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What if...unable to create a human Web way the emps has spent the last 10000 years cataloging the Eldar webway. With a psychic pulse he sends the location of every webway portal out into his empire. Sector governors, admistratum higher echelons, aristocracy, IG captains and up and pretty much any influential person gains knowledge of the ones closest to him. Starship captains gain knowledge of the one in the parts of space they frequent. Explorators gain knowledge of all of them outside human space. Etc. No one has complete knowledge, the info is spread to all.

The space marines, navigators and mechanicus gain way more comprehensive knowledge than most.

With the psychic pulse comes orders to use it. No one doubts it's from the Emperor (or the Omnissah).

The knowledge of the webway openings is actually more co.plete than the Eldar knowledge, but it's spread out and needs to be collected or lost. The inside of the webway is still a confusing, dangerous maze.

A psyker is required to use the openings. To use them safely or with any certainty requires a navigator.

Chaos worshippers don't get anything, but it can only be a matter of time before they start to acquire it from new conversions or torture.

How does this change things? How do the Eldar react? What are the longer term implications?

Well...

Given near-instantaneous travel from Point A to B, it is only a matter of time before the Tau are exterminated, as massive Imperial fleets suddenly appear in the skies above their worlds, with armies millions strong literally appearing out of thin air on the ground. The same will hold true for a number of other, minor Xenos empires.

Rogue Traders are pissed because they are mostly out of a job.

The Dark Eldar basically go the same way as the Tau, as the Imperium arrives in Commoragh in force.

The Craftworlds continue to drift in the void between stars. There's relatively few of them, and the Web-Way is huge. It will be millennia before this is actually a threat to the Eldar, who simply seal the Web-way portals on their Craftworlds from the outside.

This also gives the Imperium the ability to go on the offensive against Chaos, since the Eldar Crone Worlds in the Eye of Terror are now open to the Imperium. Will this greatly change the face of this conflict? Not really. This is still war on Daemon Worlds in the most-hostile of environments that physical reality can (somewhat) support.

Eventually, once Chaos and the Necrons figure out the Web-way, it goes back to the status quo of tit-for-tat raids and lightning strikes between these factions, with the Eldar playing the Necrons and the Imperium against Chaos. The Tyranids remain a threat, and having access to the Web-Way really doesn't significantly change anything. Sure, the Imperium can blitz a Hive Fleet that is near a Web-Way portal, but the Imperium doesn't have the resources for a protracted, head-on fight against a full Hive Fleet. Sure, maybe they kill a few, but, every time, they end up losing ships, which will take centuries to replace, and there's always more Hive Fleets... and every one they defeat leaves them worse-off for the next.

I wonder what if the orks figure out how to use the web way?

Considering the fact that the use of the Webway would provide:
1.) Near-instantaneous communication
2.) Near-instantaneous travel
The Imperium would be undefeatable. We would know of threats almost as soon as they appeared; worlds would no longer be able to fall to Chaos, as Guardsmen respond almost instantly. Space Marines no longer rely upon Drop Pods, ships can devestate enemy empires without any transit times, Forge Worlds suddenly have access to materials from halfway across the galaxy that once would have cost a fortune.

Now, obviously, Rogue Traders would still be in business (just as much trade getting done, plus RT also manage a lot of diplomacy and scouting for the IoM), as they are essentially the IoM's version of Pre-Fall Craftworlds.

 Scorpionov wrote:
I wonder what if the orks figure out how to use the web way?

I like to pretend that the immaterium and the webway portals are like the internet of today. The IMMATURIUM if you will. Full of dank memes and some horrifying images of the deepest internet web.

 dusara217 wrote:
Considering the fact that the use of the Webway would provide:
1.) Near-instantaneous communication
2.) Near-instantaneous travel
The Imperium would be undefeatable. We would know of threats almost as soon as they appeared; worlds would no longer be able to fall to Chaos, as Guardsmen respond almost instantly. Space Marines no longer rely upon Drop Pods, ships can devestate enemy empires without any transit times, Forge Worlds suddenly have access to materials from halfway across the galaxy that once would have cost a fortune.

Now, obviously, Rogue Traders would still be in business (just as much trade getting done, plus RT also manage a lot of diplomacy and scouting for the IoM), as they are essentially the IoM's version of Pre-Fall Craftworlds.

Well, they'd still need to get SOME boots on the ground to drop webway portals, so Drop Pods would still be a thing.

Well considering how the Imperium is already the pre-eminent power in the galaxy even without the Webway, having access to it would permanently tip the scales in their favour. This is what the Emperor had in mind before everything went to gak.

