WH40K: Bunch 'O Questions

[Cpl Kendall]

I've become quite the WH40K fan of late, devouring numreous books and reading up on the universe but one piece of info I can't seem to find out:

Why does the Imperium blind it's Astropaths?

I read Blind but it didn't contain any answers that I recall but I may have not been paying enough attention.

*Edited title to reflect where the thread is going.*

[Cynical Cat]

Astropaths are made from psykers who aren't capable of protecting themselves from the warp. They undergo a soul-binding ritual with the Emperor that protects them from most warp based threats, making them very hard for warp creatures to possess or control, and then specially trained. The ritual is very stressful on the body and burns out the optic nerves. Thus astropaths are blind and often frail. Most of them have a rudimentary psychic sense of their surroundings or bionics that compensate for their lack of vision.

[Cpl Kendall]

So how does this soul binding with the Emperor work? If he's locked in the Golden Throne doesn't that leave him unavailable for this kind of thing, or is this related to the powering of the Astronomicon?

[B4UTRUST]

It's some sort of elaborate ritual/ceremony if I recall correctly. It's not something The Emperor is directly involved with.

[Cynical Cat]

So how does this soul binding with the Emperor work? If he's locked in the Golden Throne doesn't that leave him unavailable for this kind of thing, or is this related to the powering of the Astronomicon?

Details are scarce, but it occurs at Terra and presumably involves a fragment of the Emperor's power/consciousness to occur (he's got a serious multiple personality disorder by the 40th Millenium)

[Cpl Kendall]

Details are scarce, but it occurs at Terra and presumably involves a fragment of the Emperor's power/consciousness to occur (he's got a serious multiple personality disorder by the 40th Millenium)

I see, my thanks.

[B4UTRUST]

Hrmm, but Cyn, when I read the Inquisition War they implied in there that while it was a binding to the Emperor, the Emperor had almost nothing to do with the process of it. Unless I misinterpreted the meaning...

[Cynical Cat]

Hrmm, but Cyn, when I read the Inquisition War they implied in there that while it was a binding to the Emperor, the Emperor had almost nothing to do with the process of it. Unless I misinterpreted the meaning...

It involves the Emperor on some level, but doesn't involve being physically in his presence. His psychic reach is long. The Emperor's throne room where his physical body resides is inaccessible to anyone who isn't a Custodes, although the head of the Ordo Malleus has the right to an audience.

[B4UTRUST]

And of course Draco seemed to hear the Emperor personally. And it's a given his psychic reach is insanely impressive. He gave the Imperium the Astronomicon, the guiding light that allowed man to traverse the Warp. To think that it wasn't impressive is heresy...

[Cpl Kendall]

How do the Eldar/Tau/Orks/Necrons travel the Warp without the Astronomicon?

[B4UTRUST]

The Tau don't travel the warp. They don't have psykers and their minds barely register in the Immaterium at all. In fact, this seems to give them a low-end resistance to corruption and other warp powers. They utilize gravitic drives to dive towards the warp but never into it, throwing the ship great distances, though not as far or as fast as a warp capable ship.

The Necrons have no warp travel at all and in fact fear/hate the warp unendingly and tried to develop a device to sever the warp from reality all together. The Necrons travel via a technology that basically removes their ships from inertia, allowing them to accelerate infinitely and instantly.

The Eldar do not use the Warp save in absolute desperation. Instead they travel via the "Webways" which are what amounts to tunnels and paths through the warp that are safed from the corruption of Chaos. These mapped paths allows them to move faster then most other races. However the webways are in a horrible state of repair, many of the paths are destroyed or sealed shut. They avoid the warp because their highly emotional minds generate a strong psychic prescense in the warp, leaving them very vulnerable to the corruption of Chaos. In fact the Chaos God Slaanesh was a direct result of the Eldar, having been birthed from them. Slaanesh's corrupting influence is especially strong with the Eldar because of this.

[Cynical Cat]

How do the Eldar/Tau/Orks/Necrons travel the Warp without the Astronomicon?

It's important to note you don't need the Astronomicon to travel through the warp. What the Astronomicon does is give a fixed place reference so Navigators can guide ships quickly through the warp. Ordinary humans can navigate through the warp for short distances, but their speeds are pathetic. Good time for a Navigator is crossing the galaxy in a year or about 300 light years/day. Good time for an ordinary human or Ork is about 3 light years/day and averages closer to 1. The only numbers I've seen for the Tau warp-skimming drive show that it is at best, 1/5th the speed of a Navigator guided.

