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I know the obvious answer is grimdark far future yada yada yada, but I've wondered if there is an in-universe reason that it took mankind thousands of years to settle the Solar System, thousands of years to develop advanced genetic engineering, thousands of years to resolve the Age of Strife conflicts on Terra, etc etc. I understand before the warp drive was invented, humans could only go to other star systems by riding on generation ships, but even with that being the case, it seems like humanity was taking its sweet time building outposts throughout the Solar System (full of potential colonization sites that are right next door to Earth in the galactic scheme of things).

So basically, why couldn't Warhammer 40,000 be Warhammer 4,000? It seems like there are a lot of years where nothing really happens. Did they shut down the patent office or something?

Probably a whole lot of internal fighting and external forces Tzeenching it up.

Also how long would it take to terra from a planet to be habitable or do they just skip those.

Given what the Imperium has managed to accomplish, I'd say 10,000 years is actually a pretty short amount of time.

Yes, but 10,000 years has nothing to do with it.

He's talking about the 28,000 years between now and the Great Crusade.

The answer, of course, is Tentacles.

FTL-travel might be million of years into the future. The tech is just that big.

 Beaviz81 wrote:
FTL-travel might be million of years into the future. The tech is just that big.

Or impossible...probably impossible.

 Beaviz81 wrote:
FTL-travel might be million of years into the future. The tech is just that big.

It took Voyager 37 years to leave our solar system.

With our current tech it would take us eight months to reach Mars. And it's dangerous, incredibly dangerous - the slightest mistake or accident you can't put right within hours and you might be done for. Rescue ship, they say? If it moves fast enough to actually reach your Mars expedition and help in time then why wasn't the original ship using that tech? We'll have to spend a really long time spreading through just our own solar system so thoudands of years isn't necessarily a bad guess even in WH40K.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
He's talking about the 28,000 years between now and the Great Crusade.

Do what now? The Great Crusade began in late M30, HH in M31.

EDIT: Oh, "now" as in 2013. LOL, I always think of "now" as late M41/early M42 when I post on this board.

Anyhow, there was a human empire in the galaxy before the Great Crusade. I don't think we know when it began. So ... I'm not sure that things took so long as OP imagines.

Scientists won't dismiss it. And it's something long in the future. I don't know what, noone does. I'm open for the possiblity that the world ends during my lifetime, but also that human lives for billion or trillion of years. This is pure speculation.

There have been... accidents, so to speak:

Between M3 (now) and the Great Crusade (M31): mankind lost great part of historical and scientific records, crossing (at least) a second dark age. Only the Emperor (who was already there) knows...
Highly probable that this was caused by a major war.

Then the slowly reconstruction, the expansions "to boldly go where no man has gone before"...

Then Slaanesh is born and this causes warp storms.

Well after then the Emperor decides times was due to reunite all mankind again, but in the while each colony grew independent, becoming "the world" and keeping memory of Terra as a myth... (Horus Heresy mild spoiler below)

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Yes, but 10,000 years has nothing to do with it.

He's talking about the 28,000 years between now and the Great Crusade.

The answer, of course, is Tentacles.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter!

Short answer? Tzeentch feth'd us over.

 Beaviz81 wrote:
Scientists won't dismiss it.

Some do, some don't. The idea of Faster Than Light received far more criticism than cheering when neutrinos were mistakenly measured to be moving FTL.
The scientific community as a whole still considers FTL to the realms of science fiction.

 Griddlelol wrote:

 Beaviz81 wrote:
Scientists won't dismiss it.

Some do, some don't. The idea of Faster Than Light received far more criticism than cheering when neutrinos were mistakenly measured to be moving FTL.
The scientific community as a whole still considers FTL to the realms of science fiction.

Please take my whole quote. Editing it seems like I'm posting things i don't mean.

 RogueMage wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
The answer, of course, is Tentacles.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter!

Alex Trebek: A poster with an anime avatar mentions tentacles and intrigues a Slaaneshi poster.

Me: What are things that make me want to play Tentacle Bento?

