Females in (Dark) Eldar society

[Spell_of_Destruction]

You miss my point. I'm speculating that what we classify as humanoids (stands upright with two arms and two legs) may be a common form of advanced life in the universe (i.e. the universe is ripe for the development of this type of life) and the Old Ones based the Eldar on those pre-existing versions of forms which probably shared many traits in common with humans. I'm not suggesting that the Old Ones based Eldar on homo sapiens that evolved on earth.

I realise this is just my interpretation and involves a lot of blank filling on my part but it makes more sense than the old ones creating a race with two arms and two legs with no reference to any previous life forms and then homo sapiens evolve completely independently on earth and just so happen to look superfically very similar to Eldar. If Eldar aren't based on a pre-existing form of life then why bother with sexes at all? They may as well be genderless. That is why I maintain that they are a 'perfection' of naturally occuring species.

And it is on topic - it's just that my convoluted explanation requires us to veer off on to these tangents .

[ChaplainCharlie]

Well part of the reason why bipedal things are so common in the 40k universe is that they are easy to sculpt and recognize. Even 'Nids (the bigger ones at least) are modeled to appear like bipedal creatures and even the smaller ones run on their hind legs. Purely biologically speaking, running on two legs or standing upright is a terrible idea. Beyond the fact that you can free your arms for labour, there's no real benefit. Four legs (real legs this time) provides better purchase, better balance, more protection and a lower profile. Centaurs (or alike) would hence be a very good profile for a biological creature, because it combines the benefits of quadrupedal motion with hands.
For example, a man versus a wolf in single combat results in a wolf victory, because a human is unbalanced (hence why most martial arts have a fighting crouch) and has the vulnerable innards exposed to attack. The wolf on the other hand has its head, shoulders and chest exposed to attack whereas a man would have the gut, large thigh veins and genitalia exposed and no real hard bone surfaces of mention to protect the vulnerable soft tissues.

This is why most creatures move about on four legs. The benefits of quadrupedal motion outweigh (in most cases) the benefits of hands. Man just has the brain to make the best of a bad situation, really...

But as for Eldar, the notion that they were designed is a good thought. If they never truly had a "caveman" phase, then it would explain why they lack the intrinsic thought patterns that humans have.
And feminists can argue all day about equality, but men can't produce babies. In a state of normality, I wholeheartedly agree that men and women are equal, but if the situation ever came to such a bad one that the Human race was about to go extinct, then I would not be too happy to send what few females there were left into conflict. If the stake of the entire race hinged on loosing potential mothers, then it is nothing but arrogance or sheer stupidity to put potential "baby factories" in harm's way. That is why humans were so anti-feministic in the caveman era that women were not hunters, but gatherers, where they were less exposed to the dangers of combating wild beasts and were not deliberately put in harm's way. But equality discussions are another animal altogeather. I come from a culture where different does not mean unequal and I can not see how doing different (yet essential) tasks is in any way a showcase of being unequal. The option to do all tasks should be there, of course, but certain incentives are wise to keep in place from making the puzzle collapse. (For example I think it's fine to let a skinny man be a construction worker, but why should he, for the hell of equality, be put to lift heavy weights when big burly co-workers are abundant, yet can not fit into smaller place to draw electrial wiring; a task he would be more suited for.)

The Eldar don't seem too keen to die out either and though they are morbidly fearful of their souls (or rather fear the torment they would endure, because they retain consciousness after death) they seem to value life quite a bit. But perhaps the biggest thing is that they are fatalistic creatures (maybe because their psyche has evolved like that due to having been "guided" by the Old Ones). Maybe they don't even see themselves fit to rule the galaxy anymore, because of their downfall, and have accepted to die a slow and withering death. That said, some Craftworlds do not think so. Biel-Tan clearly wants to recreate the Eldar Empire and I would assume they are a lot keener to expand the number of Eldar on their Craftworld. I mean, being that aggressive has got to lead to casualties...

[theJ]

@ChaplainCharlie:
A few points.
For a creature relying on biological prowess alone, four legs make sense, sure. What you have to keep in mind, however, is that the Eldar were created with advanced technology and warp powers in mind. Who cares if four legs could move faster when you've got grav-tanks anyway? When you have advanced armour and forcefields, who cares about an extra meter of flesh to get to the vitals? Why even bother with a better braced stance when you've got a rapid-fire rocket sniper rifle?
The advantages of having four legs are pretty much gone by the time you've got tech to replace it, whereas the humanoid advantages of an overall smaller, more flexible body remains. To wit; try designing a fighter cockpit for a horse, or have said horse climb through a ruined building. You'll find that those four legs get problematic really damn fast...

