Chronicle of Isha, the Goddess of Life (Warhammer 40,000)

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.

The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: It is pretty self-descriptive. The original draft was on my patreon for about 3 weeks at time of posting, so for those of you who are interested in early access, the option is there.

Main Part: We never get a good view of what happens on a Craftworld in private, but there are certain rules that are said to be constant.

1. All Eldar participate in some form of manual labor to remember the importance of work and cooperation.
2. Their society is still post-scarcity, and so as long as the Craftworld is unbreached, there is no War, Disease, or Madness upon the ship.
3. The Avatar chamber is at the heart of every Craftworld, and these shards caused a war between almost every Craftworld shortly after the Fall.

These rules remain true, even in 40K, with the only two known events of disease spreading on a Craftworld is Lugganath, which was the Craftworld that lost its Seers to Nurgle himself and another completely corrupted Craftworld that appears in Chaos Gate: Daemonhunter, which has been defeated by the 14th Legion and serves as a breeding ground for virulent strains of the Bloom Plague that was unleashed in the sector.

The Path system is a later introduction, and originally includes only Aspect Shrines. However, some Craftworlds seem to have adapted this philosophy to apply to every aspect of life, including reproduction and parenting. Some Craftworlds, according to Gav Thorpe, have paths dedicated to 'creating' more Eldar, while others are dedicated to 'nurturing' the newborn Eldar.

Additionally, all Eldar born after the Fall have to undergo a form of psychic restraint in order to prevent them from hearing Slaanesh's voice accidentally through the Warp. This is partially used to explain why the 40K Eldar are often viewed as lesser and weaker by the Necron in canon.

Iyanden, being the Craftworld that aims to restore the Aeldari empire, is quite pragmatic in their culture. They will do whatever they have to in order to survive, and save the greatest number of their people. As the Craftworld that later became infamous for their usage of their dead in order to protect their living, I think it is a fitting culture to ascribe to them. This is, before we get to the matter of the SoulShrive and other items from the Supplementary Iyanden Codex.

This is shown by Mehlendri in this story, who is one of the core members of Iyanden's legends. She is the inventor and discoverer of the Spirit Stone system as well as the Infinity Circuit, and it is her Spirit Stone that laid the foundation for Iyanden's Infinity Circuit.

Regarding the part with the Orks, this is my in-story reason for why the Orks see the Eldar as "Pansies/Panzees", despite having been defeated by the Aeldari and being imprisoned by them for tens of thousands of years.

To elaborate, the method by which Eldanesh splintered the Orks, was envisioned due to the Orks nickname for the Aeldari (Eldar, Exodite, Druhkari) being "Pansies/Panzees". Just like Space Marines remain "Beakies" long after the Corvus pattern helmet fell out of common usage, the Orks' genetic memory or Waaagh field retains the first name the Orks come up with for a very long time. Thus, the first time the Orks ran into the Aeldari, the impression they got from them was that they were "Pansies/Panzees". i.e. they were easy to defeat.

From a cultural perspective, it also makes sense. Fighting an Ork is counter-productive. They only enjoy the activity more, and even if you do rout them, it is impossible to make them cower or surrender for a long period of time. Eventually, they or the spores they leave behind will attack again. That is what the Orks are. Therefore, the only way to truly defeat an Ork is to defeat them by losing, defeat them by not winning at all, or defeat them in such a way that they do not realize that there was a battle to begin with.

As long-time allies of the Krork, the Aeldari should know these traits of the lesser offspring of the Krork, and with their ability to reincarnate and documented usage of blackholes as weapons, the Aeldari are perfectly capable of conducting the first and third option in order to defeat the orks.

There is also another layer of sub-text here. Filimerthex specifically refers to the humans as Mon-keigh, displaying a genuine dislike and disrespect towards them while referring to the Orks as Orks. Iyandra is the reverse, where she refers to humans as humans, and Orks as green-skins. This shows that Filimerthex and Iyandra have opposing views regarding the aliens. Iyandra sees humans as aliens one can have a discussion with, while the Orks are just barbaric animals. Filimerthex is the opposite, where there is a begrudging respect towards the Orks, while showing a great disdain for the unreliability of humans and their primitive nature. Apparently, he finds their ease at being manipulated by their politicians to be frustrating, and that is enough evidence for him that they are not much better than Mon-keigh in terms of intelligence level.

