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The Fall of the Eldar occurred over ten thousand years ago and ended the Eldar supremacy of the Milky Way galaxy. The Eldar were at the height of their empire, holding sway over the vast majority of the galaxy. Their worlds were paradises full of peace and cultural achievement, until their dominion was all but destroyed.
Long ago, the Old Ones prophesied the Eldar's fall, but their warning was ignored and forgotten over time. The Eldar came to believe that all races were below them, going so far as calling them barbarians. This proud and arrogant attitude was supported by their advanced technology and control of the Webways. They created many beautiful things, lived long lives, and returned to the Warp upon death. Slowly, the pride of the Eldar overcame their caution and they became ever more proud and arrogant. They had long since outgrown the need for physical labour as their technology provided all, leaving them with only their own desires to satisfy.
Many gave in to their hedonistic desires and cults sprang up on all Eldar worlds, each dedicated to a different aspect of arcane knowledge and sensual excess. Gradually, the Eldar society grew more and more divided. The people became increasingly corrupt, delving into vicious practices verging on sadism. Insane killers prowled the streets in search of victims, attempting to find new ways to satisfy their needs, but no violent act could slate their unquenchable thirst. Soon the streets were running with blood, and the bestial roar of crowds could be heard throughout the Eldar empire.
However, the degeneration of the Eldar did not happen without resistance. Many Eldar free from the corruption - from raving madmen to genuine survivalists - fled their homeworlds in assorted spacecraft. After battling numerous dangers in space and disasters at the hands of natural predators and Ork incursions, these 'Exodites' (named from their 'Exodus') settled untamed worlds far from Eldar space, at the fringes of the galaxy. Life was difficult for a people unfamiliar with physical labour and plagued by self-denial.
As a direct result of this foul depravity, a new Chaos god was spawned: Slaanesh, the consequence of the Eldar's lusts and desires. No other creature of the Warp had as violent a birth as Slaanesh, or was as powerful or monstrous. Shortly before the Chaos god's birth, the Eldar had been plagued with premonitions of the dark deity. Yet, like the Old Ones' prophecy, they were ignored. The Eldar slew each other and feasted on the corpses of their fellow kin while the worlds around them burned. With a horrible scream that pierced the galaxy, Slaanesh was born. There was not a single Eldar who didn't feel the painful psychic backlash.
The epicenter of the explosion lay within the heart of the Eldar homeworlds, where most of the Eldar population was concentrated. Many Eldar in a thousand light-year radius died, their spirits sucked into the Warp, and many fleeing Craftworlds were overtaken. Far from Eldar space, most of the Exodite worlds survived the Fall. The Eldar were now a scattered race, bound to be hunted by the Great Enemy for the rest of eternity as chastisement for their depravity. Some Eldar believe that there is a final hope: Ynnead, the Eldar God of Death, is slowly growing in the collective Infinity Circuits of the surviving Craftworlds. When enough Eldar souls join the Circuits, all the Craftworlds will unite and create one massive Infinity Circuit, giving Ynnead life as a new power in the Warp. It will be strong enough to battle and subdue Slaanesh, redeeming the Eldar race once and for all.
The area that was the center of the Eldar empire became the Eye of Terror. The ancient Crone Worlds of the Eldar are now the homes of the Daemon Princes and of the Chaos Space Marines.