Eldar Prophecy

by C. S. Goto

  Feeding on their unrestrained hedonism and fuelled by the exotic cults that flourished throughout the breathtaking empire, the great daemonic form of Slaanesh was birthed into the mire of Sha'iel. Hence, according to this story, the Great Enemy is the unholy child of the children of Isha, produced by the uncontrolled nature of the eldar. As hysterical and insane indulgence gripped the eldar, causing the civilisation to collapse under its own decadence and orgiastic violence, those who retained their senses fled. At the same time, the Great Enemy worked its magic in the warp, tearing the fabric of the materium and producing immense maelstroms of Sha'iel that started to consume the eldar empire. Some - known as the Exodine Knovah (the Eldar Knights) -led populations to new, virgin planets in the furthest reaches of the known galaxy, seeking to hide their souls from the thirsting clutches of Slaanesh. Others fled to the stars aboard massive craftworlds - huge, self- contained, space-faring bio-systems like Kaelor. Those who remained behind were no longer recognisable as the sons of Asuryan. It was on these craftworlds that the Eldar Path (Ihnyoh) was developed as a way of protecting the souls of the eldar from the temptations of their own extreme natures and hence as a way of keeping them from the clutches of Slaanesh, who constantly thirsts and quests after the slightest flicker of the extremist souls of those who first gave it birth. Great Enemy - See Slaanesh.

  Gwrih the Radiant - The first Rivalin Farseer and the founder of the Circular Court of Kaelor. Legend has it that Gwrih

  was a great poet and wraithsmith, bringing peace and unity to his people through the power of his aesthetic glory. At least one version of the story of Gwirh depicts him as one of the original Exodine Knovah - the Eldar Knights - who first led sons of Asuryan away from their decaying and degenerate civilisation before the Fall. Very few legends depict Gwrih as a warrior of any kind, and the rune-singers of the great houses tend to pay him little respect in their histories of Kaelor. In fact, it seems that he came to prominence on the back of a massive war between Kaelor and the craftworld of Saim-Hann, although the details and motivation of this so-called Craftwar appear to have been lost. Harlequin - Riellietann - The children of Cegorach. In common parlance on Kaelor this has come to mean an eldar

  with an opaque or mysterious nature. The eldar of Kaelor appear more than usually suspicious of them. One can only assume that this is because of the low frequency of contact between the Harlequins and Kaelor, although there is probably also an element of the opposite causality.

  House Wars - The epic wars that shaped Kaelor. The term refers to a complicated series of political and military battles for

  primacy between the great houses of Teirtu and Ansgar, with the Farseer's House of Rivalin caught in the middle. House Teirtu won this war under the leadership of Iden, who promptly had the patriarch of Ansgar (Bedwyr) executed. For undocumented reasons, Iden's consort, the Lady Ione of the Seer House Yuthran, pleaded for mercy on behalf of Bedwyr's infant son (Naois) and baby daughter (Ela). Rumours and legends have grown up around these surviving heirs, fuelling the suspicions and paranoia of Iden.

  Iden Teirtu - Warrior lord and patriarch of the great and powerful provincial House Teirtu, able to trace his family bloodline

  back into the ancient House of Rivalin, many eons earlier. Iden was the victor in the House Wars against House Ansgar and he is the slayer of their patriarch, Bedwyr.

  Infinity Circuit - Fluir-haern - Spirit Pool - To some extent the significance of this hallowed and sacred

  repository appears not to be fully appreciated by sections of the population of Kaelor. In particular, the so-called Knavir eldar seem to treat it as a chiefly ceremonial or ritual entity, with little functional or substantial importance. That said, the rituals surrounding the passing of an elevated soul into the Fluir-haern are amongst the grandest and most elaborate in the court. Outside the circle of the Knavir, in the great houses, the importance of the matrix appears to be understood in more conventional terms. The rune-singers of House Ansgar, for example, are clear that the Fluir-haern is a repository for the souls of deceased eldar,

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  where they are kept safe from the clutches of the Great Enemy, and from whence they can be summoned for purposes of advice and wisdom by the living.

