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Don't the majority of male blanks go to the assassins? The big skully head looking anti-psyche dudes?

usmcmidn wrote:
Don't the majority of male blanks go to the assassins? The big skully head looking anti-psyche dudes?

You'd think so, but somehow I doubt that GW are going to come out and declare that the Culexus are all dudes, actually.

I don't think its even a majority. I don't think the Imperium "hunts" for blanks like they do psychers. Blanks don't really cause any trouble and they aren't as easily spotted. You can see in Eisenhorn that they are a potential resource that the greater Imperium just ignores.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
That is a possibility.

So far as anyone can tell, Blanks are mutants. And even in 40K? Mutations are based in genetic changes. Sometimes caused by pollutants, sometimes caused by warp exposure/fiddlings, sometimes (like psykers) just good old evolution having a wee play and seeing what shakes out.

As such, I don’t think we can necessarily rule out that the Sisters of Silence do have a breeding programme of some kind.

40K being 40K, with all sorts of non-traditional baby making? It could be the result of harvesting the eggs from existing Sisters of Silence, doing a bit of IVF on all such harvested eggs, and screening the zygotes/embryos* for the desired trait, and bringing those ones to term.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they discount/destroy males with the trait. It could still be a limitation of the technology. I mean, in the world of made up genetic mutations, who knows whether it’s the male or female line it’s passed down?

If it is the male? Well let’s just say us blokes can help bring about more babies than a woman, even with vitae wombs removing the “one per nine months”, as we simply produce more gametes over our sexual maturity than a woman.

Maybe the screening is also done on the taddies, with one in a trillion lil’ swimmer carrying the necessary genetic quirk.

That would be a…well…not good, not reasonable, not as such, explanation why we don’t see their males. It’s because they’re all hooked up to machines which, ahem, perform a very specific function, and being a rare resource which, properly husbanded can perform that task for a good three or four decades, you keep them nice and safe.

The women? Hoik out the ovaries, and you’ve got their collective contribution right there.


Mmmm. 40K. As hideously dystopian as you’d like to make it!

*I’m not presenting these as interchangeable. I’m just not sure at which stage such genetic screening might be practicable, so used both.

It would not be weirder that other stuff that happens in the Imperium - be it the Krieg issue with the Vitae wombs, the Afriel strain clone program, or the suspiciously genestealer-like happenings around the Navigators.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:
I don't think its even a majority. I don't think the Imperium "hunts" for blanks like they do psychers. Blanks don't really cause any trouble and they aren't as easily spotted. You can see in Eisenhorn that they are a potential resource that the greater Imperium just ignores.

Old-school fluff was the lower- to mid-level pariahs usually get murdered at an early age, because while they don't have powers that matter in everyday circumstances, they exude an aura of wrongness that makes other people at least wary, if not outright hostile towards them, which often leads to bullying, infanticide, lynchings or social shunning. In the general climate of intolerance in the Imperium, being a blank basically paints a giant, unignorable target on your back, and you're likely to fall prey to random crime, pogroms or witch-hunts that way.

Just remember some blanks fall through the cracks, and end up as aides to Commissars.

Tsagualsa wrote:
...or the suspiciously genestealer-like happenings around the Navigators.

...the what now?

 Dysartes wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:
...or the suspiciously genestealer-like happenings around the Navigators.

...the what now?

Glad to know I wasn't the only one confused.

The October 2019 WD was a good resource- it had the names of 5 Cadres of Sisters with paint schemes; their histories weren't very well defined, though some are Indomitus era while others go back to the great Crusade.

The early history talks about small warbands of pariahs created by the Emperor roaming the palace, and there's a reference to "fragmented accounts" of an army of the being used in the Great Crusade era.

It talks about their part in the Heresy, and that in the wake of the Heresy, the SoS were scattered as their direction and purpose were lost.

When Guilliman returns, he remembers the SoS from their role in the Heresy, and so he begins gathering the scattered Cadres to restore them to their previous role in service of the Indomitus Crusade- this is the section that the article focuses on most closely.

White Dwarf 454 his the SoS Kill team, and some of the backgrounds provide a bit of insight and character.

I can't speak to the 10th ed dex, but in 9th, SoS were included in Crusade; they had a specific Agenda and a few other rules that provide some sense of their identity.

I think in 10th they have a detachment?

