Okay, so some time ago, I started a little thread (now on p3) about a potential Eldar PC , in Rogue Trader. I haven't gotten a chance to use Kaevas yet, but thinking about him, I had a sad thought, and also a nagging possible reason for why they haven't given us Rogue Trader Eldar PC stuff, yet. Get past the problems with being Xenos, and the likelyhood that no Eldar would accept the crazy Sanctioning rite (Kaevas wouldn't), but can Eldar travel on Imperial voidships? As I see it, you don't get very far without warp jumps, and I understand well that Eldar don't warp jump, because the Slaaneshi word for "ship full of Eldar in the Warp" is "Slurpee", but what would happen aboard a Human ship, with a single Eldar? I don't know if his spirit stone, coupled with the Geller field would prevent Slaanesh from eating Kaevas, or if being only one Eldar, and not a psyker, he'd go unnoticed, or if they'd have a permanent penalty for Warp mishaps while he's aboard, or what. Would his quarters need some sort of expensive, exotic (wraithbone) shielding? As nice as it would be to say "well, we have an Eldar onboard; that's a great excuse to use the Webway", or have Kaevas own a portable, SMALL waygate, and catch up with them afterward, both plans seem dumb, or at least unnecessary. I don't know if he could safely travel though, otherwise. As said, I suspect this little snag is why we have rules for Kroot PCs, and even Orks , but nothing Eldar. I'm sure the Inquisition must have captured one live Eldar, and needed to move them to a secure location, but I've never read of such an event, to know how it went.

What are more knowing people's thoughts? Can one Eldar safely warp travel with a Rogue Trader crew? Would he die outright? Just be an excuse for a penalty (again; **** xenos morale penalty)? Could he do stuff to avoid it being a problem? Does this make any Eldar character unviable?

Gellar fields do solve your problem, otherwise those Imperial Ships with Eldar Hostages would dissappear all the time...

As I understand it the Imperial Gellar field is like a precusor of a kind to the Webway. What little I know of the 40k fluff, is that the Webway is built into the Warp using a material that keeps all demons and such on the other side of it, in much the same way that the Gellar field does. However, due to the fact that Webways are "physically" in the warp, and plotted between two or more plots in real space and time, they are far more reliable than just plotting a course with a Gellar field and hoping to get where you were going at the time you wanted. So, in essence the Webway has become almost a third dimension. Though it is technically in the Immaterium, the material that it is built from stabilizes and solidified the warp into something akin to real space, and yet not at the same time. I've read of areas of ancient Webway where time flows a bit differently than in real space, and it's possible that the material in that area has weakened, or the Immaterium has a stronger hold there then in other parts of the warp, but who's to say?

Considering the Eldar's susceptibility to the warp and it's influences, I'm fairly positive that they haven't tapped the extent of the Webway's potential either, or due to their wisdom don't wish to pursue some lines of theory that you could come to with how the material reacts with the Immaterium. Like, could it be possible to fix a newly created path in the Webway to a different point in time, much the same way that they use it to travel distances?

Sorry, back to the original line of questioning, I doubt it would be too different from being in the Webway. While there is of course room for plotness, for ease I'd just assume they're essentially the same in function.

Well, so far then, we have a happy Ven. While I confess Kaevas could be a rather silly, maybe even cheap character concept, it would be all the worse for him to be OOG-killed by such a simple bit of the fluff. So then, for now, if I ever get to use Kaevas, I will assume (barring said GMs ruling) that it is safe, so long as the Geller field is working (and if it isn't, he's not the only one whose screwed.)

venkelos said:

Personally, at the very most, I'd require an Eldar character aboard an Imperial vessel to be meditating or sleeping while in the Warp, for their own safety - basically, doing something to minimise their brain activity and the psychic echoes it causes, and thus minimising the disturbance within the Warp their presence might cause. So long as they've got a soulstone, that should be entirely sufficient.

