Mr Exodite

Back in the day, we had rules for the following Eldar factions:

Harlequins

Craftworld Eldar

Eldar Pirates

Eldar Exodites

But there was one other Eldar faction mentioned: Chaos Eldar.

This made total sense. We’re talking about a race that birthed Slaanesh. Of course some of them would fall to Chaos.

But, in 1998, Games Workshop changed that. The Chaos Eldar were actually Dark Eldar (now Drukhari), a blend of the pirate and Chaos factions into something new. Which was cool.

But I do feel we lost something there. And hey, the pirates (corsairs) are back now. Maybe it’s time for Chaos Eldar to come back?

So I’ve started tinkering.

My first thought was to kitbash Aeldari with Slaanesh bits. But that seemed kind of obvious. So I had another think.

Every Eldar faction is sleek and fast. But I also remembered that Eldar Farseers turn to crystal as they age. And that many of the Chaos Space Marines fought in the Horus Heresy (thanks to timey-wimey shenanigans of the Warp.)

Which got me to thinking: what if Chaos Eldar date from the Fall? What if they’ve been alive for so long they’re turning into crystal? Unable to zip about like they used to, they’re relying cocktails of drugs and unholy Chaotic elixirs to keep themselves moving.

So I popped together this little guy. He’s not finished yet by any means. The primary reason I did it was to test the head. I’ve always loved the insectoid head from the old metal Farseer, and I thought it would be cool to use it for Chaos Eldar. (Of course, now GW has given it to the Corsairs. But whatever.)

So the kitbash is (so far) a Delaque ganger with a 3D-printed head (courtesy, again, of Elfhead3D). I’ll add some vials and such, and future kitbashes will get more Chaos-y with mutations and such. But yeah. I think it works.

Both in-universe and on the tabletop, an Exodite lives and dies on its mount.

So you’ve gotta get it right.

In my day, all we really had was those metal Cold Ones. Which weren’t bad. Then there were the dark days of the derpy plastics, which looked slow and dim. Not very Eldar-like.

When I came back to the hobby, there were no new Cold Ones. So I looked elsewhere. I started off with Slaanesh Seekers, but the results just didn’t sit right. Then I looked at Huraken Windchargers. I liked the aesthetic very much.

But I didn’t just want to plonk my Exodites on a straightforward mount. Plus, Exodites are kind of meant to be space elves on dinosaurs. So I’ve done some experiments.

The first is the one on the left. That Windcharger got its head, hands, and feet swapped with a Seraphon Raptadon, and a Dilophosaurus-esque neck fan made from Raptoryx parts. I quite like the look. But making the limbs fit is a pain in the butt. And I don’t have any more Raptadon bits.

The second experiment was more straightforward: a head swap with a Seraphon Saurus Warrior. This was so much easier and I quite like the result. It’s not as dramatic a conversion, though. But I do have lots more Saurus heads!

What do you think? Which dragon do you prefer?

Let’s be honest: Eldar are elves in space. Games Workshop looked at their Fantasy Battle game and translated the pointy-eared ones and gave them guns (sorry, shuriken catapults) instead of bows. Which is why we have Aeldari (High Elves) and Drukhari (Dark Elves). The only other elvish faction remaining is the Wood Elves, and so a lot of people view Exodites as filling that role.

Which seems odd to me.

The Wood Elves’ aesthetic centres, unsurprisingly, on the woods. Leaves and trees, birds and antlers. I don’t see that translating to the Exodites.

Part of that is because they don’t just live in the woods. They have whole planets. There’ll be woods, yes, but also tropical forests, deserts, ice and snow, grasslands, etc. And the Exodites are nomadic, so they would travel through multiple ecosystems. Why would they tailor their appearance to just one?

The other reason I don’t see them as Space Wood Elves is their only unit (if you don’t count the Knights) are the dragon knights. There’s talk in the 2nd ed Codex of how these knights live their lives in the saddle. If the only Exodite unit we’ve seen is so closely tied to their mounts, surely it makes sense their aesthetic would be more animal-based?