Plus the Imperium's biggest weakness right now is probably the mind-boggling logistics needed to run such a vast and over-stretched empire so this takes care of that problem. And unlike the Eldar, the Imperium actually has the numbers and resources to take full advantage of the Webway.

I feel like this would just turn Humanity into the new Eldar. After a few dozen million years of supremacy, they destroy themselves through hedonism or Civil War.

 dusara217 wrote:
I feel like this would just turn Humanity into the new Eldar. After a few dozen million years of supremacy, they destroy themselves through hedonism or Civil War.

I doubt it. If the webway becoming established doesn't involve the Emperor descending from the Throne in some way, not needing to power the Astronomican would mean he's free to let himself be reborn. Even if Humanity forgets their Dark Age of Technology, and what happened to the Eldar, The Emperor wouldn't. Emps may not be perfect by any means, but I'm sure he knows how to learn from history.

 asorel wrote:
I doubt it. If the webway becoming established doesn't involve the Emperor descending from the Throne in some way, not needing to power the Astronomican would mean he's free to let himself be reborn. Even if Humanity forgets their Dark Age of Technology, and what happened to the Eldar, The Emperor wouldn't. Emps may not be perfect by any means, but I'm sure he knows how to learn from history.

Yea, plus the human psyche doesn't tend to go towards such extremes as the Eldar. In the Eldar codices, it's explained how much more intensely the Eldar experience things, which is why the Eldar paths are essential to prevent them from falling into Slaanesh's clutches. Humans don't suffer from this problem as much.

 EngulfedObject wrote:
Well considering how the Imperium is already the pre-eminent power in the galaxy even without the Webway, having access to it would permanently tip the scales in their favour. This is what the Emperor had in mind before everything went to gak.

Plus the Imperium's biggest weakness right now is probably the mind-boggling logistics needed to run such a vast and over-stretched empire so this takes care of that problem. And unlike the Eldar, the Imperium actually has the numbers and resources to take full advantage of the Webway.

Not necessarily, Dark Eldar can open web way portals even without any structures on the ground. It only allows them small amounts of forces but you can still transport the opening stages of an assault.

NauticalKendall wrote:

 EngulfedObject wrote:
Well considering how the Imperium is already the pre-eminent power in the galaxy even without the Webway, having access to it would permanently tip the scales in their favour. This is what the Emperor had in mind before everything went to gak.

Plus the Imperium's biggest weakness right now is probably the mind-boggling logistics needed to run such a vast and over-stretched empire so this takes care of that problem. And unlike the Eldar, the Imperium actually has the numbers and resources to take full advantage of the Webway.

Not necessarily, Dark Eldar can open web way portals even without any structures on the ground. It only allows them small amounts of forces but you can still transport the opening stages of an assault.

They can't, actually - they just have portable structures they can drop to create a temporary webway portal. They still need someone on the ground to deploy the gate.

Yep, that is perhaps the biggest "balancer" to the Web-Way. It's totally fethed up and wrecked in the current era. The gates that exist in Realspace are not all functional, or even still in existence. If you want to go from Point A to B in the Web-Way, you need to know 1) How to get to where you want to go and 2) Have a way to exit the Web-Way when you get there.

If you don't have a pre-existing Web-Gate, then you need someone to go to whatever Realspace location you want to go to, in Realspace, and drop a portal. That can be... difficult.

EngulfedObject wrote:

 asorel wrote:
I doubt it. If the webway becoming established doesn't involve the Emperor descending from the Throne in some way, not needing to power the Astronomican would mean he's free to let himself be reborn. Even if Humanity forgets their Dark Age of Technology, and what happened to the Eldar, The Emperor wouldn't. Emps may not be perfect by any means, but I'm sure he knows how to learn from history.

Yea, plus the human psyche doesn't tend to go towards such extremes as the Eldar. In the Eldar codices, it's explained how much more intensely the Eldar experience things, which is why the Eldar paths are essential to prevent them from falling into Slaanesh's clutches. Humans don't suffer from this problem as much.

Here let me quote myself...

After a few dozen million years of supremacy, they destroy themselves through hedonism or Civil War.

Humanity, as a species, has been evolving to be more and more psychically powerful (this was one of the nails in the coffin of the original Human Interstellar Civilizations). Therefore, after a few million years, Psykers will have evolved to the point of being similarly powerful to the Emperor, or at the very least, able to combine powers to be similarly powered to the Emperor. Nothing lasts forever, and, in an Empire as large as the IoM, massive Civil Wars are inevitable; throw Alpha-Plus Psykers into the mix, and you have successful rebellions.