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You'll have to excuse me if there is already a thread on this subject (I did search but got momentarily lost in the empyrean)...

Are there any sources that give a general idea as to how long it would take to travel from point A to point B in the warp? Yes, yes - I know the warp is a fickly thing at best, and whilst one day the journey could take a few hours, the next day it might take a year (or you could travel back in time, or even lost for all eternity etc).

Have GW (or FW) published any material that tells us that, for instance, "Terra to Cadia takes on average two weeks of warp travel" or "Ullanor to Isstvan is three and a half weeks, as the daemon flies"?

Also, how long do astropathic messages take to travel distance X? Again, I'm guessing this will also provide fluctuating answers!

I know, these are probably silly questions and they don't have specific/accurate answers, but I thought I'd ask anyway. The reason behind this is my wanting to write some fan fiction, and I'd like a general idea of how long it takes folks to get to places (including a race from two interested parties starting at points A & B respectively, and wanting to get the cool archaeotech at point C kinda thing)...

Cheers in advance!

I think most stories are purposefully vague about how long it takes to get from point A to point B so that they don't have to be consistent with 15 different authors.

Yeah, I thought that myself. There's enough ret-conning going on without having to worry about warp travel! Thanks Kronk.

Although I wonder if anyone knows what the shortest known time is to travel from point A to point B? It would be interesting to know if, for instance, the 'galactic record' for travelling 100 light years through the immaterium took 1.2 days (as an example). That would give my detail-obsessed geek brain something to work with!

This is from Space Fleet which was before Battlefleet Gothic, hope this assists you

TIME DISPLACEMENT
The time differences between real space and warpspace are quite drastic. Not only does time pass at different rates in both kinds of space, but it also passes at very variable rates. Until a ship finishes its jump, it is impossible for a ship's crew to know exactly how long their journey has taken. Time passing in real space is referred to as real time. Time passing on board a spacecraft is referred to as warp time. The relationship between real time and warp time is shown on the chart below.

.
Light Years Minimum Warp Time Maximum Warp Time Minimum Real Time Maximum Real Time
1 2 mins 6 mins 43 mins 4.5 hrs
5 7 mins 30 mins 3.5 hrs 1 day
10 14 mins 1 hr 7 hrs 2 days
50 1.25 hrs 4.75 hrs 1.5 days 9 days
100 2.5 hrs 9.5 hrs 3 days 3 weeks
500 12 hrs 2 days 2 weeks 3 months
1000 1 day 4 days 1 month 6 months
5000 5 days 3 weeks 5 months 3 years

So, for example, a 100 light year jump will seem to take from 2.5 to 9.5 hours to a spaceship's crew, but between 3 days and 3 weeks will have passed in real space. These times do not include journey times out to and from jump points on the edge of the star systems. It takes from days to weeks of travel at sub-light speeds to reach a drop from the spaceship's starting planet, and a similar time to re-enter the destination system.

The Imperium is approximately 75 thousand light years from edge to edge. A journey of this length would take between 75 and 300 days in warp time, and between 6 years and 40 years real time

Sorry about the formatting, I did try to sort it but it comes out like that

I've just been reading The a First Heretic, which contains a discussion between several Custodes who are incredulous that it will take the Word Bearers only 39 days to get to Istvaan.

They say that it should take a decade to do the journey, which is described as being a quarter of the way across them galaxy, and at best it should take many months or years even with good tides. Now there could be a bit of hyperbole in that, but it suggests two things; 1) journeys in the warp are very long. This is born out in a lot of other fluff, where Imperial Guard conscripts can be trained into fully fledged troopers on the journey, etc. 2) the vagaries of the warp are not small, it's not a case of "you'll be there in two months, give or take a few days", more like "you might get there in your own lifetime, if you're lucky"

Fundamentally I always imagine it more like medieval sailing than modern transport.

@ Pilau Rice - Thanks for the Space Fleet chart - that helps quite a bit (as long as GW haven't since decided to retcon the data)!

@ Jadenim - Cheers for the info from The First Heretic. Funnily enough I've just started reading it, so I will look out for those incredulous custodes!

All in all, so far everything is pointing exactly where I thought - How long is a piece of string? Or in this instance, how long is the warp...?

It's maddening, but I guess that's the whole point.

And that's just simple warp travel, it doesn't even take into account the backward time travel capability of it.

It still sends my brain in a spin when I try to get my mind round the idea that a child could be born on a warp jump and technically come out the other end as a 5 year old newborn or even -6 months (technically) if you go by standard out of warp dates.

mental.

If you go into the warp you will come out of it some time between 10'000 years after you left and 10'000 years before you left, the length of time you experience during warp travel will vary from a few seconds to decades.

 chilledmonkeybrains wrote:

It's maddening, but I guess that's the whole point.

Seeing as how you can arrive before you left, yes, yes it is

Look in the FFG books. Three's likely to be something there.

The nature of the Warp itself is what determines travel distance in the Warp in relation to real time displacement.

So while you can say "Maybe you'll get there. Maybe you won't. Let's find out," it's safer to say "Does Chaos want me there in the first place?"

