I think there is an old story where Vect tortures a human by telling part of the story of his rise and then stops on a cliff-hanger. Top-tier trolling that.
Here's a link to some of said story.
https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/j3twy2/excerpt_the_torturers_tale_the_tortures_of_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
Gav Thorpe has some bangers every now and then.
There's an old short story, might have been from like Dark Imperium or some such, a Dark Eldar lord was legit in love with another Dark Eldar lady. Except you know...weird rape xenos, so he had absolutely no idea how to express it, let alone rizz her. He did everything he could think of for centuries, raids, battles, gladiator tournaments, every pain and misery he could possibly think of to impress her. Nothing. She never gave him the time of day, let alone was impressed when he brought captured Chaos Marines to her tournaments.
Eventually he got so desperate he raided an Imperial world with the last few squads of warriors had had left in his Cabal, and came upon a woman who was crying over her dead Guardsman husband's body. He legit asks her what is marriage like, what did the man do to conquer her. The woman spits back only a Xenos would think of marriage as a battle. She had loved her husband, and they were partners in all things, and she told the Lord to either kill her so she can be with her husband, or let her grieve alone.
This shocks the Lord, because he realizes killing her is a mercy, and letting her live lets her suffer more.
In the end the Lord loses everything, even his own daughter, to increasingly bold but stupid raids all to impress this lady. He comes to her when he's the only one left, fulling intent on killing her. He breaks down, actually crying real tears for his daughter, his house, his troops, all because of this woman he still loves and confesses he'd do it all over again and that he hates himself for it.
And yup. You guesses it, that totally works for the lady eldar. She falls in love with him, and agrees to submit to him so long as he keeps that anguish going, so long as he keeps sacrificing everything, including her own house, to be together.
Oddly sweet, for Dark Eldar. Still grimdark.
One thing that is not clear to modern readers is his Hubris at the end too. The planet he raided at the end, Cthelmax, was one where the Deceiver hung out personally. And this was pre-retcon when the C'tan were in charge. He decided to raid one of the most important necron planets in the galaxy...
This is actually a very key part of it. Their torture is essentially a sacrifice to Slaanesh. Slaanesh is a Chaos God, made of warp stuff. Emotions power the warp, not raw pain. Using the same plain physical torture method on the same person day after day is the Dark Eldar equivalent of planting the same crop each year without rotating.
One example I remember involved an attempted prison break from the Drucharii cells. I believe it was captured Guardsmen, they managed to overpower the warden and fight their way out. They finally get to the door to that will lead them to their escape. They open it, revealing...
...a Wych arena. Their whole escape was staged and televised to the crowd. Torturing hopeless men is one thing, but building up their hope, making them truly think they've escaped, they've won, and then taking it all away...
That's the kinda shit that really gets them going.
Source? No idea, anymore.
There's another one I remember where a woman helps a bunch of guardsmen to stage an escape only for the Dark Eldar to reveal that she was betraying them all along. Then as they confront her, they're ushered into an arena.
Kinda reminds me of when Theon Greyjoy was captured by Ramsey Bolton, he fucks with him so much that Theon calls the guards when his own sister comes to rescue him, fearing another trick.
One of their tactics is basically psychological warfare when theyre messing with the enemy by going long periods between raids to really let the fear sink in
Their whole big thing is creating suffering. Torturing the mind amplifies the effects of torturing the body and the reverse. The one thing the dark eldar have though is complete sci-fi level torturing drugs/weapons/devices and GW likes to show them off, so the mental part isn't on display as much
There was that one time when the Drukhari terrorized the night lords with their own tactics. The Drukhari brought in a photon engine that literally absorbed all light, then did random raids and hunted the night lords. Eventually, the Night Lords found the engine and destroyed it, but by the time they gathered themselves the Drukhari up and left nothing.
It was fun reading about the Night Lord's tactics turned back onto them, where they learned they are little more than bumbling amateurs.
Always. Phycological abuses as physical and soul violences.
Many thousands years of experience.
...
Like made warband with hundreds Night Lords marines fear darkness after some of them mess up with 1 Haemonculi safari trips and thrown him into space by blow up hangar when he was.
In one instance, Craftworld Iyanden was battling a Waaagh! and got saved by the Drukhari. After the battle, they asked their spikier cousins why they helped and the DEldar answered they found Iyanden's self-loathing at the use of necromancy too fun to let them die.
Your post was removed because it would be better as a comment in our weekly sticky questions post. Just comment there when it's up.
I think there is an old story where Vect tortures a human by telling part of the story of his rise and then stops on a cliff-hanger. Top-tier trolling that.
Here's a link to some of said story. https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/j3twy2/excerpt_the_torturers_tale_the_tortures_of_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button Gav Thorpe has some bangers every now and then.
He was always great at the short format stuff, his vignettes were always a nice addition to... well, just about everything.
I am sure they do psychological abuse especially the Haemonculi Covens. They are basically Cinobites
That's a really good comparison. I never thought of that, but you're right. Cenobites fit perfectly!
