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I know the Tyranids are visiting from outside the Galaxy and the Silent King was leaving the known galaxy, but has there ever been any stories that take place outside of our known galaxy?

What would be the point? Everything happens in the Milky Way cos that's where everyone is.

 Gert wrote:
What would be the point? Everything happens in the Milky Way cos that's where everyone is.

I was always wondering where the Silent King was going, or maybe where the Tyranids came from.

I don’t think so, no.

We know in the modern day, Warp Travel for the Imperium depends upon the Astronmicon Beacon. That allows for long range navigation, and so much longer journies.

Prior to that, the Votann perform the same function, albeit individually not as bright. Given the Votann are STC Databases, we can extrapolate that whatever came before The Great Crusade, mankind had a network too.

Which raises the question of how one might navigate The Warp outside of our galaxy. And a bigger question to which there is currently no answer would be “is the Warp as much of a mess far, far away from sentient beings”. Because a stormy sea doesn’t make for a stormy ocean.

I don't know if this is still active canon but I remember multiple accounts of the warp getting 'thin' in places like the Halo stars and other outer reaches of the galaxy which makes it hard to use for travel. This implies in my opinion that the warp needs living beings to exist in the form we know and that the void between galaxies wouldn't really have transitable warp.
Maybe that was the reason for the horrible Narwhals...

If Warp travel is fast because you catch the currents of the warp, then if the current is sluggish or non-existent travel maybe slow. And the currents of warp are caused by the thoughts and emotions of things. No things means no current. It might mean the vast, vast, vaaaast gulf between galaxies is basically an inexplicably vast doldrum.

The warp eddies aren't required to move through the warp. The distance in the warp is squiffy, so the gulfs between the galaxies aren't necessarily big and don't prevent travel. It's not riding a storm that makes travel faster, it's that distance doesn't matter as much.

The warp was traversable before the war in heaven and was in fact safer due to the lack of emotional storms washing through it.


Certainly some aspect of the void reflects into the warp, so the void between galaxies will have an effect. But it won't prevent travel. The bigger issue will be not knowing where to go.

Technically, Ghost Warrior takes place within the galaxy, but it takes place on a craftworld that just came back after leaving the galaxy. So you get something sorta kinda vaguely extra-galactic in nature.