Astropath
From Lexicanum
An Astropath (short for "astro-telepath") is a specially-trained psychic servant of the Imperium. They form the Imperium's vast interstellar communications network, and are vital for keeping the scattered worlds comprising the Imperium connected. They are capable of sending and receiving psychic messages across interstellar space. The messages travel through the warp, and are faster than light, but not instantaneous.
Astropaths serve in every division of the Imperium and on every Imperial world. They are distinguished by their green robes, and their sunken and empty eye sockets.
Astropaths receive their training at the Adeptus Astra Telepathica; they are selected from the second ranking of the psykers collected by the Blackships, those whose powers are considerable but insufficient to resist the danger of daemonic possession. They undergo basic psychic training which moulds their powers and prepares them for the soul-binding ritual, they learn to read the Emperor's Tarot, how to cast horoscopes, and the practices of cheiromancy and augury of all kinds.
Only the Emperor is powerful enough to perform the soul-binding. Astropaths are led before the Emperor, where he reshapes their very minds a hundred at a time. The soul-binding is traumatic for the psyker; they endure several hours of agony. Some do not survive despite years of preparatory training, and not all who survive retain their sanity. Even those that survive are almost invariably blinded by the traumatic process and sometimes lose the sense of touch, smell and/or taste as well. The loss of their physical senses is generally made up by their increased psychic senses. The Astropath gains a tiny fraction of the Emperor's immense psychic power, giving them some measure of resistance against daemonic possession, and the ability for which they were chosen, to send and receive psychic messages.
Sources
- Codex Imperialis
- Warhammer 40,000 4th Edition Rulebook
- White Dwarf 140, Jervis Johnson, Andy Jones, Simon Forrest & Rick Priestley
