So, as someone who really loves the Eldar, it might hurt my own pride to admit that I am not completely up to date with all of their fluff, ever, but if you read up on the Voidmer, you can split them up into probably four groups:

• Craftworld Eldar- those Eldar who live aboard one of their "numerous" Craftworlds, maintaining the history of the Eldar, and living a regimented lifestyle following the Paths, in order to protect them selves from, and prevent the further growth, of the powers of Chaos. They knoew pear-shaped was the next big thing in their Empire, and ran for it, riding the shockwave of the Eye, and hoping for the best.
• Exodite Eldar- those Eldar who, rather than living on the Craftworlds, can be found on one of a few planets, living a simpler life, and seeming a bit more rustic/backwards than the CW Eldar, though still seen as better than Humans. They lived further away from the core of Eldardom, and so the blast didn't reach them, nor the fallout hit them quite as hard.
• Dark Eldar- BDSM sadomasochistic Eldar with a love of spikes, torture, and being "dark", living in the depths of the Webway, in Commoragh, and sallying out every so often to capture slaves, so that they can siphon off soul essence of others to staunch the damage to their own, both from living in the Webway too long, and from Slaanesh.
• Harlequins- those Eldar who devote themselves to the destruction of Chaos, and the protection of the Eldar's history, particularly the dark secrets in that history. They live in the Webway, guarding the Black Library, and appear outside every so often to do a show, or "do a show" on the face of evil.

There are also the Corsairs, of course, since this is Rogue Trader, and those are the Eldar most likely to be seen, but I often see them as just CW Eldar who couldn't handle the stark life of the Paths, but who aren't so loathing as to become Commoragh-kin. They live in space, have all the tech, less of the SM tendencies, for the most part, and only dress like 80's Eldar, not 80's Eldar Harlequins.

Well, now that you've read my interpretations of the Eldar people, which might be wrong, in spots, or interpreted by me poorly, here's my question. There is, supposedly, this whole second group of hillbilly Eldar, the Exodites, who live on real planets, and such. Where are these people? Where are these planets? Let's not even acknowledge that GW has skipped over them in the table-top, as far as I know, beyond a "they exist" reference. Where are these worlds Eldar actually live on? There are numerous "Maiden Worlds" in just the Koronus Expanse, which the not living there Eldar are often quick to come kick other people off of, and a few places that the Eldar hold onto, for spiritual, psychic, or other reasons, but these places never seem to have an Eldar population, in house. Craftworld Eldar seem to look down at their "country cousins" a bit, and I never see them giving up their freedom of movement (Craftworld) to live somewhere with real air and food, even with the Webway as a good run away option, should things get dicey. DE and Clowns seem to stay in the Webway, till they come out to sew/thrash Chaos, respectively. I don't think there are any Exodite Worlds out this far.

As for in the Imperium, I'd think any world with active Eldar populations would get shot at, especially if they lack dome of the technology Eldar use to make up for there only being about as many of them as there are Space Marines, and they are even harder to make. Where are all these "Exodite Worlds" located, that I never seem to see? How do they still function without things like Aspect Warriors (that's one of the Paths, and I sort of understand that the Exodites don't follow those, at least to the same extent), and without being squashed by the Imperium, or stray Ork Waaghs!? I can think of a number of reasons I might like to have an Exodite World appear in the Expanse, but are there any out that far? I seem to recall that they are the remnants of those Eldar who lived on worlds outside the "blast radius" of the Eye of Terror, when the Eldar gave birth to Slaanesh, but, surviving that, I'm uncertain how they have survived all else. I see the biggest advantage the Eldar has as the Webway, where they, and the things they live in, can safely duck in, and come out someplace else, which a planet, or a village on that planet, cannot do. What are they really like? I've heard Eldar riding dinosaurs, and other such stuff.

Certainly, for some of this, I could ask the Internet, but I like to read the musings of real people, sometimes, and so I'm asking here, first. Thanks much.

Ouuphh... locations.

I think that's one question you won't see answered until some writer actively wants to deal with the topic, as in using Exodites for their story. For what it's worth, the vast majority of "groups" in 40k lack a specific location. Could be part of GW's idea to let the players sort it out by themselves.

