't function without their psychers. Most of their battle tactics require psychers. I mean, you could say, you know, they're tanks and stuff like that, but some of their tanks are piloted by psychers. Yeah. I mean, so it's a big deal on this because we have like so many things that happen that don't happen if psychers don't exist or there aren't there for the elder.

Because of the fact that they literally go, hey, how does this shoot? We just talked about the black guardians. Black guardians do not work if Sears. And which specifically warlocks. Yeah, I think the way I like to explain it is that the Eldar are, the term we use a lot is a glass cannon. Okay. And then we call, the term that you use a term a lot because they hit, they hit you like a cannon, but they're as brittle as glass. So the only way the Eldar can be successful is to make sure that there is no counterattack.

And they do this, but with two things. One, their weapons, and we're going to cover it in like our fourth cast on Eldar, their weapons hit hard. Like Eldar weaponry and Eldar also will cover. over the next cast with Aspect Warriors, Eldar hit hard. So they can eliminate you on the first hit. But then what the psychers do is they add a little bit to that hit. They cheat. Yeah.

They make your hit even harder, but also they make it, they make the counterattack almost not existing. They obfuscate you. They confuse the enemy. They make the enemy slower. They make you faster. They legitimately buff. They buff and debuff.

If you played any computer game or any Xbox or whatever, they buff and debuff. They legitimately throw down buffs on your units, put debuffs on your enemy units, but also they look into the future so you can kill things or you can get out of the way.

And they do this for squadrons. It's not like Obi-Wan Kenobi weaving. It's a, hey, I've got a squadron of 20 guys and I tell everybody, not even just tell them, I suddenly manipulate everybody, to lean slightly to the left and no one gets...

So there are four elements to the Eldar. We have the spirit seer, the bone singer, the warlock, and the farseer. The bone singer is just the... He's the custodian. It's a construction. They make... They sing, they sing into the warp, and they create the wraithbone singer. They actually sing into the warp and they create the race bone.

In the computer games, they're the people that are healing the stuff. Yeah, they build them. The next one of the spirits here, who actually are newer to the game, they got added in, I think, fourth edition, fourth or sixth edition. They're in charge of leading specifically units of Rafe construct. Originally was actually the Warlock. So in second edition, it was a Warlocks. They added them in later.

But the last two are the ones that are actually really critical. The first is the one that, and I genuinely mean this and Bridal back me up on this, the only unit in the entirety of the Eldar Codex that has not lived up to its lore at any point, is the Warlock. Warlock should be ruining people. And the thing about this is warlocks have to be. accomplished warriors before they go into the path of the sea. A warlock is a, they have completed a path of war.

So they are an aspect warrior. We're going to talk about the next cast. They are a aspect warrior who have all the knowledge of an aspect warrior and also have the psychic power. But in the game, in the game in the lore, warlocks are front line fighters. Yeah. That are legitimately bending time and space, basically, to make things. happen. They are the ones that are putting those debuffs and buffing your units, and they are

fighting with you right in the, they are legitimately right there. The Warlock is with me. And they're making you move faster. They're helping you hit better. They're also slowing down your enemy or making your enemy more susceptible to weaponry. They are a nightmare on the tabletop. And I'm going to be, and I'm going to call it right now. This is the number one reason I don't like 10th edition is what they did do Warlocks. Yeah. The thing is that Warlocks used to have dual powers because everything that they know can be used. These were select their damn power, which was just better. It was a better system.

But even when they select, you go, every power had two sets. Yeah. All warlocks can give you a boon. Yep. Or put a debuff on another unit. Conceal reveal. It was like the conceal reveal. Enhance, you know what I mean?

Did you ever use reveal? No. As the LA Talk player. Me neither. But a conceal is pretty fun. Now I mind. two to hit. Yeah.

Back in the day, it was a big deal. But the thing is, it's like, you know, enhanced drain, things of that nature. All of these powers are fantastically lower accurate, though. Yeah. Because the warlocks are the ones that are powering the guardian. They just work with. They would as a striking a score from recover next one or howling Banshee would charge it, they would make it so that their weapons were actually hitting even harder.

Or they would allow your dire, even just your guardians, They're buffers, save, to be able to make it. So the opponent couldn't get cover. So all the shots would just crest just over the lip of the. The warlocks are the reason that the elder war machine for me. Yeah. And people can argue this. I feel that the warlocks are the one of the main cogs in the elder war machine.

Well, you know, and this is an interesting thing. But this is, I think, where the tabletop does fail them a little bit. Because we're on cover next thing with them as a farseer. So in the lore, warlocks, because they're a former warrior, accompany the Eldar warriors, or battle. Because they're ninjas, basically. At every conflict.

The farseer, who's, I think, on the tabletop, the better known, and the more recognized from the power, is the inverse of this. The farseer should never be at combat unless the craft world itself

is under attack. Because there's not a lot of farseers. They're the most powerful psychers that a craft world even has. And they're supposed, they're actually steering the craft world. Their job is, to sit in this special little like forest in the middle of the craft world, and then in a meditative

state mentally, they reach out to the entire craft world and drive it and direct it through stuff. They legitimately, they drive day-to-day things. The autark is in charge of all war. Everything he says, period. This is what's happening in fights. Because he's path of command. Right. The varsier isn't more in charge of your day-to-day everything.