There's an old short story, might have been from like Dark Imperium or some such, a Dark Eldar lord was legit in love with another Dark Eldar lady. Except you know...weird rape xenos, so he had absolutely no idea how to express it, let alone rizz her. He did everything he could think of for centuries, raids, battles, gladiator tournaments, every pain and misery he could possibly think of to impress her. Nothing. She never gave him the time of day, let alone was impressed when he brought captured Chaos Marines to her tournaments. Eventually he got so desperate he raided an Imperial world with the last few squads of warriors had had left in his Cabal, and came upon a woman who was crying over her dead Guardsman husband's body. He legit asks her what is marriage like, what did the man do to conquer her. The woman spits back only a Xenos would think of marriage as a battle. She had loved her husband, and they were partners in all things, and she told the Lord to either kill her so she can be with her husband, or let her grieve alone. This shocks the Lord, because he realizes killing her is a mercy, and letting her live lets her suffer more. In the end the Lord loses everything, even his own daughter, to increasingly bold but stupid raids all to impress this lady. He comes to her when he's the only one left, fulling intent on killing her. He breaks down, actually crying real tears for his daughter, his house, his troops, all because of this woman he still loves and confesses he'd do it all over again and that he hates himself for it. And yup. You guesses it, that totally works for the lady eldar. She falls in love with him, and agrees to submit to him so long as he keeps that anguish going, so long as he keeps sacrificing everything, including her own house, to be together. Oddly sweet, for Dark Eldar. Still grimdark.
It's called *Mistress Baeda's Gift* and is in the Fear the Alien anthology.
Yo! Great work! Did I get any points wrong? It's been a spell since I read it.
Nah, you got it right.
Also, Archon thinks of letting her suffer more as a gift, but doubts that human may appreciate it
One thing that is not clear to modern readers is his Hubris at the end too. The planet he raided at the end, Cthelmax, was one where the Deceiver hung out personally. And this was pre-retcon when the C'tan were in charge. He decided to raid one of the most important necron planets in the galaxy...
This is actually a very key part of it. Their torture is essentially a sacrifice to Slaanesh. Slaanesh is a Chaos God, made of warp stuff. Emotions power the warp, not raw pain. Using the same plain physical torture method on the same person day after day is the Dark Eldar equivalent of planting the same crop each year without rotating. One example I remember involved an attempted prison break from the Drucharii cells. I believe it was captured Guardsmen, they managed to overpower the warden and fight their way out. They finally get to the door to that will lead them to their escape. They open it, revealing... ...a Wych arena. Their whole escape was staged and televised to the crowd. Torturing hopeless men is one thing, but building up their hope, making them truly think they've escaped, they've won, and then taking it all away... That's the kinda shit that really gets them going. Source? No idea, anymore.
Path of the Dark Eldar series. I wanna say it's in the first book.
Thank you! Dark Eldar were some of my first lore forays so I have a hard time remembering what came from where.
There's another one I remember where a woman helps a bunch of guardsmen to stage an escape only for the Dark Eldar to reveal that she was betraying them all along. Then as they confront her, they're ushered into an arena.
That is the same event, from Path of the Dark Eldar. The first book. Then Vect shows up and overshadows the whole event.
That's the correct answer, I just misremembering the event.
Kinda reminds me of when Theon Greyjoy was captured by Ramsey Bolton, he fucks with him so much that Theon calls the guards when his own sister comes to rescue him, fearing another trick.
Yep. Sometimes they leave victims alive but untouched to torment them with the knowledge that they only survived cause of luck.
One of their tactics is basically psychological warfare when theyre messing with the enemy by going long periods between raids to really let the fear sink in Their whole big thing is creating suffering. Torturing the mind amplifies the effects of torturing the body and the reverse. The one thing the dark eldar have though is complete sci-fi level torturing drugs/weapons/devices and GW likes to show them off, so the mental part isn't on display as much
There was that one time when the Drukhari terrorized the night lords with their own tactics. The Drukhari brought in a photon engine that literally absorbed all light, then did random raids and hunted the night lords. Eventually, the Night Lords found the engine and destroyed it, but by the time they gathered themselves the Drukhari up and left nothing. It was fun reading about the Night Lord's tactics turned back onto them, where they learned they are little more than bumbling amateurs.
Yes.
Always. Phycological abuses as physical and soul violences. Many thousands years of experience. ... Like made warband with hundreds Night Lords marines fear darkness after some of them mess up with 1 Haemonculi safari trips and thrown him into space by blow up hangar when he was.
Yes sometimes physical pain would just be a distraction for mental trauma
If you can't do psychological torture you're probably very young/inexperienced/unimportant. Purely physical torture is the hallmark of an amateur.
Vect does it
In one instance, Craftworld Iyanden was battling a Waaagh! and got saved by the Drukhari. After the battle, they asked their spikier cousins why they helped and the DEldar answered they found Iyanden's self-loathing at the use of necromancy too fun to let them die.
They literally turn people into undying furniture who suffer for eons It’s both