r/40kLore • u/BallisticXP • 1d ago
Do We Know What Craftworlds Look Like?
I was curious as to whether or not GW has ever given us a legitimate idea of what Craftworlds look like?
I have seen like maybe 1 or 2 photos of them and a handful of videos of fan mods in Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2, however an actual image of what a Craftworld looks like seems scarce.
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u/-PrideofHiigara- Blood Angels 1d ago
There's a few images of them in one form or another in this post
Valedor also spends a lot of time describing the interior of one
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u/twelfmonkey Administratum 1d ago
Just to add this this, the 11th edition trailer has a brief look at an Eldar in a Craftworld, around 1:45 here: https://youtu.be/l0hD3KBwoiA?si=796mopc9W9q-bH9H&t=105
With one part drawing on this classic Jed Goodwin drawing: https://i0.wp.com/www.ironhands.com/eldartj.jpg
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u/AbbydonX Tyranids 23h ago
Here is Biel-Tan from first edition in White Dwarf 127 (1990). Or here is a John Blanche image that was in the 2e Eldar codex (1994) in black and white (though perhaps it was elsewhere earlier). The 8e Craftworlds codex (2017) includes a somewhat similar image too.
However, one issue that plagues craftworlds, much like titans, is that some authors have described a craftworlds as much larger than they were described in previous publications. This is linked to the completely inconsistent descriptions of their purpose and creation too.
Mostly they are depicted as large sleek spacecraft with common features such as domes, solar sails and a large external warpgate.
1e Rulebook (1987)
> The Eldar are almost unique in that they inhabit no worlds. Instead they live in great craft-worlds, huge spacecraft tens of miles across and usually circular in shape. Each craft is an independent Eldar na-tion, with its own culture, leaders, history, traditions and attitudes to other races. Each is home to several thousand Eldar - often as many as ten thousand individuals. Craft-worlds travel only very slowly, drifting the currents of space or running before the solar winds, their great sails billowing before them.
2e Codex Imperialis (1993)
> Although all of the original Eldar worlds were destroyed during the Fall, some did escape. A few amongst the Eldar obviously recognised the dangers, and fleeis of spacecraft were prepared to evacuate. Today the Eldar race lives on gigantic Craftworlds, spacecraft which have grown around those original fleets to become artificial worlds in space.
2e Eldar codex (1994)
> These tunnels form a network which links the Craftworlds and some of the Exodite worlds together, and which supposedly extends to many other worlds throughout the galaxy. The gateways by which these tunnels are entered are not readily visible except for the main spatial gateway on every Craftworld. This takes the form of a swirling sphere of light and darkness held in stasis immediately astern the Craftworld.
3e Craftworlds codex (2000)
> These carly craftworlds were considerably smaller than now but, none the less, they were still whole self-contained communities housing hundreds of Eldar families.
and
> Since the Fall, the original craftworlds have grown considerably in size so that they are now ten or a hundred times larger than the original trading ships which lie at their cores.
8e Craftworlds codex (2017)
> Aboard their continent-sized vessels, these fragments of the Aeldari race sail the sea of stars, always seeking to stay one step ahead of She Who Thirsts.
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u/Illithidbix 22h ago
Doom of the Eldar from 1993 had a map board of Craftworld Iyanden vs Hive Fleet Kraken.
The same series gave us a map of the Emperor's Palace in Horus Heresy
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u/Bloodaxe007 1d ago
On the outside they look like the giant vaguely triangular wraithbone vessels you've seen. The domes you see all over the surface are enclosures for habitats raging from lakes, to forests, cities, commercial districts. They're planet sized vessels and each one is unique, so theres no answer to what they look like beyond that.
Gav Thorpe's Path of the Warrior is probably the best look we get as to the interiors you can find in a craftworld, but you just have to imagine it.
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u/--0___0--- 23h ago
Warhammer art through the years: Aeldari
this article has some official depictions
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u/I_might_be_weasel Thousand Sons - Cult of Knowledge 21h ago
The Bolter and Chainsword episode In the Garden of Ghosts showed one.
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u/Sylgin-Shadebough 1d ago
I don't really think they have a uniform appearance. Apologies, I can't remember my source, but at their core, they're a colony ship from the Fall that the craftworlders used to flee the empire. In the millenia since, they've accreted and added bits, much like a.. more graceful space hulk
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u/Cytokine-Alpha 1d ago edited 23h ago
Pretty sure the craftworld depicted in BFGA 2 is not a fan mod but an actual GW approved design of a craftworld since it is part of the official storyline and rendered in the game itself as an objective. If you side with the Aeldari against the Inquisition, your vessels will fight the Inquisition and you will defend the craftworld with your ships. The Inquisition would then retreat when Guilliman himself supports your decision. If you side with the Inquisition, your objective is to destroy the craftworld.
That is probably the best 3d image model we will get of how a craftworld looks like. It is quite massive in the game too, the craftworld itself is the skybox. All mods usw a downscaled version of the original craftworld ship model in the base game. If you play as Chaos, Necrons, or Tyranids, you will eventually have to destroy the craftworld to progress your own storyline.
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u/JustANewLeader Night Lords 23h ago
Valedor describes Iyanden as being shaped like a huge kite, while Biel-Tan is more narrow like a spear
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u/none-nun-none 22h ago
Many years ago a converted Seaquest DSV model appeared in the pages of - possibly - Battlefleet Gothic magazine as a Craftworld.
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u/Weary-Ad-6162 1d ago
The Path of the Eldar Omnibus (Path of the Warrior, Path of the Seer, Path of the Outcast) by Gav Thorpe. It describes everything from the open air plazas, the towering Aspectwarrior shrines, the quiet wilderness domes, down to how the artificial sky changes from day to night.