Does anyone know of any instances where the Imperium exhibits evidence of weather control? I was thinking it'd be a cool ship component.

There's a passage in the beginning of Malleus which makes mention of cloud seeding and forcing a downpour so the Warmaster will have a sunny/smog-free day for his parade.

Oh and that reminds me they do the same thing in one of the Eisenhorn novels. Unless that's what you're talking about of course, I don't remember the name of that particular novel. Probably Malleus =P

But I was hoping for more futuristic methods, not methods we have today. Like a big spire that could control the weather or some kind of weapon mounted on a starship that could cause devastating weather on planets.

I would have to treat something like that as some from the Dark age of Technology or before. I don't see the current Imperium having something like that.

Indeed, that's advanced tech, and not in a field where the Adeptus Mechanicus is particularly skilled. Imperial tech tends to be more brute force machinery, whereas this is more of a subtle biologically oriented device.

That said, weather control could be hugely valuable to the Imperium, as it could improve the habitability of planets and the productivity of agri-worlds. An intact weather control device might be very, very profitable to a Rogue Trader. And, we all know "profit" is the magic word.

Cheers,

- V.

Of course it's be from the DAoT, an archeotech component.

And I was thinking that it'd only be capable of destructive weather patterns like 100+mph winds and softball sized hail. It'd be useful in ground wars but not void combat. Could do a whole bunch of morale and Strength damage to ground troops, indiscriminate of allies or enemies. Though a general weather control device would be very valuable, as you said, for the economic implications.

Even if it's not mentioned anywhere, I'd definitely think that some planets have Weather Control devices from the DAoT. Warhammer pulls on so many different sources, so much various Sci-Fi, and weather control is such a staple of the genre.

But in general? No. The Imperium can definitely not construct Weather Control devices. Can I cite a source on that? No. But if someone can prove that they do, I'll be blown away.

Only reference to weather modification devices I can find is from Horus Rising and False Gods. Non-Imperial human civilisation known as the Interex used weather control devices to imprison an alien race referred to as megarachnids. Interex were wiped out by the Luna Wolves during the Crusades.

Fgdsfg said:

Yet again I feel I must point out that I'm not talking about the technology being in production, I'm talking about the DAoT

And thank you Errant, at least I know now that it's possible, though it'd have to be either a Xenotech or Archeotech component.

Errant said:

I was reading that as well. The weird white trees made of stone or whatever. That's the only source I've found as well, so I dunno if Imperium has it

If you take a look at page 279 of the RT corebook you´ll see that to establish an imperial colony you need amongst others "Atmosphere machines or other protective devices". So yes, there must be some kind of terraformation technology, otherwise local bacteria & viruses would make colonization almost imposible.

Would that technology allow you to control the weather in a particular location? I don´t know, but I guess that if they can change the whole biosphere of a planet the Imperium should be able to make/stop rain in a particular location.

As for how hard would be to find/adquire these machines, it is not stated anywhere, but I guess that the Mechanicus can provide them as part of their support to the new colony, and that their adquisition should be rolleplayed as a series of meetings with the Magos at Port Wander.