The Warp, Warp Travel, and Getting Around

[Kage2020]

Figuring out (heh!) the warp and the nature of warp travel is another arrow to add to the quiver of a TTRPG in the 40k setting. Doing so has to of course balance the background materials on the subject (mostly from WD139/140), the various themes (mostly oceanic/sub-oceanic), the official 40k TTRPGs, and the common hyperbolic statements and descriptions that find their way into the novels.

 

Quite a bit of these materials, or thoughts rather, have long-since bit the dust on sites such as Portent/Warseer, 40kOnline, and the Anargo Sector Project, so I thought that I would try and rekindle them here. :)

 

Principle Sources: Realms of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness; Lost and the Damned), WD 139, WD 140, and Watson (Inquisitor). Others as they surface from the darkest recesses of my mind, or as suggested by anyone who drops in their few pennies.

 

* * * 

 

SEEING THE WARP (aka "Warp Sensors") 

Ala Watson (Inquisitor) this is a thing from back in the day and integrated into the premise of the "calculated warp jump", or the notion that slow warp travel is relatively safe and was likely the norm back in the days of the Golden/Dark Age of Technology (G/DAoT). Vitali Googol, when piloting the ship Tormentum Malorum, is able to look onto a screen and see a data visualisation of the warp. This means that computers (cogitators, if you must) are able to process data from some form of sensor and produce an image of local warp conditions that are distinct from the vision of a Navigator.

 

This seems to play merry heck with modern background, so my take on this is to make only the upper portions of the warp---the closest conjunction between the matterium and the immaterium---as resolvable by such sensors, thus the domain of the calculated warp jump. Now, just because such sensors can see the upper-most reaches of the warp doesn't mean that they can interpret all the data that they are processing (more on this later). Furthermore, to penetrate the Veil between the immaterium and matterium also means that doing this is going to take a fantastic amount of power---perhaps the same or close to the amount that they would use when transitioning into the warp.

 

So, how does this play out? Well, our ship sitting at or beyond the "warp zone" (more on that later) has to use fantastic quantities of energy to open up a "window" into the warp so that they can observe it. The navigational computers then have to study the warp and plot a course to their destination, something that has to be done ahead of time because of the rapidity of changes and the difficulty (?) of making course corrections while in the warp. This would mean that the amount of time between the observation/measurement and the amount of time that it might take to "warm up" the Warp Engines are going to be significant---it would allow drift between the observations of the warp and the warp-as-is. Depending on how turbulent the warp is, this would make the plotted journey less reliable the greater the time difference between observation and journey.

 

< Okay, that might need to be filed away for inclusion in things like "Navigation rolls" or situational modifiers that impact that roll. >

 

A BRIEF FORAY INTO THE NATURE OF THE GELLER FIELD

The nature of the Geller Field is something that I do, ah, parallel a little bit from the main background for sheer level of interest. As described overall, the Geller Field is a bio-psychic energy field that surrounds the ship providing, in essence, an "air bubble" of reality. When this is turned off or otherwise ruptured, the warp pours in and, of course, the daemons. Because, of course, they're allows everywhere in the warp. < rolleyes > 

 

This is fine by me, but my alterations are thus: 

 

• Turning off the Geller Field in the upper-most reaches of the warp is not immediately disastrous. Crew do not go instantly blotto, the laws of physics do not break down, people are not melted through the deck or bulkheads---the basic nightmare of The Philadelphia Experiment merged with Escher and Lovecraft is not inherently a thing. This is for the same reason that warp sensors and cogitators can interpret the upper layers of the warp---it's mostly "real". Ish. Real-ish adjacent.
• The other reason that you don't want to turn off the Geller Field is that it is a cross between the aforementioned "reality bubble", but also the sails of the ship; the motive force. Add "etheric" in front of Age of Sail terminology and it will work. Etheric sails. Etheric rudder. Etheric middenmast, or whatever. Physical or field structures that make the ship go forwards and which are controlled by the computer (calculated warp jumps) or the Navigator (err, navigated warp jumps).

