Within the Eldar community there is a love hate relationship with guardians. Many love using them others won’t even buy the models. Personally I love the little guys, they way I picture them is having the same armor and weaponry as everyone else except they’re just not as skilled at using them.
It’s like the scene in 300 where the Spartans meet up with their allies from the surrounding provinces. The Spartans allies were farmers, bakers, and candle stick makers, where as the Spartans were bread for war. Both groups had swords, armor and shields but one group knew how to use the weapons better then the other. So that’s how one could account for this idea that Craftworlds give their citizens crappy armor and weapons, it’s really not that, they’re just not as skilled as the aspect warriors. A guardian may not duck, dodge or dive at the right moment as a howling banshee might and a guardian may not know proper breathing techniques as a dire avenger would when shooting long range.
Now some people may mention well they have thousands of years to train and should be better skilled with defense and use of their weapons, true but they are just artisans. My argument would be that they’ve live for so long but what we consider as basic training done in a few weeks an Eldar could take years to complete something they would regard as basic training. Of course these are just thoughts I have and my attempts to explain how I see the guardians.
gaurdians in my view are the craftworld's artisans. they move along different paths and callings as they live their life. they just do not train to be experts in warfare because at the time they are training and living their life in an aspect of creation or artistic expression or even servitude. each aspect adds perspective to the eldar's life that only allows them to experience the very basic aspects of war so that they can be used if needed.
ReplyDeletealso, if youve read the recent eldar novel, the aspect warriors do not use these abilities all the time. they don war masks that allow them to act in these savage murerous ways while still being able to stay detached from them. this is not a physical mask but a mental or emotional one. it is said that if one begins to remember their acts of war or even enjoy it, they are falling from the proper path and heading toward the path of the exarch. a fate as bad as death to them for they can not change or grow past that aspect.
gaurdians do not have these mental masks or the skills of these warriors and there fore cannot detach from the feelings of revulsion they attach to war and death. they only do it because it is necessary for their craftworld's survival. that is why they are not as skilled and must act in larger groups to support eachother.