At this moment, the Eldar had no idea their War God had just been adopted by the Emperor!
"Don't worry! The Death God would love us to do this! If the War God returned, he'd just take away some of his power.
And that avatar can be put to good use. It's brand new, far stronger than the old avatars. Just hand it over to the Eldar," the Emperor said.
He wouldn't have done this without a plan. When he spoke with the Death God, the Emperor realized the Death God wanted the War God out of the way.
The Emperor scoffed at this – the Eldar were now just a handful; if they were still at their peak, they might rival humanity.
But now, the survivors mostly worship the Asuryan, or the returning Life Goddess. The Harlequins all worship the Laughing God.
As for Dark Eldar, they'd only worship the Life Goddess if they worshipped anyone. The Mother Goddess is still revered among the Eldar.
So the War God was smart – he realized there wouldn't be much faith for him even if he went back. The Life Goddess gets the most, Death God gets some, the Laughing God gets the Harlequins.
He, as someone who once tried to destroy the entire Eldar race, would never get much.
With a blank mind, he only does what benefits himself. Siding with humanity is best for him.
"So what do we do now? Just tell the Eldar, 'Your War God is now the Emperor's son and a Primarch. You xenos can leave!'" Rhodes asked.
"Actually, we could. Since we're allies, we have to keep up appearances.
Just tell them the War God needs time to recover – say a few centuries.
But he still cares for his people, so he condensed an avatar, which the Asuryan's High Seer can control to protect the Eldar. In a few centuries, we don't have to explain anything," the Emperor replied.
Just stall. The Eldar don't even like their War God!
The Death God is even less eager for him to return.
Everyone's happy!
"Makes sense! Let's go with the stalling tactic," Rhodes agreed.
The Death God and the avatar can still attract some Chaos attention. Rhodes only worries that Khorne might fixate on the War God, transferring his attention to the Imperium.
But the Emperor didn't care. The four Chaos Gods always watched him anyway.
Isha nodded quietly, recognizing the Emperor's cunning. He's still the same guy! When it comes to scheming, no one can match him!
Allies are for taking advantage of!
…
Rhodes secretly began the cloning of Khaine's Primarch body. This time, besides following the Emperor's methods, he had his scientists push the body to the human limit – more than twice as strong as previous Primarchs.
This time, following the Emperor's advice, the cloning would take ten months – just like the other Primarchs.
Khaine didn't care. His soul would stay in the avatar for now.
The War God's resurrection was delayed for six months, during which time many Eldar came to Holy Terra to worship the Life Goddess and the Death God.
Just as the Emperor said, the Eldar didn't care about the War God. For six months, no one asked about him, focusing only on their Mother Goddess.
The Death God ignored him too, busy expanding his influence. With the wild Eldar and Craftworlders out of reach, the Dark Eldar became his new target.
Most of the Death God's army was made up of Corsairs and Dark Eldar.
After six months, the Eldar Seers remembered the War God and asked Rhodes about his resurrection.
This time, Rhodes didn't stall, bringing the Asuryan's High Seer to his room to explain everything.
"So that's how it is. Your War God needs to rest for a few centuries.
His soul was shattered before, and though it's restored, he needs to absorb lots of war to regain his power," Rhodes said.
"Lord Rhodes, you mean… Khaine can't return soon? Didn't you say he'd recover in a month?" Eldrad asked.
"We're not lying. I did resurrect him, gave him a body, but his recovery will take longer," Rhodes shrugged.
"In that case, Lord Rhodes, we will take our leave.
Please open a passage for Eldar to visit Holy Terra. Many want to worship the Mother Goddess," Eldrad said.
Honestly, only Eldrad cared about the War God. The others were too busy celebrating the Death God's return.
Many Seers had even forgotten that they came to Terra to resurrect the War God!
"But your War God still cares for you. He can't lead you in person, but he created an avatar.
Unlike the old avatars, this one can become a giant over sixty meters tall. Khaine wants you, the High Seer, to control it.
The avatar used to be your secret weapon – now you have this new one," Rhodes said.
He and the Emperor had agreed: this avatar was useless to humanity, since even a giant Custodian or Knight suit could match it.
So just give it to the Eldar. Khaine could remote-control it with his power.
"That's fine, but one avatar isn't enough for all the Craftworld Eldar," Eldrad said.
There used to be dozens of avatars, one for each Craftworld. Now there's only one, even if it's stronger.
"That's not our problem. Khaine can only make one new avatar right now. But it's very powerful," Rhodes replied curtly.
He simply handed the avatar over to the Craftworld Eldar.
The avatar, with a super-beast body and a portion of Khaine's power, was taken away by the Asuryan's High Seer to give the Eldar an explanation.
The other Eldar didn't protest. With the Life Goddess and Death God back, that was already a huge surprise. In fact, they'd always been divided about Khaine's return.
After all, Khaine had once tried to wipe out the entire Eldar race!
After receiving the avatar, the Death God himself said goodbye to the Emperor and left Terra with many Eldar. Only a small group stayed with Rhodes to serve the Mother Goddess.
They kept a webway portal open, letting Craftworlders, Exodites, and even Dark Eldar come worship the Mother Goddess.
The Imperium agreed, as long as the Eldar opened some of the webway for human use.
Since they were allies, it made sense for humanity to borrow the webway. After all, the Eldar didn't build all of it.
Traveling in the webway was faster and safer than the Warp.
The Eldar didn't want to agree, but with the Mother Goddess' approval, they could only comply.
Some webway routes even connected to Imperial dark side worlds. The Imperium sent many envoys through the webway – including a ship to the Dark Angels' wandering asteroid fortress!