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A few questions as to the psykers in the space marine legions as lexicanum doesn't seem to have the answers:
1) What were they called? Librarians, or something else? And did they follow the same heirarchy as those in the 41st millenium?
2) How common were they? And other than the thousand sons, did any legion have more than the others?
3) How powerful were they? And what could they do (in terms of power and what disciplines)?
4) Wargear: Still force weapons and psychic hoods?

Basically, any info regarding psykers of the space marine legions would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Thanks to a decade or more of background confusion and fudging, librarians - excepting the Thousand Sons - have featured only peripherally in the Horus Heresy novels, so answers are necessarily limited.

1) Yes, librarians;
2) Unknown, psykers were presumably as common then in M41;
3) Presumably the same as in M41, "disciplines" were tacked-on to the game a few months ago, don't expect them to be reflected in the novels;
4) Yes, force weapons and psychic hoods, I seem to recall tabards are also mentioned.

Ok, thanks. Now for perhaps an easier question: How many librarians are there roughly per space marine chapter?

How could I not want to help the Robot Devil?

Best answer I can provide to that is that the Space Marine codex states the Ultramarines have twenty-five librarians, which I assume we are meant to take as being the approximate standard for a codex chapter. Presumably (though it is stated in some older material that psykers young enough to survive the process of implantation are selected from the black ships for the marines) this number would vary according to the supply of psykers in a chapter's recruitment pool at a given time (psychic mutation is, after all, rare, and we should not expect it to be evenly-distributed). A chapter might be fortunate enough to find plenty of psychic candidates on a given visit to their recruitment world over a short period, allowing them to build up a large librarium, another might find none for decades and be left with few librarians, or even none at all.

Thanks. A rough number is all I needed anyway.

I would say it would vary hugely as psykers are a random genetic occurrence rather than a predictable constant (this is true in M41 as well as pre heresy). Not only that but the psyker has to be physically tough enough to be able to withstand the various grueling and barbaric applicant trials to be accepted as a marine. No marine would ever be fast tracked or given an easy ride because of psychic potential.

Some legions such as the lunar wolves and the deathguard had no librarians ( it has been suggested that Loken was a psyker because of his vision of fighting a last stand by the emperor against a terrible unknown foe in which Horus is absent) but marines with psychic potential who survived just served as normal marines and probably never even realised.

Lastly I don't believe any legion/chapter, other than those who are fleet based and recruit from varied planets, would accept stock from the black ships or anywhere from outside their home planet or empire (Ultramar) due to the deep relationship chapters/legions have with their homeworld and its people.

English Assassin wrote:
Unknown, psykers were presumably as common then as in M41

IIRC, psykers are constantly growing in population. So they're more common now.

Ugly Green Trog wrote:I would say it would vary hugely as psykers are a random genetic occurrence rather than a predictable constant (this is true in M41 as well as pre heresy). Not only that but the psyker has to be physically tough enough to be able to withstand the various grueling and barbaric applicant trials to be accepted as a marine. No marine would ever be fast tracked or given an easy ride because of psychic potential.

Some legions such as the lunar wolves and the deathguard had no librarians ( it has been suggested that Loken was a psyker because of his vision of fighting a last stand by the emperor against a terrible unknown foe in which Horus is absent) but marines with psychic potential who survived just served as normal marines and probably never even realised.

Lastly I don't believe any legion/chapter, other than those who are fleet based and recruit from varied planets, would accept stock from the black ships or anywhere from outside their home planet or empire (Ultramar) due to the deep relationship chapters/legions have with their homeworld and its people.

Typhus was a Psyker in the Death Guard and a very strong one at that.

p_gray99 wrote:
3) .... And what could they do (in terms of power and what disciplines)?

English Assassin wrote:Thanks to a decade or more of background confusion and fudging, librarians - excepting the Thousand Sons - have featured only peripherally in the Horus Heresy novels, so answers are necessarily limited.

3), "disciplines" were tacked-on to the game a few months ago, don't expect them to be reflected in the novels;

Except in Thousand Sons i there are 5 different cults which match up pretty much exactly with the psychic disciplines.
Corvidae - Divination
Pavoni - Biomancy
Raptorae - Telekinetics
Aethanaeans - Telepathy
Pyrae - Pyromancy

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Cults_of_the_Thousand_Sons#.UCuUlaB0-Ck
It wasn't until reading this thread that I'd realised this - so had to go back and flick through TS. Thanks guys!

p.s. In fact they match up so well could perhaps the HH series be influencing the rules?

