What's YOUR Craftworld?

[Freefall945]

Space Marine chapters are all well and good, but as an Eldar player I'm more interested in people's craftworld backgrounds; how they relate to established Eldar lore, and how they're unique.

My craftworld, Eli Sheol, drifts vulnerably through the Deicide Sector (also made up - where all my Dark Heresy stuff happens) in Segmentum Ultima, a microcosm of the Eldar's war against their kin. They suffered a catastrophic webway breach to Dark Eldar interlopers, and so the graceful gardens, domes and spires of Eli Sheol regularly roll back and forth in a protracted tug of war of urban conquest.

The survival of the craftworld as a viable host has played an important enough role in several prophetic rune casting to warrant direct military aid from the craftworlds which still have unbroken connections to this one - Ulthwe among them, neatly justifying Eldrad's occasional cameo.

Paintscheme is classic skull white and shadow grey. What about your craftworlds? How does your splendor shine so that it terrifies and awes the mon-keigh?

[whitestar333]

I actually don't have a craftworld, but am rather represented by a troupe of Harlequins called 'Belac Tannedi' or 'The Path of the Ghost Colors'.

[thelonegrif]

My craft world is mentioned in the second gaunts ghost novel Dolthe i did some research and other than that mention there is no other info on such a craftworld so i adopted them for myself giving them a regal blue base with dark angels green trim small arms base coat is a bleached bone with barrels and other certain part of heavy weapons being a custom made metalic blue wraith construts and titans have the inflames head stamped as a crest on head plates their craft world is based loosely in the on the area of the sabbot worlds and segmentum obscurus
are far as views and strengths go they harbor every warrior path shrine and a standing 120 guardian force and at least 2 full squads for every warrior path their avatar is still alive if you will they have 2 revenant titans 1 phantom titan and 5 super heavy tanks a host of psykers though they do not rival Uthwe how ever Eon Kull is almost as powerful a psyker as Eldrad Ulthran
they take a radical view on using wraith constructs and working with a known enemy for the simple reason of getting the job done and furthering the craftworld's goals with as few casualties possible to their people screw any outsider that gets used in the process

[Lane]

I'm using one of the stock craftworlds - Alaitoc.

I like the colors, always important when painting a bunch of minis.

The background of their close association with the Maiden Worlds and heavy use of Rangers appeals to me as well. I have a bunch of the old Guardians as Exodite units serving with the Craftworld army.

[Freefall945]

Yeah, played Alaitoc for a bit! Right after I gave up Ulthwe. Then the new Eldar codex came out and made the Ranger *******ry table invalid, and I went my own jolly way.

[Lane]

Well I started with Eldar before there was a Codex.

I agree Eldar tend to suffer at the hands of designers who strive to make them a dying race.
Was it the previous Codex or the one before where Rangers could take HtH weapons and Jet Bikes?

[eldargal]

Reposted from my blog, where there is also some fluff to go with it. There are still more than enough Eldar to reverse population decline if they tried, fed up with this whole dying race nonsense.

Craftworld: Cait-badd (Punishing Females)
Colour: Pink helmets, bone armour

The Eldar believe themselves to be a race doomed by their own folly, and thus a fatalistic attitude permeates there society. Of all the Craftworld of the Eldar only two have rejected this fatalism and strive towards restoring the Eldar race: Biel-Tan and Cait-Badd. While Biel-Tan has taken a zenophobic and militaristic approach, the farseers of Cait-badd have recognised that for the Eldar to truly regain their former pre-eminence they must increase their numbers. To this end the craftworld instituted what they half-jokingly refer to as the ‘Way of the Mother’, a structured system of breeding to maximise the number of Eldar births. It’s success can not be denied, over the following millennia the population of Cait-Badd has exploded.
Where even the other more populous craftworlds are still predominately empty cities floating through the depths of space, Cait-Badd is a thriving, populous hulk, its bonesingers struggling to expand the craftworld in all directions to meet the growing demands for space. Indeed, there are so many Cait-badd Eldar that in the last years of the 41st millennia they have been able to resettle permanently on some of their Maiden Worlds.

Unfortunately for the Eldar, many of these Maiden Worlds had since been claimed as Imperial agri-worlds, but in contrast to the xenophobic Biel-Tan, under Farseer Dru’slla Cait-Badd took a more diplomatic approach. Knowing the Imperium of Man was under significant strain from the ongoing conflicts in both Cadian and Armageddon systems, Dru’slla proposed a deal. The Eldar would assist the Imperium in both theatres of war, and allow the continued use of the Maiden Worlds as agri-worlds, if the Imperium would turn a blind eye to their relatively small resettlement.
The proposal was initially rejected, but after the Eldar came to the assistance of the Imperium at several junctures, including saving an entire Imperial fleet, a review was promised. With continual assistance rendered, success was assured when Chapter Master Calgar himself acquiesced, stating that the aid given had been invaluable, and that the damage the Eldar could wreak on the war efforts food supplies warranted a more restrained approach for so long as the Eldar kept their word not to interfere in Imperial agriculture.

The success and growth of Cait-Badd have had a number of startling cultural effects on the craftworld. The females of the world have taken on an increasingly dominant role, given the focus on breeding and mothering and the population as a whole has a significantly younger median age than any other craftworld. In fact, Farseer Dru’slla herself is extraordinarily young by Eldar standards, by human standards being in her early twenties. The autarchs of the craftworld too are, at this point, all female. Needless to say the Shrine of the Howling Banshee is a particularly popular one on the Cait-Badd craftworld.

[Erasmus of Baal]

I haven't designed it yet, but I'm actually thinking of making an Exodite list--not Biel-Tann, but actually the guys on the surface supported by Harlequins (because I love those guys).

The idea is that my Space Marine Chapter is operating in the Halo Stars, and they take one of a Maiden World's moons as the location for their fortress-monastery. The Eldar on the planet itself have agreed to this, and even allowed some human colonization of the planet to help support the Chapter that has provided these Eldar with invaluable support against such threats as Tyranids, Orks, and Necrons.

[Freefall945]

Reposted from my blog, where there is also some fluff to go with it. There are still more than enough Eldar to reverse population decline if they tried, fed up with this whole dying race nonsense.

I know, right!?

It's... perhaps a little irrationally irritating to me that Eldar are often passed over when considering powerhouses in 40k lore. This came up in the "Who's the biggest threat" thread, too. It's probably fair to say that while the eldar are not the most threatening -empire- in the stars, at this point, they are certainly the most threatening race per capita, as despite being a dying race for so long, so desperately under strength, so conservatively deploying their precious forces, they still regularly (and some times, off handedly) raze, or cause the razing of, imperial worlds, systems, and sub-sectors.

Friggen' mon-keigh.

[eldargal]

Agreed, I voted Eldar for that when I first saw it. Couldn't be bothered posting an explanation though.