Sholto

For my next short story I am going to deal with a sanctioned psyker in the IG as a character, although this one is fairly unique (I think).

Can anyone point me to some general fluff on sanctioned psykers?

All I know at present is that they are used by IG, they are usually Delta-level in terms of ability, they advise commanders in the field on psychic matters, someone with a big gun follows them around in case the Warp pokes its head through them and, finally, the Warp always pokes its head through them.

Where and how are they trained? How are they found? How do they avoid the Black Ships (assuming they do)? Which ones does the Inquisition release to the IG and why them?


Thanks,

Sholto

Fixer

From Memory:
The Inquisitorial black ships scour Imperial worlds for those with the Psyker mutation. Those that are discovered are loaded up and sent towards Holy Terra. Many will be devoured as a thousand Psykers a day are drained of their powers to feed the Emperor upon the golden throne.

More fortunate Psykers are taken aside to be trained as sanctioned psykers to augment the Emperor's forces. Others are put through the painful soul binding with the Emperor turning them into Astropaths. This often destroys their eyes in the process leaving them forever blind, however they gain a sight that more than makes up for this deficiency. Astropaths have an eye symbol in the center of their forehead to mark their status.
(They are the psychic communicators of the Imperium and can be used to transmit a psychic message over thousands of light years to another astropath, although this is not always without its danger. Many astropaths are employed by the most important nobles, the Imperial Navy and other Imperial military organisations. A group of astropath's also maintain the Astronomican.)


From Wikipedia:

Although psychic mutation is frowned upon within the Imperium, certain mutants are recruited into use by the Imperial Guard as 'Sanctioned Psykers'. These mutants may draw upon the power of the Warp, unleashing it and upon their enemies. They are also called upon to advise high-ranking officers, with varying degrees of success. Their limited training and equipment leads to them being more easily preyed upon by the perils of the Warp than perhaps the much more powerful Librarians of the Space Marine Chapters. Each time they utilise their power, they put themselves at considerable risk and are prone to have their minds destroyed in the proccess. That aside, they are still a potent force when deployed and used properly.

On the battlefield, Sanctioned Psykers can advise an officer and guide their command, protect him from psychic attack, or fire bolts of lighting from their hands.

Koki

Basically, psykers are boarded on Black Ships, transported to Schola Progenium, where they are "sorted" according to their abilities and strenght of will. Weak in power(Weak in will end up as Emperor's snack) are trained and end up as Sanctioned Psykers.

From Lexicanum:

Certain psykers are picked out by the Schola Progenium for their emerging psychic abilities and trained to become Sanctioned Psykers. During training they are constantly screened and trained to hone powers to the advantage of the officer the psyker is serving. Given that they are also a potential psychic conduit for the creatures of the warp, they have to be ever vigilant to keep their soul intact and loyal only to the Emperor.

If the Sanctioned Psyker is successful in summoning their powers, they are able to use their psychic abilities to aid the commander in his decisions by predicting or sensing enemy movements, or more directly in combat, skillfully manipulating warp energies to damage the enemy or enhance allies in some way or other. Commissars have orders to execute a psyker if it appears said psyker has been attacked by, or is being manipulated by, a creature from the warp. This removes the link to the warp and prevents the entity from entering real space.

Due to their physical frailty and limited experience with weapons, they rarely enter combat with another enemy by conventional means. They simply don't have sufficient skills to bear up against anything more deadly than a wild Grox. They have limited Flak Armour and are generally considered expendable. Also, due to thousands of years of Imperial propaganda, psykers are shunned and hated. Certain slang has grown up between psykers and non psykers. Freak, Brain and Bolt Magnet are all derogatory terms for a sanctioned psyker, whereas Blunt is what a non psyker is to a psyker.

Robert Frazer

That seems to be mostly accurate, but it isn't the Schola Progenium that handles psykers but rather the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, which controls the "recruitment agency" (The League of Blackships) and the "training college" (Scholastia Psykana).

Oddly enough, this provides one of the few components of the Inquisition that are palpably and legally subordinate to another organisation - the Blackships are crewed by the Inquisition, but as cited above the League is a specific subsidy of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.

Once a Blackship arrives at Earth and disgorges its cargo of psykers (Blackships travel the galaxy in great circuits, periodically arriving at Imperial worlds to collect up their psyker populations. It is the Governor's responsibility to manage and incarcerate these individuals), they are referred to the assessors and evaluators of the Scholastia Psykana, who determine whether the psykers are to be fed into the Golden Throne (this is only reserved for the most hopeless cases of psykers, the pitiful ones so completely incapable of controlling their powers that they are essentially little more than walking time bombs and cannot serve any other purpose), soulbound into Astropaths (requiring many years of training and preparation), harnessed into the choir of the Astronomicon, or trained into Sanctioned Psykers (also known as Primaris Psykers).

