We picked the first one below but not the second, so I believe our policy is going to be ignoring the minor races for the most part and just keeping an eye out on the humans until we've figured out what the visions mean.
Without having picked both the most I can see us going for us allies of convenience for maybe a single battle (say, against Orks or Chaos), with anything longer term likely to require something drastic to haoorn to make us consider the option.
And as much as we're unwilling to recreate the Empire, it'd also take something drastic for us to not side with fellow eldar over other races or even just staying neutral, so I can see us getting dragged into conflict that way.
[ ] An Eye, When it can be Spared (-1) These visions… Whatever their present state, perhaps it is wise to keep a watch on this young race, at least until you have a better idea of what they might mean. And perhaps avoid any… hasty actions.
The Emperor: "Subtlety? What's that? Can you eat it?"
[ ] Desperate Times Make Strange Bedfellows (-2 points) You are weaker than you have ever been, now. Perhaps a few expendable patsiesallies among the more… tolerable… non-Aeldari races would be worth pursuing? Given the general actions of the late Empire this might be a bit of an uphill battle, though.
Considerably longer than that. At present humanity is "enjoying" the last third or so of the Age of Strife/Long Night; it'll be some few centuries yet before the warp is calmed enough for more than very limited local travel/very shallow (and therefore slow) skimming, and centuries after that before the Crusade starts (as the Anatolian spends a fair bit of time running around independently to see the lie of the land before deciding to start the Imperium), they're more an intermediate issue than an immediate one.
That significantly lengthens the time I expect To Forge A Soul to take, if there's a chance the Primarchs are born before we complete it. I was figuring around a century to get it started, with room for refinement after that.
Each Turn will last Five Years until either the start of the Great Crusade (specifically, the Scattering of the Primarchs, which is an event any Seer worth the name will See when it happens) or the completion of your Faction Quest, To Forge A Soul, whichever comes first.
Hey, generally, I believe we should leave humanity to their own affairs but when Chaos is about, well, it'll be nice to see how the Eldar campaign for Dawn of War would look like in SV.
That significantly lengthens the time I expect To Forge A Soul to take, if there's a chance the Primarchs are born before we complete it. I was figuring around a century to get it started, with room for refinement after that.
I mean it was pretty clear that it was going to be a long project.
It's also clear that it's one that needs a lot of AP and that we really have to be careful with seer AP usage for other things to not cause massive delays.
DoW 2 eldars learned about a tyranid fleet that was prophesied to, eventually, destroy a craftworld. That tyranid fleet was on a collision course with a Space Marine chapter home sector.
Instead of simply warning space marines and then doing some minimal force intervention to ensure that they don't fall until relief imperium fleet arrives, they engaged in a long campaign of anti-imperial sabotage, redirected an orcish waagh at Space Marines, and awakened Khaine's Avatar only to get it ignominiously killed. A lot of Eldar die for literally nothing, in the process.
Eldar involved are Ulthwe and Alaitoc, I think.
The game ends with space marines holding on until imperial relief fleet arrives and destroys the tyranids.
To oversimplify it somewhat. Then there is Chaos Rising and Retribution silliness, but... That's enough for now, I think.
We should go through our vaults next turn, maybe there's something to help with soul forging. Re: primarchs, I think the situation is pretty complicated. If we successfully help the Emperor, he breaks into webway and breaks up our FTL travel method. If we don't, it's Chaos galore.
Given that literally every fanfiction author tries to do something different with the Emperor, I am somewhat wary of making sprawling and highly detailed, committed strategic plans on what we'll be doing with the emperor.
Based on what little Mechanus decided to feed us about how he runs Emps, maybe we could get a somewhat better deal than canonical great crusade + imperium if the galaxy isn't on-fire-and-rapidly-getting-worse by the time of Anatolian's reincarnation.
Okay, so I've been spitballing about an idea how our Vulkhari might get separate themselves from the the other Aeldari, both IC for the logic of how they could potentially do so, as well as the OOC perspective for looking cool and unique.
