Spirit stone

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Eldar Spirit Stones[2a], also known as Waystones[3a] or Soul Stones[1a], or mythically as the Tears of Isha[2a], are gem-like stones worn upon an Eldar's chest[1a] which act as conduits for Eldar Psychic Powers and making Wraithbone[2a] and which capture the psychic energy of an Eldar's soul at the moment of their death, preventing their still-conscious spirit from entering the Warp and being preyed upon by Slaanesh.[1a] Spirit Stones containing the spirits of the dead are interred within a Craftworld's Infinity Circuit.[1a]

Overview

Exodite Spirit Stone, illustrated by Inquisitor Maturin Ralei of the Ordo Xenos.[20]

Faceted glassy spheres[2a] of gem-like polished psycho-receptive stone[3a] crystals called carrecenad or soul-stone.[6] It is a well kept secret even among the Eldar themselves that spirit-stones are actually formed from the psychic energy of the ghosts of Eldar who died during the Birth of Slaanesh, their spirits tormented forever by Slaanesh to see the lives they can no longer possess and to reenact their death, after each cycle of which they leave behind Spirit Stones on the Crone Worlds within the Eye of Terror[2b] which dissolve once more into the Warp unless collected.[8] Eldar Mythology, which is the living history of the eldar, tell of the origin of Spirit Stones in the ancient past as the "Tears of Isha" which were forged by Vaul such that Kurnous and Isha could speak with the Eldar without Asuryan knowing[2a] – this is taken today as a metaphor for the crystallisation of the psychic energies within the Eye of Terror associated with the Fall of the Eldar.[2b]

The Asuryani will go to incredible lengths to preserve and recover Spirit Stones.[3a] In the context of a warhost the primary duty of a Spiritseer is to recover Spirit Stones,[5b] but beyond these the task falls to Rangers on the Path of the Outcast to do the extremely dangerous task of delving across ancient fields of battle and into the Eye of Terror itself to recover and find new Spirit Stones.[5c] It is only in this capacity that any relations are kept with the Chaotic Eldar, such as those in the Tyrakesh Archeomarket on Arach-Cyn, who trade with rangers for collected Spirit Stones.[11] Quests may be taken by Wraithknights to raid Crone Worlds of their Spirit Stones,[9] as famously was the task of the Twelve Outcasts of Alaitoc in 334.M36 – the first since the fall to recover new Spirit Stones.[5a] The earliest known recovery of waystones was in M33 from the crone world of Falladon, recovered by Mehlendri Silversoul and returned to her craftworld of Iyanden. There she would labour with bonesingers to adept the infinity circuit.[4c] Exodites too wear Spirit Stones, although the provenance of such stones is yet unclear.[1b] Not all Spirit Stones recovered on Crone Worlds are empty, and while some contain the immortal essences of great scholars and heroes of the Eldar Empire, more often they contain a malevolent soul that rages at its confinement within the crystal.[4a] When a spirit stone absorbs the soul of the departed, it will change in colour, such as from a dark violet to a bright red.[20]

Not all souls are willing to join the infinity circuit[5f] and they too are used as tools: those containing the souls of powerful Eldar heroes can guide and inform those who wield them,[5f] retaining the identity, personality, and memories of the spirit as psychic energy,[1a] as well as those containing malevolent spirits recovered from the Eye of Terror which are only fit to be embedded into systems such as Wraithcannons.[4a] A Spirit Stone is a tool in the hands of an Eldar Seer[2a] and it is the Spirit Stone which allows a Bonesinger to draw raw energy from the warp to shape it into the matter known as Wraithbone.[7] Spirit Stones glow brightly in the hands of Bonesingers, turn blue in the hands of Farseers and red or orange when handled by a Warlock.[7][2a] Spirit Stones enable a Farseer the full extent of their psychic abilities (e.g. Eldritch Might, Illusion, or Vigor).[6]

Spirit Stones are durable but may be crushed, as Keepers of Secrets enjoy doing,[14] although it may result in a small explosion, such as the one which sent Trythos the Space Marine wielding it flying a few metres away.[13] It is also a monstrous act to remove the waystone of a dying Eldar, the kind remembered in only the darkest of Asuryani fables of the Dark Eldar, for it felt to the body as torture while the soul itself would cry out to the Warp calling any nearby Daemons.[23]

Kyganil inters the Soul-stones of his Troupe within the Dome of Crystal Seers of a craftworld.[25]

