How does THE WARP in 40k Actually Work? | Warhammer 40,000 LORE

[@CocoHutzpah]

I almost expected the video to be, "The warp works quite well, thank you."

[@margaretwood152]

The *WARP* (or *Æther* ) is actually quite....... *_"PROLEMATlC."_*

[@markman11111]

That's how I always describe the economy of the Federation in Star Trek as working, lol.

[@101Mant]

I get the Trek reference but the thing is it really doesn't. Pretty much every species with another option uses it.

[@CocoHutzpah]

@@101Mant That's the joke

[@soupalex]

i _definitely_ expected the video to wrap up on "…in conclusion, the warp is a land of contrasts"

[@Yurt_enthusiast7]

It's fairly simple actually: It's just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right. Put your hands on your hips, you bring your knee's in tight

[@ericasandberg7286]

But it's the pelvic thrust!!! That really drives you insane 😂

[@abbynormall207]

Let’s do the time warp agaiiiinnnn!

[@jamesloder8652]

*knees. Why the fuck would you put an apostrophe in a plural?

[@therobotFrom94]

Who cares it's a fun bit​@@jamesloder8652

[@carlstanford7607]

@@jamesloder8652 warp caused it

[@gregtompson3432]

Several of the comments somehow say they are several days old on a video uploaded hours ago. Very appropriate for a video about the Warp.

[@SirWilliamKidney]

(makes spooky noises) oooOOOoo! (... okay actually patrons just get to see the video a wee bit early haha)

[@last_lost_lamenter]

Fuuu-huck me. I'm still 2 weeks late. Sorry Ian - my bad.

[@lukusridley]

This video completely failed to explain the warp; job expertly executed, thumbs up, etc

[@scottsteves9245]

This is the most accurate comment after watching this video. Spot on.

[@Michael_Raymond]

I never realized how much I took the Warp as a concept for granted until I tried to reference it to a friend and he thought I was talking about an actual-faith religious afterlife.

[@pvtpain66k]

"Psychic Space Hell" is how I describe it when asked.

[@dekai7992]

Yes but also no.

[@volkarve]

Ian could give us a video about the mysteries of housecats and we'd all be compelled to watch/listen to the whole 30 min video. His writting and narration is always a step above. Well done!

[@euansmith3699]

"I thought it said "liberate me" - "save me." But it's not "me." It's "liberate tutemet" - "save yourself." And it gets worse."

[@ericasandberg7286]

Ex Inferis 👀

[@robhubbard1]

It's a great "soft magic" or "soft Sci-Fi" system because it can be any type of Deus ex machina you want but works best when it's working against the heroes, rather than helpfully resolving a plot.

[@rangda_prime]

Diabolus Ex Machina?

[@dekuswagg]

You touched on exactly why I love Warp-y stuff so much-it’s unknowable. Almost completely unpredictable. When the Warp rears its ugly head in a story, you rarely know what to expect, and that’s just fun.

[@geofff.3343]

The warp is very knowable, just not in a way that material beings can comprehend. You think Cthulhu doesn't understand itself? You think the four chaos entities don't know how to navigate the vast majority of the warp in their great game? It's just you know... literally anathema to all known science and laws.

[@dekuswagg]

@SordidusFellatio “Perfectly just fine” is redundant, as long as we’re being insufferable pedants.

[@nakenmil]

@@geofff.3343 It's irrelevant if the warp is knowable to, you know, WARP ENTITIES. We're clearly talking about the perspective of mortals here.

[@SportyMabamba]

Yes Inquisitor, this video right here

[@kilgoretrout413]

This chap is my favourite 40k lore content creator, I’ve been increasingly impressed by some top videos.

[@Psychichazard]

'Eddies in the warp' ' 'Is he?'

[@Yacovo]

Remember, a lot of Ork Warcraft do not have Geller Fields, or reliable ones. They just punch and krump anything that gets in their way. Thanks for the video.

[@ArbitorIan]

Just orky enough to scare off the daemons!

[@Bluecho4]

And because they believe totally in their own reality and their ability to krump all comers, it works for them. Instead of being torn apart by an ethereal maelstrom that devours their soul, it's an enemy the Orks can punch.

