40K - MASTERS OF THE IMPERIUM - Navigators/Navis Nobilite | Warhammer 40,000 Lore/History

[Music] [Music] so [Music] within the bleak and darkened future of the 41st millennium the galaxy spanning empire of humanity known as the imperium loves to indulge itself in tales of glory in grandiose figures of power and extreme actions of strength and mental fortitude that demonstrate this its military both in defense and offense utilize weapons and quantities of material at an extreme scale its warriors are tested beyond what one could assume to be a reasonable level of human endurance and its factions are numerous and equally ostentatious perhaps none more so than the inquisition whose title has become synonymous with the act of exterminatus whereby a single inquisitor of the imperium may condemn entire worlds and populations of billions to planetary immolation the imperium exudes strength it is a dominating power in the galaxy granted it remains under extreme pressures from so many enemies yet there exists one faction within the imperium which remains more critical to the successful defense of its empire than all of its military forces combined and beyond this it ensures the imperium may operate at its most basic logistical level an often forgotten organization known as the novice nobility more commonly referred to as the navigators many high-ranking imperial servants and governors have learned the mistake not to misunderstand the power that the navigators can hold both individually and as an integral organization within the imperium navigators can strip the flesh from your bones with merely a gaze and blast a person apart leaving nothing but a pile of shivering meat and steaming bone navigators do not merely charge a course for starships of humanity they're immensely powerful psyches of a kind and are rightly respected for the power and importance they wield few factions within the imperium hold the scope and power of the great navigator houses of the navis their position of control over nearly all imperial shipping positions then almost beyond the control of both the administrative and even the inquisition itself for without the navigators there is no imperium no warp travel no human galactic empire there are many groups individuals and mechanisms that are important for humanity but many of these could be lost and with them the hope of survival in the dark future of humanity approaching the end of the 41st millennium there are three absolutely essential components that enable the imperium to function at all the emperor of man the astronomican and imperial navigators but service is not the only role to which navigators participate in for while an imperial philosopher may posit that life is the emperor's currency and his servants throughout the galaxy must choose carefully in how they might spend it navigators know that life is not the only currency trade contracts lucrative rogue trader exploratory missions and other more questionable actions are made possible by the navigators theirs is a world of shadow intrigue fame honor and deceit a single navigator of legendary success may pull their house bloodline up to a world of high status and opportunities only open to the most favored yet achieving this comes at extreme risk and gambling of fortunes can bring down a house to a point of exile just as easily navigators are some of the few in the imperium born into privilege yet their lives could hardly be something one would aspire to they want for nothing and surround themselves with luxury yet they must also endure the most dangerous of all roles within the imperium to open their minds and gaze upon the ocean of souls that is the immaterium navigators have ultimately one sole purpose in life to enable warp travel for the imperium were it not for navigators then the imperium and humanity would slip back into a near unescapable age of darkness essentially the second age of strife without the emperor walking among us to lead humanity out of this darkness it's reasonable to speculate that this could finally mean the end for humanity or at least on a galactic scale before we launch into more about the navigators i think it's important to mention that there is one other psychic class of human which is so integral to the operation of the imperium and that is astropaths astropaths are also essential to the continued existence of the imperium however i would argue that while communication which is their purpose is important the literal ability to travel at all takes a higher place of importance astropaths are the means by which humanity communicates between distant planets however a common misconception and something which contributes to the confusion of fact and reality in the imperium is that astropaths do not communicate with clear precise transmissions of text and data this isn't star trek we're not doing subspace communications here for astropaths communications are in fact extremely vague and require an unbelievable amount of skill to decipher what amounts to nothing more than beamed emotions and mental impressions not to mention the fact that unlike a navigator astropathic communication can be highly dangerous and often lead to an astropath soul being lost to the void astropathic communication at significant distance is not especially common it's difficult it's dangerous and more often than not any message received is so vague even the most experienced astropaths can find it near impossible to decipher or perhaps at best it is unclear as to the intention of the message received there are times when an approaching enemy is so terrifying that the vision sent through the immaterium is clear enough to understand but even then often the biggest problem for astropaths is the correct interpretation of a clear message if you received a mental image which you knew the origin point of from say a specific style system but all the image you received was perhaps a battle or some vague other imagery just even pure emotive sense how can that dictate an action you could end up sending an entire fleet to its destruction mistakenly every warp capable vessel numbers amongst its crew a sizable group of astropaths and these are generally formed into what is known as an astropathic choir there will of course additionally be a cabal of navigators led by a senior navigator primaris or warp guide while not entirely clear as if anything can be in m41 it is believed that the navigators originated from sometime during the dark age of technology and a rough date suggested is m22 but given that's a period of some thousand years it's hardly specific during this dark age as the imperium refers to it it's also been known as humanity's golden age for the astonishing rise in technological and social advancement would see humans reach their zenith in knowledge this was also believed to be a time of considerable experimentation genetically and this is why some may speculate that it was in fact the golden age which saw the arrival of figures known as perpetuals beings that are in essence immortal now others would disagree with that but it's one speculation and for the longest time it was assumed that perpetuals were merely a natural evolution of humanity and nobody was really sure as to when they truly originated some would speculate that the emperor was created very early on in humanity's history but the emperor's creation of the primark vulcan also demonstrates that genetic traits can be artificially recreated although arguably using his own dna as a contributing base element but still the point is it could be achieved and that during the golden age of humanity much research and development into almost anything imaginable was taking place humanity was learning about space travel ever more and was sending out colony ships far and wide but this was an extremely slow process so in the period of m22 when we saw the arrival of this so-called navigated gene just how or why this occurred is not specifically known it may have been as part of a deliberate study to enable humanity to travel the galaxy faster or perhaps it was as a result of some exposure or proximity to strange warp behavior during a voyage this of course all sits within the context of a somewhat parallel appearance of psyches among humanity and just as with the navigators there are those who would claim that humanity is entering a entirely new phase of its natural evolution that one day human psyches will become the norm and not the exception many believe this was what the emperor understood to be the case and was making plans to account for this massive shift in human i suppose biology of course some also believe that the emperor was the direct cause of this evolutionary change in the first place but others like the eldar believe that humanity are walking down a path which will lead to their doom which is i think clearly not the case for multiple reasons but from the eldar point of view there's a reason why they would think that some among the ecclesiarchy inquisition or simply of more puritan beliefs believe that for every cycle born a thousand twisted mutants are spawned first and when it comes to the navigators they may in fact not be far off of the mark for the entire reason navigators hold such power is a result of the previously mentioned navigator gene and it is this which enables these individuals to navigate through