The warp, the galaxy and the universe?

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**Techpriestsupport**

Ok deep thought time here. If you're not into deep thought exercises on 40k that don't really effect play you might not like this.

As for everyone else...

The warp is supposedly a weird parallel of this universe and as such shouldn't it cover the whole universe and not just the milky way galaxy? Yet in 40k it seems that only the 40k galaxy, the milky way, has anything to do with the warp and vice versa.

So I wondered about this for a few seconds and then decided if the warp parallels the universe then maybe like the universe it has spots of life and activity dotted in a big empty expanse of more or less nothingness.

Maybe each galaxy has a corresponding warp nexus with it's own gods and daemons and whatnot. In between them are vast empty expanses of little more than open space, or warp.

So far as we know only two races have gone outside their galaxies, the necron silent king and the tyranids., Neither are big on the warpy stuff.

So maybe "our" chaos gods only exit in a limited area of the warp around our galaxy and other galaxies have their own gods that maye be similar to ours but known by different names,

Just a theory, please feel free to comment on it.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
As a side note on this, if the 'nids wiped out the life and, presumably, warp gods of another galaxy before leaving it it might explain why the chaos gods in the 40k universe didn't know about them before they got here.

Also if the chaos gods here wake up to the fact the 'nids could destroy life in the galaxy and therefore them it could lead to them telling Abby to go on a crusade against them.

Hmm, if all races in the galaxy united against the 'nids it could be a new Big Thing for gw, and the first truly intergalactic war.

**Racerguy180**

I dont think the size of the warp directly correlates to the universe. Since space/time doesnt function the same in the warp as it does in the material plane(i.e. time & distance being linear) it wouldnt make sense for it to equate in size. also, it has been said that the warp touches many realms/dimensions/realities, so who knows?

**Animus**

We know other galaxies have warp contact. The Tyranids are the best example, they're psykers despite coming from beyond the galaxy, and the Hivemind couldn't function without the warp. There's also lines like Tzeentch knowing the hopes of every being in the universe, and there being visions of other galaxies being slaughtered for Khorne.

**John Prins**

The warp is everywhere, but the energy in the warp is not consistent. During the time of the Old Ones the warp was calm and serene because there was little emotional energy to cause turmoil. In the year 40000 it's leaking through into realspace because of all the constant emotional churn from endless warfare. Outside of the galaxy, it's probably quite calm and serene in the warp. What it's like in other galaxies depends on the inhabitants and their natures. A galaxy where a self-improving AI took over and seeded every solar system would have a very calm warp indeed.

**argonak**

I think its safe to say that the warp the imperium is seeing is localized to our galaxy, or else there'd be a lot more crazy stuff happening. I'd agree with your theory of it being just like galaxies, and that its islands of soul energy turbulence which corresponds in some way to the real universe where living beings are.

The warp will become empty and silent if the tyranids win.

**Lance845**

Animus wrote:
We know other galaxies have warp contact. The Tyranids are the best example, they're psykers despite coming from beyond the galaxy, and the Hivemind couldn't function without the warp. There's also lines like Tzeentch knowing the hopes of every being in the universe, and there being visions of other galaxies being slaughtered for Khorne.

The hivemind does not use the warp. In previous editions nids didnt suffer perils because of that. They draw directly on the hive mind. The shadow in the warp is a side effect, not the thing itself.

**Animus**

Lance845 wrote:
Animus wrote:
We know other galaxies have warp contact. The Tyranids are the best example, they're psykers despite coming from beyond the galaxy, and the Hivemind couldn't function without the warp. There's also lines like Tzeentch knowing the hopes of every being in the universe, and there being visions of other galaxies being slaughtered for Khorne.

The hivemind does not use the warp. In previous editions nids didnt suffer perils because of that. They draw directly on the hive mind. The shadow in the warp is a side effect, not the thing itself.

