Describing the "Nature of the Warp"...

Hmmn... deleted the first post that I made since it sounded inherently defensive. It's amazing how it can sometimes go there when people are trying to help and you at first don't take it in the right way. Stupid pride!

Okay, to summarise the points made:

"New Layout"... While the comments on Matterium and Immaterium are reasonable and have actually been put into practice, I'm not fond of the rest. They are far too similar to GW related products and could be subject to the same weakness therein. It therefore behoves me to make a point clear that you may not be aware of...

"GURPS Rogue Trader" as my hubris demands that I refer to this little project of mine (! ) is not designed to be a completely faithful rendition of the current 40k universe. I'm afraid my concept of quality will not allow it, given that I feel that the current rendition of the said universe is... weak, entirely motivated by such concepts as Thematic Armies, Style over Substance (so-called "Rule of Cool") and the problems created by Edition Drift and the dominance of Imagery. All of which self-evidently require personification!

It is not my intention to merely parrot the 'fluff' as many interpretations of the 40k universe have done, nor paraphrase or plagerise the 'fluff' where possible. I'm afraid as McNeill's article on the Navigators proves, at least in my mind, there is no real strength in doing this and myriad weaknesses. Hmmn. A quick example. I love the Mage the Ascension universe, but I don't like reading the rulebook. In many places it is not clear enough since the writers tried to be too general. GURPS Mage the Ascension, on the other hand, is of much better quality and provides a solid framework for the universe. (Although in many ways I prefer the game mechanics in the WW/WizzKids version.) In this case, GW is WW and I would prefer to be Schroeck (erm, the author of G:MtA!).

So what does this mean? We all now that the 'fluff' is not always entirely consistent and the imagery is mercurial at best, ephemeral at worst. My ultimate goal, as mentioned above, is not to provide some shallow copy of what GW has already done or, indeed, has been done numerous times before. I would prefer that it is stand-alone, providing a solid-framework for interpretation of the 40k universe rather than merely handing someone the "'Fluff' Bible" and say "Go read!". Put another way, why hand someone a catalogue when you can hand them a factory? Why hand them a fish when you can hand them a fishing rod?

So, to return to the original point. For me it is necessary to provide a substantial description of the warp that is better than matterium=here/immaterium=over there. Indeed, despite the humanocentric perspective I also like drawing from occult mythology rather than just Lovecraft (oooh... the deep depths, how scary ). This is why description of a framework of interpretation of the warp comes first and a descripton of psykers and their relation to the warp, warp travel and how that works and then the denizens of the warp works... Little steps or building blocks one after another, rather than a dollop of spinach and the hope that you're Popeye!

(Although now I think about it, Denizens of the Warp (as it were) might be better suited swiftly after the Nature/Structure since they are more inherently tied to it.)

On the "Layered Warp"... There are some tid-bits out there which do, however, support such an approach even if they are somewhat archaic. Again, though, the goal is to produce something that is broadly operable within all the editions rather than solely the latest rehash.

If we were to put it into the simplest of terms with reference to the manifold spaces, etc., what would they be? That there is a barrier between this world and the next that prevents the dark things manifesting unless they are called... that ships are capable of plumbing the endless sea of energy that is the warp, but that there are still dark things that lay leviathan-like in the depths... That vast drives are required to enter this realm, yet a child can reach into this realm and draw forth a malign entity with incredible ease...

It is kind of like the canonical definition of the soul. GW has the soul simply put as "psychic energy". Well, that's fair enough. Not particularly inspiring, so there we go. But what if one drew from Qabbala and had something similar to the whole concept of nefesh, ruach or neshamah? Is that contradiction, or expansion beyond the interpretations of the canonical sources which are usually inherently biased either through the eyes of the Imperium or the eyes of GW itself... It is an act of interpretation, but one that might give more solid a foundation for people coming outside of the wargame amongst other things. Is it specifically 40k... yeeessssss, kinda.

Erm, talk about going off on one. Still not sure whether that is better than the original one, but there we go! <sigh>

Edit: Erm, despite the above I'm not here to defend my interpretation of the 40k universe. If you want to argue against them start up a thread in General or, indeed, RPG since that is going to be the ultimate use for it! Remember though: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. (So, yes, a large stick of celery on the dark side of the Moon is actually the true leader of the Imperium... )

That's brilliant CELS. Just what I was after. The stuff that I had already 'headed' you could practically ignore except to add stuff that you would think would highlight a certain feature, or to alter the order of something, or whatever.

[/b] Various observations on the warp. [/quote]
Observations of the warp? It's nature as the 'immaterium', that kind of thing?


Somewhat embarassed to say that I forgot about the soul in the 'structure', even though I need it. Kept on thinking about the psyker section. Will try and figure a way of adding it without being too hokey, but will have to add some more detail since canon is "soul=psychic energy, nuff said."


Sounds like the typical GW image piece, in general? Dark powers, corruption of the matterium, blah blah ad nauseum?


Good point, though more in reference to the immaterium. Remembering as well that "Chaos" will have its own section and I don't want to get into racial bias or racially specific information at this early stage.


Definitely... Perhaps to add the concept of "Chaos Gods and Other Warp Powers" to reference that not all warp entities are pantheonic daemons or Chaos Gods...


What I wanted to do was present the basic rules and then present racially specific information in later sections. It might require some flicking back and forth, but the goal was to remove the inherently biased information. While psyker grade is a fairly inocuous example, it is too easy to slip into Imperium-specific information because that is where the majority of the information comes from.


And the rules for this, yes. Explanation first of course!


This is where it gets into that weird point of racially specific information. Are secondary psykers peculiar to the Imperium, for example? The 'fluff' would seem to suggest so, or at least for the most part.


GW classification, which is racially specific, or classification of the various powers, which would be appropriate...? (And there correlation to the magic system of GURPS, i.e. the preferred system that I'm using to represent psykers.)


Again, sounds rather racial specific. 'Warp travel' refers to a broad category...?


This would be the point where one would introduce calculated vs. warp jump, surely?


Fairy snuff...