Here's two more links you might find interesting -- not about Exodites, but still:

http://web.archive.org/web/20071218082327/http://es.games-workshop.com/especialista/inquisitor/bestiario/eldar.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20071218135033/http://es.games-workshop.com/especialista/inquisitor/bestiario/eldar2.html

I've heard Eldar riding dinosaurs, and other such stuff.

Oh yeah. They are basically 40k's "wood elves". Except with dinosaurs !

As for survival, I'd say that their low-key lifestyle actually plays a role in this. They're pretty much just minding their own business, living in relative peace on their planetary settlements, without any starships or power sources that could be picked up by passing scouts. The only thing they'd have to fear would be colonists who think their world would make a fine settlement, or 'nids. Maybe they even pull some sort of night elf stunt, psychically shielding their world from curious eyes?

Also, from what I recall, Exodites didn't actually settle Maiden Worlds, but intentionally chose planets with a harsher environment, more akin to a Death World like Catachan? This too could be a factor in how likely it is that they'd get pestered by someone else.

It's a big galaxy. Plenty of places for Exodites to quietly live. Even within Imperial space, there are huge tracts of wilderness space inside and between sectors where entire pocket xenos empires could lurk. And eldar are far stealthier than most.

Exodites also can call upon assistance from craftworld brethren, who presumably don't feel safe on a single, unmoving world.

Exodites tend not to have fixed worlds, as they tend to occupy extremely fertile and resource-laden worlds, so when they're found the Imperium tends to denote a bunch of resources to wipe out a troubling Xenos race, and claim a bountiful world for their own.

Decessor is right though, Craftworld Biel-Tan especially devotes a lot of resources to protecting Exodites.

I consider Exodite worlds much as Warhammer Fantasy worlds. Alternately, think of space-faring vs. planet-bound Elves in Spelljammer.

Exodites tend not to have fixed worlds, as they tend to occupy extremely fertile and resource-laden worlds, so when they're found the Imperium tends to denote a bunch of resources to wipe out a troubling Xenos race, and claim a bountiful world for their own.

Decessor is right though, Craftworld Biel-Tan especially devotes a lot of resources to protecting Exodites.

That doesn't entirely seem right. I thought Exodites were extremely devoted to holding their worlds; their dead are not in kept in their spirit stones, and merged with the "life force" of the planet. To abandon their world is to abandon their dead.

I consider Exodite worlds much as Warhammer Fantasy worlds. Alternately, think of space-faring vs. planet-bound Elves in Spelljammer.

I can see that. My thing there would be, and this is as much my ignorance as anything else, but I always sort of assumed that most planet-bound elves were ignorant spelljammer helms, their ships, and "stuff in space", much like the people on worlds being monitored by "duck blind" observation studies. They certainly know of other planes, and have the magic to travel to those places, so High Queen Amlauril, of Evermeet Isle (Forgotten Realms), might know some folks in Oerth (Greyhawk/base line), and she might even have a spelljamming ship, but if you are "just an elf", I wasn't certain you would know about space battles, the Elven Imperial Navy, or such stuff; your own world is enough for you, and fits for if the GM doesn't feel like including that content in their portrayal of whichever world you are in. It also balances better since, not since 2nd ed have the racial gods been SO powerful. If Corellon Larethian is drawing power from Oerth, Abeir-Toril, and all the space colonies out there, while "human" deities change per crystal sphere, he'd be so much more powerful than so many other gods, even if you dance around "is Takhesis actually Tiamat, or are they separate, but similar?"

Of course, it can easily blend, and in the olden days, shortly after the end of 3.5 was in sight, I made a space-based mythal city in FR, and it borrowed a TON of Spelljammer, for its defenses, like some dragon riders, some spirit warriors, and even a few ships; it was mine, so I twinked a bit, and made it all "legit" at the same time, but borrowed a little more from Ah! My Goddess and Tales of Symphonia than I might've wanted.

