Warhammer 40K Lore: The Heretical Necromancy Of The Aeldari
The Aeldari rely on the spirits of their dead to keep their dying species alive. Be wary of the foul necromancy that is at the heart of their corrupt existence.
It is well known that the Aeldari are a vile bunch of heretics and psykers who dabble in the foulest magics, but today we’re going to discuss how there’s a gnawing, corruption at the heart of Aeldari civilization. And it comes from their inability to let their dead stay dead. They deal in necromancy–a word dredged up out of the superstitious past of Holy Terra, and yet it seems fitting to apply to the superstitious cowardly Aeldari. For their very survival depends on their ability to manipulate the souls of their dead to a terrible purpose. They trap them in the circuitry of their Craftworlds…
Every Eldar Craftworld contains an Infinity Circuit, which is essentially the Wraithbone skeleton of the Craftworld itself. Within this matrix, the souls of all the Craftworld’s dead reside in a form of group consciousness, providing both a well of psychic power for the ship and a massive ancestral mind to advise and guide the living. With the rise of Slaanesh, the Infinity Circuit is the closest thing that the Eldar have to an afterlife; if their souls are not caught and integrated into it, they will be lost into the warp and devoured by the Great Enemy. For this reason the Eldar will defend their Craftworlds with a fury and tenacity almost unrivalled; they risk losing not only their home but the souls of their ancestors as well.
Although the Eldar souls preserved in the Craftworlds’ Infinity Circuits can muster only a tiny amount of energy compared to that of Slaanesh, the Eldar hope that one day there will be enough souls to unite to fight and overthrow Slaanesh. It is a faint hope, but the only hope for the Eldar who otherwise face damnation and extinction from their own racial daemon.
Early Infinity Circuit technology on Iyanden is said to have been mastered by Mehlendri Silversoul.
Do not be deceived by any notion of preservation here… for you see, Loremasters, the substance known as Wraithbone might sound like it’s carefully crafted to reverently house the spirits of the fallen–but this is nothing at all like the Sarcophagi of the venerable Dreadnoughts that allow a fallen warrior to continue fighting though their body has long since given out–no, Wraithbone is a trap for the souls of fallen Aeldari, turning them into the literal building blocks of their deviant empire.
For Wraithbone is a psycho-plastic substance–essentially solidified warp energy that is manipulated by a Bonesinger into any shape that is required. It is stronger than any known plasteel and harder to damage than adamantium, and will naturally repair itself, though the process can be sped up by a Bonesinger. And this material conducts psychic energy as a cable conducts currents, which means that it ends up beingused by the Eldar for many different tasks, including the construction of buildings, ships and weapons.
Let that sink in a moment, loremasters and loremaster-initiates. The houses of the Aeldari are built out of their dead. You might be a venerated warrior in life, and in death, little more than an ignominious light switch. Rest assured the Imperium would never sacrifice its living warriors so fruitlessly. Once you’re dead, you’re dead–unless your skull can be retrofitted into a servoskull, or your slain body is intact enough that the techpriests can turn your body into a still useful servitor–but your spirit is allowed to bask in the Emperor’s light.
You won’t have your soul trapped in an Eldar Spirit stone. These small, seemingly precious stones carried on an Eldar‘s chest, used to save their souls from destruction by Slaanesh. They are made out of psycho-receptive crystals called waystones. At the moment of the Eldar’s death, the stone acts like a ‘psychic trap’, absorbing their psychic self and preventing it from entering the warp and being consumed by the nemesis of the Eldar race: Slaanesh.
The Waystone can then be brought back to the Eldar’s own Craftworld and embedded into its wraithbone core where it will grow into a larger spirit stone. Once the stone is implanted, the Eldar’s soul can travel freely through the wraithbone, mingling with other Eldar souls and forming part of the communal spirit of the Craftworld itself. All the souls within a Craftworld collectively exist inside the Infinity Circuit
So you see Loremasters, the dead prop up the living–and that is no way for a civilization to survive, and proof of how one day soon the Aeldari will fall.