This isn't really a problem for the Orks or the Tau because their holdings are small (although Orks have mini empires everywhere). On the other hand, the galaxy spanning Imperium of Man would fracture into dozens of smaller polities without the Astronomicon and Navigators.

[Cpl Kendall]

So do the 'nids travel the warp or are they a sublight race? Also it's noted in For The Emperor that a Blank will affect a Genestealer Hybrid, so I assume that the 'nids have some kind of impresion in the warp or was Jurgen just disrupting the hive mind telepathy?

[Cynical Cat]

The 'Nids travel the warp. They are very warpy, with a hive mind Great Devourer kind of mass warp presence. The warp also explains a lot of the power of their biotech.

Genestealers are telepathic and some of the hybrids and patriarchs have extremely potent psychic abilities.

[Bloody Good]

CC, you made a mistake. Orks own more galactic territory than any other race. They just lack the over-arching governing system. And being such an aggressive race, they travel farther than other races in search of people to smack around.

As far as their warp travel goes, the entire race is subconciously psychic. Throw in the fact that orks have their social roles programmed into their genetics, their pilots would most likely be able to navigate the warp with the same level of proficiency as a fish has for swimming. Unfortunately, GW never really addresses this other than to say that orks can indeed navigate through the warp without any problems. If a mek can crawl out of the ground and have built a fully fuctional Zzap gun the next day and spend all week gleefully hurling bolts of lighting at passing grots and random pigeons, an ork with warp navagator genes wouldn't have any trouble. Most of it's instinctual anyways.

Side note. Their warp presence builds on each other, so instead of appearing as hundreds of candles in the warp, as humans do, they would appear as a massive bonfire. Which is why weirdboys are never attacked by warp entities. They just look too damn big from that side. Instead, weirdboys occasionally soak up too much energy, and their heads explode.

[Cynical Cat]

No, I didn't make a mistake. Ork holdings are small. Overall, they add up to more territory than any other species, but their empires are small. The lack of long range travel ability doesn't hinder them because they don't have large polities, just huge numbers of small ones that fight everything that comes into reach.

Orks are shitty warp navigators, often just randomly riding a space hulk. One should remember their race was engineered in the time of the Old Ones, when the warp was a much calmer and easier to travel place. It wouldn't have been a priority to engineer it in too them, although if they had wanted to the Old Ones could have made them that way. Since the warp didn't start to go to hell and a handbasket until the end of the war, that didn't happen.

Weirdboyz utilize the collective energy of a bunch of Orks. Alone their powers are limited, but you get a mass of excited boyz together and they are pretty damn dangerous. Of course their control is shit, leading to them occassionaly having head bomb moments when they tap into more energy than they can handle. Those moments can also happen to the boyz around them, making weirdboyz useful but unpopular.

[Cpl Kendall]

The 'Nids travel the warp. They are very warpy, with a hive mind Great Devourer kind of mass warp presence. The warp also explains a lot of the power of their biotech.

Genestealers are telepathic and some of the hybrids and patriarchs have extremely potent psychic abilities.

So does anyone know how many Hive Fleets there are? I know that the Imperium has faced Behemoth and Leviation and I have seen passing references to Kraken. As well are the Imperium the only power plagued by the 'Nids? In For The Emperor it's speculated at the end that some hybrids may have infested a Tau Hunter Cadre but that's all I know. From what I know of the 'Nids this would draw some of them to Tau worlds.

[B4UTRUST]

Behemoth, Leviathan, Kraken, Tiamat, Ouroboros, Collosos, Harbinger, and Apophis are the ones that have been listed in fiction and game materials to date.

[Cpl Kendall]

So I'm thinking of writing a fanfic: sort of a version of firefly in WH40K but I'm a little fuzzy on a few details.

The Imperium decommisions troopships on occasion so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for a crew to pick up a small troop ship at surplus and convert for use as a transport. What's the smallest known troopship used by the Imperium?

I can get by without a Navigator as I doubt I could have a rogue one. But what about an Engineseer? Are they occasionaly expelled from the Machine Cult?

