Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/The Warp

"The Warp is a strange and terrible place. You might as well throw a traveller into a sea of sharks and tell him to swim home as send him through the Warp unprotected. Better it is not to let common man travel through the stars. Better still, let him not know such a thing is feasible."

—Fra Safrane, 5th Aide to Navigator De'el

The Immaterium, also referred to as the Empyrean, the Aether, the Sea of Souls, the Realm of Chaos, Warpspace or most commonly, "the Warp," is an alternate dimension of pure psychic energy that echoes and underlies the familiar four dimensions of the material universe.

The Warp is the source of all psychic powers and is the originator for the various magics used in Gaiaterra such as psionics used by Yuri, as well as the home dimension of the powerful entities known as the Chaos Gods and their myriad legions of Daemonic servants, alongside the benevolent gods such as Tacitus, Sigmar, Eru Iluvatar, and (in comparison to the chaos gods) Balthazar. In fact, the terms "Chaos" and the "Warp" are often used interchangeably by those aware of their existence such as the Grey Steel Order.

Superficially, the Immaterium is the universe's solution to the problem of faster-than-light travel, outside of the expensive and large jump drives used by the Federation of Earth, whose race is uniquely immune to the Warp. The Warp functions as the medium for teleportation, with the Allianced famous Chronosphere harnessing the warp to teleport its forces.

The psychic energy that makes up the Immaterium is believed to be the direct result of the existence of sentience in the universe, in particular the intelligent species of the Milky Way Galaxy. Considered to be a dark reflection of the material universe, the Warp is an ocean of chaotic psychic energy, raw emotion given physical form.

The Immaterium is also rumored by many cultures, from the Aquilans to the Scrin, to be the final resting place of the souls of the dead, and therefore can be considered the "underworld" of Gaiaterra.

Realm of Chaos
The Ruinous Powers of Chaos and their Demonic servants are known to inhabit the portion of the Immaterium often called the "Realm of Chaos."

Demons are only able to exist within the Immaterium, unless certain conditions are met within the material realm.

The Immaterium is what empowers the Demonic and mortal servants alike of the four Dark Gods -- Khorne the Blood God, Slaanesh the Queen of Pleasure, Tzeentch the Lord of Change, and Nurgle the Lord of Decay -- and their followers will undertake any action to increase this power and their standing with their unholy masters.

Each of the Chaos Gods maintains a domain within the Realm of Chaos, the nature of which matches his own personality and interests exactly. Khorne commands the Blood God's Domain, Nurgle the Land of the Plaguelord, Tzeentch the Realm of the Sorcerer, and Slaanesh the Dark Princess's Realm.

The Realm of Chaos is marked by nearly constant warfare and strife between the Demonic servants of the Ruinous Powers, who constantly scheme and battle against one another in an eternal struggle for dominance known as the "Great Game" that can never be won.

The Chaos Gods and their servants are consumed by this struggle and in truth pay very little attention to the doings of realspace, save when the actions of mortals either present a threat to all of the Chaos Gods' continued activities or an opportunity for the Ruinous Powers to enhance their position against one another in their eternal conflict.

Though not is all gloom as Elysea, Tacitus, and various benevolent gods also holds santuaries within the Immaterium, of which their people takes refuge in upon death.