The Man with the Master Plan

[jgebi]

no the webway was fractured back when the eldar and the necrons were at war as I rember it

[eldargal]

The webway fractured when the Fall occurred.

The emperors ability to blow aside the Harlequins is irrelevent, the webway can both seal itself and be sealed against anyone. If the Emperor could break through the webway seals he wouldn't have to try and build an access tunnel, he could just find the nearest gate to Terra and open it.

[jgebi]

Ok well I got bored so i went and looked it up on the ever helpful lexicanum so this is what i found

Much of the Webway was either destroyed or damaged during the Fall of the Eldar. The energies of the Fall is known to had ruptured the hyperspatial pathways of the Webway in countless places. Despite the damage, the Webway still maintains a link between the Craftworlds though portions of it have been breached by the Realm of Chaos and made these parts impassable.

During the Great Crusade, the Emperor created the Golden Throne on Terra as a means of entry into the Webway in order to remove the Imperium's reliance on Warp-ships and astrotelepathy. This plan involved the construction of a new short section into the Webway and linking it into the abandoned Eldar network. After the psychic disturbance caused by the ill-fated attempt of Magnus the Red to warn the Emperor of Horus' betrayal prior to the Horus Heresy, the human-built sections of the Webway were invaded by Warp entities. Since that point a psyker has needed to remain on the Golden Throne and hold the portal between the Webway and realspace.

I think thats enough to make my piont

[dark messenger]

I have no idea about this argument on the webway and don't know enough about the Eldar to really contribute.
What little I do know about them makes me feel that perhaps the Imperium is headed the same way they are except humans aren't quite as psychic as they were when they got eaten. Perhaps that's a good thing?

As an avid imperial player, it would be nice to say "Emperor never made mistakes" and "We shall emerge victorious" but I can't, coz I lack a mind quite that narrow haha.

ElectricPaladin's post got me thinking about how possibly things could have, maybe even should have, been different. I believe that 10k years ago humanity lost its best chance to ascend and get something right for once. It may still be possible now but not without a huge change in the way things are run and the massive sacrifice of much of what remains of the Imperium.
Question is, how is that gonna happen?

That's one of the things I've picked up in reading the Heresy novels and re-reading the other fluff - a new perspective on the huge balancing act that the Emperor was trying to perform with humanity's future existence. He surely must've known what happened to the Eldar and tried to learn from their mistakes... and He must also have known just what the Chaos Gods were trying to do if He was as powerful (if not more so) than them... He must also have forseen what would happen with His Primarchs... and still He threw the dice!
Trying to look at things through His eyes, I'm not sure if I could've made some of the choices and sacrifices He did

If you were in his golden boots what would you have done?

[Nabterayl]

Question relating to the OP for those who have read more Horus Heresy than me: what was the point of the Emperor's webway hijinks? Just getting access to the great subway network in the sky? Or was there more than that?

[Kyban]

Question relating to the OP for those who have read more Horus Heresy than me: what was the point of the Emperor's webway hijinks? Just getting access to the great subway network in the sky? Or was there more than that?

As far as I'm aware it was just to get access to it. It would have been a massive advantage and allowed them to end their dependency on the current technology but he overreached and didn't understand the Eldar technology. He had enough of a grasp that it might have worked but it wasn't exactly safe or well done.

[bfmusashi]

I don't think the webway is Eldar tech, they just use it and have a better understanding of it. If memory serves, they can't repair it or make new sections and inherited it from the Old Ones.

[ElectricPaladin]

I don't think the webway is Eldar tech, they just use it and have a better understanding of it. If memory serves, they can't repair it or make new sections and inherited it from the Old Ones.

That's correct. The Lizardmen made it, the Eldar use it, the Dark Eldar live in it, and the Imperium tried to steal it.

[Cpt Codpiece]

the stuff about the terra access to the webway, terra could well have had an access point back when the old ones made the races we know now.

that may be the golden throne. remember back in the day, the fall of the old ones tied in with the birth of slaanesh, and it was the shockwave of her birth that broke the webway portal in the WFB universe and stranded the old ones on that planet and caused the warp rift in the north. but back then sigmar was hinted to be one of the missing primarchs and his decent in the twin tailed re-entry pod... i mean comet LOL

but yeah, i did not say earlier that it was magnus that first broke the webway, only he made the fractures worse.

SPOILERS

it was tzeench that led magnus to believe he could do it, magnus was created to be the conduit to the webway that is why he could walk amongst the stars even in his incubator. remember also that the emperor bargained with the powers of the warp in his efforts to create the primarchs, that is why the powers despise him so much. he turned his back on them when he had what he wanted. hence the denial of religion and denouncing of gods. to hide his dubious methods.

[Kyban]

I don't think the webway is Eldar tech, they just use it and have a better understanding of it. If memory serves, they can't repair it or make new sections and inherited it from the Old Ones.

I believe their understanding is pretty good, they can at least manipulate it rather extensively, though a lot of their previous knowledge has probably been lost. Not being able to expand or repair is more of a lack of manpower thing rather than understanding.

I think there are some contradictory versions that have the Eldar creating it instead.