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Ok, has the power of the astronavicom even been used as a weapon, all of it focused on one target as a sort of warp powered interstellar ranged "dragon shout" against a target ?

A recent thread suggested the 'nids are attracted to it and have made runs at terra because of it.

I just had this idea of a nid fleet approaching terra going after the light of the astronavicom and the emp notices them and just for s few seconds focuses his full attention on it along with the full power of the beacon.

The 'nids collective mind goes "POP! " like a moth on a bug zapper.

I know their didn't happen with the beast and his invasion of terra but I wonder if it could ever happen.

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
Ok, has the power of the astronavicom even been used as a weapon, all of it focused on one target as a sort of warp powered interstellar ranged "dragon shout" against a target ?

A recent thread suggested the 'nids are attracted to it and have made runs at terra because of it.

I just had this idea of a nid fleet approaching terra going after the light of the astronavicom and the emp notices them and just for s few seconds focuses his full attention on it along with the full power of the beacon.

The 'nids collective mind goes "POP! " like a moth on a bug zapper.

I know their didn't happen with the beast and his invasion of terra but I wonder if it could ever happen.

I have it on good authority that this is actually how GW is planning on resolving the current black crusade. My source at GW says a female imperial guard commander with purple hair is going to spend several books smacking around space marines while they comically fail to stop the Crusade with a series of wacky hijinks and when they're right next to earth she's going to turn the astronomicon on them and disintegrate all their ships.

This is of course after the scene where the new brooding Crimson Slaughter primaris marine turned from the blood angels cuts Abbadon in half and has a fight with the first female ultramarine against a bunch of Chaostodes (new models incoming btw for all).

Me personally I am really excited at the bold new expectation-subverting direction this new black library lead writer is going to take the wh40k canon. It may not be what the fans want, but it's 2019: it's what the fans need.

Well, maybe instead of aiming the astronavicom at the 'nids they could just beam your snark at them. If it irritates and annoys them half as much as it does me it should drive them off.

There's a bit in the Talon of Horus where the light of the Astronomicon renders a large region of the Eye of Terror uninhabitable, and hostile even to daemons.

Well now, there's something I never heard of. Interesting to know. The emperor must have really ngiven that place the stink eye.

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
Well now, there's something I never heard of. Interesting to know. The emperor must have really ngiven that place the stink eye.

It's not a specific 'attack'; it was a natural and permenant effect.

Think of the astronomican as a star, and the cadian gate as a magnifying glass. The bit of the eye at the focal point on the other side is not a nice place to be, even compared to the rest of the eye.


In Mechanicum, there's a device on Mars which opened up a 'capture field' and drawing off part of the astronomican. That was pretty destructive, too, despite being a tiny proportion.

Given that I'm surprised it's never been used like a weapon.

Or was it?

There was the story of Sebastian Thor and now a fleet sent by good OK' goge to destroy him was itself destroyed by a sudden and strangely severe warpstorm that totally 'blitted the fleet. Maybe daddE used the power of the 'nav to destroy the fleet because he knew it was a vital factor that he had to deal with.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

locarno24 wrote:

 Techpriestsupport wrote:
Well now, there's something I never heard of. Interesting to know. The emperor must have really ngiven that place the stink eye.

It's not a specific 'attack'; it was a natural and permenant effect.

Think of the astronomican as a star, and the cadian gate as a magnifying glass. The bit of the eye at the focal point on the other side is not a nice place to be, even compared to the rest of the eye.


In Mechanicum, there's a device on Mars which opened up a 'capture field' and drawing off part of the astronomican. That was pretty destructive, too, despite being a tiny proportion.

Hmm, would that make that bit of the eye a safe place for non chaos forces? Could the imperium create a beach head there?

Not really. It'd be not a great deal safer for them.

Basically imagine trying to fly through a continuously exploding psychic supernova.

No, you cannot use the astronomicon as a weapon, sure it'll destroy your enemies, but it'll destroy you too.

Yes the atromomicon can be used as a weapon and was part of the emperors scorched earth plan if the gods took terra at the end of the heresy, the psychic power within the golden throne, astronomicon and the emperor himself would be set off by a device created by vulkan and having drawn in the gods themselves it would ultimately destroy them he hoped, humanity would be dead but so possibly would the dark gods.

If someone is navigating by the light of the Astronomicon, you might be able to somehow distort your enemy’s perception, and have them fly into a star or something.

Its 40k, anything is possible.

 Formosa wrote:
Yes the atromomicon can be used as a weapon and was part of the emperors scorched earth plan if the gods took terra at the end of the heresy, the psychic power within the golden throne, astronomicon and the emperor himself would be set off by a device created by vulkan and having drawn in the gods themselves it would ultimately destroy them he hoped, humanity would be dead but so possibly would the dark gods.

If the Astronomicon could destroy the Chaos Gods then why wasn't using it for that step 1?

Because it would destroy humanity with them. Emps wants humanity to outgrow chaos, not get wiped out at the same time.

 greatbigtree wrote:
Because it would destroy humanity with them. Emps wants humanity to outgrow chaos, not get wiped out at the same time.

But unless using the Astronomicon to kill Chaos kills everything in the Galaxy or actively targets all the humans it wouldn't do that.

The section in the talon of horus describes how the astronomicon literally sets the warp on fire, but it also mentions that manifestations of the emperor and the sacrificed psykers are spawned by it and they war with daemons.

One of them has a conversation with abby at one point even, so I'd not be shocked if we one day get imperial daemons, although the descriptions in the book immediately made me think of stormcast.

Back in the day I homebrewed a character built around this premise. He was a Psychic Chapter Master who effectively channelled the astronomicon into his enemies as a psychic attack.

Rather than draw energy from the warp and throw it out as lightning or fire or what have you, he was effectively reaching his mind into the warp, approaching the astronomicon and allowing that to pour into reality through him (or a localised warp portal, I never quite nailed that down)

In my mind this psychic energy was 'clean' and purified by the Emperor and therefore you didn't risk daemonic attack- juts burnout from channelling the UNLIMITED POWERRRRR.

Obviously, a chapter master who channels holy psychic energies didn't really thematically fit the grim darkness of the etcetera so he was retired in favour of a regular terminator captain.

I don't see why the premise couldn't work in a more grimdark fashion. A puritan inquisitor has a bunch of repentant witches chained to a silver ring and forces them to channel the astronomicon through it into the ranks of the enemy.