warp space they appear as a mutant human form for all navigators feature a third eye commonly called the warp eye and this is seen upon their foreheads and which quite literally allows them to perceive the psychic light of the astronomican prior to this it's believed it gifted them the ability to sense the tides of the warp and again navigate warp space but while these abilities are considered psychic navigators never seem to possess any powerful psychic abilities beyond those which their warp eye enables of which there are several it should be noted that the late period of m22 was believed to be also as i said when the first signs of the natural emergence of psyches began to occur so it seems likely that this period saw the initial adaptation of new human traits to allow the genetic adaptation of the navigator class one can only wonder though what humanity would have been able to achieve or perhaps even had achieved during this time via further genetic manipulation of psyches and of course a wild aside it's debatable like i was saying that the emperor himself did not have some sort of plan like this in mind for humanity further down the line of course the emperor lived in the golden age of humanity no one knows what was truly achieved in that era or what the emperor was doing for the majority of this time perhaps his intentions all along have been to continue some project from this period and as i was saying it very much could be that he even may have been some kind of initial starting point for that evolution but who can really say for now all we can do is throw up speculative rationalizations returning to the navigators though given that they are so critical for the imperium how is it they are so rarely seen or even spoken about why are they bizarrely designated within the imperium's organizational chart is sitting merely within the structural container of the imperial fleet this appears to suggest that they are but a mere sub-category of the imperial navy in fact they appear to sit at the bottom of the imperial hierarchy i'm speaking here in terms of organizations that matter they obviously are not literally at the bottom of all imperial civilization but this positioning seems extremely misleading and i would suggest that this is perhaps deliberately so it should be clear that the navigators are an extremely powerful organization in the imperium arguably even more powerful than the inquisition at least in terms of status but not necessarily command this is not to suggest of course that they are untouchable immune to all prosecution for crimes against the imperium yet they are something akin to perhaps diplomatic immunity within the imperium where only the most abhorrent traitorous and dangerous of acts will provoke an official response and even then in a considerable amount of cases concealment of scandal or offense may be preferable that is to say negotiated above public admonitions or brutal public punishment however to be clear these descriptions can make it sound as if the navigators are almost a tolerated enemy and this is not the case they are very much a loyalist contingent of the imperial order however they are just problematic as a result of their critical role and the fact that they understand that one of the reasons why often the inquisition and other enforcement apparatus in the imperium do not get an opportunity to punish or interrogate navigators is that their preference is to deal with these matters internally and that seems to be the status quo unlikely any punishments dealt within the navigator's palace are every bit as horrifying as those doubt out by the imperium and inquisition potentially worse even unusually unlike so many factions of the imperium navigators appear to remain unconcerned when it comes to pursuits such as seeking advancement for themselves or their guild i'm speaking of course in the sense of the wider imperium they generally appear collectively content to remain forgotten rarely distant from a chance to step back into the shadows they don't seek attention or glory nor celebration for themselves in a large sense they live their lives are dark and mysterious that's not necessarily to say this is the case on an individual level but collectively as an organization they don't seek to make huge waves but detailed information about their internal organization is very thin this is again unlikely to be the case by chance or through want of trying in fact it's likely that some elements within the imperium know full well what occurs within the darkest recesses of the navigator's guild they just know it's more trouble than it's worth to take any action for any disruption between the navigators and the imperial navy and administratum would cause almost immediate levels of high disruption perhaps even devastating tactical weaknesses for frontiers that are immediately under pressure from the enemies of man navigators who are not out on active assignment aboard ships will reside on terror within the navigator's quarter this is a lush grandiose sector with a vast palace complex its noble houses in internal workings are very closely guarded and it's natural of course that citizens spread rumors about dark and abhorrent activities beyond its closed doors and these seem to ever persist likely because from what we seem to know about the navigators it's very probably true they're generally immune from imperial law so who can imagine what decadent and horrifying activities take place within the navigator's quarter compounding these speculations is the fact that it is not perhaps common knowledge but within some officials of the imperium it became known that the navigator gene itself can only be preserved by to put it politely into marriage it is fully lost when a navigator would breed with an ordinary human and so very unfortunately they must reproduce within the family as it were it was seemingly this factor that is said to have preceded the development of the closely related navigator families and it is likely because of this that many suspect these frowned upon practices are the least of the navigator's decadence twinned with the fact that they're hidden out of sight and exist outside of imperial law for those who are tasked to venture out into the void away from the luxury that exists within and below the palaces and grand estates of the navigator families the unknowable sights and activities of the navigator quarter are but nothing to what they must endure out among the stars navigators will spend the majority of all voyages in isolation they're also entirely forbidden from uttering to others just what it is they see within the formless wastes of the immaterium it is an immense burden they must carry alone as they look out into the blurred chromatic landscape of the sea of souls semblances of structures rivers of pure saturated vibrance that flow upon themselves infinitely the white-hot emotions of humankind given shape and form these words are absolutely nothing not even the most vague outline of what a navigator must bear witness to when they finally open their mutant eye to the eternal darkness guiding their imperial ship through warp space can do any justice to the horrors that the navigator must endure the primary role of all navigators is of course navigation through the warp while the rest of the ship's crew and the ship's captain will maintain the systems of the ship keeping the vessel's plasma and warp drives functioning and its geller field intact i feel that it is worth noting that not every ship requires a navigator many pockets of the imperium exist as closely adjacent systems of multiple planets and between these areas there will be local traders merchants and imperial military who use not interstellar but interplanetary travel simply put they just use the ship's engines to travel with no need to enter the warp at all this is of course far safer for very obvious reasons solo careers haulers miners even passenger vessels and yes believe it or not pleasure craft may operate within localized systems because they cannot enter the warp ships of this configuration are commonly referred to as system ships a common feature of imperial systems with heavy interplanetary traffic will be orbital stations docks off world factoria dry dock shipyards planetary defense satellites and habit blocks old technologically advanced worlds like mars have forged entire orbital rings in fact many forge worlds have this and these rings have been built to orbit around a planet over millennia some forge world rings have even been rumored to be powered and capable of leaving a planet's orbit entirely in stark contrast with what are believed to be the common system limited vessels interstellar starships are actually considered to be quite a rare sight which may surprise those of us familiar with the tales of the imperium which is why it's worth reminding that the tales of elite forces of humanity are just that they are elite they are uncommon for any ordinary trader rogue or otherwise attempting a crossing through warp space is extraordinarily dangerous jumps of just a few light years are considerably hazardous without a navigator to guide the ship but apparently they are possible if a course is well established and carefully laid in for all other travel across the stars requires a navigator and any ship with a navigator is effectively