Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-25618639-20141119150740/@comment-6078851-20141221170513

to the previous wiki contributor - i don't know about whatever warp-beacon was made in unremembered empire as i havn't yet read it, but the astronomican is not a device. emps is the source of the astronomican which is the warp representation of emps' psychic might, and because of the scale of such might it shines through the warp like a lighthouse. it may be that devices can be made to mimic this but they can't come close to the radiance of the astronomican, so even with such devices the imperium would be unable to maintain its size.

the imperium is irrelevant to the continuation of the 40k franchise: "in the grim darkness of the far future there is only war", this is the most basic cornerstone of 40k. granted the imperium is sort of how 40k started and is how most people got introduced to the universe, but these days 40k is so much more and even if the imperium falls there will be remnants striving to regain what was lost, despite the fact that the imperium does more harm than good, and there will still be plenty of war which, at the end of the day, is what 40k's all about. and gw have to do something fairly monumental plot-wise because they have been alienating fans for years by doing nothing.