Webway Gate

Eldar Portal

Eldar Webway Nexus^[2]

The Webway Gates, also known as the Webway Nexus, are a series of technological artefacts composed of Wraithbone that are incorporated into the hull of Craftworlds and provide a link into the Webway. Webway Nexuses are also found scattered on worlds throughout the Galaxy, allowing the Eldar to travel to many planets.^[2] Webway Gates large enough for Voidfaring ships to traverse are known as Waygates.^[3]

Overview

Craftworld Webway Gate amongst statues of the Phoenix Lords.

Webway Gates are found on both Eldar Craftworlds and throughout worlds of the galaxy. When not in use, the Gates are dormant and are hidden to the lesser races.^[2] These portals are near unbreakable and virtually indestructible.^[6a][8] Wrought in psychoplastic pseudo-bone by long dead artisans, they are sealed from within becoming little more than obstacles to be navigated around rather than travelled through to the lesser-races.^[6a]

Among the greatest of these belongs to Alurmen, whose Nexus was unmatched by the other Craftworlds. Through its Nexus, the inhabitants of Alurmen could send explorers and traders with an ease that was second only to the Old Ones. Its Nexus of Webway Gates allowed it to be connected to other Craftworlds, Exodite colonies, Maiden Worlds, and other ancient Eldar sites making it Craftworld Alurmen's greatest strength as well as treasure.^[1a]

Around four thousand years ago, during the Age of Apostasy, Ahriman learned of the Nexus and intended to use it to travel to the fabled Black Library of Chaos. Learning of this future, the Farseers of Alurmen decided to hide their Craftworld in order to protect the Webway Nexus as they knew they could not fight the Sorceror.^[1a] In desperation, they severed ties with the other Eldar and sent Alurmen into the Cerberus Shroud where they activated ancient C'tan devices designed to suppress the power of the Warp thus hiding them from Ahriman's mystical sight but at the cost of being damned by the rest of their race for using Yngir technology.^[1b]

Copper is, in some way, nescessary for the stabilisation of Webway Gates; the Eldar of Craftworld Lugganath were unable to restabilise their primary Webway Gate after a Daemonic incursion without securing a large supply of some.^[9]

Their efforts saw them and a Chaos fleet being entrapped within a Warp barrier around the Shroud Nebula thus preventing anyone from gaining access to the Webway Nexus.^[1c]

Some amongst the Dark Mechanicum have unlocked the secrets of webway craft. Kolumbari-Enas, leader of the Disciples of Nul, has used his knowledge of these Aeldari gateways to aid the forces of Chaos as he sees fit.^[7a] He is even able to utilise damaged gates that were violently removed from their plinths and crudely propped up elsewhere, such as aboard a voidship.^[7b]

Notable Webway Gates

• Forbidden Portal - Located in The Screaming Vortex^[6b]
• Pontus Avernes - Location of a Dark Age of Technology webway nexus.^[7a] Location of a gate seemingly created by ancient Humanity.^[7c]

Images

• 

  Webway Gate miniature

• 

  Webway Gate in the Void

• 

  Drukhari fleet using a Webway Gate^[5]

• 

  Webway Gate observed by Yvraine and The Visarch.^[4]

See also

• Warp Gate
• Webway Portal
• Dolmen Gate

Sources

• 1: Battlefleet Gothic Magazine Issue 13 — The Cerberus War: Endgame
  • 1a: pg. 22
  • 1b: pg. 23
  • 1c: pg. 25
• 2: Codex: Eldar (3rd Edition), pg. 3
• 3: Voidscarred (Novel), Chapters 2-4
• 4: Battlefleet Gothic: Armada II
• 5: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader (Video Game), Book event 4 artwork
• 6: Black Crusade Core Rulebook:
  • 6a: pg. 338
  • 6b: pg. 345
• 7: Genefather (Novel):
  • 7a: Chapter Two
  • 7b: Chapter Seventeen
  • 7c: Chapter Twenty
• 8: Voidscarred (Novel), Chapter 2
• 9: Codex Titanicus (1st Edition), pg. 51