Empire of Ashes
Eldar Galactic Power
Rulers: Twilight Council
Capital: The Black Library
Size: Unreal number
Technology level: 30+ (Psy-Tech focus)
Estimated Population: 20-50 billion alive, 5 trillion dead
Military: 200-500 million Aspect Warriors, 1-2 billion Eldar, 100-200 billion Wraiths
Fleet: 100+ War converted Craftworlds, 30-50 Sector Fleets
Extraordinary assets: 12 Transcendents (11 Phoenix Lords, Eldrad Ulthan), active major God, unknown number of God Shards, entirely psyker population, Webway
Known Relations: Krok Protectorate (Blood-Brothers), Eldar Exodites (Distant Allies), Imperium Quartus (Allies), Imperial Trust (Friendly), Necrons (Cold War), Orks (Open Warfare), Chaos (Open Warfare), The Dark Prince (Bitter Enemies)
The Empire of Ashes, or the Ynnari are the most powerful group of Eldar in the galaxy and the only group which still attempts to fight the horrors of the galaxy. They were formed in the immediate aftermath of The Birth of Ynnead by the craftworlds of Saim-Hann and Biel-tan, the Harlequins, a large proportion of the Exodites and those Dark Eldar willing to abandon their old ways. This gave it an initial population of only a handful of billion, a mere fraction of what the craftworlds alone possessed merely a few years before. Over the years this number has been steadily increasing, though it has yet to climb to where the Eldar were before The Birth of Ynnead.
The Empire of Ashes was founded with the idea of earning back the Eldar's ancient role as the protectors of the galaxy, and of atoning for the Eldar's sins which saw the birth of She Who Thirsts. In pursuit of this they have been working both to strengthen the other forces that would protect the galaxy and to hinder those that would harm it. This goal has seen the armies of the Empire of Ashes, both living and dead, being constantly deployed since its founding, and has slowed population growth to a crawl.
The Eldar of the Empire of Ashes are significantly more humble then the Eldar once more, it being an aspect of faith that they lost the old Eldar Empire and its claim to greatness with The Fall, and will need to earn back their pride. While they are still convinced that they know best they are now at least willing to listen to others ideas, and are willing to tells others what they are doing when they can.
While Ynnead and the Laughing God were highly active in the initial years of the Empire of Ashes since then they have taken a far more hands-off approach, letting the Eldar lead themselves. While they attempt to claim as many of the Eldar souls and shards of Eldar Gods that were scattered throughout the Warp by the first fight between the Ynnead and She Who Thirsts. Currently the Eldar are attempting to rescue these souls and divine shards before She who Thirsts or one of the other Chaos Gods gets their hands on them. They have had mixed success in this effort which has led to the Eldar gaining Avatars of many of their old Gods rather then just Khaine. So far there are only three gods that the Eldar do not have any shards of, Asuryan who they never sought for, Isha who remains hidden and Mathlann, who is reviled as a traitor.
These days the Eldar are led by a group called the Council of Twilight, which consists of the leaders of their people both living and dead. From what you can gather the council mostly meets with just a fraction of its members, who include the High Autarchs, the High Farseers, the Wraithkings, the Phoenix Lords, the leaders of the Harlequins and several others. The Twilight Council is one of the few locations where the living Eldar mingle freely with the Wraiths, who generally remain apart from the affairs of the living. The battlefield is the other major location.
The Empire of Ashes is one of the most powerful forces of the sane currently in the galaxy, and is by far the most active. They have taken on the role of keeping down the countless threats to the galaxy that were once held back by the Imperium of Man, and the new threats that have arisen since. On top of this they are actively working to strengthen those other sane forces that still remain, and to lay the seeds for future cooperation. A common belief among the Ynnari is that opening stages of The Rhana Dandra, the End of All Days, have begun and that the coming wars will match, or even exceed the War In Heaven.
In war the Empire of Ashes believes entirely in working for the maximum effect for the minimum effort, due to how utterly overstretched their forces are. This results in strategies that focus first on manipulating others to fulfill their objects, preferably other enemies, then to the precise deployment of an elite strike force and only if nothing else is possible the deployment of a warhost.
However when they do march to war there are few forces in the galaxy that can match them, and even fewer that can surpass them. With the The Birth of Ynnead all Eldar can make full use of the psychic powers, and their technology which was created to work in concert with their powers. With every Eldar having the psychic power of a powerful human Psyker, and far greater control that is channeled though the most advanced psychic technology and psychic disciplines that currently exist in the galaxy this makes even the merest guardian a terrifying threat. Only on occasions where the Eldar are unable to achieve victory despite all their technology and psychic do might their greatest heroes take to the field. The Phoenix Lords have grown only more deadly over the millennia, and only a handful of beings in the galaxy can really oppose them. Eldrad Ulthran on the other hand is the greatest seer that the Eldar have ever produced and was responsible for The Birth of Ynnead. It is currently unclear whether he is a Wraithseer, brought animated by the power of the god he helped to birth, a god in his own right who followed the path of ascension to its end or something else. Where the Phoenix Lords can win an unwinnable battle or slain an unbeatable foe Eldrad Ulthran has proven to be able to thread the narrowest of fates, avoiding near certain disasters time after time.
