Okay, got a quick question for the lore-masters out there regarding the Harlequins of the Eldar. From what i know of them, they seem to have an incredible massive incomprehensibly gargantuan dislike for Slaanish, naturally, and seem to exist to counter and, maybe, one day, slay Slaanish. Given that fact and the Eldar's odd single-minded ways and utter dedication to what ever it is they chose to do with any given part of their life, is there room in the Harlequins to hate, despise, and seek out other enemies of the Eldar? If a Farseer somewhere realized that an important junction involving the C'tan were coming up, like the first events of an awakening or some such, and a Harlequin Troupe found out about it, would they seek to intervene to change events or would such, as it doesn't have anything to do with Slaanish, not concern them and be left to other Eldar to deal with it or not as they see fit?

As I understand it, the Harlequins would be perfectly happy to get involved with non-Slaanesh related conflicts, yes. They don't exclusively combat Slaaneshi agents/daemons etc.

They certainly have a complex adversarial relationship with Slaanesh though, embodied by the Solitaire, a mysterious Harlequin who plays the role of Slaanesh in Harlequin dances. Harlequin Solitaires all seem to be able to access the black library within the webway at will, and may be (I speculate, no source for this) Eldar versions of the Illuminati, sinister figures from "Lost and the Damned," one of the two great tomes of chaos released by GW back in the '80s..

The Illuminati are senior and shadowy Imperial conspirators who have all been possessed by Daemons, but expelled the daemon through sheer force of will. They understand better than anyone the danger of chaos and seek to combat it. Back in the day they were the 40k equivalent of templars or the CIA in modern conspiracy theory, allegedly behind everything. This has now been somewhat overshadowed (since the original Inquisitor game) by a more complex and nuanced view of 40k conspiracies in which virtually every organisation in the Imperium has its own dark secrets and agendas, often conflicting in bewildering overlapping patterns.

I speculate that an understanding of Slaanesh at a fundamental level may be a prerequisite of being a Solitaire, perhaps even requiring an aspiring Solitaire to "suffer for his art" by allowing a Daemon to posses him. If he successfully expels the Daemon from his soul, he gains the insight to dance the dance of Slaanesh without risk, and is able to enter the Black Library. Only a theory of mine, though!

But yes, the Harlequins would cheerfully combat ancient enemies of the Eldar like the C'Tan (aka the Y'ngir). Indeed there are legends of how the Laughing God defeated the Outsider, one of the four surviving C'Tan by driving him mad. This may be legend, or it may be a tale which speaks in allegorical terms of a successful Harlequin operation against a dangerous C'Tan enemy.

Lightbringer said:

Or, um, I don't know, maybe the Illuminati from modern conspiracy myth maybe?

Seriously, though, thanks for the insights. The Eldar is one faction I'm not too knowledgeable on. I know a bit here and there, but some things just haven't been addressed for me and, due to one of my players getting the Speak Eldar skill with a knowing look at me, I figured it was about time to start looking for excuses to have them show up at least once if not getting some of them tangled up in the messed up plot o' doom that the PC's are up to their earlobes in.

Lightbringer said:

Interesting theory regarding the possession, though, I suspect that even the Solitary are at grave risk when they take on the role of Slaanish. There's mentions of it being one of the most dangerous things they do, that their souls are, for the most part, forfeit because of it and they know it. Only the lucky few are personally rescued by the Laughing God. Most will be devoured and eternally tortured by Slaanish upon death if they're not driven insane before then by their role. Though, the idea of possession to suffer for their art (and anouther reason to be shunned by the other Harlequins) is brilliant, I don't think it makes it safe for them to assume the role of Slaanish... perhaps it just gives them a chance of surviving the performance with their mind mostly intact and with their sole still in their possession... maybe.

I had also forgotten about the Laughing God tricking the Outsider, thanks for reminding me!

Either way, i was just curious since everything I know about them paints them as pretty much all about fighting Chaos (especially Slaanish), reminding Eldar of the Fall in case one of them stopped brooding about it in a pretty but tragic way for five minutes, and not much of anything else. The Necrons and their ilk, being about as far from Chaos as you can get, i wasn't sure if they'd care or be concerned about that or not. I know regular Craft Worlders would be, but the Harlequins are... different.

Graver said:

Yeah they're an entirely different 'animal' compared to dealing with your Eldar pirates, maidenworlders or some random ranger popping up out of nowhere and busting a shuriken in someone's ass for all kinds of reasons, mostly known only to themselves. If the Harlequins turn up it'll be as illogical and crazy as an opium dream at the time, only in an adventure maybe 5-6 sessions later anything they actually said or did make any sense to people with some very extended lateral thinking to make constructive use of at the time. To the rest that dont figure it out, the Harlequins will probably have considered that into the typical Mon-kei behaviour of never figuring out anything until its too late, if at all... if ever, and factored it into their plans accordingly to avert some kind of disaster.

Solitaire aside because they're unlikely to talk to the humans, if anyone they'd be in contact with is the Shadowseer who plays Fate, more so even than the troupe leader who's the role of the Laughing god, but I guess he might have his two cent's to throw into the conversation if it concern's C'tan affairs... but make sure to bother them with lots of crackhead-annoying mimes to distract them as well.

Yeah, the short version is that the PC's are pretty much not going to like Harlequins turning up, hell even the normal Eldar dont like them hanging around and reminding everyone just how naughty their ancestors where.

Harlequins would actually be a very cool thing to bring to any DH campaign, so I'd be interested to see how your campaign works out, keep us posted!

One other role which the Harlequins seem to fulfill is as sort of "middlemen" between the various Eldar factions. If you think about it, there are actually 5 Eldar factions:-

1. Craftworld Eldar

2. Dark Eldar

3. Exodites ("rural" planet-bound Eldar based on Maiden worlds)

4. Outcasts (exiles like Prince Yriel, or some Eldar corsair bands)

5. The Harlequins themselves.

There was an old White Dwarf article I seem to recall from about 10 years ago where some craftworld Eldar fell out with a human planetary governor. There was a brief war, which the Eldar won, and to punish the governor, they arranged for the Harlequins to take him to the Dark Eldar for thousands of years of torture.

This suggests that the Harlequins are respected enough to pass betwen the different Eldar factions, perhaps in their role as entertainers and storytellers, and to carry out missions for one faction in the realm of another. I don't know how you'd weave that into your campaign, but it's an interesting element in their background.