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.


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