On a side note, for those readers who think the Eldar are a bit over the top with their racism and manipulations, you have to remember that this story is based heavily on canon material, but just as Isha has decided to work with the Emperor unlike canon, the Eldar will gradually transition from the Mon-keigh hating Xenos to something… different. If the earlier interlude 10,000 years later was anything to go by, attitudes towards humans have mellowed to the point that some Eldar are willing to look for their literal "soul mate" amongst the humans.

Just like any society has a hard time shrugging off prejudice, the Eldar will need some time to acclimatize to the idea that not every human is a primitive forgetful rabid endlessly avaricious plague.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: It refers to the Psychomatons, but also the 3rd arrow that the Emperor only deflected and did not destroy.

Main Part: I've tried to illustrate the difference in Kyrazis's and Filimerthex's experience in the way he commands and the types of orders he gives. Filimerthex understands the importance of scouting, and is also very aware of what the priorities are in the situation. He is also taking 0 chances, which is why he phrases his order to for the civilian ships to return at the "first sign of anything at all."

The sabotaged civilian ships were always going to be a sore point for Isha's reunion or communication with the Eldar. From the Eldar's perspective, the idea that one of their gods would act against them is a very traumatic idea, especially with how Khaine has previously tried to exterminate them as a species. They are already severely weakened at this moment, and don't need the idea that another god besides Slaanesh is hostile towards them.

As a side note, the animosity between Craftworlders and Commorraghites is not as deep as the one between the Imperium and Traitors. The Commorraghites are invited to councils regarding matters that might involve their entire species, and do get a voice in such meetings. That does not mean Commorragh is a safe place for the Craftworlders, but it is arguably safer on Commorragh than it is on a human populated Imperial World. At the very least, using violence in self-defense on Commorragh does not cause a major inter-species incident that may or may not lead to a war. That said, most Craftworlders feel extreme disgust when they see a Commorraghite, with some refusing to look at them on the rare occassion a Drukhari emissary has to visit a Craftworld.

Seridin and the Guardians descending down to the battlefield that had been occupied by Isha and the Emperor was meant to describe what exactly Isha meant by saying no trace of her remained due to his presence. The Emperor wiped out all traces of her, and his passing leaves a temporary scar on the immaterium that hasn't healed even after almost a day has passed. This was also supposed to illustrate how powerful the Emperor was to ordinary Eldar giving his fans something to enjoy for this Eldar centric section.

I like portraying gods as Eldritch entities from the perception of mortals. There are several lovecraftian descriptions in this section such as the feeling of enclosing dread, loss of bodily function/possession, and objects erupting from seemingly flat or solid surfaces.

The scene with the Psychomatons was supposed to show the following.

1. Filimerthex is old enough to possibly know some of the Psychomatons or the Aeldari that became Psychomatons personally
2. The Eldar are slowly devolving, losing their psychic strength
3. The limits of Isha's ability to communicate with her children

Number 2 will be expanded on next chapter, but I guess I should elaborate on number 3. Isha can tell her children how she feels about certain things, but she cannot directly influence their decision making. If they have a logical argument or priorities that do not match with Isha's, she can only tell them that she does not like the idea. Additionally, if they ask for her assistance to carry out their plan, she cannot stop them.

This is what happened in the vision with Idrineth. Isha did not want Idrineth to attempt to activate her miracle, symbolised in the hands that were trying to push him away, but he ignored her wishes and used her power due to being pursued mostly by his survivor's guilt.

Filimerthex knows Isha, and has a wealth of knowledge regarding both combat and Aeldari culture in general, as suggested by his suppositions of the actions of certain factions of his species. He is supposed to be 'ancient' according to the Iyanden supplementary codex, so he truly is ancient by the almost immortal Aeldari standards.

As there are only 2 more chapters left to this series of side stories, we may have to return to Iyanden later on to see the full results of some of the choices made. I had hoped to go a bit further, but pacing wise it didn't really work out.

After this series of side-stories, there was a What-If scenario in 40K planned, but it might be worth seperating that one out in a different story thread all together. It is very long, and I have a feeling that people want to move on to the Terran section of things.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.

The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: Mostly a refernce to Filimerthex's origins.

Main Part: There aren't any major references to anything in this section. There might be some sybolism that could be missed, so I'll just put that here.

