Eldar

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Eldar (艾达灵族)
Alias(es)	Children of the Ancient Saints 426 442
Species/Race	Long-lived psionic humanoid race
Affiliation	Eldar Empire; Eldar Pantheon; Art Sanctuary sect
Status	Extant but fragmented following the destruction of the Eldar Empire; surviving groups include Ark-world refugees, Art Sanctuary believers, and other scattered factions 507 539
First Appearance	Chapter 397, New God 397

Background / History

The Eldar were created by the Ancient Saints, an exceptionally powerful race that built secure Warp pathways and spread civilization through the universe. After the Ancient Saints’ annihilation, the Eldar inherited much of their legacy, including the foundation that enabled their later galactic supremacy 426.

Over tens of millions of years, the Eldar became the dominant power in the Milky Way. Their fleets, psionic strength, ancient infrastructure, and accumulated knowledge left other civilizations unable to rival them; countless races were compelled to submit tribute and resources 424 425 444.

An Eldar who witnessed Orsaga’s evasive battle against Khorne interpreted his movements as perfect dance rather than combat. His testimony spread across the race and inspired a cult devoted to making combat beautiful, eventually establishing Orsaga’s worship as the God of Art 397 401.

With no external threat capable of restraining them, much of Eldar society declined into arrogance, hedonism, cruelty, and increasingly extreme sensation-seeking. Their collective excess fed the awakening of Slaanesh, while a minority of rational Eldar preserved traditional pursuits, built mobile Ark Worlds, or followed more disciplined paths 424 430 539.

When Slaanesh awakened, the Eldar Empire was catastrophically destroyed. Their former reincarnation through the Warp became impossible, as deceased Eldar souls were instead drawn toward Slaanesh; the surviving population fractured into competing groups with little capacity to recover their former numbers 507.

Appearance

Eldar are described as intelligent, powerful, and beautiful humanoids with a strong resemblance to elves. Other elves perceive their appearance and habits as roughly eighty percent similar to their own 401 421.

• Possess five DNA strands and naturally wield psionics 426.
• Have average lifespans measured in thousands of years 426.
• Their psychological and physiological senses are hundreds of times more intense than those of ordinary humans 422.
• Individual Eldar commonly vary their appearance through elaborate personal artistic expression, including extensive bodily modification among fallen factions 430 468.

Civilization and Culture

Artistic Values

Art is central to Eldar life rather than a minor cultural pursuit. Dance, poetry, music, sculpture, and other artistic forms are treated with extreme devotion, and the Divine Duty of Art is regarded as comparable in importance to domains such as life, death, or war 397 409 438.

• Eldar artistic sensitivity made Orsaga’s battle-dance a race-wide revelation 397 401.
• Their warships are frequently treated as personal artworks rather than standardized military products, with extensive individual modifications and decorative designs 440.
• Later Eldar Flesh Art developed into a destructive and terrifying discipline capable of causing widespread chaos 978.
• Fallen Eldar culture blurred pain and pleasure, producing body-modification, torture, slavery, and murder as forms of entertainment or artistic expression 430 455 468.

Sensory Extremes

The Eldar’s heightened senses are presented as both their greatest advantage and their greatest weakness. Their intense perception enables extraordinary appreciation for beauty and art, but leaves them unusually susceptible to addiction, physical indulgence, and spiritual corruption 397 422.

• During their progressive era, they were regarded as kind, beautiful, and powerful 422.
• Once prosperity removed meaningful goals and external pressure, idleness and hedonism spread rapidly 424.
• A traditional minority continued academic research, martial arts, and artistic practice despite the empire’s general decline 424.

Social and Religious Institutions

The Eldar maintained an empire-spanning Pantheon in the Warp, where their gods convened and competed for influence. As the race’s mentality deteriorated, the lawful gods weakened while Evil Gods gained control of the Pantheon 439 453.

• Art Sanctuary — Sect devoted to the God of Art; its Archbishop receives divine messages and prophetic power from Orsaga 438 503.
• Prophets — Psionics specializing in precognition and intelligence work rather than direct combat 438 451.
• Ark Worlds — Worlds transformed into mobile combat bases, carrying knowledge and resources for Eldar survival 430.
• Paths — A post-collapse system developed by the Ulthran sect to direct Eldar focus into meaningful disciplines and prevent renewed decadence 539.