The Hivemind does use the warp, it's the medium through which Tyranid psychic communication occurs and where the Hivemind actually exists. Nids even have psychic powers such as warpblast.

**Grumblewartz**

The warp in 40k galaxy is like a bigger version of warp storms. Warp storms are local, in the galaxy. The warp, as it exists in 40k, is local to the Milky Way and, probably, some other galaxies. If you can grasp the concept of warp storms, then the same "logic" applies to the warp's presence, fluctuations, etc. elsewhere in the universe.

**Lance845**

Animus wrote:
Lance845 wrote:
Animus wrote:
We know other galaxies have warp contact. The Tyranids are the best example, they're psykers despite coming from beyond the galaxy, and the Hivemind couldn't function without the warp. There's also lines like Tzeentch knowing the hopes of every being in the universe, and there being visions of other galaxies being slaughtered for Khorne.

The hivemind does not use the warp. In previous editions nids didnt suffer perils because of that. They draw directly on the hive mind. The shadow in the warp is a side effect, not the thing itself.

The Hivemind does use the warp, it's the medium through which Tyranid psychic communication occurs and where the Hivemind actually exists. Nids even have psychic powers such as warpblast.

I get why you think that but your wrong. The nids "warp blast" isnt warp based. Again, previous editions and nid codexes explain that nids dont draw on the warp to do its thing. The hive mind is not a warp entity.

Lets put it this way.

Does the Hive Mind have it's own warp deamons? Does it extend control over the warp in any capacity? Do the nids use the warp for FTL? Something that would be much safer for them if the thing that bound and controlled them was an entity of the warp. No to all of those questions.

The Hive mind is a entity of the materium. It is the gestalt consciousness of every tyranid organism. It's consciousness, senses, and powers are VERY much rooted in the physical reality. In order for any tyranid to be an actual psychic entity drawing on the warp to manifest powers they would have to have a psychic warp presence which means they would have a soul. But the tyranids don't have those. Specifically in every story where the deamons face the nids the nids provide no sustenance for the deamons because they have no souls to corrupt, torment, and devour.

So if it doesn't have a soul and can't draw on the warp. And the Hive Mind isn't a warp entity. They it's got nothing to do with the warp. They explain away the mechanics of perils of the warp as backlash along the synaptic web. They explain the powers as the Hive Mind made manifest. Because just like fluff is not crunch, crunch is not fluff. It doesn't matter that nids have a "warp blast" power in 8th. it's just a name to represent a power.

**Techpriestsupport**

People underastand the orks generate their own psychic power sans the warp, why can';t the get the nids do that too?

**Animus**

Lance845 wrote:
I get why you think that but your wrong. The nids "warp blast" isnt warp based. Again, previous editions and nid codexes explain that nids dont draw on the warp to do its thing. The hive mind is not a warp entity.

Lets put it this way.

Does the Hive Mind have it's own warp deamons? Does it extend control over the warp in any capacity? Do the nids use the warp for FTL? Something that would be much safer for them if the thing that bound and controlled them was an entity of the warp. No to all of those questions.

The Hive mind is a entity of the materium. It is the gestalt consciousness of every tyranid organism. It's consciousness, senses, and powers are VERY much rooted in the physical reality. In order for any tyranid to be an actual psychic entity drawing on the warp to manifest powers they would have to have a psychic warp presence which means they would have a soul. But the tyranids don't have those. Specifically in every story where the deamons face the nids the nids provide no sustenance for the deamons because they have no souls to corrupt, torment, and devour.

So if it doesn't have a soul and can't draw on the warp. And the Hive Mind isn't a warp entity. They it's got nothing to do with the warp. They explain away the mechanics of perils of the warp as backlash along the synaptic web. They explain the powers as the Hive Mind made manifest. Because just like fluff is not crunch, crunch is not fluff. It doesn't matter that nids have a "warp blast" power in 8th. it's just a name to represent a power.

