# Confusion With the Warp



## SoL Berzerker (May 5, 2009)

So, the warp is a tide of currents made up of energy, I understand that part of it, but what I don't understand is if the warp is just a tide of currents, then what exactly are the domains of the Chaos Gods? What is Draigo doing? Is he just fumbling around in these currents?

How big is the warp?


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## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

To my understanding, the Warp is infinite for all practical purposes, in terms of both time and volume. However, unlike the physical universe, locations aren't stuck in/on/around a spatial/temporal point and can vary in both based upon whomever is perceiving the Warp. Anything more than than and I think we'd need a third eye to really understand.


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## locustgate (Dec 6, 2009)

The domain of the gods are areas that an emotion tends to 'pool'/get drawin to ,think like the garbage patches in oceans, but with creatures that eat your soul. The gods 'create' these areas so that a disciple they favor won't get lost as easily. That said last ed Demon dex mentioned navigating is weird you could be walking towards location A, along with seeing it, but end up at location z, which is in the opposite direction you want. 

You should ask how big is the universe. Lets just leave it as BIG!


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

SoL Berzerker said:


> So, the warp is a tide of currents made up of energy, I understand that part of it, but what I don't understand is if the warp is just a tide of currents, then what exactly are the domains of the Chaos Gods?


Each god's realm (Palace of Slaanesh, Garden of Nurgle etc) is made up of the same energy that constitutes each god, so effectively the gods and their realms are one and the same thing.



SoL Berzerker said:


> What is Draigo doing? Is he just fumbling around in these currents?


We know for certain that a mortal's mind or soul can 'enter' the warp. We also have one or two examples of a mortal (seemingly) physically entering the warp (the primary example being Draigo). The question, I suppose, is whether Draigo brings an element of reality in with him (in a similar fashion to how gellar fields work) or whether his example is a anomaly because of the curse. 



SoL Berzerker said:


> How big is the warp?


The question is moot as 'big' and 'small' are meaningless. The warp is without matter.


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

To expand on what CotE was saying, the warpis a psychic realm linked to all races capable of birthing psykers and perhaps even those who don't. It "feeds" essentially on emotional currents in the materium, and the four most base emotions are what gives rise to the gods of Chaos. 

Physically, the warp is nothing. It's a realm of thought and feeling and it responds to actions and events in the materium for the most part. For example, the feeling of rage and any action taken as a direct result will feed Khorne, regardless of whether the act was done in his name or not. The pursuit of knowledge or the act of deceiving feeds Tzeentch, and so on. It should be noted that worship of the Chaos gods is not required for them to feed. 

In this manner, some gods might temporarily hold sway over the others. However, so long as all their base emotions remain firmly in the mortal psyche, none of them will truly be able to be killed.


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## SoL Berzerker (May 5, 2009)

Okay, all my questions so far have been answered well, thanks. 

Another question I have, I may be thinking to hard into this, but I really just want to understand it. When it says that Skarbrand hit Khorne, scratched his armor, and then Khorne punched Skarbrand and when he landed his impact created a crater in the ground. How could a non-physical demon scratch the non-physical armor of a non-physical god? Then how could Skarbrands non-physical body create a crater in a non-physical landscape? 

Also, what form does a ship of the Imperium take while in the warp?


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## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

SoL Berzerker said:


> Okay, all my questions so far have been answered well, thanks.
> 
> Another question I have, I may be thinking to hard into this, but I really just want to understand it. When it says that Skarbrand hit Khorne, scratched his armor, and then Khorne punched Skarbrand and when he landed his impact created a crater in the ground. How could a non-physical demon scratch the non-physical armor of a non-physical god? Then how could Skarbrands non-physical body create a crater in a non-physical landscape?


That story would be told from the daemon's perspective, so it would not have literally happened persay. Think of it like a metaphor. Skarbrand challenged Khorne and was ruined because of it, becoming an outcast. Screaming across the sky probably just means Khorne's rage at Skarbrand was plain for all denizens of the warp to see. 



> Also, what form does a ship of the Imperium take while in the warp?


The ship projects a gellar field, which is like taking a portion of reality into the warp with it. It also shields them from daemonic attack. Most of the time.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

SoL Berzerker said:


> Okay, all my questions so far have been answered well, thanks.
> 
> Another question I have, I may be thinking to hard into this, but I really just want to understand it. When it says that Skarbrand hit Khorne, scratched his armor, and then Khorne punched Skarbrand and when he landed his impact created a crater in the ground. How could a non-physical demon scratch the non-physical armor of a non-physical god? Then how could Skarbrands non-physical body create a crater in a non-physical landscape?


