Eldar gods

   Now that all Warhammer community is anxious about the new Eldar god Ynnead, a lot of players found out that they don't know much about Eldar gods. However, these creatures used to be even more powerful that famous Chaos gods... We've collected info about main Eldar gods so that you'd be more confident about new army of Ynnead

   Asuryan. Before the Fall of the Eldar, Asuryan was the second contributor of knowledge to the Eldar, after Kurnous and Isha. Among Asuryan's contributions to the Eldar was the ability to manipulate psychic energy. After he made the barrier separating the Eldar and the gods between the Warp and the material universe, Asuryan's heart was said to be heavy with reluctance. During the Fall, Asuryan was the last of the Eldar deities to be consumed by Slaanesh. Before his comatose imprisonment in Slaanesh's stomach, Asuryan performed one of his greatest acts: binding his psychic might to the Eldar, preventing Slaanesh from absorbing all of his power. The psychic power bound into them by Asuryan brought both boon and bane to the Eldar. Though the Eldar's lifespan and already potent mastery over psychic energies increased following Asuryan's gift, it decreased their fertility, leading the race to begin a slow decline.

Some of the Eldar's greatest Farseers, like Eldrad Ulthran, theorised that when all the Farseers gather together and focus the psychic might granted to their race by Asuryan, they can create and accomplish everything, such as giving shape to Ynnead, or reviving Asuryan himself.

   Ynnead is the Eldar God of the Dead and represents the last hope of the dwindling Eldar race. The Eldar believe that when the Infinity Circuits hold all the spirits of their race, all of the Craftworlds will unite into one Infinity Circuit, and the collective spirits of the Eldar will join to form a new entity in the Warp that will battle and subdue Slaanesh, so that Eldar spirits may once more be able to merge with it and form a single, balanced entity. By doing so, if such a thing is possible, they hope that this will allow the Eldar race to be reborn into a better form. Meanwhile, the Craftworlds and the spirit stones must be guarded against harm and continue to survive so that all Eldar can see and form in their own minds a concept of the Eldar virtues that will enter along with their souls into the Infinity Circuits.

   Ynnead itself (the God of the Dead) is a nascent Eldar god growing in the collective Infinity Circuits of every Craftworld, from the collective souls of the dead Eldar. Ynnead has yet to manifest itself, as it has yet to attain enough power to fulfil its purpose: to destroy Slaanesh and free the Eldar. Ynnead's relationship to Kaela Mensha Khaine is unclear. Ynnead is currently forming within the Immaterium from the collective Eldar souls found in the Infinity Circuits of the Eldar Craftworlds. As the Eldar God Asuryan's psychic might is already bound to each Eldar soul as the result of that god's actions before his consumption by the Chaos God Slaanesh, Ynnead, when formed, will be a potent entity indeed, so powerful that it has been foreseen that a new dimension will be created, alongside the Immaterium and the material universe, that will be a part of Ynnead. It has also been foreseen by the Eldar that all of their souls will be forcibly pulled to Ynnead when they die, instead of being drawn into the Warp to be consumed by Slaanesh.

According to Eldar Mythology, the death god's stomach will be like heaven, hell and purgatory, as also seen by some Farseers. Since the birth of Ynnead offers the one, faint hope to the Eldar of defeating and overcoming their Great Adversary Slaanesh, all operations regarding his formation and the place of his eventual birth is regarded with utmost care and caution. Ynnead's coming is the target of much of the Eldar's precognitive powers, as are all theories regarding the acceleration of Ynnead's formation. As Eldar die and their souls become part of the Infinity Circuits, the nascent god grows in power. A few Eldar Seers believe that once every single Eldar has died, Ynnead will awaken at last and have the strength to defeat Slaanesh forever. At that point, the Eldar race will be reborn into the physical universe to begin again, freed from the sins of their past and with the chance to build a better future.