Spirit Stones containing souls of the dead are interred into the Wraithbone core of a Craftworld,[3a] most often the one in which the Aeldari lived in life,[2a] where they take root and grow into tall trees[1a] or other structures (such as on Iyanden where the Battle Dead now form bizarre spiralling shapes in the halls where they fell) and their souls enter the Infinity Circuit.[3a] When Exodites die, their stones are brought beneath the earth into a great barrow where they are broken upon the altar of the World Spirit and laid to rest.[1b] It is believed by the Ynnari, the Eldar cult, that when enough Eldar souls have been interred within the Infinity Circuits that the new god Ynnead will emerge to vanquish Slaanesh, freeing the Eldar from their doom.[3d]

Spirit stones are affected by the Stilling and the Contra-Empyric energies of the Necron Pylons. While they still capture the souls of dying Aeldari, after doing so they appear milky and dull, emanating with malaise and sorrow. Alaitoc, who has primarily encountered these affected stones, has not returned any to its Infinity Circuit in the fear the condition might spread to the Craftworld's core.[21]

Not all Aeldari wear Spirit Stones, although all Asuryani[2a] and Exodites do.[1b] Harlequins choose not to, as their soul is protected by Cegorach[16] (although some nevertheless do)[25], similarly the Ynnari do not wear Spirit Stones of their own, trusting their soul to Ynnead – the Reborn do however carry Spirit Stones of the Dead whose power they can potently draw upon.[17] The Drukhari of Commorragh, secreted in the Webway, feed off the pain and misery of other beings to prevent their souls from being slowly and agonisingly leeched by Slaanesh (and those who can afford to do so employ Haemonculi to revive their souls into new forms on death).[16] Eldar Corsairs prize Spirit Stones, with even some Drukhari adopting them[14b] – although not all Corsairs do so as it is equally an act of bravado to go without.[14c] Ancient Aeldari from before the Fall of the Eldar did not wear Spirit Stones[18] possibly because the Warp was not a predatory place for still-sentient Eldar souls yet.[3a]

Waystones

Waystones are, essentially, large spirit stones.[15] Unlike other spirit stones they can be imparted a portion of a still-living Eldar soul allowing other Seers to communicate with and draw upon it.[15] Eldrad Ulthran famously did so to his own soul in preparation for the 13th Black Crusade,[3e] which enabled him to guide the myriad strike forces through the webway to coordinate attacks and unleash the full potency of his psychic Eldritch Storm attacks in multiple places at once.[15] Despite this difference in stature, the term "waystone" is synonymous with any Spirit Stone.[3a]

Wraith Constructs

Main article: Wraith Construct

In times of great need Spiritseers[5b] may separate an Aeldari spirit from the spiritual mass of a Craftworld's Infinity Circuit to place it into a Spirit Stone put aside for this purpose and implant it into an artificial form,[1a] although the consciousness within is never fully as individual or alert as a living Aeldari as they exist at once in the real world and the spiritual world of the Warp, moving through reality as in a dream where thoughts and feelings are as tangible as bone and steel.[1a] This necromancy is unpopular, but viewed as a necessity of the dire circumstances many Craftworlds find themselves in.[5b] These spirits may be implanted in bodies as such as the Wraithguard[1a] or Wraithlord[5b], or in vehicles to serve as pilots should the living pilot be rendered senseless such as is necessitated within the Hemlock Wraithfighter[5d] or as an enhancement to a Grav-Tank.[5e]

The largest of the Wraith Constructs, the Eldar Titans, require living Steersmen to guide them across the battlefield. To accomplish this tremendous task, these mortal pilots wear unremovable Spirit Stone headbands (in addition to the Spirit Stone which will save their soul from Slaanesh should they perish) that are hewn from the tremendous stones of carrecenad within their titan and allow them to psychically interface with the small-scale Infinity Circuit inside that stone comprised of a portion of every Steersmen's soul and the initial seed soul of a Lord-Phoenix entombed in the stone during "Soul Grafting". The intermixing of these souls creates a new gestalt within the titan, which is reflected by the addition of ever more new runic letters onto the titan's Spirit Seal, and in the tremendous tactical expertise present in venerable titans. As titans are often passed along familial lines within the Titan Clans, a titan's soul may reflect generations of direct ancestors.[24]

Notable Spirit Stones

Images

  • Spirit Stone[10]

  • The Tear of Selevia, a necklace fashioned from a midnight-blue Spirit Stone looted from a powerful Seer, as it appears on the cover of the story of the same name.[22]

Trivia

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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.

In Codex Titanicus (1st Edition), it is mentioned that Titan Clans would reshape the Spirit Stones they carry on their chests into a shapes which better match their clan heraldry, such as Fir Lirithion into the shape of a heart. This idea, that one could reshape a spirit stone, has not been repeated in any souce since and it is unclear what shapes besides heart were even plausible to exist as the symbol of Fir Iolarion was an eagle on fire.[24]

See also

Sources

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