In the cosmic annals of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, an eternal war once raged, casting its bloody shadow over the mortal Eldar. As the Eldar waged war amongst themselves, the divine smith Assurion sat in painful solitude, the weight of his hasty and flawed decisions pressing heavily upon him. As the war seemingly reached a stalemate, the gods, though weary and forgetful of the reasons for their strife, continued to march into battle.
Then Assurion, choosing once more to intervene, dared to reforge the hundredth sword – the very weapon he had failed to craft for the god of war, Cain. With his soul and craftsmanship poured into it, the blade became the most powerful of all his creations: Anoris. Armed with this mighty weapon, Assurion challenged Cain. The divine clash was fierce and prolonged, but in the end, Assurion could not best the god of war. Cain cruelly chained the defeated smith to his own anvil, maiming him in the process.
Prior to this, Cain had also clashed with Eldes, attempting to draw the greatest of the Eldar to his side. Eldes, however, had little interest in the god’s ambitions. Infuriated by Eldes’ indifference, Cain assaulted him with one of Assurion’s blades. Unable to remain neutral after this attack, Eldes and his house allied themselves with Assurion against Cain.
After Assurion’s defeat, the falcon For ALU, an ally of the smith god, picked up Anoris and presented it to Eldes. Valiantly, Eldes challenged Cain. The battle was heroic and protracted, but ultimately, Cain bested Eldes, crushing his body in a fit of rage. From that moment, Cain was known as Kaya menaan, or Cain the Bloody-Handed.
Only after witnessing the enormous loss of life did Assuan, the supreme god, decide to intervene and halt the war. But the prophecy of Lilith, which many had forgotten, still hung ominously over the blood-soaked god.
Thousands of years later, as the Eldar built the greatest empire in the galaxy, a darkness crept into their minds. Their arrogance and pride fueled the manifestation of their most corrupt thoughts in the warp, taking the form of the terrifying fourth god of the warp, Slaanesh. The birth of Slaanesh, following the fall of millions of Eldar, marked the beginning of their downfall and the collapse of their divine pantheon. Slaanesh cruelly slew any god that dared to stand in its path, including Morg, Lilith, and even the supreme Assuran. Even Cain, the mightiest warrior god, fell before Slaanesh, shattered into countless avatars.
Among the Eldar, a legend tells of how Slaanesh claimed Isa, the goddess of fertility, as his own. But Nurgle, the god of plagues, objected and snatched Isa away from Slaanesh. Isa now remains shackled next to Nurgle, subjected to his endless experiments of brewing diseases. The Eldar believe that every time Nurgle tests a new disease on Isa, she whispers the cure to her children.
Today’s Eldar are but a dying shadow of a once mighty race. In ancient times, they viewed themselves as the dominant species, for none could rival them. After the War in the Heavens, they were ready to combat the machines of the Necrons. However, the Necrons, weakened by the war with the Old Ones, entered a long sleep to awaken when the era of the Eldar ended. After an eon, the galaxy was almost entirely devoid of life. But as the Eldar well know, flesh is not eternal, and so the tale continues in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
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