Warp blast is warp based. The Nids do have some influence over the warp, they can close warp portals, foul warp communication, and make warp travel difficult. The Hivemind exists within the warp, it's rooted in the material universe because it's generated by the physical Tyranids, but that's the same for most mortal souls. The Hivemind is essentially the gestalt soul of the Tyranid race. In Devastation of Baal, the Hivemind actually dies briefly when the Great Rift tears open and the warp is thrown into turmoil. The warp is where psychic stuff actually exists, the Hivemind isn't a cloud floating about in realspace, where else could it exist but the warp?

Techpriestsupport wrote:
People underastand the orks generate their own psychic power sans the warp, why can';t the get the nids do that too?

Orks also use the warp. They generate psychic energy like every psychically active being, but that's still in the warp.

**Formosa**

It's not mutually exclusive, the Tyranids derive their power from the hive mind, which itself is made up of warp energy, if you draw on any kind of psychic power or supernatural ability it's from the warp, even sisters acts of faith are warp based, faith gets thrown into the warp which in turn reflects power back at the sister's giving them special abilities, orks work in much the same manner as the waaagh grows that power is reflected back at the orks and "refined" by the wierdboyz into attacks, there are no supernatural abilities in 40k that do not come from the warp, the nearest you can get is the C'Tan but that is utter control over matter etc. And based solely in the real world.

**Lance845**

The hive mind is not made up of warp energy. Nothing, anywhere, has ever said that. The hive mind is closer to the Ctan then anything else.

**Formosa**

Lance845 wrote:
The hive mind is not made up of warp energy. Nothing, anywhere, has ever said that. The hive mind is closer to the Ctan then anything else.

Tyranids thoughts are projected into the warp, this forms the hive mind, the hive mind has a calculable effect on the warp and has made lesser deamons flee from it within the warp, that makes it a warp based entity, it can also be tapped into by psykers of other races and the Tyranids use it to communicate through non mundane means, the synapse network a telepathic link between all tyranids, also a warp based ability.

The hive mind IS a warp entity or at the very least has its entire pressence in the warp, anything drawn from said entity/presence is warp based, so tell me how the Tyranids don't use the warp?

**Animus**

Indeed, the Hivemind has been shown to be effected by warp anomalies and null fields. It exists in the warp, generated by the minds of the Tyranids. It's not a physical presence, but an immaterial one.

**Lance845**

Animus wrote:Indeed, the Hivemind has been shown to be effected by warp anomalies and null fields. It exists in the warp, generated by the minds of the Tyranids. It's not a physical presence, but an immaterial one.

The only place where the Hive Mind has been impacted by Null fields has been in the fan fiction that is black library. But for every story where the hive mind has been impacted there is also a story where it has not been impacted by the same things. Because again, fan fiction. BL is inconsistent at best. What has NEVER happened is a story from any codex where the hive mind has been impacted by a null field.

The hive mind sees with physical eyes. It senses with physical organs. It's the collected consciousness of physical beings. Not a separate entity controlling them from the warp.

Formosa wrote:
Lance845 wrote:
The hive mind is not made up of warp energy. Nothing, anywhere, has ever said that. The hive mind is closer to the Ctan then anything else.

Tyranids thoughts are projected into the warp, this forms the hive mind, the hive mind has a calculable effect on the warp and has made lesser deamons flee from it within the warp, that makes it a warp based entity, it can also be tapped into by psykers of other races and the Tyranids use it to communicate through non mundane means, the synapse network a telepathic link between all tyranids, also a warp based ability.

The hive mind IS a warp entity or at the very least has its entire pressence in the warp, anything drawn from said entity/presence is warp based, so tell me how the Tyranids don't use the warp?

Incorrect, the mass chatter of the hive mind casts a SHADOW into the warp, but the shadow is not itself the hive mind. The Warp is impacted by and reflects gak from the physical world all the time. In fact, the whole thing basically exists because of the physical world. The Hive Mind is not a warp god. The connection between all tyranids is not the same as one psyker telepathically communicating with another. And yes, one psyker can try to touch the hive mind with their abilities. But so can one librarian contact another space marine. That doesn't make the librarian and SM warp entities.

