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Just wait, the armsmen are on the way. This can get even more interesting.

Damn, you don't even have to GM up trouble for this group.

Tell me about it. All you need is a stoned inquisitor/bored player.

Imperial Overlord wrote:Pater's rank won't protect him from the Black Ships, unless his talent (or his existence) is hidden. Inquisitor Lilith from William King's Space Wolf series was the daughter of a planetary governor.

I know that he'd be taken by the ships, I just wondered if conditions were uniformly horrible for everybody.

Also, if anyone can give me specifics for what it's like on the Black Ships/during the Inquisitorial training process I'd be a very happy man.

As far as I know, its pretty grim. Not cruel, just compassionless. People get divided into categories: Emperor food, Astropaths, Astronomican boosters, and those who can hack it on your own. Inquisitors and others are drawn from the last group. Pater would not only have to be strong enough to stand on his own, but to pass whatever aptitude test they give them in the "inquisitor" category.

Fun. From what little I know of them I gather they take huge routes originating and ending at Terra, so a person could be stuck on them for ages?

The Schola Psychia is located on Terra and a lot of training goes on there, but I haven't seen it specifically stated that all of the Imperium's training occurs there. There is an ambigious line in one of the Eisenhorn book that could be interpreted as Eisenhorn being trained somewhere other than Terra, but it could also refer to just the latter part of his training. I've PM'd our glorious leader for a pointer in the right direction.

Edit: I'm reaching that point where I have to cover it for Memoria.

The snakeman's busy growing a new arm.

The blow to the head caused whiplash, fractured her C6-C7, broke her shoulder/collerbone, and fractured her skull.

The fall and the kick shattered a number of ribs, and broke one of her lumbars. Weather or not her spine can repair is a matter of keeping her still, and hoping her senshi regen is up to the job.

Imperial Overlord wrote:The Schola Psychia is located on Terra and a lot of training goes on there, but I haven't seen it specifically stated that all of the Imperium's training occurs there. There is an ambigious line in one of the Eisenhorn book that could be interpreted as Eisenhorn being trained somewhere other than Terra, but it could also refer to just the latter part of his training. I've PM'd our glorious leader for a pointer in the right direction.

Edit: I'm reaching that point where I have to cover it for Memoria.

And there are some more lines in the Inquistion War Trilogy that pretty much state at least potential Inquistor's are not sent to Terra. Whether that means the Inquisition takes them into custody somewhere around Saturn or does so at the headquarters of the subsector Ordo I don't know. Given the Eisenhorn Trilogy suggesting an Inquistional Schola I would suggest me go with the latter.

And while Vail is not a psyker, she does reference some sort of specialized schola.

And of course Jac Draco mentions that the Malleus look over the Black Ships.

The Inquisition has jurisdiction over the Schola Psychia and the Inquisition's warships are also black ships. I suspect they cherry pick the best candidates for their own use. The Eisenhorn trilogy's comments doen't rule out early training on Terra, followed by latter training elsewhere.

I personaly subscribe to their being more centers of training besides Terra, but I don't have any firm evidence of it.

Imperial Overlord wrote:The Inquisition has jurisdiction over the Schola Psychia and the Inquisition's warships are also black ships.

They have jurisdiction over everyone. The Astropaths do the day to day running. And the labeling of the Inquistion warships as black ships might be accurate but the capital B Black Ships are nto theirs.

Imperial Overlord wrote:I suspect they cherry pick the best candidates for their own use. The Eisenhorn trilogy's comments doen't rule out early training on Terra, followed by latter training elsewhere.

I personaly subscribe to their being more centers of training besides Terra, but I don't have any firm evidence of it.

There's no question. Draco flat out states that they get the pick of the toughest, strongest, and most resilient psykers. Only after that come the various sanctioned psykers, astropaths, and lastly Emperor fodder. Astropaths and fodder are both relatively low grade or weak willed.

And yes the quotes are ambigious but it seems like enough all things considered that the Inquistion has schools elsewhere. We can certainly run this game as if it were the case.

I agree with you. I was just being careful not to state my pet theories as verified facts. It's dishonest and I try to avoid it.

In Gothic, the Inquisiton ships get a capital Black Ships. Given the Inquisition's job of policing psychers, I lean towards the idea that the Schola Psychia is run like a subsiderary branch.

It looks like Varian has more work in front of him with "Saint" Prius.

BTW Lillith is out for a while, healing so I'm playing the beastman (foul Xenos)

Imperial Overlord wrote:I agree with you. I was just being careful not to state my pet theories as verified facts. It's dishonest and I try to avoid it.

In Gothic, the Inquisiton ships get a capital Black Ships. Given the Inquisition's job of policing psychers, I lean towards the idea that the Schola Psychia is run like a subsiderary branch.

It looks like Varian has more work in front of him with "Saint" Prius.

Ah, the joys of a cult of personality.

Imperial Overlord wrote:I agree with you. I was just being careful not to state my pet theories as verified facts. It's dishonest and I try to avoid it.

In Gothic, the Inquisiton ships get a capital Black Ships. Given the Inquisition's job of policing psychers, I lean towards the idea that the Schola Psychia is run like a subsiderary branch.

I wouldn't take that too far if I were you. They might well come under the Inquistion umbrella in that game but game mechanics aren't necessarily the be all.

Still, it's a possibility. Though technically the Inquistion's, and specifically the Ordo Hereticus's job is merely to hunt down rogue psykers. It's the Guild Astropathicus who is responsible for the myriad of sanctioned psykers and astropaths.

