Ohnyl colony
From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
An ohnyl colony was a type of ancient human generation spaceship design used before they mastered the forces of gravity. They were cylindrical ships, several kilometres in length and width, that housed life on the inner surface of the bottle-shaped ships' hulls. They slowly rotated around their own axis, so that the centrifugal force on the inside was equal to the gravity on Terra.[1]
The cylinder ships of the Jorgall xenos used the same design principles in their generation ships, as noted by those forces that encountered them during the Great Crusade in M30.[1]
Trivia
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- The 'ohnyl colony' ships are a distorted name referencing the concept of O'Neill cylinders. This concept for space colonisation vessels was proposed by the American physicist Gerard K. O'Neill in his 1976 book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. The spacecrafts' design and simulation of gravity through the use of centrifugal force subsequently became a popular staple in science fiction media.
- It is likely that these 'ohnyl cylinders' were the conventional sub-light spacecraft used to colonise nearby star systems during the Age of Terra or early Dark Age of Technology. Generations of people would live and die onboard the ships, while they crossed the gulf between the stars. Once grav-plates were invented and implemented on voidships, the rotating cylinder designs of the ohnyl colony ship were likely considered obsolete for use during humanity's Long March era of space colonisation.
See also
Sources
- 1: The Flight of the Eisenstein, Part One, Chapter Two