PROVE that the synapse network is warp based. Give me book and page to reference any 40k official doc or codex story where they say that the nids are using the warp. Again, there are several documents including many codexes that say specifically that they are not.

**Techpriestsupport**

You know, maybe the hive mind is related to the warp after all.
Necron pylons have an effect on the warp and 'nids seem to about worlds with them.

Likewise culexes assassins are nulls and nulls affect the warp. They also affect kids and wrirdboyz. So maybe there is some warp relation there after all.

Hey I can admit being mistaken and correcting myself.

Maybe nulls could be used as anti tyranid weapons of the imperium had hidden words where they cloned them in mass numbers?

**locarno24**

The synaptic web is a psychic phenomena, but as noted it's basically a million telepaths 'talking'.

If you're old enough to understand the reference, it could be compared to two people talking on the phone (astropathy) and then someone turns on an internet modem that totally destroys the conversation with an overwhelming wave of noise and ear-stabbing static. To the people having the conversation, it's like something foreign has invaded their space and rendered their communication impossible. Meanwhile the modem is just using the broadcast space as the medium for a much more efficient mode of communication. It's not its fault that the weak fleshlings can't make sense of its beautiful tones.

The hive mind isn't a nebulous blob of warp energy distinct from the tyranid creatures; as noted, it's no different from a bunch of telepathic librarians maintaining a mind-link.

Maybe nulls could be used as anti tyranid weapons of the imperium had hidden words where they cloned them in mass numbers?

As of the horus heresy, they could - something called 'protiphage' clones. But they've lost that ability.

Could it be useful....well....yes and no. With the tyranid commnd and control basically being a psychic phenomena, disrupting it isgood.

But it's not like daemons; they won't drop dead if cut off from the hive mind, just default to a basic instinctive behaviour of "stab anything which doesn't look gribbly", and the synapse web is very resiliant. Cutting off a key synapse creature may disrupt the swarm locally, but there's no real analogue to killing a planetary commanding officer - any tyrant only provides a tiny faction of the hive mind's 'processing power', so cutting it off only produces an infinitesimal change in the hive mind gestalts' strategic 'personality'.

**Techpriestsupport**

Just reading the above made me think of a new imperial ship that has like 100 nulls aboard and they're all wired into machinery like the stuff they put on culexus assassins, but hundreds of times bigger, (since, you know, these nulls don't have to run around and kill stuff personally) to focus and amplify their anti psyker effect into a weapon that can royally screw up a hive fleet in battle.

**Formosa**

Lance845 wrote:
Animus wrote:Indeed, the Hivemind has been shown to be effected by warp anomalies and null fields. It exists in the warp, generated by the minds of the Tyranids. It's not a physical presence, but an immaterial one.

The only place where the Hive Mind has been impacted by Null fields has been in the fan fiction that is black library. But for every story where the hive mind has been impacted there is also a story where it has not been impacted by the same things. Because again, fan fiction. BL is inconsistent at best. What has NEVER happened is a story from any codex where the hive mind has been impacted by a null field.

The hive mind sees with physical eyes. It senses with physical organs. It's the collected consciousness of physical beings. Not a separate entity controlling them from the warp.

Formosa wrote:
Lance845 wrote:
The hive mind is not made up of warp energy. Nothing, anywhere, has ever said that. The hive mind is closer to the Ctan then anything else.

Tyranids thoughts are projected into the warp, this forms the hive mind, the hive mind has a calculable effect on the warp and has made lesser deamons flee from it within the warp, that makes it a warp based entity, it can also be tapped into by psykers of other races and the Tyranids use it to communicate through non mundane means, the synapse network a telepathic link between all tyranids, also a warp based ability.