controlled by the imperium the key word there being effectively the difference between interplanetary and interstellar ships is that interstellar ships are fitted with a warp drive and again important to remember that warp drives in 40k are not the same as warp drives in other fictional verses all it does is it allows them to push through the membrane between the material universe and the warp you might say to tear a portal between the immaterium and the material once they're in the warp they just use the standard engines of the ship while in the warp you then have the geller field form a teardrop of reality around the ship to allow it to be propelled and prevents the surging energies within the warp from just destroying the ship the warp drive is always buried into the safest possible location deep in the heart of the ship the function and operation of wart drives are very closely guarded secrets of the adeptus mechanicus and the navis nobility a navigator must study the flow and fluctuations of the warp as well as the distance and strength of the astronomican using this information they will inform their captain to make course corrections and when it is best to leave or enter the warp transitioning between real space and the warp is not especially challenging although there can always be a role for a navigator to play here once the vessel has fully transitioned into the warp all rests upon navigator for without them the ship and its crew would have no idea whatsoever of the dangers or direction they may be facing as they stumble around blindly in the void they may exit somewhere facing extreme danger far from any human systems worse they may exit directly into the path of a xenos world or fleet even more likely they will be lost in the void to be eventually torn apart by the raging tempest that is the immaterium but what is the process by which navigators allow ships to travel through the warp well firstly a navigator must determine the length of any given passage as i've touched on previously at length the concept of time is very difficult to relate between real space and the warp and so navigators must measure in what is called subjective time this time experienced by those traveling through the warp is different from that which passes in the material world and ships have been known to arrive to destinations centuries late or even in rare situations arrive before they originally departed leading to further troubling questions that i will not venture into today it's generally seen to be accepted though that the easier a passage through the warp seemingly the more stable the sense of subjective time has been observed to behave this does not mean it's specifically relative but it is more subjectively relatable apparently anyway because of this an experienced navigator should be able to make a prediction for their ship as to the estimated length of passage and arrival especially on well-worn routes through the war these are rarely exactly accurate but it is enough to be practically reliable this though can always be disrupted by warping counters turbulent storms a navigator may have to alter course in transit or even exit prematurely should the dangers within the immaterium become too significant when making these estimations a navigator must also gauge the strength of the astronomican in order to calculate their distance and position relative to terror it's not to say that without the astronomican travel is impossible but it will rely solely then on the navigator's experience and even with the most experienced of navigators it's an extremely risky endeavor to undertake once the astronomican has been located the navigator will chart their course however this does not always mean consulting physical charts it requires them to gaze into the warp itself and determine the stability of their route and passage and were there to be any significant warp disturbances along the route a good navigator will likely have detected it failure to do so can prove to be catastrophic for all concerned when a ship has finally begun its journey it must then be steered through via the collaboration of a navigator and crew yet the instability of the warp itself and an accurate course charting are by no means the only dangers facing a ship and its crew there are many others waiting in the darkness of the void one of the most terrifying is of course warp intrusion and for most aboard a starship the sea of souls is a bizarre terrifying place to be nightmares and strange happenings are always rumored aboard a ship whilst in transit through the war there are tales of monsters leviathans of the deep that hunt the immaterium's currents and this is told between fearful voidsmen during any voyage the officers and senior staff of a ship know more about the truth as would any raised among the void born but they were always conscientious to keep it to themselves they know full well that the immaterium is a place more than just a haunted region they know that the warp watches them knows them and worse hungers for all of them above all they know that anyone aboard a ship could become a conduit potentially for some warp-spawn horror that could destroy them all against the predations of the immaterium the starship's only defense is its geller field this truly miraculous relic of the dark age of technology generates a bubble of reality around a starship as we noted before and the warps denizens cannot pierce through this by this alone a starship may sound protected through the perilous warp of course no technology especially in the 41st millennium is infallible and gellar fields are known to fail should even a momentary failure occur a ship will find itself in the gravest of danger even the smallest essence coming aboard can spawn a demonic beast of astonishing strength and ferocity create nightmarish and ghosty phenomena that can wreck instruments and plow through the crew like an unstoppable pandemic if a warp entity that breaks through is weak it may seek out equally weak minded souls to possess if it is stronger it may manifest unaided as a demon and wreak havoc or forcibly twist mutate slaw to its victims no matter the strength of the intrusion it is absolutely vital that the crew respond quickly before the ship itself is compromised and potentially lost bulkheads across the ship will be automatically sealed armsmen and officers rally the armory and then with cannons saber and boarding flamers teams of armsmen will scour through the ship from proud to stern to clear it of the appalling demon taint if they're successful the starship may survive to return into real space if not it will likely become another anonymous lost ship if a galler field though should fail permanently it is very likely the starship will not survive at all and be dissipated into the immaterium as it is torn apart by warp currents now i want to briefly go off on a tangent here one of perhaps several because while we're considering specifically the navigators aboard imperial ships this seems a suitable place to briefly interject a mention to the humans who are classified as void borne in my series about different planetary classes of the imperium death worlds civilized worlds and so on these are what the majority of humans would classify as their home planet type this classification will have a direct and important impact on the development and skills of individuals born from there as most humans will be unlikely to leave their home planet and for the few who do most will enter the astra militarum a tiny percentage will be nobles who have been granted rogue trader status and then we also have graduates of a scholar progenium all of these may well ascend into the stars imperial fleets are vast not to mention the smaller continual transports and trade ships which traverse the void and help enable the imperium's logistical structure to function imperial ships can vary in size from 700 odd meters in length up to 8 000 meters that means large imperial battleships can be anything up to five miles in length crew complements vary wildly from tens of thousands up to millions which might sound a lot of people to fit within that five mile space but by in mind that's not accounting for the internal space on the largest of ships which when spread across multiple habitation crew decks where infantry will be heavily concentrated it's very feasible while military forces will rotate through ships those serving aboard at a senior level may find themselves similarly assigned to other craft as they're promoted or needed but for the lowest serving members of the imperial navy or just on more industrial vessels rogue trader administration any number of roles there will be a near permanent labor force who wants a board may never again step foot on a planet many generations will pass aboard these vast vessels with many never having known anything other than traveling across the silent sea of stars it's worth remembering that within the imperium while some ships travel only with local or adjacent systems taking perhaps months or most years to travel between as we noted some ships traverse the entire galaxy and even then perhaps despite using the warp it may in fact be several centuries before they reach their destinations for the stricter military vessels like those assigned to the astartes imperial navy and other high status imperial