The Emperor's Webway project...

[ryng_sting]

If he can only build and maintain a small tunnel leading to an abandoned section of the webway, and even then only because he found a disused gate on Earth and had the Golden Throne's aid...

I rather doubt he can build new gates.

[Idaan]

Well, given enough time he probably would have retro-engineered it, which is what that project was all about. But he didn't have enough time.

[Lord Damocles]

If he can only build and maintain a small tunnel leading to an abandoned section of the webway, and even then only because he found a disused gate on Earth and had the Golden Throne's aid...

I rather doubt he can build new gates.

The Terran gate is human[/Emperor]-built.

The Emperor explicitly states that he created it - 'The warpgate I have constructed and the short section of passage beyond...' (Collected Visions, pg.324). The section of tunnel beyond is also of human creation - 'The warpgate in the Imperial Dungeon led to a short section of human-built warp-tunnel. Beyond this lay the vast interlocking maze of tunnels, passageways and conduits that was the alien webway' (pg.326).

This is further supported by the design of the gate being distinct from Eldar-built gateways ('The entire construct was fabricated of metal, gold in colour, and gigantic mechanised doors of the same golden metal blocked the portal shut' (pg.322)).

[Xisor]

LD - I think you can go a bit further. That is: not only did the Emperor build it, but the reason he didn't build it before the Crusade was that one of the purposes for reuniting humanity was acquiring the correct technologies and knowledge to ensure that building it is safe. (The speculation regarding the Emperor's alleged laboratory and the Silver Throne in Faith and Fire probably contribute to this too.)

Also, there's the insight into the nature of the Atlas Infernal from the book of the same name.

[sweave]

was the silver throne ever definitively linked to the emperor or was it just rumored to be based on the governor's rantings?

[Connor MacLeod]

First off, I have read the HHCV stuff, and while it still seems to broadly mesh up with the series, I'm not sure the specifics of CV are necessarily followed in the HH novels. For example HHCV states that TErra definitively has oceans that were lost at the Battle of Terra, whilst various authors have gone different ways on this (terra does and then doesn't have oceans. Graham McNeill, for example, consistently argues they boiled off during all the past Wars humanity fought before the Emperor unified Terra.) I'm not saying that the HH series completely overwrites CV in every way, or even in most ways - its just that like most things you have to take it with a grain of salt rather than just take every little bit of dialogue purely in isolation.

My view, for whatever it is worth, is that when the Emperor fought the silver dragon thingy (assuming it is actually a C'tan or a part of one, at this point its still specultaive) and locked it away on Mars he probably would have discovered the Necron tech for a (or an actual) Dolmen gate. It may have been wrecked and required rebuilding, and possibly expanded on - the Golden Throne it seems does quite a bit of things that may be beyond its original purpose.

As far as access goes, I'd see the Imperium being more along the lines of the Necrons.. they'd have less access than the Eldar (if the Necrons are considered an aberration, its likely humanity invading the webway would be as well.) and that creates the same problems. Quite possibly they'd have even less access than the Necrons do. It would still offer a massive advantage in moving people around. even if it doesn't go to the exact place they need to, it can get them close enough that the transit is shorter than it otherwise would have been.

An Imperial version of the webway (or partial access to it) would probably confer advantages similar to what the Boros Gate (from Dark Creed) or the Jericho Reach warp gate confer on the Imperium, only on a broader scale. Not sure it would lead to a 'leaner' Imperial military force or suddenly overturn all their doctrine and military thinking overnight, but it would be a substantial advantage. as far as logistics and deployment goes.

[Lord Damocles]

First off, I have read the HHCV stuff, and while it still seems to broadly mesh up with the series, I'm not sure the specifics of CV are necessarily followed in the HH novels. For example HHCV states that TErra definitively has oceans that were lost at the Battle of Terra, whilst various authors have gone different ways on this (terra does and then doesn't have oceans. Graham McNeill, for example, consistently argues they boiled off during all the past Wars humanity fought before the Emperor unified Terra.) I'm not saying that the HH series completely overwrites CV in every way, or even in most ways - its just that like most things you have to take it with a grain of salt rather than just take every little bit of dialogue purely in isolation.

Terra's seas being lost during the Chaos assault has long been present in the background (eg. Bill King's 'Assault on Holy Terra', in White Dwarf (UK) 268 (/160)). So it would be McNiell who is breaking with longstanding background in that instance.

Given that we have no source(s) suggesting an alternate origin of the Terran gate, Collected Visions' evidence (the Emperor claims he built the gate, the tunnel beyond is stated to be human-built by the omniscient narrator, and the gate looks almost nothing like an Eldar gate or the single published description of a Dolmen gate) doesn't really have anything to compete with here.