What do we know about what lies beyond the halo zone/halo stars/ghoul stars etc.?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**Grey Templar**

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:
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?

There was non-Astropath FTL communication during the DAoT. Presumably the Ad Mech still has access to that technology. Its probably too expensive to use for regular old comms anymore, but for special stuff they'll do it.

**dusara217**

Yay for completely unsupported claims without any sources to back them up!

**Alcibiades**

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:
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?

Right. The probe cannot in fact have travelled further than 7000 light-years and so cannot be extragalactic.

(In reality the writers came up with a cool-sounding anecdote and didn't try to make it consistent with the rest of the setting.)

**Camundongo**

Alcibiades wrote:
SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:
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?

Right. The probe cannot in fact have travelled further than 7000 light-years and so cannot be extragalactic.

(In reality the writers came up with a cool-sounding anecdote and didn't try to make it consistent with the rest of the setting.)

Well, depends on how it left the galaxy. It would have great difficulty leaving along the plane of the of Galaxy, but if it was sent off perpendicular to the plane, then it could be possible (though admittedly still unlikely).

**AegisGrimm**

Or the easy explanation that Orks and the probe are not all the way in another galaxy- only roaming the uncharted wastes along the edge of the Milky Way proper.

**Otto Weston**

In my headcanon -

I believe the warp extends beyond the reach of our galaxy and is in fact a mirror for the entire universe.

This probe was sent out before the warp in our galaxy got all fethed up by Slaneesh's birth. At that time it took ~ 2 years to cross the galaxy using the warp.

I imagine the Probe to travel in about 1,000 LY warp jumps and scanning around each time.

Therefore having been travelling for all those thousands of years, it's quite possible that it has explored multiple galaxies. Our local group for sure and perhaps even beyond that.

If Orks were detected in each of these Galaxies (because Orks originated in ours and have spread out into our local group over millions of years but the Mechanicus doesn't know that) they could logically conclude that Orks are in fact everywhere.

**TheWanderer**

Anything and everything required by fluff....

Which is sad really as its pretty clear that huge areas inside the galaxy are forgotten, abandoned, unexplored, full of secret bad stuff etc etc that its not really necessary to be all ewowowowowo about the halo zone.

**VikingChild**

The Halo Zone is situated to the very farthest extremes of the Galactic West, whilst the Ghoul Stars are on the edges of the Galactic North.

Two different areas of space entirely but what they have in common is that they form the borders of the edge of of the Milky Way galaxy - beyond that; Intergalactic space and wave upon wave of Hive fleets ready to move in!

**SagesStone**

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.

The Warp drive actually led to the emergence of psykers.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Requiet wrote:
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.

They were drawn to the galaxy by the Pharos overloading, so in a way I blame Guilliman for the Tyranid invasion.

I don't think they're a warp entity more the hive mind would be similar to the gestalt field the Orks generate to make their technology work. Tyranids being afraid of the corruption of the warp could mean they are somewhat aware of its existence before they reached the galaxy and then the shadow of the warp is a defense against that. They're known to abandon fleets that have become tainted by chaos before.

Falling to and being corrupted by chaos being two completely different things.

**oldravenman3025**

n0t_u wrote:
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.

The Warp drive actually led to the emergence of psykers.

Yeah. But it's my understanding that they were still relatively rare until around the time of Slaanesh's gestation in the Warp. With the exception of the Navigators, that is.

**dusara217**

oldravenman3025 wrote:
n0t_u wrote:
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.

The Warp drive actually led to the emergence of psykers.

Yeah. But it's my understanding that they were still relatively rare until around the time of Slaanesh's gestation in the Warp. With the exception of the Navigators, that is.

You do realize that they had non-Warp FTL during DAoT, correct? It's featured in Priests of Mars

**oldravenman3025**

dusara217 wrote:
oldravenman3025 wrote:
n0t_u wrote:
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.

The Warp drive actually led to the emergence of psykers.