ships much of its internal goings on will be heavily structured and disciplined upon more exploratory or trade vessels though lower decks or the very dark and lowest levels of a ship can be more let's say unregulated walking these near abandoned dark cramped levels may find odd figures strange people mutants sometimes heretics often just those who carry out their daily tasks and know nothing more most often though voidborn are loyally dedicated to their ships ensuring they maintain maximum efficiency for they all depend on it for their very lives they will often keep themselves to themselves and not wish to mix with planet-borne humans who themselves view the voidborn as suspicious there is something about having lived only among darkness that ordinary planet born humans can pick up on some call it a coldness others feel the voidborn have an aura of something darker if there's any truth to this contamination who can say but knowing all humans in the 41st millennium appear to have a level of very low psychic activity apart from very obviously the nulls one wonders if those who exist solely among the stars do not somehow gradually absorb some of the dark energy that exists within the warp geller field or no whatever the reason you might want to rationalize it with radiation gravitic or temporal distortions low oxygen limited genetic pores unusual speech patterns there's just something off about void-borne humans while many imperial ships have a military role active or subsidiary there are many other classifications which also may harbor the voidborn gigantic space stations the size of cities mining installations fixed to massive asteroids orbital drydock and refit stations often unclassified it's even said that within the imperium the largest void ships are immense city-sized craft many of which are many thousands of years old some perhaps even originating from before the imperium while these massive vessels are technically capable of travel in space most often they travel at very sub light speeds between a region of systems in close proximity to one another near enough drifting the vast ship will act as a port for enterprising traders and planetary diplomacy between noble families imperial governors it may serve also as a centralized location for planetary leaders to greet high-ranking imperials such as inquisitors administrator or but out of sight of all the marbled floors grand sculptures and aesthetic lustre will of course be entire legions of void-borne menial crew passengers whole sections of ship sectioned off to lower level merchant guilders resembling something akin to hive cities dark abandoned corridors overpopulated cramped quarters and dangerous industrial levels where the air itself burns to be breathed without respirators while far above senior nobles will enjoy the freshest of fruits and real meats for many worlds no matter all these civilian goings on though for be it a low level trade ship a critical inquisitorial mission astarte's battleship or city-sized space station you'll always find sitting adjacent to a ship's captain a member of the navigators a silent strange individual who exudes a dark and unplaceable power ordinary humans would step aside and bow their heads for the undisputed masters of void travel or the novice nobility while we often hear the tales of the brave and adventurous the powerful and the gifted for most citizens of the imperium their lives follow a very strictly set course from birth to death their fate is but a road to travel down and not stray off of and for some imperial citizens like those of the navis nobility they will have absolutely no choice as to their lot in life it is locked in and they will carry out the role they have been assigned the only other option to escape duty will be death often within the imperium opting for your own death may not even be the escape you hope least of all if you're caught prior and then subjected to who can imagine some kind of living death be that conversion to servature form or something worse certainly fewer powers such as the navigators would ever be allowed to mix in with the general population or have any choice as to their activities or general life plans their lives are for all intents and purposes predetermined and they must accept this and make the best of it navigators may have power and access to nearly anything they desire but they are also simultaneously prisoners navigator guilds or clans are so essential to the imperium that no other option is reasonable navigators are always identifiable by their mutations seen upon their foreheads the so-called third eye however sometimes because of the mutating nature of the navigators this may not be present at birth and so it would then be artificially formed by surgically drilling through their skulls and implanting an artificial eye to enable the full release of a future navigator's powers for the eye is apparently essential it enables them to gaze into the warp and guide ships through the immaterium where otherwise they would be shredded by the powers and surging energy of the warp a well-trained navigator can additionally manifest abilities some may consider comparable to that of psyches but always this is achieved through their third eye it is said that a truly powerful navigator can even affect the warp itself and affect it powerfully enough that ripples can be felt within the material of real space the most clear power of a navigator's warpai when fully opened is its power to kill its terrifying light separates the souls from those unfortunate enough to look upon it and if they so choose enough to separate their body from itself extinguishing them forever in a moment of blazing madness and agony something often not considered when it comes to the organization of humans throughout the galaxy is that the location of human colonies may have much to do with not locations we chose to travel to but simply systems within space that travel through the warp itself allowed this is something i've often realized in conversations is not a part of the 40k verse that people seem to have fully understood i think this is because in most space fiction humanity has vessels that are seemingly able to use fast and light ships or linking jump points that allow them to go basically wherever they please and whilst humanity does cover a large amount of the galaxy my understanding of both colonization and space travel in 40k is that while obviously ships in the imperium may choose to travel from point a to point b at this point in time it happens very much by traveling along established warp currents it's often described to us how the currents of the warp are not exactly something that vessels have strict control over and that once entering the warp the ship becomes something at the mercy of the flowing tides of the sea of souls i think you may liken it more to a very large and powerful river more than an ocean where you're pulled along different pathways and some are very well established and others may pull you into an eddy or some very powerful surging force which just takes you down a route whether you want to go or not when you become caught this is often how travel in the warp is described it's nothing as simple as in other fictional verses where they just choose a destination and travel to it i'm not trying to suggest that in 40k verse ships have little or no control over where they can travel to this is very obviously not the case there are multitude of routes that allow travel throughout the galaxy my point is that because of the turbulent nature of the immaterium some areas of the galaxy are just harder to reach than others some in fact are completely inaccessible and likely will remain unexplored even now there may be worlds out there that originally were colonized by humans but now can't be reached and they definitely can't be reached by sub light travel navigators serving aboard rogue trader vessels do so under an incredibly complex contract negotiated at the very highest levels between the novator the leader of a navigator house or their most trusted agents in return for the service of one or more navigators the rogue trader dynasty will grant the navigator house a portion of whatever profits it comes into throughout the term of the contract navigators may and often do dictate additional clauses as well especially regarding their status on board the vessel as well as the manner in which new warp routes are charted as the vessel explores the darkness these explorations are one source of the navigator houses unimaginable wealth and by acting in this role a navigator will acquire considerable data regarding new routes and thus ensuring future endeavors are additionally more profitable for them over millennia each navigator house will have amassed vast libraries of astrographic data but exploration never ends for the navigator houses are in a continued competition with one another and for reasons that may become clear shortly so new routes must be forged in order to maintain their lead over competing houses to this end navigator houses and rogue traded dynasties rely closely upon one another to open new opportunities acquire wealth and maintain dominance over rivals for navigators rogue traders are the main way in which they acquire wealth in the strange way that appears to be quantified in m41 this is of course not