The fact that you can time travel in the warp determines that Time-Space flow and Causality has no bearing on the Warp what-so ever. It is those vessels secured in their Geller Fields that experience this passage. Everything else is but a reflection or shadow of emotion.

In Ahriman:Exile, this time distortion happens in a supremely frustrating way in that the Titan Child makes it's way to Cadia and finds an Inquisitorial ship that has just left the destroyed Planet of the Sorcerers. More than that, the Inquisitors on board KNOW Ahriman is responsible for the devastation on Magnus' new planet, and recoil in horror at being confronted by Ahriman himself.

This is like meeting the Devil face to face, before the Devil was thrown out of Heaven, but you're from the future. They KNEW what Ahriman had done and was before Ahriman himself could even make the assumption. Furthermore, and more paradoxically at that, Ahriman makes this connection eventually and gauges these Inquisitors reactions accurately, and he realizes that he can change the future. If this is such, how does this affect that Inquisitorial ship from the future?

Midevial sailing is very akin to what travel through the warp could be like. Especially when you liken it to the instances of vessels that have disappeared in the Warp, never to be heard from again.

Rogal Dorn had an experience like this in Flight of the Eisenstein when his fortress planet and fleet got stuck in a maelstrom. Had it not been for the Eisenstien detonating its reactors, the warp would've still held them in stasis. Even more eerily though is what is described in that book after the reactors detonate; in that a great warp beast seemed to howl and reach out from the detonation that blew away the storm.

They were stalled months, and lost umpteen vessels to the Warp trying to navigate it. Just stuck.

@ endless waltz - Yep, accidental backwards time travel is annoying but occasionally desirable, depending on the mission!

@ Prince Raven - Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer (albeit factually correct regarding the fickle nature of the warp)!

@ Pilau Rice - Maddening, but amusing (so long as it's happening to someone else)…

@ Skin - Yep, I have the Rogue Trader rulebook and have read all about the warp in there, although the answer is still the same: you'll get there when you get there.

@ RedWing - I haven't read Exile, but I'll certainly have to now. That does sound quite amusing, the whole Back to the Future thang!


Cheers Dakka - I knew I could count on you to provide plenty of answers which, in turn, provide even more questions…

I can add this from the 2E Imperial Guard Codex:

"Ten thousand light years can be traversed within 10-40 days by warp-capable spacecraft. By the time ships have moved into position, munitions collected and troops assembled, the response time over this distance is in the order of between 30 and 120 days, typically about 75 days. This is the standard response time for the raising of Imperial Guard armies, though for prolonged conflicts troops may be brought in from much further away."

It should be noted that, although this was never "retconned" in GW's own books, such detailed information has become far less common in the books of later editions, specifically to accomodate the many different interpretations presented both by the gamers (with GW essentially reducing the amount of what could be considered "binding background" by some, in favour of intentionally leaving topics open for personal fluff) as well as licensed/outsourced material, such as Black Library novels or FFG's RPGs.

Ultimately, it comes down to you having to decide whatever numbers from whatever source you want to run with - or even making up your own ones!

Warp travel ultimately is at least reliable enough for there to be such a thing as an interstellar economy, which we know the Imperium has, at least up to the sector level. Hive worlds are dependent on food imports to stave off the threat of starvation and mass riots. Agri-worlds and mining worlds exist whose economies consist solely of exporting raw materials and food to other worlds. In order for this to be the case and for such worlds to survive year after year, travel between the stars has to be at least reliable and quick enough for such trade and shipments to be worthwhile over trying to produce it locally. Likewise there would be no vulnerable ships for corsairs and pirates to prey on if travel were not reliable and safe enough for there to be such fat targets in the first place.

Some warp routes are more stable than others. FFG books in particular often state which planets have stable warp routes to and from each other.

The FFG Rogue Trader game basically says "Kinda how far are you going? Ok, kinda how long do you need it to take? Ok, what kind of Warp-drive do they have? Ok, roll some dice."

It's very, very nebulous.

space and time are relative to the position and speed of the observer. A question like this doesn't really mean anything without more permimeters.

The main rule book fluff states that a journey that would take many thousands of years traveling at the speed of light takes only weeks using Warp Travel.


We also know that in some areas it can take longer than others because of the nature of the warp itself. Thus we can assume there are calmer areas in some places than others.

Thus we can get a rough approximation that, depending on current conditions, it would probably take only a few months to a little over a year to cross the Galaxy using Warp Travel. Depending on the route you took. Some areas may also be more inaccessible than others. It might take less time to travel from Maccragge to Terra than it would to get from Maccragge to a planet only half-way to Terra because of what route it would take to get there.

We can't really look at the physical distances between worlds and come up with travel time based on location. Its all about the Warp, which doesn't follow any laws of space or time.


Time spent in the Warp will also differ from the time in real-space, although we can assume any major differences are rare. Going back in time would certainly not be a common occurrence.

I remember some fluff where an Imperial official was commenting on her trip from Terra to the other side of the galaxy. How that while only a few weeks had passed in the Warp, a few years had passed on Terra.