 

So, turning off the Geller Field in the uppermost layers of the warp (henceforth, The Shallows) is not insta-death. It also means that you've lost the wind from your sails and are becalmed. You're no longer a moving target, now you're a stationary target. Oopsie.

 

GETTING INTO THE WARP---The "Warp Zone"

This is the "safe" distance at which the "warp density" reduces to make it possible to open up a gateway to the warp. This is a section that I'm going to have to come back to because I've forgotten the formulae that I used (oops). IIRC it was based upon a gravitational calculated derived from the TTRPG 2300AD: Man's Battle for the Stars (i.e. when the stutterwarp drive would activate) from the central star of a system and/or nearest astronomical body, but also modified by the population of an astronominal body (e.g. the more people, the closer to said body the "warp zone" was).

 

The "Warp Zone" also serves at the point that natural warp gates may occur (as they did in the old background), which would potentially be a huge economic benefit even while simultaneously being a strategic nightmare (i.e. a point in-system that you can enter the warp and your potential enemies can exit it). 

 

More later.

 

THE STRUCTURE OF THE WARP

Just like the ocean is divided into different zones, so too is the warp. Here's some quick borrowed terminology from oceanography to help out: 

 

• Coastal aka "The Shallows". The uppermost layers of the warp and/or those closer to the minimum distance 'warp zone' (stable/safe, but potentially dangerous to jump into the warp from).
• Pelagic aka "The Deeps". The point at which you stop wading in The Shallows and start going into the realm of the ocean proper (aka the Warp Threshold, as it were): 
  • Epipelagic [re-name]. The shallow areas of the warp further away from the Warp Threshold.
  • Bathypelagic [re-name]. The realm of the Navigator. This is where you dive beneath the Shallows of relative reality into the increasing "pressure" of unreality.
  • Abyssopelagic ["The Realms of Chaos"]. The Realms of Chaos and Unreality. Doh!
  • Hadopelagic ["Hades"]. The specific Realm of a Chaos God!?

 

I just wanted to dive back into those warp sensors and what they would "see", and represent on-screen, at the various points: 

 

• The Shallows. A vibrant see of shifting colours representing the tides and eddies of the deeper warp. Occasionally you'll see areas of black---either fast moving shears shifting parallel to the Conjunction Manifold (the Veil), or subducting currents that drive "reality fragments" deeper into the warp (the coloured bits) and see riptides and upwellings of the deeper warp. For calculated warp jumps, and for relative safety, you want to avoid the black. (Insert warp-sailor terminology about "The Black" etc.).
• The Deeps. The deeper you go into the warp, the more useless the sensors will be in that they will just show... black with the occasional colour flashes representing "reality fragments" that have been driven or sucked down into the depths. This is the province of the Navigator's Eye. Turn off the Geller Field and its "Etheric Sails" here and your SouttaL. The warp will come pouring in. Unreality will break down reality and, with the inrush of the warp, come the entities of the warp---natural (warp flora and fauna) and the unnatural gribblies that are daemons.

 

WHY NAVIGATED JUMPS?

So why Navigated Jumps over Calculated Jumps? 

 

Here you're going to have to get your geometry head on and imagine the arcs of circles of different radii:

 

 

Nothing new with the above, but the only "new" thing to consider would link to the terminology: 

 

• A-B. A Calculated warp jump. The Shallows.
• A1-B1. Epipalagic.
• A2-B2. Bathypelagic.
• A3-B3. Abyssopelagic.
• A4-B4. Hadopelagic.

 

Better names are required (as above), but if you want to get from point A to point B real fast, you might have to travel through the actual Realm of Khorne---not for the feint of hearted, but potentially something that Yvraine and others did in Gathering Storm.  Heck, you may even be able to go back and forward in time, here, because the Ruinous Powers are thought to exist at all points in time at once.

