The 40K Galaxy Map

[Thrud]

I have found 2 really great maps of the 40k universe:

http://www.joachim-adomeit.de/wh40k/spacemap/map.html

and

http://www.darkmillennia.net/QuadrantMap_pages/GMap.htm

One thing that puzzles me. I thought the limit to the Imperiums borders was based around the effective distance of the Astronomican. Anything beyond this will limit space travel to blind jumps, probably similar to the Tau.

Both maps show the Imperium have expanded well beyond the the Astronomican "Halo Zone".

In fact Ultramar seems to be well outside it on both, yet this was one of the 1st Space Marine chapters homeworld established during the Great Crusade. Surely this must place it well within the limits of the Astronomican. The fact that Ultamar is one of the most prosperous area od the Imperium must mean navigation cant be too much of a problem.

I know they are only fan maps, but I just wanted to know if my understanding of the 40k universe is current (as most of it is based on wh40k:rt).

Any thoughts, and does anyone know of any official maps?

[MalicousIntent]

I thought the first one was pretty cool, someone showed it to me a while back I forgot the address though...

You know whats funny... Earth is located in the same place in alot of games. Which, im not going to name since theres alot of space sims I play and yall think im nerdy.

On the map if you look in the legend theres the Telepathica Matrix which Boost astropathic signals... etc. Some located coincidentally at the far edges of the universe Ultramar to be more specific.

[Dooks Dizzo]

There maps are just great man. I almost think these should be stickied.

[Thrud]

"On the map if you look in the legend theres the Telepathica Matrix which Boost astropathic signals... etc. Some located coincidentally at the far edges of the universe Ultramar to be more specific....."


IS this official fluff though?

[MalicousIntent]

Yes. Telepathica Matrices do exactly that 'boost astropathic signals' there is one or maybe was one located at Thandros in Ultramar that was overrun by Tyranids during the hive fleet invasion. Inquisitor Kryptman tried using it to send an SOS probably to Terra but... it was overrun.

[Brenil]

While good maps no doubt, I do question their merit, it shows Medrengard exists outside the Eye of Terror... yet after reading numerous fluff about the Iron Warriors and the Book, Dead Sky Black Sun, I'm pretty sure it's an Eye of Terror world.

And hasn't all the fluff stated the Eye of Terror is at the heart of the galaxy center of the spiral?

[Saberdark]

You know whats funny... Earth is located in the same place in alot of games. Which, im not going to name since theres alot of space sims I play and yall think im nerdy.

Thats because thats where Earth actually IS in the galaxy.

[Thrud]

I thought Telepathica Matrices were primarily used for FTL communication between planets in different systems using Astropaths - Not for navigation.

if it was as simple as that, why the need for the Astronomican or even bother keeping the Emperor alive to power it?

[SubAznDaemon]

"And hasn't all the fluff stated the Eye of Terror is at the heart of the galaxy center of the spiral?"

Um... it's always been where it is shown on the map, in the Segmentum Obscurus. Could you perhaps, be thinking of the Maelstrom?

BTW, I'm surprised that GW doesn't put much info about the other Craftworlds other than Iyaden, Ulthwe, Saim-Hann, Alaitoc, and Biel-Tan.

[broadaxe]

sticky please!

[MagnusTheRed]

I'm confused. As much as i love the maps, they show the IoM dominating excessive amounts of the galaxy. I thought the orks owned more worlds than any other race?

[Kesarn]

The IoM CLAIM that the galaxy is owned by themselves, but you cannot have control over a Galaxy in the same way you can control a country, or a planet. The borders are less well defined, and the galaxy is in a 3D plane. Only a few of the planets are actually labelled on that map; of the millions left unlabelled many could be Ork controlled. Also, I expect many Orks are constantly travelling on Space Hulks or other Ork fleets - sitting on an Ork controlled world can't be that fun for them after all. Having said that, the amount of Ork controlled territory is vastly overestimated by a lot of people.

[deathwings]

Great map, adding this to the usefull threads sticky would get my vote.

[{DEATH}Abyss]

And to be honest they dont really control their territory, lots of infighting.(orks)

[Ikkaan]

- Astronomicon reach into Ultramar:
Yes, its actually possible because of the Telepathica Matrix. Maybe i should make that optically visuable.

- Medrengard:
Yes, it should be inside. Can anyone pinpoint its supposed location using the coordinate counter on the upper left ? I will change the position if someone can give me some fluffproof info.

- Other Craftworlds:
Sorry, no information given...

- Ork Worlds:
Sorry, i just collected fluff bits i could get real info about. There sadly is not so much info about ork dominions, but you could guess that it expands around known ork worlds. I Could make a overlay with political information, but that would be just guesstimating.

Stickying my map ? :loco: That would mean that people would keep commenting on my map and it would take no end updating it. I keep my mouth shut and let others decide.

[MagnusTheRed]

so you made the map, nice job!

[Captain Zog]

The second one definitely looks a lot like the star maps from the old codexes (2nd Edition era), same symbols, just things like Tau empire added

[MagnusTheRed]

first time i'v actually seen a 40k map, and by the looks of things, if they had left hive fleet kraken and behemoth the tau would have been skrewed.

[Deionarra]

Great maps, that first map is particularly awesome. I wouldn't know much about it's accuracy but it looks fairly consistent with the map at the back of the BFG rule book, including the position of the Eye of Terror.

As Kesarn says they only show a few notable planets the majority aren't listed. For example, of the planets in the gothic sector only Port Maw and Lethe are shown while there are about another 80 shown on the BFG sector map 8 of which are hive worlds.
Even then the BFG rule book only lists the systems that are of military significance to the empire.

