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 PhillyT wrote:

 Pilau Rice wrote:
On the probe from WD 118

Millennia ago, a probe was sent out from Terra. Its mission was to reach the utmost limits of the universe. The Techpriests who built it hoped that one day it would arrive back to its place of origin having circumnavigated the universe, or in other words, skirted the edge of reality. This probe is still sending back signals after fourteen thousand years adrift. The signals are faint and the probe is not yet on its way back, if it ever will come back. To the utter despair of the Imperial Techpriests who constantly monitor the incoming signals, many are identified as Orkish. The depressing conclusion for mankind can only be this: that wherever they go, the Orks will always be with them.

The Black Templars 4th Ed Codex had a bit of fluff in it regarding the Ghoul Stars and the Crusade they led against the Cythor Fiends. When the Templars reached their home world after gradually pushing the Xenos back they found that the world had been abandoned and not a trace of the Xenos was found.

I don't recall that probe being extra-galactic. I though it went to the edge of the galaxy and found only signs of ork activity.

It's a direct quote from the WD article. I'll put a quote around it

 Pilau Rice wrote:
It's a direct quote from the WD article. I'll put a quote around it

I remember reading exactly the same thing but not from WD. I'm pretty sure it also appeared in the Ork codex, probably 4th ed.

 Pilau Rice wrote:

 PhillyT wrote:

 Pilau Rice wrote:
On the probe from WD 118

Millennia ago, a probe was sent out from Terra. Its mission was to reach the utmost limits of the universe. The Techpriests who built it hoped that one day it would arrive back to its place of origin having circumnavigated the universe, or in other words, skirted the edge of reality. This probe is still sending back signals after fourteen thousand years adrift. The signals are faint and the probe is not yet on its way back, if it ever will come back. To the utter despair of the Imperial Techpriests who constantly monitor the incoming signals, many are identified as Orkish. The depressing conclusion for mankind can only be this: that wherever they go, the Orks will always be with them.

The Black Templars 4th Ed Codex had a bit of fluff in it regarding the Ghoul Stars and the Crusade they led against the Cythor Fiends. When the Templars reached their home world after gradually pushing the Xenos back they found that the world had been abandoned and not a trace of the Xenos was found.

I don't recall that probe being extra-galactic. I though it went to the edge of the galaxy and found only signs of ork activity.

It's a direct quote from the WD article. I'll put a quote around it

The quote doesn't say that the Ork sources are extragalactic -- in fact they can't be, since you need a psyker to go FTL and this is not enough time to leave the galaxy otherwise.

EDIT: the story actually makes no sense because as I said FTL requires psykers and "reaching the edges of the universe" is an absurd notion without (really amazing) FTL.

Orks have been around for billions of years. Plenty of time to get outside the galaxy.

 Grey Templar wrote:
Orks have been around for billions of years. Plenty of time to get outside the galaxy.

Sure. However a dlower-than-light probe launched 14,000 years ago has not had plenty of time.

Alcibiades wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:
Orks have been around for billions of years. Plenty of time to get outside the galaxy.

Sure. However a dlower-than-light probe launched 14,000 years ago has not had plenty of time.

It could still be receiving signals from outside the galaxy even before leaving it.

Alcibiades wrote:

 Pilau Rice wrote:

 PhillyT wrote:

 Pilau Rice wrote:
On the probe from WD 118

Millennia ago, a probe was sent out from Terra. Its mission was to reach the utmost limits of the universe. The Techpriests who built it hoped that one day it would arrive back to its place of origin having circumnavigated the universe, or in other words, skirted the edge of reality. This probe is still sending back signals after fourteen thousand years adrift. The signals are faint and the probe is not yet on its way back, if it ever will come back. To the utter despair of the Imperial Techpriests who constantly monitor the incoming signals, many are identified as Orkish. The depressing conclusion for mankind can only be this: that wherever they go, the Orks will always be with them.

The Black Templars 4th Ed Codex had a bit of fluff in it regarding the Ghoul Stars and the Crusade they led against the Cythor Fiends. When the Templars reached their home world after gradually pushing the Xenos back they found that the world had been abandoned and not a trace of the Xenos was found.

I don't recall that probe being extra-galactic. I though it went to the edge of the galaxy and found only signs of ork activity.

It's a direct quote from the WD article. I'll put a quote around it

The quote doesn't say that the Ork sources are extragalactic -- in fact they can't be, since you need a psyker to go FTL and this is not enough time to leave the galaxy otherwise.

EDIT: the story actually makes no sense because as I said FTL requires psykers and "reaching the edges of the universe" is an absurd notion without (really amazing) FTL.