The Golden Arrow is a symbolic message from Isha to the Aeldari. It is a Wraithbone (Aeldari) based miracle that is fused with the Emperor's immaterial hating essence (human). Hence, it is a request to the Aeldari to work with the humans, just as this arrow is a union between two deities (technically three because this is still the Spear of Kurnous), Isha wishes for the Aeldari to at least treat the humans as partners rather than primitives. However, since this arrow was left behind without the Emperor's notice, and as she took his nature via trickery, she is also giving them free reign to outsmart or outwit the humans. Aeldari theologists won't be able to decipher this message for a while.

As for the reason the Aeldari are currently having difficulty replicating the Golden Wraithbone, it is because they have to seperate out the base concepts of the Emperor's immaterial hating touch, and then weave them together while 'killing' the Wraithbone just as hair, skin, and nails are grown by living cells, but are all dead when finished. Isha replicated the Emperor's touch with her skin, nails, and hair. Likewise, 'living' or more technically psychoactive Wraithbone cannot be converted directly into the golden version of itself. The Eldar aren't going to be able to figure this out for a while. Wraithbone modification of this kind is usually done by the Drukhari. They mostly 'torture' the Wraithbone they can salvage or barter from Craftworld Eldar so the material applies pain, suffering, and misery upon contact with a soul bearing creature. At the moment, the reserach regarding these techniques is just beginning in Commorragh, as they have begun to ban the usage of their psyker abilities, which includes Bonesinging.

Isn't it odd that the Eldar trust the Golden Arrow? Why don't they question where it comes from?

The Eldar on Iyanden have an idea that the golden Wraithbone originates from a human deity due to all the human ships left in orbit. That is kinda why they make an effort to not mention it at all because their pride would be bruised quite badly by the idea.

There are 3 main reasons the Eldar of Iyanden "trust", so to speak, the arrow and not the Psychomatons.

1. Seridin's report of hearing "her" voice assures them that the source of this arrow is Isha. Although they cannot be entirely sure whether she herself wants to be found, they can be sure that the object she left was meant to be found by them. Otherwise, she would have destroyed it. As Filimerthex said:

"she was here and if she was one of us, she knew we would be here too."

Click to shrink...

Added to the fact that Seridin felt Isha's love when he first touched it, there is credible evidence to suggest that this item was left with benevolent intentions.

2. The arrow is a modified version of Kurnous's spear. It is a miracle made for the Aeldari in order to accelerate their technology and development. Seridin instinctively called the arrow a "lesson" because of this link between the Aeldari and the downgraded copy of Kurnous's miracle. Therefore, they can feel that what the arrow symbolizes is something they are encouraged to mimic.

3. The Wraithbone they are attempting to use was planned to be created by Iyanden's Bonesingers. As Milethea said;

"Bonesingers of sufficient strength can retain control of the Wraithbone they make."

Click to shrink...

Conversely, so long as the golden Wraithbone they use is produced by their own Bonesingers, they can be relatively certain that there are no negative effects hidden within it. Additionally, even if there was something they missed, it would appear in the Bonesinger who sang it into existence first.
Although not portrayed, behind the scenes the Bonesingers are monitoring all of the volunteers who are attempting to create the golden Wraithbone for any psychic traps or tricks that might be hidden within the composition of the Wraithbone itself. This is why the Psychomatons cannot be trusted, but their own Bonesingers can.

The Farseers do believe that the golden part of the Wraithbone arrow originates from a human deity. However, the idea that one of their gods would work with an alien one when the Eldar are in this much strife is a very souring one. To bring the topic up would no doubt lead to a non-productive theological debate (shouting match) between Serapharielle, Eluriane, and Milethea with Idrineth making things even more complicated.

Hence, they have all decided to leave that topic for another day, and focus on more utilitarian topics for now.

To summarize what the Farseers have agreed on...
1. Isha does not want to be found.
2. She is most likely working with humanity, although whether that is a good or bad thing is open for debate.
3. She has not abandoned them entirely, but they should not expect their prayers to her to be answered any time soon.
4. The Goddess of Life is not what they collectively thought she was, and to ask for her assistance without understanding what she is invites disaster due to the cost of her miracle being more than they are willing to pay.

What are the effects of the golden Wraithbone on Eldar children?

Mostly, it means that the Eldar don't have to psychically devolve to survive as they did in 40K. Necron Lords who face the Craftworlders often scoff at how proud they seem to be of their psychic strength, when their forebears were far more powerful than them. This may be a jibe made by the Necron, however, Eldrad is another piece of evidence for this theory. If you assume he was born before the Fall, he is the oldest and most psychically powerful Eldar according to lore. In one novel, Asurmen told him that he would be the last of the Eldar who could truly use the psychic powers they all used to have.