[exkon]

Nice map good find...Now I can start my battlefleet campaign..

[Ikkaan]

Update:

-Medrengard is now inside the Eye of Terror (anyone objecting on the position ? It was omitted in every map i looked up).

-Added Elysia, 30ly in direction of the galactic hub from armageddon.Which actually translates to one pixel...

-Telepathica Matrix...i rethought it and found that this has nothing to do with navigation. Its just a communication relay. No big deal.

Any more ideas? I cant make a political overlay right now because my laptops keyboard is sticky with coke :-( i need to replace that first.

[Robert Frazer]

Quail in terror, forumers, for I have returned from my fortnight with the Army to reimpose the suffocating subjugation of my repressive iron fist! Bwahahahahaha!

Now, to return back to topic: I wouldn't reccomend a political overlay, Ikkaan, mainly because it would be a fairly futile endeavour. Given the vagaries of both Warp travel, the three dimensions to expand in and the fact that the nature of space conveys vast useless expanses pinpricked by minute points of value, the concept of territory is appreciably different in interstellar terms to the borders that we lay down today. The Codex Imperialis asserts this on the matter:

"Stellar empires cannot be reckoned in terms of the spatial areas they occupy, only in terms of the star systems under their control. The Imperium is the largest such empire in the galaxy - indeed the million or more worlds that lie under its dominion are spread throughout the entire galaxy with the exception of the Eastern Fringe [Note: Here, Imperial habitation is sparser and infrastructure less developed, but not non-existent]... Of course the Imperium does not control all of the star systems within this vasty area, nor even the majority of the inhabited systems encompassed by its borders. The galaxy also contains many alien races ruling smaller and less coherent empires of their own."

As such, an exhaustive political map would be a fairly incomprehensible melange, and even though most alien empires are tiny and insignificant, simply denoting large tranches of space as "Imperial" is misleading.

[The Collector]

Think of it like swiss cheese, the puny alien empires are the holes in the great cheese of mankind.

[Ikkaan]

Your insight is appreciated Lord Frazer, as i said, it would be just guesstimating.

As i use the map for my own roleplaying group i am eager to keep working on it. For instance i was told that there are some missing tau worlds..."FI'R'IOS", "KSI'M'YEN" and others. I don´t have any info about them,maybe someone can clarify ?

[The Collector]

Difficult to say. The new Tau Empire codex states they've gone into another wave of colonization and as such there could be any number of new worlds thrown into play. The Tau codices will be a good place to start, followed by WD's.

[Robert Frazer]

As i use the map for my own roleplaying group i am eager to keep working on it. For instance i was told that there are some missing tau worlds..."FI'R'IOS", "KSI'M'YEN" and others. I don´t have any info about them,maybe someone can clarify ?

The two worlds which you refer to are territories captured by the Tau during their Third Sphere expansion, led by Commander Shadowsun. The former is an Ork world successfully cleansed of greenskin contamination, but only at the cost of a prolonged, gruelling and arduous campaign with a grievous casualty rate, as you might expect when fighting Orks on their home turf. The latter is an Imperial world "conquered largely by stealth". Both are situated at the most pronounced surplanar expansion of the Tau Empire - the top of her sphere, if you will - and so their accurate position is difficult to represent on your map, seeing as its flat projection doesn't recognise depth. As such, you may as well just dot them where you want.

Whilst I'm here, there's some other corrections I noticed when surveying the map that I thought could be made:

-Espandor is still in Imperial control, it isn't a Dead World.

-Tyran wasn't subjected to Exterminatus, it was straightforwardly devoured by Tyranids. It was also the location of first contact between humans and the Tyranids (hence their name).

-Rename the Halo Stars the "Halo Zone" - also, some information for it - the region of the Halo Zone is largely empty wilderness space beyond the reach of the Astronomican, meaning that navigation there is consequently much more difficult. Ther is nothing intrinsically dangerous about the region, but the lack of places to resupply and the more arduous navigation make venturing forth into there quite risky.

Incidentally, Ikkaan, I thought that you'd be interested to know that Black Industries (once of Games Workshop's subsidiaries) is planning to release an official licensed D100 Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay game.

[Ikkaan]

Applied all these changes.

I read about this upcoming roleplaying game and i detest it completely. There is a working system and its not new and it is free. The most probable outcome will be that gw sends its lawyers (AGAIN!) and stomp the free system till its dead. I don´t care, i won´t play the commercial version.

[MagnusTheRed]

also 'dolumar' doesn't have a pop up thing when your mouse is over it, is this intentional?

[Ikkaan]

Thrice damned dolumar ! I included some info, but it seems the icon should be the one for dead worlds. Is this the dolumar from the dreaded firewarrior-game and -novel ? It is hardly imaginable that the tau can reach this far coreward with their slow ftl-drives, isn´t it ?

[Kesarn]

-Medrengard is now inside the Eye of Terror (anyone objecting on the position ? It was omitted in every map i looked up).

I object, your original position was correct. If you look in the 4th Edition 40K rulebook, on pages 90/91 there is a galactic map, and while not as detailed as yours, it does have Medrengard on it. And its not in the EoT. Now this seems strange to me, but meh - assumably GW's own map will be accurate :-). So basically, you need to move it back. Note - the orientation of the GW map is slightly different to yours, so its possible that it is closer to the EoT than it appears in the rulebook, but the fact the arrow points away from the EoT still seems strange.

Also, for anyone interested, this map shows how much of the galaxy the Orks actually cover. Pretty scary huh?

[MalicousIntent]

Not really, its expected.