As far as my research has taken me, none seems to know who created this Warp Gate.

But would anyone have any good ideas as to whom it could be? Personally I find it to look fairly eldar'ish, but think it is stated somewhere that it is not.

My main reason for asking, is that our campaign is running a bit differently, and I would like my players to become involved in when the gate was actually activated, while on a recon mission of it. My first thought was to have some elders come poking around (with a plot still in progress, but maybe to use it to escape the great devourer, the chaos mini-eye, or something else - or to lure the Imperium to this sector to help starve of some of these enemies?!)

But now I am not so sure if that is the best idea, if it is not Eldar technology (and since they can most likely just relocate anyways).

Anyone have any great ideas I can use?

That deus ex machina of 40k and fantasy alike? the Old Ones... Possibleh.

Looks Necron to me. Just because the Imperium calls it a warp gate, it doesn't mean that it actually uses the warp, and I believe the travel is instant, which is more like a necron teleportation tech thingy.

Siranui said:

Humm.. that could actually work and be interesting, though I didn't really have any plans for Necrons (yet). But I guess I could use the beasties from "The Emperor Protects", and have some wake up in the construct, as it is explored, to keep intruders out.

I just dont know if I can use that as a "reason" for the whole Warpgate to awaken, or I should include another race trying to open it, or Necronsto open it for some reason.. *ponder*

Sokahrthumaniel said:

This. A million times this.

It's not something that's going to get explained any time soon.

Maelflux said:

I don't either, but just as we use bridges built by people who lived hundreds of years ago without knowing much about them, the Imperium can simply be using an old 'bridge', unknowing of its past.

In some ways it's best left as a mystery unsolved. It's cool to scatter unknowns across the campaign, and not tie up every loose end. I'm leaving mine functional but otherwise dormant and mysterious.

Agreed that it is better left unsolved... I do prefer posing the whole Necron/C'tan/Old One arc as a 'by gone era of gods' style story element, focussing more on the relics and weapons of these eldritch entities than their imminent return. After all, we humans, or the vile xenos, could easily wreak a great deal of harm with the weapons of a bygone age...

The war in heaven between the C'tan/Necrons and the Old Ones may have been far more complicated than anyone in the Imperium (or indeed galaxy) currently realises. I like the idea that there were successive waves of conflict, each lasting millions of years, that varied in intensity. I also like the idea that the Old Ones used a number of younger races as proxies or allies in their battles against the C'tan.

It's clear that the galaxy is filled with the ruins of extinct races, any one of which could have fought on behalf of the Old Ones...or even the Necrons.

I like the idea that the warp gates are genuinely ancient tech, millions of years old, that were once used during the course of that war. Perhaps they were constructed by the Old Ones, or perhaps they were constructed by their enemies or allies.

Alternatively, locally within the Calixis/Koronus/Jericho Reach region there are maybe four xenos races with the tech level necessary to build the warp gates:-

(1) the Eldar. A possibility, I think.

(2) The Yu'Vath. Again, advanced enough, but it would seem that the Yu'Vath are a warp tainted species, and the warp gates don't seem particularly chaotic or tainted.

(3) The Stryxis. I don't think so. Advanced, but not necessarily advanced enough. Although the power systems in their ships remain mysterius (according to BFK) there's no hint they can leap around the galaxy using them, and they don't seem to appear beyond the Koronus Expanse.

(4) The Slaugth. Well these guys are (arguably) advanced enough, but they seem restricted to the Calixis region, and show no signs of engaging in the type of instant travel the warp gates utilise.

Other possibilities include the Tau (I really don't think so, they're too young and not yet advanced enough) the Kroot (ditto) and that Tau lookalike race who appear in Creatures Anathema whose name totally escapes me.

The Old Ones or Necrons sound like the two most likely options.

Especially since the Necrons are starting to wake up (the official first contact between them and the Imperium is only that afterall, there's plenty of secret missions and 'lost' colonies to put the date in doubt).

The warp gates do have some necron-like characteristics: the instantaneous nature of the travel, the fact that (despite the name) it may not necessarily involve the warp, and the crescent shape of the gates (a recurring feature in Necron ship design).

Some of the other features of the gates' appearance lack a Necron "feel" to me, though.

Thanks for all the thoughts, so far!

And just to clarify: It is not that I need to know who built it. I just want to have some ideas, as I wanted to run the part of it waking up - and this would be easier to imagine and play through, if I had a better idea of what possible races could have done it.

