Sanctioned Psyker

"What can a man know of the Universe who knows not his own mind?"

- Book of the Astronomicon

A Sanctioned Psyker is a human psyker who plays an ordained role as a servant of the Imperium of Man, for he has the rare willpower to control his abilities and not become a danger to others. A Sanctioned Psyker's exact role depends on the psychic powers he manifests and his strength of character and will. The Scholastica Psykana, the training division of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, is a vast teaching institution devoted to the training of young Imperial psykers, who are taught how to develop and control their powers to serve the Imperium. Most of the psyker recruits are drawn from the levy collected by the Black Ships, others are handed over by the Inquisition, the Adeptus Arbites or through other Imperial channels. The future of each psyker depends on his abilities and character. Initial evaluation divides the levy into several groups depending on their innate psychic power, individual character and willingness to learn. The youngest psykers are preferred by the Scholastica Psykana, as these frightened boys and girls are the easiest to train and indoctrinate. Such psykers are soul-bound to the Emperor, a psychic ritual that hardens their minds and souls against possession by the daemonic entities of the Warp. It is invariably those psykers recruited as children who are given further training to fill important positions in the Imperium as Sanctioned Psykers. Astropaths are the most common Sanctioned Psykers in the Imperium, having escaped the cruel fate that awaits those without the strength of mind to control their powers, or the will and determination to survive the Imperium's strict training regimes.

History
No one knows when the first human psykers appeared; that information has been lost to the ravages of time, but one thing is certain, their emergence changed the fate of Mankind forever. Psykers are both the greatest boon and curse that has afflicted humanity. The Emperor Himself is the most powerful psyker the human race has ever seen. Even ten thousand standard years after the Emperor was placed into His golden sarcophagus, psykers continue to fuel the Imperium. Each day, innumerable souls are shipped to Terra in the Black Ships of the Inquisition. Once there they have the honour of becoming one with the Emperor's Golden Throne, thus allowing His light to spread across the galaxy that the Imperium may endure. Despite the benefits they bring to the Imperium, an undiscovered or unsanctioned psyker can place entire populations and planets in danger. Psykers' essences glow brightly in the Warp, like bait on a line, and they draw malignant entities to that glow. Psykers weak in mind or untrained in protective arts can be easily tainted, and in the worst cases possessed by Daemonic entities and used as a gateway between realspace and the Warp.

To be a sanctioned and approved psyker within the Imperium is to be one of a select few. The vast majority of psykers in the Imperium are deemed too unstable to train and too weak to resist the corruption the Warp can spew into their unprotected minds. These hapless souls are rounded up on the great Black Ships of the Inquisition and taken to sacred Terra itself. There, they are sacrificed in unimaginable numbers, either to power the Astronomican, the beacon that guides the Imperium's ships through the Warp, or to sustain the continued existence of the God-Emperor. The Scholastica Psykana serves as the training organisation for the psykers of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. The supreme task of the Scholastica Psykana is to ensure that Mankind is protected from psykers who would misuse their gifts. Therefore, all psykers are collected by the infamous Black Ships of the Inquisition and rigourously tested upon Terra to cull the most dangerously weak-willed, mad, and otherwise unsuitable from the rest. Those who survive this testing are separated according to the needs of the Adeptus Terra. Some psykers are destined to be given to the Adeptus Astronomica and consumed by the luminous power of the Astronomican, the Emperor's psychic beacon that shines in the Warp and allows Navigators to find a path through the Immaterium. More powerful psykers undergo the ritual of Soul Binding, their eyes burned out as they join the ranks of the Astropaths whose psychic communications hold the Imperium together. From amongst the stronger psykers, a rare few are selected as suitable for advanced battle-training, and are conditioned to use their bizarre abilities to smite the Emperor's foes in the fires of war.

Sins of the Psyker
A common and often problematic issue for the Adeptus Ministorum and the precepts of the Imperial Creed is the question of psykers. There exists at the heart of Imperial religious doctrine a contradiction with regards to those blessed with the psyker's gift or cursed by its touch, depending on one's standpoint. Every year, more and more psykers are born or come into their powers, and the danger they pose to humanity cannot be understated. Psykers draw the denizens of the Warp to them like blood spilled in the ocean draws sharks, and those who are weak or unprotected by the rite of Soul Binding to the Emperor can unleash fearsome devastation upon their communities. Some might be consumed by evil impulses and simultaneously find themselves gifted with the power to kill with merely a glance. Others might find their minds turned into gateways to the infernal regions of the Empyrean, through which entire legions of daemons may vomit forth. Psykers therefore are often said to represent the single most dangerous peril to the very soul of Mankind.

At the same time, the Imperium could not exist without psykers. Without Astropaths, the scattered worlds of the galaxy-spanning empire could only communicate at the slowest of speeds. Without Navigators, only sub-light travel would be possible, and without the sacrifice of millions of psykers every year, the blessed light of the Astronomican would not be able to guide them through the benighted depths of the Warp. In addition, the many arms of the Imperium's military use psykers as potent battlefield weapons, including the Librarians of the Adeptus Astartes and the Psykers Primaris of the Imperial Guard. Furthermore, although most would not think of Him as such, the Emperor Himself was the most powerful psyker to have ever lived. Many of the teachings of the Imperial Creed preach against psykers, who are often referred to and condemned as witches. In truth, although most amongst the faithful feel a deep unease in the presence of Astropaths and other "sanctioned" psykers, reality dictates that psykers are part of the grand plan the Emperor has laid out for humanity. It is the psyker who is not sanctioned, who hides amongst the faithful and uses his powers for ill who is the true target of the Adeptus Ministorum's ire, and few sermons pass without the congregation being called upon to be ever vigilant for such a heretical threat within their own ranks.