[@mistformsquirrel]

I can just imagine there are thousands of Ork ships out there just jumping back and forth through the warp for no purpose other than 'It's a good scrap!'

[@collecter343]

Free in-flight entertainment for the Orks

[@robcanisto8635]

​@@mistformsquirrel100% lol

[@MrSnippets93]

love these videos not only for the content, but also for the presentation, self-awareness and production value. My favourite YT channel by far!

[@DiehardMechWarrior]

Before I get too deep into the weeds, I just wanna take a minute to thank you for both your (no doubt exhaustive) dedication to researching the absolute clusterfuck that is WH40K lore surrounding various topics (in particular the Warp!) and your no-BS, straightforward, comprehensive-yet-easily-digestible way you present your work. It’s honestly very refreshing to see someone like you who has a strong love of the setting and a want to at least partially explain the more complex aspects of it. In fact, I often find myself falling back on your videos as research for the fanfic I’m currently plotting out because you just do such an amazing job of making the lore actually human readable/understandable. I swear, Games Workshop should at least have you on a (very well compensated) retainer because of the effort you put in. Now with that outta the way, I have a burning question about how emotions are reflected in the Warp. Specifically, you mentioned that particularly strong “negative” emotions (such as betrayal, despair, rage, etc) are much strongly linked to the Warp. *During your research on this topic,* have there been any instances of the Warp being influenced by more “positive” emotions (eg hope, heroism, joy, love, etc) or have such things always been attributed to things like faith/belief?

[@SamraK64]

Luetin has actually touched a bit on that topic if you're interested One of the simpler arguments that are often mentionned is that in wh40, joy barely exists, while violence, envy etc are omnipresent, hence why there are no (noticeable) "good" entities in the warp

[@Bluecho4]

A headcanon I have is that the Warp _used_ to be a much safer place for the "souls" of the dead, back when people believed in gods and afterlives. The pantheons protected their mortal followers, dividing large tracts of the "spiritual landscape" into fiefdoms (heavens and hells, etc). And because this was so common, the forces of Chaos were heavily suppressed. Hardly absent, but had to actually compete with the gods of mortals. In essence, the galaxy had a lot of problems during the Age of Strife, but Chaos wasn't nearly the biggest one, because of the faith of mortal cultures. Then, the Emperor swept in and eradicated faith throughout the galaxy. Either directly through outlawing religion and superstition, or because the level of carnage his inexhaustible armies created broke peoples' ability to believe in higher powers. In turn, torching that "spiritual landscape", and leaving a void in the Warp. A vacuum the forces of Chaos were all too willing to fill. And the masses of mortals, bereft of their old beliefs and given no reason to have faith in the secular system they toiled under, were all the more receptive to gods who promised blood, power, and revenge. The Emperor, thinking he knew better than everyone else, ended up creating the Chaos crisis he sought to prevent. Good job, Big-E.

[@kacperdrabikowski5074]

As far as I know, it is canon that Warp was much more peaceful, but what wrecked it was War in Heaven, not Great Crusade. A galaxy-spanning war between two species that were close to lowercase-g gods by themselves brough about so much bloodshed, despair and deception that whatever Warp personifications those things had before got so powerful to completely dominate the Immaterium and also went nuts from feeding on so much negative emotions. As to why Chaos wasn't really active before Great Crusade, I believe the answer is that birth of Slaanesh kicked the remaining gods into high gear while also giving them a peephole into reality, a.k.a Eye of Terror. Then for a while the gods were mostly busy fighting each other, but then they noticed Emperor was doing stuff that could actually threaten them in the future, so they did their best to stop it, resulting in Horus Heresy and what came next. Not sure if it's canon or just the most popular headcanon, though.

[@JamesRadford76]

Oh very nice idea!

[@MrGabilonia]

"Where we are going, we won´t need eyes to see"

[@lewisdavies9998]

This had some nice “Ian is Carl Sagan” moments.

[@dmeep]

the four warp entities Corn Nurgle Zinch and Slanesh. Youd think that the autogenerating subtitles would have learne the names of them by now since there is quite a few videos about them

[@rangda_prime]

But they have. They pick up the sounds and transcribe them into the closest English pronunciation. They are no reading anything as such.

[@MrToko76]

This is the most in depth, coherent explanation of the warp I have ever seen. Great video.