The mysterious Ty Onmyodo Coven is here to stalk the underhive

Always in twos, and always a pairing of psyker and null, one member is a powerful telepath, the other a blank to keep that power in check. Both wear collars to open or dampen their respective abilities, controlled as they are from many miles above via a psychic link from the uphive.

Was just coming to post that.

And this is where my memory isn’t sure if I’m thinking of another franchise, I seem to recall psyker dampening collars being mentioned before*, but I don’t think I’ve heard of a Blank being suppressed before?**

*Probably thinking X-Men
** Though I’m really note sure.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Was just coming to post that.
And this is where my memory isn’t sure if I’m thinking of another franchise, I seem to recall psyker dampening collars being mentioned before*, but I don’t think I’ve heard of a Blank being suppressed before?**

Blank limiters have existed since the Eisenhorn series at least.

We have Blank suppression in Eisenhorn if I recall right

And has been pointed out in the Necromunda Rumour thread, the Culexus Headgear.

Was there a male blank with a suppressor in the Ravenor books as well?

I’m guessing the blank suppressor collar has a timed reset… kind of a dumb thing to control psychically.

 Flinty wrote:
I’m guessing the blank suppressor collar has a timed reset… kind of a dumb thing to control psychically.

Thought the same thing when I read that blurb. It would be fine to turn the suppressor off with a psychic command, but useing one to turn it on, while it’s literally around the neck of someone who makes psychic stuff not work around them seemed daft.

 Dysartes wrote:

Tsagualsa wrote:
...or the suspiciously genestealer-like happenings around the Navigators.

...the what now?

Tne navigators have a head of their organisation that's called the Paternova, that is typically not seen in public (instead being represented by someone called the paternoval envoy, who also occupies/proxies for him in the High Lords of Terra). Whenever the current Paternova dies, all "elder navigators" feel it instantly, and the most senior among them become "heirs apparent" - following these events, these heirs feel a heightening of their psychic potential, but also experience bouts of mutation and become beset by some sort of bloodlust and are basically driven to kill each other until there's only one left standing, who then becomes the next Paternova. Navigators that are related to him gain a permanent increase in their psychic powers and skill, while the ones related to the runner-ups suffer a proportionate decrease. The new Paternova then also retires from the public, because the mutations don't stop and they become even more bloated and grotesque.

All i'm saying is that this has some serious parallels to the whole genestealer lifecycle with the patriarch, the magus and the process of a new patriarch being "chosen" when the old one dies (note that that's by no means conclusive evidence, as it also has great parallels to e.g. the way a new pope is chosen, including the bloodlust and the indiscriminate murder, if we go by more historic examples).

It must be said that rick Priestley has been quoted as not liking the invention of blanks as it messed with the way psychic powers work and put a counter where there wasn't supposed to be one.

It admittedly doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a blank to have an 'anti soul' or that somehow has a negative impact on others or shuts down warp energy somehow.

And it kind of undoes the existential theat of chaos if you can just engineer your species to be comptlely unaffected by the warp

Current semi-headcannon:
1. Whenever humanity found out about Psykers, they'd also find out (Officially) about Blanks. But! Like Psykers, a few may have popped up here and there during history, but like psykers were shunned so the genes didn't pass on until the large proliferation of humanity that was the Golden Age of Technology.

2. Yes, but Psykers of Iota and up are rare, and there is a sliding scale. So, a blank may be very "weak" and only had a mild revulsion effect to others and their presence is more like a psychic "Itch" to daemons and psykers and doesn't cancel out powers.

3. I stated this in another thread, but the Pariah gene may be on the Mitochondrial DNA, which is only inherited from your mother. Thus, a line of mothers/sisters will keep the gene sequence "pure", but a male can't pass on the blank-ness trait. Though I hate to bring in lore from another totally unrelated series, in the Gail Carriger books, Alexia Tarribotti is "Soulless" and immediately stops any and all supernatural beings with her touch. She passes this on to her daughter, somewhat.. but her Alexia's father was also Soulless. In any event, the power is material-based, as the catholic church uses mummified remains of Soulless to stop Vampires & Werewolves. This "material" component is somewhat seen in Dan Abnett's Pariah and Bequin books, as the clone/ daughter of Alizabeth also has her Blank gene.