As a side-note, as Seridin experienced that lonely walk through the darkness (which is part of the Emperor's symbolism, walking through the dark to lay a path alone, etc.), it should cause the Eldar children there to periodically experience this extreme isolation and loneliness when they accidentally touch it with their psychic senses.

This might make a few of them a little bit physically clingy, as a rection to being exposed to this loneliness.

It might harden others, stressing them enough to temper them like steel, preparing them for the lonely road of leadership.

For most, however, the effect is negligible. It is one bad experience out of thousands of good and bad ones they will have, and the majority will either forget or ignore it when they mature.

On a positive note, the Eldar who grow up in these nurseries will probably be less disturbed by the presence of blanks and the Emperor, as their natures are both antithetical to the Warp. So, the reaction to blanks would be less "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! KILL IT! KILL IT!" to, "Ew. That is really weird, but also strangely nostalgic."

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.

The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: The title references how the Aeldari have started to diverge from their original vision of the future, and are entering uncertain waters.

Main Part: Psykers are know to be hardier than their non-psyker brethren. Powerful human psykers can staunch wounds with telekinesis or biomancy. Filimerthex's apparent excessive violence is mostly him tripple-tapping (so to speak) his brethren to ensure they don't come back from a grevious wound or merely pretend to be dead.

Idrineth is only in the middling age-group of the Seers, so beheading him was enough to take him out. If this was Mehlendri or possibly even Tyrios, they might have used telekinesis to drag their head back to their body, and reattatch it with their psyker abilities. Of course, they would still be seriously anaemic and at death's doorstep. However, even a half-dead Aeldari is dangerous.

By creating multiple lethal wounds, he increases the amount of time these Aeldari have to take to repair their body to functional status. If they take too much time, their soul gets sent into the Othersea much like daemons are forced back into the Warp when their medium is destroyed.

Some questions about this chapter are included below.

Supposing the plans for the nursing chambers go through, I wonder what the long term effects of Eldar children being born and spending their early childhood surrounded by wraithbone made from the Emperor's truth might be. Strong attraction to the astronomicon? Eldar "followers" (probably in a very loose sense of the word followers) of the Emperor?

Click to shrink...

Mostly, it means that the Eldar don't have to psychically devolve to survive as they did in 40K. Necron Lords who face the Craftworlders often scoff at how proud they seem to be of their psychic strength, when their forebears were far more powerful than them. This may be a jibe made by the Necron, however, Eldrad is another piece of evidence for this theory. If you assume he was born before the Fall, he is the oldest and most psychically powerful Eldar according to lore. In one novel, Asurmen told him that he would be the last of the Eldar who could truly use the psychic powers they all used to have.

As a side-note, as Seridin experienced that lonely walk through the darkness (which is part of the Emperor's symbolism, walking through the dark to lay a path alone, etc.), it should cause the Eldar children there to periodically experience this extreme isolation and loneliness when they accidentally touch it with their psychic senses.

This might make a few of them a little bit physically clingy, as a rection to being exposed to this loneliness.

It might harden others, stressing them enough to temper them like steel, preparing them for the lonely road of leadership.

For most, however, the effect is negligible. It is one bad experience out of thousands of good and bad ones they will have, and the majority will either forget or ignore it when they mature.

On a good note, the Eldar who grow up in these nurseries will probably be less disturbed by the presence of blanks and the Emperor, as their natures are both antithetical to the Warp. So, the reaction to blanks would be less "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?! KILL IT! KILL IT!" to, "Ew. That is really weird, but also strangely nostalgic."

Seeing as he is the(?) god of humanity that would probably not be good at all or outright Bad News™ though from what I understand of the author's interpretation of "godhood"in Warhammer that would probably not be the case as it's not really the Emperor's truth so much as Isha's copy.

Having said that, if it becomes an integral part of the early Eldar life cycle it'll certainly rustle some jimmies if/when they find out its origin.

Click to shrink...

The Eldar on Iyanden have an idea that the golden Wraithbone originates from a human deity, which is kinda why they make an effort to not mention it at all because their pride would be bruised quite badly by the idea.

It's a sort of in-joke I attempted to write in. I was experimenting with conveying concepts via omission. Most people would wonder where something came from, but the Eldar have sort of avoided the topic and went straight to how to use it. That said, since Filimerthex enters mid-way through the council, I didn't get to fully put this concept into this chapter. It is totally plausible that the Farseers discussed the golden Wraithbone's origins already, so I'll be putting that in a writer's note later on since it is hard to see.

