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I'm looking to write a little fluff for my Stark Crusaders chapter and want to know more about librarians.

In the SM codex it shows the Librarius has the Chief Librarian, Epistolaries, Codicers, Lexicaniums and Acolytum.

I remember the Chief, Epis, Codis and Lexis from back in RT as actual selectable options in the army list. Do these roughly map to Level 1 - 4 psykers? So we can (generally) only field Lexis (level 1) and Codix (level 2)? Would that make sense? I want my fluff to be reflected in my army, so that might mean making my libs only Lexis and Codis.

I assume the Acolytum are 'trainees'?

I wouldn't say they correspond to level 1 - 4 psykers, seeing as how lvl 4 is like... Eldrad or Ahriman. I would recommend considering them more along the lines of the differences between a Scout, Marine, Veteran, and Chapter master that also happen to have access to psychic disciplines.

In RT and 2nd edition they did match up, more recently not so much: The 5th edition Codex didn't specifically define the basic (level 1 equivalent) Librarian as being a Lexicanum or Codicier, but the upgrade (level 2 equivalent) was specifically stated to be an Epistolary.

All of the current plastic Librarian models have Epistolary markings sculpted onto the loin cloth or cloak.

Only in 2nd edition was that the mapping. 1st edition made it random (so you could have a wildly-powerful Lexicanian and a Chief Librarian who wasn't actually all that powerful). In third and later editions, again it's not so clear-cut. Generally, higher-ranked Librarians have more powers than lower ones, but now not all Chief Librarians are equal.

I think this is all good news - I can basically do what I want, fluff-wise!

I think I'll go with my Lvl 1s being Lexis or Codis and my Lvl 2 being an Epi.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
Only in 2nd edition was that the mapping. 1st edition made it random (so you could have a wildly-powerful Lexicanian and a Chief Librarian who wasn't actually all that powerful).

We are equally incorrect: 1st edition Librarians in power armour had random psychic level. Terminator librarians however had fixed level.