@Mechanis I'm not sure how you are planning to handle the changes to the Vulkhari, if you plan to give us a choices for build-your-own-aeldari, or if its out of our hands besides the amount effort we can put into breaking away from Slaanesh faster. But I'm throwing in my idea here anyway on the chance we do have some say. This idea came to me first from pondering about how our Vulkhari respect the Necrons to a degree, and what they could learn from both their successes and mistakes.
Basic concept would be "living-crystal-elves with Wraithbone-cybernetics". Turn away from the reliance of the old empire on psychomatons and the decadence it gave birth to, and instead become self-reliant crystal golems working towards building a new future for themselves and the other survivors.
Turn psychic powers mostly inwards to accelerate the eldar body's natural progression of turning into crystal if you are Farseer whose extended life can last that long... While still allowing the eldar to retain their ability to move and not turning into an immobile statue through rerouting most of the psychic powers of the eldar to stable and permanent channels empowering their body.
A limited form of immortality (at least when compared to the pre-Fall eldar) could be potentially achieved through turning your own body into a mini-Infinity Circuit, which could allow the splintering of small shards of crystal from your body (probably left guarded on our Craftworld), that should be able capture your soul because a small part of it already exists there and can be grown to a new body if you die.
Kinda like what the Drukhari do with cloning you from a small piece of your body that you gave them, but instead with crystals. Could be maybe even done so that you have multiple bodies that you can switch between with.
Admittedly, this might potentially dull outward-manifesting psychic powers because you are channeling most of it to your own crystal body to keep it functioning. Which could be seen as kind of a benefit in the current situation in the Warp, as this seems like it should be a much much more stable use of psychic powers. I'm thinking significant increase in strength, durability and endurance at the cost of a small decrease in agility because you are now much heavier due to being made out of pseudo-mineral.
On the other hand, the Vulkhari obviously would do everything in their power to preserve and even enhance psychic abilities when it comes to their Bonesinging and rune-making specifically. Which the dulling of psychich powers would obviously impact negatively on.
...Hmmm. Potentially, their new crystal forms might be able to "resonate" with Wraithbone, allowing for more precise manipulation on a much greater scale of it while making or modifying it, which should include carving runes imbued with power into it.
I could also see this being used by the Vulkhari to draw more performance out of their Wraithbone-made gear, allowing for the safe channeling of greater degree of psychic energy into much more static and stable effects. Like, for example, shooting even more powerful laser beams by channeling energy into a Starcrystal in their gun.
Could be also how they achieve Wraithbone cybernetics. Fuse with your armour to boost its performance on top of it housing a pretty damn strong and tough crystal golem inside of it. Then have that body be the body you use for war, while you grow a civilian body you use when not in battle. Would be a nice mirror to how the Asuryani switch between their Paths.
...Still. Probably for the best that even if they are made out of living crystal that they still preserve some physical needs, at the very least in their civilian bodies. Like breathing. And eating. Because even if those needs were to be dimished, I don't think we should go full-Necron. And I don't mean just getting your soul ripped out. Trying to breathe with lungs you no longer have through a mouth that no longer exists for the rest of your immortal life isn't good for your mental health, people.
On a lighter note, body art might get a new boost due to this. Maybe kintsugi-style repairs done with using Wraithbone in aesthetically pleasing ways if you want to preserve a "scar" or done deliberately by carving small chinks into your body's surface that you then fill the same way.
Oh, and for the aesthetics reference (but with more elf ears and angular faces), I've been mentally using Land of the Lustrous as an inspiration:
He is still going to go out of his way to fuck us up, if the great crusade comes close to us and finds us.
The man has no fucking chill when it comes to Xenos and the Eldar are likely pretty high up his list of races to exterminate. Look at him trying to break into the webway (and without the horus heresy).
You really think he wouldn't have gone kill all the Eldar so nobody but humanity could access it?