So it seems that the Black Ships may also pick up Pariah Blanks as well as Psykers- this'd be efficient, as then you wouldn't have to have all your Sisters of silence on board in every quarters with psykers. It may also be that the kinderlein going to Schola Progenium are screened for Blank-ness as well as Psyker Activity. Eisenhorn went to Schola knowing he had abilities and that he'd be trained as an Interrogator. And the Schola also recruits for the Assassinorum, so they pick out the (mostly male) Blanks for the Culexeus temple.

Also, this occurring to me whilst listening to new High Karl's Oath- maybe the Sisters of Silence have pre-dark age gene tech, but only to edit zygotes and ensure all females and the blank gene like the Votann can edit Kin DNA? Such tech may have already been shared with Mechanicus -but it being so niche, it's doubtful that the Techno-fiddlers could do anything with it.

 Hellebore wrote:
It must be said that rick Priestley has been quoted as not liking the invention of blanks as it messed with the way psychic powers work and put a counter where there wasn't supposed to be one.

It admittedly doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a blank to have an 'anti soul' or that somehow has a negative impact on others or shuts down warp energy somehow.

And it kind of undoes the existential theat of chaos if you can just engineer your species to be comptlely unaffected by the warp

That was the Emperor's master plan in the HH novels, make an Imperial Webway so humanity won't have to face the warp so often.

that was to avoid warp travel, but it wasn't to make them all blanks and not psychic.

the warp interacts with reality, the webway sits outside of either so is less susceptible, but unless humanity exiled themselves to the webway they wouldn't be able to avoid the warp forever.

I don't think the Emperor was going to have a Psyker free humanity...

Especially when you have the coolest Titan ever that uses Psykers as ammunition.

 Hellebore wrote:
that was to avoid warp travel, but it wasn't to make them all blanks and not psychic.

the warp interacts with reality, the webway sits outside of either so is less susceptible, but unless humanity exiled themselves to the webway they wouldn't be able to avoid the warp forever.

All part of reducing reliance on The Warp. For most of the galaxy, Warp Travel is their main interaction with that realm, and the risks involved. It’s not exactly the most dependable method of transport.

I look at it as the difference between the age of sail, and the age of flight. Until we had an alternative, ships were the most reliable method of global travel. It took planning, skill and not a little luck to navigate the seas, but there was nothing else for it. And this does include mechanically propelled ships. Here, that’s Warp Travel. By no means the safest route, but the swiftest and sometimes only way to get you and your goods from A-B, and in quantity.

Age of Flight? Still some risks involved, and there are still circumstances where literal shipping is still your best option, but far safer and faster when appropriate. That’s Webway travel. Not all routes suited or capable of mass transit, with the difference being someone made the Webway, so in theory another someone can rebuild and extend it.

And it would’ve made a massive difference to running a galaxy spanning civilisation. Not just for getting goods and trade between places safely and securely, but for threats like the Tyranids? Troops, tanks, even battleships to where they need to be, negating a major advantage of the Hive Fleets.

The other limitation of the Webway is you can only go where it goes. And not even the Eldar have a complete map of the thing (and given they adopted it, may never had one, but that’s pure speculation). So in the first instance, even if you have the capability to maintain and extend it? Exploration it still going to be reliant on Warp Travel. But, the upside is you can use a far flung planet on the Webway Network as a jumping off point, giving at least part of the overall journey a safer beginning.

Originally, the Custodes were all male while the Sisters of Silence were all female for artistic dualism.

Then Games Workshop made female Custodes, so who knows for now. Honestly, don't think too hard about 40k Lore, it was made to be an epic fantasy in Space where refrigerator dudes slice up aliens with chainsaws.

The Sisters of Silence being all Female doesn't make a lot of practical sense, but few things in the Imperium of Man does; one of the many reasons I don't actually like them as a faction.

Calbear wrote:
Originally, the Custodes were all male while the Sisters of Silence were all female for artistic dualism.

Then Games Workshop made female Custodes, so who knows for now. Honestly, don't think too hard about 40k Lore, it was made to be an epic fantasy in Space where refrigerator dudes slice up aliens with chainsaws.

The Sisters of Silence being all Female doesn't make a lot of practical sense, but few things in the Imperium of Man does; one of the many reasons I don't actually like them as a faction.