Having a Psychic initiate is incredibly rare. Perhaps only 1 in every several thousand.

Their rarity gives them special consideration. A psychic initiate will be taken more readily then a non-psychic one, although they still must pass the same physical tests(as well as the psychic training)


As to exact numbers, 20-30 at most. Thats including initiates, not just full Librarians.

The numbers may also vary according to the area the chapter takes its initiates from. Blood Angels recruit from Baal, and they also have a higher then average Librarian numbers. Implying that the human population of Baal has more Psykers then normal.

English Assassin wrote:Thanks to a decade or more of background confusion and fudging, librarians - excepting the Thousand Sons - have featured only peripherally in the Horus Heresy novels, so answers are necessarily limited.

1) Yes, librarians;
2) Unknown, psykers were presumably as common then in M41;
3) Presumably the same as in M41, "disciplines" were tacked-on to the game a few months ago, don't expect them to be reflected in the novels;
4) Yes, force weapons and psychic hoods, I seem to recall tabards are also mentioned.

Interestingly enough, the Emperor's Gift had disciplines being used with Grey Knights (some shoot fire, others telekinesis force waves, etc.) before 6th Ed. ever came out. ADB either has divination or an inside source on the whole psychic disciplines thing.

Thamor wrote:

Ugly Green Trog wrote:I would say it would vary hugely as psykers are a random genetic occurrence rather than a predictable constant (this is true in M41 as well as pre heresy). Not only that but the psyker has to be physically tough enough to be able to withstand the various grueling and barbaric applicant trials to be accepted as a marine. No marine would ever be fast tracked or given an easy ride because of psychic potential.

Some legions such as the lunar wolves and the deathguard had no librarians ( it has been suggested that Loken was a psyker because of his vision of fighting a last stand by the emperor against a terrible unknown foe in which Horus is absent) but marines with psychic potential who survived just served as normal marines and probably never even realised.

Lastly I don't believe any legion/chapter, other than those who are fleet based and recruit from varied planets, would accept stock from the black ships or anywhere from outside their home planet or empire (Ultramar) due to the deep relationship chapters/legions have with their homeworld and its people.

Typhus was a Psyker in the Death Guard and a very strong one at that.

Typhon restrained his powers while following Mortarion, and acting loyally. He turned traitor, and to Nurgle, before his Legion did. During the Heresy he began using his powers again. He was a Librarian, before Mortarion ordered that there be no Librarians in the Death Guard, so he just became a captain and rose through the ranks that way.

I think.

 jifel wrote:

Thamor wrote:

Ugly Green Trog wrote:I would say it would vary hugely as psykers are a random genetic occurrence rather than a predictable constant (this is true in M41 as well as pre heresy). Not only that but the psyker has to be physically tough enough to be able to withstand the various grueling and barbaric applicant trials to be accepted as a marine. No marine would ever be fast tracked or given an easy ride because of psychic potential.

Some legions such as the lunar wolves and the deathguard had no librarians ( it has been suggested that Loken was a psyker because of his vision of fighting a last stand by the emperor against a terrible unknown foe in which Horus is absent) but marines with psychic potential who survived just served as normal marines and probably never even realised.

Lastly I don't believe any legion/chapter, other than those who are fleet based and recruit from varied planets, would accept stock from the black ships or anywhere from outside their home planet or empire (Ultramar) due to the deep relationship chapters/legions have with their homeworld and its people.

Typhus was a Psyker in the Death Guard and a very strong one at that.

Typhon restrained his powers while following Mortarion, and acting loyally. He turned traitor, and to Nurgle, before his Legion did. During the Heresy he began using his powers again. He was a Librarian, before Mortarion ordered that there be no Librarians in the Death Guard, so he just became a captain and rose through the ranks that way.

I think.

This is what I understood to be the case as well, Mortarion was one of the strongest voices in the sanction of psykers within the legions at the council of Nikea. AFAIK Librarians have never been able to hold company command outside of the 1k sons so if Typhon would have had to refrain from using his power. Never said there weren't psykers present in the legions just that they didnt use there power.