Abilities and Technology

Natural Psionics

Every Eldar is naturally psionic, giving the race a baseline aptitude that other species struggle to match. Exceptional human psionics can only barely reach an average Eldar’s level 426 442 455.

• Powerful Eldar psionics can ignite or extinguish stars in Warp-rich regions without conventional weapons 425.
• Eldar psychic power allows direct perception of Warp phenomena and spiritual threats 436 507.
• Their society possesses a highly developed, systematic understanding of precognition accumulated across millions of years 444.

Prophecy

Eldar Prophets observe possible futures, identify favorable outcomes, and provide tactical guidance to commanders. Their work functions as finding a usable route through future timelines 438 451.

• Can foresee threats and alter present decisions to avoid unfavorable outcomes 438.
• Used in fleet combat to locate timelines in which enemy vessels can be successfully hit 451.
• Most Prophets are intelligence specialists rather than frontline combatants 451.
• Repeated use of prophetic abilities exposes them to Warp influence and can weaken their bodies and minds 450.

Warp Travel and Reincarnation

The Eldar inherited mature Warp infrastructure from the Ancient Saints, allowing swift and comparatively safe travel across the Physical Universe 426 430 468.

• The ancient Warp Network is safer and faster than the Human Federation’s Warp Jump Engine 468.
• Before Slaanesh’s awakening, deceased Eldar souls could reincarnate in cloned bodies, making death a change of body rather than a final end 430 442.
• After the Empire’s fall, Eldar souls became vulnerable to being claimed by Slaanesh upon death 507.

Military Superiority

At the Eldar Empire’s height, even conventional Eldar warships overwhelmingly surpassed the Human Federation’s strongest border-defense vessels 451.

• Composite energy shields could withstand attacks capable of destroying continental plates 451.
• Fleet formations used barriers that could nullify enemy attacks before counterattacking 435.
• Crimson plasma barrages could incinerate an ordinary ecosphere planet into glass in a single volley 450.
• The Fourth Fleet employed the Chain Blast Device to destroy star systems as a deliberate display of power 468.
• Eldar commanders used weaker alien races as expendable frontline shields during warfare 469.

Relationships

• Ancient Saints — Creators of the Eldar; their technological and Warp-based legacy formed the basis of Eldar civilization 426.
• Orsaga / God of Art — Foreign god worshipped by many Eldar after his battle was perceived as supreme art; his Art Sanctuary followers were promised refuge in his divine kingdom 401 409 438.
• Slaanesh — Fifth Chaos God awakened through the Eldar’s accumulated depravity; claims Eldar souls after death and caused the Empire’s destruction 430 507.
• Eldar Pantheon — Native gods whose strength reflects Eldar psychic and emotional conditions; lawful gods lost influence as Evil Gods rose during the race’s decline 439 453.
• Necrons — Ancient enemies due to the Necrons and Star Gods attacking the Eldar’s creators during the War in Heaven 503.
• Human Federation — Emerging civilization regarded with contempt by the Eldar Empire; the two sides later fought repeated fleet engagements marked by a severe technological and psionic disparity 450 451 453.
• Imperium of Man — The remaining Eldar formed limited strategic cooperation with the Imperium after Eldrad Ulthran aided it against rebel forces 547.

Story Role / Major Arcs

• Birth of the God of Art — An Eldar eyewitness interprets Orsaga’s evasive combat against Khorne as artistic dance, beginning a new Eldar faith 397 401.
• Art Sanctuary and Prophecy — The God of Art’s followers establish a major sect whose Archbishop receives a vision of the Eldar Empire’s coming destruction 409 438.
• Galactic Hegemony — The Eldar rule the Milky Way as an effectively uncontested superpower, receiving tribute from subject civilizations 424 425.
• Decadence and Human Conflict — Eldar arrogance, Flesh Art, and tactical use of Prophets shape their hostile encounters with the Human Federation and other races 450 451 468 469.
• Fall of the Eldar Empire — Slaanesh awakens, destroys the empire, and ends the race’s reliable soul-reincarnation cycle 504 507.
• Post-Fall Survival — Remaining Eldar rely on Ark Worlds, Paths, limited alliances, and prophetic leadership to endure in a far more dangerous galaxy 539 547.