the primary role for navigators they also serve the imperium and are vital to the safe and relatively smooth operation of logistical travel across the galaxy it is an honored duty imposed upon the navigators to guide imperial ships via the most efficient paths as they travel in warp space they will be housed within darkened stasis chambers wrapped in size shielding to create powerful barriers between themselves and the warp and of course the geller field and even then the entities that live within the void may still enter a navigator if they drop their mental focus for even a moment when in this state the navigator will see and feel more of the warp than any other member of humanity they can see and sense the shape of their ships gellar field the strange ethereal shapes formed by the imaginations of the ship's crew that surround them as they traverse the immaterium their own voices fears doubts guilt call to them attempting to trick their own minds into submission and these are the least concerning risks for a navigator and allowing themselves to focus on these trivial considerations invites disaster at the hands of the more insidious ancient and dark beings which drift through warp space any distraction due to the things which swirl around ships crossing the immaterium may cause a navigator to allow its ship to drift into warp vortices their swirling massive energy trapping helpless craft and tearing them apart with forces that would be entirely impossible within the material space constrained by its laws of physics within the warp no such laws are believed to exist or be followed and the warp is a space above and outside of our four-dimensional material realm despite all the dangers warp travel is the only way humanity has been able to colonize the galaxy and it is the flow and direction of warp currents that have at least to a degree dictated which areas of the galaxy are most accessible this still constitutes a huge area and it's very likely when the emperor's great crusade began the fleets of humanity's new empire could very easily locate worlds colonized by humans because they just followed the warp paths however this fact also means that there is the possibility that as i said earlier out there among the stars exist planets which are beyond the reach of both the navigators and the astronomican broadcast from holy terror by a choir of psyches focused by the emperor's will the astronomican is the essential tool that enables galactic space travel it stands as a burning psychic beacon reaching out across all of space and gifting navigators a point of reference by which they can attempt to plot courses through the directionless swirling seas of endless chaos despite the navigator's powerful abilities were not for the astronomican not even the most powerful of navigators could pilot a ship or plot a course for the immense voyages required to cross by the quarter of the breadth of the imperium the very obvious question people always ask immediately is well how did navigators or even humanity travel before the astronomica the answer is well space was at different times very calm obviously during the age of strife it was very disruptive but in the golden age it would have been far more peaceful and thus it would have been much more easy to travel but what about after the age of strife but before the astronomican what happened then well at that time while the emperor was still walking among humanity he was able to use his immense psychic power to enable warships to travel very easily then later he would build the astronomican to take over that responsibility but this is another reason why the emperor himself is so critical most often it's only remembered that the emperor protects humanity from chaos and that he also continues to keep shut his version of the old one's webway gate on terror holding back the darkness and preventing it from consuming terror itself yet there is another and also very complicated reason as to why many fear the death or the resurrection of the emperor because it is unknown what exactly would occur should he not be present on the golden throne even for a short time likely the astronomican would fail and terror may face unstoppable forces so just like the navigators are essential to travel across the empire of the imperium the emperor and the astronomican are equally critical neither one can operate without the other at this point and furthermore the radius to which the astronomican extends across the galaxy is limited directly by the power of the emperor and psychic choir this is why warp travel on the furthest reaches of the galaxy can be extremely dangerous because essentially the astronomical can't reach that far for any navigator attempting to travel far out on the rim they must do so essentially in blindness and this significantly increases the risk of some accident or mental invasion of the navigator or worse on these fringe regions only a few road traders have explored by using conventional space travel to probe just beyond where the astronomican can reach however this is extremely limited because conventional space travel takes such a huge amount of time and so humanity is limited to the confines of the astronomicans psychic bubble beyond its protection just what waits for us out there in the true emptiness of the starless void is unknown humanity though has several advantages over many other lesser races in the galaxy such as the tau and various xenos firstly the mechanicus continued to enable humans to use ancient technology which hails from humanity's zenith era the tech priests of mars preserve the law of ancient science on behalf of the adaptus terror and this allows spacecraft to enter or exit the immaterium with a reasonable degree of reliability which is obviously very important then we have the navigators for without them captains would not be able to maneuver their ships through the turbulent tides of the warp meaning transit between destinations would be difficult to achieve reliably if at all as i've said already and the quantity of ships lost within the warp would then dramatically increase logistics and military support in defense of the empire would essentially cease to be reliable if not just cease altogether and as a result the enemies of humanity would soon dominate then lastly as described we have the astronomican gifting the navigators a reliable fixed point of reference within the warp to guide and orientate themselves from without this the significant majority of void pharahs would be lost navigators alone are capable of gazing into the insane swelling depths of the immaterium pitting their will and consciousness against the raging ocean of warp space within this realm will be cast this reflection of each navigator's true self the horror and darkness that exists within all humans inside of ourselves we dare not accept nor look upon it is only the navigators alone that are capable of gazing into the insane swirling depths of the immaterium [Music] the navigators tell how to gaze into the warp is to look into the abyss to understand insanity itself is to become insane and the worst of all is the knowledge that as you gaze upon it the warp is looking back at you and laughing what does this mean and precisely why is the warp so dangerous to look upon why are ordinary humans incapable of looking upon the immaterium yes the horrors of the warp the shifting sea of the collective nightmares of all humanity but what truly is it that threatens us mere mortals with the loss of our minds and more dare we to look upon the void now if you will grant me a lengthy and perhaps unnecessarily rambling tangent which i will attempt to relate to the dangers of gazing into the warp also now the great rift known as the sycatrix maledictum torn through the galaxy and described in recent works as capable of sending humans insane just by gazing up to the stars and looking upon its gaping more of an abyss for too long i will hope to make something of a coherent point in relation to this now you may well remember the quote i consider relatable to 40k from terence malik's movie the thin red line adapted from james jones novel which asks about this great evil where did it come from finishing with the ambiguous question is this darkness in you too i've often wanted to talk about that film will i one day maybe maybe i'll start a channel just for me to talk at excessive length about movies tell me your thoughts about that below the thin red line is set in the pacific theater of world war ii and many would and i have seen do take that film at face value assuming it to simply be another war film exploring the by now heavily covered nature of human suffering sacrifice and strength while engaged in warfare this is not to say it doesn't function well as a film about these things and it can be viewed through that lens yet it very clearly is not primarily focused upon those areas in the movie the war setting of the pacific merely forms a backdrop harrowing and emotional nonetheless for a film which attempts to ask us existentialist questions about the relationship and place between nature and humanity the film continually displays and references a sense of ethereal natural beauty set against seemingly pointless suffering men fight a war of attrition over a hill with extreme suffering on both sides throughout the movie seeks to