Originally Posted by
-Tom-
Personally I'm a big fan of 'sci fi' being explainable using proper science, so I would agree with comments made by Poseidal, etc, about the effect having to emergency land a craft world would have on the planet in question. However, as you say, you don't want to debate your background fluff, and to be fair, if I got started on that I could fill up pages myself without even really getting round to answering the OP.
To be fair, this is 40k, its about as far away from a scientific explanation as possible. lets not go into the analysis of a setting where a large chunk of the galaxy is a literal gateway to Hell, and the only way to get from one side of the galaxy to the other is to go SWIMMING in it.... where the daemons can be real corporeal creatures that want to dance in your skin, where the whole of human society survives by feed a dead guy 1000 people with psychic powers a day, where the manipulate peoples genes to turn them into chemical super warriors, where they shoot stars, melt tanks with microwaves and have virus bombs that can consume all life on a planet within minutes.....I could go on but I'd just be repeating what is in the main rulebook
IMO, I don't see there being bows and arrows. It sounds plausible, because they're 'lower tech' so must be more easily available. But, bear in mind just how many thousands of years the Eldar have been using anti-grav technologies to propel nano-technologically sharp blades... the concept of a bow and arrow probably wouldn't even occur to them, let alone be easier to make than their standard weaponry. They would also likely be very ineffective with it, because firing a bow is nothing like firing a gun, so if they were trained with shuriken weapons, you'd probably have to consider lowering their BS to shoot with weapons they were unfamiliar with. I think it feasible that there would still be guardians, armed and armoured as normal. Same for aspect warriors, wraithguard, etc.
Well the eldar do know about the exodites who use "tech bows" and arrows, I'd argue that an eldar bow is merely a label and that the technology used while primitive to their standard equipment would be far ahead of that used in a stick with string attached between the ends.
I think then that the more 'civilian' members of the craft world would be in addition to this, rather than guardians and aspect warriors that hadn't had chance to get dressed in time? There are meant to be plenty of Eldar that walk the "Path of Service", who would be your civilians, and as any other society I would imagine that you'd see a big range of fashions and sub-sects. As magickbk says, robes for some, cyber-punk for the younger generation, etc. I guess your step in deciding what they would look like, would be a little bit of a thought about what roles those civilians have - are they teachers, artists, musicians, lawyers, cooks, builders, technicians, doctors, bin men, plumbers, etc etc. A young eldar sculpture artist, for example, will probably look different to a member of a shrine 'support crew' that keeps the incense topped up.
I agree, but on the scale of 40k I'd say robes for the majority would be the best way to go and throw in a few central "out there" characters to give the story/unit a central figure, I'd second the use of High elf or glade guard bits
Maybe also more scouts would have returned to the craft world while it was in need of more defence back home, versus straying far away?