Autarch

The Autarch stands at the pinnacle of the Aeldari art of war, a figure of rare accomplishment even among a people who make an ascetic discipline of every pursuit. To become one, an Aeldari must have walked and mastered several of the Warrior Aspects, surrendering to each in turn and yet never being wholly consumed by any, before ascending to the Path of Command. Few possess the will to tread so perilous a road and return from it whole.

This long apprenticeship in slaughter grants the Autarch an understanding no Exarch can match. Where an Exarch has poured his entire being into a single aspect of Khaine's craft, the Autarch has known the ambush and the charge, the aerial strike and the sniper's patience, and can therefore weave all of them into a single design. Upon the battlefield this insight becomes an almost prophetic feel for the flow of combat, letting the Autarch commit each part of the warhost at the perfect instant.

Autarchs arm themselves from the spoils of every shrine they have passed through, so that one might bear the swooping hawk's wings, another the fusion gun of the Fire Dragons or the launcher of the Dark Reapers, each panoply as individual as its bearer. Their leadership does not endure beyond the war, for when the fighting ends they set aside command and return to the shrines, but while the guns still sound there is no finer general among the Aeldari.