Wraithbone

Eldar Portal

Wraithbone is a psycho-plastic substance used by the Eldar for many different tasks, including the construction of buildings, ships and weapons.^[1]

Overview

Wraithbone is essentially solidified warp energy that is manipulated by a Bonesinger into any shape that is required.^[6] All Eldar have the innate power to mould wraithbone, but Bonesingers spend several human lifetimes cultivating the art of using their psychomorphic talents to accelerate the formation of psychotropic crystals found in Wraithbone.^[9] Fragments of wraithbone can be used to seed new structures. Often holding the fragment in place via telekinesis and coaxing the wraithbone fragment to take root and begin to grow, following the desired pattern, at which point it is released from the Eldar's telekinetic hold. Older pieces of wraithbone take more time and coaxing to change their form, growing slowly.^[8]

Metal cannot shatter wraithbone.^[8] It is stronger than any known plasteel and harder to damage than adamantium,^[1] with 8-10mm of wraithbone being equivalent to 30-45mm of Imperial armour material,^[5] and will naturally repair itself, though the process can be sped up by a Bonesinger.^[1] Wraithbone itself is a thousand times stronger than steel.^[4]

Being created from the warp, wraithbone has innate psychic abilities allowing it to be used as a communications pathway as well as structural support. It carries psychic energy much as a cable carrying current does, as well as containing psychic shields to protect the occupants from the warp.^[3]

Wraithbone effectively performs all of the tasks a machine would. The organic members of the crew use psychic powers to perform their duties, but it is the wraithbone itself that actually does it. In the case of Eldar ships, the basic framework is created from wraithbone and then the internal areas are made, finishing with the actual internal components. Even the mighty Craftworlds are made of wraithbone, and this is how the occupants of Craftworlds survived the birth of Slaanesh, for the psychic shield of the wraithbone protected them from his mighty psychic scream.^[3]

Wraithbone is used to form Eldar Runes, complex interwoven shapes in distinct patterns. Because they are made of wraithbone the runes retain a connection with the warp, and have the ability to both contain and direct psychic energy. Wraithbone Runes have a protective function, being themselves impervious to external psychic energies, the runes serve as fuses destroying themselves and severing the connection between the Seer and the Warp.^[9]

Psychic Engineering

The Eldar use Wraithbone to make the skeletal cores of their buildings and spacecraft, providing a functional skeleton around which functional structures are arranged. Because wraithbone conducts and channels psychic energy, it facilitates internal communication between systems, transmits power, and enables the craft to act as an organically integrated whole. The same psychomorphism that creates the wraithbone skeleton can be used to fabricate the individual systems of a ship which in turn are laid out over the basic structure of the wraithbone core on which they draw power and form which they are monitored and controlled. This growth method provides an organic, flowing appearance lacking in hard angular edges.^[9]

Notes

The following information is not to be regarded as officially sanctioned and/ or is not written from an in-universe point of view. A detailed explanation of the term "Trivia" as used in the Lexicanum can be found here.

• Note 1: The exact nature of wraithbone is somewhat contradicted in the 10th Edition Eldar Codex, stating that it is grown from preexisting minerals, ores, and various other compounds into a psycho-plastic substance.^[7] This differs from older lore, which portrays Wraithbone as being grown from the energy of the Warp itself;^[6] being composed of crystallised psychic energy.^[10]

See also

• Waystones and Dreamstones — grown from something similar to Wraithbone^[2]
• Soulglass

Sources

This article includes as a source one the three Black Library novels reissued under the now-defunct Heretic Tomes banner (Farseer, Pawns of Chaos, Space Marine) which, per the Publication Disclaimer, contained material considered outdated or inconsistent with established background lore. The banner has not appeared since 2016, leaving the status of these works uncertain – except for Space Marine whose description now labels it a “curiosity.”

• 1: Codex: Eldar (2nd Edition), pg. 5
• 2: Farseer (Novel), Chapters Eleven & Thirteen ^{Heretic Tomes}
• 3: Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pg. 13
• 4: Codex: Chaos (2nd Edition), pg. 107 — The Tides of the Warp
• 5: Inferno! 41, pg. 19 — Vampire Raider
• 6: White Dwarf 127 (UK), pg. 16
• 7: Codex: Aeldari (10th Edition), pg. 24
• 8: The Silent King (Novel), Chapter 8
• 9: Doom of the Eldar (Game), pgs. 15-16
• 10: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, Dictionary