The Orks are one of the oldest species in the galaxy, going as far back as the War In Heaven between the Old Ones and the Necrons, which ended sixty million years ago.

You also don't need a psyker to travel FTL, you just need one to change your heading. Take a probe, slap a Gellar field and a Warp Engine on it, and activate it via remote. Bam. You have an FTL probe. Thing is, it only goes in one direction, until it drops out of the Warp and you, again via remote, change its heading and throw it back into the Warp.

If you are suggesting that Orks need psykers? They have them, they're the Weirdboyz.

Indeed. You only need a psyker for reliable warp travel. You can make blind jumps just fine, where and when you pop out is just much more uncertain.

The Warp drive was, IIRC, actually invented prior to the emergence of psykers.

The Carcharodons were sent on a voyage into the "outer darkness" outside the borders of the Milky Way Galaxy. This was done prior to the Heresy and isolated them for much of the primary fluff of the WH40K universe. I did some independent reading and learned about small nearby clusters that are all around the Milky Way and are considered part of its local group. Many of these fall within 100-300 thousand light years away and with dedicated effort could be reached. I added a made up fluff timeline for my own Carcharodon Predation Fleet as it explored these various clusters and the trials they faced. (It ended up being really long)

There are more options than what are printed in the pages of our Codex.

Here is a diagram pulled from Wiki about the nearby clusters. Many of them are clearly visible in the night sky.

The upshot of all this?

Past the Ghoul Stars, it's nothing but Cthulhus and Blaculas.

Grey Templar wrote:Indeed. You only need a psyker for reliable warp travel. You can make blind jumps just fine, where and when you pop out is just much more uncertain.

The Warp drive was, IIRC, actually invented prior to the emergence of psykers.

This is true, but it wasn't used any better than the Tau used it, due to the lack of the Navigator Gene. It was also made largely obsolete some time prior to the Age of Strife, as DAoT Humanity invented non-Warp FTL (source: Priests of Mars)

Would Terra be interested in sending out another expedition, (possibly penitant in nature,) in the current timeline? M41? In the general direction of the latest nid encursions?

Interested? Probably. Willing to devote the resources? Not even remotely.

 Psienesis wrote:

Alcibiades wrote:

 Pilau Rice wrote:

 PhillyT wrote:

 Pilau Rice wrote:
On the probe from WD 118

Millennia ago, a probe was sent out from Terra. Its mission was to reach the utmost limits of the universe. The Techpriests who built it hoped that one day it would arrive back to its place of origin having circumnavigated the universe, or in other words, skirted the edge of reality. This probe is still sending back signals after fourteen thousand years adrift. The signals are faint and the probe is not yet on its way back, if it ever will come back. To the utter despair of the Imperial Techpriests who constantly monitor the incoming signals, many are identified as Orkish. The depressing conclusion for mankind can only be this: that wherever they go, the Orks will always be with them.

The Black Templars 4th Ed Codex had a bit of fluff in it regarding the Ghoul Stars and the Crusade they led against the Cythor Fiends. When the Templars reached their home world after gradually pushing the Xenos back they found that the world had been abandoned and not a trace of the Xenos was found.

I don't recall that probe being extra-galactic. I though it went to the edge of the galaxy and found only signs of ork activity.

It's a direct quote from the WD article. I'll put a quote around it

The quote doesn't say that the Ork sources are extragalactic -- in fact they can't be, since you need a psyker to go FTL and this is not enough time to leave the galaxy otherwise.

EDIT: the story actually makes no sense because as I said FTL requires psykers and "reaching the edges of the universe" is an absurd notion without (really amazing) FTL.

The Orks are one of the oldest species in the galaxy, going as far back as the War In Heaven between the Old Ones and the Necrons, which ended sixty million years ago.

You also don't need a psyker to travel FTL, you just need one to change your heading. Take a probe, slap a Gellar field and a Warp Engine on it, and activate it via remote. Bam. You have an FTL probe. Thing is, it only goes in one direction, until it drops out of the Warp and you, again via remote, change its heading and throw it back into the Warp.

If you are suggesting that Orks need psykers? They have them, they're the Weirdboyz.

I thought the old ones created the orks along with some of the other races to right the Necrons when they new they would be defeated? Think this was in an Ork codex, an old one!

I just really love the thought of the nids carrying around their own local warp from their galaxy which is so dense with their demons (the hivemind itself) that it chokes out our local form of the warp.