By the time Isha can return to the Aeldari, they'll probably have convinced themselves that it was their mother's cunning that allowed them to gain access to part of Neoth's abilities, and thus they are not indebted to a "primitive" race.

Yes, the Eldar are snobbish, but it's a predictable character flaw of their race, making it one of the least problematic ones since it is a known factor that can be worked around. I personally find the idea of them conducting such mental gymanstics hilarious, but I also understand it is not appealing to all.

I was sort of curious about that, how the council was examining it and contemplating how they could use it and nobody was asking where it came from and how did it get those properties. Especially weird in that they are planning to use this stuff to safeguard their children, but don't care where it came from. Nobody even raised the possibility that it could be some kind of cunning trap?

Click to shrink...

Good question.

There are 3 main reasons the Eldar of Iyanden "trust", so to speak, the arrow and not the Psychomatons.

1. Seridin's report of hearing "her" voice assures them that the source of this arrow is Isha. Although they cannot be entirely sure whether she herself wants to be found, they can be sure that the object she left was meant to be found by them. Otherwise, she would have destroyed it. As Filimerthex said:

"she was here and if she was one of us, she knew we would be here too."

Click to shrink...

Added to the fact that Seridin felt Isha's love when he first touched it, there is credible evidence to suggest that this item was left with benevolent intentions.

2. The arrow is a modified version of Kurnous's spear. It is a miracle made for the Aeldari in order to accelerate their technology and development. Seridin instinctively called the arrow a "lesson" because of this link between the Aeldari and the downgraded copy of Kurnous's miracle. Therefore, they can feel that what the arrow symbolizes is something they are encouraged to mimic. Which is another hidden message from Isha asking them to cooperate with the humans while still taking advantage of them where they can. The arrow is created by the union of a human god's miracle and an Aeldari god's miracle, but the human god's miracle was taken from that god with guile. Thus, it is a symbolic message of Isha's request.

3. The Wraithbone they are attempting to use was planned to be created by Iyanden's Bonesingers. As Milethea said;

"Bonesingers of sufficient strength can retain control of the Wraithbone they make."

Click to shrink...

Conversely, so long as the golden Wraithbone they use is produced by their own Bonesingers, they can be relatively certain that there are no negative effects hidden within it. Additionally, even if there was something they missed, it would appear in the Bonesinger who sang it into existence first.
Although not portrayed, behind the scenes the Bonesingers are monitoring all of the volunteers who are attempting to create the golden Wraithbone for any psychic traps or tricks that might be hidden within the composition of the Wraithbone itself. This is why the Psychomatons cannot be trusted, but their own Bonesingers can.

As I posted before, the Farseers do believe that the golden part of the Wraithbone arrow originates from a human deity. However, the idea that one of their gods would work with an alien one when the Eldar are in this much strife is a very souring one. To bring the topic up would no doubt lead to a non-productive theological debate (shouting match) between Serapharielle, Eluriane, and Milethea with Idrineth making things even more complicated.

Hence, they have all decided to leave that topic for another day, and focus on more utilitarian topics for now.

To summarize what the Farseers have agreed on...
1. Isha does not want to be found.
2. She is most likely working with humanity, although whether that is a good or bad thing is open for debate.
3. She has not abandoned them entirely, but they should not expect their prayers to her to be answered any time soon.
4. The Goddess of Life is not what they collectively thought she was, and to ask for her assistance without understanding what she is invites disaster due to the cost of her miracle being more than they are willing to pay.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.

The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: As this section referred to a lot of Mehlendri's and Fiimerthex's conjoined history, it takes this title. It's also a refernce to the latter part of the chapter where we see Filimerthex's mindscape.

Main Part: I wanted to explore Aeldari bed-techniques without going into the obscene or insane. Quite frankly, everything is quite vanilla. (Except the dialogue) I have included a few things I have learned from the various women I have had the pleasure of being physically intimate with.

