Pariah/Blank Librarian's

[cpl_hicks]

Pariah = A Psychic null who has no presence in the warp

Blank = able to block out psychic effects within a certain area

Librarian = A Space Marine psyker, who fields psychic powers as a weapon.

Now that the descriptions have been done with, could/would a Space Marine chapter use Pariah/Blank Librarians, they would be unable to use active powers on the battlefield, and would be a problem for the rest of the Librarius but would have an effect on enemy psykers?

[Lothlanathorian]

How would you expect something that nullifies the Warp in its immediate vicinity to be able to use the Warp? Psykers are 'brighter' in the Warp, meaning their soul is more powerful/has a stronger Warp presence and Pariahs have no Warp presence at all. I just...have no idea how you got Pariah Librarians. That's right up there with 'Which shade of black would be the best shade of blue' in logic.

[cpl_hicks]

As a psychic null, other psychic's would have a harder time/be unable to see them/other individuals

In Fear to Tread, a human pariah 'hides' themselves, a space marine and another human from a demon, also this individual saves a cargo hold full of people from demons, when the rest of the ship is killed

In this vain, a pariah librarian would be able to 'nullify' other psykers by their very presance, and would be able to be effected by other psykers/fall to chaos

[TheDungen]

I could see space marine chapters recruiting blanks to counter enemy psykers but not as librarians. Especially chapters that dont use librarians like the BT, but then again isnt blanks usually quite odd personalities, its possible they'd be to unstable to make good sm recruits.

[Lothlanathorian]

In that vein, they wouldn't be a Librarian, they'd still be a pariah. And I don't think anything like that would survive on a SM recruiting world due to the whole 'everything in existence reviles mine and these cavemen are probably going to kill me with a rock' thing. Librarians are Psykers. Pariahs/Blanks very much are not Psykers and never can be.

[narrativium]

Pariah, blank, untouchable: all words for the same thing. Someone who casts a warp shadow rather than being a warp light.

As far as I know, there've been no examples of a Space Marine chapter initiating a pariah into their ranks. Remember first that pariahs are very rare (one in a billion - which admittedly isn't that rare in terms of Imperial population, but probably will be rarer on Space Marine recruiting worlds, which tend to be death worlds). Second, that their presence makes other people extremely uncomfortable. It's very likely that a pariah who made the grade would encounter initiates or full Space Marines who would take a dislike to him. He would likely not survive; his killer would immediately feel better at the moment of his death.

Assuming one lived, though - yes, they'd affect all psykers around them, friend or foe. It's difficult to know if they'd be called a Librarian - Librarians are psychic, primarily, but they're called Librarians because of the study required to hone their powers (and because they also maintain their Chapter's history). It's possibly to have passive psychic powers as well as active, directed, honeable psychic powers, but I don't know if pariahs can direct their ability; it tends to be an all-encompassing aura they have no control over. (The Culexus assassin may prove that to be a lie, though.)

[Sinisterfence]

The main problem here without debating title, is that all Space Marines undergo psychic testing, cleansing and indoctrination to ensure there is no taint of Chaos within their ranks.

[Victrix]

The idea is an oxymoron, no matter how cool I find it.

More likely, *IF* a situation occurred where a Space Marine Chapter specifically recruited a blank for their own purposes, he would specifically be part of a specialized anti-psyker unit - and likely the only such member of that unit to have those powers.

Also: I've never heard of Blanks being able to "train" their powers. It's like training someone with no hands to draw beautifully - ala a psyker. They have nothing to manipulate, no presence to play with - instead, they'd be technologically augmented much like the Cullexus.

[sweave]

he could still be considered a librarian due to the fact that librarians are more than just psyker marines. they have specific jobs to do in the chapter. so technically if he were to fill these roles i suppose he could bear the title but then again you could just call them something else

[MajorWesJanson]

Blanks are so rare and valuable that it's highly doubtful a Marine chapter would be allowed to keep them. They are too useful for other agencies like the Adeptus Astra Telepathics/Black Ships, Inquisition, and even the Grey Knights.

[AndrewGPaul]

Librarians are a Chapter's communications officers - not just psychic artillery. Since a Pariah isn't going to be able to use psychic communication, he'd be no use in a Librarium.

If a Pariah did manage to make it through the recruitment process and survived long enough, they'd probably end up as something like a Space Wolf Lonewolf - avoiding others (or being avoided) as much as possible.

[Shamana]

Now that the descriptions have been done with, could/would a Space Marine chapter use Pariah/Blank Librarians, they would be unable to use active powers on the battlefield, and would be a problem for the rest of the Librarius but would have an effect on enemy psykers?

There should be no Pariah/Blank Librarians, really. Librarians are psykers: it isn't just the flashy things they do on the tabletop, but other stuff the chapter may need such as communication, divination and auguries, and so on. Basically, if you are a space marine and not a psyker, then the librarium doesn't need you - they have enough chapter serfs for menial work.

Blanks have much lower psychic potential than normal humans - low enough to block nearby psykers. These are the last people you want around librarians, unless the librarian has gone rogue. The rest of the time, they will actually hinder a very valuable member of the chapter in doing his work. If by some quirk of fate the chapter got a blank, accepted him and he survived the initiation procedures, they would probably put him very, very far from the Librarium.

