TaranCloud
The Emperor
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(12/18/03 7:09 pm)
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Astropaths & Navis Nobilite
Astropaths
Astropaths are extremely important within human society because they offer the only means of communicating over interstellar distances. Astropaths are capable of sending telepathic messages across space and they can receive messages sent by other Astropaths if their minds are correctly attuned. Telepathic messages travel through the warp and so travel faster than light, although not instantaneously.
The need for Astropaths is enormous. They are a common sight in the Imperium and are easily distinguished by their green robes. Astropaths serve in the Fleet as ship-board and shore-based communicators. They serve in the Imperial Guard, the Inquisition, the Adeptus Ministorum, the Space Marines and throughout the Adeptus Terra.
The Imperial Commanders of distant worlds must have Astropaths if they are to communicate with the rest of the Imperium. Similarly, Astropaths are an essential part of civilian life, working for commercial shippers and anywhere where interstellar communication is needed. This vast body makes up a network covering the entire Imperium thus facilitating the transfer of information from one end of the galaxy to the other.
SOUL BINDING
No ordinary psyker could transmit a message through the warp, nor could he receive a telepathic message over such vast distances. Astropaths only gain this ability as a result of their many years training, culminating in a special ritual which combines some of the Emperor's own power with their own. This ritual, known as Soul Binding, brings the mind of the psyker close to the psychic greatness of the Emperor. In the Process, some of the Emperor's vast energy is transferred to the Astropath.
The transference of energy is traumatic for the psyker - not all survive despite years of preparation, and not all those that survive retain their sanity. Even the survivors suffer damage to the sensitive nerves of the eyes, so that almost all Astropaths are blind. In fact their increased psychic skills tend to make up for this loss of sight, so that they would not appear blind were it not for their distorted, sunken and empty eye sockets.
Soul Binding is said to affect Astropaths in other ways, and it is commonly claimed that once an Astropath's mind has touched that of the Emperor he gains a new understanding and insight into the nature of the universe.
ASTROPATH SPECIAL ABILITIES
Astropaths have psychic abilities in exactly the same way as other psykers. In addition they have between 1 and 5 other abilities conferred during the soul-binding. Astropaths always have the Astrotelepathy ability with a 50% chance of having 1-4 other abilities as shown on the following chart. Note that many of these abilities relate to spacecraft and warp travel. They are given here to illustrate the sort of powers available to these powerful psykers. Players will not be allowed to play as Astropaths, they are too freaking powerful.
Astrotelepathy
This is an extremely long-range telepathy that permits Astropaths to receive and transmit messages over distances up to 50 thousand light years. The use of this ability is successful only 50% of the time. Messages are often distorted or lost.
Locate Warp Gate/Portal
This ability allows the Astropath to locate the position of any warp gate/portal within 10 light years. Within warp space this ability can be used to locate warp portals through to real space 10% of the time. Otherwise the ability is always successful, assuming a gate/portal is present.
Psychic Beacon
An Astropath with this ability is able to broadcast a psychic beacon similar to the Astronomican but far less powerful. The range of the signal is a 10 light year radius around the position of the Astropath. Within this sphere of space a Navigator can guide a ship even without access to the Astronomican, beyond the galaxy for example. The ability cannot be used from inside warp space, so an Astropath on board a spacecraft is unable to provide a signal (although if two ships were making alternate jumps it would be possible for each to derive coordinates from the other).
Warp Space Trail
This ability allows an Astropath to place a psychic homer into the mind of a member of a spacecraft crew. It doesn't matter which crewman is affected, the victim wouldn't even be aware of his predicament. The homer can only be placed from a short distance away (up to 1000 kilometres in clear space, but as little as 10 kilometres in a busy spaceport). Once placed the homer lasts for 5-10 days and its signal can be detected within 1000 kilometres by the Astropath. If during this time the ship makes a warp jump the Astropath will be able to sense its destination. Of course, to successfully trail a ship through warp space the trailing craft must remain within 1000 kilometres in real space, otherwise the signal will be too weak to follow.