[@singtothesilence]

It's Hell as a plot device So a Diabolus Ex Machina

[@Chris-cv1yh]

I disagree that the warp is a deus ex machina. Very rarely does it resolve plot points and any it does resolve it usually adds layers of complication onto further. While some of it's plot additions are unexpected it's known to be an unexpected element rather than a random one that assists the protagonist. It, fittingly, brings chaos rather than resolution.

[@SirWilliamKidney]

I'm getting quite the excellent view into (Aaron Dembsky Bowden's version of) the warp right now in my current readthrough of the Night Lord's trilogy. One of the POV characters is the human Navigator of a traitor Astartes vessel, struggling to control the ship as she navigates far away from the Emperor's beacon and into the roiling maelstroms where such accursed creatures seek refuge. It's a great trilogy and I highly recommend it to anyone out there. I would say "they should do a book-club episode about it!" but I doubt Mira would appreciate spending so much time with the 8th legion 😂

[@SirWilliamKidney]

Edit: It's actually my *first reading of the series, I'm only halfway through the second book so no spoilers, please! 😁

[@willumbermarchant5510]

Spoiler: Night Lords are bastards

[@SirWilliamKidney]

@@willumbermarchant5510 But ADB can make them complex, deep, interesting, and utterly tragic figures. Seriously I'm as transfixed as I am repulsed by the graphic depictions of a society gone thoroughly depraved!

[@Gallowglacht]

@@SirWilliamKidney Sold! He did a great job with the Word Bearers in First Heretic.

[@SirWilliamKidney]

@@Gallowglacht I haven't read that one yet! My favourite of ADB's so far is Spear of the Emperor, maybe just a little behind the Night Lord's trilogy. I'm sure you'll enjoy!

[@dreadpiratedan]

one of my homebrew imperal faction's multiple mary sue traits is a drug called Psychazipam, which is synthesized from the base elements of Blackstone. someone correctly treated with a full course of Psychazipam has their presence in the warp reduced by a huge factor, functionally disconnecting them from it

[@last_lost_lamenter]

Thas a sick concept. I dig it.

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

This has explained so many things. Thank you for making concise videos. Keep up the good work.

[@ITCamefromthePage]

I really love the vagaries, I never care for rigidly laid out magic systems. It makes it all more fun, it's a big fun playbox. This was great.

[@linamishima]

Another excellent video, especially for stressing the real-world reasons for aspects of the lore. I'm a fan of media that takes a "quasi-parallel dimension" approach to FTL - around the same time as I got into 2nd edition 40k, Babylon 5 started airing with it's hyperspace. This is probably more of a JordanSourcery type area to investigate, but I just checked and Melissa Scott's "Five-Twelfths of Heaven", book one of the Roads of Heavan series was published in 1985, two years before Rogue Trader. In that setting, FTL is achived very similarly to the Warp, with ships singing their way up through the Heavens, and specially trained and aware navigators steer the vessels . If you've not read the series, I highly recommend it - I suspect it might be one of the lesser known influences on 40k!

[@TheWah23]

I discovered you via your interview on 'The Painting Phase'. I liked your style in that and have been enjoying working my way through your back catalogue of videos.

[@l4zrh4wk]

Hats off, I think this might be the best explanation of the warp I’ve seen on KZbin. Succinct, not over-bloated.

[@invinciblereason2005]

In the case of Guilliman and Nurgle, Iax (the planet) was in-between material and immaterial worlds. Hence, all the wacky stuff that happened. It was a very specific and unique situation.

[@jonbaxter2254]

An endless form of acient, unending power... And we use it for a commute.

[@Kay_Drechsler]

Very cool video. After all these years I could still learn something about the warp.

[@supersiamesisk]

Ah! The Lovecraft of 40k.

[@JohnGluck-plus]

Holy moly. It is The Video about Warp.

[@caelvanir8557]

“The warp is a plot device” This is more or less as true in universe as it is out of it

[@lamicrobio...engros5427]

and if you are Tuska demonkilla, Warp is a cool vacation place to have fun with your boyz''

[@tanyaf2097]

I remember chatting with GW studio peeps at games day many many moons ago, and they were talking about how Dark Future was the ancient precursor to 40k (thus the reality breaking down warp/demon stuff), while the Warhammer world of WFB/WFRP was situated in a reality pocket inside the Eye of Terror (created by the fallen warp gates). Not sure if any of this still holds true today, but interesting to note that the Warhammer World was torn apart while, in roughly the same time IRL, we have been presented with the fall of Cadia and the Ruinstorm.

