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Offline Kora

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Craftworld ideas
« on: October 26, 2017, 08:31:54 PM »
So wasn't sure which area of the forum this should go, so I put it here in the eldar forums, since there was a sticky thread on DIY craftworlds.   

I am working on creating my own custom craftworld, and eldar are a bit more tricky when creating your own DIY army than any of those human armies.   Color scheme was probably the easiest, as i have settled on the bulk of my craftworld being done in lupercal green.  I will be accenting this with black, and going for a polished obsidian look, which will most be helmets and accent armor plates.  While a rather dark color scheme, i decided to brighten it with markings and weapons in Bone (wraith bone look here).  All my gem stones and eye lens's will be done in purple (not a magenta or red tinted purple, more of a blue violet shade).     With the colors scheme worked and and tested in the DoW series of games, It has really grown on me and I like the color scheme.   Sadly I am waiting on the new release of the new start collecting box before I can work out a model, that and the paint from forgeworld is in route still. 

After that I worked out a craftworld name I like.   My craftworld is dubbed Kor'anar.   I really like the way it rolls off the tonque but after looking through some elvish words (tolkien's elves), i found that word but it was spelled with a C and had no apostrophe in it.   In elvish it translates as solar year.   After looking up the word's that make up my variant spelling, i found that Kor means ultimate or supreme in some lanquage (I think mongolian), and Anar means Sun or Light.    So that has me thinking about the background a little and researching into eldar lore. 

My problem is coming up with a craftworld symbol.  Something I can paint on my figures to show their craftworld.    I haven't been able to figure out any symbols I like or really what would represent my craftworld. 

So the idea I have running for my craftworld is that it was originally referred to as "First light", which is in reference to my craftworlds past, being one of the first craftworlds to take to the stars, after the fall, they were seen as the first or one of the first craftworlds to start the Eldar Paths.  However over time they chapter became lost in the warp.   I orginally wanted them to be stuck in the Maelstrom and not the eye of terror.  However I could not find any concrete proof when the Maelstrom was formed, specifically if it was formed after the eye of terror or before.  All the fluff points to the eye forming from the fall, but the maelstrom seems to be more of a natural storm.  I could say that perhaps the craftworld decided to hide out in the maelstrom with the coming of the Mon'keigh, and became lost adrift in the maelstrom.  While at first they were the most sociable of the craftworlds, often maintaining good relations with almost all of them, spreading the light or the paths to the other survivors of their race, but because of their time spent in isolation, this changed them. 

Anyways, the idea is that because of their time spent in the warp, they have had to defend themselves from warp entities (not really slaanesh but others), and perhaps now, the craftworld as a whole is more dedicated to Isha than they are Khaine, as they may have heard rumors of her existance.    They have also lost several aspect shrines and can only field certain aspect warriors, namely I choose not to field swooping hawks and shining spears, and still debating on scorpions.    They are also a heavy matriarchal society now, and they never field guardians, instead they field only aspect warriors and wraith constructs due to the loss of their population due to the repeated warp entity invasions.  They also have very few jet bikes and vypers, and they do see rangers on the field of battle but never more than one unit.   

Anyways, I am still torn as to what to do for the symbol, so I wanted to get some help or advice from the forums.  perhaps you guys have some ideas that might spark me towards a direction I didn't think of.  Right now, I am bounced around ideas of a shadow sun (opposite of the first light idea), but my few sketches felt non eldar-ish or too small and basic.   I have looked at doing some ideas using a flame with a tear drop in the center, but it didn't feel right either.  I also thought about adding a spider idea to the mix, perhaps focusing on warp spiders in the craftworld, and these were more promising sketches, but still not sure if it fits.  The spider idea was basically a tear drop with spider legs coming off from it to create sort of a diamond shape around the tear drop.   I also thought about using a phoenix idea but it didn't really fit either and even a dragon theme, but I don't want to feel like I am taking from sam-hain at this point either. 

Thanks in advance for any and all ideas.   I feel I have hit a rut brainstorming on my own, so trying to expand out the ideas and thoughts to bounce more.   Also, if I can find a good site to host my pics I will gladly post pics of my army(armies), here. 

Offline magenb

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Re: Craftworld ideas
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2017, 08:29:46 AM »
Eldar don't use the warp, because its like setting off a flare at midnight and ringing the lunch bell at the same time. A Craftworld full of Eldar would just be swarmed. This is why most stories with Eldar and the warp happen around the eye of terror as it is at least partly real space. Even then it is a place Eldar fear to tread, the Mon'keigh threat would have to be huge for them to even consider hiding there. If they are going to pass through something like that, then they would really want to find a way of hiding themselves.