No one is saying the Anatolian is our friend, we're saying he obviously has a sense of priorities. If he has to choose between fighting a coalition of Craftworlds that are off doing their own thing, are far from Terra, and at most have some minor relatively peaceful interactions with a few peripheral human worlds... or focusing on the genocidal, brain eating aliens, shapeshifting sapient maggot swarms, and one of the major conflicts of the Great Crusade that involves multiple Legions, a Lost Primarch, and possibly the Emperor temporarily opening the Noctys Labyrynth to weaponize a shard of Mag'ladroth because the situation is so dire... what do you think he's going to focus on?
Facing waves of attack from the galactic east and north, and suffering losses that would not be exceeded until the dark days of the Heresy, the wars of the Rangdan Xenocides were the most terrible of any yet fought. Whole Expeditionary fleets went to their deaths without a single survivor, worlds were laid waste, dozens of Titan Legions were obliterated and by the end, entire Space Marine Legions [REDACTED SECTION] lost to the Imperium.
Much of what happened during this abyssal conflict is still locked under seal, but what can be said is that with the breaking of the Labyrinth of Night by the Emperor, the threat was at last stymied.
Who do you think we're going to focus on in that scenario? If anything we're liable to try and draw the Great Crusade towards the Galactic Northeast so they can inadvertently clean up our yard. And in the aftermath of that conflict, canonically the Great Crusade focuses more Westwards with the Ullanor campaign and Horus' direction as Warmaster. If ever there was a problem we should be trying to manipulate the Imperium to help solve for us with diplomacy, intrigue, or prophecy- it's probably that.
The man has no fucking chill when it comes to Xenos and the Eldar are likely pretty high up his list of races to exterminate. Look at him trying to break into the webway (and without the horus heresy).
You really think he wouldn't have gone kill all the Eldar so nobody but humanity could access it?
Absolutely would. Emperor seems to see other species only in the way of threat-no threat. It doesn't matter if they are willing to do diplomacy as long as they are powerful enough to pose a potential threat he is going to genocide them. Only harmless species are further considered through the lens of useful-not useful - and "not useful" also get genocided.
So you need to be mostly harmless and useful before he even considers not murdering everyone. Eldar will never have that combination.
I think we should get involved with humanity and possibly create something like the interex to combat the imperium, we seem to have centuries to prop up local buffers. A local human vassal would be also useful be useful in the sense that we'd be using human bodies instead of eldar and getting tributes of resources if we wanted to go that direction.
The Forge of Vaul In addition to your standard action pool, the Forge of Vaul can be used to either support an ongoing construction or repair project—including both infrastructure projects and the construction or repair of a starship—reducing its required time by 1d3 turns; produce a large amount of Special Resources, or can be used to produce up to 5000 EP of Wargear for ground units. Any two of these options may be selected in a given turn, or one option may be selected twice.
@Mechanis I know this specifies warrgear for ground units, but does that mean we can't use a Forge AP to help offset the cost of outfitting starships?
Trying to figure out how else we're meant to replace a Combat Brig's disabled Starcaster Mega-Lance with just Bonesinger AP when it costs 50 Naval EP (5000 EP).
I think we should get involved with humanity and possibly create something like the interex to combat the imperium, we seem to have centuries to prop up local buffers. A local human vassal would be also useful be useful in the sense that we'd be using human bodies instead of eldar and getting tributes of resources if we wanted to go that direction.
And what do we do when the imperium comes knocking, asks the humans to leave, and when they don't, they go genocidal?
Cos that's what happened to interex...
And what do we do when the imperium comes knocking, asks the humans to leave, and when they don't, they go genocidal?
Cos that's what happened to interex...
Given that literally every fanfiction author tries to do something different with the Emperor, I am somewhat wary of making sprawling and highly detailed, committed strategic plans on what we'll be doing with the emperor.
Based on what little Mechanus decided to feed us about how he runs Emps, maybe we could get a somewhat better deal than canonical great crusade + imperium if the galaxy isn't on-fire-and-rapidly-getting-worse by the time of Anatolian's reincarnation.
