The Cicatrix Maledictum and the speed of light

[RikuEru]

Uh, you realize at that distance its imperceptible to the human eye.

Terra isn't that close to the Rift, but I think there was a lore mention of people even on Terra who are not allowed to look into the sky and suffering from the symptoms?

 

I know, you are talking realworld logic.

But I fear that won't get you far here...

 

...even though, the "creeping" inevitable effect of the Rift's "appearance" on more and more (night) skies further and further away, and the symptoms and aftershocks it brings, (while horrific and apocalyptic astropatic messagws came long before that) would have been a cool plot-device to portray the dreadful horror of Chaos.

[Jareddm]

I come bearing some precedent for a similar warp anomaly, the Hadex Anomaly.

"Of all the properties ascribed to the Hadex Anomaly, its most perplexing feature is its visibility. When the Hadex Anomaly first manifested it was immediately visible across the Ultima Segmentum, its appearance recorded by observatories and scout stations as distant as Nocturne. The fact that the light cast by the Anomaly was instantly visible across so vast a distance, in flagrant defiance to the laws of the physical universe, has not gone unnoticed by the Magi Physics of the Cult Mechanicus." -Deathwatch: The Achilus Assault, page 81

Thus I believe the Great Rift, bearing at least some similarity, would also be visible from far greater distances than would be physically possible given its relative age.

 

Edit: Added correct source.

[toaae]

You the man, Jareddm. That's exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see.

[Ficinus]

At the very least, Navigators can see it with one of their eyes.

[m0nolith]

When in doubt.... the warp did it 

[Marshal Rohr]

I come bearing some precedent for a similar warp anomaly, the Hadex Anomaly.

 

"Of all the properties ascribed to the Hadex Anomaly, its most perplexing feature is its visibility. When the Hadex Anomaly first manifested it was immediately visible across the Ultima Segmentum, its appearance recorded by observatories and scout stations as distant as Nocturne. The fact that the light cast by the Anomaly was instantly visible across so vast an address, in flagrant defiance to the laws of the physical universe, has not gone unnoticed by the Magi Physics of the Cult Mechanicus." -Deathwatch Core Rulebook

 

Thus I believe the Great Rift, bearing at least some similarity, would also be visible from far greater differences than would be physically possible given its relative age.

 

Now this is interesting. Gonna need to dig out my DW now to read more about it.

[FlamingDeth]

And then the next question...if a blank looks at it, do they see anything at all?

[Bryan Blaire]

And then the next question...if a blank looks at it, do they see anything at all?

Instead of a big light blur, maybe it's just a big dark blur?

[Panzer]

Blanks can see daemons so the Great Rift should be visible to them as well. They will see through any form of disguises, veils, madness inducing illusions and whatnot though.

[Trevak Dal]

Does it emit light or is it like, space dust that would block light? Or is it a warp storm?

 

If it's a warp storm, then I'd assume it's moving Faster than light (...which would maybe make it invisible except at extreme range?)

 

Man...I just want to write a story about a human former Stock clerk on a former Tau world fighting against a Slaaneshi cult and Genestealer cult, waging a one man guerilla war against both sides, where it had the skies that look like the skybox of the Shivering Isles from Elder Scrolls 4.

 

Cut off from imperial contact, :cuss hits the fan. He gets summoned to the Tau-ified PDF, gets wounded, gets taken by one of the last Tau and...then ten years skip.

[Kenzaburo]

Well, on the topic of what blanks see and how warp stuff messes with your vision: Watchers of the Throne deals with the occurence of the rift, Sisters of Silence and daemonic stuff.

 

When the rift opens up, it is instantly visible on Terra and even while not looking at it, people feel uncomfortable and suffer from nightmares in the weeks after it's occurence. The Sisters protagonis also mentions, during the Khorne invasion on Terra, that daemons seem to look different to normal humans. Their warp aura seems to enhance a lot of the terrifying aspects of their appearance, while the Sisters remain quite unphazed by their aura or their looks. The guard not so much. That says to me: When it comes to warp stuff we leave the realm of pure physics, photons and such. What you see, when it comes to stuff from the warp, is more of a psychic thing. You don't see it as much as you might "feel" it in your soul. And there we are at the biggest problem with this discussion: In 40k the warp affects the soul! How do you wanna measure physics against stuff messing with something, that exists in the lore but is from a scientific standpoint impossible to prove?

 

After all, the warp did it holds true. :) Though I gotta admit - this discussion has been highly entertaining and interesting.

[K0rtmer]

You know, physics checks out as soon as you allow faster-than-light travel. Which is probably essential for any Space Opera-like settings because, given how large and empty space really is, it'd all be very, very boring otherwise.

 

According to physics, the 40k Ghoul Stars would be just about in our present-day light cones. I don't think that's how most of us think the setting works.

[Quantum]

Keep in mind that when the Great Rift appeared, great warp storms propagated throughout the galaxy, causing the Blackness and Daemonic legions to appear everywhere. Perhaps these, somehow, carried along the light of the Rift to the far corners of the galaxy.

[Finkmilkana]

Even if arguing that the visibility is caused by photons that are technically only moving at the speed of light, they could still be virtually ‚instantly‘ be visible from anywhere in the universe without fundamentally breaking our understanding of physics if some funky relative space or time dilation is going on. As long as the light from the rift travels in its own space time bubbles (and the boundary between these and the surrounding space are dilated enough), it can arrive anywhere at any time. Now, why would spacetime locally be distorted to such an absurd degree? Chaos/Warp/Magic/Plotconvenience

[Marshal Rohr]

After going back and checking out the Hadex anomaly and reading some other blurbs about the Noctis Aeterna, I really like the idea that when the Warp Storms engulfed the galaxy following Cadia and receded the Rift was visible everywhere in varying degrees of intensity. That is pretty creepy.