Which is why I imagine Exodites caring more about animals than trees. Of course they care about their world. They love it fiercely. But the environment around them changes as they travel, whereas the animals move with them. They travel on these beasts. They work with them. Live with them. They raise them and breed them. They would form close bonds with their animal partners.

So I don’t want to make Space Wood Elves.

But.

This is the closest I’ve got so far. It was a quick kitbash I threw together for fun: a Spiritseer with some antlers and a leafy decoration at the waist. I’ll probably go the whole hog and paint him in greens and browns. Why do things by halves?

Exodite Boneseers shape bone, both natural and wraithbone, into the shapes and structures needed by the tribe. This one is responsible for maintaining the tribe’s Bright Stallions, the wraith constructs imbued with the spirits of the dead to defend the tribe’s Maiden World from mon’keigh invaders. He’ll lead them in battle, helping to keep their spirits bound and keeping them safe while they are away from the World Spirit.

This model is a pretty straightforward kitbash. The head, chest and arms are from the Farseer kit. The crest is from a Mortisan Soulreaper; I can’t take credit for the idea, I actually saw someone do a Photoshop kitbash of it years ago.

The legs are from an Aviarch Spymaster. I made the mistake of not checking the Spymaster’s scale, which means this Boneseer is now a little big. So I’m saying his legs are wraith-bionics and he took the opportunity to make himself a little taller.

Well, wouldn’t you?

Every Eldar army has jetbikes: Eldar, Dark Eldar, Harlequins. And Exodites have technology too. So why would they be any exception to the jetbike rule?

Unfortunately, I rushed my first attempt at them.

I’d agreed to a game of combat patrol, but I didn’t have enough dragon knights to proxy for the six Windriders a Craftworlds force has. I thought a deadline might spur me into action, so I tried to create some Exodite jetbikes.

They’re not awful by any means. But they’re not quite right, either.

The bikes themselves are a mix of Shroud Runner canopies with Shining Spear bodies. I liked the artisanal feel of the Shining Spear bikes but the stumpy canopy made the bike feel a little more functional (although the leader got the longer canopy because they’re special!)

I also glued bits of wraithstone to the canopy and “tied” it on with green stuff rope. This was to represent parts of the tribe’s shattered World Spirit and the psychic boost it gave to the riders.

The riders themselves I modelled as Shamans. I saw these as a sort of seer council, so I leant harder on the wilder vibes.

The rider with the axe is my favourite. The trophy rack from the Escher kit and the face from the Wood Elf Blood Bowl kit work really well together.

The “high fiver” is perhaps my least favourite. I didn’t realise just how buff the Wood Elf Blood Bowl players are! He also doesn’t really look like he’s casting a psychic power, which was the idea I had in mind.

The lead Shaman sits in the middle. The Corvus Cabal mask is cool, but they’re staring down a little too intently. Like they’re shy and can’t make eye contact with the enemy! At least the hand looks more casting-psychic-power, though.

Dragon Knights are perhaps the most iconic unit for the Exodites: space elves on dinosaurs!

So I suppose it shouldn’t have been a surprise that I struggled to nail it. Especially as I’d decided I wasn’t going to use Cold Ones for mounts.

I’d had a go with Chaos Seekers. But they just felt too chaotic. It just wasn’t working for me. So I had another think.

I remembered seeing the Hurakan Windchargers and thinking they were pretty cool. And they were quite elegant, too, something that was missing from my first go at the dragon knights. Because yes, Exodites should be savage. But they’re also Eldar. Pre-Fall Eldar too. If anything, they were going to be even more haughty and insufferable than they’re Craftworld cousins. After all, they’d been the first to get out of Dodge.

So I got myself some new mounts and had another go.

I was quite pleased with this one. 