The hive mind IS a warp entity or at the very least has its entire pressence in the warp, anything drawn from said entity/presence is warp based, so tell me how the Tyranids don't use the warp?

Incorrect, the mass chatter of the hive mind casts a SHADOW into the warp, but the shadow is not itself the hive mind. The Warp is impacted by and reflects gak from the physical world all the time. In fact, the whole thing basically exists because of the physical world. The Hive Mind is not a warp god. The connection between all tyranids is not the same as one psyker telepathically communicating with another. And yes, one psyker can try to touch the hive mind with their abilities. But so can one librarian contact another space marine. That doesn't make the librarian and SM warp entities.

PROVE that the synapse network is warp based. Give me book and page to reference any 40k official doc or codex story where they say that the nids are using the warp. Again, there are several documents including many codexes that say specifically that they are not.

Sorry dude but the onus is on you to prove it isn't, 40k has long established that all non mundane activity is warp based with no exceptions, so if your asserting that Tyranids are the exception you need to show it, as already stated the "drawing power from the hive mind" is just a long way of saying "it comes from the warp", nids use psychic powers, all psychic power comes from the warp, ergo the nids use the warp.

**Techpriestsupport**

It may be that 'nids, like orks, use warp based power in some ways but cannot be corrupted by it. Each individual ork draws a tiny speck of warp power into itself but too small amount to corrupt or affect it. Wrirdboyz draw power frommthe warp thru a multitude of orks and it is "filtered" thru them.

Also orks are honest and open creatures with no hidden or repressed dark desires to be used to corrupt them. They really can't be corrupted by the warp but can be effected by it with psychic attacks.

Maybe 'nids are the same way.

The shadow in the warp might be the uncorruptable, instinctive, animalistic hive mind, which cannot be corrupted by the effects of the warp.

**Animus**

Lance845 wrote:
Animus wrote:Indeed, the Hivemind has been shown to be effected by warp anomalies and null fields. It exists in the warp, generated by the minds of the Tyranids. It's not a physical presence, but an immaterial one.

The only place where the Hive Mind has been impacted by Null fields has been in the fan fiction that is black library. But for every story where the hive mind has been impacted there is also a story where it has not been impacted by the same things. Because again, fan fiction. BL is inconsistent at best. What has NEVER happened is a story from any codex where the hive mind has been impacted by a null field.

The hive mind sees with physical eyes. It senses with physical organs. It's the collected consciousness of physical beings. Not a separate entity controlling them from the warp.

The fifth edition Necron codex mentions the Null fields and the soulless nature of the Necron affecting the Hive Mind. Humans, Eldar and Orks all have physical senses, but they also have a reflection in the warp. The Hive Mind is the accumulative psychic essence of the species, it it's a physical entity as you suppose, then were does it exist?

**Iracundus**

In the background about the Tyranids over the RL years, there have been 2 competing themes by authors. One portrays the Hive Mind as a warp entity, arising from the collective of all Tyranids (articulated from about Epic Hive War and 2nd edition onwards). The other that it is "merely" a communication network or static generated by the communication activity of the Tyranids (first articulated in the 3rd edition Tyranid Codex, as this viewpoint was Sherman Bishop's). Over the years the fluff has see-sawed between these two depending on the author. More recently it seems we are heading back to the first one.

The following is from Wraithflight by Guy Haley. The POV is Iyanna using her psychic senses while fighting a hive fleet. While an in-character POV and thus potentially fallible, it does pretty strongly point towards the Hive Mind as an entity:

Beyond the shield she saw the Great Dragon’s true form. Not the hideous intrusions into the mortal realm that swam the black star sea, nor as a Farseer might see it, as a great and braided cable of malicious fate dominating all the skein. The first was merely a part of the whole, the second psychic abstraction. What Iyanna instead saw was the reality of its soul.

