Drukhari army rules, detachment abilities, stratagems and lore for Warhammer 40k, with links to the full unit datasheet table.
The Drukhari (Aeldarix malum) (pronounced Druh-KAR-ee) or "Dark Ones" in the Aeldari Lexicon, also known to outsiders as the Dark Eldar, are a forsaken and corrupt Aeldari kindred, the sadistic, malicious counterparts of the Asuryani. Like their cousins of the craftworlds, the Drukhari are an ancient and highly advanced alien race of fey humanoids.
The alternative term "Dark Eldar," or Eladrith Ynneas in the Aeldari tongue, was first coined by the Drukhari archon and Supreme Overlord of Commorragh Asdrubael Vect in the 32nd Millennium.
The Drukhari's armies, like their Craftworld Aeldari counterparts, usually have the advantages of mobility and advanced technology, though they are often lacking in resilience and numbers.
The Drukhari revel in piracy, enslavement and torture, and are sadistic in the extreme. Drukhari armies make use of various anti-gravity skimmers such as Raiders and Ravagers to launch high speed attacks. They strike with little or no warning, using an interdimensional labyrinth known as the Webway to traverse the galaxy safely and far more quickly than most advanced starfaring species are able to with their Warp jumps.
The Drukhari are unique amongst the intelligent species of the Milky Way Galaxy because they do not live on a settled world or worlds, but rather the bulk of their population is concentrated in one foul city-state -- the Dark City of Commorragh -- that lies within the "ordered" Immaterium of the Aeldari Webway.
The Drukhari are mainly pirates and slavers who prey on targets across the galaxy to feed their unholy appetites for other sentient beings' souls, a terrible desire called "the Thirst," though they are sometimes used as mercenaries by other starfaring species.
The Drukhari are the living embodiments of all that is wanton and cruel in the Aeldari character. Highly intelligent and devious to the point of obsession, these piratical people revel in the physical and emotional pain of others, for feeding upon the psychic residue of suffering is the only way they can stave off the slow consumption by the Chaos God Slaanesh of their own souls.
The Drukhari, particularly their warrior castes, are tall, lithe, white-skinned humanoids. Their alabaster skin is death-like in its pallor, for there is no true life-giving sun within their dark realm to provide colour. Their athletic bodies are defined by whipcord muscle, shaped and enhanced until they are physically stronger on average than their Craftworld Aeldari counterparts, as the Drukhari prize physical and martial prowess highly.
Yet for all their physical beauty by Human standards, the Drukhari are still repugnant monsters. When viewed with the witch-sight of a psyker, the Drukhari's black souls are revealed, for they eternally thirst only for the psychic energy of the anguish and torment of other thinking beings in order to fill their own infinite emptiness.
Unlike their Craftworld Aeldari cousins, the Drukhari do not integrate their still-powerful latent psychic abilities into their culture, and indeed have a great disdain for psykers of any kind. This is because for the Drukhari, the use of psychic abilities would only further draw the attention of "She Who Thirsts" (Slaanesh) upon them, and their souls are already at risk enough of being devoured by the Prince of Chaos.
The Drukhari are black-hearted reavers to whom the galaxy and all of its peoples are but cattle to be enslaved at will. These alien pirates strike hard and fast from the shadows of the Webway, vanishing again before the foe can fight back.
The Drukhari are a twisted reflection of their craftworld kin. They dwell in the strange realm known as the Webway, inhabiting Commorragh -- a cyclopean, interdimensional metropolis rightly feared as the "Dark City." The Drukhari feed on negative emotion, dedicating themselves to a non-stop war with the peoples of realspace in which they strive to inflict as much pain and misery as they possibly can.
Forced through a dark quirk of fate to abandon the once potent psychic abilities of their Aeldari ancestors, the Drukhari instead epitomise physical excellence. Their athleticism and speed are unmatched, except perhaps by their towering arrogance. Add to this their lethal, arcane science, and the Drukhari are amongst the greatest of threats in an already deadly galaxy.
Ten thousand Terran years ago, amid the apocalyptic screams of a newborn god, the mighty Aeldari Empire fell to ruin. Yet the architects of this catastrophe were spared the worst of its wrath, hidden deep within the bounds of the Webway. They lurk there still, a race of unrepentant monsters damned to suffer an eternal thirst for the pain of others.
The Drukhari have fallen from true grace in the most profound of ways. Their roots as a culture lie at the very height of ancient Aeldari society, when theirs was perhaps the most highly advanced species in the Milky Way Galaxy.
The Aeldari once boasted mastery over an interstellar civilisation that was the greatest seen in the galaxy since that of the Old Ones. The various cultures of the Aeldari that exist today in the 41st Millennium are only shadows of the glory of that ancient Aeldari Empire.
The true origins of those who now call themselves the Drukhari can be found in hidden enclaves amidst the atrocity and mayhem of the terrible time of the Fall of the Aeldari, the great cataclysm that nearly destroyed the entire Aeldari species. It was an event so terrible that not only did it kill trillions of Aeldari, but it breached the dimensional barrier between realspace and the Warp, and gave birth to the Chaos God Slaanesh.
The ancient Aeldari had perfected their science and technology to such an extent that they could remake planets and quench the light of the very stars at a whim. The need for labour or hard work in Aeldari society became nothing but a dim memory of a difficult past. The Aeldari, arrogant in the belief that they were now the true masters of their destiny, spent more and more of their time in esoteric pursuits and entertainments intended to escape the ennui that set in over the course of their centuries-long lives of ease and comfort.
The Aeldari mind and psyche is a thing of duality: it can experience zeniths of bliss and nadirs of suffering far more keenly than that of the other intelligent starfaring races of the galaxy, including Mankind. The Aeldari were capable of becoming just as irredeemably corrupt as they were of transcending their flaws and touching the divine.
With so much power at their hands, the core worlds of the Aeldari Empire -- once the height of civilisation in the known universe -- became centred solely on the pursuit of individual fulfillment and self-gratification.
Lore excerpt from Warhammer 40k Wiki on Fandom, available under CC BY-SA 3.0.
37 Drukhari datasheets on the current roster, each with its points, model statistics, keywords and abilities.
10 Drukhari datasheets that are no longer part of the current army roster. They are kept for reference and for players whose collections still contain the models.