he Emerald Tear — My Homebrew Aeldari Kindred
I've been collecting Aeldari Corsairs and Wraiths, and now that I've started adding Exodites to the army, I wanted to create some homebrew lore that could bring all three together into one coherent faction. So I'd like to share the Emerald Tear with you. I'd love to hear your feedback, especially if you spot any lore inconsistencies or anything that doesn't quite fit within the wider Aeldari lore.
The Emerald Tear
or simply the Tear, is a wandering remnant of a destroyed Maiden World, made up of Exodites, Corsairs, Outcasts and the spirits of their dead. I wanted them to feel like their own little Aeldari culture, somewhere between a Craftworld, an Exodite society and a Corsair free-port.
The Shattering
Thousands of years ago, their Maiden World, Eirath, was overrun by daemons. The corruption eventually reached the World Spirit, and the surviving Exodites and an allied Corsair band that came to their aid realised that Eirath could no longer be saved. Rather than die with their world, they voted to save what they could.
Using ancient Aeldari technology, combined with some salvaged Drukhari machinery, they tore an entire continent and part of its surrounding sea from Eirath. The process succeeded, but only barely. The continent survived, but Eirath itself was destroyed, and the World Spirit fractured during the process.
What remains is only a shard, a shadow of what the Spirit once was.
The surviving continent became their new home. They built a gigantic spacecraft beneath it, turning the land itself into a wandering world-ship that travels through the Void.
Because of its shape and its lush green land, others called it the Emerald Tear. But the inhabitants themselves simply call it the Tear. They refer to themselves as Children of the Tear or short Tearborn.
The name Eirath is rarely spoken. Eirath is the world that was. The Tear is what remains.
The Search for a New Home
The Tearborn have spent thousands of years searching for a world where their World Spirit can finally take root and their lost Maiden World can be reborn.
Corsair scout fleets search the galaxy for suitable planets. When they find one, an expedition carries a seed of the World Spirit to the planet and attempts to establish it.
If the world is inhabited by a population small enough to be dealt with, the Tearborn may simply eradicate them, else they just keep away from the population centres and continue with their work in secret.
On some worlds, the seed takes root only partially. The planet's ecosystems begin to change, its flora and fauna mutating into dangerous and unnatural versions of themselves. The planet becomes increasingly hostile and unstable. Sometimes they remain for years trying to understand what went wrong. Eventually, they have to abandon the world and continue their search. These worlds become known as the Withered Worlds.
Though some failed worlds have a worse fate.
Where the failed World Spirit seed penetrates deeply into the psychic fabric of the planet, the result is more than just some mutations. The boundary between body, mind and soul of the inhabitants begins to collapse. They are transformed into twisted, strange, chaotic beings that no longer reflect in any waywhat they once were. They are called Banshees, named for the terrible cries and psychic wails that now haunt their warped worlds. The Tearborn call these worlds the Ghost Worlds.
Occasionally, someone escapes this fate. Those survivors are called Specters.
The Tear offers them a home, but sanctuary does not undo what happened to them. A Specter may still carry the scars of their world, altered bodies, fractured memories or psychic wounds. They will never truly be what they were before.
But they still get to be part of the Children of the Tear and the Ship has room for them, as long as they do their part.
Some worlds come much closer to success.
The seed takes root. The World Spirit begins to connect with the planet. Eventually, the Tear itself arrives and the Aeldari attempt to transfer the Spirit completely. But the planet simply cannot withstand it. The crust fractures beneath the psychic pressure. Continents split apart. Oceans rise. The planet tears itself open.
These worlds are remembered by name.
The Shattered.
The Tearborn have a list of them. Each name is another mark of failure. Each is a world that was once a possible home. Each is now a grave.
And the path of the Tear has acured a reputation. It is a trail of worlds that were wounded, twisted or destroyed in the Tearborn's search for a new home.
The greatest catastrophe was not a failed attempt to seed a world.
It was an attempt to merge two World Spirits.
The Tearborn found another Maiden World and its people willingly offered their World Spirit. The Spiritseers believed that the Spirit of Eirath could be joined with another Maiden World Spirit, creating something greater than either alone.
They were catastrophically wrong.
The merging broke the Spirit of the world.
The two Spirits became tangled together, memories and identities collapsing into one another. The once-peaceful Maiden World became a psychic nightmare: a twisted landscape of madness and death where nothing could survive. The Exodites who lived there were lost.
The world became known as the Mad Maiden.
The Children of the Tear
The Tear has gradually become a refuge for Aeldari from all walks of life: Exodites, Corsairs, Craftworlders, Outcasts and even the occasional former Drukhari.
There is no one ruler.
Instead, they are governed by the Ninefold Council, commonly called the Nine Voices.
Three voices represent the Land and Exodites:
- The Voice of War — represents the warriors and clans, and oversees the defence of the Tear.
- The Voice of Soul — represents the spiritual traditions, the Bonesingers, and tends to the integrityof the Tear.
- The Voice of Land — represents the living continent itself, its forests, beasts and settlements.
Three represent the Void and Corsairs:
- The Voice of the Tear — the Captain of the Tear, responsible for the ship and its militaryvessels.
- The Voice of Dreams — the Void-Dreamer, responsible for navigation through the Webway and the psychic currents of the Void.
- The Voice of the Far Reach — commander of the scouting fleets, responsible for finding and investigating potential new worlds.
And three represent the Dead and Remembered:
- The Voice of Spirits — the chief Spiritseer, who communicates with the World Spirit and the dead.
- The First Captain — the ancient Corsair leader who helped save Eirath, now a Wraithlord commanding the Corsair souls among the Wraith hosts.
- The First Keeper — the ancient Exodite leader who fought during the Shattering, now a Wraithlord commanding the Exodite souls among the Wraith hosts.
Some of the Wraithguard and Wraithblades of the Tear are constantly awake, some are awakened from the World Spirit when their strength is needed. All of them are remembered by name and deed.
The Council has no single ruler. Decisions must be made between the Nine Voices, and disagreements are common. Especially between the First Captain and First Keeper. Both want to restore Eirath. While the First Captain believes the Children need a home soon, the First Keeper prioritises the World Spirit's integrity. It is already incomplete; she will not allow it to be changed into something it was never meant to become.
A Refuge and a Planet Killer
The Tearborn do not see themselves as conquerors. They see themselves as survivors.
Anyone seeking refuge is welcome, regardless of their origin, as long as they contribute to the survival of the Tear. You may choose how you serve, but you cannot choose whether you serve.
But to the wider galaxy, the distinction between survivor and conqueror can be meaningless.
The Tear arrives at a System.
Its Corsairs investigate planets.
Its Spiritseers judge them.
An expedition plants the seed.
Sometimes the inhabitants are killed.
Sometimes the world withers.
Sometimes its people become Banshees.
Sometimes the planet shatters.
Then the tear leaves, abandoning another wounded world behind it.
And so, over thousands of years, the Tear has left a trail through the galaxy.
Withered worlds. Ghost worlds. Shattered worlds. Dead worlds.
The Children of the Tear look behind them and see a history of failed attempts to save their people.
Others look at that same history and only see a planet killer.
A green continent drifting through the Void, carrying the remnants of a dead Maiden World and searching for somewhere else to take root.