So basically you'll just have to come up with a reasonable time frame. You might as well use the FFG scale since there isn't anything solid.

I have always thought of warp travel to me more akin to sailing ships on the sea. Sure some ships are inherently faster than others but if you were to ask how long it will take to sail from point A to point be the answer will always be "depends..."

I know that it the one of the Tau codexes (3rd I think) it says that the "deeper" you travel into the warp the longer you can stay in it and the faster you will travel at your destination (this would be in the travelers time I assume). But if you stay in the "shallows" of the warp you can only make shorter hops because you cannot stay "under" (to keep the analogy going) as long. But it is describes as more reliable. I take that to mean more reliable in both in location and in time that you pop out into when you emerge from the warp.

As for astropaths from some reason I always assumed it was more or less instant. But some messages were harder to interpreted (translate?) back into reality then others. Based on how carefully the message was sent and where it came from. I think one of the Inquisitor books implies something to that effect. But it has been a long time since I read them

well as i can figure there is no measure in fact its all a real guess really i mean look at it this way in flight of the eisenstine garro asked one of his men about the message to take to terra ( ie the horus heresy) and he said to garro he didnt know where or when they were that they could have been 10000 years to late. so from this its best guess i do believe that there have been instances of ships time traveling in some manners like this like 100s of years. but the passage of time is totally differant in the warp like the fact the oldest space marine overall isnt dante its tirik abbadon the warmaster but he even being 10000 plus years old isnt the point its that he hasnt hardly aged in the warp space. in my personal opinion like from flight of the eisenstine its unknown till you leave the warp.

There is a type of Warp Engine in the FFG game Rogue Trader that, based on what you roll when making a Warp jump, either adds or subtracts 1d5 months from your trip.

With lucky dice rolls, and plotting trips in a series of short jumps, it is very, very possible to arrive at your destination before you left the house.

 Mike101 wrote:
well as i can figure there is no measure in fact its all a real guess really i mean look at it this way in flight of the eisenstine garro asked one of his men about the message to take to terra ( ie the horus heresy) and he said to garro he didnt know where or when they were that they could have been 10000 years to late. so from this its best guess i do believe that there have been instances of ships time traveling in some manners like this like 100s of years. but the passage of time is totally differant in the warp like the fact the oldest space marine overall isnt dante its tirik abbadon the warmaster but he even being 10000 plus years old isnt the point its that he hasnt hardly aged in the warp space. in my personal opinion like from flight of the eisenstine its unknown till you leave the warp.

Well take that same story as an example, and I'm sure I may have said this already but, it also largely depends on who in the Warp wants that message or your ship getting there in the first place.

In Flight of the Eisenstein, after the Eisenstein falls out of the Warp and they can't figure out where or when they are, the detonate their Warp engines in the hopes of creating a flare large enough for a Navigator or Astropath to pick up. And sure enough, when the thing explodes, it draws Dorn's compensation and they're saved. But it is suggested, by whom I can't remember (have to go look), that they saw an angry beast reaching out to grab the Eisenstein, from the heart of the explosion, roaring in defiance. Later on when Garro meets with Dorn, someone explains that they had been stuck in the heart of a Warp storm that seemed to be holding them there. Every vessel (or vessels) they sent, never came back and the astropaths and navigators would scream and convulse whenever they reached outside of their own cells.

As a Chaos player, I think that is the most telling factor. Perhaps that and who you have on your side wanting you to succeed. After all, the real trick of the Imperium isn't that they pass through the Warp. Anyone can do that, and still make it out the other side too. It's doing that in one piece. So the real advent of the Imperium ships is their Geller fields; their "skin of reality that they take with them".

How far the character needs to go + time author needs them to get there ÷150 (1+x)=warp speed

X-is the time to make it dramatic

.
Light Years.....Minimum Warp Time.....Maximum Warp Time.....Minimum Real Time.....Maximum Real Time
12 mins 6 mins 43 mins 4.5 hrs
5 7 mins 30 mins 3.5 hrs 1 day
10 14 mins 1 hr 7 hrs 2 days
50 1.25 hrs 4.75 hrs 1.5 days 9 days
100 2.5 hrs 9.5 hrs 3 days 3 weeks
500 12 hrs 2 days 2 weeks 3 months
1000 1 day 4 days 1 month 6 months
5000 5 days 3 weeks 5 months 3 years


There we go

Because the Warp has been long established as consistently inconsistent, the other big question is "How long does Warp travel take from the perspective of someone in real space?"

Now I'm starting to bring relativity into the equation and if there's one thing the 40K writers don't like, it's math.

DarkSoldier wrote:
Because the Warp has been long established as consistently inconsistent, the other big question is "How long does Warp travel take from the perspective of someone in real space?"

Now I'm starting to bring relativity into the equation and if there's one thing the 40K writers don't like, it's math.

Since time is not a constant in realspace, and depends on the observer's position in the galaxy, that's not really a question that can be answered.

From a Terran perspective, it can seem to take mere days to years, depending on the distance traveled and the vagaries of the Warp.