It was a great shadow when seen from afar, a wave of dread and psychic blindness that preceded the hive fleet’s arrival. But the greatest shadows are cast by the brightest lights, and seen closely, the soul of the hive mind shone brighter than any sun.
She was so close now that she perceived the ridged topography of its mind, larger than star systems, an entity bigger than a god. It contemplated thoughts as large as continents, and spun plans more complex than worlds. It dreamed dreams that could not be fathomed. She felt small and afraid before it, but she did not let her fear cow her defiance.

Against this vista flickered the souls of eldar, their jewel-brightness dimmed by the incomparable glare of the Great Dragon. And this was but a tendril of the creature. The bulk of it stretched away, coils wrapped tight about the higher dimensions, joining in the distance to others, and then others again, until at a great confluence of the parts sat the terrible truth of the whole. She stared at its brilliance. Unlike her passionless dead warriors, who felt nought but the echoes of wrath at the sight, she was fascinated by the beauty on display. She thought, if only such a thing could be tamed it would drive out She Who Thirsts forever. If only its hunger was for things other than the meat and blood of worlds…

She ceased her speculation. Such an entity was entirely other, inimical to all life but its own, a giant animal intent only on its prey. There was no thought to its doings, no intellect. It was cunning. It exhibited signs of an emergent, mechanical intelligence, as evolution might appear to possess if sped to the rate of change the hive mind evinced. But there was no true intelligence to it. The hive mind was non-sentient.

...

She had the sense of an eye, slave to a great power. An intellect that dwarfed the Great Wheel of the galaxy. She opened her second sense, to find the Dragon looking at her with terrible regard. For aeons it seemed it held her in its gaze. And there was fury in that examination. The Dragon was angry, and it was angry with her. Not with the galaxy, or this sector, or her species. But with her personally. The promise of endless torment came from it, her very being enslaved to its ends and used against others, her body rebuilt over and again so that it might suffer the Dragon’s revenge.

So from this story, it seems Iyanna was mistaken in thinking the Hive Mind had no true intelligence or sentience. Though the Hive Mind normally does not seem to concern itself with individual enemies, it seems to have noticed and formed a particular vendetta (or so Iyanna at least perceives) after Iyanna scores yet another victory against the Tyranids.

My view is the Hive Mind is an entity, akin to the gods of other races. The supernatural effects generated by Tyranids are ultimately warp based, but drawn through the filter of the Hive Mind. If using psychic powers on one's own is like jumping into the ocean and scooping a cup of water (i.e. warp power), and running the risk of nasty sea creatures, a Tyranid using its power is like doing the same but in a filtered pool that draws its water from the ocean. No nasty sea creatures (i.e. daemons) affecting the individual Tyranid as they have been filtered out by the Hive Mind. The 5th edition Tyranid Codex described individual daemons being unable to make any inroads or even fleeing before the massed gestalt of the Shadow in the Warp/Hive Mind of a Tyranid fleet.

Before GW introduced the stupid idea of the Narvhal and its grav propulsion FTL, the Tyranids were also explicitly described as using warp jumps. They were protected against individual daemons by the Hive Mind.

**Latro_**

warp blast has always been 'warp' energy no?

Spoiler:

**Andykp**

I’m on the non warp side here, in spite of the above picture. Most things in those early codexs were written from the imperial perspective, so any psychic phenomenon would have been considered “warp” based.

The tyranids have always been very much “other” in the setting and the hive mind, I believe is something other than a typical warp thing as they would know it. Thankfully the fluff is vague enough to to allow you to believe what ever suits you best.

**Formosa**

Andykp wrote:
I’m on the non warp side here, in spite of the above picture. Most things in those early codexs were written from the imperial perspective, so any psychic phenomenon would have been considered “warp” based.

The tyranids have always been very much “other” in the setting and the hive mind, I believe is something other than a typical warp thing as they would know it. Thankfully the fluff is vague enough to to allow you to believe what ever suits you best.

I am sorry but that is not true, the fluff is not vague in this case, its very very clear and consistent, if its non mundane in nature, its the warp, ghosts, warp, magic, warp, bleeding walls, warp etc. etc.

