The Light of the Astronomican - How strong?

[Kravunhive]

This is just a quick question about the Astronomican. From what I understand the energy created is beamed out by the Emperor as psychic light across the galaxy making warp travel possible. That I know. Also, I know the Light fades towards the eastern fringes making this the frontier of the Imperium.

But I was wondering if the Astronomican would need a booster signal, say in each Segmentum there was a world, or number of worlds, that had infrastructure that acted as magnifier/booster of the signal? Or is the Light that strong that no such thing be needed?

[ThePope]

As I understand it relay/booster stations are only for telepathic messages, the emperor's light is finite and can not be seen past x distance. If it could be boosted I guess there would be no frontiers at all.

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[MagosHereticus]

there are other warp beacons but they are infinitely smaller than divine majesty's astronomicon

[ryng_sting]

Until the fluff says otherwise, the Emperor still callibrates the beacon. He used to fuel it directly, but switched the power source to sacrificial psykers during the Horus Heresy. There are a number of smaller beacons, as MH says, on key shipping lanes and strategic areas. There are booster matrices for Astropaths, but none, it seems, for the Astronomicon.

We also know that its limit seems to be weakened by the arrival of a major Tyranid Hive Fleet in the old army book, it showed how the range of Astromicon on the Eastern Fringe - which was already weaker than elsewhere - had been pushed back by Hive Fleet Behemoth and Hive Fleet Kraken.

[chriscrowing]

Nope. The Astronomican is guided by the emperor's will and powered by the souls of those psykers from the black ships that cannot be otherwise used as astropaths etc. There are lesser, local beacons but they are like candles against a sun when compared with the Emperor's light. There are no 'boosters' as there is only one Emperor and he's not going anywhere.

If you imagine the warp as a vast, cloudy sea in three dimensions, the astronomican would be the like a lighthouse on Terra giving you a bearing. Of course, over distance, this 'light' will dissipate and the 'limits of the Astronomican' were detailed in a lot of the 2nd edition Codexes, specifically showing how the Tyranid Shadow In The Warp had caused large areas to become shaded to the astronomican and thus not navigable by Imperial vessels. As the Eastern fringe is on the other side of the galaxy from Terra, the limits of the astronomican press close to the edge of the galaxy, while I'd imagine the astronomican extends further out into dead space on the segmentum solar side.

[Grimbad]

If you imagine the warp as a vast, cloudy sea in three dimensions, the astronomican would be the like a lighthouse on Terra giving you a bearing. Of course, over distance, this 'light' will dissipate and the 'limits of the Astronomican' were detailed in a lot of the 2nd edition Codexes, specifically showing how the Tyranid Shadow In The Warp had caused large areas to become shaded to the astronomican and thus not navigable by Imperial vessels. As the Eastern fringe is on the other side of the galaxy from Terra, the limits of the astronomican press close to the edge of the galaxy, while I'd imagine the astronomican extends further out into dead space on the segmentum solar side.

Or the Emperor's guidance focuses it where it is needed instead of letting it radiate wastefully.

Incidentally, that comment about the 2nd edition codexes prompted me to take another look at the Tyranids book, and wow, hive fleets were so much smaller back then. They only reach this tiny little area around Ultramar on that map.

[chriscrowing]

Or the Emperor's guidance focuses it where it is needed instead of letting it radiate wastefully.

Incidentally, that comment about the 2nd edition codexes prompted me to take another look at the Tyranids book, and wow, hive fleets were so much smaller back then. They only reach this tiny little area around Ultramar on that map.

That makes sense...

...and yes, something I'ver noticed coming back to the hobby is that the 'Nid fleets have been upscaled significantly, largely by making the eastern fringe bigger (the size it should be).

Behemoth always came in on a direct line for Macragge (which strikes me as silly as it's the world/system/sector in the segmentum LEAST likely to harbour genestealer cults) and Kraken always came by on a multi-fleet serrated course a bit to the galactic north - but the original Shadow in the Warp caused by these two fleets combined looked like a chip in a coin compared to the gougues that are current canon.

The fact that Leviathan came in further to the galactic south (getting a bit close to Terra IMHO) seems like a conscious effort on the part of GW to move the currently fashionable area on conflict around the map a little bit.

It seems to me that the Segmentum Obscuris alwys gets a lot of attention thanks to the Eye of Terror, Cadia, Fenris etc., the Segmentum Solar has the various wars for Armageddon and a siege at a place called Terra you may have heard of, the Ultima Segmentum seemed to get a lot of attention in the 90s, being the target of the first two Tyranid fleets, the new Tau Empire, Gorkamorka, the Maelstrom etc. (it's pretty big) while the Segmentum Tempestus hasn't been used as much and the Segmentum Pacificus is most notable for the Macharian Crusades, probably because they're smaller...

Leviathan ploughed under Tempestus and towards Terra before being diverted into the Ork empires of Octavius by Kryptmann which moves the current area of grand campaigns around the map a bit more.