On "baby factoring"... you are presuming two things:
1. That the Eldar have reached the biological limit for how quickly they can pop out the younglin's, as opposed to any sort of official sources, including the ones pointing out the rarity of spiritstones, or the dangers of emotions - including lust.
2. You are assuming that females have no need for males during the mating process.

Further... there were no hunters in stone age society. Humans didn't have the means to hunt wild animals. ALL humans were gatherers/scavengers, regardless of gender.

[Poseidal]

In terms of Eldar population, Craftworld population has grown since the fall due to the size changes that were needed for the Craftworlds (originally self-sustained trading ships); it was not just for refugees as the change would have 1. needed to be done during the fall as they would need to collect those willing to escape and 2. needed to get away from the core worlds before the birth of Slaanesh—the Craftworlds near the core-words were not spared when that happened. The Craftworld growth was referring to now compared with the time of the fall so is meant to cover that long (10,000 or so year) time period.

Eldar were primitives when they started fighting the Necron: fought with spears. I think there is some mention of early Eldar in their developing phases in early material (WD127) which suggests they would have had a stone-age equivalent.

Family bonds and links, yes, but I still believe Craftworld Eldar value the pragmatism and wide range of taught skills under a communal "family." They're not like Tharks or anything, where eggs are laid and then babies are distributed after birth with no regard to birth parents. I once tossed around the idea of Eldar 'lines' being similar to the Houses in the Dune-iverse, where each Eldar can trace his lineage to an ancient hero of Eldar mythology. (House Atreides can trace themselves back [supposedly] to Agamemnon, for example)

Still, knowing your heritage isn't necessarily the same as knowing your parents like humans do.

I think they would be in a more 'clan' based family unit. I doubt they would have nuclear families in the modern sense. The houses in Dune is probably a good analogy; another is maybe just the clans and tribes of the ancients.

When they set out, a Craftworld contained many 'families', so possibly multiple clans. Each Craftworld is a sort of mix of a tribe and city-state in a way, and with the tribalism you have the different focusses each Craftworld takes.

[ChaplainCharlie]

@ChaplainCharlie:
A few points.
For a creature relying on biological prowess alone, four legs make sense, sure. What you have to keep in mind, however, is that the Eldar were created with advanced technology and warp powers in mind. Who cares if four legs could move faster when you've got grav-tanks anyway? When you have advanced armour and forcefields, who cares about an extra meter of flesh to get to the vitals? Why even bother with a better braced stance when you've got a rapid-fire rocket sniper rifle?
The advantages of having four legs are pretty much gone by the time you've got tech to replace it, whereas the humanoid advantages of an overall smaller, more flexible body remains. To wit; try designing a fighter cockpit for a horse, or have said horse climb through a ruined building. You'll find that those four legs get problematic really damn fast...

On "baby factoring"... you are presuming two things:
1. That the Eldar have reached the biological limit for how quickly they can pop out the younglin's, as opposed to any sort of official sources, including the ones pointing out the rarity of spiritstones, or the dangers of emotions - including lust.
2. You are assuming that females have no need for males during the mating process.

Further... there were no hunters in stone age society. Humans didn't have the means to hunt wild animals. ALL humans were gatherers/scavengers, regardless of gender.

Well, you'd bother if you were designing the race to combat Necrons for one. Because when the opposition is also high in technology, you need that extra bruteness to tip the scales. I mean, look at Space Marines. The Emperor had lots of technology at his disposal, yet he chose to create warriors that basically fixed the physical weaknesses of the human body, by making them able to be hardier, stronger and capable of operation in a sleep deprived state. Amongst other things. And look at the Tau, who are technologically very advanced but lack in physical attributes. They aren't a major power despite their insanely rapid evolution and regularly hire mercenaries with better physical characteristics to augment their forces. As do Dark Eldar in the form of Sslyth (although loyalty issues might be prime here too).