juxtapose this battle for pure survival against that which exists permanently in nature it doesn't seek to compare the large-scale warfare of humans against that of the natural world admitting suggests that warfare is the natural conflict which defines humanity and this theme which persists throughout can be interpreted via the continual disconnected poetic narration at one point we hear lieutenant colonel tall who is relieving captain from duty and he attempts to rationalize their situation and the nature of warfare by use of their surroundings to illustrate his point saying look at this jungle look at those vines the way they twine around the trees swallowing everything nature is cruel steros there's a considerable amount more to speak to but the movie is essentially an existential reflection of the relationship between humanity and the natural world it seeks to ask us probing and potentially unanswerable questions of existence hence the question is this darkness in you too how can you answer such a question until you find yourself in that place and that's the point it also alludes continuously from start to finish themes of immortality and an eternal cycle of life which i think if i did a deeper exploration could also be highly relevant to 40k and the human condition one could also imagine quite easily drifting into talking about obvious adjacent references via couplers apocalypse now heavily inspired from the novella the heart of darkness again could be very relatable to 40k and so that's really the extremely unnecessary long-winded point that i'm trying to make this idea about this hidden heart of darkness and that's what relates to here in 40k i probably didn't need to use such a random tangent example but it was just what came into my head and i thought it would be good to use it so for humans in the far future in 40k in the 41st millennium gazing into the warp and the endless void of the abyss the reason this is so dangerous is precisely because it reveals this darkness in ourselves just like the concepts in those films and for the majority of humans this revelation is something they're entirely unable to process it may reveal desires and horrors consciously or unconsciously suppressed these are the things by which the warp is fueled by by showing yourself the imaginings dreams thoughts and desires that reside within humanity for any human to look upon the warp is to open their soul but far worse and far more terrifying to force them to gaze deeply within themselves as well only the strongest of psyches grey knights inquisitors and navigators are capable of enduring such overwhelming feats of mental fortitude [Music] within the navigator quarter are the established grand houses of the novice some are of course more ancient and powerful than others but there are many thousands of different navigator houses this has occurred it is believed via the fragmentation of what were the original great houses of the navigator lineage there are several categories to which we can assign the majority of these primary and subsidiary navigator houses the largest and most powerful come under the banner of so-called magisterial houses these are believed to be houses who can trace their lineage all the way back to original navigator families they retain ownership of the most luxurious and grand palaces on terror their influence crosses the entire galaxy of the imperium magisterial houses uphold the traditions and navigator crafts that have been part of their culture for many millennia and they're said to even have more control over the damaging mutations that can become commonplace among those with the navigator gene to be part of a magisterial house is to know without question the purity of your blood and the ancient power and nobility of your family shrouded navigator houses will have at some point in time endured a significant fall from grace or other great loss this means that usually by choice they operate within the least important regions of imperial territory and this may often mean the edge of space visible from the astronomican shrouded houses dream of an illustrious return to the normal order of navigator status and the ultimate dream is to return to terror itself but for those born into such houses it is to be part of a fallen line that may have no future and only the bitter tales from those who still remember their years of glory such a fall inevitably will also alter the way in which such a navigator house may operate they will become more willing to take dangerous risks seek opportunities wherever they may spring from and generally become more ruthless as mentioned earlier there are those who operate on starships that were born in space the void born and for some navigators this will mean you become part of a nomadic house these navigator houses may be attached to a vast fleet some astartes for example have no home planet to speak of and instead of fleet chapters only existing in space some rogue traders may also over time accrue large fleets for exploration or trade rarely ever returning to a planet nomadic navigators are known for their precision and expertise for they will be exposed over a much more consistent period to both materium and immaterium thus enabling them to gather an expert understanding of space and the warp many ways just like those born upon an ice planet will be highly skilled in such environments or the imperial guard specialists like the kadashan fighters are adept in jungle warfare nomadic navigators make warp space their home and unsurprisingly this makes it extremely uncomfortable for ordinary planetary born humans to be around them there are also those navigator houses who abandon the traditions precedence and ancient practices of the navigator families usually as a result of a power grab or through some unsavoury turn of events they may have been cast out by the higher status navigator houses and are usually referred to as renegade houses and this may range from at the lowest level being something of a shrouded house living just in a state of uncertainty as to their future or an outright permanent state of exile the main difference between a shrouded navigator house and a renegade is that those living on the periphery of imperial space usually seek to return their standing through actions and a demonstration that they're worthy to return to the established order whereas the renegades likely in keeping with their previously poor decisions are looking for a quick fix then this means they're often heard to begin manipulating heavily in the genetics of their offspring in a bid to improve their lot through presumably some random success producing a new powerful lineage of navigators in actuality this is unsurprisingly rarely the case their tampering often leads to hideous mutations and unconscionable monsters which then inevitably only leads to further rejection and in extreme cases their status as navigators becomes essentially revoked and this is then followed by an inevitable hunt to extinction by the inquisition who will relish the opportunity to purge these mutant freaks from the imperium something of a cathartic crusade in fact in some rare instances through genetic manipulation but likely more like blind luck will gift families with new unique abilities and potent powers that are highly desired by the stagnating genetic pull of the more established navigator houses and this will almost always allow them to return with a clean slate to the navigator's quarter on terror now each navigator house will have its own hierarchical structure based on their history it's rarely all the same however there are generally some established positions that can be commonly found among many of the houses but especially the larger and more traditional navigator houses the noble known as a novator serves as the matriarch or the patriarch of a navigator house and this novator may have a consistent direct bloodline to the other members of their house or have found themselves given to a position of leadership through some other means of selection they'll run their house and have full authority over its actions and campaigns and generally a navigator novator will run a strict house and while they will always attempt to improve their status this is commonly understood not to come at the cost of economic jeopardy or worse outright conflict between navigator houses while the navigators are always jostling for position they also understand the role they serve in the wider imperium and so strict limits are placed on just how aggressive and underhanded they can be in competition with one another this is of course not to say that there are not sometimes those who break the rules and step outside the boundaries of acceptable actions occur however when this does happen it's usually from lower ranking navigator houses attempting to make an aggressive play for power in quick order and if their gambles don't pay off or risk spreading where it might cause further disruptive instability then more powerful houses will come down on them swiftly and likely expel the troublemakers into exile whilst also absorbing their trade routes and responsibilities in the process so it's a dangerous game to play such incidents are believed to be uncommon when they do occur disruption is usually minimal the nova tours of the different houses occupy the most senior