It strikes me that that Commoragh is one of the few genuinely interesting places in W40k and one of the few places that could be described as genuinely cosmopolitan (although ruled by insane vampiric lords and ladies who torture people for shits). In any case, I wrote some fluff for the place. Feel free to add.
The Eldras Yinnead (or the Dark Eldar as they are colloquially know) represents the greatest danger and both the greatest opportunity for humans and other aliens within Commoragh. All DE carry within them a constant need to inflict suffering on others to sustain and feed their own twisted souls but how this suffering is gained fluctuates depending on the age of the creature in question. The house of a mighty Archon has many human servants and slaves. Though they are not used for defence (they would be too slow and ungainly to prevent an assassin) they are used for the numerous tasks that DE are too arrogant or too lazy to do themselves. This includes everything from dusting the master’s trophy cabinet to polishing his silverware. Others prepare meals and manage accounts. Humans can be artists, craftsmen and women, chefs, accountants and managers. In many ways they occupy most of the junior (and some of the more senior) positions in the day-to-day running of an Archons world.
Humans do not scheme like DE and if they do lack the intense bloody mindedness and subtlety of the DE mindset to plan a coup. They can experience gratitude and loyalty that a DE will never even slightly feel. They also fear the horrors that their masters can inflict and this keeps them true to those they serve.
>>48158952
Older Archons require the deaths of hundreds a day to stave off the ravages of the thirst. Butchering a trusted servant is tiresome in that it does not leave the Archon fulfilled and then forces them to find a replacement as efficient as the last. In this manner, working in the house of older more powerful Archons is possibly one of the safest positions in the Dark City. The factory fuelled horror old Archons have to imbibe daily tends to leave their servants safe (or at least safer for the taste of some Archons and nobles is varied and may not end in death).
Truly however the most dangerous position in the archons household is the position of food tasters (who tend to frequently die horrible deaths) and that of nanny and maid to the young. When reaching adolescence a single soul can sustain a DE for almost a month and many a Lord and Lady has walked in to their offspring’s room to find it spattered with the blood and viscera of the their son or daughters hapless apparent guardian.
A DE’s twisted mind reacts in two ways when presented with non-DE specimens, food or work. For nourishment, DE tend to prefer stock taken from peaceful and happy worlds, the reasoning being that the suffering gathered is greater when the stock come from the giddy high of safety, to the draining horror of a Kabals extraction chambers. Stock taken from brutal worlds tend not to produce the same quality of extract and worse still have spirits that are tough to break. They may also be exceedingly unruly and may even fight, brawl and escape during transit. Much of the Dark City’s human communities (and there are many) have sprung from the children of such escapees.
>>48158982
For status, DE enjoy capturing and breaking members of the Adeptus Astartes (the Emperors Space Marines) but this is mostly for their own jaded satisfaction. In truth, DE tend to avoid Astartes where they can. Their heavy armour, supercharged metabolism and speed when combined with centuries of combat experience and inordinate amounts of firepower makes them ferocious and formidable fighters. There are many Kabals who have broken under an Astartes assault and though a marine fetches a fortune for sale to the arenas, it takes a bold and well-prepared Archon to go hunting for the emperors finest. There are rumours that some of the most creative and fearsome archons have Groteques and Wracks made from Astartes stock and delight in turning these favourite toys against the Emperor’s servants.
I much preferred Commoragh back in the 3e codes, and fluff hints from the DE section of the website (remember that cool story that an Archon tells his human captive, but never finishes.) It was so much cooler when it was vaguely hinted at that the capture and torture of lesser races had something to do with how the DE escaped Slaanesh without soulstones, but was never confirmed, and could very well have been the Archon just fucking with his captive, and actually have nothing to do with it at all, and in-fact just be something they do for fun in addition to staving off Slaanesh another way. Again, the hints that the Heamonculi torturers were the inventors of how to "sate she who thirsts" further implied something, but it never flat out gave anything away. Part of their beauty and horror was the fact that the unknown is always more terrifying that what's explained. It's Alfred Hitchcock vs Hostel, and now all the drama, flair, and mystery seems to have been drained from an otherwise characterful army.
However, given the overexposition that the recent 'dexes have given us, your headcanon is at-least as good if not better than existing fluff.
>>48158952
I'm sorry, but is that haemonculous holding a cenobite puzzle box?
>>48159220
For all intents and purposes, yes.
It's probably one of the casket weapons in the DE codex, containing a bunch of tortured psyker souls.
>>48159157
>an Archon tells his human captive, but never finishes
That was Vect IIRC.
And it was a great story.
>>48159313
Hadn't he poisoned the human already while talking too him
>>48159925
It wasn't poison.
They sipped a wonderfully made, exquisite tea.
However, humans are intolerant and experience absolutely terrifying cramps and pains.
All of this, for Vect's lulz.
>checking a third party website for cheap 40k models
>all the different species have most of their popular shit out of stock
>go to dark eldar page
>every single model, from wyches to kabal troops
>in-stock
>fluffing Commoragh
How do you even fluff Dark Eldar, they have magical realm shit than you could shake a lasgun at
>>48159157
I don't think suspense is necessarily always good. Suspense can only go on for so long before the audience gets bored because there will never be the anticipated reveal.
And 3E dark eldar were pretty bland, where they were just Dark Elves IN SPACE, with little explanation of the nuance of their society. 5E made them a bit more distinct, by creating an image of a race of social Darwinist drug addicts with megalomania. Or the different strata of Dark Eldar society, and how Dark Eldar are born. The result is a more fleshed out race that exudes evil elegance.
>>48162980
Also pic related. And I'd say the difference is Hitchcock vs. Carpenter. You can have gruesome reveals that don't subtract from the horror.
>>48161567
Classic
>>48162470
> look at raging heroes
> awesome cheesecake dark eldar
> better looking sisters
> Diaz teir daemonettes
All is not lost. Screw the tau, they are all faggots.
>>48162539
The magical realm sex bit is just scratching the surface with DE, in some ways, the fact that geedubs ignores them is three greatest strength in fluff terms. They can have huge amounts of vareity in how they operate. A plethora of villains just ready to stretch their legs, from the insane but somewhat capable Ramsay Bolton types to the Cenobites from hell raiser who simply live for experience beyond human imagining
>>48162539
Pic related, life In commoragh for the average archon.
>>48162980
>that exudes evil elegance.
But they don't, at-least not any more. I have no problem with the reveals about their hilarious parody of Rynd society, that was fantastic, but the reveal of "they torture people next to their corpses, and that makes the corpses regenerate" was just... dull and bland. I feel like they could have preserved the mystery about just HOW Heamonculi used slaves to stave off she who thirsts, and it would have made Heamonculi even creepier.