A horse is problematic, but a cat is a lot more agile and faster than a human, can squeeze into smaller spaces and if tripping over a trigger, can kill a man instantly with a firearm. A slightly larger cat, a Lynx perhaps, can even kill a man with bare claws and fangs if need be. Since the brain isn't about size (otherwise Elephants and Blue Whales would be the smartest things around) a quadrupedal creature, even a smaller one at that, could be smart but still flexible and physically capable. Where a man has lots of trouble scaling a mountain, goats for example skip up and down slopes that would make most climbers faint from fear.

Furthermore, cockpits and such are basically a bad design in the first place, if they rely on the movement of hands or legs to control. Nerval links are much faster and indiscriminate towards creature type, since the brain operates the craft as an extension of the body. The reason why Eldar fliers are modeled with joysticks or physical controls, IMO, is mostly just design choices. It doesn't look as War-y to have a guy sipping tea in the cockpit whilst flying ala "look Ma, no hands!" Though I do not doubt that Eldar wouldn't be capable of such control easily.

And I am only assuming that which has been stated many times: The Eldar are a dying race and their numbers are dwindling. (Which would also beckon the question of how many Eldar are there actually?)
As for male neccessity, was it stated that one Eldar female needs multiple partners or at least multiple impregnations to become pregnant? Nevertheless, one male can happily impregnate a score of women fast, because sperm reproduces quickly and carrying a baby takes time. Once a female is pregnant, she can't have another baby until that one is done. A male, however, can easily move onto his next baby even whilst the previous one is still "in the making". Not that Eldar would of course follow such a philosophy, but with all the Isha worship as the mother of all Eldar and such, it seems that the reverence of mothers is absent. Of course this may just be because the fluff hasn't gone there, for obvious reasons, but logically, for a race where births are few and far between and each life extremely presicous as your entire population is slowly dying out, mothers (even potential mothers) would be prescious for what they represent: the continuation of the species and the legacy of its parents/Craftworld/Eldar.

And lastly, there is lots of evidence of humans using fire to hunt mammoths back in the day when they still crossed the plains of Europe. Apparently, man was quite a clever hunter and caused massive forest fires to heard Mammoths into pits and traps. And even without such, humans can hunt even with nothing more than just a sharp stick. The Masai tribesmen still do and their technology is still stone-age level. Because humans do not have fur, they can perspirate through the skin. This makes us very good long-range runners, unlike most things on the Savannah. A capable hunter can out-last for example an antilope and simply wear it down before the beast falls over from overheating and the kill can be made by basically just poking it in the heart at literally point black range. I have seen this being done in a documentary and have no trouble believing it to be true. I can out-last dogs in running during the summer no problem...

And the notion of Lust being a dangerous feeling...
It always baffled me why the Eldar Paths were all either War-y or then artistic. It would seem logical that if the Path system is designed to allow the Eldar individual to safely try out all aspects of her psyche, then there would be such things as "Path of the Nympho" or "Path of the Drug-addict" for example.

[AlexHolker]

Surely these engagements must be utmost pivotal in importance, but even then it would seem "smarter" to only use male warriors whenever possible. It isn't an equality thing really, but simple population math.

It only seems smarter because you're not thinking it through. In order for the population to remain stable, you only need to raise an average of two children to maturity for every two adults. Unless Eldar are only fertile for a very short time or their gestation periods are very long, or unless the gender ratios are really imbalanced (and I mean ten males for every female), if they are incapable of doing this, it's not because they don't have enough women.

[Askil the Undecided]

The Path of the nympho concept is flawed, in that the path system is designed to avoid obsession and excess by experiencing things in a controlled fashion through an alternate personality that can then be cast aside whereas nymphomania or addiction are by their very definition uncontrolled excess.

[AndrewGPaul]

He said "humanoids", not "humans"; the Necrontyr and Orks are also humanoid - perhaps in context we should describe humans as "Necrontyroid"?

[Poseidal]

And the notion of Lust being a dangerous feeling...
It always baffled me why the Eldar Paths were all either War-y or then artistic. It would seem logical that if the Path system is designed to allow the Eldar individual to safely try out all aspects of her psyche, then there would be such things as "Path of the Nympho" or "Path of the Drug-addict" for example.