Back on-topic: It seems to me there's a good probability that there is a "Warhammer 4k" or similar deep in the mysterious pre-M30 timeline of this franchise. We know there we massive wars in those days. And we know that humanity spread throughout the galaxy.

 Beaviz81 wrote:


Please take my whole quote. Editing it seems like I'm posting things i don't mean.

You mean the part where you said "this is pure speculation"? I thought that was kinda irrelevant considering it was about how long it would take to reach FTL. It wasn't my intention to offend, but point out that in fact scientists will dismiss it.
Although the whole authority of "scientists" is a little silly anyway. I'm a scientist, but I have about as much knowledge of FTL as your average Joe. The physicists who specialise in that area have shown their disdain for the idea with the neutrino experiment.

Again, my apologies, didn't mean to offend. This has gone rather off topic though...

 Griddlelol wrote:

 Beaviz81 wrote:


Please take my whole quote. Editing it seems like I'm posting things i don't mean.

You mean the part where you said "this is pure speculation"? I thought that was kinda irrelevant considering it was about how long it would take to reach FTL. It wasn't my intention to offend, but point out that in fact scientists will dismiss it.
Although the whole authority of "scientists" is a little silly anyway. I'm a scientist, but I have about as much knowledge of FTL as your average Joe. The physicists who specialise in that area have shown their disdain for the idea with the neutrino experiment.

Again, my apologies, didn't mean to offend. This has gone rather off topic though...

It haven't really gone OT. I rely on the judgement of the scientists before anyone else's. Sorry that I snapped, but in that thingy I wanted to be quoted wholly.

 Beaviz81 wrote:

 Griddlelol wrote:

 Beaviz81 wrote:


Please take my whole quote. Editing it seems like I'm posting things i don't mean.

You mean the part where you said "this is pure speculation"? I thought that was kinda irrelevant considering it was about how long it would take to reach FTL. It wasn't my intention to offend, but point out that in fact scientists will dismiss it.
Although the whole authority of "scientists" is a little silly anyway. I'm a scientist, but I have about as much knowledge of FTL as your average Joe. The physicists who specialise in that area have shown their disdain for the idea with the neutrino experiment.

Again, my apologies, didn't mean to offend. This has gone rather off topic though...

It haven't really gone OT. I rely on the judgement of the scientists before anyone else's. Sorry that I snapped, but in that thingy I wanted to be quoted wholly.

Do you ever not snap?

Anyway, it's mostly because humans like to fight each other almost as much as Orks do. It's still baffling the Emperor managed to unite so many for this amount of time.

 Beaviz81 wrote:


I rely on the judgement of the scientists before anyone else's.

Don't forget that scientists are still people. They still have biases and flaws. I think what you're trying to put across, is that you rely on the data and scientific method. Which is much more sensible. Although I don't want to put words in your mouth, you might think scientists are usually correct on matters of opinion.

Again though, I still think you should remember: the physics community rejects FTL quite strongly. However strong rejection of things by the majority in the past hasn't necessarily meant that they are wrong and or impossible. Daniel Shechtman won a nobel prize for the discovery of quasi-crystals. Something that most people laughed at him for; in fact he is noted to have said that Linus Pauling threw a textbook on X-ray crystallography at him saying "Here, this is what a crystal looks like" as one of many times he was ridiculed (now this is off-topic!).

 Manchu wrote:

 RogueMage wrote:

 Furyou Miko wrote:
The answer, of course, is Tentacles.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter!

Alex Trebek: A poster with an anime avatar mentions tentacles and intrigues a Slaaneshi poster.

Me: What are things that make me want to play Tentacle Bento?

Back on-topic: It seems to me there's a good probability that there is a "Warhammer 4k" or similar deep in the mysterious pre-M30 timeline of this franchise. We know there we massive wars in those days. And we know that humanity spread throughout the galaxy.

lol nice....now what the heck is Tentacle Bento?...or would I rather not know?

Man would sooner go tired of dancing, wine and women before war.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Griddlelol wrote:

 Beaviz81 wrote:


I rely on the judgement of the scientists before anyone else's.