Imperial Psyker Ranks

 * Sanctionite - Sanctionites are bound to the Emperor's will, yet even then, they must be watched for weakness of the soul. They have been tested upon the sacred soil of Terra, and found worthy, for now.
 * Neonate - Neonates serve as apprentices, servants and bondsmen to elder Sanctioned Psykers or such Imperial bodies as the Adeptus Astra Telepathica deems suitable. During this time, they learn humility, obedience and the true price of their powers.
 * Aspirant - Having proven himself stable and humble, the Aspirant studies his future options carefully, petitioning the Adeptus Astra Telepathica for placement within the Imperial Guard, Scholastica Psykana or other such institutions.
 * Savant-Warrant - The Savant-Warrant has proved himself reliable in the face of fire, and is duly trained for a greater role.
 * Savant Militant - The regiments of the Imperial Guard often use the Savants Militant, putting their destructive powers to good use upon the battlefield.
 * Scholar Medicae - The Scholar Medicae has learnt well the lessons of base matter, and now turns his powers to understanding the mysteries of flesh, bone and the living being.
 * Scholar Materium - As a full initiate of the Scholastica Psykana, the Scholar Materium studies the foundations of being, essence and immutable form.
 * Lieutenant-Savant - The Lieutenant-Savant enjoys an Imperial Guard officer's rank and privilege, yet is under constant surveillance nonetheless.
 * Scholar Arcanum - Versed in the ways of matter and flesh, the Scholar Arcanum studies the sphere of the mind, the realm of theory, academic learning and philosophical conjecture.
 * Savant Adjunct - The Savant Adjunct has the power to bend flesh and metal, to send his mind forth amongst the enemy forces and to ken the nature of unnatural opponents. He is valued for his powers, yet greatly feared by those who command him.
 * Scholar Obscurus - Abandoning the petty realm of human knowledge, the Scholar Obscurus studies the wisdom and folly of the human spirit. Steeped in forgotten lore and constantly muttering catechisms and charms against the creatures of the Warp, these psykers grow strange and distant.
 * Scholar Empyrean - The mind of the Scholar Empyrean ranges free, even whilst their will is securely chained to the immeasurable protection of the Emperor's own soul. Studying the deepest mysteries of psychic ability, the Scholar Empyrean care little for worldly goods or the petty demands of the bodily corpus.
 * Preceptor-Savant - The Preceptor-Savant is a psyker charged with manifold duties -- to lead the Savant Militant, to protect key Imperial Guard command staff and to instruct officers in the best deployment of psychic forces.

Known Sanctioned Psykers

 * Astropaths - Astropaths are psykers who are responsible for carrying out all of the superluminal communications that tie the Imperium of Man together using their telepathic abilities. Those chosen to become Astropaths undergo the ritual of Soul Binding, in which the body and soul are scoured clean of the taint of the Warp by the searing purity of the Emperor of Mankind's beneficence. So intense is the ritual that the supplicants' sensory organs are almost totally overloaded -- leaving them blinded by the experience -- with many suffering further nerve damage, incurring loss of smell, touch, or hearing. Being soul-bonded with the Emperor is necessary, however, as it greatly heightens an Astropath's already formidable psychic powers and gives them the ability for which they were chosen -- to send telepathic messages through space instantaneously across large interstellar distances, thereby becoming the main network of interstellar communications in the Imperium. Most Imperial starships have an Astropath or Astropathic Choir on board and most Imperial planetary governments have access to Astropaths.
 * Navigators - Navigators (Homo navigo) is a very particular form of Imperial-sanctioned human mutant who possesses the Navigator Gene. This gives a Navigator the unique ability to navigate a faster-than-light starship accurately through Warpspace. This ability makes Navigators absolutely essential to the Imperium's continued survival and to all interstellar transportation, communication and commerce. All Navigators have a third eye, commonly called the Warp Eye, on their foreheads, which allows them to perceive the "psychic light" known as the Astronomican, enabling them to fully use their powers in guiding human starships through the currents of the Warp. Their ability to sense the tides of the Warp is considered psychic, although Navigators never possess any psychic abilities beyond the powers their Warp Eye affords them. Navigators possess natural life spans of as much as four hundred standard years. As they increase in age, their abilities increase in power, and their physical appearance changes: the white and iris of the eye gradually disappears, leaving only a hardened black orb. All Navigators belong to a large group of noble families based on Terra in the great district of that world-city known as the Navigator's Quarter. These dynasties are known collectively as the Great Families of the Navis Nobilite.
 * Primaris Psykers - Primaris Psykers are rare and extraordinary individuals who serve in the regiments of the Imperial Guard and wield the destructive power of the Warp as a weapon to smite the enemies of the Emperor. With a single thought they can conjure forth lightning that leaps from their hands and surrounds their body. With a gesture the psyker hurls these bolts of aether-energy at their opponents, burning the foes' synapses and searing their flesh from their bones. Mysterious and aloof, Primaris Psykers, also known as primary-psykers, battle-psykers or psyker-lords, are treated with a mixture of awe and fear, but most of all, suspicion by the superstitious soldiers of the Imperial Guard. Though their presence is utterly abhorrent to all right-thinking Imperial servants, their ability to combat the blasphemous magicks of the xenos and Heretics usually outweighs the natural revulsion all their comrades feel at the inclusion of psykers in the ranks of the Imperial Guard.
 * Psyker Battle Squads - Psyker Battle Squads are usually made up of Sanctioned Psykers that have yet to complete their training. However, sometimes more experience is needed, and a Primaris Psyker will be ordered to combine his power with that of a group of Sanctioned Psykers. The fusion of their psychic might allows them to unleash devastatingly effective attacks, and can even alter the fabric of time itself.