As an Aeldari who walked the path of the Seer, Vallis Mor always held a sense of sorrow for the fate of her people.
For the Aeldari, ever since the collapse of the former Aeldari Empire and the fall of all the gods they worshipped, the destiny of the entire Aeldari race had long been sealed.
All Aeldari souls belonged to the Dark Prince; once they died, their souls would be devoured by the Dark Prince.
Furthermore, due to the decadence and depravity of the former Aeldari Empire, most Aeldari, if unprotected and unaided, could have their souls directly siphoned away by the Dark Prince even while alive.
This was most thoroughly demonstrated by the Dark Aeldari entrenched in Commorragh.
This faction of Aeldari styled themselves as the most legitimate heirs of the ancient Aeldari Empire, fully inheriting the lifestyle of the ancient Aeldari—corrupt and depraved, and even escalating their excesses.
The original ancient Aeldari merely indulged in unrestrained debauchery and pleasure, but these Dark Aeldari developed it into the torture of other species.
They needed to generate endless suffering from the souls of other species through this method, and they could absorb these emotions to protect their own souls, using them to fill the damage caused by the Dark Prince siphoning their souls.
This is also why Commorragh has so many arenas, and why the Dark Aeldari capture slaves across the galaxy.
They need to fill the arenas with these slaves, then draw emotions and the souls of sacrificed slaves from their duels and killings, thereby replenishing their own souls.
This practice has made the Dark Aeldari's reputation in the galaxy utterly infamous.
Coupled with the fact that other races cannot distinguish between the Dark Aeldari and the Craftworld Aeldari, it has also dragged down the reputation of the Craftworld Aeldari.
Whenever Vallis Mor thought of these things, a wave of sorrow surged from within her, but the path followed by the Craftworld Aeldari required her to restrain her emotions, whether sorrow or pain, or joy and happiness; no emotion could produce strong fluctuations.
Because only in this way can the Craftworld Aeldari find a glimmer of hope for survival in this cursed galaxy, allowing Slaanesh's hungry gaze to shift away from them, if only slightly.
However, even with their cautious existence, the souls of the Aeldari remained like candles flickering in a gale, liable to be snatched by the Dark Prince's unseen tendrils at the slightest carelessness, becoming a delicacy in his eternal feast.
Fortunately, during the Golden Age when the ancient Aeldari Empire had not yet fallen, the Aeldari gods bestowed upon them their last refuge—Spirit Stone technology.
These translucent gems could contain the souls of the Aeldari, serving as their final sanctuary after death.
When a Craftworld Aeldari warrior falls in battle outside, as long as his Spirit Stone is not destroyed, his soul will not immediately fall into Slaanesh's gaping maw.
But this is ultimately only a temporary measure.
The souls within the Spirit Stone must be swiftly returned to the Craftworld and, through ancient rituals, integrated into the Infinity Circuit—the Spirit Bone network that permeates the Craftworld—to find true peace.
Although occasionally some Spirit Bones are placed in Wraithbone constructs, allowing those heroic spirits with remaining courage to continue fighting for their kin, the vast majority of souls are ultimately carefully placed deep within the Infinity Circuit.
This is their last line of defense, and the hope for the entire race's continuation.
Vallis had read in ancient temple texts that in the era before the fall of the Aeldari gods, the souls of the dead could peacefully return to the Sea of Souls, awaiting reincarnation.
At that time, the Sea of Souls had not yet devolved into the hell of slaughter, conspiracy, and stench it is today.
Under the gods' protection, Aeldari souls enjoyed eternal peace.
However, this eternal guarantee fostered the arrogance and depravity of the entire race.
The ancient Aeldari gradually lost their reverence for life and death; the former Aeldari Empire, though lauded as a paragon of civilization, fell into a suffocating boredom due to its excessive perfection—no suffering, no conflict, only an eternal, maddening tranquility.
The Aeldari frantically extended their lifespans, yearning to live longer than stars, yet in their eternal lives, they were tormented by boredom.
Gradually, they began to indulge in the pursuit of extreme sensory stimulation: initially, it was merely ordinary basketball games, but by the end of the season, the rules had evolved to "one point for shooting with severed limbs, two points for a beheading shot, and three points if violence was committed before the beheading."
Since they wouldn't truly die, they naturally sought pleasure to the point of death.
When other races said "play to death," it might have been an exaggeration, but for the ancient Aeldari, it was literal—they could indeed play people to death and then easily resurrect them.
To this day, the Haemonculi of Commorragh still possess this art.
However, as the Warp became unsafe, the art of resurrection became heavily restricted.
Originally, Vallis thought that the fate of the Aeldari would simply be this: in the future, all Aeldari would perhaps be devoured by the Dark Prince, and then the Aeldari God of the Dead would be born from the corpse of the last Aeldari, killing the Dark Prince to complete the revenge.
But an unexpected revelation changed everything.
Vallis glimpsed a brand new prophecy in her meditation—the "Great One" worshipped by humanity had found a fulcrum to leverage destiny.
His actions were like a stone cast into a still lake, creating ripples in the tapestry of fate, not only rewriting humanity's trajectory but also shaking the foundations of Chaos's schemes, and even... bringing a glimmer of hope to the Aeldari.
On this rewritten path of destiny, the future became chaotic and unpredictable.
But Vallis caught an unprecedented possibility from it: the Aeldari might be able to break free from Slaanesh's eternal hunger and escape the fate of being gradually devoured by the Dark Prince.
Although hope was slim, this was an opportunity unseen in ten millennia.
Thus, she resolutely abandoned the path of the Howling Banshee and embarked on the path of the Seer.
She traversed the Webway, crossed star systems, and finally arrived at the place indicated by the prophecy—there, she met a human who shocked her.
The Aeldari had always been full of arrogance towards humans.
After all, when humanity's ancestors were still primitive creatures huddled in caves, the Aeldari's Craftworlds were already sailing among the stars.
Ancient Aeldari Seers had predicted humanity's dual potential: either becoming a catalyst for Chaos sweeping across the galaxy, or becoming key to resisting the darkness.
Ultimately, the ancient Aeldari chose to let humanity develop on its own—and over the long centuries, humans remained nothing more than uncivilized "monkeys" in the eyes of the Aeldari.
But the person before her was completely different.
Vallis gazed at him, her pupils slightly contracting—she saw the mark of the "Great One" upon him.
That radiance was as brilliant as a star, yet chillingly cold, without a trace of warmth.
It was neither a blessing nor a curse, but a transcendent... existence.
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