have there been any presented cases of an eldar child in fluff? or descriptions of how eldar children are raised? ive been thinking up an adventure involving an eldar child slave trade and noble that doesnt get the concept of "mess with eldar kids and you get a craftworld up your bum"

From what i recall of 1st ed 40k they are dealt with communitively, but the birth of a child to the eldar is a highly celebrated thing, they have children so rarely that its a monumental achievement. at an appropriate age they are some how set on the right path, how this is arranged i have no idea.

ThenDoctor said:

I can see this being a GREAT adventure. Not only is the concept hilarious, (to me, at least) it has some great potential for theological/moral decisions for the PCs. I.E. Do twe let this xenos kid live and send him back to his people, so as to save this world from Eldar wrath. In addition, I could see you using that same Eldar, assuming he lives, as an NPC in a different campaign set later in the timeline.

Also, I love the idea of an Eldar child as a spoiled princeling brat, it makes me chuckle.

There's a big problem with a trade in eldar kid slaves : availability will suck. Not only are they scarce, but they're probably amongst the most heavily guarded parts of eldar culture. The only somewhat reliable source would be an exodite world - they don't move around and live a relatively low-tech existence, making them easier preys than their craftworld cousins. Though since said cousins usually keep an eye on what's happening to them, doing so will bring pissed eldars on the trader's back sooner or later (usualy sooner...)

A safest alternative would be to use cloning to get a supply that's both reliable and far safer from a 'pissed eldars howling for your blood' angle. Even if the resultant clones aren't as sharp-witted a a normal eldar and will lack the culture and probably the psyker abilities, it won't matter considering the most probable use for such slaves (underage exotic sex pet). It will also be safer for both the buyer and the seller.

i was going to have an eldar ambassador take the children for "excursion trips" as a hoax to get them to imperial worlds under the guise of them trying to establish good diplomacy between the imperium and eldar. the ambassador would then sell the children into slavery for exuberant sums because yes they are a high commoditee. and no the children arent really spoiled just the people who buy them.

but yes the main choice would be purge xeno scum and **** the planet to eldary wrath (possibly leading to a small scenario with fighting the eldar) or return the child/children and get some xenosy rewards and a possible scenario later (idk maybe the eldar have a problem so deep in the imperium they cant possibly get to it and the only humans they trust are the acolytes)

Because Eldar children are so rare and precious, a single child stolen from an Exodite community would be sufficient. Perhaps it was one of the few surivors of a three-way war between Eldar, the Imperium, and Orks over a planet. The child could have been stolen along with several Eldar artifacts and salvaged Imperial goods by well-connected smugglers looking to profit from the war.

Meanwhile, the Acolytes could be called in to investigate the disapearance of several Guard, Navy, and Administratum officials whose only common link seems to be their involvement in the conflict over the planet. The acoyltes might now even know that at first. They'd have to discover who had been killing the crooked officials and why in time to beat the Eldar to at least one of the smugglers and recover the child/artifacts before the Eldar show up to do it themselves.

A VERY radical Inquisitor ( more likely the Interrogator acting in their Inquisitors abscence ) might just try to rescue the Eldar kid(s) in order to try and secure a tenative alliance with those eldar in the area to try and prevent/defeat a common enemy to the whole sector ( Tyrant star perhaps ) who realizes that everyone can profit from the alliance even if it only lasts long enough to take care of the common threat. Added they might just hand over some Xenos gear in appreciation of a supposedly selfless act of heroism for one of their kids that the tech-geeks can reverse engineer in due time to further the cause of the imperium A working shiny new piece of xenos-whatever for the tech priests to study and find ways to emulate and or defeat for future hostile acts against or in defense of the Imperium...im sure they would grant some leeway for whoever came up with that lil morsel for them...besides the "official" records of the whole deal as to how it was aquired can always be faked by the inquisitor / interrogator involved to prevent further questions than necessary anyway and to keep the potential alliance hidden till needed.

