Warhammer 40K: The Aeldari Plan to Destroy Slaanesh Is Insane
Ten thousand years after The Fall, the Eldar have a plan to free themselves and finally destroy Slaanesh. But there is one very BIG catch…
For over a decade now we have been getting hints that the Harlequins know a secret – a very good one. Deep in the Black Library is the book of Cegorach that tells of the greatest trick of them all, how the Eldar can save their race and destroy Slaanesh at the same time. It’s been referenced, and hinted at indirectly.
But at the tail end of 8th Edition the Eldar put it all together into a grand plan. As we await a new 9th Edition Craftworld Codex we will have to wait to see if they actually try it, and what happens. On first glance the plan seems insane but then again, the Aelfs did successfully capture and hide Slaanesh in Age of Sigmar (spoiler, he pulled off a jailbreak). So Games Workshop could easily shake things up in the Grimdark if they want.
blame this dude…
Aeldari Plan Origins
The origins of the plan are the death and reincarnation of Yriel, who dies defending Iyanden Craftworld. He is slain by a chaos champion, his body corrupted (thanks Nurgle), and then he is purified and raised by Yvraine. This gives the Eldar an idea and a blueprint for something …so crazy it just might work. Read it for yourself:
The Plan
So the basic steps are:
- Every Aeldari kill yourselves (all of you, no cheating)
- All waystones/souls get stored in the Infinity Circuits
- Wait… (for Slaanesh to be dealt with…presumably by Ynnead, maybe with an assist from Khaine & Cegorach)
- All Eldar get new bodies cloned by the Drukhari (who are totally trustworthy, and also all killed themselves – see #1 above)
- Souls reinserted into cloned bodies.
- Party like it’s M.29!
Thoughts & Dreams
“Ashes, Ashes, We All Fall Down”
So the plan is good in theory, but there are some obvious ‘iffy’ areas. It’s easy to have everyone on a Craftworld take poison and die. And in theory, it’s possible that there are enough Wraith Constructs and Spiritseers to take the time to get every last way stone and pull them off the bodies and stick them into the Infinity Circuit. So OK, that gets the souls into safekeeping. But what about the wider Aeldari race? How about the Exodite Worlds? What about Commorragh? Does timing matter? does it all have to be fast so Slaanesh doesn’t figure out something is going on? Commorragh is also sealed off from the warp – which is why the Drukhari hide out there in the first place. Do all the Drukhari who have to ALSO drink the cool-aid need to leave and enter realspace for the plan to work?
Trust me! What could go wrong?
Mass Production Reincarnation
The sticky part is how to get them back. In the case of Yriel, it was Yvraine who personally pulled his soul back into his body. There is a reference to Ynnari Drukhari who because of their beliefs could clone every Eldar a new body “once the danger had passed”. This is really vague as it implies that the Eldar race will all commit suicide and cocoon themselves into their Infinity Circuits for a long period of time. The assumption is that during this time Slaanesh would be robbed of souls and wither and die, or perhaps be destroyed by a more powerful Ynnead.
Tasty Tasty Souls!
The second issue is that the entire Eldar race is completely vulnerable to daemonic attack while they are waiting – with all those souls just sitting there for the taking defended only by whatever Ghost Warriors are on hand to defend their resting place. I would bet that once Slaanesh became aware of what was happening he would spare no expense in directly assaulting every Craftworld to feast on the souls just sitting there.
Ultimate boss fight time!
Tick Tock
Then there is the fuzzy question of what happens in the warp during the waiting period? There are implications that Ynnead gains the power of the souls of the dead even while they are at rest in the Infinity Circuit. It sounds like the plan is for Ynnead to go fight and kick Slaanesh’s butt in the warp while the race slumbers in the Infinity Circuit. If all the Drukhari are long dead, who exactly monitors the warp to ensure Slaanesh is dead? Then who is left to start the cloning process to make a race full of new bodies? Assuming we make it that far, what happens when the entire race get new Drukhari cloned bodies? Does Ynnead lose power when everyone is reincarnated? Does it even matter at that point? What happens to the Eldar pantheon if Slaanesh is defeated? Are they gone forever, or can they be freed from its dying form?
There are a lot of unanswered questions with this plan, and lastly the Harlequins seem missing. I can’t imagine that Cegorach wont have some role to play in pulling this caper off, to finally get his revenge and one-up Slaanesh.
My final hesitation about the Aeldari plan is that boy this all sounds eerily similar to the giant con the C’Tan pulled on the Necrontyr race. “Sure, just walk into the giant glowing buildings and you’ll gain immortaility – you can trust me!”
~ Do you think they can pull it off, or will it all go horribly wrong? Are they going to try in the next Craftworld codex?