Pardon me for throwing a spanner into the works...

One of the more consistent themes in all the 40K fluff is that the Necrons do not use the Warp. The one ***** in their living metal armour is an inability to perceive or use the warp... the only thing they have ever done is make a few attempts to suppress Warp activity. (The pylons on Cadia, for example.) So, this means a Necron gate would operate on fundamentally different principles... and any psyker or navigator would be able to tell that the device did not use Warp energies.

That said, the Deathwatch timeline "Know no Fear" makes it pretty clear that the gate is a true warp gate, as there are parallels between Warp activity in the Koronus Expanse and the Jericho Reach, and the gate radiates warp energies. That rules out the Necrons (unless, of course, you want to significantly rewrite the backstory for your campaign.)

The Old Ones are a possibility. Remember, the Old Ones built the Webway. That is, in effect, an interlinked network of Warp gates. Perhaps this gate was a related development? Or perhaps the Koronus - Jericho gate is an isolated spur of the Webway? That latter possibility could have all kinds of implications... if it were my game, that gate would attract attention, and, well, does the name Asdrubael Vect ring a bell?

Cheers,

- V.

If the Necrons are writen out, then I would probably say that its either the Old Ones, or more likly some other Xenos race that existed between the war between the Necrons and the Old Ones, and the Imperium. And these Xenos don't need to be part of the table top game but likly some minor race that is now extinct.

Vandegraffe said:

Not really. The 'warp gate' is only a 'warp gate' because the Imperium calls it that. It offers instant travel (which warp travel and even the webway cannot) across half the galaxy, and it has been stated that the Imperium does not know how it works. The idea that any psyker can tell it uses warp energies is pure conjecture. Indeed: The canon states that the Imperium have had no luck at all in divining how it works, and only 'think' that it's some kind of trap-door through the warp.

p326 states that energies from the gate are electromagnetic and gravitic in nature: No mention of warp energies is made at all. Furthermore; ships using it do not require geller shielding.

The 'warp gate' could be (and to my mind probably is) a teleportation device. We know that the Necrons already use such equipment, and we know that they have nothing to do with the warp. The Imperium is a victim of perception bias in calling it a warp gate, and investigating it as such, when the evidence is clearly pointing in other directions. The Necrons are far from written out of its construction.

It's that mention of not requiring Gellar shielding that is slowly drawing me into the Necrontyr camp. very likely a post-C'tan emergence technology what with C'tan technology being amazing, but generally slow until their Gods showed up.

Will be thinking on this hard for my upcoming campaign, as I always like to hint at such things without having to bring the ancient races into the story blatantly.

Given it's location in the Koronus Expanse, I assume that the Gate was built buy the mysterious creators of the Halo Devices that figure prominantly in Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader ...

My vote is for Necrons.

You bring up an interesting point Adeptus-B.

Are the halo devices a responce to the gate (a form of weapon of defence against the gate-builders)?

Are they actually a weapon used by the gate builders?

Are the halo devices present in both sectors?

Focussing on these two outcomes, and ignoring other potentials for the sake of simplicity in this line of thought, we have several factors and outcomes that need to be considered.

If it is true that the halo devices are only presence on the Calixis/Koronus side, it is likely they are a responce to the threat the gate poses, manufactured by a local or semi-local xenos species for self-defence. I come to this conclusion as the technologies behind such devices, though advanced, may be less so than the gate, indicating a wider theatre of use if they belong to the gate builders.

If the halo devices are present on both sides, then they are either a concverted effort against the builders, or (in my opinion more likely) they are artefacts of the gate builders (impossible to derive a clear answer without a core look at function or aesthetic though).

The other effects are too general to really derive any sort of sense out of. The lack of gellar requirement for gate-transit is a big pointer to either hyper-advanced warp technology OR space folding ala C'tan era Necron technology. Halo devices seem not to have a direct connection with warp energies unless used by psychers (see the RT sample adventure), instead 'calling on the voices of ancient xenos and perverting the host mentally and physically'.

Call me hopeful, but I am kind of hoping that the Halo devices are not connected to the Necrontyr, whilst the gates are. Another warp-blind species, competing for survival in the face of what the Necrontyr were becoming dur4ing the War in Heaven just appeals to me. The Old Ones dun it cop out is a little old, and I am more than wiling to believe that the existing 'major races' and Hrud (unfair genetic legacy advantage given by their 'tailor made bioweapon' status as old one warrior species) are the sum total of Old One meddling. Kroot, Tau (read xenology, no spoilars here), Demiurg and countless minor races really should be, ion my humble opinion, the sign that natural selection is alive and well in the 41st millenium, without relying on creation myths and Tyranid-offshoot-species as explanations.

