Post by Sikkukkut on Nov 4, 2004 0:31:43 GMT -5
On Geller Fields being flush with the hull: in the Star of Arlus text in one of the old second-edition books tehre's a description of a Navigator perceiving the Field drawn out behind the ship into a teardrop shape by the forward movement of the ship. In Legacy there's a description of the Field being pushed inward by warp turbulence until it's very close to the hull...
Just like the materium doesn’t need any energy to keep it separate from the warp, I’m thinking that once a ship drops into the warp its Geller Field remains intact no matter what.
...and in Legacy a ship's field does fail under pressure for a split-second before its engines can power it up again. The stuff I've read seems to indicate that a Field has to be powered up and maintaines, and can be stressed or overwhelmed by sufficiently extreme conditions.
As for the question of hulks, I also had noticed that there are some occasions when a ship adrift in the Warp has been shredded (Execution Hour for one, and one of the characters muses that he's seen it happen on multiple occasions) and others where hulks have drifted deserted for long periods of time and been not only intact but reusable at the end of it, like the Cardinal Boras.
My assumption had always been that it's not exposure to the Warp itself that does this, but exposure to disturbed warp: the worse the conditions an unprotected material object finds itself in, the quicker its substance is corroded into entropy by the force of the Warp.
Thus a hulk, empty of life (or with life that's dormant and doesn't agitate the Warp, like hibernating Genestealers) could conceivably drift for ages without encountering any warpflows strong enough to disrupt it. One that finds itself without protection and full of panicked, injured and dying crew will be surrounded by turbulence and shine like a beacon to daemons, and will be toast.
Philip said:
Just like the materium doesn’t need any energy to keep it separate from the warp, I’m thinking that once a ship drops into the warp its Geller Field remains intact no matter what.
...and in Legacy a ship's field does fail under pressure for a split-second before its engines can power it up again. The stuff I've read seems to indicate that a Field has to be powered up and maintaines, and can be stressed or overwhelmed by sufficiently extreme conditions.
As for the question of hulks, I also had noticed that there are some occasions when a ship adrift in the Warp has been shredded (Execution Hour for one, and one of the characters muses that he's seen it happen on multiple occasions) and others where hulks have drifted deserted for long periods of time and been not only intact but reusable at the end of it, like the Cardinal Boras.
My assumption had always been that it's not exposure to the Warp itself that does this, but exposure to disturbed warp: the worse the conditions an unprotected material object finds itself in, the quicker its substance is corroded into entropy by the force of the Warp.
Thus a hulk, empty of life (or with life that's dormant and doesn't agitate the Warp, like hibernating Genestealers) could conceivably drift for ages without encountering any warpflows strong enough to disrupt it. One that finds itself without protection and full of panicked, injured and dying crew will be surrounded by turbulence and shine like a beacon to daemons, and will be toast.