[@margaretwood152]

The *WARP* (or *Æther* ) is actually quite..... *_"PROLEMATlC."_*

[@glandhound]

Sounds a bit marxist

[@EngHag]

Fun fact, Nurgles home in plague wars is pretty consistent with some of the nurgle descriptions in some of the fantasy books, porch and all.

[@bpattenden78]

Excellent video, although you missed an opportunity to link back to your Valdor video to expand on the Primarchs getting "sucked off" by the warp 😂 Keep the videos coming Ian

[@NeloBladeOfRanni]

Slaanesh approves of this

[@sojh17]

Woo hell yeah, loved this vid, and looking forward to the next ones in the series! I’m particularly fascinated by imagining how things like various rituals, hexagrammic sigils and even some stuff like bottled daemons and such from the word bearers work. It’s like a complex interweaving of creating more emotions, strong belief, and some kind of universally reinforced symbolism through certain runes, symbols and patterns.

[@battiger00568]

here in less than a minute thanks to the joins of warp travel, just ignore what happened to the others

[@davidraynham1764]

You really are the best there is, 10/10

[@jehhuty]

I love the way the warp influences the whole human religion in 40k, miracles, saints and belief

[@jasoncrowell8863]

40 minute video about how the Warp works...and I end up knowing less but understanding more.

[@timm7305]

Excellent as always

[@ataraxia7439]

Something about the Tau having their adopted species make a god personifying their ideology is so funny.

[@bayushiteishiru6291]

Hello Ian, first of all, I really appreciate the factual approach in your lore vids, based more on existing sources, such as they may be relied on in GWs publicatios, not just theories. Keep up the good work. Any chance you might tackle the topics of deep warp or enslavers in the future vids?

[@ArbitorIan]

The enslavers might be a good one. But the 'deep warp' is basically just that quote!

[@bayushiteishiru6291]

Awesome. Thank you.

[@Prederick]

One day, I hope to quote myself in a KZbin video.

[@Mr_Waffle.]

Great video. I love the idea of the "deep warp" being even more insane and dangerous, one of the few elements of 40k that hasn't slowly been exposed and explained and normalised.

[@snoophogg85]

I think this might be one of your most ambitious lore videos to date, and you nailed it!

[@themouthofsauron7697]

Fantastic job. Explaining the warp was never going to be easy, but this video is just superb. Looking forward to the next two 🤘

[@peterga3658]

40 min long noice ...... gonna enjoy some gaming now listening to this thaaank youuu

[@heindrich1988]

lol I wonder if Majorkill will call you out next :P

[@Pepsi_Addicted]

hahaha

[@laurenbastin8849]

I adore the way the warp conceptually mashes up bits of sci-fi and fantasy, in particular it feels like warp travel does a lot to present a view of space travel along the same lines as how maritime travel has been experienced for most of human history - it’s humbling to think that the sea itself was a fairy eldritch and unknowable thing until really quite recently. The sort of Jungian collective unconscious aspects are really cool too, hell as an extension of universal psychic trauma, makes me think of Max Ernst paintings

[@heindrich1988]

14:00 seems to be contradicted by what I read in Horus Heresy Legion. The Alpha Legion casually teleported all their non-Terminator armoured marines, all the Cabal Xenos, John Grammaticus and Peto Soneka from the place where they ambushed the Cabal to the Cabal ship. Suppose regular power armour is sufficient protection, and we hand-wave John Grammaticus cos he is a special Perpetual, it is very doubtful that all of the different Cabal species are somehow naturally safe in the Warp, plus Peto Soneka is just a regular human.

[@ArbitorIan]

Or that they were just better at it back then!

[@heindrich1988]

@@ArbitorIan I did wonder why it seemed like Teleport assault is not as prevalent as you'd expect it to be given its obvious tactical utility. In 40K, for the Imperials, it seems limited to Terminators, Grey Knights and Custodians. I suppose it would make sense if teleporting was basically making step in and out of the warp. I wonder if it is ever explained if the Alpha Legion (or the Imperium in general) had different/better teleportation technology in the Heresy era. I've been reading the Horus Heresy books in publication sequence at roughly the same rate as you and Mira's series, currently on Mechanicum!