Imperial Overlord wrote:It looks like Varian has more work in front of him with "Saint" Prius.

No doubt he does. But the rosette and willingness to bludgeon anyone short of a Lord Inquistory with it tends to cow a lot of people.

Okay, let's assume... four days have passed to account for travel in-system and to begin preparations for the landing. Don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, what with a bigass invasion coming and all.

(Also the Retribution did take some damage to the enginarium, though with massively redundant Imperial engineering it wasn't disabling, but they probably would like to effect some repairs)

And with that, I will write a nice 'Prius wakes up' scene to be followed by 'Prius gets summoned by Varian.'

I wouldn't take that too far if I were you. They might well come under the Inquistion umbrella in that game but game mechanics aren't necessarily the be all.

It's not game mechanics, its background fluff. Of course, it could simply be superstitious fear that cause people to identify both types of vessels as "Black Ships". But the Inquisition ships are called Black Ships. And the whatever the exact relationship between the Schola Psychia and the Inquisition, the Inquisition obviously watches them like a hawk.

Imperial Overlord wrote:

I wouldn't take that too far if I were you. They might well come under the Inquistion umbrella in that game but game mechanics aren't necessarily the be all.

It's not game mechanics, its background fluff. Of course, it could simply be superstitious fear that cause people to identify both types of vessels as "Black Ships". But the Inquisition ships are called Black Ships. And the whatever the exact relationship between the Schola Psychia and the Inquisition, the Inquisition obviously watches them like a hawk.

Well, the problem is that the bulk of Warhammer 40K says that the Black Ships proper are managed by the Astropaths. They might well be connected to, or work with, the Inquisition.

And it's a given the Inqusition watches them like hawks, they've got good reason. If nothing else because rogue psykers are a major danger.

One wonders who exactly the Schola Psychia/Psykana answers to. Various institutions do want their psykers (Traitor General states that the Commissariat has its psykers, and Ravenor has a tremendously powerful psyker assigned to a planetary governmental body).

Stormbringer wrote:Well, the problem is that the bulk of Warhammer 40K says that the Black Ships proper are managed by the Astropaths. They might well be connected to, or work with, the Inquisition.

Astropaths? All I'd ever seen them doing was essentially functioning as human interstellar phones. More than one piece of fluff essentially treats them in a fashion akin to the treatment of servitors. Storm of Iron comes to mind.

I wasn't aware that they actually had internal organization that was actually administered by astropaths, rather than being dispatched by a managing body of non-psykers who sent them to whatever places needed them.

I mean after all Astropaths are jusst a step up from Golden throne chow...

on the other hand if x number of Senshi were to feed themselves to their ancestor, we would get an new warp enity capable of bitchslapping the chaos gods and the necrons....

Petrosjko wrote:

Stormbringer wrote:Well, the problem is that the bulk of Warhammer 40K says that the Black Ships proper are managed by the Astropaths. They might well be connected to, or work with, the Inquisition.

Astropaths? All I'd ever seen them doing was essentially functioning as human interstellar phones. More than one piece of fluff essentially treats them in a fashion akin to the treatment of servitors. Storm of Iron comes to mind.

I wasn't aware that they actually had internal organization that was actually administered by astropaths, rather than being dispatched by a managing body of non-psykers who sent them to whatever places needed them.

It's not actually those Astropaths, they are phones. Rather the Black Ships are run by the Guild Astropathicus, basically an umbrella organization. They're usually mentioned as the guild from which individual astropaths are hired. They're somewhat similar in function to the Navigator Houses. The Eisenhorn Trilogy for sure and the Inquistion War Trilogy as well I believe, mention that the administer the Black Ships.

Either way they're run by higher ranked individuals than the interstellar phones we see. There are gradiations in the process of selection and presumably if it is psykers that administer it's these, at the least those become prime astropaths for high officials. I think it's entirely possible said Guild has more than a few non-psykers. Either way there is some pretty heft organization.

The Yosemite Bear wrote:I mean after all Astropaths are jusst a step up from Golden throne chow...

on the other hand if x number of Senshi were to feed themselves to their ancestor, we would get an new warp enity capable of bitchslapping the chaos gods and the necrons....

Well, the sensei thing is an in-universe theory, so I wouldn't place too much weight on it.

Even if the Emperor were to ascend, I don't see him bitchslapping Chaos. Perhaps acting to restore a certain amount of equilibrium, but the duel between order and chaos probably won't ever go away.

They run most interstellar communication for a galaxy spanning empire. They've got heft. The Eisenhorn trilogy refers to buying contracts and services of specific astropaths from their guild, which explains how the Commisariat has their own. They place orders for life time contracts and get their astropaths.

Some references to Librarians imply that some of them can do astropathic communication. Can anyone confirm/deny?

Imperial Overlord wrote:They run most interstellar communication for a galaxy spanning empire. They've got heft. The Eisenhorn trilogy refers to buying contracts and services of specific astropaths from their guild, which explains how the Commisariat has their own. They place orders for life time contracts and get their astropaths.

Some references to Librarians imply that some of them can do astropathic communication. Can anyone confirm/deny?

Actually, the Commissariat also has full-blown psykers on the payroll. The main plot of Traitor General partly revolves around the title character's mindblock, imposed by the Commissariat.

(Further discussion of said plot would likely entail spoilers.)

I'm figuring that all the major institutions get their batches of astropaths... I figure the Guild is like the Departmento Munitorum in a lot of respects, doling out the phones to the institutions in need, and politics being politics, delivering nicely to their allies and shortchanging their enemies.