Why time travelers haven't fixed the 40K universe.

[Fueldrop]

Time travel exists in 40K. This is established Canon. And yes, that does include time travel to the past.

Now for the most part it's not very reliable, but it's hard to believe that at no point in the last 10,000 years has an imperial ship been washed into pre-heresy times by the tides of the warp. Granted they'd not know the first thing about how to actively start putting things right, but even their history of things to come would probably change the course of events if they reached the right ears.

So why hasn't this happened? Simple: My theory is that any time someone ends up going back far enough to change events for the better, Orikan the Diviner appears and kills them so they don't screw up his prophecies. Trillions of people die as a result, but he stays right and that's all that matters.

Is this theory complete BS? Maybe, maybe not. You be the judge!

[CoffeeGrunt]

One Imperial ship wouldn't know what time it was and the times are of legend even to the Space Marines. If an Ultramarines battle cruiser fell into existence in front of a fleet of Death Guard, for example, they'd probably assume them to be traitors.

[Denzark]

I wasn't aware of time travel per se - just that different parts of Eye of Terror, the Warp, and the Webways open an exit at a point before the linear point in realspace actually happened.

So, excepting the Warp, reliable imperials never enter the other 2 intentionally -or if they do, so rarely that their return to a previous temporal location can be guaranteed and not met with immense suspicion by imperials.

Mebbe Tzeentch owns all that shizzle?

[The Madman]

It's quite simply Multiverse theory; multiple versions of worlds (or in this case universes) for every impactful decision ever made by anyone ever. No matter what one does to the past, it won't change their future but will be an already existing future in another universe.

It's why I have a keen interest in the Dornian Heresy and the fan fic of a Tau dominated universe.

[Aldavaer]

There are several approaches to this;

1) Time is immutable, if you travel to the past you were already there and what you did is already reflected in the history you know.

2) Time resists change, any attempts to change it are resisted. You attempt to kill an assassin but you are jostled and it is your shot that kills the target etc.

3) Do you interfere at all? Can you know the long term effects of your action? would trying to correct something actually make matters worse in the future. I cannot remember the name of an OK film where the USS Enterprise (the modern nuclear powered aircraft carrier) goes back in time to just before Pearl Harbour. They have the power and knowledge to prevent the attack but should they? what would be the effect on WWII and history of Pearl Harbour not occurring? In the end if I remember they copped out and the carrier went back to the future before they could interfere.

[Tyrendian]

two main problems I see: why do you assume that
a) a random imperial merchant crew going back in time exactly the right amount would know squat about the Heresy? It's not like even the former Legions know all that much about it, except for the Wolves ('cause, you know, Bjorn was there...) and probably the Dark Angels ('cause, you know, SECRETS! YAY!)
b) anyone would believe even a single word of what they might say? I mean, Big Daddy E didn't even listen to his own son's concerns...

[lobster-overlord]

3) Do you interfere at all? Can you know the long term effects of your action? would trying to correct something actually make matters worse in the future. I cannot remember the name of an OK film where the USS Enterprise (the modern nuclear powered aircraft carrier) goes back in time to just before Pearl Harbour. They have the power and knowledge to prevent the attack but should they? what would be the effect on WWII and history of Pearl Harbour not occurring? In the end if I remember they copped out and the carrier went back to the future before they could interfere.

The move was FINAL COUNTDOWN and it was the USS Nimitz. They didn't cop out, they <spoiler removed by poster :-) > Go watch and enjoy a bad 80's film. It was the first Hollywood movie to feature the "modern" US Navy. Followed by Top Gun.

[Badtucker]

orks successfully traveled through time.

"The Ork Warlord Grigutz, a noted kleptomaniac, launched his WAAAGH! into the Morloq System in 978.M41. Whilst using Warp travel to reach their quarry, Grigutz and his warband unwittingly travelled through time and emerged from the shifting chaos of the Empyrean shortly before they had set off. Grigutz hunted down and killed his temporal doppleganger, reasoning that only in this way could he obtain a spare of his favourite gun. The resultant confusion stops the WAAAGH! in its tracks."

that was in the last ork codex... cant mind if its in the new one

[Nurglitch]

I have a theory that, since the Realm of Chaos, the Warp, exists beyond space and time (and yet contiguous with it), that 40k is actually a war over reality. They say as much in the First Heretic when the daemon scoffs at the notion of Humanity warring against heaven itself (which is kind of the idea with Space Marines). Which is why you get things like Slaanesh having been born into the Material Universe during the Fall, but having done so also always existing, because its 'birth' reflected a fundamental change in the fabric of reality once the Chaos God Slaanesh turned its attention to our reality.

[Mr Mystery]

Well, other than Orikan, it's done with the Warp.

I'd say the chaos gods do it for a laugh, hence no Imperial time travel history changing hi jinks,