Yeah. But it's my understanding that they were still relatively rare until around the time of Slaanesh's gestation in the Warp. With the exception of the Navigators, that is.

You do realize that they had non-Warp FTL during DAoT, correct? It's featured in Priests of Mars

I haven't read Priest of Mars yet. Which is something I need to correct.

But I wasn't aware of a non-Warp FTL system in the Age of Technology. The only thing I knew was that Mankind was limited to sublight generational ships toward the end of the Age of Terra. And that the FTL era began with the advent of the Warp Drive sometime between the 15th and 18th Millennium. These early warp drives were limited in range until the discovery of the Navigator gene sometime in the 22nd Millennium, relying exclusively on technological means of navigation. I have read some fan speculation that these early drives probably operated similarly to the "warp skimming" methods that the Tau use. Which would make sense, even if it were just speculation.

But as for non-Warp FTL, I'm not surprised, considering how little is known about that period in 40k's background history.

**TheWanderer**

oldravenman3025 wrote:
dusara217 wrote:
oldravenman3025 wrote:
n0t_u wrote:
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.

The Warp drive actually led to the emergence of psykers.

Yeah. But it's my understanding that they were still relatively rare until around the time of Slaanesh's gestation in the Warp. With the exception of the Navigators, that is.

You do realize that they had non-Warp FTL during DAoT, correct? It's featured in Priests of Mars

I haven't read Priest of Mars yet. Which is something I need to correct.

But I wasn't aware of a non-Warp FTL system in the Age of Technology. The only thing I knew was that Mankind was limited to sublight generational ships toward the end of the Age of Terra. And that the FTL era began with the advent of the Warp Drive sometime between the 15th and 18th Millennium. These early warp drives were limited in range until the discovery of the Navigator gene sometime in the 22nd Millennium, relying exclusively on technological means of navigation. I have read some fan speculation that these early drives probably operated similarly to the "warp skimming" methods that the Tau use. Which would make sense, even if it were just speculation.

But as for non-Warp FTL, I'm not surprised, considering how little is known about that period in 40k's background history.

As I understand it the Pharos devices were considered non-warp FTL. At least one of them was still around at the time of the Heresy.

I always like to think that in the event of the Astronomican switching into standby mode people would find all the missing Pharos devices, kind of like you turn off massive halogen light by your head and all of a sudden you can see all the stars in the sky

**oldravenman3025**

TheWanderer wrote:
oldravenman3025 wrote:
dusara217 wrote:
oldravenman3025 wrote:
n0t_u wrote:
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.

The Warp drive actually led to the emergence of psykers.

Yeah. But it's my understanding that they were still relatively rare until around the time of Slaanesh's gestation in the Warp. With the exception of the Navigators, that is.

You do realize that they had non-Warp FTL during DAoT, correct? It's featured in Priests of Mars

I haven't read Priest of Mars yet. Which is something I need to correct.

But I wasn't aware of a non-Warp FTL system in the Age of Technology. The only thing I knew was that Mankind was limited to sublight generational ships toward the end of the Age of Terra. And that the FTL era began with the advent of the Warp Drive sometime between the 15th and 18th Millennium. These early warp drives were limited in range until the discovery of the Navigator gene sometime in the 22nd Millennium, relying exclusively on technological means of navigation. I have read some fan speculation that these early drives probably operated similarly to the "warp skimming" methods that the Tau use. Which would make sense, even if it were just speculation.

But as for non-Warp FTL, I'm not surprised, considering how little is known about that period in 40k's background history.

As I understand it the Pharos devices were considered non-warp FTL. At least one of them was still around at the time of the Heresy.

I always like to think that in the event of the Astronomican switching into standby mode people would find all the missing Pharos devices, kind of like you turn off massive halogen light by your head and all of a sudden you can see all the stars in the sky

That would be interesting if that did go down that way. Humanity wouldn't be completely screwed when/if the Emperor croaks (the Astronomican is failing from what I've read, and the Mechanicus is freaking out because they don't know how to repair it).