   Cegorach, also known as the Laughing God, the Great Harlequin, the Great Fool and the First Fool, is one of the Gods of Eldar Mythology and the central figure of his worshipers, known as the Eldar Harlequins, belief. Alone among the Eldar gods, Cegorach is believed to have survived the Fall and escaped the fate of the rest of the Eldar pantheon. According to legend, this deity survived because his mocking nature distanced him from the collective psychic corruption and decadence of the ancient Eldar empire that became the Chaos God Slaanesh. Unknown to the Eldar, Cegorach is in actuality, one of only three Eldar Gods to have survived the Fall; the other two being Isha, who is held captive in the Garden of Nurgle in the Realm of Chaos within the Warp, and the War God Kaela Mensha Khaine, who lives on through his Avatars within the Infinity Circuits of the Eldar Craftworlds. The story goes that, while Slaanesh fought with Khaine, the Laughing God escaped into the Webway and hid amongst its myriad tunnels. These tales suggest that he remains there still, unassailable, laughing at the Gods of Chaos as he hatches bitter plans for revenge. It is believed that he resides there still, and is the only being in in existence who knows every single path through the Webway. This might explain how his disciples possess such an intimate knowledge of its twists and turns, for the Harlequins walk the webway without fear, appearing and disappearing at will. So well versed are they in the webway’s secret routes that many other Eldar have credited the servants of the Laughing God with supernatural powers. There are those who claim that Cegorach walks amongst his children from time to time, wearing the disguise of an anonymous Harlequin Player. Whatever the truth of such tales, the Laughing God's is the only authority that the Harlequins recognise as they fight their wars and perform their mythic dances across the void in his name.

   In recent years, the Harlequins' war against Chaos has been characterised by a newfound urgency. Full masques have become an ever more common sight among the stars. Appearing from the webway, they can be found performing within the realms of their kin or battling the galaxy's disparate races in vicious campaigns of apparently random violence. As the 41st Millennium comes to a close, more and more Eldar vanish into the webway, forsaking their former lives to take up the Harlequin's mask. The Harlequins' numbers are growing, and many among the Eldar wonder why. The truth is inspirational and terrifying in equal measure. At the very heart of the Black Library there lies a silver-lit vault. Therein stands a plinth made of finely graven obstinate, upon which rests a crystalline book said to contain the words of Cegorach himself. Since the Fall, the tome’s covers have remained closed, sealed shut with flickering chains of light. Yet now, long-awaited portents have come to pass. A fallen sorcerer seeks the lore of the library. A king stirs in his court of death and silence, preparing to rise once more. Within madness' eye, the champion of the Ruinous Powers prepares to seize a realm long denied. As the signs have come to pass, so the bands of light about the tome have flickered and died.

Now, at last, the tome has fallen open. Within its pages the Shadowseers have found a script, a secret final act that changes utterly the tale of the Fall. Penned in inks of light and shadow, these words present a slender hope, detailing an intricate, galaxy-spanning performance with the potential to change the fate of the Eldar race. Always, the strands of fate have pointed toward the victory of Chaos during the last, mythic battle known to the Eldar as the Rhana Dandra. Yet within the pages of the crystal tome is recorded Cegorach's ultimate jest, a way to trick Slaanesh into expending all her power not to destroy the Eldar, but to save them. How such an impossibility could come to pass is unclear, for on this matter the final act is infuriatingly vague. Yet the Harlequins take their god's words on faith alone, for their devotion to Cegorach is total and his methods beyond question or reproach. Thus they have begun the steps of this final dance, and will see it completed, or else face absolute destruction in the attempt.

   Kaela Mensha Khaine is the the Eldar God of War. Khaine is one of only three surviving Gods of the Eldar. In the old pantheon, he was second only to the Phoenix King Asuryan himself in power, and was often shown as the enemy of the God of Smiths and Crafting, Vaul. He is also the most violent and reckless of the gods. Asuryan was so appalled by Khaine's murder of Eldanesh, a mortal Eldar, that he cursed Khaine and made his hands drip eternally with the blood of Eldanesh so that everyone would remember his crime.

Khaine is the God of the Eldar associated with battle, war and conflict. Many Imperial scholars believe him to be a manifestation of the Eldar's racial passion as manifested in battle and warfare. "Kaela Mensha" is not technically part of Khaine's name, but is actually a title he bears. It roughly translates from the Eldar Lexicon as "Bloody-Handed", a reference to the blood which eternally drips from his hands as a reminder of his murder of the ancient Eldar hero Eldanesh. During the War in Heaven between the Old Ones and the Necrons millions of Terran years ago, Khaine fought and defeated the C'tan known as the Nightbringer, shattering his Necrodermis, although the resulting metal shards pierced his flesh, tainting his form with "the aspect of the Reaper." It is also said that this event precipitated the eventual fall of the Eldar: The Nightbringer planted the fear of death within all mortal creatures except the Orks, which enhanced their deep-desire for self-preservation as a race. In the depths of the Warp, the beings of pure psychic energy created within the Immaterium during the turmoil of the War in Heaven would feast on these feelings and grow to sentience, setting into motion a chain of events that would close the Path of Rebirth for Eldar souls forever.