position within a navigator house but there is one position above all of these known as the patanova who looks to oversee the stability and success of the navigators within the imperium as a whole the chosen patanova will live permanently in the palace of the navigators an immense architectural masterpiece which visually dominates the center of the navigator's quarter on terror for the security of a patent over and to prevent the unthinkable from happening security details and in general senior advisors will all be selected from the paternova's own house and should a new patent overcome to power the entire previous staff will be replaced anew by default the patanova is sometimes described as the guiding father or mother of the novice nobility whose powers transcend the warp itself and this is due to their ability and role in apparently amplifying the senses of other navigators seemingly a result of their power as a psycho through their genetic mutations for any who might doubt this role it is noted that whenever patanovas are replaced there is a brief period where all navigators in the galaxy have their senses reduced this is a very dangerous time to travel through the warp and so the navigators will always attempt to make this changeover as quick and frictionless as possible if there ever were to be a dispute about who should replace an exiting patent over the reduction in ability by the navigators would be sufficient to significantly disrupt the imperium some have speculated that without the patent over it could even mean navigators would become unable to successfully traverse the warp altogether the fact they aggressively dispute but thankfully most paternova will live for anything as long as their standard thousand terran years when a patanova does pass or look to the waiting heirs apparent and these will be from some of the most powerful navigators in the great families what comes next is a strange and disturbing sequence as these prospective paternova will undergo a powerful physical metamorphosis they grow larger stronger and the psychic mutations become considerably more pronounced they're said to adapt and gain astonishing immunity to disease poison even the ability to survive in the vacuum of space itself and then in a highlander-esque process and when i say esque i mean basically literally it is the highlander they're drawn to one another to fight in combat and as each air is slain can you guess that's right the others become more powerful until only one remains alive you might say there can be only one then of course the soul survivor becomes the new pattern over a being of immense psychic and many other physical mental powers as this new pattern overtakes control all other navigators will find their abilities increased once again and so the operations for the imperium can continue as normal however there is one issue that can sometimes cause continued disruption for those navigators who served the former paternova's house they might find their abilities reduced still and while those belonging to the same house as the new patent over they will find their abilities greatly enhanced even above what they considered their standard abilities previously the reasons as to why this occurs is not clear it is assumed that their blood ties somehow enable the patent over to transmit their powers more effectively to their kin perhaps some kind of genetic compatibility with many of the former paternova navigators will find their powers greatly diminished this can obviously then create problems and so this is where legitimate restructuring of trade and highly desirable roles of status may have to be switched as a necessity for example a former paternova's house may have for the last millennia taken the position of navigators on some of the most powerful and politically important vessels like for example the lord commander of the imperium high ranking inquisitors astartes ships and so on after the change in paternova leadership these positions may become completely inviable and have to be given over to the new ruling house there's very often no dispute about this because it's more of a necessity than an active decision above all else though one of the most important roles of both the patanova and the novator is to protect the collective interests of the novice nobility from the wider imperial bureaucracy of the administrative the blinkered single-mindedness of the ecclesiarchy and the dangerously polarized inquisition another critical role is for them to act as guardians of the navigator gene both internally among navigator houses and externally against those who might seek to exploit it to their own ends be they xenos or otherwise or those who would seek to exterminate it and even potentially exterminate the navigators without these strange underground practices that enable their genetic continuation the navigators would quickly become extinct however the competition between the families has also led to each tampering with and altering the evolution of some of its children in the hopes of creating more powerful and able navigators with which to defeat their rivals and win greater contracts of wealth and status over centuries this altering of the navigator gene has created many family lineages thus developing altered navigator genetics which enables some houses to world powers abilities and mutations that are more powerful or prevalent or simply that others do not have navigator houses are highly secretive even among themselves and over millennia navigator houses will have amassed huge amounts of detailed information about warp routes thus enabling them to be able to provide services with considerable reliability or as much reliability as you ever can traveling through the warp obviously the more senior and sizable navigator houses will hold the more detailed records and charts and thus attract the more lucrative imperial contracts as usual the details on just what rewards are given in return are not entirely clear but it could be anything from actual currency remembering that is a thing in the imperium just not in an especially standardized structure of galactic economy but the reward could also come in other ways such as trade deal opportunities diplomatic protections from various imperial factions and so on generally speaking though it's quite straightforward and logical the greater a navigator house reputation the more influence it wields and can attract the better assignments and ultimately the best rewards the imperial navy the space marine chapters rogue traders and other imperial adapter will quite obviously be seeking the services of the most reliable houses enter the scions now scions are the faces of the great houses they're cunning well-informed they act as diplomats and power brokers within the wider imperium operating under the authority of their novator to ensure their family's interests are protected sounds will be considerably well educated not unlike most other navigators for that matter but they will additionally be well versed in protocol and the rituals of imperial courts to be clear that's the counseling diplomatic kind not the legal kind another key attribute in becoming a scion of a navigator house will be minimal outward mutation humans of the 41st millennium are well known for their intolerance toward genetic mutations and given this is something that is extremely widespread among the navigators this can be problematic when dealing with ordinary humans their third eye is bad enough let alone the appalling horrors that lurk beneath their vast palaces in the depths of the navigator quarter on terror writhing vomiting horrors so quite obviously the navigators wish to present someone less likely to draw the ayah of the inquisition when walking the halls of imperial administratum and the most exalted courts of nobles and militarum commanders even then despite their selection as being the least objectionable the navigator will nearly always attract considerable attention from those attending any ceremony or debate navigators are well known for their power and status not to mention science exhibiting a calming wit and anecdotal humor that are unusually entertaining for such a high status imperial this is of course all part of their carefully constructed skills in social manipulation to which they are it must be said extremely adept many new and young imperials have found themselves cut down by the sharpened words of a novice scion executed with precision reminding all of those present that while appearing superficially intriguing even warm and entertaining the scion of the navigators can destroy you but with the briefest of speeches sounds will act as the bridge between the closed off navigator houses isolated in their quarter and new potentially lucrative clients both official imperial charters and those of merchants and rogue traders sounds are considerably desired by rogue traders because of their skillful social attributes making them expert negotiators when encountering new or even lost worlds it's well known additionally that navigators in general can seemingly glimpse narrowly into the future nothing like that of eldar sears but enough to be able to seemingly predict events somewhat although not always accurately still this reputation alone and especially among science makes their services for imperial nobles greatly coveted