Eldar - Encyclopedia/W

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Eldar Encyclopedia Index:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Named Eldar Individuals and Units
Battles of the Eldar
Appendix


WARLOCKS (ESDAINN)

The vast majority of Seers are unable to develop their powers in any militaristically useful way, and their powers are wholly restricted to peaceful or artistic purposes. These individuals can still fight in the Guardian units, but their abilities are not used in anger any more than are the abilities of other Eldar pursuing a career on another Eldar Path. However, Seers who have previously fought as Aspect Warriors can and do fight on the battlefield as Warlocks. Because of their experiences as Aspect Warriors, they are able to develop combative psychic powers. Not all Seers who have been Aspect Warriors choose to develop this side of their nature. Indeed may Seers regard it as a potentially dangerous and unhealthy route to take.

When the Avatar stirs upon his throne and the Aspect Warriors make for their shrines to take up their battle gear, a Seer can also go to the shrine of his old Warrior Aspect. Although no longer treading the Warrior Path, he will be welcomed as a brother and invited to join in the ritual. He does not put on the weapons or armour of the Aspect Warrior, but when the time comes to put on masks, he is offered a special Warlock mask from the shrine. If he feels able to fight he accepts the mask and in doing so recreates the two-fold division of his mind into self and warrior. He can only do this because he has already undergone the training necessary as an Aspect Warrior. He can always refuse the mask in the final event and his doing so brings no shame upon him.

WARP HUNTER (VEHICLE)

The Warp Hunter is a weird and immensely powerful weapon mounting a huge warp cannon. The massive weapon comprises an entire side of the catamaran shape of the Warp Hunter and utilises technology similar to the smaller D-cannons and that found on the super-heavy grav-tank, the Cobra. When it fires it bores a hole through the fabric of reality to warp space, sucking targets into the hole entirely or ripping then apart. Those lucky enough to avoid the full power of the blast are cast aside and scattered around the battlefield. The destructive nature of the warp cannon is unpredictable and inaccurate, making the Warp Hunter most effective against massed troop formations.

WARP HUNTERS (PIRATES)

An Eldar pirate force originating from the Alaitoc craftworld. The Warp Hunters have the rune of a red stylized dagged surmounted with an all-seeing eye.

WARP SPIDERS (QUASNANAR)

Warp Spiders are named after the tiny creatures that are seen on craftworlds, living in the wraithbone. They can move anywhere within the craftworld through the wraithbone, melding their bodies into the Infinity Circuit and materialising at a new location. The spiders are aggressive hunters of intrusive psychic forces and are attracted in vast numbers to the presence of invasive psychic entities.

The Warp Spider Aspect Warriors epitomise the doctrine of aggressive defence. Using their compact warp-generators to make short warp jumps, they can disappear and re-appear a few metres away, enabling them to make sudden and unexpected attacks on their foes. Their ritual weapon is the Death Spinner, which projects a cloud of deadly monofilament wire.

WAR WALKERS (OFFIGASCURATH)

The War Walker is humanoid with long but tremendously powerful limbs. It has a single crewman who operates the machinery by means of sensors attached to his arms and legs, encased in a protective energy field. It is an ideal means of moving over steep or broken ground as the limbs have all the agility of a living body. War Walkers are often used in rough terrain, to scout out enemy positions. Its two heavy weapons provide a considerable arsenal for its size, but it lacks the heavy armour that would allow it to fight at the centre of an attack (See also Scout Walkers).

WAVE SERPENT (FIELD GENERATOR)

The early Eldar vehicles known as Wave Serpents were radically different to the troop-carrying Falcon grav-tank variant, although both use energy fields to protect Eldar troops. The original Wave Serpents were shaped with ship-like prows, and high crests with energy field emitters. The unusually shaped hull contained a large warp energy generator powering an energy field known as a warp wave. When used as a field, Eldar troops were able to shelter behind its protection, but when used as a warp wave all enemy troops in its path were scattered before it dissipated.

WAVE SERPENT (TROOP TRANSPORT)

The Wave Serpent is the main troop carrier of a craftworld's army. Protected inside its hull and force field, Guardians and Aspect Warriors can be transported in safety to any part of the battlefield. Based on the Falcon chasis, its powerful anti-grav engines give it great speed in common with most other grav-tanks.

WAYSTONE

In order to save their souls from destruction by Slaanesh, every Eldar wears a small spirit stone also called a Waystone. If the Eldar dies his psychic self is absorbed by the Waystone. The Waystone can then be taken back to the Eldar's own craftworld and embedded in the wraithbone core to allow the spirit to join the Infinity Circuit.

WEBWAY

The Eldar craftworlds float deep in space and only move as sub-light speed. Their physical location is of no importance as the craftworlds are connected by a warp tunnel network called the Webway. These tunnels allow Eldar spacecraft and fleets to travel from craftworld to craftworld and many other worlds throughout the galaxy. The gateways to the tunnels are not readily visible except for the main spatial gateways of each craftworld; a swirling sphere held in stasis immediately astern the craftworld.

