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.

Hey, just finished reading The Talon of Horus, and the last page had an interesting line in it:

The Imperium currently out of contact with a quarter of its worlds seems like a big deal; but I can't find any other material on it. Does anyone know of more fluff which goes into this into more detail?

It's making use of the way communications in 40k work in order to feel dramatic.

It's not that the Imperium is out of contact with the Segmentum Pacificus, it's that the limited range of astropathi communications means that messages from Pacificus have to go through relays in other segmenta before they reach Terra.

afaik, Segmentum Pacificus got ravaged by Chaos uprisings, and there are currently Crusades going on to retake huge amounts of the Segmentum. Perhaps he was referring to that.

Disabling a key relay planet could delink entire sectors from the chomand chain etc. That's if they need relay points for messaging.

If you need relay stations they are weak points for disabling communication networks. And if successful will knock on far wider than just taking out a hive wolrd etc.

 Snuggles wrote:
Hey, just finished reading The Talon of Horus, and the last page had an interesting line in it:

Spoiler:

How many fleets of vessels have been lost in these last decades, to flickers in the Astronomicon? Here, on Terra... can you hear any of Segmentum Pacificus's thousands of worlds? A quarter of t[he Imperium]

The Imperium currently out of contact with a quarter of its worlds seems like a big deal; but I can't find any other material on it. Does anyone know of more fluff which goes into this into more detail?

its talking about two different things, the "flickers" are problems with the astronoicon throwing off ships travelling the warp, gets worse and worse following the heresy as the turbulence in the warp is increasing (was stable ish after slaanesh was born which really allowed the crusade to start) and potentially the emperor is getting weaker (I err on the side of it being the first option)

the other is that the nature of communication and the shear size of the imperium means that there is a delay in comms. Backwater places might not be visited for decades by imperial reps and equally a communication from the backwater could take months and months depaending on how far out it is and the number of relays between it and wherever and how turbulent the warp is at the time. Think of the comms system like a river, where the message is in a row boat but the water can flow backwards and up and down hill depending on the day of the week, meaning sometimes its easy and fast and other times you can paddle like mad and still get no where.

So wait 25% of the old imperium is now like the koronus expanse at best ? This is great news. Death to the corpse emperror hand his rotten empire long live Trantor and praise the great Hari Seldon.

 oldzoggy wrote:
So wait 25% of the old imperium is now like the koronus expanse at best ? This is great news. Death to the corpse emperror hand his rotten empire long live Trantor and praise the great Hari Seldon.

its always been that great swathes of the imperium drift in and out of contact

Every Imperial world is an island adrift on a sea of darkness, supported only by its closest of neighboring worlds, if there are any to speak of, and reliant, in the main, on its own resources for defense. Certainly, it can call on the Adepta Terra for aid, should the need arise, but Terra is very, very far away.