   Khaine is one of the three surviving Gods of the Eldar. Khaine is believed to have been assaulted, defeated, and dominated by Slaanesh sometime after Slaanesh's awakening in the 30th Millennium of the Imperial Calendar following the Fall of the Eldar. Following this, Khorne, the Chaos God of war and murder, battled Slaanesh for Khaine, claiming the Eldar deity as his property by right since they represented the same metaphysical forces. During the struggle between the Chaos Gods, Khaine was driven into the material world, where his psychic core shattered into a thousand pieces. Each piece came to rest at the heart of an Eldar Craftworld, where it hibernated within the Craftworld's Infinity Circuit, but could be animated again to possess an Eldar body and go to war when needed by the Craftworld. By sacrificing an Exarch to Khaine on the eve of battle, this newborn Avatar of Khaine becomes a fiery, animated manifestation of the God, including the blood dripping from his hands, and the Avatar leads the Eldar army of that Craftworld into battle.

   Khaine's precise nature in the Eldar cosmology is not defined, although due to his interaction with the Chaos Gods, he appears to be an entity of the Warp, although as a servant of Order rather than Chaos. Recent information acquired by the Imperium implies that Khaine and the rest of the Eldar Gods may have been members of the first sentient species in the galaxy known to the Eldar as "the Ancients" and to the Imperium as the Old Ones, who were the creators of the Eldar and many of the other intelligent species of the galaxy. Some Imperial savants believe that the Eldar Gods' mythological roles were then assigned to them in later eras by the Eldar as an expression of that species' culture and psychological needs. But the Eldar themselves insist that their Gods were real and are not simply mythological expressions of the role played by their ancient creators.

   Vaul is the God of Smiths and all craftsmen as well as the brother of the Phoenix King Asuryan, the ruler of the Eldar pantheon in Eldar Mythology. Vaul is the patron God of all artisans and a small sect of the Eldar's primary psychic craftsmen, the Bonesingers. Vaul was the architect and primary engineer of Asuryan's palace during the First Age of the Eldar. Before Asuryan created the barrier between the world of the Gods and of mortals that split the universe between the physical realm and the Immaterium, he was depicted as a busy man, always creating swords for the Eldar War God Khaine, creating or repairing the Needles of Fate for the Crone Goddess Morai-Heg, maintaining the hunting equipment of Kurnous, and performing all the other acts of divine craftsmanship required by the Eldar Gods. He often created musical instruments to accompany the luring dream songs of Lileath or the life-preserving songs of Isha.

   During the Fall of the Eldar, Eldrad Ulthran believed that if Vaul had been set free from his imprisonment, he could have marshalled the defences of the Eldar Gods, because of his skills in craft and engineering, and the Gods would never have fallen to the hunger of the newborn Prince of Chaos, Slaanesh.

   The Eldar background and persona are heavily derived from The Lord of the Rings elves, in that both are lithe humanoids with pointed ears, having superb reflexes and speed, having keen senses and are extremely reclusive and arrogant. This is in addition to both being near extinction and having organic/nature inspired looking crafts of all sorts. In fact, the name Eldar itself is derived from Tolkien's work. Their weaponry and fighting is based on their physiology and therefore is agile and depends more on speed and precision. Asian influences can be seen in some of their weaponry like the shuriken weapon technology and some of their melee weapons. Some others have European origins like the Harlequin which are taken from Renaissance Europe, it is also visible in some of their weapons not to mention their fighting style which looks like a ballet dance of death. Ancient Egyptian roots are also visible in their clothing and also their symbols and writings which are similar to the ancient Hieroglyphic writing and also in their Hierarchy and spirituality. The Eldanesh gods are a good mix of common pagan gods which can be found in a lot of pagan cultures.