I can no longer resist... the call of the infinite...

The damaged wraithconstruct could barely support itself, as the Dire Avenger shared the fallen warrior's last moments of manifestation.

My wraithbone... cracks...

The Wraithguard shuddered, collapsing to one arm, raising the other.

My soulstone... please take it...

The voice was more felt than heard, as the Wraithguard reached to its forehead and surprisingly delicately removed the gleaming crimson gem, the only connection between the machine and the dead warrior now the fingertips of the once-mighty construct's hand.

Save... the others...

The Dire Avenger took the soulstone, so small, yet so infinitely valuable to his race, as he bid his farewells to the ancient warrior. He turned. The Wraithguard's soulstone was all that remained for him here. A single body lay upon the dead ground, that of a fellow Avenger, her soulstone taken by the foul forces that had attacked. The lone survivor stood, motionless, calming himself, holding the torrent of hatred and rage back.  He was no Monkeigh, nor was he one of the darkened kin. He was a proud Aspect Warrior, and he would not fall to the enemy within. He would go forth, he would avenge, and he would return with the fellow survivors to rejoin the host of fair Iybraesil.

"And now we go to our deaths, you and I both."

Though the speaker was unseen to him, the Avenger knew exactly who it was that had spoken those words.

"Solitaire..." he whispered, anger replaced by cold dread, "then this world is to be my tomb."

The Harlequin nodded slowly. The Avenger breathed in, deeply, feeling the terror set in, a freezing presence in his gut. His life was forfeit. His mind turned to his home, his friends, his craftworld, that only those he sought would see again. He thought of the time he would never spend with the fair lady of Biel-Tan who he had so recently met. The Wraithguard's last words took on a darker meaning. He was scared, he was angry. It wasn't fair, why him? How dare the Solitaire doom another to share his fate!

But for the Craftworld the bravest of warriors must be prepared to die time and time again. If it was to be his fate to die for Iybraesil, then all that was left for him were his duties as an Aspect Warrior. A Farseer was to be rescued. A new confidence filled the Dire Avenger, a new purpose, a new life. His mind thought of all those who would be lost without him, the one that he loved who would never find another if he did not act as a dedicated Aspect Warrior. His mind was focused, the shuriken weapon in his hands feeling so much more real, as he turned to the Solitaire.

"Then we shall not leave fate wanting," to this the Harlequin's mask responded, changing to a cheerful, yet in these circumstances gruesome, grin, "did you see in which direction they fled?"

The Solitaire nodded once more, and beckoned for the Avenger to follow, and so together they set off across the hellish landscape of the crone world, knowing that neither would survive their quest.

That's Limeys for you. I think it's his record that still stands, not sure.

Good choice.

I've got more random 40k stuff. It's not stored anywhere, I just have isolated incidents in my head, which I'll put into text if you want. I've got one more bit of Eldar stuff with the same characters (with a plot twist of sorts. Kind of pushing the boundaries of fluff, but I think it works alright), and as you have already seen I like writing from the perspective of a Khorne-devoted CSM. Space Marine stuff I've never really put much thought too, but I could bust out some IG work at some point.

Storm, I've been incredibly rude and haven't got round to discussing your story, so I shall do that now.

It's truthfully difficult to judge thus far. You've set up the quest and so on, but I want to see more of the world. So far we've only seen the classic isolated family home in a forest, but you've hinted at lands further north, so I eagerly await an update as to where the quest leads the duo.

As for the characters themselves, again, they've only just appeared. I can't judge them until their personalities are developed a little more.

I know that kind of sounds like criticism, but it's actually more of a sign of engaging characters. On the subject of hinting at the presence of other lands, I would only suggest perhaps giving a few more teasers about the rest of the world.

But yes, good story, action-packed yet mysterious opening, and of course all gramatically sound. Well done.

EDIT: I've actually already mucked up fluffwise in my Eldar prose simply by the Dire Avenger having a real personality, though I don't know how literally it is taken when they talk about how they "become the Aspect." Some people take that to mean an Eldar has one personality in the armour, and another when they're not at war. I personally find that destroys all hope of decent in-battle storytelling, so meh.

Warhammer 40k. Ah, how detailed.

Is there a path for the Eldar that results in a gender change?

They seem to have quite a few odd paths.

Some would argue that when a man wears Banshee armour they effectively "become" a woman in spirit, but I'm sure GW hasn't put too much thought into it.

No.

TBH, it would be faulty reasoning; in Path of the Warrior, there are mentions of several male Banshees, and there's no reference to anything that would be like they're "woman in spirit". However, it's also noted that the majority of Howling Banshees tend to be female, with very few males in their ranks. Other Aspects are less gender biased, AFAIK.

Ah. Very interesting.

I blame it on vagueness of the codices!

But anyway, I'd still write this way even if the whole of GW hopped online and told me I was raping the canon.

I assume that the Howling Banshee aspect is tailored towards women over men due to the inherent gender of Banshees in Eldar mythology. Some people argue that you can't have Aspect Warriors outside the Aspects of their specific gender, due to... physical constraints, but I counter here and point to the fact that Eldar armour is psychosensitive and is therefore specific to the user in shape. A suit of armour simply adapts to you whenever you wear it.

Though I could well imagine that, for instance, a male Exarch wearing Exarch armour originally worn by a woman would no doubt keep it in the form of the original wearer, as the current Exarch and past Exarches of a suit of armour are one and the same, a continuation of the original.

BTW on the subject of Exarches, are they literally bound to their armour, as in it is a non-organic continuation of their body, or are they simply spiritually incomplete without it? Does the process of becoming an Exarch include voluntarily donning a previous Exarch's suit? If so, what if one becomes locked in the Path of War while wearing their own Aspect armour? Is that how a "new" Exarch is born?

Some people have strange fantasies my friend.

I knew a large portion of that, but yes, that which I didn't know was intriguing.

So there are a finite number of Exarchs on a craftworld at any one time? Can they found their own if they are all taken or will they leave te craftworld to find an undermanned one, seeing as their main allegiance is now to a path of war?

The only part of that which I was not sure of was "Step 4", ie the creation (which you've explained) and the actual spiritual existense of the Exarch, mainly the entire multiple personality thing.

Elaborate on the depiction of being an Exarch from the novel you mentioned. Is Korlandril lost in the process? Does, each time a new soul is added, an Exarch's personality change? Or does the wearer retain their spiritual identity and inherit the knowledge and memories of the previous wearers?

In effect, does Korlandril remain Korlandril but with the knowledge of his predecessors, or does he become Morianath with a dash of Korlandril thrown in? Basically, does he get their memories, or do they take his mind and body and add it to theirs?

That makes them hobos then.

I don't know...nothin wrong with being a hobo...besides, I'd think someone in that position of power would want their shrine built just for them...kinda sounds like a hobo thing to me...

-Twilight Storm

I don't understand a word you just said...

Don't mind my comments, I just miss having a Troll in the chatroom...all the good ones left or are currently napping.

*cough* Whiskeytroll *cough*

  JK

-Twilight Storm 

Huh. There are so many ways you could depict this. Korlandril could inherit all of their memories, or he could become a new "incarnation" of Morianath sort of Pheonix Lord style. If it's the latter, then it seems kind of dark for Morianath to be gobbling up other warrior's experiences (FEED ME SOULS FOR CONTINUED LIFE!!! Dark Eldar much?) for himself, though being Eldar it's probably a psychology we can't hope to understand some parts of.

So do they retain their individuality when, say, they remove the armour, or do the souls transfer from the stones to the body?