Rescuing a eldar kid from slavers not only can endear your acolytes and to a lesser extent humans to the kid but also be looked upon most favorably by the eldar adults of that craftworld ( especially if you captured the slavers alive to turn over to the eldar when you returned the child to them so the eldar could exact their own hideous revenge more personally...called brownie points....never know what it could lead to if the acolytes played their cards right and managed a few lucky rolls in the capture and safety of child and dialogue between the eldar parents and acolytes once they turned over the child... At the least it would give the acolytes and whatever ship they were on safe passage anywhere in that craftworlds territory perhaps allowing for further adventures catching a wanted heretic that had been hiding in the eldar territory since they would then have authority for that ship to go hunting for the criminal

The one HUGE flaw in the plan so far is the idea of an Eldar Ambassador actively selling their own kind into slavery for mere wealth. Heck, for ANYTHING! The Seer Council would certainly be aware of such a dire development in the survival of their Craftworld due to the Eldar near-mastery of fate and time and would ABSOLUTELY see to the swift downfall of such a dire villain in their midst.

You need to come up with far more cunning and complex back-stories when it comes to Eldar of the Craftworld variety. Perhaps some bastard Rogue Trader (or just plain old pirate) managed to get extremely lucky and catch a much smaller and situationally imperriled Eldar ship in his guns and captured a semi-intact portion? Most of the crew were dead, but there is a child who was learning their Path onboard and survived. Some time passes as the Eldar investigate the missing ship and the Trader/pirate works his shady deal, but then the Seers and the Rangers find traces of a stolen Eldar child and HORRIBLE things start to happen to (apparently) non-connected people. The Inquisition hears whispers, lies and rumours that monsters, avenging angels of terrible wrath and beauty or perhaps even rogue Eldar are murdering Imperial citizens at random, or so the tales go. The tellers of tales are rounded up, put to the question and ultimately purged, but now the Inquisition has further questions it would like answered.... Enter your agents.

If you don't care to sleep soundly ever again, contemplate just what horrors an enraged group of Eldar can perpetrate upon unprepared humans.... They have a few Seers (quite probably Warlocks), many Rangers, perhaps a few Pathfinders, several hidden Dire Avengers awaiting the call to war, plus perhaps a handful of Striking Scorpions and almost certainly a few Warp Spiders. If the enigmatic Harlequins should happen to catch wind of the unfolding drama then it is even possible for the dancers of the Laughing God to interject themselves at an especially annoying-yet-pivotal point in time. In the Eldar way of War it is entirely acceptable to sacrifice the lives of ten million Mon'Kiegh to save a single Eldar life. What horrors do you immagine they are capable of then in the recovery of stolen kin? The Inquisition is merciful and kind in comparison!

Since you asked about stories involving Eldar children, there is a short story that comes to mind that involved a young eldar Seer who was still innocent in the ways of politics. Various factions within her dying and crumbling Craftworld plot and scheme to bring her over into their influence or eliminate her, for she is favoured by the current Farseer and is destined to grow into great power. There are several SQUADS of Aspect Warriors (including a few Exarchs!) that are loyal to her personally and act in her defense at the mere hint of a threat to her in any form, including even other Eldar. Granted, she is not a "generic brat kid" but it does paint a convincing picture of just how zealously the Eldar guard their future.

hmm this is an interesting point, perhaps the eldar ambassador is looking for the child as well

and yes im sure eldar are just as bad as dark eldar when it comes to rescuing kin, heck all that pent up rage must be a field day for khorne and slaneesh

How about this:

The children come from an Exodite World far off the beaten path (web that is) that was "discovered" by a Rogue Trader down on his luck trying his best to prop up the crumbling dynasty he had inherited. When he found this world, and learned of his seneschal's contacts within the Beasthouse who knew of a good few nobles who would love such pretty toys, well, the lure of the possible wealth snared the Rogue Trader. While farseers foresaw this development, it was mixed in with other rocky times for the only two nearby Craftworlds and they were unable to respond before several hundred villages had been depopulated (through kidnapping and low orbit bombardment for those who resisted). Now they're on the warpath looking for the Rogue Trader, the Beasthouse members, and the Nobles who had dealings with them looking for the exodite children as well as punishing those who dared attack the world.

