Discussion Characters / Warhammer40000Aeldari

Personally I would wait until 8th is released next week, at the very least, so that we can see how the word is officially going to be used from now on (things sometimes change between pre-release material and the official release) and, from what I remember, Gathering Storm uses the two terms interchangeably.

Also, do we have an actual confirmed official source for the reason for the change as I have only seen the Tolkien estate thing as I haven't seen anything on that beyond (admittedly probably correct) fan speculation.

There isn't an official confirmed source, it is a fan theory based on GW's past history and recent actions. The details are;

• Games Workshop has been very aggressive in the past with their Intellectual Property despite ripping off works themselves.
• They once tried to claim that they owned the term 'Space Marine' in the Spots the Space Marine controversy. They failed to make that stick and there was backlash.
• Later, Games Workshop took Chapter House Studios to court because they made conversions for things Games Workshop had mentioned in the lore but never made models for or depicted in the art. Games Workshop failed to argue the majority of the copyright breaches (in layman terms, it would be like taking a lawsuit against every person who made a conversion using GW models). As a result, all units and characters without models were cut from all of their franchises.
• Games Workshop would go on to rename the Imperial Guard the "Astra Militarum".
• In Age of Sigmar the character Malekith the Witch King forgot most of his memories and name and renamed himself Malerion. This memory loss and rename didn't happen to any other character; Games Workshop's Malekith shares the same name as Marvel Comics Malekith, who is also an evil Dark Elf king.
  • Also in Age of Sigmar, every race, faction and model that didn't have a unique name was renamed so they could be patented. The most egregious example is calling elves "aelves". See the Warhammer Age Of Sigmar page for more examples.
• Games Workshop can't patent the names "eldar" or "tau". Tolkien invented the word eldar for his elves (the word means "children of the stars"), so if Tolkien's estate wanted to take Games Workshop to court for that they have a plausible case. The word "Tau" has many uses and meanings (including the 19th letter in the Greek Alphabet and the name of a proposed spacecraft) so it is technically public domain. The eldar and tau were renamed "aeldari" and "t'au" respectively, but other races such as the tyranids, orks and necrons escaped this renaming. As to why the Space Marines weren't renamed yet, Games Workshop has consistently shown blatant, and at times unreasonable, favoritism towards their Space Marines.

Believe me, I have been involved with the hobby for the past 23 years and been a shareholder in GW for the past 16 so I am well aware of their copyright (mis)adventures. My point was that unless there is an official statement on the matter than it is still fan speculation, however well informed it may be, and therefore belongs on the YMMV page (possibly under Epileptic Trees) not the Trivia page.

Pardon me, I meant no offence. Since I don't know you well, I didn't know if you were familiar or whether you'd reply so I gave a list.

I see your point and won't claim it's a fact or change the page. On that note, it relies on the creators of a work (here Games Workshop's executives) openly stating their intention; people can lie and keep secrets though the evidence can point that way. This muddies the waters on the issue. I'll let it rest (innocent until proven guilty), it just looks suspicious.

No offence taken and I apologise for coming across as if there were.

All good. By the way, now that the codex has come out, the eldar are now called the Aeldari with the Dark Eldar renamed Drukhari and the Craftworld Eldar as Craftworlders. Should the name of the pages be changed now?