With that slight deviation out of the way, I hope this has been useful.

Many very cool ideas here!

I decided to go with the Necron-based idea for my Campaign. We are running it both as a pure Chapter campaign (Consecrators), and then also in a different time-line, as I always feel more in control when I had a hand in the events that happened. Then the players also feel more at home, even if they should play "real" DW marines at a later stage.

I am not as hardcore as most of you guys are, regarding all the ancient fluff regarding Old Ones, and so forth - and in general I do not like to involve that heavy powers to much.

Anyhow, Campaign-wise my team was part of 5 squads investigating this (unpowered!) Xeno Artifact, when a bunch of eldars show up and start babbling about humans having a death-wish and a desire to destroy the Universe. The scout teams have now somehow started activating the Xeno Device, and the Eldars begin assaulting the Marine Frigate, and send a bunch of troops down into it, to rid it of Monkeighs. (Here I used the awesome Eldar rules made by N0-1_H3r3). So they defeated a bucnh of eldars, while losing some Marines, and then had to battle a few of the Necrontyr from TEP, while the Warp Gate slowly awakened.

Finally they were extracted as the Deathwatch came to their help. And here my plan is for the Deathwatch to get the device cleaned out, and "put a lid" on the Xeno-activity that was part of the first incursions. Then when Necrons at one point become a known threat, those who know of the Xenos originally part of this construct might not find it such a good idea to have kept such details from the Lords above, as this could put a serious spanner in the Crusade going on here.

I still don't have any ideas or plans to use the Warp-Gate further so far. But that might happen in 50-100 years or so..

I'm not too keen on linking Halo devices to the Jericho warp gate... i mean we have no idea what the devices even are, or if they are indeed weapons. How do we know they aren't entertainment devices that were designed for such a monumentally different physiology that the effects we note on humans using them are those of being turned into a murderous lunatic with enhanced abilities and almost complete immortality. Just a thought.

Siranui said:

How does the Imperium know that the travel is instantaneous? They can't synchronize clocks on opposite sides of the galaxy.

Halo devices may be linked to the Yu'Vath, but I'm not entirely sure of that connection. The Yu'vath seem to be an extinct warp tainted xenos race formerly active in the Koronus expanse, but based on the RT GM screen, a lot of their tech seems to be crystalline in nature, and Halo devices aren't crystalline - and indeed although sinister, it's ambiguous as to whether the "side efects" of a halo device are as a result of warp taint or just xenotech. So I guess the jury's out on that one.

The Halo devices don't automatically seem to link to the warp gates as far as I can see. I'd only make that connection really if Halo devices started showing up on the other side of the warp gate, ie in the Jericho Reach. Then that connection might become a little more tangible.

bogi_khaosa said:

4 astropaths: One (a) on one side of the warpgate, one (b) on the other, one © on a ship passing through the gate and one (d) on Terra.

(a) watches © going through the warpgate and passes a message confirming departure to (d)

© comes out the warpgate and immediately informs (b)

(b) then informs (d) that the ship has emerged..

(d) then bases travel time on the gap between the two messages from (a) and (b).

It's far from perfect, but the Imperium synchronises its clocks (as best it can) based upon astropathic messages to Terra. The highest accuracy rating for assessing subjective time would be based upon comunications direct with Terra, so that's how the Imperium would assess a time difference like that.

Lightbringer said:

or ships A and B approach warp gate

ship A goes through warp gate

ship A turns round and returns through the warp gate

ship A asks ship B how much time has passed.

that at least confirms that the travel is instantaneous from the point of view of anyone in the calixis sector. then confirm it is the same for anyone in the Jericho Reach. once that has been established you know two way communication can take place instantaneously.

then the only remaining question is are the gates also causing time travel? but it is impossible to analyse from a scientific perspective any further, because the existance of the warp gates invalidates locality, and thus all of our current scientific theories

The existence of the Warp already does, anyway Supra-luminic travel isn't nice to relativity

As for instantaneous travel...

With astropaths and the likes, the Imperium has effectively synchronized at least the year/period of the year in the Galaxy. So yeah, even without experiment, they may have a very good impression that travel is instantaneous. Then they may have proved it as Lightbringer shows.