Check out this relatively short thread (particularly this, this and this post) some of these kind of questions came up there. 



SoL Berzerker said:


> Also, what form does a ship of the Imperium take while in the warp?


As _Serpion_ said an Imperial ship which travels into the warp does so protected by a gellar field. This field projects a bubble of reality around the ship to protect it from the depredations of the warp. Thus, generally speaking, Imperial ships would appear as they normally do because they are cocooned in a bubble of reality.


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## GabrialSagan (Sep 20, 2009)

Explaining the warp to a human is like trying to explain Van Gogh's Starry Night to a worm. To understand the warp you have to imagine what jazz tastes like. You have to be able to know what the smell of purple is. The warp is chaos, everything you understand, everything you can imagine is inapplicable. Time and distance are functions of the thoughts of innumerable minds resonating with the ambient energies of gods and monsters that eat logic for breakfast.


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## Dead.Blue.Clown (Nov 27, 2009)

SoL Berzerker said:


> So, the warp is a tide of currents made up of energy, I understand that part of it, but what I don't understand is if the warp is just a tide of currents, then what exactly are the domains of the Chaos Gods?


The Warp is the raw stuff of souls. The same way water is made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, the Warp is made of souls.

That aetheric 'matter' can be shaped by emotion and imagination into daemons, Gods, the realms of the Gods, and so on.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

Has it even been explained what exactly a Geller field does (other than turning someone into Ross or Monica). Is it psychic energy, null energy (similar to a Culexus or Pariah have) or something else?


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

Through technological means, it somehow projects a bubble of reality around an object within a realm of unreality (the warp).


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

Malus Darkblade said:


> Through technological means, it somehow projects a bubble of reality around an object within a realm of unreality (the warp).


Thanks, am I right in thinking that somewhere it says that the Emperor obtained the technology in his bargain with the Chaos gods?


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

No it existed during the Dark Age of Technology.


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## BlackGuard (Sep 10, 2010)

The Geller Field is a nice, vague, way for the Imperium to explain how exactly it can travel the Warp.

Oddly enough for all the technology lost in the 41st Millennium, of all the technology considered archaic and half-understood. The Geller Fields really seem to be one of the things the Imperium hasn't forgotten too much about. I'm sure some things are ritualized but Humanity certainly has clung to that piece with some single-mindedness.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

Malus Darkblade said:


> No it existed during the Dark Age of Technology.





BlackGuard said:


> The Geller Field is a nice, vague, way for the Imperium to explain how exactly it can travel the Warp.
> 
> Oddly enough for all the technology lost in the 41st Millennium, of all the technology considered archaic and half-understood. The Geller Fields really seem to be one of the things the Imperium hasn't forgotten too much about. I'm sure some things are ritualized but Humanity certainly has clung to that piece with some single-mindedness.


Thanks guys, I wasn't sure. I wish they'd explain it better as I think even technology would have to generate some sort of field capable of repelling daemons. If that is so how come no-one has ever thought to equip the Grey Knights and Inquisition with miniature versions (built by the Jokaero maybe) which can repel daemons in realspace?


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

BlackGuard said:


> The Geller Field is a nice, vague, way for the Imperium to explain how exactly it can travel the Warp.
> 
> Oddly enough for all the technology lost in the 41st Millennium, of all the technology considered archaic and half-understood. The Geller Fields really seem to be one of the things the Imperium hasn't forgotten too much about. I'm sure some things are ritualized but Humanity certainly has clung to that piece with some single-mindedness.


They've retained the technology to make Astartes, bolters, Thunderhawks, etc.

The absolutely crucial things are harder to forget especially if the technology is spread around multiple worlds should one fall to mankind's various enemies.

@zerachiel: it doesent repel Daemons like how pariahs would. It just is a wall that the strongest Daemons can bypass with ease.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

Malus Darkblade said:


> @zerachiel: it doesent repel Daemons like how pariahs would. It just is a wall that the strongest Daemons can bypass with ease


Oh right, how come that all ships in the warp aren't destroyed? As daemons are at their strongest in the warp surely they should be able to go through every geller field with ease? (Not trying to pick an argument, I'm genuinely interested).


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

I couldn't find the quote that stated the strongest Daemons could bypass geller fields but I'm sure I've read it somewhere. Wait till CoTe shows up I suppose.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

Malus Darkblade said:


> I couldn't find the quote that stated the strongest Daemons could bypass geller fields but I'm sure I've read it somewhere. Wait till CoTe shows up I suppose.