The mount itself was largely unmodified, though I removed some of the iconography, strapped a skull to its head, as well as a few pouches and accessories to make it feel like the Exodite spends a fair amount of time in the saddle.

The rider was a combination of the Windcharger rider legs, a Shining Spear torso, and a corsair arm and cloak. The head is from a Sylvaneth character. The laser lance arm actually has a Cawdor piece in there.

It is a cleaner Exodite, and I think the next one will lean a bit more to the savage side, but I felt it was a good start. So I made another.

I was super pleased with this one. It didn’t actually look anything like I imagined, but it captured the vibe I was after.

I wanted a bit of a wilder feel to this one, which is why there are a few more Wood Elf and Sylvaneth bits in the mix. The braid was, I believe, from a Necromunda Escher kit. The torso is from a Wood Elf Blood Bowl player, with a small skull for a shoulder pad (it’s Warhammer, big shoulders are a must.)

The laser lance was 3D printed. I wish I’d got more of them; I can’t remember where I got them, but I love how they look a little more functional and a little less graceful than the new Shining Spear versions.

The helm was 3D printed and where it came from I do know: an Etsy store called Elfhead3D. It’s run by a lovely chap who makes some amazing bits. I’ve ordered from him a few times now!

I never planned to do Aspect Warrior proxies. But I was thinking about Aeldari and Drukhari and noticed they both had units with actual wings: Swooping Hawks and Scourges.

And, given my Exodites had a bird theme, wouldn’t they have a similar unit?

So I threw together a prototype.

I was happy with the wings, which came from AoS Raptoryx. But the Guardian body was a mistake. It’s too recognisable, too Craftworldy.

So I left it for a while. And then I saw the AoS Tarantulos kit and knew I had to make some Exodite Warp Spiders too! So I had a go at both.

These were definitely much better. The Scourge body is a much better fit, and the grafting the Corvus Cabal mask onto the head works well.

The Warp Spider was pretty straightforward. I snipped the spindly bits off the Tarantulos head, added the Autarch’s spinner and popped a jump generator on the back.

The lore is as follows:

Exodite Vultures are servants of the Spiritseers, soaring high above battles to watch for fallen Exodites. Once they spot a corpse, they descend to harvest its bones, which they convey back to the tribe’s menhir so the slain Exodite’s soul can be bound into the World Spirit and saved from She Who Thirsts.

I first envisioned this figure way back in about 2012. So it was a long time coming! I was listening to the soundtrack to the video game Atlantis – The Lost Tales and the opening track gave me an image of an Exodite in a high-tech saddle and controlling some enormous guns.

The Sunriders sit apart from the Exodite tribes. While most Exodites venerate the World Spirit, Sunriders keep their focus on maintaining their technology and offering it to whichever tribe can pay them the most. Sometimes this will entail simply helping to herd the larger beasts found on the Maiden Worlds. Other times, the Sunriders will be called upon to set the power levels to max and unleash some heavy firepower on mon’keigh invaders.

The mount is from the AoS Lumineth Lyrior Uthralle set; there’s more mods coming to that beastie. The rider uses the Lyrior legs and waist, the torso and side panels of a War Walker pilot, and the gunner head from the old Craftworld Guardian set.

Rangers are a regular presence on Exodite worlds. Couple that with my misunderstanding of how armies were built in modern 40K (I was still thinking in terms of HQ, troops, fast attack, and heavy support from 3rd ed!) and I felt I just had to make some Rangers with an Exodite flavour.

The lore for Craftworld Rangers makes a number of mentions of outcasts spending time on the Exodite worlds. So it’s not too hard to believe that some of them go a little native.

With that in mind, I wanted to build a relatively straightforward unit of Rangers with a few tweaks and nods towards the fact they’ve adopted a few practices from the Exodites.

The changes are pretty straightforward. The Ranger on the left had a hand swap with a figure from the Corvus Cabal set to give her a little birdy pal.