Sactioned Psykers do not only work for the Guard, but can be seen fulfilling functions all over the Imperium, civilian and military, public and private.

Zatrais

Astronomican, it's the astronomican not con hehe. I hate it when it's called astronomicon, just a pet pevee i suppose.

Anyhows, it's not the Scholastia Psykana that decided whose to be used in the Astronomican. It's the Adeptus Astronomican who recruit a portion of the recruits of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.

As for your question, it's theoretically possible if he's found mentally strong enough.

Aquila

Probably much, much lower on average. I've heard Phi-class before, but I can't verify that. Anyway, a Delta-level psyker would be immensely powerful, and far too dangerous to be employed by the Guard.

Basically, the process to becoming a Guard pskyer is something like this:
Be discovered as a psyker. This could be an extremely traumatic experience, being ripped unwillingly from your family or thrown out on the streets by your parents. Entire towns have been ripped apart by schism, controversy, and witch hunts surrounding discovering a psyker.
Get picked up by the Black Ships. The journey to Earth from wherever he came from is a long one. His powers will be subdued by psychic dampeners and he will be attended to constantly by guards who would kill without hesitation should be become a danger. Inquisitors roam the ships, looking for potential neophytes or dangerous pawns of the Dark Gods. Many psykers will never reach Earth.
Get sorted on Earth. Dangerous ones get fed to the Emperor, the most powerful become Astropaths. Some of the best are recruited by the Adeptus Astartes, run of the mill ones could be used by the Administratum or rich nobles for any number of purposes. The Departmento Munitorum takes its share for the Guard as well.
Assigned by the Guard. The psyker will receive extensive training to control his psychic powers and guard against the perils of the warp, and will receive more to be able to use his powers on the battlefield and for the benefit of the Guard. He could become a battlefield support psyker, using his powers offensively, he could be used by Command to detect and predict the movements of the enemy or crack their psychic transmissions, or pretty much anything.

Hell, in Winter Assault, the Imperial constructed a massive psychic shield powered by... people. Take a look at Mission 4, and look at the shield. On top of those big pillars are psykers chained to a device and writhing in agony, literally powering the shield with their very souls.

Another note: Using psychic powers is not quite so dangerous as the tabletop rules would lead you to believe. Psykers do not die in droves in every battle. Still, the more he exerts himself, the greater the danger, especially in the offensive role. And doing it in the heart of battle is far more dangerous than using his power away from combat.

Armor of Vaul

In the last Guant's Ghosts novel where they save Saint Sabbat, the psyker (I forget his name, the miner from Vervunhive) was classified as Delta, and his only power was that he kept getting precognitive messages written on his notebook. I think the classification may be partially determined by the kind of power and how useful it is, but I'm not sure. All I've heard about the classifications is that it can be whatever you want it to be, just pick something that seems right to you.

Sholto

Thanks very much - I have a specific character in mind (I've written the first few pages to introduce her) but I need ideas for background for her. As for her power 'level', that will be very hard for anyone to tell, for reasons I cannot go into right now. This is all great stuff, and gives me plenty of ideas.



Sholto

Andkat

What happens when the =I= finds a stable, high-willpower, fully self-controlled, uncorrupted Alpha-level?

mase

I think they will screen him for coruption and if he is pure they will leave him alone, except for some guards should something bad happen.

I think that the chance of a psyker being fed to the emperor is quite small. The numbers of psykers being born rises every year accelerates even. And he only needs around a thousands each day.

Zatrais

Depends on the inquisitor but in most cases the psyker will be killed as alpha levels are just too damn dangerous to live. There are rare cases where alpha levels has been kept in service as henchmen but it's uncommon to the extreme.

Aron_DeTomado

If he is stable, hard-wiled, faithful and smart enough? New Inquisitor probably.

BeserkWraithlor

What about Psykers that are Tainted by Chaos? In Winter Assault, chaos controls a tainted psyker that can control the minds of guardsmen and lure them into a blood pit. When i sqw Psykers, i thought they were part of Chaos since theylook soo evil and are psychos.

Chake99

With the missile kill the impure.

mase

Lets see... If the Inquisitor is part of the Ordo Malleus he will probably smash his had with a hammer. If he is a member of the Ordo Hereticus he will burn him and if he is a member of the Ordo Xenos he will call the previous two. So it depends.