To complicate matters, while one Craftworeld is on a warpath to get the children and return them to the exodite world, the other craft world, the one who has an Ambassador dealing with the Imperium is looking to gather the children and add them to their own dying population. They're dying and getting desperate, the fact that they're dealing with the Imperium so readily shows that. They also believe that returning the children to the exodite world would be a mistake. It had gotten found and attacked once, what would stop that from happening again. The best way for the children's future to be secured (and Eldar by extension) is for them to take them. Of course, the other Craftworld will hear no such insane and utter non-sense from such a desperate and possibly compromised craftworld -cue conflict.

To really complicate matters, the Kabal of Crimson Woe has learned of this little tragedy and can't resist the sweet temptation of young "pure" Eldar flesh and go on the hunt for the children themselves. Of course no Craftworld Eldar in their right mind would allow them to find the children -cue conflict.

To worsen the situation, the Beasthouse, realizing it bit off way more then it could chew, begin eliminating links to said event and the higher-up's responsible for the decision to go through with this business deal, starting with the Rogue Trader, perhaps looking to offer he and his crew and dynasty on the whole up as a peace offering to one of the Eldar factions not realizing that there's more then one faction involved in the volatile and bloody situation. Of course, the Imperial authorities would be getting involved trying to put a stop to the mass murders, death, destruction, and utter madness that seems to be erupting all around seeing a hundred different causes a handful of dead nobles and Imperial officials but no definitive target.

Finally, to utterly confuse matters, a trope of Harlequins show up into the bloody mix as well for their own reasons, engaging in the hunt and conflicts it creates but taking no definitive side in it. Perhaps they have their own plans for this kidnapped Eldar...

And it's into this Eldar vs Eldar vs Dark Eldar vs Imperium vs Beasthouse vs Rogue Trader vs Harlequins conflict over these children and their future that the PCs are tossed to find out what in the name of the Throne is going on and "fix it!"... something far easier said then done...

Graver...

Three words.

Absolutely.

Pure.

Genius.

You should be writing for a gaming company somewhere.

Redeucer said:

Agreed, that's a great campaign. 5 stars!

ThenDoctor said:

ELDAR PROPHECY written by Cassern S Goto.

DarkLoic said:

DON'T.

EVEN.

START.

Not worth mentioning, no. You're also likely to raise nerd-rage with the topic...

Kage

Redeucer said:

:-D Thanks! The only thing stopping me is the fact that i can't write! I mean, have you read my posts? They'd make an English teacher stab her eyes out. They're only a step above a 12-year-old's MyFace page (mostly because I spell "you" with three letters as opposed to one... which doesn't make that big of a difference in the end.). That and I can write the hell out of some ideas but tend to run aground when it comes to the fallow-through and detail parts... but thanks!

The secret recipe I fallow (even in the eldar example above) is really simple though: always make sure there's at least 3 parties outside the PCs who are interested in the MacGuffin and don't like any of the others who are interested in that same MacGuffin. All you have to do then is rationalize a reason why they want the MacGuffin and don't like the others who also want it. The rest just writes its self from that point...except for that detail part... that always takes forever and a half.

Graver said:

After reading your idea, I'm definitely taking notes here!

Kage2020 said:

have you seen 1d4chan.org? search for 'goto' ... I wont link it directly, b/c I dont want to get banned. but man they have some choice words about him throughout that site....

mostly relating to... well RAAAAGGEE.

Graver im now a official fan of you....bloody devious genious!!!

Graver, I hope you don't mind but I'm most likely going to use your idea in my upcoming rogue trader campaign. Though if I can I will add my own personal touch to it (if I can think of one).

lordsneek said:

It wasn't so much my idea as my take on ThenDoctor's idea ;-) I'm really glad it could inspire you and please, take it, use it, and abuse it -I wouldn't have taken the time to type my take on ThenDoctor's idea it if I didn't want to share with the rest of the class after all. I hope it works for you!