OK, that has got the basics out of my system, thanks for bearing with me. Some quick background to my Craftworld, Dia?Thendril.
An extremely fragmented troop of Eldar, their Craftworld was destroyed aeons ago, near the centre of the galaxy. No-one outside the Craftworld society know what happened, or why, and no Dia?Thendril Eldar will ever talk of it. Relatively small bands of the Eldar, called Star Shards, travel across the webway. They will occasionally meet, trade and move off. Members of one Shard may join another in these meetings and they seem to happen at almost organised times.
The Dia?Thendril are unusual in that they do not posses or worship an Avatar figure. It is said that their Avatar was lost in the destruction of their Craftworld. As a response to this, the Dia?Thendril dispersed into groups in order to locate it. The legend is that the Dia?Thendril Eldar will one day find the Avatar, and that they will then all be united into a single power ? an embodiment of their patron God, Thendril, who was turned into a Winged Serpent and shoots lightening from his hands in humanoid form, or his mouth when in serpent form.
The overall structure of the Craftworld society is unknown, but it is speculated that there is a central cabal, directing the movements of each of the Shards. Each Shard is completely self sufficient in all ways and seem primarily geared for warfare. They do not stay in any place or planet for long and appear and disappear extremely quickly, it is even fairly common for a number of Shards to arrive at the same time, to engage in battle and then move off, without communication passing between the separate groups.
Because of their small groups and the fact that they move along the webway, the Star Shards are composed mainly of infantry, with relatively few large vehicles such as Heavy Tanks or Titans. There are a large number of guardians, with support from the various aspect warriors, including some aspects which do not seem to exist outside of the Dia?Thendril society. Each Shard is lead by a council composed generally of Farseers and Exarchs. The society is also unusual in that it does not have a Avatar, instead there seem to be a number of Phoenix Lords who are allied to the Craftworld. Although each Star Shard is lead by a council which can include psykers, this is not always the case. Some Shards are lead by only psykers, some by only Exarchs, some by a Phoenix Lord, some only by Guardians and some by a mixture.
One of the biggest mysteries about this Craftworld is the location of their Spirit Stones. On a normal Craftworld, the Spirit Stones are stored a central hall of the Craftworld and are interfaced to the Infinity Matrix. With Dia?Thendril, the Spirit Stones are collected by the Eldar and taken away. Some are drafted into Ghost Warriors immediately ? and this reduces the shock of such a transfer and improves the co-ordination and effectiveness of the symbiosis. It has been postulated that the remaining Spirit Stones are collected and taken to a central place of importance, where they are grafted onto a device which is similar in many ways to the Infinity Matrix. It has even been suggested that this device is what is referred to as the cabal, which directs the Star Shards movements and actions. It is possible that this is located in the Webway, or a section which exists both in real space and the warp ? but this is currently unknown. There have been reports of a special sect, the Harvesters, within the Craftworld structure which travel between the Star Shards and collect the Spirit Stones. |