Incorrect. Originally Custodes had no gender bias. No mention of the Custodes between Rogue Trader and 7th edition said anything about any kind of any kind of gender makeup, they were not explicitly all male, nor were female custodes explicitly forbidden
Then the 8th edition codex came out and said that the sons of Noble houses were sent to become custodes, no pseudo-scientific "genetically incompatible" nonsense, they just said "sons" instead of "children"
That same wording was carried over to the 9th edition codex until we got female custodes in 10th edition. Even the "Visions Of" books, which had both sisters of silence and custodes, didn't say anything about the custodes being all-male, while the sisters were explicitly all female

So 1987-2018 - 31 years of no explicit or implicit gender bias
2018-2024 - 6 years of explicitly all male
2024 onwards - explicitly gender neutral

This is why the nonsense about female custodes is so inane, all they did was return to the previous status quo, it's just that hardly anyone bothered reading any custodes lore before they got shiny new models and a codex so they assumed they'd always been all-male

Charax wrote:

Incorrect. Originally Custodes had no gender bias. No mention of the Custodes between Rogue Trader and 7th edition said anything about any kind of any kind of gender makeup, they were not explicitly all male, nor were female custodes explicitly forbidden
Then the 8th edition codex came out and said that the sons of Noble houses were sent to become custodes, no pseudo-scientific "genetically incompatible" nonsense, they just said "sons" instead of "children"
That same wording was carried over to the 9th edition codex until we got female custodes in 10th edition. Even the "Visions Of" books, which had both sisters of silence and custodes, didn't say anything about the custodes being all-male, while the sisters were explicitly all female

So 1987-2018 - 31 years of no explicit or implicit gender bias
2018-2024 - 6 years of explicitly all male
2024 onwards - explicitly gender neutral

This is why the nonsense about female custodes is so inane, all they did was return to the previous status quo, it's just that hardly anyone bothered reading any custodes lore before they got shiny new models and a codex so they assumed they'd always been all-male

I don't want to get into this dumb debate, but assuming Adeptus Custodes were all-male wasn't just some ignorant assumption before 2024. People did it because literally every single Custodes model shown and every Custodes character in the lore was male. It didn't matter that there wasn't an explicit line saying "Custodes can only be men". Refusing to create female Custodes until now was all the evidence needed. There wasn't even a hint or a single counterexample in 37 years of 40k for there being female Custodes anywhere in 40k lore until now.

But hey, if you wanna deny inference, go ahead.

Charax wrote:
... all they did was return to the previous status quo

Outside of the old card game and related art the 'status quo' for custodes prior to their first codex in 2018 was explicitly topless, wearing tight leather pants and capes and wielding laser spears [/jojo pose]

A.T. wrote:

Charax wrote:
... all they did was return to the previous status quo

Outside of the old card game and related art the 'status quo' for custodes prior to their first codex in 2018 was explicitly topless, wearing tight leather pants and capes and wielding laser spears [/jojo pose]

3rd ed. Rulebook

EDIT: Or, better, Codex Imperialis.

The 'if you care about the female Custodes retcon then you should be equally bothered by the armour retcon from eight editions ago' is at best ill-informed, and at worst deliberately disingenuous.

 Lord Damocles wrote:

A.T. wrote:

Charax wrote:
... all they did was return to the previous status quo

Outside of the old card game and related art the 'status quo' for custodes prior to their first codex in 2018 was explicitly topless, wearing tight leather pants and capes and wielding laser spears [/jojo pose]

3rd ed. Rulebook

EDIT: Or, better, Codex Imperialis.

The 'if you care about the female Custodes retcon then you should be equally bothered by the armour retcon from eight editions ago' is at best ill-informed, and at worst deliberately disingenuous.

It’s really not,

Unless you prefer men in skimpy undergarments, who are apparently rock hard?

Because, see, whilst I don’t agree “Custards am always been no sex”?

I’m yet to read a coherent argument why Custards going from Gimps in a Tea Towel to Demigods in Massive Armour is fine, but “also some of them don’t have a penis, because women exist” is such a big deal.

The background changes. And just as I am, you too are entirely free to life your preference from it.

 Lord Damocles wrote:
EDIT: Or, better, Codex Imperialis

Huh, I didn't realise there was something that pre-dated the armoured custodes in the heresy card game.

Which raises the question of when the lore of the custodes dropping their armour in after the Emperors battle with Horus first came up, as the image has them standing before what appears to be the throne. Curiously anachronistic.