The chap with the big sword got it from a Corsair. He also got a little adornment on his belt from the Raven Guard Primaris upgrade sprue (thanks to @painosspaints for that tip!)

It’s a common misconception that Exodites are the Eldar Amish: pointy-eared primitives eschewing technology of all kinds.

This is complete nonsense. And the evidence is, ironically, pretty hard to miss when you consider it’s the size of a knight.

Rules and background for Knights were introduced for Epic in White Dwarf 126, and the lore is explicit: the Exodites piloted enormous mechanical constructs with the aid of spirit stones. (This was prior to the introduction of the Craftworlds, not to mention a time when Harlequins could take Land Raiders, so the lines between Eldar factions was terribly blurry.)

Anyway, Exodites had three major types of knight: the Fire Gale, the Towering Destroyer, and the Bright Stallion. The latter clearly being the best. It’s a wraithbone centaur, Nigel; of course it’s the best!

Games Workshop produced a small collection of metal miniatures for the Eldar Knights but, alas, they didn’t survive into the modern day.

But when I sat down to make my own Exodites, I was very certain that the Bright Stallion was going to make an appearance.

That said, vehicles have never turned me on at all. I find them kind of dull, to be honest. So creating a huge titanic wraithbone monster wasn’t that interesting. Besides, I wanted to make an Exodite force I could actually use on the table. So I turned my attention to something a little smaller:

Wraithguard, meet Bright Stallion.

This is my first attempt: a Wraithguard with a second set of legs attached with greenstuff (my first attempt in 20 years!). The horns are from the Wood Elves Wild Rider set, and the lance is simply an arm and the D-Scythe spliced together.

Truth be told, it’s terribly straightforward. I’d wanted something that looked Bright Stallion but still looked like a Wraithguard for an opponent. But I’d played it too safe.

So I had another go.

I was definitely happier with this go. This time I used a Drukhari disintegrator to join the legs, as well as cutting the leg to create a more dynamic pose. I also strapped a skull from the Sylvaneth Kurnoth Hunter set to the head.

I always loved the Exodites. Space elves on dinosaurs? Who doesn't think that's cool?

Games Workshop, apparently. After falling out of the hobby in the early 2000s, I came back in 2022 and was astonished to find there were still no Exodite models.

Honestly, it's just baffling to me. So I decided to make my own.

Thankfully, the hobby progressed massively in the 20 years I was away. It's all plastic now! Lovely, easy-to-work-with plastic. With amazingly detailed kits. I was in heaven. So I got to work scouring the range and putting ideas together. I had a few clear criteria:

No Cold Ones. They’ve been done so many times, and the old kit just doesn’t have the sense of movement that the modern AoS kits do.

Bring back the punky aesthetic from the John Blanche sketch in the 2nd edition Eldar codex. (Thank you, new Corsair kit!)

Don’t make them look like Craftworlders on dinosaurs.

The choice of steeds was a difficult one. I’ve mentioned that Cold Ones just don’t do it for me. I was sorely tempted by the Huraken Windchargers, but they just seemed too clean for me. They just weren’t wild enough.

So I began with Seekers from the AoS range. They're definitely a bit too chaotic, and I hope to tone them done (any advice on that front would be greatly appreciated). But they’re definitely a better fit for the wild aesthetic I want!

In this group shot of my first go, you can see a hint of what’s to come: see those feathers on the arm of that figure in the middle? I have to credit @thevoidwinds with inspiring me here; I loved their work on an Exodite Avatar as a kind of crow demi-god. It very much inspired me to take a shamanistic approach to my Exodites. After all, Exodites aim to live in harmony with their Maiden Worlds. Why wouldn’t they revere the creatures that reside upon them?

The kitbashes are pretty straightforward, to be honest.

Steeds from AoS Slickblade Seeker kit

Legs and torsos from 40K Craftworld Shroud Runner kit

Heads and arms from the 40K Voidscarred Corsair kit

One arm from the AoS Wild Riders kit

3D printed laser lances.