I wonder if tzeentch or one of them has had a chance to study it and appreciate what a chaos victory might look like. What i can't imagine though is that if this ever became canon what would have "scared" the nids out of their galaxy, definitely would just seem like the nids are the ultimate chaos victory of another galaxy and this was just their warp looking for more to taint.

I remember when i first got into the game my friend telling me that hundreds of psykers had gone jamestown (i think that was the big suicide in guyana) then reincarnated as the emperor. How neat would it be if the proto-nids had done the same to create the hivemind or even better the nids chaos knew it was in trouble and did the warp equivalent to become the focused mass of hivemind that it is, strong enough to choke out our warp.

I thought the old ones created the orks along with some of the other races to right the Necrons when they new they would be defeated? Think this was in an Ork codex, an old one!

They did. That was tens of millions of years ago. The War in Heaven ended sixty million years ago, we have no idea how long it lasted (though Codex: Necrons implies that it was a very long time).

So, a probe was sent out 14,000 years ago to the edges of the universe. It's picked up Ork signals.

Maybe the Waaagh! Comes from outside the galaxy.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
So, a probe was sent out 14,000 years ago to the edges of the universe. It's picked up Ork signals.

Maybe the Waaagh! Comes from outside the galaxy.

No, the Orks are not an extra-galactic threat like the Tyranids are. It's fairly clear that the Orks were created by the Old Ones/Brainboyz in the 40K galaxy, not some guys that popped out of nowhere. Maybe their Orc counterparts from Fantasy but not Orks. We da oldest dere is! (excepting Necrons and Eldar >.> )

 Grimskul wrote:

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
So, a probe was sent out 14,000 years ago to the edges of the universe. It's picked up Ork signals.

Maybe the Waaagh! Comes from outside the galaxy.

No, the Orks are not an extra-galactic threat like the Tyranids are. It's fairly clear that the Orks were created by the Old Ones/Brainboyz in the 40K galaxy, not some guys that popped out of nowhere. Maybe their Orc counterparts from Fantasy but not Orks. We da oldest dere is! (excepting Necrons and Eldar >.> )

But how are the signals--oh, feth it.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:

 Grimskul wrote:

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
So, a probe was sent out 14,000 years ago to the edges of the universe. It's picked up Ork signals.

Maybe the Waaagh! Comes from outside the galaxy.

No, the Orks are not an extra-galactic threat like the Tyranids are. It's fairly clear that the Orks were created by the Old Ones/Brainboyz in the 40K galaxy, not some guys that popped out of nowhere. Maybe their Orc counterparts from Fantasy but not Orks. We da oldest dere is! (excepting Necrons and Eldar >.> )

But how are the signals--oh, feth it.

It just means that Orks may have expanded beyond to even other galaxies, showing that the Orky threat is not limited to the 40K region of narrative.

IIRC, the probe reaches the edge of the galaxy, not the univers.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:

 Grimskul wrote:

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
So, a probe was sent out 14,000 years ago to the edges of the universe. It's picked up Ork signals.

Maybe the Waaagh! Comes from outside the galaxy.

No, the Orks are not an extra-galactic threat like the Tyranids are. It's fairly clear that the Orks were created by the Old Ones/Brainboyz in the 40K galaxy, not some guys that popped out of nowhere. Maybe their Orc counterparts from Fantasy but not Orks. We da oldest dere is! (excepting Necrons and Eldar >.> )

But how are the signals--oh, feth it.

Because when you are done fighting the Necrons and the Eldar, and have most of a galaxy to muck about in for sixty million years, and are already an advanced, space-faring culture, at a time when the Warp isn't completely filled with face-eating Daemons, you have plenty of time to point a finger, shout "Go dat way! Really fast-like!" and go that way, really fast like. Eventually, you reach the edge of the galaxy... and you keep going.

 Psienesis wrote:

Because when you are done fighting the Necrons and the Eldar, and have most of a galaxy to muck about in for sixty million years, and are already an advanced, space-faring culture, at a time when the Warp isn't completely filled with face-eating Daemons, you have plenty of time to point a finger, shout "Go dat way! Really fast-like!" and go that way, really fast like. Eventually, you reach the edge of the galaxy... and you keep going.

I believe he was referring to how the signals from the probe itself were getting back to the Adeptus Mechanicus so short (relatively anyway) a time. Other than Astropaths does the Imperium have FTL communications and if so could they be fitted to a probe?

Technically, yes, possibly, though it's not widely-spread and might actually originate in an FFG game or something.

Basically, the AdMech may have quantum computers. That permits near-instantaneous communications between 2 computers. This is, supposedly, how Forge Worlds send and receive technical data from Mars.