If you happen to be able to play an Eldar in a game, give me a heads up, cause I've been reading a lot about them recently and I have to admit a bit of curiosity in getting to play one. I've been reading the Path books by Gav Thorpe, all of the Eldar stuffs on Lexicanum, and playing DoW2 - Retribution recently soo... yeah.

from france

likewise if the human players are cautious treat him like the human treat psycker in dh. i mean always have a gun pointed at his head. just in case. also place him in a cel with exopentagramic ward.

In a Willam King novel (Farseer I believe) two eldar took passage on a Rogue Trader's ship to get to planet that could not be reached by the Webway. Both were upset by the experience, although the Farseer was well able to cope with the stresses. There is a good conversation between the ship's Navigator and the Eldar regarding the warp and their experiences of it.

DW

Another sensible precaution when an Eldar is travelling on an Imperial ship would to be to set up the Eldar's quarters as a "Storm Shelter" with Pentagramatic and Hexagrammatic Wards. This would mean that if there's a slight leakage or flicker in the Gellar Field then there's one more layer of protection between the Eldar and Slaanesh.

This would mean the Eldar is confined to quarters during Warp travel, but I don't see an Eldar mingling with the majority of an Imperial crew on a regular basis anyway.

If (as is likely) the PCs lack the knowledge and resources to set something like this up, then I'm sure the Eldar will have some equivalent- Wraithbone Runes placed around the area etc- which the GM could say the PC brought aboard with him.

From an IC point of view, even if these measures aren't ruled as necessary by your GM, your character might want to roleplay using them anyway. Remember how crude and ramshackle human technology seems to the Eldar, and how paranoid they are about their souls being taken by Slaanesh. The best analogy would be someone from modern day who has a recurring nightmare about drowning having to cross an ocean in a medieval sailing ship. No matter how the crew reassures you that the ship is sound and they know what they're doing and they've made this trip before, it still seems like a leaky, creaking deathtrap to your eyes and you're likely to be cowering next to something resembling a lifeboat at the first hint of choppy water.

Alrighty, I like where all this has headed. During most voyages, real or warp, Kaevas would remain in his quarters; he doesn't particularly like Humans, that much, and knows that their "backwards and small-minded" beliefs make them uncomfortable around him, too. The idea of their "sanctioning" rite is vulgar to him, and he would never accept it, so he's best served being seen as little as possible by good, Emperor-fearing civilians. He'd sit in his rooms, cataloging various hauls for the Lord Captain, separating out anything Eldar, so it isn't sold, and accepting the occasional guest, as necessary (likely the Captain, and perhaps another Seneschal-like character, or perhaps a xenographer, or the rare Inquisitor aboard.) When Warp travel is called for, he trusts more in the wraithbone wards set at the room's corners, sort of a "ghosthelm for the room", as it were, and knowing that the Geller field, while primitive, SHOULD reinforce his wards, thus resulting in a smooth, if slightly uncomfortable progression. When they arrive at Planet Blank, he descends with the away team, explores the ruins, uses his not-inconsequential knowledge of various things xenos and old to keep them all safe, and collects all the loot they acquire, so that the Lord Captain can distribute it as he wishes, sell what remains, and to make sure that anything Eldar stays with Kaevas, to be returned to his people (that little caveat in their arrangement; may he never be my character in a game of Lure of the Expanse, or the others would so kill him).

While it shocks me to this day that I thought to play an Eldar PC, and not take the excuse to have him be a psyker, I think this would be the easier path, with less hiccups; perhaps less warding is needed, and the "exotic" space elf wouldn't show up everyone else, except with his swanky Eldar gear.

venkelos said:

Potentially, an Eldar Seer would have a far better time of it than most Eldar - afterall, unlike with humans, the difference between a psyker and a non-psyker is one of training more than natural talent, and an Eldar Seer is necessarily taught how to gaze upon the Warp relatively safely (Gav Thorpe's Path of the Seer suggests that the most fundamental Eldar psychic techniques are ones of passive observation, learning to discern the patterns and motions of the Immaterium as they relate to particular people and events - actively manipulating the Warp seems to come much later), which would make a voyage through the Warp safer for a Seer than another Eldar.

from france

have a room made of wraithbones in order to protect him