[@brothernemiel6465]

@@heindrich1988 Or it worked in that particular case because Tzeentch waved them through without anyone noticing, because of plans within plans? Maybe its more an issue of if you go with the flow or against it. Grey Knights and Custodian needs to go against the roughest currents and "brute force" their way through to the destination. For everyone else you are basically at the whim of the old ones and either go unoticed by chance or careful preparation...

[@SamusSelf-Destruct]

I love the idea of the warp and how it’s just an innate part of the setting that means that Games Workshop can do literally anything g in any of their games and it all makes absolute canonical sense because “the warp is weird.” It’s how I explain using a detachment of Stormcast Eternals as proxies for Custodes in my army. A few questions I’ve always had about it, though: 1: Chaos orks? Could an ork be possessed by warp demons, and are their demons associated with Mork & Gork? 2: Why were the forces of the heretic Astartes only ever able to leave the Eye of Terror via the Cadian Gate? Why were they not able to just travel through the warp to wherever they wanted to go? Has that ever been explained? 3: What do psychic nulls like the Sisters of Silence actually experience while traveling through the Warp? Does the Warp still twist and deform their bodies even if it can’t touch their minds, say, if their Gellar Field went down?

[@totalCoolerUsername]

1.: Was probably last mentioned 2nd ed as possible 2.: It's mentioned why in the first book of ADBs Black Legion series, quite a nice read

[@pwwillia]

If i remember correctly in AOS souls aren't destroyed when consumed by a demon but its energy is siphoned off to power the demon? Morathi is meant to have escaped from inside Slaanesh? either way, as you saw, warp stuff :) like in Dr WHO when they get themselves in a muddle they just "Timey Wimey" it. great video as always.

[@danillo.eu.rodrigues]

There is a term for what the warp can do or the way it behaves: Warp shenanigans

[@jblazeby]

Love your stuff Ian I'm sure it's on the cards but could you do some alien faction deep dives like you did for all the space marine chapters please.

[@douglysium9770]

Somehow, this is still one of the most concise and straight to the point explanations of seen of the Warp and why it matters both in universe and narratively.

[@Khalith]

It works exactly how the author needs it to work for the story to happen.

[@Yurt_enthusiast7]

Also; A fittingly bleak explanation on why the warp mainly feed on negative emotions I always liked is that hate, deceit, despair, lust and so on is the feelings humanity express the most.

[@Amdor]

This video got me thinking - we need a book or novel that shows us how pariah deals with being in a pariah nexus. I'm assuming he should be mostly unaffected?

[@GustavSvard]

oooh. Interesting. Would they feel nothing. Or do they feel a sense of ease from not pushing away the warp? Or is the warp recoiling from them? or both?

[@GustavSvard]

Yes, yes, yes, but what does it taste like? I neeeeed to taste it.

[@MidwestMountainMan]

It tastes like snozzberries.

[@leonleon8398]

Be careful. Majorkill did a video like this 9 days ago. He will make a video about you saying you are copying his video.😂😂

[@o0somic0o]

The edge lord himself

[@RyanK2036]

Oh boy! Cosmic horrors beyond my comprehension!

[@mattstakeontheancients7594]

Knowing the fate of humans after we die in 40k miles is why I’d be ok with the biotransfernce like the necron have. They are basically immortal and if severely wounded as long as they have spare bodies can just transfer to another body.

[@jaanikaapa6925]

I wonder if the Geller field was named after Uri Geller. Timeline does work.

[@ArbitorIan]

I think that's absolutely the reason. It's an anti-psychic field. And you know who else isn't psychic?

[@jaanikaapa6925]

@@ArbitorIan Uri. Even if there still are adults in Finland who swore he stopped their clocks.