Heh. Yes, most planet-bound Elves are ignorant of spelljamming helms. Do most Exodites know of space? I assume not but your mileage may vary. I figure that if the Exodites gave up advanced weaponry then they also gave up advanced technology of most kinds, if not all, and live a rather primitive existence, though I'd have a hard time reconciling logic and swearing off medical technology. Perhaps the latent psy abilities of the Eldar and the ability to work in concert (a la Astropathic Choir) might produce an effect similar to a ship's holofield, but on a planetary scale, effectively making said planets hard to detect. That would protect them from most Imperial surveys. "Nothing worthwhile in this system, Captain. Shall we move on?"

Incidentally, I ran SJ back in the day, and I based asteroid cities on mythals and high magic (AD&D or 2.0 whatever it's called now). And, I'd point out that even if Corellon derived faith from all Elves in the Multiverse, that would still be a small number of people to draw from compared to the number of humans out there, but once again that's just my own version of the 'verse.

No, I can see that; it's an Elf thing for almost anyone. If you are going to live forever, or a number that is possibly sleeping with it, one of the natural balances should be you don't breed often, or quickly. If you die off more quickly, maybe due to an environmental change, but not so quickly as to cripple your species, that rate might go up some, but I'd still argue that long life = few kids, as nature intended. For people who wonder why the Eldar don't breed back up to a workable number, when there seem to be plenty of them on a small scale (always enough to have a group of them show up, and remind you they exist, and they'd rather you didn't), I say I don't necessarily understand, if it was ever even said in the fluff, about the Eldar having longer birth stages, or more complicated procreation habits (for my own fluff, at one time, near the turn of the millennium, I turned them into 80s gnomes, where they live a long time, but only have a short window, right around mid-life, where they were viable, and always had twins, but nothing after that. If they didn't make it to mid-life, sorry, and if those children didn't survive, or were deformed, too bad. The act was more ritual, since the Eldar are so controlled, and they just spent a weekend making sure, and were done. No idea if they marry, or if parents raise children, as opposed to the community; there might be a Path for that? I didn't know anything more concrete), but I'd say, like other living things, if you are going to live forever, there is lesser need to rapidly procreate, and dwindle resources. Elephants live a long time, and they get rather old, all in all, before they are fertile. Figure the Eldar will have to be several hundred years old, maybe even 1,000+, depending on how long the less psychically-charged Eldar live, before they are capable, and many might not make it to that milestone, hence the population has not rebounded.

Since the Eldar are our elves here, they get to be few in number, like Tolkien...er Wizards of the...**** it! Like nature intended. I assume the Exodites remember all of their space stuff, and like Amish people, they more make an active choice not to use them; contact with Craftworlds, and the Webway sort of mandates it, too me. I now also have an image of Obi-Wan Kenobi saying "it is as if a million voices suddenly said as one " This isn't the world you are looking for. You should go on about your business. Move along ", and were suddenly heeded."

Did you know that Mr. Rogers was a special forces operative in WWII? He wasn't, but it's a common enough urban legend. And he hasn't been dead all that long. That's a problem with passing along stories by oral tradition. Facts get distorted. I've never seen Eldar as immortal. They aren't Tolkein elves, nor are D&D elves. They live for hundreds of years, but it's been about 15,000 since The Fall, and how long before then were Farseers foretelling gloom and doom? Even if Eldar live an average of 700 years each, that's enough time for over 20 generations to have passed. Ever heard of a Hoosier? Ever wonder where such words come from? There's a dozen legends. My favorite involves a bar room brawl, during which the lights go out, and when they come back on there's an ear on the floor. Whose ear? That one is less than 10 generations old, but it's still past the point of believability. And no one knows the origin of that word for sure.

"Mommy, where do we come from?"

"Child, we come from the stars, where we once flew in great ships. Now we have given up our ships and weapons of destruction to live a life of simple hunter-gatherers as nature intended us to live. But of course we still maintain our vast libraries of history that date back millions of years, and don't forget to turn in your lessons at school today on grammar, data collation, astronomy, mathematics, mineralogy, and quantum physics. On your way home, why don't you stop and hunt us up some Vorst-beast? The larder is running low."

I have to respectfully disagree with your reasoning on Eldar. They don't breed slowly because they live long and it would deplete scarce resources. That would imply evolution and the Eldar didn't evolve. They were engineered, as I remember. They didn't find the stars. They were shown them. Maybe they were never intended to reproduce and that's why they do so slowly. That's pure supposition, though.

