Dark Eldar Technology

Dark Eldar Close Combat Weapons

Close-Combat Weapons

The Dark Eldar employ a number of hand-held weapons designed to eviserate, lacerate and incise at close quarters. Although varying widely in design and use, all employ a similar technology in their construction. They are built from very lightweight materials, with blades honed to a mon-molecular edge capable of cutting through even Ceramite armour plating when sufficient force is employed. Weapons incorporating powerful shock fields have also been recovered by Imperial forces, and these devices utilise an energy generation and transference system as yet beyond the comprehension of human Tech-Adepts. The following are the most common close combat weapons employed by the Dark Eldar:

• Agoniser - An Agoniser is an extrememly sophisticated close combat weapon that acts as a Power Weapon and drives a victim's sensorium haywire, causing excruciatingly severe pain as a victim's nerves burn out through constant overstimulation, producing exquisite agony. Though Agonisers come in a variety of forms, the most common are whips or barbed flails.
• Bloodstone - A Bloodstone is a rare and exotic weapon forged from the broken Soul Stone of an Eldar Exarch. It can be used in close proximity to an enemy, unleashing a single pulse of baleful energy that will boil their blood.
• Cluster Caltrops - Cluster Caltrops serve as an antipersonnel weapon made up of two or more sharp nails or spines arranged in such a manner that one of them always points upward from a stable base in the form of a tetrahedron. Caltrops serve to slow down the advance of foot soldiers and mounts. Caltrops are also used against wheeled vehicles with pneumatic tires. This weapon is most commonly employed by Dark Eldar Reavers who use these small but effective antipersonnel weapons against enemy troops as they swoop past on their deadly Jetbikes.
• Crystal Gauntlets - Crystal Gauntlets are extraplanar in origin, able to mysteriously sprout and regrow a deadly profusion of blades. These deadly weapons are often employed by Dark Eldar Wyches in melee.
• Demiklaives - A Demiklaive is a variant of the deadly Klaive. These vicious Power Weapons are finely honed to a mono-molecular edge and can either be wielded separately or clasped together to form a much larger blade that confers an even deadlier strike against an unfortunate victim. These weapons are commonly employed by Dark Eldar Incubi.
• Djin Blades - Djin Blades are Power Weapons that usually take the form of blades of polished crystal with a scowling bestial face engraved upon their hilts. Each blade has a bloodthirsty and resentful sentience of its own, usually that of a former rival bound eternally to the service of the blade's owner.
• Electrified Shardnet - An Electrofied Shardnet is a specially crafted and weighted net that can be thrown over an enemy in order to ensnare them. The combined weight and the painful electrical shock of the net is both painful and debilitating. When successful, the victim is then attacked with an extendable twin-bladed impaler while they are entangled, ensuring they cannot escape alive. Another tactic that is often used is to ensnare an enemy's weapon in the shardnet and pull it out of their grasp, leaving the opponent defenceless. This weapon is commonly employed by Wyches.
• Electrocorrosive Whip - An Electrocorrosive Whip is a deadly Power Weapon whose lash is a tongue of venom-soaked polymer with a high-yield dynamo embedded in its hilt. Its touch is painful and debilitating in the extreme, sapping the strength and robbing the will to fight. This weapon is commonly employed by Wyches and Beast Masters.
• Fusion Pistol - The Fusion Pistol is a compact hand-held Melta Weapon whose elegance belies its potency.
• Hellglaives - Hellglaives are double-bladed polearms with recurved hooks that allow a skilled wielder to latch onto nearby objects and change direction in a heartbeat. Each Hellglaive is kept murderously sharp. These deadly two-handed weapons are commonly employed by Dark Eldar Hellions.
• Huskblade - A Huskblade is a Power Weapon that leaves a smoking trail as it carves through the air, instantly evaporating the moisture in anything it touches, reducing its victims to shrivelled and gruesome corpses that fall away to dust in the breeze.
• Hydra Gauntlets - Hydra Gauntlets are specially crafted gauntlets that confer additional speed to their wearer when attacking an enemy. Hydra Guantlets are commonly worn by Dark Eldar Wyches.
• Klaives - Klaives are great Power Swords favoured by the deadly Incubi. These weapons are considered to be a masterpiece of balance and form and the one true weapon of true Dark Eldar warriors, though Klaivex war-leaders sometimes favour variants such as the more versatile Demiklaives.
• Razorflail - A Razorflail is a deadly segmented whip that splits apart and lashes out against an enemy in a swift, deadly strike that both lacerates and strips flesh from the bones of its victims. This weapon is commonly employed by Wyches.
• Stunclaw - A Stunclaw is a close-combat weapon that confers additional strength on its bearer and can also be used to grapple to snare and entrap an enemy leader. This weapon is commonly employed by Hellions.

