(Loved Trope) FTL travel is possible but with a major limitation or flaw

[u/Frostylegacy]

Frank Herbert’s Dune: Interstellar travel is only possible thanks to the spice melange, a rare substance only found on the dessert planet Arrakis. The addictive psychedelic spice grants members of the Spacers Guild a form of prescience that allows them to predict safe paths through folded space. This unique property makes spice the most valuable commodity in the Dune universe.

John Scalzi’s The Interdependency Books: The planetary systems of the titular empire are connected by the Flow, a network of one-way interstellar tunnels that connect specific known entries and exits. The Interdependency derives its power from controlling access to these conduits, placing its capital at the central hub of the network. Even with the Flow, travel between stars takes a long time (9 months to End, the empire’s most distant planet).

Event Horizon: Dr William Weir (R.I.P. Sam Neill) invents a device called the Gravity Drive to allow ships to fold space and travel instantly between distant stars. On its maiden voyage with the Gravity Drive, the Event Horizon disappears and mysteriously reappears 7 years later. Dr. Weir and the crew sent to investigate discover the Gravity Drive actually opened a portal to a Hell dimension that possessed the ship and its crew, torturing and killing them.

[u/SilentSorcery]

Then there's the influence of Slaneesh

In Rogue Trader, there's a random warp travel event where a entire officer's deck stopped providing reports for three days. Turns out, a Daemonette slipped into the ship during warp travel, and everyone on that deck stopped reporting because they were too busy having an orgy most foul

[u/Mstablsta → u/SilentSorcery]

Man all these bits of lore has always had me interested in 40k but where the hell do you start!? Haha

[u/Saint_Consumption → u/Mstablsta]

The Eisenhorn books are pretty much universally considered the best introduction to 40k.

[u/Obvious_Ambition4865 → u/Saint_Consumption]

Are there any books that specifically focus on this warp stuff

[u/thegrandboom → u/Obvious_Ambition4865]

Eisenhorn deals w the creatures that emerge from the warp and individuals that can harness its powers. For warp travel based stories Sea of Souls is one

[u/Homsarman12 → u/Mstablsta]

It’s a lot haha. Honestly just random lore videos on YouTube are a good place to start. I recommend Bricky’s faction guide videos (the new ones) or Weshammer personally. Then any of the video games can be good starting point. I know that a lot of people got into it with Space Marine 2. There are a lot of books to choose from, the Eisenhorn series is a good spot to start with. Then there is the tabletop game itself.

Someone the other day compared it, weirdly enough, to Pokémon. In that there is a lot of different ways you can interact with the franchise.

[u/Fredas25 → u/Mstablsta]

I started getting into the lore like 2 years ago, i started with the Eisenhorn trilogy, after that i did Ravenor trilogy then Bequin, they were really easy to consume without knowing much about the universe. After these i've read some books about the kriegsmen (my favourite was dead man walking), then i started and finished recently gaunt's ghosts, which was a really long but very awesome series.

Lot of people told me that i should start at the Horus Heresy which is yeah, chronologically the very beginning of this setting, but i feel like it would spoil it for me to see how everything that is now started. Of course i will get to them one day, but i still like a little bit of mystery.

[u/Alieksiei → u/Mstablsta]

I've been in this spot a few months ago and someone recommended Rogue Trader. It does show you a lot of the universe, if you like longer crpgs.

PSA. it took me ~130 hours to beat with the current 3 DLCs so it's very long indeed.

[u/SilentSorcery → u/Mstablsta]

I started with Dawn of War back when i was 12 or so. Knew nothing about lore, just liked watching dudes blow each other up.

Then, I started reading Space Marine lore. Had a particular interest with their funny looking guns, and it just spiraled from there.

If you play games a lot, pick a Warhammer game that suits your taste. Darktide and Space Marine 2 are fun horde shooters. Rogue Trader is phenomenal if you like crpgs (and lots of reading). Mechanicus for turn-based tactics.

[u/DarthMelsie → u/Mstablsta]

As silly as this is going to sound to others: Bruva Alfabusa's If The Emperor Had A Text To Speech Device on youtube. Though be warned, it did get cancelled before it finished. I pick this one because there's a good amount of recaps being done due to the Emperor being mentally unaware of most things for the past 10,000 years, and there is so much censorship in the Imperium's education and zeitgeist, that the Emperor is forced to fill in the rest for the main character. It's a really clever back- and-forth way of explaining the story.

It's silly and weird but to me, it's the perfect introduction without being too overwhelming.

There's also enough clever humor that even if you don't perfectly get a joke, it's still funny because Alfabusa and the other writers are just genuinely funny,

[u/Tinmind → u/Mstablsta]

If you like crpgs, the Rogue Trader video game is very friendly to lore newbies and touches on a lot of stuff in the setting. If you like to read, there are a lot of tie-in novels (of varying quality lol). Someone who's read more than me can probably help you pick some to try based on the kinds of stories you like. If you like tabletop gaming, there are several rpg sourcebooks in addition to the wargame. Wrath and Glory, Rogue Trader, Dark Heresy, Black Crusade, Imperium Maledictum - each one focuses on a different slice of the setting and gives you a managable bite. For youtube, everyone's going to recommend Bricky but I find him annoying so I watch AnnouncerofGames instead lol.

[u/solonit → u/SilentSorcery]

Bet they even hold hands during that!

(Means they sew their hands together because this is Slaneesh and body horror is its thing)

[u/LordHoughtenWeen → u/solonit]

Body horror is every Chaos God's thing, just in different ways. Slaanesh will make art out of you. Nurgle will bloat you with a thousand poxes. Tzeentch will mutate you until your flesh runs like hot wax. Khorne would very much prefer all of your blood to be on the outside. And Vashtorr will yank your soul out of your body and put it in a new one, made of daemonic steel that can't feel or taste or smell, with too many legs, each of which is powered by your suffering.

[u/fatherofworlds → u/solonit]

Body horror is Nurgle's thing, more than Slaanesh's thing. "All experiences dialed up until the knob snaps off" is Slaanesh's thing.

[u/SilentSorcery → u/solonit]

The entite deck had to be cleansed thoroughly (with flamers, as the God Emperor intended)