What yourself and others are asking me to believe is that Tyranids are the one exception in the entire setting to use psychic powers without using the warp, it does not add up simply put, so far we have had not explanations for how it does not use the warp and what alternative there is, the "hive mind" is clearly shown to reside within the warp but we are expected to believe that any energy it provides is not warp based ?

I am sure you will agree that does not make much sense at least, even if you dont agree on the premise.

**Andykp**

I don’t agree that all non mundane abilities rely on the warp or that it’s anywhere near as clear cut as you say. It’s only really the imperium and chaos who have this concept of reality and the warp, eldar have very much blurred boundaries on it, living and travelling with in it but not and using non mundane powers in every day life and hiding from the warp based presences. ORKS generate their own psychic fields and energies and have little concept of the warp an very minimal interference from it. Possession and and warp breaches etc by and or of ORKS is rare, epecially nowadays.

I see plenty of ambiguity in the setting to allow the belief that the hive mind is in no way warp based. It doesn’t have to be black and white, I am not asking you to believe anything, I’m just telling you how I see it. I clearly don’t see what you do in it. So sorry i don’t agree it makes no sense as the basis of your argument is flawed.

**Duskweaver**

Andykp wrote:
Most things in those early codexs were written from the imperial perspective,

2nd edition codexes (which that scan is from) were all written from an omniscient PoV. It was only in 3rd edition that GW started writing codexes from a (deliberately limited and biased) Imperial PoV.

**Maréchal des Logis Walter**

The Warp, as a parallel universe, could possibly be present everywhere, however, it is a reflexion of the galaxy it is more or less "tied to". Maybe in a galaxy devoid of all life as the tyranids', or that would prove not as war waging as ours, or where inhabitants have full control over their psychic capabilities, would the warp be apprehended differently and have other effects on real time universe.

As for travelling into other galaxies through the warp, I see no reasons it shoud not be doable but Humanity, for example, as neither technology nor free room to settle such and endeavour: they're busy surviving endless warfare and warp travel in their own galaxy is already random and dangerous enough...

I don't claim to be an expert of the tyranids, but I'd take the "warp stained" stance. I understand the hive mind as a colllective counscienceness acting as a single being. In spite of being a very particular one - a gestalt counscienceness-, the use of psychic powers or link originates from the warp no matter what, just as an eldar has his soul and conscienceness on the one side, and his ability to use "magic" on the other.

The shadow in the warp can also be a proof of that in a way: it is a sideeffect of the hive mind's warp reflection being so imposing it blackens out the warp to other races, which means it does have some link with the warp.

**Andykp**

Maréchal des Logis Walter wrote:
The Warp, as a parallel universe, could possibly be present everywhere, however, it is a reflexion of the galaxy it is more or less "tied to". Maybe in a galaxy devoid of all life as the tyranids', or that would prove not as war waging as ours, or where inhabitants have full control over their psychic capabilities, would the warp be apprehended differently and have other effects on real time universe.

As for travelling into other galaxies through the warp, I see no reasons it shoud not be doable but Humanity, for example, as neither technology nor free room to settle such and endeavour: they're busy surviving endless warfare and warp travel in their own galaxy is already random and dangerous enough...

I don't claim to be an expert of the tyranids, but I'd take the "warp stained" stance. I understand the hive mind as a colllective counscienceness acting as a single being. In spite of being a very particular one - a gestalt counscienceness-, the use of psychic powers or link originates from the warp no matter what, just as an eldar has his soul and conscienceness on the one side, and his ability to use "magic" on the other.

The shadow in the warp can also be a proof of that in a way: it is a sideeffect of the hive mind's warp reflection being so imposing it blackens out the warp to other races, which means it does have some link with the warp.

Dry well put. I agree on the hive mind, and the description of he shadow in the warp is exactly how I see it. Ambiguity in the setting is good. Not everything needs to be black and white.