A few corrections. Only astropaths stand before the Emperor and become soul-bound, the act of which permanently blinds the psyker.
You seem to be confusing the psychic power system in Rogue Trader with the one from Dark Heresy, the two of which deal with very different types of psykers. The former are astropaths, whereas the latter are sanctioned psykers.
More powerful psykers are instead given extremely intense training while on the Black Ships. Success in this training earns them a sanctioning brand that identifies them as both a psyker, and one considered strong enough to protect themselves.
Sanctioned psykers have far more versatility in their psychic abilities than an astropath, but the act of soul-binding is a much stronger form of protection. Thus, as an astropath, your abilities are strongly focused on communication, divination, and mind-control, rather than body manipulation or throwing around warp fire. In general, astropaths are respected, if avoided, members of society. Sanctioned psykers, on the other hand, tend to be extremely feared by common people.
While anyone technically can use psychic powers, the act of doing so when you're not born as a psyker will almost always involve dealing with tne entities of the warp to make pacts for power. This is considered sorcery and unlike psykers, which have all sorts of constraints on them, sorcery is outright banned.
|