Eldar Paths are sort of more 'craft' based, which they attempt to master the craft in question. They are channelling the obsessive dedication which is for tempering desires and whims. Because they must pursue the path to a good level of mastery, it gives them something to work towards rather than the pre-fall state of allowing any entertainment (which will become dull over time so they descend into more and more extreme forms of entertainment over their life) because they have no need to work.

In a way this might be why the Craftworlders didn't succumb so quickly: they still had something to do over entertaining themselves. Novelty would have become a commodity in the old Eldar system (as internal needs are easily catered for), so they still have a mission that couldn't be carried out by robots to trade with aliens or to places not easily accessed by the Webway (as they were in spaceships). The fact that this kept them away for longer periods (generations?) would have added to the effect.

Another half of the path system is the 'War' paths are sort of the natural (healthy?) state for the Eldar, because Eldars were made for fighting.

[Hendarion]

Unless Eldar are only fertile for a very short time or their gestation periods are very long, (...)

Both is suggested to be the case btw.

[Baaltor]

Well, you'd bother if you were designing the race to combat Necrons for one. Because when the opposition is also high in technology, you need that extra bruteness to tip the scales. I mean, look at Space Marines. The Emperor had lots of technology at his disposal, yet he chose to create warriors that basically fixed the physical weaknesses of the human body, by making them able to be hardier, stronger and capable of operation in a sleep deprived state. Amongst other things. And look at the Tau, who are technologically very advanced but lack in physical attributes. They aren't a major power despite their insanely rapid evolution and regularly hire mercenaries with better physical characteristics to augment their forces. As do Dark Eldar in the form of Sslyth (although loyalty issues might be prime here too).

A horse is problematic, but a cat is a lot more agile and faster than a human, can squeeze into smaller spaces and if tripping over a trigger, can kill a man instantly with a firearm. A slightly larger cat, a Lynx perhaps, can even kill a man with bare claws and fangs if need be. Since the brain isn't about size (otherwise Elephants and Blue Whales would be the smartest things around) a quadrupedal creature, even a smaller one at that, could be smart but still flexible and physically capable. Where a man has lots of trouble scaling a mountain, goats for example skip up and down slopes that would make most climbers faint from fear.

Furthermore, cockpits and such are basically a bad design in the first place, if they rely on the movement of hands or legs to control. Nerval links are much faster and indiscriminate towards creature type, since the brain operates the craft as an extension of the body. The reason why Eldar fliers are modeled with joysticks or physical controls, IMO, is mostly just design choices. It doesn't look as War-y to have a guy sipping tea in the cockpit whilst flying ala "look Ma, no hands!" Though I do not doubt that Eldar wouldn't be capable of such control easily.

And I am only assuming that which has been stated many times: The Eldar are a dying race and their numbers are dwindling. (Which would also beckon the question of how many Eldar are there actually?)
As for male neccessity, was it stated that one Eldar female needs multiple partners or at least multiple impregnations to become pregnant? Nevertheless, one male can happily impregnate a score of women fast, because sperm reproduces quickly and carrying a baby takes time. Once a female is pregnant, she can't have another baby until that one is done. A male, however, can easily move onto his next baby even whilst the previous one is still "in the making". Not that Eldar would of course follow such a philosophy, but with all the Isha worship as the mother of all Eldar and such, it seems that the reverence of mothers is absent. Of course this may just be because the fluff hasn't gone there, for obvious reasons, but logically, for a race where births are few and far between and each life extremely presicous as your entire population is slowly dying out, mothers (even potential mothers) would be prescious for what they represent: the continuation of the species and the legacy of its parents/Craftworld/Eldar.

And lastly, there is lots of evidence of humans using fire to hunt mammoths back in the day when they still crossed the plains of Europe. Apparently, man was quite a clever hunter and caused massive forest fires to heard Mammoths into pits and traps. And even without such, humans can hunt even with nothing more than just a sharp stick. The Masai tribesmen still do and their technology is still stone-age level. Because humans do not have fur, they can perspirate through the skin. This makes us very good long-range runners, unlike most things on the Savannah. A capable hunter can out-last for example an antilope and simply wear it down before the beast falls over from overheating and the kill can be made by basically just poking it in the heart at literally point black range. I have seen this being done in a documentary and have no trouble believing it to be true. I can out-last dogs in running during the summer no problem...