I just don't see people keeping up with a past they've abandoned and run from. It's hard enough keeping up with a past you consider a sacred cow (the time of Jesus was less than 70 generations ago). And the life of a hunter-gatherer is very busy and doesn't have room for the niceties of advanced culture. I'm all with you when it comes to few in number. Slow population growth that doesn't replace itself due to the inherent dangers of living the simple life (or life in the fast lane in the case of the Corsairs, or controlled population due to space considerations in the case of craftworlds) means the race is dying, which fits the fluff.

I also don't see the Amish as a relevant example. They live in a world full of technology. They don't partake but the reality is omnipresent and readily available. They don't need to keep a library on it, and they do need lessons to understand it. Do Exodites keep secret arsenals stashed away just in case Necrons show up? Wouldn't that be a violation of their code of conduct? What if the threat were something more mundane but just as irrevocably final? Is that enough to break out the techy solution? I think they gave it up, never to look back.

Webway Gates have their counterparts in fantasy worlds. If fantasy elves have forgotten the Imperial Elven Navy why then do Eldar remember craftworlds? Don't get me wrong. I'm sure most Exodite worlds have some crusty old sage with all the answers. But the average Exodite is not asking the right questions, nor even cares to know what those questions are. Why bother with things that don't impinge on their daily lives?

WARNING: Copious Hurled Opinion Inbound!!!

I believe that the Exodites DO remember al that, and I doubt Eldrad is the ONLY 10,000 year old Eldar; as far as I knew, all Eldar typically live several thousand years. As for their artifical generation, even the most engineered thing had to be made from something, something from nature, and after 65,000,000 years of existing, even the Eldar must have evolved some, and had the mark of nature placed upon them. They are generated to breed slow for what I said, I believe. The Old Ones made Orks shock troops, and they live and breed like shock troops; the Eldar are the other end of that threshold. I suppose, of course, that the Old Ones never expected to loss, themselves, and so intended to be there to continue guiding the two races, which didn't occur.

Images I've seen of the Exodites show dinoaurs with wraithbone? fabrications on their backs, sporting multiple bright lances, so I assume that they do maintain their technology; they simply refrain from them, when they can, I believe. As for the Amish, I mostly mean that they can be surrounded by technology, and still espouse its use, and prosper in a way they see as acceptable. I've seen stuff where certain Amish allow the uses of certain devices, either because they think it is okay, or just because their belief is a little weak; other of their people still deride them for it.

I'm falling asleep, so I'll quit flapping my digital gums

We have a difference of opinion on this matter, and that's ok. My own opinion is self-derived and not backed by canon. I didn't suggest Eldrad as the only 10,000 year old Eldar. I did suggest that there's only 1 of him per (large figure of your choice). I also reject the 10,000 figure. In my 'verse it was just another Eldar with the same name that warned the Imperium about Horus. Warhammer likes to throw around big numbers and stretch reason past reasonable. That's one of the factors most of us like about it. We all fudge certain of those numbers and that's one I'll have to forgo (I also reject the acceleration factors given for every listed ship in the books).

I've said before that 40k lore isn't my strong suit (I had to look up Eldrad to make a comment on him). I've liked 40k since its introduction but its over-the-top foundation kept me from its literature. Being an old fart, I grew up on Heinlein, Aasimov, and Ellison. So I'll acquiesce that there are dinosaur-mounted Eldar with bright lances in the fluff and keep my own 'verse's dino-riders with more mundane weaponry, a la Warhammer Fantasy. I will keep them with wraithbone, though, since that still fits with my perception of "primitive" Eldar science.

You might be confusing Amish with Mennonites. They dress the same. The latter embraced and prospered from the Industrial Revolution. The region I grew up in had both groups. There's even at least one small town in southern Indiana where German is still spoken on the streets as a first language. Both groups are derived from Swiss Anabaptist roots (and yes, one branch of my family came to America from Switzerland).