the word of a scion could dictate the outcome of a century's long power struggle upon an imperial hive world and whether they believe their predictions or not is generally irrelevant there's a failed outcome means whoever they gave a prediction to is likely no longer around to speak of it and a success only strengthens their power and reputation so it's a win-win generally the one inescapable sadness in regard to the novice scions is that these lives of glory and high status are generally short-lived they're selected in youth for their lack of outward mutation and eventually they will be betrayed by their own bodies and forced into the life of a standard imperial navigator before eventually returning to the closed navigators quarter on terror still for the navigators the scions play an essential role in damping down fears and rumors about the navigators and the sounds are the presentable face of the navigator houses to the wider imperium for those navigators aboard starships are rarely seen beyond their most senior officers if not singularly the ship's captain and closest astropathic advisors tragically not all science will accept this transition into the default role of a navigator having become accustomed if not addicted to the adulation and status that comes with high level diplomacy throughout the imperium instead of accepting their mutations they instead will attempt to remove and correct outward appearances through extensive bioaugmentation and surgery while initially these superficial reconstructions may eliminate any noticeable outward mutation as time passes these become ever more aggressive until biotechs will find it near impossible to keep pace with the altered form of a navigator any navigator house with a well-organized leadership will ensure that rogue signs like this will be returned to terror perhaps to be well monitored within their palaces either that or they die in painful surgery attempting to cling to a world that was never truly meant for them as noted earlier within the navigator houses not unlike nearly all factions in the imperium there is a constant power struggle existing between them it might be a little much to use the term cold war but some houses do employ entire private armies to protect their assets although again as i said earlier outright conflict is uncommon but not unheard of when it does occur it will likely be as a result of lower ranking houses disputes boiling over when some plot or other fell apart was revealed or was successfully attributed to a rival subterfuge and intrigue are usually the most common practices taken by navigator houses spies spying on spies double agents sabotage sometimes assassinations and all manner of deep plots that may even take centuries to produce results it's been rumored that entire houses have fallen as the result of one well-placed imposter who spent most of a lifetime infiltrating the structure of a noble house only to bring it to its knees overnight these games though have their own risks should they fail to be executed cleanly as we noted earlier with the outcast houses a solid reputation of a single navigator can stain their entire bloodline one of the ways navigator houses can attempt to avoid conflict spilling it over into a wider more embarrassing affair is through the process of duelling essentially instead of having a protracted conflict cold or hot the navigator houses will select a champion who will then duel to resolve a conflict with each house agreeing this will theoretically be the end of the matter and a jewel takes place with carefully structured formality each duralist will slowly uncover their third eye and at a given signal unleash the full force of their powers locked together as they gaze unflinchingly into each other's warp eye enduring the unimaginable horrors of the warp and usually for the impairment m41 these jewels are rarely to the death which might and rightly so surprise you the reasoning is that similarly to other prestigious roles like that of a titan princess it's well understood that the navigators are not plentiful and so the lives of navigators are precious even to their bitter rivals this is why if they do ever have an open conflict it will tend to be by proxy so something you won't see is navigators running at one another guns blazing fighting to the death both navigators in a duel will likely suffer extensive trauma though and take many months sometimes years to fully recover the navigator house who loses these jewels will lose status and reputation and dependent on their position this can have profound consequences in the wider imperium [Music] the life of a navigator is one of duty and service to their house yet many would have it no other way for they are never truly more alive than when they ensconced in their navigation sanctum gazing into the insane swirling depths of the immaterium pitting their will and their wits against the ravaging storm of energy and thought that lurks behind all things others call real i think too often we hear about the ships and vessels traversing the galaxy for the imperium yet few really understand just how astonishingly dangerous even a small warp jump can be yet it remains a necessity without the merchants traders and imperial navy the imperium would in short order cease to exist and what should be remembered is that simply entering the warp is like so much of the technologies used by the imperium very poorly understood it is commonly said that when one travels interstellar distances their chances of returning is slim this may not mean lost in the warp itself but instead perhaps languishing in space between systems unable to re-enter the warp unlikely to become a ghost vessel or perhaps something far more horrifying perhaps stranded upon a lost planet forgotten and undiscovered by the imperium able even to make new lives for themselves or yes a ship may simply be torn apart and consumed by the unfathomable power within the immaterium for the ships themselves navigation spires are commonly positioned atop the highest points on a starship heavily armored to protect and house the principal navigator and his kin in such levels of excess and finery that they would even shame decadent planetary governors these standards are no exception even aboard simple vessels navigators are not unaware of the conditions most of humanity live with but having lived their lives in opulent surroundings within the navigator's quarter they see no reason why these expectations should be diminished whilst in transit in fact some navigators will choose to seclude themselves in their spires for the duration of every voyage even when the ship is not in the warp this is a situation that suits all concerned the ship officers need not fret about their most critical ship system getting into trouble or for their presence to disrupt or cause disquiet among the working ship's crew of course there are those who delight in wielding the power that they know they hold and so will enjoy abusing their position for their own amusement wandering the ship inviting random incompatible ranking dinner guests to the navigation spire to their confusion and awkwardness at the delight of the navigators the ship's navigator entourage will be treated with almost suffocating levels of deference on board navy ships and may only be subjected to censure by the master of the ship it is though more common for a captain and navigator to understand their interests are intrinsically linked and so a navigator will most often defer to a captain's view when it comes to the internal workings of a ship and their preference only the most important imperial figures will be assigned skillful experienced navigators or rogue traders with the coin to attract the most desired novice for your pleb imperial guardsmen you'll be lucky to get a navigator straight out of terror albeit you may be lucky and they form part of a cabal of navigators aboard your ship if it's sufficiently large otherwise you might be unlucky and the navigators first breach into the immaterium may see their soul sucked from their mortal form leaving your ship lost and adrift in the realm of unending nightmares while the navigators are certainly something of an oddity within the imperium when set against the darkness of the 41st millennium not much changes in truth when you get down to the bottom line navigators are powerful glorious enlightened critical to the future of humanity yet they are simultaneously petty power grabbing egotistical and allowed to walk not so much as on the line as regularly step right through it when it comes to imperial laws and commonly accepted practices they understand their own importance within the galactic empire of mankind and their duty to it yet they also understand the benefits of this and as one navigator has been heard to exclaim nothing makes profit like the blood of men [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Luetin09

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Keywords: Gaming, Discuss, Channel, Future, 40K, Warhammer 40K, Imperium, Humanity, Mankind, Doom, Fall, Space Marines, Heretic, Heresy, The Emperor of Man, Lore, History, Guide, Warhammer 40000, Warp, Immaterium, Rift, War, Slaughter, Horror, Nightmare, Tabletop, Inquisition

Id: CtxgeD0OeRs

Length: 77min 10sec (4630 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 12 2021