A Wraithlord is an Eldar robotic combat walker or mecha that contains no living warrior; rather, it is merely a robotic shell, a repository of the animating soul of a dead Eldar hero. Wraithlords are graceful but mighty giants that dwarf their Wraithguard cousins. These large constructs are extremely precious to their Eldar Craftworlds and have a supernatural toughness due to being made from the psychically-active substance called wraithbone. Summoned into being by the necromantic processes of the Eldar Spiritseers, only a true hero of the Eldar race has psychic power enough to animate the gigantic wraithbone shell of a Wraithlord.
History abounds with tales of enormous statues magically coming to life in defence of primeval crypts or to avenge ancient wrongs. The image of these towering constructs shuddering into animation is ingrained in the human psyche, and explains the visceral reaction most humans have when first encountering the Wraithlords. A graceful statue of Eldar manufacture, each Wraithlord is encrusted in glittering gemstones and scrolling alien glyphs. With a smooth, featureless head sweeping back from broad, fragile-seeming shoulders, the inhumanity of the gigantic statue is immediately evident. Their armour is decorated by arrays of gleaming precious stones, which Imperial scholars believe both power and guide these daunting constructs. A Wraithlord's seemingly delicate armour is nearly impossible to breach without the heaviest of military-grade weapons, and in battle they form mobile strong points, spearheading assaults as they lead elite Eldar warriors against their foes.
An Eldar soul is drawn from the Infinity Circuit of a Craftworld and resides within the wraithbone construct until such time as its power begins to fade and it can no longer function or it is destroyed. The Eldar Wraithlords stand significantly taller than a man, carry an array of weaponry and are a terrifying sight on the battlefield. Wraithlords have incredible strength even when bare-handed, but also sometimes carry a gigantic Wraithsword for close-combat.
If the animating soul within the Wraithlord specialized in close infantry assault when it was alive, it will seek to tear apart its enemies with great energized fists or cleave several apart with a swing from its Wraithblade. If it specialized in combat support, the ghost warrior's energy core will instead be rerouted to power a devastating array of heavy weaponry. Either way, a single Wraithlord can turn the tide of battle for the Eldar; the legends of the fallen heroes within continuing to grow even in death.
In the earlier versions of Warhammer 40,000, the Wraithlord was simply a Dreadnought as fielded by any other of the fictional races of the game. The Spiritseer was the then-equivalent of the Wraithlord but retained the ability to use psychic powers in play. It possessed a small, proportionally-sized head and was packaged with a smaller Ghost Warrior which appears to have been the forerunner of the Wraithguard, albeit smaller and possessing less destructive weapons as it was typically armed with a Shuriken Cannon or Flamer.