So, put Entangled Quantum Particle A on the probe, and leave Entangled Quantum Particle B on Mars. A and B will communicate with each other at the Planck Constant, which is a unit of time so small that it will appear instantaneous to all but the most minute of observations.

Why don't they put these on every ship? Because they are useless for anything more than communication between 2 points. A ship with such a system would only be able to communicate with exactly 1 other system, that system being the other end of the entangled particle. Not at all useful when you might need to talk to dozens or hundreds of other parties.

 Psienesis wrote:
Technically, yes, possibly, though it's not widely-spread and might actually originate in an FFG game or something.

Basically, the AdMech may have quantum computers. That permits near-instantaneous communications between 2 computers. This is, supposedly, how Forge Worlds send and receive technical data from Mars.

So, put Entangled Quantum Particle A on the probe, and leave Entangled Quantum Particle B on Mars. A and B will communicate with each other at the Planck Constant, which is a unit of time so small that it will appear instantaneous to all but the most minute of observations.

Why don't they put these on every ship? Because they are useless for anything more than communication between 2 points. A ship with such a system would only be able to communicate with exactly 1 other system, that system being the other end of the entangled particle. Not at all useful when you might need to talk to dozens or hundreds of other parties.

Holy gak. Did - did - did GW actually put correct science into 40k? Seriously? I didn't think that it was possible

No, they did not, lol. The AdMech quantum computers thing... I don't know where it comes from. Nobody does. It's fanon.

AdMech canonically use servitors made from burned out astropaths for FTL communication.

 Psienesis wrote:
Technically, yes, possibly, though it's not widely-spread and might actually originate in an FFG game or something.

Basically, the AdMech may have quantum computers. That permits near-instantaneous communications between 2 computers. This is, supposedly, how Forge Worlds send and receive technical data from Mars.

So, put Entangled Quantum Particle A on the probe, and leave Entangled Quantum Particle B on Mars. A and B will communicate with each other at the Planck Constant, which is a unit of time so small that it will appear instantaneous to all but the most minute of observations.

Why don't they put these on every ship? Because they are useless for anything more than communication between 2 points. A ship with such a system would only be able to communicate with exactly 1 other system, that system being the other end of the entangled particle. Not at all useful when you might need to talk to dozens or hundreds of other parties.

Then why don't they just put one of these into every ship in a fleet and have them connect to a giant switchboard? I guess Astropaths are an easier solution but still, how hard could it be to hardwire the information between Entangled Quantum Particle proccessors?

 Wyzilla wrote:

 Jehan-reznor wrote:

 Wyzilla wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Weren't the Oldcrons very Lovecraftian?

Yes, more so than Chaos. There was no understanding of their motives or meta-knowledge of their culture or how they worked, they were just powerful aliens led by undying star-gods who killed everything on sight.

I would say the C'tan are, necrons are more like the fanatical worshipers of the old ones.

Aye, Necrons are basically Deep Ones. Especially the old pariah stuff, as the Deep Ones would take people (well, women) to breed with. Pariahs sorta did the same thing as they'd make new ones out of human captives.

IIRC the first thing ever published about the C'tan was a straight up lovecraft reference. I think it was in 3rd ed and said something like "The C'tan are star gods that sleep beyond the gate of [Lovecraftian name]". Would appreciate if someone could post the exact sentence. I'm not certain but I think I stumbled upon the same sentence in "whispers in the dark" by h.p.l.


On topic:
So we know there's Orks and tyranids. The C'tan where devoured by each others so I guess there shouldn't be any more of those around, or did that only happen in the milky way? Other then that do we have any idea about what the old ones, eldars or anyone else has done in other galaxies? Maybe maal is ruling one or something. there's an awfull lot of struggling going on in this one. Come to think of it did the Emperors plan invlove other Galaxies or just this one?

Eldar are limited to our galaxy. The Old Ones left the galaxy at some point (there's a theory that states they turned into the Tyranids, although it's an unpopular one for several reasons) and haven't been eard from since.

I recall reading the same WD/Ork codex quote, although the probe reached the edge of the galaxy and the only signals they got were "orks orks orks" implying that the Orks were outside the galaxy, which itself further implies that the numbers of Orks that exist in and outside of the milky way is beyond measure and perhaps beyond humanities ability to conquer.

afaik, there are C'tan, Tyranids, and Orks out there, possibly Old Ones, too, if you believe that over the theory that they died out after destabilizing the Warp (which they lived with one metaphorical foot in, at all times).

C'tan likely rule a number of galaxies, seeing as how they are insanely powerful and cunning, 'nids are obviously laying waste to other galaxies, and da Orkz iz Orkin' it up