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Wyldhunt wrote: That's something I've always been a little unclear on. Are nulls/blanks *actually* soulless, or are their souls just functionally undetectable due to their null field?
Like, in D&D terms, an anti-magic field is still a magical effect.
It’s a bit vague, altering between “no presence in the warp” and “negative presence in the warp”.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
A background book that I don't understand the purpose of says that the assignment has seven classes of people who are resistant to psychic effects, but only the most severe class are untouchables who are used the way the Sisters or Frauka are used. I don't expect that to matter for most other books
pelicaniforce wrote: A background book that I don't understand the purpose of says that the assignment has seven classes of people who are resistant to psychic effects, but only the most severe class are untouchables who are used the way the Sisters or Frauka are used. I don't expect that to matter for most other books
Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.
Kanluwen wrote: This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.
Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...
tneva82 wrote: You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something...
I am not into gender exclusivity. For example, Howling Banshees and Wyches are commonly depicted as female, but there are also male members. These organizations tend to be mostly female because their traditions are geared towards matriarchy, which means the men are likely not treated/seen as equal. In fact, male Wyches are essentially sex toys so that the female Wyches can reproduce.
I agree with female Custodes and I will agree with male/LGBT Sisters of Silence as well. I don't even like the name, by the way.
On the “hey, what’s with all the chicks?” feature of Sisters of Silence. As I’ve mentioned in a few interlinked threads, for me the evidence points to them not being natural manifestations of the Pariah mutation,
After all, there’s a pretty decent number of Sisters of Silence, especially for a mutation which has been described as a one in billions chance. So many billions, it’s possible a given planet may only produce a single Blank/Pariah/Null per generation. This is suggestive some kind of gene editing is going on.
That they’re all female, essentially reducing any already supposedly recruitment pool by approximately half? That again for me supports some kind of tech wizardry going on, as outside of Tradition (which whilst a poor reason still remains a reason) why would such a specialised Order impose such a restriction.
The tradition could stem from the onset of Old Night. Perhaps their base on Luna started off as a prison for sci-fi witch hunts. A place to keep bothersome Blanks away from a burgeoning psychic population. And it was their concentration in one place, and their immunity to warp shenanigans that allowed their survival. And as the dust settled, their persecution was remembered, and “Sisters, let no man ever bind as they once did” type stuff.
But that, in itself, doesn’t explain their frequency, only gives a possible Chinny Reckon as to why they’re all female. So the technological answer remains, for me at least, the most likely.
And we can look to the wider Imperium and Galaxy for similar examples. House Escher for instance? Whatever it is that makes their males feeble and imbecilic aside, we know they’ve mastered (or at least can do!) parthenogenesis. Essentially virgin births, where no male or sperm is involved.
House Goliath is almost the reverse there. Originally genetically designed to be big, strong, resilient, all-male and, importantly, sterile. But life uh…found a way. And whilst comparatively rare, when a Mummy Goliath and a Daddy Goliath love each very much, a Baby Goliath is possible.
And that’s just well documented examples from a world by no means at the top of the technological heap.
Next we’ll look at the Votann. Each and every one is a Designer Baby. The Votann determines what traits the members of the next generation will likely need, and provides those via gene bank. And on an individual basis. Which is remarkable.
So in-universe? We know that tech exists. So we know that theoretically it is possible to manufacture Blanks to order, we just can’t be sure that’s what the Sisters of Silence are doing.
Oh and of course we know cloning exists, and the Imperium is iffy at worst about that sort of thing.
Finally? All Hail Algorithmo for his bounty this day. Because this video popped up on my YouTube feed, covering the various forms of parthenogenesis in nature. It’s pretty low level stuff, but it is accessible and nicely factual. I present it as a way of demonstrating that the Imperium, or at least pre-Old Night Man could’ve adapted one, some or all of these natural versions to humans.
And finally, let’s not rule out that if my hypothesis of gene editing/cloning/cloneskein is correct, the manifestation of the Pariah Gene is by no means the original intent of the tech. It could be a happy accident that once people’s heads started exploding and things started crawling out? A failed experiment suddenly proved its worth, and was put into production.
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
From 40K wiki:
Omega Minus (-7) - Omega Minus grade psykers are actually the "anti-psykers" usually referred to as "Untouchables" or "Blanks." These individuals are so inert in the Warp as to actually exhibit a negative psychic influence upon others. This primarily manifests in realspace as a region of "blankness" (hence the name) surrounding the individual where psychic powers will not work. It is impossible for psychic powers or entities native to the Immaterium to penetrate or affect this space. Imperial science has learned that the psychically inert region surrounding the Omega grade subject even interferes with natural bioelectric function in an organic brain. This neurological effect on others often results in the development of the irrational fear and loathing that baseline Humans nearly always display towards Blanks. This can even manifest in psychosomatic effects, such as thinking that the Blank emits a highly offensive odor. For psykers, however, the sheer presence of a Blank produces excruciating physical and mental distress.
Psi (-6) - This grade of The Assignment, which actually includes Psi through Sigma grades inclusive, represents individuals who are oblivious to fluctuations in the Warp and are immune to psychic probing by a telepath. The range of this ability varies, with the highest class at Sigma grade being deemed "blunt" or resistant to some psychic effects, and the lowest grade of Psi being extremely resistant to the effects of psychic power, yet still capable of being affected by an extreme degree of psychic strength.
Chi (-5) See above.
Phi (-4) - See above.
Upsilon (-3) - See above.
Tau (-2) - See above.
Sigma (-1) - See above.
Rho (0) - An individual at Rho grade is incapable of manifesting any psychic abilities, but can be fully affected by them or other manifestations of Warp energy. This is the grade that encompasses the vast majority of Humans in the Imperium and serves as the baseline grade of The Assignment.
I had heard it before in Majorkill's vid on Psyker tier/ classes that they did go into "Negative" psyker-ness, but was unaware of the various degrees. I'm assuming Omega Minus means no warp whatsoever while Chi and Phi means a smaller range or extent?
Once again, thanks James Workshop for leading to more questions with the "Lost age of technology/ we dunno/ etc" hand-waving.
Gamgee on Tau Players wrote:we all kill cats and sell our own families to the devil and eat live puppies.
Kanluwen wrote: This is, emphatically, why I will continue suggesting nuking Guard and starting over again. It's a legacy army that needs to be rebooted with a new focal point.
Confirmation of why no-one should listen to Kanluwen when it comes to the IG - he doesn't want the IG, he want's Kan's New Model Army...
tneva82 wrote: You aren't even trying ty pretend for honest arqument. Open bad faith trolling.
- No reason to keep this here, unless people want to use it for something...
Cadre Coronal Afterglow w1;d0;l0 