And the notion of Lust being a dangerous feeling...
It always baffled me why the Eldar Paths were all either War-y or then artistic. It would seem logical that if the Path system is designed to allow the Eldar individual to safely try out all aspects of her psyche, then there would be such things as "Path of the Nympho" or "Path of the Drug-addict" for example.

To be honest I didn't read the ENTIRE thread, so I may have missed something. I just have some info which might help you.

As others have said there is little physical strength, size, and resilience difference between male and female Eldar, like Neanderthals or Tolkien Elves. Another fact that changes the value of women is that while they carry the child, they are no more important for the creation of it than the father. The father must contribute genetic info at multiple stages of the pregnancy*. It's also said that Eldar mating is extremely complicated, but I'm not sure what is meant by that.

*Source: Xenology if I recall. I know some people don't believe this is cannon, but what is in 40k?

[aim]

The father must contribute genetic info at multiple stages of the pregnancy*.

Interesting.... So is it possible for a single Eldar child to have multiple fathers?

[theJ]

Well, you'd bother if you were designing the race to combat Necrons for one. Because when the opposition is also high in technology, you need that extra bruteness to tip the scales. I mean, look at Space Marines. The Emperor had lots of technology at his disposal, yet he chose to create warriors that basically fixed the physical weaknesses of the human body, by making them able to be hardier, stronger and capable of operation in a sleep deprived state. Amongst other things. And look at the Tau, who are technologically very advanced but lack in physical attributes. They aren't a major power despite their insanely rapid evolution and regularly hire mercenaries with better physical characteristics to augment their forces. As do Dark Eldar in the form of Sslyth (although loyalty issues might be prime here too).

If we're using speezh muhreenz as an example, it's worth noting that those never ended up with four legs either (freaky chaos mutants aside, anyway... someone get on that conversion!). Why would "bruteness" even work against Necrons anyway? The Necrons kill you at range, and if you somehow get close enough to engage them in close combat they can easily phase out, nullifying your advantage entirely. As for the Tau, they're not quite as "superior" as they often seem - even the Imperium have plenty of stuff that makes the Earth Caste weep, the difference being that the Tau at least understand how their own stuff works. Even so, the Tau are seen as a high threat target. They devastate most Imperial forces, the only stuff really able to stand against them being the Space Marines, and even then, it's not the "bruteness" that wins the day - it's Power Armour being tough enough to withstand Pulse weapons, I.E. outteching, as opposed to outbruting.

A horse is problematic, but a cat is a lot more agile and faster than a human, can squeeze into smaller spaces and if tripping over a trigger, can kill a man instantly with a firearm. A slightly larger cat, a Lynx perhaps, can even kill a man with bare claws and fangs if need be. Since the brain isn't about size (otherwise Elephants and Blue Whales would be the smartest things around) a quadrupedal creature, even a smaller one at that, could be smart but still flexible and physically capable. Where a man has lots of trouble scaling a mountain, goats for example skip up and down slopes that would make most climbers faint from fear.

I used a horse as an example because someone(don't remember who) brought up centaurs as the optimal shape. But as you wish, let's use a sphinx as basis... still ends up with a fairly rigid shape - the "L-bend" would cause a lot of trouble and take up unneccessary space. I could see a weasel build work quite fine though - have a bendy back so you can use the front paws as both feet and hands. In that case however, we quickly run into a whole lot of new problems; A "foot" that is also built to allow for fine, delicate movement will have a lot of trouble excelling at both - this is actually a major problem, you have to choose if you want your limb to have a lot of power or a lot of precision. Cats, dogs and whatnot are generally better at running and fighting because their bodies are built for raw power, whereas humans are built for precision, which is a requirement for using advanced tools, which I'm assuming the "perfect warrior race" would have to be able to.
In the end, we end up in the situation where we've got a bear, cat or whatever naked on one side, and a fully armed and armoured human on the other. Will the animal still win, with its superior strength, reflexes and whatnot? Hell no. Tech trumps biology, and thus if tech is available from the start, it's the shape that can best utalise said tech which ends up victorious.

Furthermore, cockpits and such are basically a bad design in the first place, if they rely on the movement of hands or legs to control. Nerval links are much faster and indiscriminate towards creature type, since the brain operates the craft as an extension of the body. The reason why Eldar fliers are modeled with joysticks or physical controls, IMO, is mostly just design choices. It doesn't look as War-y to have a guy sipping tea in the cockpit whilst flying ala "look Ma, no hands!" Though I do not doubt that Eldar wouldn't be capable of such control easily.

