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Ello there, I apologize if my question is weird or something.

Suppose you had a very weak psyker in a Chapter who was either somehow undetected, or was passed over due to lack of potential by the Librarians of the chapter.

Could this theoretical person become more powerful as a psyker later on in some way or another, and what would most Chapters do with him if that happened? If proven pure, would he be allowed to undergo training to become a Librarian?

Yes, there are a few cases of this happening. Most notably would be Dak'ir of the Salamanders. He was a tactical squad sergeant before he was chosen to join the librarium.

Thank you, Orblivion. I was wondering since I was making some fluff for my first army, and was wondering if it were possible for my Assault Marine to one day become a Librarian.

Seems like it's a really bad thing if a Space Marine Chapter isn't rigorously testing its recruits for warp sensitivity.

So if you're going to write this into your fluff, it needs a pretty strong justification. The consequences of letting a psyker recruit slip through the cracks is a monumental failure of the Chapter's existing Librarium to properly screen.

This is probably something Nick Kyme didn't think of when he wrote that story, lol. But hey, not all Black Library authors are created equal, and some are better than others. Kyme is not among the better ones.

The feel in the story was more one of him being watched closely, not necessarily slipping through the cracks. Or that could just be my interpretation.

 troa wrote:
The feel in the story was more one of him being watched closely, not necessarily slipping through the cracks. Or that could just be my interpretation.

That's how I read it too. His powers were latent but there.
The librarius wanted to watch him before they had to decide whether to help him realise his abilities, he wasn't born able to use them like most recruits into the librarius are.

But yeah, if you are using that fluff in your back ground you definatly need to have a really good back story. Marines spontainiously gaining psychic powers tends to get the inquisition's attention fairly quickly.

 whitehorn wrote:

 troa wrote:
The feel in the story was more one of him being watched closely.

That's how I read it too. His powers were latent but there. The librarius wanted to watch him before they had to decide whether to help him realise his abilities.

Well, that doesn't sound too unreasonable to me. Any Imperial Governor (even a Chapter Master ruling a recruitment world) is supposed to keep track on psykers and "deal with them" so they pose no danger. If a latent psyker tests out good enough to be a marine he's both being watched and being useful. If some later trauma or revelation causes his powers to emerge the Librarium can evaluate him and either train him or put him down.

Spetulhu wrote:

 whitehorn wrote:

 troa wrote:
The feel in the story was more one of him being watched closely.

That's how I read it too. His powers were latent but there. The librarius wanted to watch him before they had to decide whether to help him realise his abilities.

Well, that doesn't sound too unreasonable to me. Any Imperial Governor (even a Chapter Master ruling a recruitment world) is supposed to keep track on psykers and "deal with them" so they pose no danger. If a latent psyker tests out good enough to be a marine he's both being watched and being useful. If some later trauma or revelation causes his powers to emerge the Librarium can evaluate him and either train him or put him down.

Even a latent psyker is a massive danger to his fellow marines due to his vulnerability to demonic possesion and would never be allowed to enter the chapter as a normal marine.

An untrained psyker even a latent one is like a beacon in the warp calling demons and even worse things to him.

Exactly.

You either are trained to harness the powers, or disposed of. A psyker is a conduit to the Warp, and that's not something you want just hanging around.

I mean, it's been written, so technically it's canon, lol. But there's a lot of stuff that's canon that probably shouldn't be.

What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

 Selym wrote:
What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

Unknown but he would almost certainly be "put out of his misery" by his fellow marines. As any such case would have been caused by the powers of chaos.

 Mythantor wrote:

 Selym wrote:
What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

Unknown but he would almost certainly be "put out of his misery" by his fellow marines. As any such case would have been caused by the powers of chaos.

Or new genetics.

 Mythantor wrote:

Spetulhu wrote:

 whitehorn wrote:

 troa wrote:
The feel in the story was more one of him being watched closely.

That's how I read it too. His powers were latent but there. The librarius wanted to watch him before they had to decide whether to help him realise his abilities.

Well, that doesn't sound too unreasonable to me. Any Imperial Governor (even a Chapter Master ruling a recruitment world) is supposed to keep track on psykers and "deal with them" so they pose no danger. If a latent psyker tests out good enough to be a marine he's both being watched and being useful. If some later trauma or revelation causes his powers to emerge the Librarium can evaluate him and either train him or put him down.