[Sai-Lauren]

Blanks being born on a Marine's recruiting world would likely fall under the Imperium's general psyker policies (which the chapter would have to maintain) - anyone too dangerous would be executed or stuck on a black ship, anyone useful enough that doesn't make the grade as a Marine to go to the Astropaths would go there, then maybe come back serve the chapter, and any blanks would go to the Inquisition or Culexus temples.

That's not to say that it's impossible for a blank to become a great enough warrior to be selected, be biologically compatible with the geneseed and psychologically suitable to get inducted into the chapter. But the odds are so far against it that I'd doubt it's ever happened.

[Khorneguy]

Most Space Marine chapters wouldn't even consider it, as the Pariah abilities of the recruit would play havoc with the chapters existing librarians. However i could see some chapters trying it if they face deamons a lot (Exorcists for example).

What you've got to consider though is that pariahs are incredibly rare, even more so that psykers, which are about one per 1000 humans. Pariahs are one in several billion at least. Their rarity, combined with the fact that once identified, they would still have to pass all the usual testing and survive the procedures to become a Space Marine would mean that if they are out there, then they're so rare they might as well not exist

That said, i came up with the idea a dew years back for my homebrew chapter to have one in their ranks. I represent it on the tabletop, by taking the null zone power, to represent their debilitating effect on warp energies and combined with the built in psychic hood, i feel it represents them quite well on the tabletop

[Lord Damocles]

It's not impossible that a Chapter would use a pariah (nor a new idea), but the chances of it ever happening are almost infinitesimally samll.

The chances of a pariah occuring naturally (and we know of no other methods of creation in the current Imperium) is around one in a billion.
You'd need to be a sufficiently powerfull null for your abilities to be of any real use/benefit.
And you need to be of the correct age on a Marine recruiting world when their trials are taking place.
Then you've got to be sufficiently badass to have survived the general revulsion of the population and to be selected by the Marines as a recruit (without first coming to the attention of anyone who's likely to pack you off to the Officio Assassinorium for training there, or an Inquisitor who wants you for themselves, or a Necron who wants to turn you into a robot).
Then you've got to get through the Marine training without being killed or disposed of by a Librarian).
And then you've still got to avoid being sent to the Officio Assassinorium by the Marines.

Even if you managed all that, you still wouldn't get to be a Librarian, since they're psykers and you're not only the complete opposite, but your very presence is actively harmful to the activities of other Librarians.

[TheDungen]

Even if a blank could do all the non psycic stuff that librarians do, he'd still hurt the librariums ability to do the psychic stuff. No I could see the BT (or other chapters) recruit a special formation of blanks to hunt down witches but they'd not be librarians.

An intresting note, if the geneseed was extracted from a blank marine, would it contain his diminished psychic pressence. And if the geneseed of a powerful psyker (say Sangistinius or Magnus) was used to make a blank a space marine would it make him less a blank?

If the former is true it would be possible to create an entire space marine chapter of blanks. That could be insanely useful for the imperium (they'd be even more psychic resistant than the grey knights), then again it'd be impossible to contact them since a company (100) of blanks would probably cancel out any astropaths that tried to work for them.

[Askil the Undecided]

The important point to remember is that the BT's don't just murderously hate psykers, they murderously hate mutants in general. Pariahs included.

Also the proegenoid glands gather genetic material that is specifically released from the implanted Astartes organs and as their original physiology however mutated doesn't do so it wouldn't affect the developing geneseed.

[cpl_hicks]

When I have read about Pariahs/blanks I have come across two seperate type, the first is the person who fills others with revulsion the other who acts as a general calm, the terms seem to be intermixed, but i think we have to take into account the possible differances.

I also chose librarians as with there psychic powers I though this would be the best bet, but would this actua;lly fit more in line with the chaplins as the force that is responsable for the monitoring of the champter.

[Lord Damocles]

Blank/untouchable/null/pariah are all names for much the same phenomenon (ie. negative psychic presence, somewhere below Rho on the Assignment) with variations in 'strength'.

There's never been any real differentiation between, or exact description of what each term specifically refers to or implies about abilities (further complicated by the fact that the powers of a pariah can be increased through training).


Levels of power range from a general sense of discomfort around the individual (Jurgen, and presumably Thomas Macabee, for example) with limited blocking of psychic abilities within a relatively short distance to the creation of a sense of utter horror and revulsion, and the messy death of nearby psykers (the pariah mcguffin artefact from Atlas Infernal, for example).
Technologically boosted or manipulated pariahs may also exist on an even more powerful level, for example whatever the sepulchre aboard some Necron capitol ships contains.

[Lothlanathorian]

The only place I've noticed Pariah and Blank being interchangeable is on Warseer. Generally, in the fiction, a Blank has always just been a null and a Pariah I've only ever seen in the rules, specifically, Necrons and Culluxes Assassins and they are obviously much more than just blocking the Warp in their immediate vicinity, they block it in a larger area and have a much stronger affect on anyone around them.