 

So, in real space you go from points A and B in interstellar place and it takes a godawful period of time (sans relativity of not). As you dive deeper into the warp (downward arrows), you travel between A1 --> B1, A2 --> B2, and so on. As you go deeper into the warp, the distance between A' and B' (and A'' and B'' etc.) gets commensurately smaller, so the spatio-temporal "distance" between the points gets smaller. In short, you go faster. Woot. The warp is probably red like hyperspace from Babylon 5 because, as we are all given to understand, "Red wunz go fasta!"

 

This means that the higher the skill of the Navigator, the deeper they can go into the warp but the more dangerous it is. Of course, the danger ramps up increasingly as you go deeper into the warp---the "currents" of unreality that much stronger. So in any given trip you're going to be weighing the odds of the local conditions of the warp (calm or stormy) versus how fast you want to get there versus how likely it is that you're going to get there (to your destination). :)

 

You can actually calculate this using the distance table from WD 139/140. I'm going to do that later because it's something else that I've lost and I seem to remember that it took a little bit of calculation! :D

 

Edited February 17 by Kage2020
Changed the image.

[Karhedron]

The important thing to remember is that time is meaningless in the warp. Hours become centuries, years become moments, seconds become Tuesday, Tuesday becomes jam and dribbles down your chin. 

[Mazer Rackham]

20 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

The important thing to remember is that time is meaningless in the warp. Hours become centuries, years become moments, seconds become Tuesday, Tuesday becomes jam and dribbles down your chin. 

 

I see the Gellar Field has failed...

[Kage2020]

2 hours ago, Karhedron said:

The important thing to remember is that time is meaningless in the warp. Hours become centuries, years become moments, seconds become Tuesday, Tuesday becomes jam and dribbles down your chin. 

 

I think that I'm going to push back on that and say, in general, time has a continuance with the warp such that space travel through the warp does reference time both in the warp and outside of the warp. Whether the warp can be without time, or all times at once, is one of those deeper, Realms of Chaos kind of things. Surely? That is, perhaps, fun to mention but not applicable in this instance without invalidating nearly everything to do about warp travel? :)

[Karak Norn Clansman]

A masterful take on Warp travel, @Kage2020! I assume that Revlid had the White Dwarf 139/140 article in mind when he wrote his classic piece on Daemonsmithing (WHFB article on CDO, but it is still relevant because of Daemons and the Warp, ergo the mention here). The aquatic analogies are continued smoothly in that article, and may be of peculiar interest to you given that Daemon Engines and Warpsmiths have received more attention with models and possibly background since the first decade of the 2000s.

 

I also love that you weren't sent crawling up the walls trying to make sense of the Warp, unlike Luetin09 in his hours-long dissections of how the Warp functions, haha. Time was the crux of the matter for him. You might enjoy listening to his take. I am very much on the same page as you here: Time becoming a soup ought only to be relevant for the deep Warp. Things can become bonkers there and the laws of physics can melt away all they like. But shallower warp travel and the dangers that come with it will be more understandable for us mortals.

 

As such background mentions of weird time occurences with warp travel can be pinned to diving through the deeper Warp. A stark risk, but the reward may make the voyage worth the risk. More of an exception to the rule.

 

As always, excellent logical approach to the setting and an elegant, handy diagram to illustrate it. Neat terms for the layers of the Warp as well.

 

I'm saving this, and other writings of yours, to a folder for backup. Great work as ever.

 

Also, I may not have any comment to share on the topic of psykers in your sterling psyker thread here on B&C, where @apologist likewise raised great points: While I always have liked the physics of magic side of fantasy and science fiction or space opera settings, it's not something that comes naturally to me to play around with and come up with good takes on. With more worldly topics in fiction, the world is become clay in my hands, but not so with magic dimensions, so to speak. Many years' experience in writing a fantasy setting together with a good friend, JAB, has taught me this. Every single grand revision of the physics of magic and the dimensional realm of magic in that setting was driven by him, and I could only respond and listen attentively. Only seldom did I have anything new of value to add, and usually it was only tweaks that improved parts of the overarching vision he was building up. I'll put it down to being a born Dwarf fanatic.