NAVIS NOBILITE (AKA NAVIGATORS)
The Navis Nobilite - also known as the Navigator Houses - is an institution which predates the Imperium by many thousands of years. It is the most ancient of all human organisations. It was founded sometime in the Dark Age of Technology and survived through the Age of Strife to the present day. Over this period of approximately 30,000 years, the fortunes of the Navis Nobilite have constantly waxed and waned, but its power has never been broken. Today it thrives as a vital part of the Imperium.
The Navis Nobilite is divided into many individual Houses or Great Families. Each House is a large related family, but it is also a literal house, a fortified mansion where the House leader - or Novator - lives together with his immediate kin and retainers. This mansion is regarded as the seat of the entire Great Family, even though it is only the hereditary ruling family that lives there.
The Great Families of the Navis Nobilite are uniquely composed of a particular form of human mutant called a Navigator. The mutation is not a spontaneous or natural one, but rather the result of genetic engineering conducted in the distant past during the earliest history of the Navigator Houses. This engineering created the Navigator Gene that distinguishes Navigators from ordinary humans.
The gene itself can only be preserved by intermarriage, as it is lost when a Navigator breeds with an ordinary human. This factor has led to the development of the closely-related Navigator families.
NAVIGATORS
The genetic creation of Navigators has a single purpose: to endow a human with the ability to steer a spacecraft through warpspace. Only Navigators can do this - no other human or machine has the ability to navigate warpspace in this way. It is this ability that allows human spacecraft to travel so quickly compared to alien craft.
Without Navigators to steer its ships, the Imperium would quickly fragment into thousands of separate stellar empires, each only a few dozen light years across, whose spacecraft would be obliged to use tiny and dangerous blind jumps to cover interstellar space.
The physique of Navigators is unusual. The feature which distinguishes all Navigators is the Third or Warp Eye situated in the centre of their forehead. Along with this Third Eye, Navigators are also usually tall and spindly, and their flesh may have a peculiar transparent quality which is rather disturbing. Their facial features are often small and under-developed and body hair is commonly absent altogether. Only an extreme form of navigator would exhibit all of these characteristics, but most have some traits.
These is no Imperial control over Navigators, and many pursue civilian careers as traders. Most gravitate into the ranks of the Imperial network however, for these families have a long history of service to humanity. Nearly all young Navigators traditionally work in space as pilots. Over the years they gradually increase their familiarity with the warp and their powers become stronger. It is not uncommon for Navigators to become Space Marines, guiding their fleets across the galaxy.
This mental maturation may take as many as fifty or a hundred years of space flight, but as Navigators can live for three or four hundred years this is not a great proportion of their lives. As they grow more experienced they also change physically. The white and iris of the Third Eye gradually vanishes leaving a single black pupil. The eye itself hardens, and the eyelids shrink leaving a single staring orb.
Often the Navigator continues to grow more massive as he ages and his ribs enlarge, becoming prominent as internal gills develop in the chest cavity.
THE NAVIAGTOR'S WARP EYE
The unusual feature shared by all Navigators is the Third Eye, also known as a Warp Eye. Navigators normally keep this eye covered with a bandanna or covering which is itself often decorated with an eye. This has led many humans to doubt the existence of this Third Eye.
In fact the Third Eye is the focus of the Navigator's power. The eye enables the Navigator to see the shifting currents of warpspace and so to guide his spacecraft within the warp.
It is said that a Navigator can always see the warp even when he is in the material universe, and that it is this constant exposure to the unnamed horrors of Chaos that leads to their strange physical changes.
It has been known for Navigators to react suddenly and violently to invisible things in the warp, and to collapse, lose their sanity or even die as a result.
The eye has other powers too, although these are employed far more rarely and are the subject of some mystique. These powers develop with the Navigator's experience of the warp, so that they are most developed of all in the Heirs Apparent. The uncovered stare of a Navigator can kill a man, and that of an Heir Apparent is said to ward off even the daemonic creatures of the warp.
Rival Navigators sometimes fight using the power of their eyes to blast each other - such open conflicts are rare but spectacular. It is also said that the eye of a Navigator has prophetic powers and that it can literally see into the future. Navigators are very reluctant to talk about their powers and it may well be that only the Paternova understands the full potential of a Navigator's abilities.
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