I wasn't refering to the controls, I was refering to the tiny little room where the controls are found. Being forced to "waste" more space to fit the pilot means you've got less room to fit weapons, engines, and whatnot. Expanding on that, we've also got manifacture and maintenance to consider. At some point you're gonna have to use your hands, and you're gonna need a lot of flexibility with them, or you're not going to have any fancy tech to use in the first place.
I suppose the "optimal optimum" would really be to have several "warrior races", a flexible one that builds and maintains, a sturdy and strong one that fights, and possibly some sort of attack beast for close combat... hold on, why am I suddenly talking about greenskins?

And I am only assuming that which has been stated many times: The Eldar are a dying race and their numbers are dwindling. (Which would also beckon the question of how many Eldar are there actually?)
As for male neccessity, was it stated that one Eldar female needs multiple partners or at least multiple impregnations to become pregnant? Nevertheless, one male can happily impregnate a score of women fast, because sperm reproduces quickly and carrying a baby takes time. Once a female is pregnant, she can't have another baby until that one is done. A male, however, can easily move onto his next baby even whilst the previous one is still "in the making". Not that Eldar would of course follow such a philosophy, but with all the Isha worship as the mother of all Eldar and such, it seems that the reverence of mothers is absent. Of course this may just be because the fluff hasn't gone there, for obvious reasons, but logically, for a race where births are few and far between and each life extremely presicous as your entire population is slowly dying out, mothers (even potential mothers) would be prescious for what they represent: the continuation of the species and the legacy of its parents/Craftworld/Eldar.

"Dying race", sure... I'm fairly sure their numbers aren't actually dwindling, though. In fact, their numbers have risen considerably since the fall, with no signs of stopping. The Eldar aren't in as desperate a need for more numbers as you seem to think. They've got hundreds of craftworlds, each the home of millions if not billions of Eldar(the numbers varying quite a lot from craftworld to craftworld).
As for biology... yes... I'm fairly sure it was Xenology(which has gotten a lot of stuff wrong, but no other source talks about this subject, so I'm gonna use it anyway) that mentioned Eldar gestation, due to the complexity of their DNA, is done in several stages, all through the pregnancy, during which the male cannot "restart" with another female without messing up the original child. So no, a male Eldar gestating half the craftworld really wouldn't work.

And lastly, there is lots of evidence of humans using fire to hunt mammoths back in the day when they still crossed the plains of Europe. Apparently, man was quite a clever hunter and caused massive forest fires to heard Mammoths into pits and traps. And even without such, humans can hunt even with nothing more than just a sharp stick. The Masai tribesmen still do and their technology is still stone-age level. Because humans do not have fur, they can perspirate through the skin. This makes us very good long-range runners, unlike most things on the Savannah. A capable hunter can out-last for example an antilope and simply wear it down before the beast falls over from overheating and the kill can be made by basically just poking it in the heart at literally point black range. I have seen this being done in a documentary and have no trouble believing it to be true. I can out-last dogs in running during the summer no problem...

Speculation? Yes. Evidence? Hell no. I've heard of the technique, and frankly, had it ever happened, the mammoths would've been extinct long before the ice age ended. The Masai are an exception, not a rule. Their situation involves their prey not only being unable to fight back, but also terrain that does not impair the hunter or provides hiding places for the prey. Suffice to say that does not happen as often as you'd think, and even then, it still doesn't mean only men can do it - females run just as fast as males, and as you say, it's not like their big veiny forearms are going to make a blind bit of difference once the prey has been cornered.
Also, it directly counters your idea of four legs being superior to two legs. Jus' sayin'.

And the notion of Lust being a dangerous feeling...
It always baffled me why the Eldar Paths were all either War-y or then artistic. It would seem logical that if the Path system is designed to allow the Eldar individual to safely try out all aspects of her psyche, then there would be such things as "Path of the Nympho" or "Path of the Drug-addict" for example.

