Part of the fun of Warhammer 40,000 is that no one is really the “good guy” in the setting. Take the Imperium of Man, which largely serves as a point of view in 40,000 books and games. The Imperium is made up of a coalition of absolutely horrific sub-factions, including murderous nuns who set fire to their enemies, indoctrinated child soldiers transformed into transhuman combat marines, and meat-hating tech priests who create brain computers by lobotomizing criminals.
But there’s a group of guys in the setting that are so comically bad, so ridiculously rude, that I can’t help but love them above all else. These aliens just aren’t happy unless they can fit in a few war crimes between breakfast and lunch. I am, of course, talking about the Drukhari, otherwise known as the Dark Eldar, or the most evil space elves to ever exist.
Image: Games Workshop
Who are the Drukhari? They are a specific culture of Aeldari, a species that once had a dominant star system. These psychically gifted elves achieved a society without scarcity and enjoyed easy access to technology so advanced it is essentially magic. Sounds like a pretty sweet setup, but this is the grim distant future where there’s only war, so it had to be obvious that everything had to go horribly wrong. In the case of the Aeldari civilization, that meant falling into hedonism and excess.
In 40K, there is a second, psychic realm that exists parallel to reality. The Warp, or Immaterium, is a reflection of the psychic energy of the universe. Dark forces inhabit the Warp and feast on extreme emotions, and the Aeldari unknowingly gave those forces a feast. While some factions decided to pack up and leave in favor of a nicer space neighborhood, many Aeldari chose to stay. The Aeldari Empire eventually collapsed in orgies and horrific violence, and it all culminated in the birth of the fourth Chaos God, Slaanesh. Slaanesh’s birth tore open a vast Warp rift called the Eye of Terror, killing the vast majority of the Aeldari and shattering their pantheon of gods.
Image: Games Workshop
Even worse, Slaanesh to this day hungers for the souls of all Aeldari, seizing them at death without proper precautions – and no countermeasure is perfect. After their deaths, Aeldari souls are subjected to eternal torment as they are consumed by Slaanesh in the Warp. Not good! The Aeldari call Slaanesh “She Who Thirst,” and the sub-factions have each found their own way of handling this existential guillotine blade.
The Drukhari are known for making the bold decision to look at the collapse of their empire and say: Fuck it – let’s keep the party going. They hate and still fear Slaanesh, and Slaanesh continuously eats on their souls, slowly killing them. The Dark Eldar chooses to supplement that by constantly chugging the spiritual gatorade of conscious suffering.
I don’t want to be controversial, but I feel pretty comfortable saying that these are objectively bad things. That’s why I love the Drukhari so much: they make absolutely no effort to argue otherwise. They are pirates and raiders who venture out of the city-state of Commorragh, safely tucked between the Warp and realspace. When the Drukhari show up, it usually takes them long enough to grab a bunch of people and steal all their stuff.
Image: Owlcat Games
Just looking at the surface of the Drukhari, it’s easy to get the impression that their fiction and lore just now about gore. But the faction has later moved into more of a spotlight in recent Games Workshop works; called a Warhammer Plus series Iron inside have the Drukhari show up to plunder an Imperial world, and the Rogue trader RPG has Commorragh as a major content hub. But the Drukhari’s utter collapse into evil and refusal to improve or try to improve makes them fascinating Machiavellians, and I look forward to seeing them have a greater presence in Warhammer 40K.
The Drukhari are constantly fighting each other as their society is a violent meritocracy. They staple skeletons everywhere, show off all the cool stuff they’ve stolen, and mercilessly plot against each other. When someone attacked the big dog Asdrubael Vect from Drukhari, Vect sent them a nice present in response. There was one in the box black hole, which consumed everyone near the noble house. That’s a level of villainy I absolutely love; it’s like a reality show, except everyone is a Skeletor. Plus, Commorragh is packed with interesting concepts like mad scientists and flesh sculptors, or trading ports and gladiatorial rings for those brave (or unlucky) enough to work with the Dark Eldar.
At the moment, a lot of attention has been paid to the Emperor and his great sons – which is no wonder, since fans love Space Marines so much. But sometimes I don’t want to read about gun battles or tank battles. I want to read about drama queens opening off-dimensional rifts in the throne rooms of their political rivals. That’s an itch the Drukhari are uniquely equipped to scratch.