Iyanden

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Artist's rendering of the Iyanden emblem

Iyanden is one of the Eldar Craftworlds featured in the Warhammer 40,000 fictional universe.

Iyanden is the least populated of the Eldar Craftworlds, although it was once the largest. They barely survived an attack by the Tyranid Hive Fleet Kraken, which nearly destroyed the Craftworld and killed four-fifths of its population. On the verge of total annihilation, Iyanden was saved from complete destruction by the exiled Prince Yriel, who had formerly been the High Admiral of the Iyanden fleet. Yriel and his exile pirate raiders, even though previously vowing never to return to Iyanden, could not bear to have their craftworld destroyed and launched an attack on the Tyranid fleet. Taking the final battle to the craftworld itself, Yriel used an ancient artefact spear to slay the Hive Tyrant that led the assault. In doing so, Yriel doomed himself to a slow and painful death due to the psychic artifact being bound to its user and burning their soul. Regardless of his actions, the chances of Iyanden recovering from its losses are slim and their future looks bleak.

Iyanden Craftworld from Doom of the Eldar board game. note the warp gate at the rear (right) of the craftworld.

Eldar of Iyanden rely much more heavily upon the spirits of the dead to defend them because of their low numbers. Iyanden makes heavy use of undead warriors known as Wraithguard and Wraithlords animated by the souls of their fallen kin. They have specialised psykers called Spiritseers who are trained in aiding the reanimated souls in battle. However, most Eldar see Spiritseers as necromancers, and even the Spiritseers themselves hate disturbing the spirits of the dead. Indeed, on the eve of the attack by Hive Fleet Kraken, Iyanden's leader Farseer Kelmon made the fateful decision to take the spirit stones from their resting places and place them into Wraithbone constructs to take to battle, knowing that they would make the difference in the craftworld's survival.[1]

Since the release of the 2006 eldar Codex, all craftworld eldar armies can field Spiritseers to help guide their wraith-construct warriors, not just Iyanden.

The symbol of Iyanden is the Shrine of Asuryan. Asuryan is one of the most famous of the Eldar Gods. The Phoenix Lords all are some of the "children" of Asuryan, and Asurmen is the very "Hand of Asuryan".

[edit] References

• Priestley, Rick (1994). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Eldar, 2nd Edition, Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-872372-74-0. 
• Thorpe, Gav (2000). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Craftworld Eldar. Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 1-84154-029-3. 
• Priestley, Rick (2006). Warhammer 40,000 Codex: Eldar, 4th Edition, Nottingham: Games Workshop. ISBN 5-011921-909896. 

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