Warpship That Returned, The

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Culture and Society > Myths and the Unexplained > Myths and Rumours

Urban myth/folklore that revolves around a mythical faster-than-light "warpship"; often involves messianic overtones. According to the Warpship Myth Cycle, several thousand experimental warpships have been constructed over the course of Terragen History. However each one of these craft have disappeared immediately after launch, possibly into other dimensions, other phases of history or other planes of reality, and none have returned. However, there is one story that refuses to die, and that is The Warpship That Returned.

According to this tale, a ship made by Tremozefan emself (or by Node 5 the Maker, or by the Golantium Megastructure, or by The Power Yaliadral, or by Driao Possibility Artist, or by...) once did return. This ship was crewed by posthuman cyborgs (or by superturing vecs, or by ship-interface neogens, or by hu superiors) who discovered why the other ships had not returned (their drive malfunctioned several hours into operation, they were thrown into another dimension, they came back millions (or billions) of years in the future, they were eaten by hyperspace monsters, they discovered a supreme utopia...etc. etc.) and were able to correct this problem in flight. Moreover, the data they provided Trem (or Node 5 the Maker, or...) meant that all future warpships could be made safe. Shortly thereafter, Trem was approached by the Keterist emissary 1257802 (or Node 5 the Maker coincidentally lost interest in the project, or...) and the safe ships were never made. In this way the archailects were able to retain their hold on sapient and lower transapient civilization, and keep the technology to themselves.

However, the original Warpship That Returned (variously called Daedelus, Enterprise, Alcubierre, Borde (this is a popular name in Dominion versions of the myth, in which it is always a rival sephirotic that suppresses the knowledge), etc) and eir crew were allowed to go free. Infuriated by the interference by higher toposophics, but realizing it would be hopeless to contend against the high level archailects, they traveled beyond the furthest periphery (this being easy in their many times faster than light vessel) and established their own civilization.

In frequent, more messianic, versions of this legend, it is said that, one day, the descendants of The Warpship That Returned and eir crew will return to Terragen civilization at the head of a vast fleet of FTL warpships, and give the secret of FTL travel to all who want it, even the lowliest plebhu.

FTL - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Despite remaining a dream of mindkind since time immemorial, faster than light travel (warp drive, hyperspace, etc) remains as elusive now as it ever was. The oft-repeated assertion among some FTL proponents that traversable wormholes provide a form of FTL is incorrect. Wormholes do not constitute real FTL, but rather a local curvature in space-time, allowing an object to move between two distant points at normal (slower than light) velocity.
Teleportation, FTL - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Unconfirmed rumors of teleportation effects that occur at superluminal velocity. Despite popular belief in some less educated and more eccentric and non-scientific nearbaseline cultures who claim that archai civilizations, and advanced hypothetical alien races have this technology, there has never been a single instance of FTL teleportation that has ever been validated. In fact FTL teleportation, like any form of FTL, would disrupt causality, and is not possible in this physical universe.

Appears in Topics

Myths and Rumours

Development Notes

Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 16 December 2003.

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