Some Thoughts on Eldar

What follows are some of my thoughts on Eldar, and how they will be treated in Embers.

As far as I cam concerned the key element of the Eldar is their history, and the Eldar Empire. The Eldar Empire spent between three and sixty million years (depending on the source, 60 in Embers) as the most powerful  force in the galaxy by a massive amount. Only in their early years did the Orks provide any real threat to them. As a result of this history they developed their culture, technology and psykers to an incredible level and developed a massive level of both general knowledge and pride in themselves. This also colors the Eldar attitude to other races, as in their time they have seen countless galaxy spanning civilizations rise and fall, often falling either as a result of getting to proud and picking a fight with the Eldar Empire or due to some other folly. 

Pride is a defining trait in the Eldar and all Eldar have it to some extent in all facets of their life. To a large extent this pride is based on two things, first their history, with tens of millions of years of unmatched power when most civilizations are lucky to survive a hundredth of that, second is the general physical, psychic and mental superiority that an Eldar has over almost any other species as a result of the Old Ones either uplifting them or creating them. On the upside this pride is one of the few things that allowed the Eldar to survive the Fall with an intact civilization and encourages them to excel on all that they do. On the downside it causes them to look down on other races, leading to both major diplomatic problems and underestimating their foes. 

Technologically the Eldar have pushed themselves to around as far as their current tech tree can go, and are unlikely to make any real improvements without a massive breakthrough. However the tech tree that they went down, psychically-integrated-technology, is one that they could not make full use of while linked to She Who Thirsts. As such the Eldar technology will seem to improve significantly now that they are free. On a related note the Eldar are capable of a lot more then they show in their armies and navies, with their forces technology being dictated as much by their preferred was of war as by their limits. They are able to produce highly advanced Void Shields for example but do not due to them not going well with holofields. 

Psychically the Eldar are without a doubt the most skilled mortal psykers in the galaxy, both due to being genetically modified to have massive innate power and control, which they can now use to their full extent, and due to having an ancient and highly developed psychic system and understanding of the warp. This means that while they have their specialties of divination and illusions they are able to use almost all of the powers available to other mortal races with great skill. There are a few exceptions to this, especially where powers connected to gods are concerned, or Orks, Orks can pull off impossible psychic feats. 

The Eldars relationship with the Old Ones is unclear, with them being either uplifted or created wholesale by the Old Ones. However Due to a few factors such as the presence of a major fertility deity and other nature gods it is likely that the Old Ones either uplifted a existing species or created them and then allowed them to develop from a very low technological level, most likely Iron Age or lower. It is possible that the Eldar themselves do not no which is the case, either due to never having being told or due to the sheer time gap between the War in the Heaves and the modern era, one witch even for a species can live tens of millennia is incredible. 

In war the Eldar prefer to make full use of their advantages in troop quality, technology, mobility and information to achieve the best possible kill ratios and to avoid open battles as much as possible.