Warning, some references to NSFW content follow in the spoiler sections
To summarise some of the techniques I have incorporated into the unredacted version of this chapter:

Spoiler: Possible suggestive content

1. Touching and stroking is a good starter. Going into things too hurriedly or forcefully is a massive turn-off. (Unless it's part of some role-play.)
2. During intimacy, a woman enjoys knowing she arouses you, and silence can be annoying or worrying to some. Physical or vocal expressions of enjoyment increases feelings of self-confidence and warmth. Compliments are also good. (Of course, if it is part of some agreed upon role-play, you can be more crass or violent.)
3. Despite most media of this nature, the mammaries and areolar regions are not a fun place to be touched. More experienced women will be patient, because they've had to deal with this stereotype. However, most would appreciate it if you kept your hands elsewhere.
4. If you are well endowed enough to reach it, do not attempt to touch the cervix. It is quite painful, or so I'm told. You're basically punching her internal organs at that point, so it reverberates into all sort of other areas and can be very uncomfortable.

Part of my motivation for writing the activities in this chapter was to dispel some of the misinformation floating around about intimate activities. So, in a sense, this was my Public Service Announcement as well as literotica.

Pain and pleasure are used here, and it explores what it means to be attracted to neither while using both. Mehlendri does not like the all consuming nature of pleasure, and she finds pain painful like any non-masochistic individual.

Regarding the parts about Filimerthex, he is a manipulative character. Peak Fae is how I would describe him. He is inspired by the Soul Shrive from the Iyanden supplementary codex, and as he is described as ancient by Aeldari standards, he comes from a time before their empire.

Weapons imbued with Spirit Stones that assisst their wielder are not rare, but these are usually made from several combined Eldar souls that have been unified through an Exarch's armor. For a single individual soul to do the same thing, and more is an extraordinary task. This is why the Soul Shrive's soul (Filimerthex) is very very old, and quite powerful.

When I say powerful, I do not mean in terms of direct strength. It is his cunning and intelligence that are the most dangerous parts of him, and that is a theme I intend to pursue with many characters, including human ones.

As a side note, due to the brief events of these chapters, I have not made any character lie. All of them speak the truth, so Filimerthex truly does not want to convert the Eldar on Iyanden to the Commorraghite life-style.

As Filimerthex says:

She who Thirsts has shown where my path leads." He said as he bit her earlobe. "My generation already lost themselves to the Fall. You and your kind are the survivors of that disaster. That is why I came to you, and why I serve you."

Click to shrink...

Commorragh has several other technological perks beyond the Webway gates, and Filimerthex has ideas for his old home as well to keep their souls out of Slaanesh's hands. I have borrowed some ideas from Warhammer fantasy regarding the methodology. I originally intended to take things there, but that would have required a time-skip and the side-stories would have over-taken the main story in terms of events.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.

The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: I come up with the title last, so I'm usually quite tired due to writing so much dialouge and coming up with the schemes the characters engage in. So, titles are going to be pretty self-descriptive for the forseeable future.

Main Part: These chapters were written to give a feeling for what life is like in the Imperial Palace, and portray the setting of what a pre-unified Imperium looks like. I have done a lot of research regarding this period of time, and there were quite a number of interesting tidbits I will portray later on.

At the moment, each region has some degree of self-governance, especially those which have not been militarily conquered. As the number of shared enemies on Terra decreases, so does the number of reasons to be totally obedient to the Imperium. Selfishness and greed has begun to motivate each of the regions to search for more ways to gain their own personal power, and as shown by the Lords from Albia, that power-struggle can even be held within the region itself.

This is the theme for the humans in power. They are motivated by greed and selfishness held in check by fear and self-preservation.

But, they are not all bad. Nour is one example of a relatively noble individual. He is faithful to his beloved, empathetic with even the prostitutes of the Imperial Palace, and intelligent enough to be deemed useful to the Imperium. Of course, because of those traits, he has to pretend to be a philanderous, crass, fool in order to survive in the Imperial Palace.

I guess poetic or dramatic irony is another theme for the Imperial Palace.

Despite this almost borderline dysfunctional Imperium, Malcador and the assassins do not seemed worried, and that is because they have a plan to solve this.

Terra is the keystone of the Imperium in 40K, and it becomes that due to the Unification Wars, which I will portray in this section of the Chronicle.

Spoiler: New characters to appear on the stage over the next few chapters

Erda, Amar Astarte, Constantin Valdor, and Leetu will all be popping up. The heart to heart with Malcador is something I'm quite fond of. The chapters are on my Patreion right now.

 

[Nidhog153]

View: https://youtu.be/UkNM7kiJ-tA?si=l-_osdYrW-o5PAbt
An audiobook version of the first half of the first chapter is out on YouTube! Check it out!