The largest and most important tunnels can carry entire fleets, but others are much smaller and can only carry small vehicles or even single Eldar. Every craftworld contains chambers which open directly onto these tunnels. Some lead to places abandoned or destroyed, and some doors are sealed to prevent incursions from malevolent warp entities. No map exists of the Webway, and its form is not understood even by the Eldar. The only beings who have full understanding are the Harlequins who know the location of the Black Library in the Webway and travel its twists and turns freely.

WEAPONRY

Although shuriken and laser technology form the bulk of the Eldar arsenal, there are a number of other weapons utilising sophisticated technologies. Warp technology is used in Wraithcannons carried by Wraithguard and the Distort cannon support weapon platforms. Both utilise warp engines to collapse an area of real space to create a miniature warp hole. If the target is not swept wholly into the warp, it is torn to pieces by the complex gravitational forces involved.

Monofilament technology is utilised in the Shadow Weaver support weapon (also mounted on Night Spinner grav-tanks) and Death Spinners employed by the Warp Spider Aspect Warriors, as well as the close combat weapon known as 'Harlequin's Kiss'. The ranged weaponry forms a monofilament mesh from an organo-polymer compound, stored as a liquid which hardens on contact with the atmosphere. The Harlequin's Kiss keeps a single monofilament which is punched into armour and uncoiled in the victim, liquidising bone and flesh.

The Eldar also utilise sonic weaponry as found in the vibro-cannon support weapon. Similar technology is used in the psychically activated and enhanced Banshee Mask. Plasma weaponry is rare, but effective, limited to Starcannons, plasma assault grenades and mandiblaster technology utilised by Striking Scorpion Aspect Warriors.

WILD RIDERS

The Wild Riders of Saim-Hann are among the most feral of all craftworld Eldar. These jetbike riding warrior kindreds have much influence on the craftworld, and nearly all Saim-Hann Eldar, including the Seers, belong to one of the Wild Rider families. It is only during an Eldar's time as an Aspect Warrior that their ties with their family are forgotten. Each family has a single leader, the position of which is usually passed by hereditary tradition. The closest family to the Chief form the Kinsmen who comprise the ruling elite of the family. It is the Kinsmen who guide the Chief when the craftworld goes to war and it is left up to the individual Wild Rider families whether they will participate. This has sometimes led to Wild Rider Families fighting amongst themselves, usually in a highly ritualistic duelling form, often single combats between champions. Currently the most powerful Wild Rider Chieftain is Nuadhu who rides to battle mounted on a custom-built Vyper

WRAITHBONE

The Eldar use Wraithbone to make the skeletal cores of their craftworlds, buildings, starships and other wraith constructs such as Wraithguard and Wraithlords. Much as a skeleton of an animal provides a framework for its fleshy tissue, so the Wraithbone skeleton of an Eldar spacecraft is a living core around which its functional structures are arranged.

Wraithbone is literally grown into the required shapes by the Wraithbone technicians known as Bonesingers, who utilise their psychomorphic powers to accelerate the formation of psychotrophic crystals around the Wraithbone core. The Wraithbone provides a rigid structure as well as channels for psychic energy, facilitating transmission of communication and power. The Wraithbone core also provides psychic refuge for Eldar spirits in the Infinity Circuit.

WRAITHGUARD (CAUREIANN)

Wraithguard are the Iron Warriors, forged by Vaul to battle the Yngir. Vaul took the essences of the departed and placed them into the chests of an army of iron knights. The constructs are the spirits of the living dead enshrined within Wraithbone bodies. Each construct houses a spirit stone and is animated by the soul of an Eldar taken from the craftworld's Infinity Circuit. Wraithguard senses are fixed on the immaterial universe and are only able to fix their position in the material universe by maintaining proximity with the shining minds of living Eldar. Their powerful wraithcannons are able to rip a hole between warp and real space, pulling the target into the warp.

WRAITHLORDS (IARRASCURATH - QUESTING WARRIOR; TANNASCURATH - SPIRIT WARRIOR)

Created by Vaul alongside the Wraithguard, the wraith-giants are inhabited by the souls of the greatest Eldar heroes. Wraithlords are known by many terms such as Spirit Warriors, Spirit Walkers and Eldar Dreadnoughts. Like Wraithguard, the Wraithlord is merely a Wraithbone shell, a repository for the animating spirit of a dead Eldar. Only the most potent spirits can control a Wraithlord, for even the act of consciousness is exhausting to the dead.

WRAITHSEER

(See Phantom Seer).

WRAITHSHIP

Wraithships are among the largest of Eldar starships, powered by massive solar sails. This is also the key to the legendary elegance and almost birdlike agility of the Eldar Wraithships. Their pilots literally feel the solar wind on the ship's sails, they sense the flex of the ship's structure, the tension and movement of its Wraithbone skeleton. Like a hawk soaring on a thermal or diving to clutch at its prey, a Wraithship can turn in the wind, circling and swooping to hunt its own prey - the spaceships of its enemy. Wraithships are armed with laser batteries and plasma torpedoes, using their speed to outmanoeuvre the enemy as their energy shields deflect or absorb the energy of enemy attacks.

WYCH CULTS

The Wyches of the Dark Eldar are supreme gladiatorial warriors, fighting each other, warp beasts and alien warriors to provide blood-soaked entertainment be it on foot, mounted on Hellion sky-boards or reaver jetbikes. These crazed warriors become almost addicted to combat and the enhancing drugs coursing through their veins.