[@tradesbyrob]

Imagine everyone in the Galaxy at the same time did some happy drugs and completely eradicated all the chaos gods and turned them into big teddy bears

[@slicksamos8334]

The Warp makes more sense than FTL travel as it doesn't break the current known physics :P

[@Symos]

Apparently a quirk of Minecraft's Nether is if you travel within and set up a gate, it's correspoding exit is much further in the main map in relation, so players use the Nether as a shortcut. Much like how the warp is. When I try to explain the warp, i tend to say "it works like Minecraft's Nether, but nowhere near as safe"

[@murphy7801]

I mean, might seem like mine craft have existed forever I had no such luck explaining this in the 90s

[@Darkreaper1982]

Great video. Looking forward to the next ones.

[@euansmith3699]

Ian, "It's... complicated."

[@rp7155]

14:58 kinda purply-pink innit

[@boydsinclair7606]

I think the Emperor managed to destroy four warp gods during the great crusade or earlier: once destroyed they'll cease to exist, and in the warp, not existing is the same as never existing... All the other gods would forget, but still be aware of the threat He posed: called him Anathema after all... And the one consistent Chaos symbol has eight points. Can't celebrate killing a god by stamping out religions: that'd just start more religions, just crusade onwards: didn't need to know about the warp to fight it. #theEmperordideverythingright

[@RSBurgener]

Being interested in the weird my whole life, I've studied the "real" paranormal a good bit. I think The Warp holds up pretty well as a model in our world. Not sure how much I believe, but it's certainly interesting.

[@j.m.5448]

"Red ones really do go faster" lol. Great vid. Would love to see your take on Gotrek and Felix at some point.

[@Nekorook]

sounds like a great series. loved the video.

[@rodneykelly8768]

I think you may have explained "Zero Point Energy." Do you have room on those shelves of yours for a Nobel Prize?

[@Jonathan_Green_Gamebook_Author]

An excellent exploration of the Empyrean. 😊

[@runcmd1419]

The Warp works in mysterious ways.

[@HistoritorJimaldus]

19:08 it’s confirmed - the warp is homeopathic 😂

[@xe2594]

I can surmise how the warp doesn’t work; The emperor spreads his cheeks and a chaos god laughs and claps. Out comes an imperial fleet.

[@ShadowDragon1848]

I think the warp is one of the best plot device WH40k has every developed. It´s in my opinion quite lackluster in other regards, but the warp is amazing.

[@fcaskvig]

I just listened to "heart of Decay" by Ben Counter. One thing I like about it is the antagonist, his devotion to Nurgle paints a good picture of the faction. I was wondering what would be good examples for this for other chaos gods?

[@James-qr5hx]

The Warp... Have you seen Event Horizon? Yeah, basically like that.

[@Est1987ish]

Ive always described it as a oily black shark filled ocean, in a storm, at midnight...need to draw anything from it...theres always the chance youll be pulled in...want to travel through it? Well you best be able to see a distant lighthouse and hope you make it...

[@warpjediAK]

It works exactly as the plot requires.

[@Tulkash01]

Plato gone crazy. There, the warp (or the Realm of Chaos) expansion explained.

[@TTKarlheins]

I just adore the way you explain stuff Ian. How are you not employed BY games workshop? Love Love Love this!

[@ropable]

I always thought that the "Upside Down" from Stranger Things as a good metaphor for the Warp in 40K. It's rather more literal than the Warp, but it's still a dark reflection that people can move into, out of, and through, where reside unknowable entities that view us as prey.

[@ExplodedStuff]

Thankyou brother, this gives me a much deeper understanding of the warp in the lore. You have an excellent way with words.

[@PlatinumDestroyer]

fantastically entertaining and educational

[@alvaroblancoalvarez416]

Great Video! and also I just noticed when you said that the warp is feed more by negative emotions...that is sounds woringly similar on how the facebook/instagram/youtube algorithm works, feeding you things that produce strong emotional response, often negative ones.....so internet is the warp in disguise maybe?

[@leovalenzuela8368]

Brilliant episode

[@christiansmith9306]

About the Nulls, to say they aren't there at all in the Warp I feel is incorrect, if Psychic power is like a skin, then a Null is like a wound, it's uncomfortable and painful to those who are Psychically attuned.

[@grimmnekrokvlt]

Watch out, Majorkill is going to think you copied him : P

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

The Warp is life, the warp is Love

[@sturm9087]

Why does faith work even around blackstone? Because the imperium always has to be the super duper specialist ones that are the exception to the rule or get to do stuff nobody else can.