My apologies for bothering you all, but I have a question for any who could please take the time to answer it. Over the past few months i've been writing up a few fan armies for various factions, mostly out of a mix of personal interest or looking at extremely bad lore and trying to take a shot at doing a better job at those themes. The next project I am planning to attempt are the Craftworld Eldar, and as such I wished to know if anyone could please offer advice upon covering this.

The main reason is that the past few armies (Iron Hands successors, World Eaters Warband, and a Fire Caste Cadre) were all armies while a Craftworld is an entire society. They're not so frequently covered in the fandom as chapters as a result, so there's fewer guidelines to go on. I've read most of the prior codices and books, but are there any particular problems which keep turning up in fan Craftworlds or narrative pot holes which should be avoided?

EDIT - This has now been completed, you can find the full version here.

Well, it's not like GW treats them any differently than other armies. Despite being entire civilizations consisting of millions of Eldar, every Craftworld is still just a single homogeneous thing with a single specialization.

Of course, this doesn't mean you can't try to exceed GW's mediocrity! But don't beat yourself up over it.

Thank you, but if i'm going to write this i'd prefer to do it right and treat them as a full society. I've spent so many articles covering the problems in their codices' texts, research errors and the issues with their works, it'd be terrible to start to fall back to their (all too often) low standards now.

Just make sure you include a decent amount of swooping hawks in your writing and everything will be fine.

Disclaimer: I may be SLIGHTLY biased

I would suggest reading everything the wiki's have to offer and 4chan has some interesting write ups as well.

I've also heard, but cannot personally confirm, that the Iyaden suppliment was sub-par. I would avoid using it for that reason. http://thegoodthebadtheinsulting.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/iyanden-part-1-rules-warhammer-40000.html

Best of luck. I'm looking forward to what you come up with.

Heh, yes, i'm actually very aware of that fact. For one thing i'm the one who writes the articles on that particular blog. In all honesty it was the poor quality of lore and severe lack of research of others which provoked me into trying to write armies.

Still, thank you none the less, i'll definitely take the time to question /tg/ over this. Sometimes they've offered some relatively good advice.

I don't think there's much can go wrong, to get a feel for a Craftworld be sure to read the Path of the Eldar series, I feel like it gives a very nice, well-rounded view of a variety of Eldar paths and the functions, both civilian and military, of a Craftworld and how it interacts with the other various parts. If you've already read these books you should know internally Craftworlds are not so difficult to describe, the issue comes with their interaction with the rest of the Galaxy.

Questions you need to ask yourself, what, why and how.. But that's simple stuff, I don't need to tell you to avoid what's been done before, which so far is, (Lots of Psykers near the Eye of Terror with more disciplined Militia, Re-take the Galaxy and Re-establish the Empire, Doom and Despair use the dead to fight whilst we prepare to throw ourselves at one last hope, we're fast and like bikes.. clans.. honour and all that jazz, this place is strict.. so strict that many choose to leave.. well damn, got sucked in to the warp and rescued by our Phoenix Lord.. yay! Lots of Titans!! Also Tanks!!, we have close ties with Corsairs.. sue us.., did someone say Feminism? Women everywhere! and finally, Harlequins are our friends.. why? Who knows.. we are mysterious like them!

I could try to put names to it all.. in order it would be.. Ulthwe, Biel-Tan, Iyanden, Saim-Hann, Alaitoc, Altansar, Yme-Loc, Lugganath? (May also be the last one), Iybraesil, Lugganath..? Oh what do you know Lugganath is Harlequins and Corsairs.. also apparently Il-Kaithe are especially good at using Bonesingers.

I don't think you will have any issues as long as you don't get stuck in that super-special snowflake mentality, yes your Craftworld will be unique, yes it will have had some interesting things happen to it (this is 40k after all), but you don't need to go all near extinction like Iyanden. Keep in mind that positioning in the galaxy basically determines what their actions are going to be like (mostly to determine enemies and objectives), their mentality before, during and after the fall will also influence that heavily..

I hope this helps some.. I didn't want to be so vague but I don't think I really got all that much from the question.. As long as you know your Eldar lore there shouldn't be much issue. The problem a lot of people seem to have is the deviations from past lore that seem to be prevalent (retcon and all that). Personally I don't mind the development, I don't expect GW to stick doggedly to everything they've published in the past and like the development, a lot of people will disagree, but that doesn't bother me. Read all you can from Lexicanum (I don't like Wikia since i've found inaccuracies from time to time and it doesn't always include citations), read the entire Path of the Eldar series if you haven't already (only took me a few days), be creative and you should be fine.

If you really are worried where's the harm in posting the concept up here for everyone to look at?

I most likely will at some stage, but at this moment in time most of what I have in my head consists of a few varied concepts, ideas and general ways to try and present the craftworld. It's not much to go on at the moment, mostly a few ways to try and show the eldar as a dying race without (and let's face it, this happens all too often) turning them into the galaxy's punching bag, and trying to do a few things Codex: Iyanden severely botched. Until then i'm mostly focusing upon further research, looking back through older codices and the like, and most of the novels you've mentioned. The chief issue is that most of the craftworlds aren't as well fleshed out as many space marine chapters, and most of what is given focuses upon the military over the idea of it being an independent nation.

Still, thank you for your post, it's given me a few things to think about in the meantime.

It sounds as if you are already looking at all the sources I would suggest, and you have my thanks for the review of the Iyanden book (most timely for me) and your in-depth look at it.

If you don't think it too bold I would be happy to bounce ideas around with you via PM or offer my views if you would like a perspective from another lore fan who has wrestled with lore conflicts before

While each Craftworld has been given a sort of Cliff Notes version - especially the 'new' ones like Il-Kaithe - there is a little bit more depth provided in the older Codices for the main ones (I'm not saying older is better, just that it tends to contain more background - larger word count % given over to it, or something)

Full disclosure, what you have in mind sounds very much what I have been wanting to read for a very long time, so there's another reason for me wanting you to succeed in your endeavours

The Eldar path books are definitely a good call. Introspection and self discipline are pretty important for Eldar. Having a ever vigilant chaos god thirsting for your soul kind of focuses an individual, and when your level of technology reaches a certain point and becomes self sustaining (for the most part), society becomes all about the individual.
As for inspiration on motives and attitudes of a society that is lead by individuals who embrace their prescient abilities. Maybe the Dune books obviously looking at Paul and his "choices".