Uhm... because "nymphos" and "drug-addicts" are presicely the kind of stuff the path system is supposed to prevent? It is there to prevent the Eldar from falling to their base instincts, by providing tough, challenging work to focus on instead. Have you ever tried martial arts(30 minute demonstration at PE doesn't count)? Trust me, you won't have time to focus on anything else. And if you do? You get your ass kicked. Hard.
Other arts do much the same thing. It takes all of your mind to create a masterpiece. If your mind starts to wander, then you fail. You don't want to fail, do you?
At least, that is my interpretation. The path is about using your pride(compulsive need to do not fail) to keep your desire(doing other stuff) in check.

[Cthell]

Interesting.... So is it possible for a single Eldar child to have multiple fathers?

We have no evidence either way; all we have is a tech-adept's hypothesis that Eldar Conception may require multiple inputs of "male" DNA.

Also, on the whole "humanoid" issue; there is always the possibility that the Old Ones were 4-limbed Bipeds - after all, people tend to stick with what they know when creating "artificial people". Look at all the work that has gone into producing bipedal Androids, even though every objective analysis has concluded that multiple (usually at least 6) legs are a much more sensible arrangement. We have a strong suspicion that most of the life in the Galaxy (bar the 'Nids) was "seeded" by the Old Ones (3rd Ed. Necron 'Dex) so it is possible that they inadvertently rigged evolution in favour of "humanoid" life. Certainly, the Eldar, Orks, Hrud, and Jokaero were "designed" by the Old Ones, so that would explain why they are all 4-limbed bipeds with a head on top.

[TheDungen]

eldar and humans share an ancestry, the eldar were created by the old ones and the humans where created when the old ones lost control of their powers (this could easily means their technology) as they were destroyed.

its possible whatever the old ones used to create the eldar ran rampart and made similar changes to loads of spieces in the galaxy,its also possible the eldar were wrong and the creation of the human race wasnt a mistake but a final purposeful act by the old ones. we only have the eldar's word that the humans were a mistake and thta can be a statment of pride or even something they tell themselves to not have to face the fact that they were replaced.

[theJ]

eldar and humans share an ancestry, the eldar were created by the old ones and the humans where created when the old ones lost control of their powers (this could easily means their technology) as they were destroyed.

um... where is this from?

[Loqe]

Xenology, though of dubious veracity (Tau feet and Eldar fat springs to mind), stated that Eldar coupling requires the male throughout the gestation period to contribute genetic and psychic material. This implies that both parents are vital to a successful pregnancy, unlike humanity. An Eldar man can't knock a woman up then go to war and die.

Perhaps the psychic nature of the coupling means that an Eldar man can't father several children simultaneously? That would be another reason why a woman is no more vital to the population's continuation than a man, although this is just speculation.

[Denny]

Purely biologically speaking, running on two legs or standing upright is a terrible idea.

Off topic: There are some advantages to not running on four legs, stamina being one of them. Persistence hunting utilises human’s superior endurance (and lack of body hair) to run down prey animals until they collapse. Faster isn’t always better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o


On topic: if the elder really wanted to breed in massive numbers I am sure they could replicate their Dark kin’s artificial womb tech. They choose not. This suggests that they are not willing to perform certain acts even if they would ensure their long term survival. Presumably this includes reducing females to the status of breeding apparatus.

[eldargal]

Not to mention that nymphomania is hardly a guarantee of population growth (you know, because of reliable contraceptives, things we've had for decades now and the Eldar oculd have had for millions of years). Path of the Nympho is a stupid idea, a structured 'Path of Motherhood' less so.

The Path of the nympho concept is flawed, in that the path system is designed to avoid obsession and excess by experiencing things in a controlled fashion through an alternate personality that can then be cast aside whereas nymphomania or addiction are by their very definition uncontrolled excess.

[Lord Zarkov]

Not to mention that nymphomania is hardly a guarantee of population growth (you know, because of reliable contraceptives, things we've had for decades now and the Eldar oculd have had for millions of years). Path of the Nympho is a stupid idea, a structured 'Path of Motherhood' less so.

Path of the Nympho seems wrong and as people have mentioned somewhat against the spirit of the Path system.

A Path of Parenthood would seem sensible though, with focus on making and raising children, but probably made of both genders.

On the lines of the former though there may well be a Path of the Harlot - if such a profession exists it is almost certainly safer that it is within the structure of the path system then not, but Eldar may have moved (or been designed) beyond the need for it. Again it would almost certainly be of both genders.