The farceer determines where the craft world is. Yeah, what's not even just where it is. Unless it's stuck in the gravity well of the eye of terror, in which case, we can't fix everything, guys. But those guys change how Eldar life happens. They guide everything that happens, what's going on. And in the game, they show up in your face. And you're like, no. Yeah.

Actually, I do laugh about this. I think about the farceer is with that element. As bad as the warlocks are the tabletop, I just realized as we're saying this, the farseer might actually be worse. And it's only just because you couldn't write these. these rules. The warlock should be this incredible warrior using the psychic powers and jacking you up.

Farseers in the lore are almost deity level in combat. You cannot touch them. In 9th century. Sorry, in codex. In the original Eldridge skull, it'll give people that play the game.

We don't have to discuss Eldrick's storm when the codex first came out in 9th century. It's not important that I could start the game with 30, mortal wounds to my opponent that they had no save against. There was no way to prevent it, no way to stop it, because I actually could also move. And so there was a, so just a quick side note, early 9th edition, there was a way with Eldar to, as thanks to pregame moves, if you went first, do upwards of 30 mortal wounds to your opponent.

It was in an area. It was that you could actually. Everybody within six inches of a point. You actually could remove, I think my record was a third of an opponent's army. because people were not super excited about it. Yeah, they got rid of the rule, weirdly. The Eldar do this a lot where someone writes a rule for them, and then I'm sure someone at GW says,

that feels overpowered. The person says, well, look, and the lure, it makes sense. And then someone else UW says, well, I guess, yeah, that's fair. Seven billion emails later, all right, guys, we're not doing that again. Then fast forward six months, I totally do it again. But yeah, but back to Foreseer. Yeah, farseers, their main purpose isn't actually combat. Their main purpose is keeping the –

It's guiding the entire – I'd say the spiritual, but they're not really religious in it. The difference is the path of command makes an autark. Autarchs, they're in charge of small-scale stuff. They're in charge of this battle, that battle, et cetera. The farcees are in charge of the craft world. They're in charge of putting furthering civilization on. What is the best thing for everyone?

And where the farceer is the one thing I want to talk about from a lore standpoint is people hear it mentioned. And I want to kind of, it's one of these, there's a lot of stuff in GW lore that's like two sentences somewhere that ends up being really important. This is the crystallization of a farseer, which is. Well, it's not even just the crystallization. It's the crystal forest. Well, that's what happens.

So you'll hear people reference every now and then, like Eldred, for example, It's like, it's almost like, it's like brush crystals off his body as they're forming. The way that a farseer steers a craft world, they actually go to what is this forest, the middle of the craft roll. It's Avatar. It's literally Avatar. The movie Avatar, when they go to the... Brad's going to make it get mad. I haven't seen it.

Are you? What kind of nerd are you? Because I saw Dances with Wolves. I'll watch it again with CGI. It's dances with wu-s-fi, damn it. It did not look good. You know what? you can't imagine Kevin Costner is a nine-foot-tall blue guy.

I just think one is a better actor, although Costner got weird. That's a side note. Anyway, that's a side note for another day. But anyway, they have a forest of crystalline trees that are all there. And what these crystal trees actually are are. Of, cough, cough, avatop. Yeah, fine, probably. As the farseer sits in this forest and meditates,

their body effectively just stops functioning and just their mind. and for whatever reason, in doing so, their body begins to crystallize. They never explain why, and I'm glad they don't, because in traditional GW fashion, if they tried to explain it, it would probably be shit. So the body turns to crystal, and eventually the way that farceers die is they actually turn into these crystals that much like a spirit stone traps their soul. But it's not really necessarily a bad thing, because their soul being there, the other farseers who are now alive and there can commune with the farseers from before.

So we're in the 41st millennia. You could be on a craft world as their farseer. And you're not just leading the craft world, but you're also getting the influence of 30, 40, 50, hundreds of farceers who come before you, who can tell you impart their knowledge to you at all time. So in theory they're getting better. I guess again, remember, the elder don't forget things. Yep. So you're getting this full lifespan of all the,

Farsiers that have come before you and this knowledge. Oh, because one thing I forgot to mention, sorry, that's on me, guys. When we talk about Farsite within the Eldar, it's not that they can see into the future. It's actually that they can run calculations based on the facts that exist and the knowledge they have to predict the future almost perfectly. Just like the necrons do in all with, they do with computers. Yeah. But the difference is the, with the necrons and the Eldar is the Eldar has the, the Eldar have

much more knowledge to base it off of it. Where the necrons are just doing math really quickly. The other actually see basically all the possible. Yeah, because they have all the information. The elder have the access to know everything that's ever, because the necrons have been asleep for 60-something million years. The Eldar have not, and they're aware of everything. So it's a little side note there to that.

But anyway, this has been, we've been going on for a while here. So I think this is a good time to kind of cut it. So in the next cast, we're going to dive into Brad Fanboying Hart. which is going to be the Aspect Warriors. This is basically the reason that Brad plays Eldar is because of the Aspect Warriors. They're awesome. Yeah.

So we're going to dive into that. But until then, we'll see you guys next week. This has been John Barciti and Bradchester. Descat.