Event · M41–M42
Rise of the Ynnari
The Rise of the Ynnari was the emergence, at the close of the 41st Millennium, of an Aeldari movement devoted to Ynnead, the god of the dead. The Aeldari have long held that the death of their people gave birth to Slaanesh, and that Slaanesh consumes the souls of the fallen. Ynnead, the Slain God, is recorded as the deity who was to arise from the deaths of the Aeldari and challenge that fate. Within the map and timeline graph the movement is anchored to the Craftworld of Iyanden, where its first prominent following is recorded, and to the years around the Fall of Cadia and the opening of the Great Rift, when the spread of Chaos gave the Aeldari fresh cause to fear for their souls. The movement centres on Yvraine, styled the Emissary of Ynnead, and on the Visarch, a warrior of the Aeldari who serves as her champion and supreme commander. Alongside them stands the Yncarne, a manifestation of Ynnead that is held to take physical form as the dead are gathered. Accounts differ on the precise sequence of events at Iyanden and on how far Ynnead had truly awakened. It is agreed that the Ynnari set out to draw together Aeldari of every kind: Craftworld Aeldari, Drukhari, Harlequins and outcasts. Their doctrine holds that the Aeldari must live and die in a manner that returns souls to Ynnead rather than to Slaanesh, which has led them to seek out the souls of the newly slain. Contemporary matters in the same window include the war for Cadia, the Indomitus Crusade, and the wider Aeldari response to the Great Rift. The consequences of the rise were divisive rather than unifying. Some Craftworlds and seers, including many who had long guarded the old ways, regarded the Ynnari as dangerous, while others chose to ally with them or to observe. The Drukhari and other Aeldari who had never shared a cause were, for the first time in many millennia, recorded as fighting on the same side under one banner. The movement remains active into the 42nd Millennium, and it is not settled whether Ynnead will fully arise, or whether the Ynnari will change the fate of the Aeldari or hasten their end. Later Orrery entries on Iyanden, the Aeldari and the Great Rift place the movement among the wider events of the period.
See where Rise of the Ynnari occurred on the galactic map in the 41st Millennium.