[The Grim Squeaker]

I can get by without a Navigator as I doubt I could have a rogue one.

Without a navigator your crew will be limited to a few piffling multiples of C.
Navigators working for rogue mercenaries are common, and some can even be partially lobotomized. (Think about it this way, there is such a thing as a non chaos human pirate ship).

But what about an Engineseer? Are they occasionaly expelled from the Machine Cult?

Oh yes, all levels of machine priests can be expelled (Cain has a few examples, as does the Last Chancer's books). It's also less likely to be fatal (barring high rankers or tech stealers) than if you try to split away from the Navigator families for some insane reason.

[fgalkin]

So I'm thinking of writing a fanfic: sort of a version of firefly in WH40K but I'm a little fuzzy on a few details.

The Imperium decommisions troopships on occasion so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for a crew to pick up a small troop ship at surplus and convert for use as a transport. What's the smallest known troopship used by the Imperium?

I can get by without a Navigator as I doubt I could have a rogue one. But what about an Engineseer? Are they occasionaly expelled from the Machine Cult?

The smallest troopship is, IIRC, still large enough to carry several regiments+ heavy equipment.
Not sure about the Navigators, but I'm sure there are tech-heretics expelled from the AdMech.

But anyways, doesn't 40k already have a Firefly equivalent- the smaller Rogue Traders?

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Cpl Kendall]

Thanks Squeaker. As for the Rogue Traders, I'm really not to clear on what they do. But I'm thinking of something along the lines of Firefly: small crew trying to stay off the Imperium radar doing less than legit jobs. I thought Rogue Traders had a real trading license.

Maybe it'd be better to have them in a real merchant ship. How big are warp drives?

[fgalkin]

In recent times, Rogue Traders are portrayed as exactly what you're looking for- small independant traders that often smuggle dangerous or illegal goods, such as drugs and xenostech; often running from Imperial ships in the process. And some planets on the edge of Imperial space, like the Lucky Space ones, seem to fit the spirit of Firefly exactly.

EDIT: Of course, not all Rogue Traders are like that- some are massively rich, and others are firm loyalists, and may be in the employ of the Inquisition.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[SirNitram]

Despite the name Rogue Traders are actually certified by the greatest force in the Imperium; they have charters bearing the stylized I of the God-Emperor. Now, these charters change hands through all sorts of unsavory and borderline illegal ways, but a Charter grants them right of passage.. To a degree. The local authorities can levy whatever taxes and inspections they care to, and of course, the sub-factions(The AdMech, the Ecclesiarchy, the Adeptus Astartes) can do what they damn well please. But a Rogue Trader is authorized and chartered to go beyond the redline, to the strange, alien worlds beyond Imperium space, and return with goods. Now, if you have stuff that got banned.. Well, hope you've paid your bribes. And hope the guy you bribed hasn't decided you can afford more.

[Cynical Cat]

Despite the name Rogue Traders are actually certified by the greatest force in the Imperium; they have charters bearing the stylized I of the God-Emperor. Now, these charters change hands through all sorts of unsavory and borderline illegal ways, but a Charter grants them right of passage.. To a degree. The local authorities can levy whatever taxes and inspections they care to, and of course, the sub-factions(The AdMech, the Ecclesiarchy, the Adeptus Astartes) can do what they damn well please. But a Rogue Trader is authorized and chartered to go beyond the redline, to the strange, alien worlds beyond Imperium space, and return with goods. Now, if you have stuff that got banned.. Well, hope you've paid your bribes. And hope the guy you bribed hasn't decided you can afford more.

That's true for a minority of charters. A few were issued by the Emperor, but the majority were issued by lesser authorities. Some charters are far reaching, granting wide authority to travel or trade as the bearer pleases. Others are more limited.

Rogue Traders are quite powerful. While some of them may now be the diminished descendents of formerly great explorers, most new Rogue Traders are retired high ranking officials who have called in some favors and have decided to play conquistador. The greatest Rogue Traders have huge fleets with representatives from the Inquisition, Mechanicus, Arbites, and Astartes present and carte blanche to do whatever they want outside the Imperium. The successful ones pass their fleets to their heirs and retire as the Imperial Commander of one of the worlds they have conquered.

The "rogue" in Rouge Traders simply refers to the fact they are beyond normal conventions and the law.