I think we should get involved with humanity and possibly create something like the interex to combat the imperium, we seem to have centuries to prop up local buffers. A local human vassal would be also useful be useful in the sense that we'd be using human bodies instead of eldar and getting tributes of resources if we wanted to go that direction.
They have no resources that would be useful for us.
Everything we use has wraithbone as a base and we sing that literally out of air with psychic powers.
They also can't really move around due to all the warp storms and like hell would we let them use the webway.
And what do we do when the imperium comes knocking, asks the humans to leave, and when they don't, they go genocidal?
Cos that's what happened to interex...
Against a legion? And if we win? Multiple legions, then?
If we do anything with humanity, it should be a limited expense, because when the imperium appears, the only safe strategy is to cut out losses.
Against a legion? And if we win? Multiple legions, then?
If we do anything with humanity, it should be a limited expense, because when the imperium appears, the only safe strategy is to cut out losses.
Against a legion? And if we win? Multiple legions, then?
If we do anything with humanity, it should be a limited expense, because when the imperium appears, the only safe strategy is to cut out losses.
The plan is to get our project done before the great crusades starts.
Because until then any chance of really rebuilding/building forces is kind of a pipe dreams as most of or energy goes into not having our souls eaten by Slannesh.
Against a legion? And if we win? Multiple legions, then?
If we do anything with humanity, it should be a limited expense, because when the imperium appears, the only safe strategy is to cut out losses.
Do people just not pay attention to the Great Crusade? I feel frustrated being a broken record but we're on the fucking doorstep where the Great Crusade had to fight 3 consecutive wars against the Rangdan, nearly lost, *did* lose a Lost Legion over it from the sounds of things and in a lot of the lore had to weaponize the Void Dragon shard on Mars to win. I get that the Imperium lives rent free in SV's head but this is ridiculous.
The IoM is not a problem we need to worry about right now, and it's certainly not our biggest fish to fry during the GC.
We're not really near the Eye of Terror. We're in the Halo Stars north of the Gothic Sector and Port Maw, west of the Ghoul Stars. We're in the ass end of the galaxy and the front row to some of the biggest clusterfucks of the Great Crusade. Getting any further from the Eye of Terror involves either heading *into* the Ghoul Stars or heading southeast into more densely controlled and contested territories in the heart of Segmentum Ultima.
Haven't watched it unlike Land of the Lustrous, and like Prospalz said the Eldar Farseers already turn into crystal statues in the canon (because only the Farseers live long enough for it to happen). This is "just" exploiting their existing biology and metaphysics to work towards something that is different enough from the normal aeldari, on top of being able to better survive in a changed galaxy.
And then hopefully those changes to their bodies and souls, when combined with with enough self-introspection as a race and the right policies from the leaders of our faction will lead to the Vulkhari becoming something different enough that they actually can break away from Slaanesh completely in the first place.
We're not really near the Eye of Terror. We're in the Halo Stars north of the Gothic Sector and Port Maw, west of the Ghoul Stars. We're in the ass end of the galaxy and the front row to some of the biggest clusterfucks of the Great Crusade. Getting any further from the Eye of Terror involves either heading *into* the Ghoul Stars or heading southeast into more densely controlled and contested territories in the heart of Segmentum Ultima.
The eye of terror is in the segmentum obscurus. The halo stars are just further to the north from there. It's not that far, at least on the map I've seen.
We can move along the edge, closer to gothic sector, gaining some distance in the process
It'll take like a lot of turns before we start worrying that the Imperium exists, and even then our hostility with the Imperium may depend entirely on actions we may or may not take so worrying about it now is moot.
We just can't assume at this early point of the quest.
Human or Alien protectorates meanwhile is a no for me. Meddling is what makes the galaxy angry at the Perfidious Aeldari so best we try to avoid that. Ain't hard honestly.
