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So... We all know about the astronomician, and how it is a guiding beacon for the imperium and many other races who travel the stars.

And we know it's guided by the emperor...


So let's take a step back.

Before the emperor was interned into the golden throne, how did his over 4000 expeditionary fleets conquer the galaxy during the great crusade? With no astronomician existing yet, and no emperor to guide it either way?

Also, before even this, how did humanity use the warp to travel the galaxy pre-age of strife before the fall of the eldar caused all the warp storms?


Or has this simply been overlooked in the 40k fluff like so many other things, and is a oversight?

The astronomican was still going. IIRC however the Emperor was able to power it from a long distance instead of being bolted right in.

DAoT I believe they would have used technical means to jump. They however may not have been able to travel as far and required short jumps. This last is speculation on my part however.

gearheadwhat wrote:Before the emperor was interned into the golden throne, how did his over 4000 expeditionary fleets conquer the galaxy during the great crusade? With no astronomician existing yet, and no emperor to guide it either way?

The Astronomicon did exist. And in those days, the Emperor not only guided it but powered it as well. Such was his power that he was able to do this even when not in his workshop on Terra.

gearheadwhat wrote:Also, before even this, how did humanity use the warp to travel the galaxy pre-age of strife before the fall of the eldar caused all the warp storms?

In the DAoT, the warp was less turbulent. Humanity did not need the Astronomicon to safely navigate the Empyrean. However, the rising numbers of human psykers lead to an increase in warp activity, and made interstellar travel near impossible.
The Fall of the Eldar ended the Age of Strife; the birth of Slaanesh, while creating one of the largest warp storms ever known, also sapped the energy of the warp storms across the rest of the galaxy. Now, with the aid of the Emperor's Astronomicon, mankind could take to the stars again.

AEscholt - not entirely supported, there are mentions of the black ships harvesting psykers (crewed by Sisters of Silence) at and before the Heresy

Yes, as noted - it existed. The Throne was actually to control the webway - if you read the thousand sons novel you will find that.

The Astronomicon was created for the Great Crusade, it didn't seem to need the Emperor directly as it would work when he would travel across the galaxy. Exactly how it ended up tied in with the Golden Throne and the remnants of the Emperor has never been made clear, and the details have changed a good bit over time, it's pretty likley that it just needs guidance from the Emperor to keep working.

The Astronomicon is important to the Imperium because travelling cross-galaxy isn't practical without it. It's not needed for local warp travel though, it's possible to create smaller beacons, Astropaths can act as beacons, and short trips of 5-10 light years can be completed by ships on their own. People often have the misconception that 40k ships would be stuck without the Astronomicon, but this is not the case - there are rogue traders and a few other ships that operate outside of the Astronomicon now.

During the Dark Age of Technology, the warp was not as difficult to navigate as now, and there wasn't a human government trying to run the galaxy. Ships could operate on their own, they could create local beacons, and not only did they have higher technology but the beacons had less difficulty working. It's also possible that they had something comprable to the Astronomicon during the DOTA, that time period has never been fleshed out and it appears that the Emperor salvaged DOTA tech for the Golden Throne and Astronomicon.

The navigators pre-date the unification wars since their origin is the Dark age of technology.

nosferatu1001 wrote:AEscholt - not entirely supported, there are mentions of the black ships harvesting psykers (crewed by Sisters of Silence) at and before the Heresy

The dark age of technolgy has nothing to do with the horus heresy as it happened 1000s of years before the great crusade.

It was the rise of 'new men', human psychers, that made the warp more dangerous for humans

nosferatu1001 wrote:AEscholt - not entirely supported, there are mentions of the black ships harvesting psykers (crewed by Sisters of Silence) at and before the Heresy

Indeed. However, the psykers collected by the Black Ships were initially destined for the soul-binding ritual, which enabled them to act as Astropaths. After Magnus disrupted the Golden Throne, the Emperor found he wasn't powerful enough to both seal the Throne and power the Astronomicon. To reinforce the beacon, and give the Emperor's mind a respite, they wired the thousands of potential Astropaths the Black Ships were delivering into the Astronomicon instead.