 

Cheers

Edited March 12 by Karak Norn Clansman

[Kage2020]

On 3/12/2024 at 6:28 PM, Karak Norn Clansman said:

A masterful take on Warp travel, @Kage2020! I assume that Revlid had the White Dwarf 139/140 article in mind when he wrote his classic piece on Daemonsmithing (WHFB article on CDO, but it is still relevant because of Daemons and the Warp, ergo the mention here). The aquatic analogies are continued smoothly in that article, and may be of peculiar interest to you given that Daemon Engines and Warpsmiths have received more attention with models and possibly background since the first decade of the 2000s.

 

I tend not to delve too far into the fantasy aspects of the Warhammer universe---mostly because taking a "fantasy" (genre) approach to the 40k setting tends to make more sense, which tends to upset it. 

 

With that said, that's an enjoyable piece. I might have been tempted to go with a more Dantian perspective of the "stump", but then I'm a walking cliche when it comes to such things.

 

On 3/12/2024 at 6:28 PM, Karak Norn Clansman said:

I also love that you weren't sent crawling up the walls trying to make sense of the Warp, unlike Luetin09 in his hours-long dissections of how the Warp functions, haha. Time was the crux of the matter for him.

 

I've encountered that chap before and remain sitting on the fence as to whether I like their content or not.

 

With that said, I don't think that it's a surprise that they get all bent out of shape and focused on the time element. Indeed, ever since the atemporal nature of the warp was "introduced" officially back in the days of Portent/Warseer, it's garnered more attention.

 

For my own part, I was more concerned with operation rather than explanation. Of course, to some that would make it mechanistic.

 

On 3/12/2024 at 6:28 PM, Karak Norn Clansman said:

Time becoming a soup ought only to be relevant for the deep Warp. Things can become bonkers there and the laws of physics can melt away all they like. But shallower warp travel and the dangers that come with it will be more understandable for us mortals.

 

The goal was ever to make it operationable to as large a coterie of people as possible. 

 

It's really not that hard to write as GW writes, or produce setting materials. The hardest part is to make some sense out of the fragments rather than throwing them all in a pot and hoping that by grinding them together they become coherent.

 

On 3/12/2024 at 6:28 PM, Karak Norn Clansman said:

I'm saving this, and other writings of yours, to a folder for backup. Great work as ever.

 

A very wise idea. Much of the products that I came up with back in the day have long since disappeared into various forum crashes and reboots. The only stuff that I still have were those that I had begun to translate into TTRPG book(lets). Even then I seem to have lost some information. (I'm thinking of the materials that I produced for the Adeptus Mechanicus after making my way through Mechanicum, Titanicus, and that Matt Farrer book that involved a well-thought-out approach to Tech Priests.)

 

Alas, it's hard to keep the motivation going.

 

 

Edited March 14 by Kage2020
Groovy...

[Karak Norn Clansman]

A take á la Dante on Revlid's Daemon's Stump could have worked wonders. I wouldn't have thought of it easily.

 

Operational and mechanistic is fine. That's the most important part, and my Dwarf mind appreciates it.

 

Oh damn. I would have loved to see your take on the Adeptus Mechanicus. Is there any chance that you may eventually hammer it out again from memory, and damn what might have been forgotten? Or maybe even be interested in freshing up on material for take two? For Matthew Farrer reading material of relevance, the book in question is Legacy, the second part of the Shira Calpurnia trilogy.  Since then he has also written the short story Inheritor King which goes all-out with 40k cyber warfare. Looking on Black Library, I spotted two works of Farrer's that are new to me and that I'll read now. The descriptions hint that something of relevance to Mechanicus may be in them: Vorax and perhaps The Memory of Flesh.

 

Spoiler

Losing material despite stringent backup routines is demoralizing. I discovered recently that CDO material which I had saved back-up copies of meticulously over many years, lacked absolutely crucial documents that absolutely should have been saved along with everything else in the folders (as in, the one big CD story wordpad document - just where the hell did it go?). Discovering this mysterious loss was like receiving a gut punch from tech, precisely because it's such a core part of work that has been backed-up multiple times. It cannot be missed when backing up because I always put all work on one computer into a single folder for ease of backup, and then copy that mother folder. Yes, almost all the lost material was already finished and posted in a polished state on multiple websites, so I'll copy it back without a problem, but a few work in progress pieces and idea stumps for future stories and concepts did get lost, unless I manage to retrieve them from an old computer in the future.

