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Hi all - The concept of Blanks really intrigues me, and I've got a few questions about them, since I'd like to use a large number of them in the fluff for a custom space marine chapter I'm playing around with.

According to Lexicanum: "them (blanks), and everything in their vicinity, to be invisible in the alternate dimension of the warp". So I assume daemonic forces would have a hard time locating people to annoy when they're standing near a blank.

(in the questions below, if one blank is not enough, assume a collection of them)

1. Do blanks have a nullifying effect on the warp in general? Do they make it hard to see into or use the warp? Would a psyker standing near a blank have troubles accessing the warp, would a navigator's view of the warp be obscured? Would psychic powers used against them have a diminished or negated effect?

2. What happens to blanks who are IN the warp. Would warp entities not see the blanks and their associates? Would blanks provide a measure of protection, complementary with the gellar field? Would the blanks get in the way of seeing the Astronomicon?

3. Do blanks have a presence on manifested daemons? What happens to a daemon in the real world that approaches a blank? Do they run in terror, are they unable to approach, do they get banished back into the warp?


Thanks
-Nathan

1. Yes.

2. Don't know. Blanks can be overwhelmed by strong enough warp influence. It's possible that their aura would just be outright shattered if exposed to the sheer, unfiltered power of the warp.

3. Manifested daemons have trouble seeing Untouchables, sometimes even outright not noticing them at all. Taking Fear to Tread as an example, an entire planet was turned into a daemon world, and its whole populace either brainwashed or sacrificed to summon daemons. Yet, a small group of people managed to avoid detection by the daemons and survive on the planet for awhile, because one of the survivors was an Untouchable and her aura masked the entire group from the Daemons' presence.

1. Yes. Blanks seem to prevent access to warp in the area around them, causing discomfort to anyone in the area and stopping psychic powers from functioning. I don't know how their powers effect navigators or Warp itself, but it's my understanding that navigators are not psykers as such, but simply possess a third eye that can safely see into the warp, so they likely wouldn't be effected to the same extent as psykers.

2. Blanks can still travel in a ship that travels through warp, and getting into the warp through any other means is pretty unlikely considering the fact that psychic powers generally don't affect them. Assuming that a blank somehow found himself in the warp, I'd imagine that he would remain undetected by the predators there, although I wouldn't count on anyone's ability to survive in the warp for any period of time (except Kaldor Draigo, apparently).

3. As said in the previous post, blanks and people around them are not detected by daemons. I'd imagine that lesser daemons would find themselves weakened or even in pain in the presence of a blank. I'd imagine that if a blank was detected, daemons would either avoid him (as he has no soul to be taken) or swarm him in numbers to end his influence on them. Powerful daemons would likely be unaffected by a single blank.

On another note, seeing as they nullify psychic powers around them I would imagine that daemon weapons wouldn't work against them (other than in the sense of still being a weapon of course).

My own idea about blanks, pariahs and untouchables is that they are pretty much an opposite to psykers. Whereas a psyker can channel power from the warp to the material realm, blanks cause the reverse, forcing energy from the warp away from the material universe. This power is something that just happens without any input from the blank. Blanks have varying levels of power as psykers do, ranging from mere resistance to psychic power to virtual immunity to all psychic effects.

On your idea of a blank space marine chapter, powerful blanks are highly sought after by several Imperial groups, namely assassins of the Culexus temple, Sisters of Silence (if they still exist in M41) and Inquisitors who wan't psychic protection or privacy. Blanks also cause discomfort and instinctive resentment towards them in all nearby humans. Most blanks in service of Inquisitors wear a limiter device on their collar or wrist to block their influence, making them essentially normal.

A Chapter of blanks would obviously not contain any Librarians, and would likely be composed mostly from low-level blanks, who would group together to provide more powerful defence against psykers or daemons. Perhaps they have discovered a way to train their abilities, growing more powerful as they advance in rank, with the Chapter Master being the most powerful of all. these are just my ideas though.

BlaxicanX is correct for 1 and 3.

for 2. Blanks who are in the warp, I'm assuming your saying they are safely travelling on a ship. Blanks have an aura around them. The size of the aura depends on how well trained they are and their negative influence on the warp. Not all blanks are equal and some are strong that others. The silent sisters for example have a large anti-warp aura while others only have a foot or two. If a navigator was within the anti-warp aura of a blank they would feel super uncomfortable, and maybe would have difficulty seeing the astronomicon.

I would guess though that their navigator eye would not be able to melt your face off if you or they were within the blank aura. But otherwise navigators are unharmed (inferred because the Silent Sisters warp around all the time)

There's also far, far fewer Blanks than there are Psykers, who are already a one-in-a-million chance. Blanks are said to be a thousand times rarer than that... so one-in-a-billion.

Also, the lack of a soul means that a Blank makes everyone around them *really* uncomfortable. This leads Blanks to living lives of the drifter and the outcast, because no one wants to be around them, and might actually attempt to do them harm just for standing around.

This is why no one makes Chapters of Space Marines of Blanks. One, they're really, really, really rare. Two, they don't get along with people. They would be incapable of working together as a cohesive unit and forming the bonds of brotherhood Space Marines require.

Very interesting. Thank you for all the replies. I'm happy what you've all said mirrors what I've been considering and hoping for.

I have been thinking about doing one of the chapters that sailed into the Eye of Terror on the Abyssal Crusade and was declared lost in the warp (Fists of Olchis). Fluffwise I'd like them to be somewhat constantly but almost daemonically possessed; though they have escaped the warp (light of the emperor guide us, oh look a Living Saint, etc...), they're constantly wracked by warp influence. I thought it'd be a nifty idea if they went hunting for blanks and accumulated as many as possible (whether they come willingly or not), in order to dampen the warp effects around them and give them a bit of respite from the daemonic voices in their heads.


My marines will have taken an aggressive stance to eradicating chaos forces wherever they find them, and use their own daemonic strength to destroy them.
Tragically due to their own possession, will have drawn the ire of the Ordo Malleus as they start to reenter Imperial space, an will be branded somewhere between Rogue and Renegade (they won't actively provoke hostility towards the Imperium, unless some unlucky Inquisitor has brought a blank along, in which case they will forcefully take it from him).

Canon-wise (to justify them existing in universe), I've been looking at the Legion of the Damned, who are probably full on warp entities - while my guys will still be physical space marines, just with heavy warp taint


A last question

4) Would a blank interferre with a living Saint? Would they switch off the Sanguinor
(then again, I guess this question really belongs under the heading "Are living Saints, and entities like the Sanguinor, powered by the warp", which would belong under its own thread.

Also of note, blanks can even go undetected by normal humans,there is also new tech (in the fluff) that allows them to turn it on and off