  According to this interpretation, the Fluir-haern is also apt to whisper its own messages to eldar with minds sufficiently open to hear it - this ''breath of the lost'' is sometimes known as faerulh. One version of the Ansgar myth also suggests that, the Fluir-haern will eventually become a psychic force powerful enough to confront the might of Slaanesh with the combined power of millions of Kaelorian souls. This incredible force will be led by the mythical Lhykosidae (the Wraith Spider) in the battle of the End of Days. Hence, Kaelor must remain hidden long enough to build up this psychic arsenal. Ihnyoh - the Eldar Path - Like the eldar of other craftworlds, those of Kaelor enjoy a naturally long life, especially

  when compared with the other mortal species in the galaxy. Unlike the other craftworlds, however, Kaelorians (particularly the so- called Knavir eldar) do not seem to adhere very rigorously to Ihnyoh. Indeed, it seems that the storytellers have either forgotten the story of Asuryan or have been forbidden to relate it. Amongst the Aspect Temples, the exarchs and their rune-singers (Esdainn) do seem to retain this knowledge, and a number of the great houses are consequently better informed than the Knavir. The basic shape of the story is conventional: the Path is conceived as a solution to the passionate and volatile nature of the eldar soul, which, left unchecked in the form of unrestrained self- gratification and decadence, resulted in the Fall. It is a cyclical path that sees the Kaelor eldar dramatically changing their social role at irregular intervals - the most high profile being the paths of the seer and the warrior, although the Knavir are renowned for avoiding the latter and for lingering in the more artistic paths. The basic concept (that a healthy mix of variety and discipline will resolve the innate tendency towards excess in the eldar soul) appears to be widely accepted on Kaelor. However, as on other isolated craftworlds, a small community of outcasts - known as rangers -have turned their back on this Path, believing that it is too restrictive and that the dangers of abandoning it have been exaggerated by eons of mythic embroidery. The rangers of Kaelor have developed a rich mythic tradition of their own, largely centred around the heroic figure of Vhruar the Hidden, who was apparently the first of the Kaelorians to throw off the discipline of Ihnyoh in pursuit of something more essential and natural to the eldar spirit. Kaelor is, however, almost unique amongst the craftworld eldar in so far as its adherence to Ihnyoh often appears to be more formal than substantial, especially amongst the so-called Knavir. It seems that unusually feudal circumstances combined with isolation and distance from other craftworlds may have led to a gradual decline in species-memory about Ihnyoh on Kaelor, particularly in the highest echelons of court society. Consciousness of the Path appears strongest amongst the Seer Houses and the great houses, who maintain close ties with the Aspect Temples.

  Ione (Lady) - Senior seer of the Seer House of Yuthran and consort to the Teirtu patriarch Iden. A powerful and popular

  Knavir Eldar of the old school. Despite some rumours about the precise nature of her relationship with Bedwyr Ansgar, whose children she saved from the wrath of Iden at the end of the House Wars, her reputation remains immaculate. Isha - the Mother Goddess - Goddess of the Harvest - the Seeing Eye - The eldar of Kaelor,

  particularly the Seer Houses, preserve a number of the central myths about Isha. They appear to be aware of at least one of the versions of the story of Lileath's Dream, in which Lileath the Graceful [more commonly known as Lileath the Maiden on other craftworlds] told Khaine about a vision of him being ripped asunder by one of the mortal offspring of Isha and Kurnous, the God of the Hunt.

  According to the Kaelorian version of this myth, the mortal in question is Eldanesh, one of the first great eldar heroes. However, this addition to the story is probably the result of confusing the later Balla
d of Eldanesh, in which he attempts to avenge the suffering of Isha by killing Khaine, only to be ripped apart by the Bloody-Handed God. Similar events are related in the Cycle of the Avatar [see Khaine]. Nonetheless, in response to this warning from Lileath, Khaine resolved to hunt down the mortal children of Isha - the eldar. He slaughtered many of them before his bloodlust was arrested by Asuryan, the Phoenix King, who took pity on Isha when he saw the glittering beauty of her tears - one shed for each of her hunted children. Hence, Asuryan separated the heavenly and the mortal realms, forbidding any contact between the two. This saved the children of Isha from Khaine's wrath but doomed them never to see their mother again. In sympathy, it is said that Vaul, the Smith God, fashioned Isha's tears into Spirit Stones so that she could retain some contact with her cherished children.

  Ishyrea - Seer - Gifted of Isha.

  Kaswallan Ansgar - The long-passed father of Bedwyr.

