Tuesday 21 May 2013

Eldar Codex Rumours: New Special Character - Illic Nightspear


Well, the last leak showed the book moving in exactly the right direction yet this one is a cause for concern.

Released on the DakkaDakka forums, a list of new changes and upcoming alterations from the last book has been posted. Among these are apparent confirmations of the eldar having access to fightercraft of a previously unseen design and this specific gem:
"New Finecast ReleasesWarhammer 40000: Illic Nightspear· A clampack that contains one highly detailed Citadel Finecast resin miniature sculpted by Edgar Ramos. Illic Nightspear is an outcast who has become an deadly assassin armed with the sniper rifle Voidbringer."

Oh dear.

Out of all those available to them, from the protagonists of Gav Thorpe's Path of the Eldar series to names in long forgotten books, Games Workshop has chosen the single worst character imaginable. One who is quite possibly an even greater failure than Abaddon the Despoiler.

Nightspear is a character which symbolises everything wrong with the eldar of late. They are often displayed as being easily crushed and conquered, beaten down and slaughter en mass with little difficulty or portrayed as utter morons. He was specifically created to get as many of his kind killed as possible to make Mat Ward's SPESS TOMB KINGS! look competent. Thus far his only actions consist of multiple lost battles and the closest he has come to any victory was being allowed to live when at the mercy of his enemy.


This is not a character the eldar need right now. As was said before, the eldar need to be shown accomplishing actual victories, not repeated massacres or endless pyrrhic conflicts which end only in a long term loss for them. While he might be re-written as competent, this will likely only entrench his defeats within the franchise's canon and help to make the eldar look like even more of a joke.

Worse still, it could also indicate the way in which this book will be written - With the eldar never achieving a true victory to try and emphasise upon their nature as a dying race. This is also the better of the several possibilities: Another one is that Ward is the author writing this. Bile spewing at his name aside, his previous works show he has nowhere near the skill to handle anything like Codex: Eldar or any race with a complex background.

Beyond the simple background problems and fluff there's also the fact the eldar don't need another character. The army already has among the most numerous and diverse ensemble of special characters of any codex, it doesn't require another one. If the writer did feel that the eldar army needed a scout special character then there are plenty which could be reworked.

Still, these are just rumours. It would be best to wait an see if they are true or not, but this news is a definite warning light for the book.


----

Warhammer 40,000 and all related characters and media are owned by Games Workshop.

8 comments:

  1. ranger exarchs?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would be very surprising if they did introduced those. They operate outside the Path system and aren't aspect warriors after all.

      Delete
  2. ranger exarchs?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, but the idea of 'leaders'. Rangers with special abilities/stronger weaponry/ better stats. Exarchs are aspect warriors who get stuck on the path of the warrior. What about people who get stuck on the path of the outcast?
    Like pathfinders, but if you could have a squad of 4 rangers and a pathfinder. This has happened with Tau in the Fire squaddies and the space marines have veteran captains.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh of course, there'd be nothing wrong with Rangers who took a leadership role. For one thing it would open up the opportunity to have pirate based armies on the Craftworld lists and more unique forces.

      I was arguing against the idea of Ranger Exarchs due to the fluff behind them. Namely how they are bound to their armour, with their bodies become controlled by an amalgamation of spirits from the shrine they belong to.

      Delete
    2. I Thought that was only for phoenix lords

      Delete
    3. As did I for a time, but Gav Thorpe's Path of the Warrior seemed to detail them as having similar aspects.
      It could be artistic licence on his part but so far as I can tell it's in-keeping with the canon.

      Lexicanum seems to support this with the following description: "From their shrine, they take the spirit stone that houses the departed souls of past Exarchs whereupon they assumed a Sacred Name that is associated with the stone. This comes at a time when their spirit mingles with that of the spirit stone which has been part of the armour since its inception.
      The mind of its user becomes lost within the greater heroic beings that bear the Exarchs name with their memories as well as experiences of the past beginning to merge with their own. Thus, their life becomes just another stage in the long existence of the spirit stone as the heroic warrior is born once again in a new form."

      Delete
  4. or ex-warriors leading guardians

    ReplyDelete