Dark Eldar Ranged Weapons

Long-Range Weapons

• Heat Lance - The long-barrelled Heat Lance combines melta and high-yield laser technology into a weapon that has extreme destructive potential.
• Phantasm Grenade Launcher - Wealthy Dark Eldar warriors often wear specially modified backpacks that can hurl a volley of small, disc-shaped grenades from twin tubes. These grenades are made from a highly reactive substance that, upon contact with the air, dissolves into clouds of psychotropic gas so potent that to even catch a whiff of it fills the mind with horrific nightmares and delusions. This weapon is often employed by Dark Eldar Kabalite Warriors.

Heavy Weapons

Like all Eldar technology, the heavy weaponry that is employed by the Dark Eldar utilises an order of technology far different from that employed by the other sentient races of the galaxy. The following is a list of the most common heavy weapons employed by the Dark Eldar:

• Dark Lance - The Dark Lance is comparable in its role to that of a standard issue Imperial Lascannon. Its primary function is to destroy heavily armoured targets. However, the Dark Lance does not employ standard laser technology, but instead fires a stream of "Darklight." This dark matter substance works by reacting catastrophically with its target, producing a blast that is more than capable of destroying any vehicle regardless of the thickness of its armour, or totally vapourising a foot soldier.
• Disintegrator - A Disintegrator employs a more unstable form of "Darklight" dark matter and can be used in several firing modes, unleashing a single ball of ravening energy or a lethal salvo of powerful energy bolts.

Dark Lancer. Image Courtesy of beckjann.deviantart.com

Special Weapons

There are a number of weapons entirely unique to the Dark Eldar, although they draw upon the same technology found in the weaponry of the Craftworld Eldar. The following is a list of special weapons commonly employed by the Dark Eldar:

• Darklight Weapons - Darklight Weapons are crafted in the weapon shops of Commorragh that are infamous for their ability to cheat the natural laws of physics in order to design ever more efficient ways to kill. Blasters, Blast Pistols and Dark Lances epitomise this, for they do not employ standard laser technology but instead fire a stream of what is, for want of a better term, "darklight." The origin of this substance is unknown, although some amongst the savants of Commorragh claim that it is a form of dark matter that has been recovered from the event horizons of black holes, Warp Storms, and other celestial phenomena of great magnitude. Darklight works by reacting catastrophically with its target, producing a blast that can bore a massive hole in a vehicle regardless of armour, or vapourise a foot solider in an instant. Even to perceive a beam of darklight without the correct protection leaves permanent slash-scars upon the retina.
• Destructor - The Destructor fires a stream of virulent organo-acidic compounds which can melt through armour and sear flesh. The effects of these toxins can inlcude blood vessel explosion or implosion, pharyngal contraction, extensive haemolysis, skeletal disintegration, sclerotic corrosion, intercostal spasm, hyper-reacted thermoreceptors and chemoreceptors, Eustachian damage, retinal scarring, cardiac and respiratory atrophy and aqueous humour deprivation. In simple terms, the victims are hideously blinded and disoriented, their skin feels as if it is burning, their respiration and even the circulation of their blood is erratic and extremely painful.
• Haywire Blaster - Haywire Blasters are long-barrelled weapons that siphon the electromagnetic energy crackling around Commorragh's highest aeries to later release it in a terrifyingly powerful burst. A well-aimed Haywire Blaster can cripple an enemy tank's or aircraft's control systems in a single shot.
• Haywire Grenades - Haywire Grenades are used for disabling or crippling enemy vehicles. They send out a powerful electromagnetic pulse that shorts out and destroys electrical circuits.
• Mindphase Gauntlet - A Mindphase Gauntlet is a special close-combat weapon that acts as an advanced neural controller that saps both the strength and will of an enemy. It can stop a rampaging foe in his tracks with a single touch.
• Shredder - The Shredder is a hand-held pistol that unleashes a web or mesh of monofilament wire, often with minuscule barbs or serrations along its lines. This mesh entangles the victim, slicing them to pieces as they struggle. Its dense cloud is also highly effective at finding weak points in a vehicle's armour, but is thankfully short-ranged.
• Splinter Weapons - Splinter Weapons fire shards of splintered crystal using a powerful magno-electric pulse. These shards are covered in incredibly virulent and fast-acting toxins the better to ensure a painful death. The favoured armament of the Kabalite Warrior is the Splinter Rifle, often fired on the move from the ballustrade of a Raider or Venom transport. The Splinter Pistol, its handheld cousin, is an elegant sidearm beloved of assassins and street fighters across the galaxy; though it is designed for precision short-ranged shots, the toxins inside its reservoir pod are no less deadly. Larger variations of Splinter Weaponry are often employed, such as the Shardcarbine, popular amongst the winged Scourges, and the Splinter Cannon, a heavy weapon able to mow down entire squads at a time.

Dark Eldar Equipment

• Clone Field - The Clone Field projects several hololight images of the wearer, all identical in aspect and moving in perfect synchrony.
• Ghostplate Armour - Those Dark Eldar who desire a substantial amount of protection whilst retaining a high degree of mobility sport armour made of hardened resins and shot through with pockets of lighter-than-air gas. Ghostplate Armour also incorporates minor forcefield technology to better protect its wearer.
• Gnarlskin - The Dark Eldar Haemonculi and their hideous, fleshy creations have toughened, scarred hides that have been subjected to so many brands, burns and abrasions they have become leathery and resistant to enemy blows.
• Incubus Warsuit - All Dark Eldar Incubi wear a close-fitting suit of ritual battle armour that can turn aside all but the most well-placed blows.
• Kabalite Warrior Armour - Dark Eldar Kabalites go to battle clad in a suit of segmented plates, usually part of a larger bodysuit that is secured in place with serrated barbs and hooks to confer extreme pain upon the wearer in order to heighten their ability to kill.
• Shadow Field - The Shadow Field surrounds its wearer in a dark miasma of energy that is almost impossible to penetrate. However, should a solid blow connect with the wearer, it will short out, leaving its wearer vulnerable.
• Soul-Trap - Though Soul-Traps vary in size and appearance, from folding pyramidal prisms to jewelled skulls engraved with vampiric runes, they all have one ghastly function -- to capture the soul of a powerful enemy within its confines and empower the bearer with the stolen energies.
• Vexator Mask - A Vexator Mask often takes the form of a delicate skein of bone and skin adorned with runes of confusion and illusion. It projects the image of the viewer's most trusted friend, beloved ruler, or loved one, often buying the wearer a second of precious time. An enemy will balk at the sight of such highly personal illusions and may not attack the bearer -- until it is too late.
• Webway Portal - The Webway Portal is a portable form of the portals used to link together places via the Webway and is used by Dark Eldar raiders to unleash their attacks into realspace.
• Wychsuit - A Wychsuit is a flexible bodysuit worn by Wyches that has been designed to protect one side of the Wych's body (usually the side they habitually turn towards their opponents) whilst not impeding their movement or agility in any way.