  Kerwyn Rivalin - Son of Ahearn and direct heir to the farseer's throne.

  Khaine, Kaela Mensha - the Bloody-Handed God - War God. The eldar of Kaelor have managed to

  maintain a number of the central myths surrounding Khaine. However, it appears that some of the details have been lost or

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  embroidered throughout the eons. The rune-singers of Kaelor sing of Khaine as the vanquisher of Kaelis Ra - the Yngir star-god that raged a war through the heavens.

  In that cycle (the Birth of Fear), Khaine fights alongside the great eldar hero Eldanesh and wields the immortal Blade Wraiths fashioned for him by Vaul, the Smith God. Yet the rune-singers also sing the (more reliable?) Cycle of the Avatar, in which Khaine wages war against the Children of Isha, defying Asuryan, the greatest of the eldar gods, chaining Vaul to his anvil, and joining forces with the Yngir.

  According to this cycle, it was Khaine that slew the heroic Eldanesh and condemned the eldar to mortality. Horrified by the violence of Khaine, Asuryan cursed him, making his hands drip with Eldanesh's blood for all eternity - hence, Khaine the Bloody- Handed God.

  The storytellers of the Farseer's Court of Kaelor often relate only the Cycle of the Avatar, which explains why the War God's name is muttered with disgust by the Knavir eldar. Elsewhere on Kaelor, these myths are usually told in immediate succession, presumably to emphasise the unpredictability of the dual natured god of war and of the eldar soul. In House Ansgar, the Cycle of the Avatar ends with Khaine's demise in his futile battle with the Great Enemy, Slaanesh. It is said that when confronted with this daemonic threat to his people, Khaine threw himself into the battle without hope of victory, but buying the eldar time to flee from their own Fall into the abyss. It is said that Khaine's ruined body was shattered into pristine fragments of bellicosity and scattered throughout the galaxy, awaiting reinvigoration as an Avatar. From these two myths, it seems that the great houses of Kaelor are keenly aware of the contradictory, heroic and tragic nature of the Bloody-Handed God. Unlike the Farseer's Court, the great houses appear to maintain connections with various Aspect Temples, wherein young eldar learn to draw their strength from Khaine. [See Aspect Warriors] Knavir - one of the many names used on Kaelor to describe the terrestrial eldar before the Fall. It has come to have

  connotations of ancient respectability mixed with naive anachronism. The term is rarely affectionate and has become somewhat abusive. A contested and highly politicised version of the origins of this term suggests that it is a distortion of tire ancient class of Exodine Knovah - the fabled Eldar Knights who were reputed to have been the heads of great noble houses that led the Exodite eldar away from the declining eldar civilisation before the Fall, establishing a second generation of civilisations in other parts of the galaxy. Laetnys - Up-phase. See also down-phase.

  Lairgnen - Exarch of the Temple of the Dire Avengers.

  Lhykosidae - Wraith Spider - A mythical warrior from the legends of the Warp Spider Aspect, allegedly a kind of

  exarch or even Asurya that is somehow constituted from the warp essence of the tiny crystalline creatures that purify the infinity circuit of Kaelor. [See Asurya, Craftwar, Exarch] Menmon - the Soul Taker - The name of a (probably fictional) Kaelorian eldar of the Seer House of Yuthran who

  supposedly learned the secret and forbidden arts of necromantism from a vagabond ranger who made contact with the craftworld during the so-called Age of Anguish.

  According to legends, the ranger was once a Spiritseer from the craftworld of Iyanden, and he gifted Menmon with the ability to capture the souls of her fellow eldar, enabling her to use them in the construction of so-called Wraithguard warriors. Whether or not this legend is based on truth is hard to discern - its subject matter is so offensive to the sensibilities of the Kaelorians that it has all but vanished from public memory. In House Yuthran, Menmon gives her name to one of the most arduous and terrifying of the various rites of passage through which an initiate must pass in order to gain access to the inner sanctums of the great Seer House. Although the details of the rite are known only to those who have passed through it, it appears to be concerned with defences of the soul. Mhyrune - An extinct family line of famed fabric manufacturers from the Mhyrineq Nebula. In Kaelorian parlance, the word

  has come to be associated with any type of fabric or thread of extraordinary quality. In particular, the local legends suggest that the ancient weavers used to inscribe runes of power into each thread that they used in a weave, producing cloth with incredible and peerless psychic qualities.