 

Clearly, I did not offer the Machine Spirits of the cogitator enough incense. Darnit.

 

As to motivation, I would like to extend an offer of collaboration similar to one I've sent SpecialIssue here on B&C: As in, if you decide to work together polished background material on whatever subject, then I'm willing to try and find time to doodle one or more pieces if you want art to go along with it (the smaller and less ambitious the illustration, the more likely to get done in between projects). And obviously I can help with spreading such finished work when the time comes, to various platforms.

Edited March 14 by Karak Norn Clansman

[Kage2020]

Gah. I have a meeting in six minutes... no five!

  

45 minutes ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

A take á la Dante on Revlid's Daemon's Stump could have worked wonders. I wouldn't have thought of it easily.

 

Check out A Visitor's Guide to Dante's Nine Circles for more inspiration. 

 

It was in part drawn from this section: 

 

Quote

The dark magic conjured forth by each sacrifice draws in daemons from the Realm of Chaos, lured in by the bait of the sacrifice. Once they are in place, the trap is sprung, and they are wrenched from their realm of madness and magic as willingly as a ship drawn into a whirlpool, incantations and runes of the daemon-smiths. diabolical energies are enslaved and bound into the iron shell of the machine.

 

One can readily imagine different flavours---and powers!---of daemons being drawn into the different levels/"pits" of the Stump. That and it would make a great architectural-inspired piece of art. :)

 

45 minutes ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

Oh damn. I would have loved to see your take on the Adeptus Mechanicus. Is there any chance that you may eventually hammer it out again from memory, and damn what might have been forgotten?

 

I just started a thread on it. It's a little bit more fragmentary than normal (heh!) but it should be enough to get your teeth into. With that said, the more that I look at some of the more recent materials the more that I think that this might be one of the more conservative pieces that "I" came up with.

 

45 minutes ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

Or maybe even be interested in freshing up on material for take two? For Matthew Farrer reading material of relevance, the book in question is Legacy, the second part of the Shira Calpurnia trilogy. 

 

That was the one with the Tech Priest and the "genetic machine" I'm presuming?

 

45 minutes ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

Since then he has also written the short story Inheritor King which goes all-out with 40k cyber warfare.

 

Gah, another book. I'll be interested in seeing where they take that.

 

45 minutes ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

As to motivation, I would like to extend an offer of collaboration similar to one I've sent SpecialIssue here on B&C...

 

Let me think on this. I have so many irons in the fire that inspiration must be coupled with the ability to produce. 

[TheArtilleryman]

On 2/17/2024 at 8:58 PM, Karhedron said:

The important thing to remember is that time is meaningless in the warp. Hours become centuries, years become moments, seconds become Tuesday, Tuesday becomes jam and dribbles down your chin. 

It will all be OK as long as you have your towel and you don’t panic.

[terminator ultra]

On 2/17/2024 at 9:05 AM, Kage2020 said:

upper portions of the warp

so do you subscribe to the deep warp theory then?

[Kage2020]

1 hour ago, terminator ultra said:

so do you subscribe to the deep warp theory then?

 

This sounds like a pop culture reference that I'm going to walk into if I say anything. Or something so obvious I'm looking past it. 

 

Yes...?

[terminator ultra]

53 minutes ago, Kage2020 said:

This sounds like a pop culture reference that I'm going to walk into if I say anything. Or something so obvious I'm looking past it. 

 

Yes...?

the deep warp theory is simply that there are multiple layers to the warp and horrible stuff is at the bottom. this video is helpful

 

[Kage2020]

18 hours ago, terminator ultra said:

the deep warp theory is simply that there are multiple layers to the warp and horrible stuff is at the bottom. this video is helpful

 

Okay. I truly appreciate the linky!