It is also why Warp spiders randomly disappearing from the table top when using them too much is sooo fluffy. Kind of makes you wounder why they are not fearless as its got to take some big brass ones to fill those shoes.




The Eldar symbols tend to be mostly straight lines, triangles and ellipses so a lot of people merge parts of the aspect/seer symbols for their crafrworlds, mines a mix of swooping hawks and reapers. The old High Elf runes are more free flowing but still have some cross over, so you could still pull some inspiration from them too. You can make decent transfers with just an inkjet printer, so they can work well if you want the symbol in black.




Eldar gods/faith system is just messed up, they don't exactly worship Khaine as he wants to kill them all. The path system is basically a way to work around his curse. Gav Thorpe's novels are good reads, but the way he approaches it, is while they know they all the gods are dead, their teachings live on as nuggets of wisdom. So yeah Isha worship works and you don't have to really change anything with the way they work with Khaine.



At the end of the day its 40k so you can pretty much make them work any way you want :)



Offline Saim-Dann

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Re: Craftworld ideas
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2017, 08:58:22 AM »
G'day Kora!
Wow, you're putting a lot of thought into this. Am very impressed. Maybe find an Eldar rune that can be redesigned to represent a sun... Pointy ears forever!!

Offline Kora

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Re: Craftworld ideas
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2017, 01:09:36 PM »
yeah i know they don't use warp travel, but I meant getting lost in it, stuck, in the warp storms.  There are already craftworlds that were swalled up by the eye of terror only to be released later, I think one of the newer ones is.    Also most of the craftworld symbols are not lines.  Bel-tain is basically a rune with a heart in it that appears more like a cross, sam-hain a dragon, iyandon is a rune with the flame underneath, another a sword and moon, then we got a helmet, and a hand.  Only a few seem to stick to the eldar line runes.   As for a sun, well yme-loc is half a sun rune, the other half a flame.  I really like that one, but I don't want to use it specifically.  I thought about taking parts of it.  I know I can make a decal, but I am probably going to hand paint them on anyways, part rewarding, part I must like to torture myself.  Who knows I may change my mind depending on how complicated the idea gets.   

Also thanks Saim-dann, I am putting a lot of thought into it.  As an artist and illustrator, it is the details that make the art feel more realistic. Sure I could just paint them and call them what ever I want, and use whatever rules I feel like, but putting some thought, even if only a little bit into the background gives the army a bit more character, and working out the details of the color scheme makes it feel more natural and realistic looking.   It also helps if some one asks why i put that symbol on that location, I can give them a reason why.   I guess I will have to play around with it some more and give it more thought to see what I can come up with.

Offline magenb

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Re: Craftworld ideas
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2017, 04:42:28 PM »
Yes mostly not all :)

There are more, but here's a bunch of them



Offline laucian_meliamne

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Re: Craftworld ideas
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2017, 05:30:05 PM »
The 3rd edition codex had a great page in the back with a lot of runes and their meanings:

Scanned page removed for copyright reasons in accordance with forum rule 1 - Iris.

For my army I opted to use the Outcast rune from the lower left.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2017, 05:58:59 AM by Irisado »

Offline Kora

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Re: Craftworld ideas
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2017, 07:53:21 PM »
@magenB i haven't seen that image before.   That has has most of them and a few new ones that I have seen.   The top appears more like letters than symbols, and most of the ones on the bottom actually are the runes used for the different aspect warriors and units.   I am interested in that 3 circle in the triskele.  I may use that one, any idea what source that one was from?

As for the 3rd edition book, yeah that one had some interesting runes on that last page, but I wouldn't say they are good examples for a craftworlds icon, since they represent the eldar race in general.  I had all the eldar codex's at some point besides the roque trader and second edition.  Course back in second edition eldar were my bane. 

Offline Dread

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Re: Craftworld ideas
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2017, 10:44:51 PM »
Many years ago I figured out what paint scheme I wanted. Like lava cooling. I found a site that had an Eldar to English dictionary. Couldn't find anything that sounded cool for lava so ended up with dragons breath, Korum Kiam. My best advice is to name your craft world and figure out a symbol to represent it. I never came up with a symbol, just paint scheme.

For my corairs, I used a similar Saim Hann serpent look I designed. Funny tho, never named them.
http://flic.kr/p/ZMy9Sf
http://flic.kr/p/FVFHeK
« Last Edit: October 28, 2017, 03:56:22 AM by Dread »
"Burning thru the universe in search of peace only brings more war. Peace is an illusion, war is reality, that is the way of things"

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