  Mon'keigh - This term refers to a race of sub-intelligent beasts that lived in the twilight world of Koldo. In ancient times,

  these beasts invaded the eldar lands and subjugated them for many years. The mon'keigh of legend were cannibalistic, misshapen monstrosities, eventually cleansed from the galaxy by the hero Elronhir. This term is used by the eldar of Craftworld Kaelor to refer to a number of non-eldar species that the eldar deem inferior, in need of extermination.

  Morfran Teirtu - The son of Iden and approximate contemporary of the Ansgar heir, Naois. His consort is the fair Oriana

  Rivalin.

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  Momah - The name given to the tiny wraithbone carvings made by the master wraithsmiths in the Trials of Vaul, during which

  the smith demonstrates his mastery of the art. The intricate objects are little larger than a finger nail, but they contain many years' worth of craftsmanship and detail. The word has also come to be an affectionate term for a talented or promising infant. Mrofth - A small, winged insectoid with no digestive apparatus. Hence, it never eats. Instead, it draws its energy directly in the

  form of heat from fire. They can often be seen in small groups, circling and swooping through flames. Naois Ansgar - Son of Bedwyr, heir to the House of Ansgar, and closely connected with the Temple of the Warp Spiders.

  He is the younger cousin of Scilti and elder brother of Ela'Ashbel. Ohlipsean - See Circular Court.

  Oriana Rivalin (Seer) - The daughter of Ahearn and (slightly) younger sister of Kerwyn. She is the consort of Morfran,

  the bumbling son of Iden of House Teirtu, and mother of Turi. Path (the Path) - See Ihnyoh.

  Path Finder - outcast - ranger - The most famous of the historical rangers on Kaelor is Vhruar the Hidden, who

  reputedly spent a thousand years searching for the Black Library. [See also Path Stalker, Ihnyoh]. Path Stalker - The term that Kaelorian eldar use to describe an eldar that has become stuck on one specific dhanir or path,

  hence escaping from the cyclical nature of the Ihnyoh. The most obvious examples are exarchs, but on Kaelor bonesingers are also placed in this category. Interestingly, unlike on other craftworlds (where equivalent terms often do not exist), the farseer is sometimes not regarded as a Path Stalker on Kaelor, since his status is a result of hereditary social position rather than necessarily a result of his having become stuck in the dhanir of the seer. A related term is Path Finder, which is sometimes used to describe the function of rangers on other
craftwords. On Kaelor, however, the term has come to take on a broader significance. Whilst it remains a category that encompasses the rangers on Kaelor, the reason for this is two-fold: first, it is because of the obvious fact that the rangers are engaged in reconnaissance (ie, finding paths), but second, it is because they are self-consciously free of the strictures of the Ihnyoh and thus they are forging a life path of their own. They are not stuck on a single dhanir like a Path Stalker, but they are outside the structure altogether - attempting to find their own path that feels closer to authenticity [for more on rangers, see Ihnyoh]. This second rationale contains a darker side on Kaelor, since it also appears to have become appropriated as a self-definition by those Kaelorians who are sceptical about the value of Ihnyoh in the first place. These are hedonists, not rangers. The term entered common usage amongst the so-called Knavir eldar during the Age of Anguish [see Waystone]. Phoenix Lord - See Asurya.

  Quihan - Teacher, or master.

  Rillietann - See Harlequin.

  Ritual of Tuireann - The coming of age ceremony initiated in the Farseer's Court of Kaelor by Fedelm Tuireann (also

  known as Tuireann the Ancient). Fedelm was an old Harlequin abandoned by her troupe on Kaelor as the craftworld fled the chaos of the Great Fall. Despite being so old, her manner was always youthful, and her appellation has come to be used ironically to indicate an eldar behaving younger than their age. Rune-singer - See Esdainn.

  Sapphire Dell - The circular council-area of the domains of Ansgar. It is a circular, blue-metallic pit, lowered into the

  ground to ensure that the councillors themselves are always on a level lower than those over whom they rule. Its structure is supposed to reflect the political commitments of the ruling House of Ansgar. Sentrium - The name given to the sector in the heart of Kaelor in which the Circular Court is located.