Even a latent psyker is a massive danger to his fellow marines due to his vulnerability to demonic possesion and would never be allowed to enter the chapter as a normal marine.

An untrained psyker even a latent one is like a beacon in the warp calling demons and even worse things to him.

There is a short story about a latent psyker who slipped through the cracks. He was basically a beacon for daemons to come eat all his brothers, but he lived in denial of being a "filthy mind-witch".

Mythantor wrote:

 Selym wrote:
What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

Unknown but he would almost certainly be "put out of his misery" by his fellow marines. As any such case would have been caused by the powers of chaos.

While the traditional Imperial layman might agree with you, people's genetics DO change in response to the environment (or rather the expression of their genes changes). With something as complex and seemingly mysterious as psychic powers, you can bet that the environment plays a big role in their development. Kind of like pretty much every mental disorder we've ever discovered.

Anyone recall some fluff where one of the reasons the Ad Mech is so stringent on new tech is the possibility that something like a new computer circuit layout might resonate with the warp and encourage daemonic possession? I like to imagine the ability to manifest psychic powers are caused by similar warp resonating layouts, except in the brain.

Selym wrote:

 Mythantor wrote:

 Selym wrote:
What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

Unknown but he would almost certainly be "put out of his misery" by his fellow marines. As any such case would have been caused by the powers of chaos.

Or new genetics.

*Phenotype

 Selym wrote:
What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

Then he's be treated as anyone else who spontaneously displayed mutation- purged. ESPECIALLY if that mutation is psychic/warp related. With extra crispy if he's recently come into contact with Chaos.

It really depends on the Chapter and the particular Marine in charge. Some have more open minds than others. A Blood Raven grunt suddenly manifesting powers would be a thing of great interest, not a reason to hit the purge button.

You don't need to say that the powers just appeared later. You could decide that the powers have always been known about, but his training is in progress while he's part of the assault squad, and he can't use his powers in combat yet. It's not implausible that some random Chapter might decide to make a Librarius-bound recruit still go through the standard cycle of serving in line squads.

 whitehorn wrote:

 troa wrote:
The feel in the story was more one of him being watched closely, not necessarily slipping through the cracks. Or that could just be my interpretation.

That's how I read it too. His powers were latent but there.
The librarius wanted to watch him before they had to decide whether to help him realise his abilities, he wasn't born able to use them like most recruits into the librarius are.

But yeah, if you are using that fluff in your back ground you definatly need to have a really good back story. Marines spontainiously gaining psychic powers tends to get the inquisition's attention fairly quickly.

so do the space wolves, but they don't care

Retaliation wrote:

Mythantor wrote:

 Selym wrote:
What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

Unknown but he would almost certainly be "put out of his misery" by his fellow marines. As any such case would have been caused by the powers of chaos.

While the traditional Imperial layman might agree with you, people's genetics DO change in response to the environment (or rather the expression of their genes changes). With something as complex and seemingly mysterious as psychic powers, you can bet that the environment plays a big role in their development. Kind of like pretty much every mental disorder we've ever discovered.

Anyone recall some fluff where one of the reasons the Ad Mech is so stringent on new tech is the possibility that something like a new computer circuit layout might resonate with the warp and encourage daemonic possession? I like to imagine the ability to manifest psychic powers are caused by similar warp resonating layouts, except in the brain.

Selym wrote:

 Mythantor wrote:

 Selym wrote:
What of the possibility that the Marine genuinely didn't have psychic powers when he was inducted, but by some miracle "grew" them?

Unknown but he would almost certainly be "put out of his misery" by his fellow marines. As any such case would have been caused by the powers of chaos.

Or new genetics.

*Phenotype

Very True. I believe it is mentioned that long warp voyages / general exposure to the warp, or even surviving something catastrophic like a Gellar field failure occasionally cause astartes to mutate, which may give them a psychic ability. Hell, consider how much ionizing radiation a SPACE marine is probably exposed to over 100-200 years. It's not ridiculous to assume that his dendritic pathways may develop some type of psychic ability as a result of this sustained assault on his DNA. So he wouldn't even need to have started with any psychic ability, he could come to it later in life.

Which opens the path for some good ol' fashioned daemonic incursions!