What if Guilliman restarted and finished the Webway project?
- Thread starter Tyzuris
- Start date
Erwin_Pommel
Well-known member
I presume it might bring a notable change to the Imperium's defence doctrine as the Webway would be much better than Warp travel and as such vessels could act a lot more proactive when a threat is found as opposed to the usual hold out and wait for another force if yours is insufficient to do much beyond delay.
Tyzuris
Primarch to your glory& the glory of him on Earth!
One thing definitely would be a serious factor here. With Webway done and no need for powering the Astronomican anymore, the Emperor could use that energy reserved for Astronomican for fighting the Chaos harder or instead on healing himself.
Erwin_Pommel
Well-known member
Wouldn't the loss of the Astronomican be somewhat detrimental though? As far as I am aware on top of its lighthouse-esque properties it does also contribute somewhat to Chaos suppression due to its anthemic nature to Chaos. As such with the Astro' gone, wouldn't that give Chaos more breathing space in general? Hell, it has the potential of leaving the Imperium blind on one axis of mobilisation if they go about the transition to Webway travel wrong.
CarlManvers2019
Writers Blocked Douchebag
I think there’s also the problem with the Navigators, much of their wealth and political power comes from their indispensability for Warp Travel
And it will take a very long while to remake every ship to be able to use the Webway
What do you expect them to do? Just protest technology replacing them? Breed with rich humans and gradually just become really rich noble human families?
And it will take a very long while to remake every ship to be able to use the Webway
What do you expect them to do? Just protest technology replacing them? Breed with rich humans and gradually just become really rich noble human families?
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
Navigators would probably try to sabotage the project, like they did with every other attempt to develop alternate way to navigate the Warp.
Could keep the Astronomicon going, it's counter Chaos bits intact and Navigator families happy for the time being while using the Webway for the Imperial Fleet and other important bits that require expediency.
This being 40k, not as much of an "i win" button as many would imply. A major strategic boost, at least after some more work and exploration of the webway is done (navigating it is generally considered a major issue even once someone gets into it) but probably not a full replacement for warp travel, especially for first few millenia. "Borrowing" Eldar enterances/exits to the webway is not feasible apparently, if it was the Imperium would be doing that since ages. That's why the webway project was such a big deal. The Emperor has figured out a way to build own portals and "enterance tunnels" to the proper webway, with AdMech assistance to do the building. The problem is that even they could not figure out how to do it up to the proper webway tunnels. As we know, they are built in the warp...
That's why the human built tunnels required wards and the psychic protection of at Emperor\Magnus grade psyker sitting on the Golden Throne to power them (which Magnus broke with his psychic message). So it seems like quite a finicky thing, with catastrophic consequences in cases of failure. Suddenly doesn't seem that much better than warp travel. Now the AdMech is in worse shape in many ways than in M30, Emperor can't directly take part in the research on the project, and there are questions about his psychic condition - after all, the project was still being worked on, and it was meant to be powered by living Emperor, not a kind of sort of artificially sustained one. It raises further questions - how many human built connection tunnels can he reliably shield? Can Admech still build new ones properly, and at what rate? What happens if knowing of it and the strategic advantage it gives the Imperium, all the neighbourhood chaos sorcerors start trying to intentionally pull off what Magnus did and cause warp breaches in the connecting tunnels, not necessarily on the one connecting Terra to the webway, but also more obscure and less well protected places?
Even if those problems are handled reasonably well, we know that the webway itself is not exactly in top shape, and is not connecting all places in the universe anyway. Many sections of the webway are blocked off or in unusable state for various reasons...
That's why the human built tunnels required wards and the psychic protection of at Emperor\Magnus grade psyker sitting on the Golden Throne to power them (which Magnus broke with his psychic message). So it seems like quite a finicky thing, with catastrophic consequences in cases of failure. Suddenly doesn't seem that much better than warp travel. Now the AdMech is in worse shape in many ways than in M30, Emperor can't directly take part in the research on the project, and there are questions about his psychic condition - after all, the project was still being worked on, and it was meant to be powered by living Emperor, not a kind of sort of artificially sustained one. It raises further questions - how many human built connection tunnels can he reliably shield? Can Admech still build new ones properly, and at what rate? What happens if knowing of it and the strategic advantage it gives the Imperium, all the neighbourhood chaos sorcerors start trying to intentionally pull off what Magnus did and cause warp breaches in the connecting tunnels, not necessarily on the one connecting Terra to the webway, but also more obscure and less well protected places?
Even if those problems are handled reasonably well, we know that the webway itself is not exactly in top shape, and is not connecting all places in the universe anyway. Many sections of the webway are blocked off or in unusable state for various reasons...
Stealth Bump
Wouldn't this also potentially have the potential knock on effect of maybe finding the wayward White Scars Primarch Jaghatai Khan since he was supposedly last suspected to be lost or wandering in the Webways.
Wouldn't this also potentially have the potential knock on effect of maybe finding the wayward White Scars Primarch Jaghatai Khan since he was supposedly last suspected to be lost or wandering in the Webways.
This is huge because...
...it means that Magnus may not have fallen.
...which could mean that The Thousand Sons may still be a loyalist faction
...there's no warp rift under the Throne room on Terra so the Emps is likely at full strength when the traitor factions come calling
...no issues moving troops around or to Terra in defense against the traitors
...LOTS MORE
This really spreads the ripples through the timeline.
...it means that Magnus may not have fallen.
...which could mean that The Thousand Sons may still be a loyalist faction
...there's no warp rift under the Throne room on Terra so the Emps is likely at full strength when the traitor factions come calling
...no issues moving troops around or to Terra in defense against the traitors
...LOTS MORE
This really spreads the ripples through the timeline.
PsihoKekec
Swashbuckling Accountant
OP meant it as Girlyman finishing the project after he was awoken by Cawl, so in 41K not 30K.
Wow...somehow I completely failed my reading comprehension.
