Editing Astronomican (section)

==Effects==

[[File:Dome of the Astronomican.webp|thumb|right|300px|The giant metal sphere that holds the Astronomican.]]

It lights up the warp, Council-of-Nikaea-beacon style, filling minds of psykers with holy singing, thoughts of martyrdom and images of [[Living Saint]]s of course. While sacrificing the trillions upon trillions of humans on Terra. Typical [[Eldrad|dickery]]- though on second thought, [[Mortarion|there]] [[Lorgar|are]] [[Perturabo|many]] examples. The fact that the psykers are sacrificed and are not allowed to rest between sessions is also a typical source of [[grimdark]].

The ''Talon of Horus'' book by [[Aaron Dembski-Bowden]] describes... interesting side effects of the Astronomican activity. Where its light collides with a potent [[Warp Storm]], like the [[Eye of Terror]] or the [[Maelstrom]], the mix of both creates the Firetide: a rim of space fucked up so hard even daemons are afraid of it. Not only do they get quickly burned by its walls of holy warp-fire, these are also inhabited by warp-spirits that could be described as flaming angels; just like Chaos daemons, they don't mind slaughtering, raping, and eating chaos worshipers (who, if they are very lucky, will suffer this fate in that order). These "angels" are known to cleanse their territory of all life oldcron-style, no matter its allegiance, but unlike daemons, these spirits cannot be reasoned with, as they are as insane from millennia of intolerable pain and suffering, probably just like the [[God-Emperor of Man|source that gave them life]]. The Firetide engulfs multiple "Radiant Worlds", planets touched by the golden psychic storm without being burned by it. In these regions, the Astronomican can manifest an avatar of the Emperor's will known as Imperious, an actually way nicer chap than these postal-going "angels" described earlier, taking the form of a humble pilgrim wearing a Scream mask of gold and light.

There's only one real drawback to having the Astronomican (you know, aside from whole [[Grimdark|sacrifice of a thousand innocents per day]]): it's attracting the [[Tyranids]] to Terra (they were already on their way to the Milky Way due to the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]]) like a swarm of mosquitoes to an infra-red torch so it should really be renamed to the [[Derp|Astro-NOM-ican]]. Is this a drawback? Who knows? Maybe Big-E needs the 'nidz to set him free from his Golden prison. After all, their presence would likely close the warp rift in the Eternity Gate as it is so small and their Shadow in the Warp is so large. Additionally if you want an entire army to attack one point, you may as well have it attack the most heavily defended point you have. Holy Terra fits that bill so who knows how many planets are being spared because the nids are focusing on the Astronomican?

Another 'drawback' to the Astronomican is that it's a lighthouse, and every one can use it. In theory if the [[Tau]] or [[Q'Orl]] could develop the ability to 'see' the light the way Navigators can then they too could use it, though the effectiveness of the former might be limited due to their weak soul-presence though Tau are Xenophile enough that in theory they could recruit some navigator defectors, and the latter limited by their current existence in canon being dubious at best. This has potentially hilarious implications, as you would suddenly have a xenos species dependent on keeping the Imperium around in order to facilitate the expansion of their own empire.

There have been a case or two of chaos exploiting the light such as [[Shon'tu]] using a navigator, who of course would have had to have been using the Astronomican, to drop a hive ship within 100 light years (read: galactic spitting distances) of Terra.