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==Overview==
[[Image:Craftworld.jpg|thumb|right|Eldar Craftworld by [[John Blanche]]{{Fn|10}}]]
Craftworlds were, during the [[Eldar Empire]], trading vessels and they travel through the void of space and through the [[Webway]]. Typical trading missions would take centuries and travel thousands of lightyears beyond Eldar space before turning home. Craftworlds in their hayday heyday were self-contained communities housing hundreds of families.{{Fn|4c}} These Craftworlds would be constructed in titanic star docks, which themselves were crafted by the legendary [[Bonesinger]]s of [[Ceith-Cailli]].{{Fn|19}} Their populations were often isolated from the other Eldar of their planet (for which the vessels would be named) affording their societies ever more apparent glimpses into the decline of their civilization upon every return. In the final voyages before the fall, seeing the ruins of their civilization, the Craftworlds opened their doors to those still-sane Eldar of their planets opting most often to flee into the depths of space – not every craftworld escaped the birth of [[Slaanesh]], those that did not were destroyed in the psychic overspill and consumed by the dark prince.{{Fn|4c}}
Since the [[Fall of the Eldar|Fall]] the original ships have grown considerably in size, now ten or a hundred times larger than the trading vessels at their cores,{{Fn|18}} nearly all have parts that now lie at least partly ruinous awaiting reclamation.{{Fn|4c}} Craftworlds are in many ways living entities, powered by psychic energy from its [[Infinity Circuit]] and responding in an organic way to the stimuli of its resident Eldar's psychic forces.{{Fn|8b}} An additional power source and means of propulsion for a Craftworld are its massive [[Solar Sail]]s, which absorb the energy of nearby stars.{{Fn|21c}}
Prior to the Fall, Craftworlds were vast trading ships, effectively whole self-contained communities housing hundreds of Eldar families. Trading missions could take the Craftworlds thousands of light years beyond Eldar civilisation, separating the community from its homeworld for centuries. This meant the Craftworld communities had already developed a strong sense of independence and self-reliance, so they remained mostly separate from the increasing decadence of their species. Because a Craftworld might return to the rest of Eldar civilisation only three or four times in a thousand years, it was easy for them to see the degeneration of Eldar society, while to the Eldar as a whole the slow corruption was too gradual to recognise.{{Fn|1a}}
As the final weeks leading to the cataclysm approached, the returning Craftworlds' crews finding found their worlds in ruin. Taking with them any Eldar who still remained sane, the Craftworlds fled the Eldar civilisation. Some Craftworlds were caught and consumed by [[Chaos]] along with the Eldar worlds as the [[Eye of Terror]] tore open reality, others survived for thousands of years before their people finally faded and died, while others endure to this day.{{Fn|4b}}
===Recent History===