Which I guess brings us back to your original post concerning the location of Exodite worlds. Aren't they simply populated Maiden Worlds? Weren't Maiden Worlds made by the Eldar for the propagation of their species? The Fall interrupted that plan, but I'd assume that most Exodite Worlds are inhabited Maiden Worlds. It's just that not all Maiden Worlds are inhabited, since the Eldar are too few in number to make use of all those Maiden Worlds. And if they are Maiden Worlds, then aren't there some in the Expanse? Isn't Lure of the Expanse about one of them that was lost in a Warp Storm for some time? Isn't there a Craftworld in the Expanse? Wasn't there another at one point (Lu Nasad)? So, shouldn't there be quite a few Maiden Worlds in the Expanse? I'd think that the Eldar placed many Maiden Worlds in parts of the galaxy that were still forming before The Fall.

For Eldrad, I'm a bit iffy, and here comes some "did he just make this crap up?" So, before I understood that ALL Eldar are sort of psykers, even if they don't have the rating, and those who do have it are individuals who followed the Path of the Seer, and harnessed that innate ability to a usable degree, I was under the impression that many Eldar lived upwards of 5,000 years, and psychic powers doubled that life expectancy. Various other verses seem to have a similar angle, where your "magical power", flowing through your veins, enhances your life force; Jedi can live a lot longer than others of their species, and not simply because they eat healthy, and stay fit. I think Babylon 5 telepaths lived longer, too, if they didn't get offed, or tear themselves apart interrogating prisoners (Alan Bestor is a terrible character, in a great way [thank you Walter Koenig, even without the accent ], but I loved their description of how he's so terrible, in part, because he repeatedly entered the minds of people, and tore for information, even as they were dying from torture, or drugs, and in that setting, being inside the mind of another as it dies is NOT a good place for your mind to be; they believe it took "little pieces" of Bestor's soul along for the ride.) Certainly, the powerful alien telepaths lived for ages. So, I always worked that an Eldar might live 1,000 to 5,000 years, and psyker Eldar give or take double it, so Eldrad could easily be 10,000 years old, and I think Asdrubael Vect, of the Dark Eldar, is said to still be alive from the Fall, though Dark Eldar can do some really strange things.

I might be, but I am still thinking it's Amish, as they have horse-and-buggies, while the Hutterites and Mennonites in my part of the country show up at stores in big vans, to do their colony shopping excursions. Certainly, I'm no expert on any of the three groups, so I won't sit here and say "I'm right, you're wrong!!!"; I honestly don't know. I just thought that it was the Amish who, when possible, went without electricity, "modern conveniences", and made those very nice space heaters that look like actual fireplaces, with the cabinet work made by nothing but hand tools. If I'm wrong, I apologize to the groups I was wrong about.

Yeah, there are a decent number of Maiden Worlds in the Expanse; I suppose I just never gave the Exodites the stealth credit they might deserve for hiding from enemies. Seedworld AFG:218 is a wonderful candidate, and NOT wrapped in a perpetual warp storm. It's in the Imperium, but not occupied by them, and the Calixian Battlefleet maintains a quarantine on it, so short of the Imperium, itself, it is likely not to be bothered, and if they just say "nope, still all clear", and move on, the Exodites could hide from that, and use the Webway to get around; there's even a doorway already there . Hazaah, I think I've decided an Exodite world, if I really need one. Thank you.

Yes, Mennonites drive cars and use electricity. One of my buddies married a Mennonite girl and she's a university professor. You said " certain Amish allow the uses of certain devices" and that's why I thought you were confusing the two.

I'm glad our conversation sparked your imagination. In my current campaign I have a Maiden world, and it might be considered the grand treasure of the campaign, depending on how the players approach it. It was even randomly generated by that excel sheet floating around out there. It's in a system inhabited by "primitive" humans in an industrial society who live on a number of orbital space stations and only visit the Maiden world to trade in a manner similar to Hong Kong, Macao, Nagasaki, Formosa, Tsushima, or any other of a number of European colonies in the Far East. The Maiden world has a number of territories practically designed to hide a large population while providing a "verdant" modifier. There are numerous organics and unique flora and fauna and virtually no mineral resources. It has everything an Exodite society needs and nothing an Imperial society wants, except what the Eldar manufacture. So I seeded in a bunch of trade goods reminiscent of far eastern goods (e.g. wraithbone porcelain, giant spider silk, and myconid tea). Good times to be had.