Just a thought.

Incidentally, I've never seen a map of Leviathan's Shadow in the Warp - you'd think that could have seriously jeopardised communications between Terra and the core/eastern fringe. Potential plot element for whatever grand campaign is used to kick off 6th edition?

[MajorWesJanson]

The Astronomicon is strong enough to be seen intermittently in the Eye of Terror.

[Tay051173096]

The Astronomicon is strong enough to be seen intermittently in the Eye of Terror.

In the night lord books the ship shuns the light, it must piss of the chaos lords when the Emps light comes buring in...

[DietDolphin]

When the Emperor was searching for the primarchs and out doing stuff, was the light of the Astronomican centered on the Emperor or Terra, or was there two lights?

[Born Again]

That has come up before, that what happened when the Emperor was moving around during the Great Crusade? My interpretation has always been that the Astronomicon is not centered literally on the Emperor himself, rather he can direct and project its light from wherever he pleases. He has always used Terra, as it is the symbolic home of humanity. Over 10,000 years of him being stuck there himself, it has come by many to be assumed that it is actually centered on himself personally.

[Askil the Undecided]

The Astronomican is a psychic "light" that "shines" through spereical area of approximately 100,000 lightyears projecting far beyond the galactic west and falling approximately 25,000 light years short of the furthest extremes of the galactic east.

When the emperor moved he projected the Astronomican from Terra, where all his psychic amplicfication gear was and where the astronimican choir still sit today. He was just that awesome.

[chriscrowing]

It makes sense that the Astronomican stayed on Terra (navigational beacon that moves being pretty much useless) powered by all the Dark Age doohickey and a psychic choir with the E using his awesomeness to make sure it was working from a distance.

HOWEVER - there is a bit in A Thousand Sons where the 'landing beacon' for the Council of Nikaea was a massive psychic beacon projected by the Emperor. Which is a bit directly hypocritical when you think about what he was about to say...

[Vaulkhar]

When the President does it, it's not illegal...

I'd always regarded it as being as strong as the plot demands. So it's faint out on the Eastern Rim (except when it isn't), near invisible in the Eye (except when it isn't - and then it buuurrns uss, preciousss) and yet somehow is one of the things attracting the 'nids - and the wording in the Codex is ambiguous on whether that was at extragalactic ranges or not. Basically, if you really, really need the ability to navigate reliably in the Warp, expect it to have stopped working 5 seconds previously.

[Lord Damocles]

...and yet somehow is one of the things attracting the 'nids - and the wording in the Codex is ambiguous on whether that was at extragalactic ranges or not. Basically, if you really, really need the ability to navigate reliably in the Warp, expect it to have stopped working 5 seconds previously.

You said it yourself - it barely reaches the Eastern Fringe (which isn't the edge of the galaxy) - so there's no reason to believe that it somehow reaches to another galaxy entirely.

[Lothlanathorian]

Also, it doesn't need to be extra-galactic to attract them after they get to our galaxy.

[The bearded one]

The idea is that the Tyranids came into the galaxy, and after they entered the galaxy they noticed the astronomican and were drawn to it. Perhaps it can be compared to the 'nids going to the restaurant (galaxy), and noticing inside the big "free buffet" sign (astronomican)

[DietDolphin]

I don't see the problem with Tyranids being drawn to this galaxy because of the Astronomican. You can see galaxies in the sky thousands of light years away. I imagine that this galaxy is like the brightest star in the sky for the tyranids so they were drawn to it (using a simile, this would brightest in a psychic sense). Also it's not like the light of the Astronomican just stops at the 100,000 light year mark, it's just not at high enough intensity to matter to warp travel and the alike (assuming the Astronumican light's intensity/dispersion works the same as a regular light source).

[The bearded one]

I don't see the problem with Tyranids being drawn to this galaxy because of the Astronomican. You can see galaxies in the sky thousands of light years away. I imagine that this galaxy is like the brightest star in the sky for the tyranids so they were drawn to it (using a simile, this would brightest in a psychic sense). Also it's not like the light of the Astronomican just stops at the 100,000 light year mark, it's just not at high enough intensity to matter to warp travel and the alike (assuming the Astronumican light's intensity/dispersion works the same as a regular light source).

I still doubt it. The astronomican's light already falls about 5000 light years short of the eastern fringe of the galaxy, so that navigators can't/can barely see it anymore on the edge, so it is unlikely to still be visible on the other side of the void. The void between galaxies is unimaginably huge. I believe the closest galaxy to the milkyway is about 2.5 million light years away. Considering the effective range of the astronomicon is limited to about 70.000 lightyears, I don't think even a sparkle will be visible from 40 times that distance.

[MvS]

Also, the interference within the warp to the beacon is considerable - possibly a lot more than what we might expect in Realspace in the voids between galaxies. Sometimes massive Warpstorms can block out the Astronomican even within its usually comfortable range, so over such vast distances it's impossible to tell what sorts of distortions and other ructions might be diffusing its signal.