how does an entire craftworld of tasty souls survive in the Eye?

[OgreBattle]

So Altansar is pulled into the warp and... then it comes back out a few thousand years later. We see they still have crappy guardians, like anyone else, because that horrible magenta colorscheme shows up in the 4e codex.

Did they 'covertly' get sucked into the Eye and no chaos marines noticed? None of the 4 gods noticed? No demons casually noticed?
We got fluff of a single keeper of secrets annihilating a craftworld. We got fluff single marine chapters destroying craftworlds. We got fluff of tyranid swarms accidentally bumping into craftworlds and starting a fight...

So how the heck did Altansar not get eaten by an army of demons immediately?

[Poseidal]

The eye is where the material world and warp intersect, but time travels differently in the warp, so maybe in the material world they were gone for 10,000 years, but in the warped eye they've only been in there a few hours from their point of view.

[Drasanil]

Well the Black Crusade ending referred to them as ghostly and such. I'm tempted to say a nascent-not-fully-yet-conscious Ynnead... if only because its time the CWE got a decent break.

[stormblade]

Fluff armour!

Psyk cloaking fields, meditation induced mind hibernation or something similar maybe.

[Idaan]

We got fluff of a single keeper of secrets annihilating a craftworld. We got fluff single marine chapters destroying craftworlds. We got fluff of tyranid swarms accidentally bumping into craftworlds and starting a fight...

That's because the story of Altansar was written before the fluff hyperinflation came.

[khirsath]

Fluff Hyperinflation is such a great term

I recall the survivors being ghostly when the Eye of Terror was written up. Maybe they didn't escape unscathed? Though the idea that Ynnead protected them to be tantalizing as it opens many more story lines to advance the Eldar besides just killing off craftworlds. Of course such blessings from a protective warp entity aren't usually 100% good things. Sure they survived, but the nascent warp deity took its tole

[FarseerMatt]

None of the 4 gods noticed? No demons casually noticed? We got fluff of a single keeper of secrets annihilating a craftworld.
So how the heck did Altansar not get eaten by an army of demons immediately?

To be fair, even that rather silly story admits that craftworlds have various wards and safeguards that make it virtually impossible for daemons to get in unless someone on said craftworld is "tempted" (or in the story's case, picks up the idiot ball). Other than that, perhaps an assembly of seers were burning themselves out day and night to maintain a kind of Gellar Field, or as Khirsath suggests perhaps they had the help of a nascent Ynnead?

You could ask similar questions about how the Legion of the Damned survived and remained, if not unchanged, then at least pure of purpose.

[TheDungen]

if a lone person can survive in the warp then why is it so strange that a fully armoured armed and manned craftworld can survive in the eye? And as for corruption the eldar have much better controll over such things than humans.

In the old days a craftworld could take on an entire tyranid splinterfleet and survive (bareley).

[eldargal]

The infinity circuit also protects the Craftworld. It could simply be that that and a favourable position within the Eye (less chaotic energy, out of the way of raiding parties etc.) and time distortion meant they were able to survive. The eldar do seem to be able to push back warp breaches, in the same Eye of Terror campaign they reclaimed an enclave on one of the Crone worlds.

[FarseerMatt]

Two, actually - they're still working on that "enclave" on Eidolon, but they completely reclaimed their old capital world of Belial IV (which was, incidentally, mainly thanks to the reappearance of Altansar).

[eldargal]

I thought they abandoned Belial IV again? But yes, it is clear they can push back Chaos when they have a reason to. If they can create an enclanve on one daemon world and free another one completely a single Craftworld surviving with a bit of luck doesn't seem unreasonable.

[stormblade]

They took a planet named Belial?
Yeah, that's going to end up well.

[Poseidal]

It was one of the Eldar core worlds before the fall.

[Lupe]

They took a planet named Belial?
Yeah, that's going to end up well.

Better than naming one Armageddon?

[stormblade]

Better than naming one Armageddon?

Good point.

[OgreBattle]

Isn't Belial a Blood Angel? The Goodguys having the names of demons and the badguy demons having the names of puns...

[Shadey]

There is a Dark Angels character called Belial, the latest Master of the Deathwing iirc.

I wouldn't be surprised if the danger of Chaos is overstated and they are not as omnipresent as first impressions portray. Makes sense, they try so hard to make this a dark dystopian galaxy that they inflate the the power of the bad guys. I am not fond of that interpretation but it does reconcile certain events which leave you wondering "Why are daemons not tea-bagging these guys right about now?" *cough* Draigo. If extra sneaky perhaps the Eldar could have survived.

[Polaria]

That's because the story of Altansar was written before the fluff hyperinflation came.

In the case of Eldar and their craftworlds I think the basic problem that existed right from the start was that in the early fluff there was maybe a dozen craftworlds total and the silly writers wrote them to be pretty small... Like cities of maybe a couple of hundred thousand or a million inhabitants, tops.

Then, at some point, the fanbase realized that if there really was only a dozen craftworlds those needed to be ridiculously huge to have any impact on the universe. So the fanbase, on their own accord, retconned the craftworlds into basically invulnerable, unbeatable hulks of billions and billions of eldar.

At the same time the designers realized that in order to write epic stories where craftworlds have some impact but can also be destroyed (i.e aren't invulnerable to everything) they needed many craftworlds. So, quite opposite to what fanbase was thinking, they retconned the number of craftworlds into several hundreds or thousands but kept their size and population levels comparatively small.

Thus the current canon seems to say that the craftworld are numerous but small enough to be actually endangered or destroyed by level of power comparative to what is needed to destroy or endanger a single Space Marine Chapter. Like a splinter swarm of Tyrannids or a major daemonic incursion. You could say that craftworlds are the eldar equivalent of a space marine chapter in both power and resilience. However, at the same time a certain faction of eldar fans say that a single craftworld is basically an eldar equivalent of imperial Segmentum. Invulnerable, undestructible and nigh-omnipotent hulks of billion times billion eldar. Add oldie BFG fluff and new Mat Ward fluff to the mix, a spoonfull of angry fans, let it simmer for a few years and its another regular GW soup yet again.

[Shamana]

So, quite opposite to what fanbase was thinking, they retconned the number of craftworlds into several hundreds or thousands but kept their size and population levels comparatively small.

Was any clarification on size and population ever done, though? As far as I know, there are no detailed explanations of craftworld demographics, at least nothing official from GW. I do not know what is the average population for a major craftworld - a million Eldar? Fifty million? 2-3 Billion? Is a minor one on average a third of that? A tenth? A hundredth? Considering the human, orc, tyrannid or even necron numbers any of these would be a drop in the bucket compared to the other factions, but the difference is huge; especially if the craftworld is expecting an invasion and is undergoing near-full mobilization.

As for size, the only details I am aware of is that that BFG made them planetoid to planet-sized. That is a lot of space, especially if the interior of the craftworld is also populated.

[Poseidal]

GW were the ones suggesting Craftworlds couldn't be invaded: they still say the last invasion attempt ended in disaster. Craftworld forces also contain many titans, and they can do warfare with many of them and be able to have them plotted by birth triplets, stating triplets are a rarity; this implies that the population pool is large enough to provide sufficient pilots for these war machines.

The Iyanden board in doom of the Eldar had domes containing seas and continents with mountain ranges. The picture of inside a Craftworld in the 5th rulebook looked like a never ending metropolis.