Don't forget that scientists are still people. They still have biases and flaws. I think what you're trying to put across, is that you rely on the data and scientific method. Which is much more sensible. Although I don't want to put words in your mouth, you might think scientists are usually correct on matters of opinion.

Again though, I still think you should remember: the physics community rejects FTL quite strongly. However strong rejection of things by the majority in the past hasn't necessarily meant that they are wrong and or impossible. Daniel Shechtman won a nobel prize for the discovery of quasi-crystals. Something that most people laughed at him for; in fact he is noted to have said that Linus Pauling threw a textbook on X-ray crystallography at him saying "Here, this is what a crystal looks like" as one of many times he was ridiculed (now this is off-topic!).

Yeah that was the general thought. I sort of keeps things open as things ain't yet disproven.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Soladrin wrote:

 Beaviz81 wrote:

 Griddlelol wrote:

 Beaviz81 wrote:


Please take my whole quote. Editing it seems like I'm posting things i don't mean.

You mean the part where you said "this is pure speculation"? I thought that was kinda irrelevant considering it was about how long it would take to reach FTL. It wasn't my intention to offend, but point out that in fact scientists will dismiss it.
Although the whole authority of "scientists" is a little silly anyway. I'm a scientist, but I have about as much knowledge of FTL as your average Joe. The physicists who specialise in that area have shown their disdain for the idea with the neutrino experiment.

Again, my apologies, didn't mean to offend. This has gone rather off topic though...

It haven't really gone OT. I rely on the judgement of the scientists before anyone else's. Sorry that I snapped, but in that thingy I wanted to be quoted wholly.

Do you ever not snap?

Anyway, it's mostly because humans like to fight each other almost as much as Orks do. It's still baffling the Emperor managed to unite so many for this amount of time.

If general politeness is obtained I doesn't snap. Sorry for my recent ruder remarks.

Yeah you can see the remark about man growing tired from dancing, love and wine before war for that argument.

 Soladrin wrote:
It's still baffling the Emperor managed to unite so many for this amount of time.

Interestingly, there are still petty squabbles like the Baddab war. Even with all the fascist-religiosity forced upon the human (and super-human) population, there is still infighting.

 Kerrathyr wrote:
Well after then the Emperor decides times was due to reunite all mankind again, but in the while each colony grew independent, becoming "the world" and keeping memory of Terra as a myth... (Horus Heresy mild spoiler below)

Spoiler:

This, in part, explains why in "Horus Rising" the legion of Luna Wolves goes on "Terra" and Horus slays their "Emperor": they assumed to be the original terrans and not some colonists and were therefore unwilling to comply.

Where on Earth do you get that idea from? The legions were primarily stocked originally from Earth, and only later recruited from the Primarch's homeworlds...

 Griddlelol wrote:

 Soladrin wrote:
It's still baffling the Emperor managed to unite so many for this amount of time.

Interestingly, there are still petty squabbles like the Baddab war. Even with all the fascist-religiosity forced upon the human (and super-human) population, there is still infighting.

Yeah, but it's stayed more or less intact for 10 milennia. At least, what was left after HH anyway. I don't see any current earthly power doing that.

Stability for 10k years is pretty awesome. Although the fighting spirit of humankind is satiated by all the other things there are to shoot/punch/hack limbs off.

Maybe it's less the Emperor's ability, and more the fact that aliens are more fun to hate (although this doesn't fit with the unification process).

 Griddlelol wrote:
Stability for 10k years is pretty awesome. Although the fighting spirit of humankind is satiated by all the other things there are to shoot/punch/hack limbs off.

Maybe it's less the Emperor's ability, and more the fact that aliens are more fun to hate (although this doesn't fit with the unification process).

I guess having over 10 other factions to direct all of your hatred at, who also happen to be completely inhuman does keep you occupied enough to not care about your fellow man. Unless you live in a Hive, then you're just fethed.

Have you seen the state of modern politics?

40,000 years is pretty good going.

Isn't that what I just said? xD

feth knows, I am on my phone and replied to the original question without reading much else.

Great minds think alike though, so you should feel proud that you thought of the same thing as an awesome specimen of manhood like me.

I thought it first!