 

I'm editing this because I shouldn't post after drinking port aka a skinful of arrogance.

 

"Yes" would be the answer to the question. A lot of my interpretations of the 40k universe come out of the deep discussions of the universe back in the 2000s, which is kind of the heyday of discussion of the setting. 

 

As far as I can tell, this video is a derivative of those earlier conversations. (Though far more spiffy in presentation value!)

 

 

 

Edited March 15 by Kage2020
Removing the douche quality of the original reply.

[Karak Norn Clansman]

@Kage2020: The quote system here keeps acting up on me when I try to use it, so I'll have to forego it for now and get some more incense to appease the Machine Spirit.

 

Haha, thanks for the Visitor's Guide to Dante's Nine Circles! Neat little read.

 

Oh yes, you are right. Lovely image. I'll convey this thought over to CDO as inspiration for others (and Revlid, if Revlid ever returns), credited and linked to you per standard procedure.

 

Yes, the very one with the genetic machine. Fun stuff.

 

Understood. Many irons in the fire is the name of the game here as well.

 

@TheArtilleryman: Spoken like a heretic trying to lure us into the Realm of Chaos. Inquisitor, this one right here!

 

@terminator ultra: Always a pleasure to see a rare "Luke, I am your father" response, hehe.

Edited March 15 by Karak Norn Clansman

[Kage2020]

17 hours ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

@Kage2020: The quote system here keeps acting up on me when I try to use it, so I'll have to forego it for now and get some more incense to appease the Machine Spirit.

 

Heh. And I've just figured it out. Woot. 

 

17 hours ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

Oh yes, you are right. Lovely image. I'll convey this thought over to CDO as inspiration for others (and Revlid, if Revlid ever returns), credited and linked to you per standard procedure.

 

What happened to this individual "Revlid"?

 

 

[Karak Norn Clansman]

14 hours ago, Kage2020 said:

What happened to this individual "Revlid"?

 

Revlid has not been online since 2014 as far as I know. Hopefully busy with life. I've sent Revlid PMs, giving him due compliments and telling him about communal creative projects going on and suchlike. But no response so far. Hopefully he'll log in on his old account someday and make a comeback.

Edited March 16 by Karak Norn Clansman

[Kage2020]

On 3/16/2024 at 3:54 AM, Karak Norn Clansman said:

 

Revlid has not been online since 2014 as far as I know. Hopefully busy with life. I've sent Revlid PMs, giving him due compliments and telling him about communal creative projects going on and suchlike. But no response so far. Hopefully he'll log in on his old account someday and make a comeback.

 

Perhaps they just reached their threshold with the 40k universe? It happens even to the worst of us...

[Karak Norn Clansman]

It is common for sure. And many return after a long hobby hiatus. I guess I'm the odd one for never putting Warhammer on ice.

 

As an uncorrigible optimist* I remain hopeful to see Revlid and other community masters of background, art and sculpting return in due time. I mean, you have returned, so that expectation seems justified!

 

Spoiler

* Sneered toward me in 2016 from a CDO member following End Times in WHFB and the introduction of AoS, which introduced some friction in an otherwise most friendly creative community. No friction in me, though, I took it in jolly calm stride. And I bear that intended insult as a badge of of honour and accurate description ever since.

 

Edited March 18 by Karak Norn Clansman

[Kage2020]

4 hours ago, Karak Norn Clansman said:

I mean, you have returned, so that expectation seems justified!

 

The hard part, as ever, is keeping people engaged. Like it or not, the hobby has moved on. 

 

The only thing that got me involved this time around was 3d printing of resin miniatures as an attempt to find something for my son to do that (for the most part) didn't involve screens. And the problem there is that he's not really getting into it. He thinks that the minis are cool, but has yet wanted to start directing either printing or painting activities.

 

Still, I'm going to try. Putting some thoughts back down on paper is the real shaky proposition. I mean, while some of it might be included in a TTRPG supplement that would be fun to do the digital layout with, there's materials like this that have trouble fitting anywhere without treading on the shaky ground of the TTRPGs that BL/FFG/etc. produced.