Thanks Malus and no worries. It's just bugging me now that for any ships to survive then the geller fields must be very strong. Maybe they can't be miniaturized


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

They can be miniaturized in that the Primarchs were insulated from the Warp by box sized G fields (then again we dont know if the ones on ships differ in size)


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## Child-of-the-Emperor (Feb 22, 2009)

Malus Darkblade said:


> I couldn't find the quote that stated the strongest Daemons could bypass geller fields but I'm sure I've read it somewhere. Wait till CoTe shows up I suppose.


I don't recall anything of the sort. I'd be interested in seeing a reference though if you can find it.


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## Malus Darkblade (Jan 8, 2010)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> I don't recall anything of the sort. I'd be interested in seeing a reference though if you can find it.


I don't know. I think it was Ingethel who said or implied it. I control + F'ed 'geller field' in the First Heretic and I couldn't find it.


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## zerachiel76 (Feb 12, 2010)

Malus Darkblade said:


> They can be miniaturized in that the Primarchs were insulated from the Warp by box sized G fields (then again we dont know if the ones on ships differ in size)


Thats a really good point. Maybe the technology for miniature geller fields has been lost


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## Over Two Meters Tall! (Nov 1, 2010)

BlackGuard said:


> The Geller Field is a nice, vague, way for the Imperium to explain how exactly it can travel the Warp.
> 
> Oddly enough for all the technology lost in the 41st Millennium, of all the technology considered archaic and half-understood. The Geller Fields really seem to be one of the things the Imperium hasn't forgotten too much about. I'm sure some things are ritualized but Humanity certainly has clung to that piece with some single-mindedness.


Well, considering Star Trek pioneered with creating a 'Warp Bubble' around a ship that allowed it to pass to another dimension and travel faster than light, a "Gellar Field" doing the same thing seems right out of stock Sci Fi tradition.

I'd also question the Imperium not having forgotten too much about Gellar fields. If that was the case, then you'd think over the last 10 Millennia they would have been able to improve on them in some way, which doesn't seem to be the case. Even Astares Armor has gone through improvements since the HH, although not much. I'd say they're even regressing in their use of the Gellar Field technology, considering it was more stable and easily manipulated back in 30K.


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## forkmaster (Jan 2, 2010)

I would say imagine a empty room. That represents the Warp. You have no idea what it looks like, and people may tell you how it looks like and many might tell it differently. When you enter it, it forms after your imagination of emotions. You are happy, it takes the colourful happy theme. 

So the Warp is just energy made of souls that are given "physical" represenation by mortal humans as it is formed from our imagination. We are bloodthirsty, and we have history on how wars are looked upon. The then represents Khorne and so forth. It's a mirror of our emotions.


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## nevynxxx (Dec 27, 2011)

Over Two Meters Tall! said:


> considering Star Trek pioneered with creating a 'Warp Bubble' around a ship that allowed it to pass to another dimension


That's not how star trek's warp travel works though....

To the OP, watch Event Horizon :wink:


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## emporershand89 (Jun 11, 2010)

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> We know for certain that a mortal's mind or soul can 'enter' the warp. We also have one or two examples of a mortal (seemingly) physically entering the warp (the primary example being Draigo). The question, I suppose, is whether Draigo brings an element of reality in with him (in a similar fashion to how gellar fields work) or whether his example is a anomaly because of the curse.


If that is the case it begs the question of what the Warp really is. If a ship projects a wall of "Reality" around it then how does it reconnect with the propper place and time in reality? That would be my next question.

If you have ever watched Star Trek you will hvae heard of the race known as the Undine. They live in another dimension of space that is only connectable by certain Wormholes that can be connected. In a similar fashion the Domain comes through the Wormhole from their own part of the galaxy that the "Prophets" of Biajor built. In a similar fashion the warp is another dimension that is seperate from normal space and reality we live in. When a ship enters that "dimension" it gets assualted by the "currents," or material, of the Warp. 

Thus a simple way to think of it is a totally different Dimension filled with horrible creatures that is directly connect with our own dimnension through emtoion and magic.


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## nevynxxx (Dec 27, 2011)

emporershand89 said:


> how does it reconnect with the propper place and time in reality


With great difficulty, hence the ships that think they've been in for an hour and come out 10k years later, or that think they've been in years, and pop out immediately...


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