Pariah (40k) Question

[Zor]

This is something i have been wondering about recently. Does the Inquisition know about the human aspect of Pariahs (the Humans with there genes modified to create the human raw material for the necron terror machines) and if they do, do they hunt down pariah humans before they are turned into necron pariahs? Its not like chaos would have much effect on them.

Just wondering...

Zor

[Lost Soal]

They know about the Pariah gene and its a mixed reaction from the Inquisition. Some hunt and kill them, some use them for their own purposes i.e Eisenhorn and Ravenor, and a lot that are found are turned over to the Officio Assassinorum to be turned into Culexus Assassins.

[Azazal]

There's the Culexus Assassin has the same anti-psych field as the pariahs, if I remember right, they were the first with that ability in game. Ravenor has a member of his retinue that underwent surgery to turn him into a pariah, and by chance he has a short run in with a natural pariah. Both knew of their abilities and briefly talked about it. So I would say the Inq knows about the ability of a pariah, as to whether they know if a Necron Pariah is human that has undergone Necron transformation, can't say.

[NecronLord]

This is something i have been wondering about recently. Does the Inquisition know about the human aspect of Pariahs (the Humans with there genes modified to create the human raw material for the necron terror machines) and if they do, do they hunt down pariah humans before they are turned into necron pariahs? Its not like chaos would have much effect on them.

Just wondering...

Zor

The Inquisition certainly know about what are known as 'blanks' 'nulls' 'untouchables' or 'pariahs' indeed, they pre-date ther Inquisition. The Culexus temple, which uses them, appears to have been a founding temple of the Officio Assassinorum, sanctioned by the Emperor during his life.

Similarly, in the time of the Crusade, there existed something called the Sisters of Silence (Also 'Null Maidens'?), which appears to have used an all-female group of them. I don't own the Horus Heresy art books, but from what I know of them, it seems that the Sisters, the Emperor's original guardians of the Black Ships and psyker-hunters, were Pariahs. They either perished in his attempt to sieze the webway and the subsequent attacks on Earth and Luna (their base of operations), or otherwise dwindled in importance long before the forty first millennium (given that Bequin et al aren't under the protection/aegis of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica), eventually being replaced with the (much more mundane) Sisters of Battle. I'd be much obliged if someone could confirm this stuff for me, as well.

One wonders if perhaps the C'tan intended the numbers of nulls to reach much greater proportions by the 41st millennium, and that the Emperor managed to prevent this (accidentally) by getting an entire generation of them killed in the Crusade and subsequent Heresy. Interesting idea, if the Emperor was accidentally responsible for the continued existance/potency of the chaos gods. Of course, given his pro-psyker bias, perhaps he wouldn't have liked that idea at all...

Whether they know that the necron pariahs are the same thing remains unknown to me at this time - your best sources on that are Caves of Ice, where they appear, and Amberly says something about them as I recall, and Index Xenos: Necrons which talks about the 'Nkele Massacre' where the necrons attack a primative world to take one Pariah child (and cuddle her... see, we're not completely heartless) and promptly slaugher everyone else around.

As for hunting down the necrons that seek out nulls; there's the slight problem of the necrons not exactly being the most easily infiltrated type, and the average inquisitor and his assets being no match for what a necron lord can call on.

[Ted C]

This is something i have been wondering about recently. Does the Inquisition know about the human aspect of Pariahs (the Humans with there genes modified to create the human raw material for the necron terror machines) and if they do, do they hunt down pariah humans before they are turned into necron pariahs? Its not like chaos would have much effect on them.

Presumably the Inquisition knows about human Pariahs, since such Pariahs are recruited into the Officio Assassinorum to be trained as Culexus assassins.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

Ravenor has a member of his retinue that underwent surgery to turn him into a pariah

Wat?

Where and when did this happen? The inquisition can surgically remove or invert people's souls?

[Lost Soal]

Ravenor has a member of his retinue that underwent surgery to turn him into a pariah

Wat?

Where and when did this happen? The inquisition can surgically remove or invert people's souls?

Have you read the Blood Angels duology? Theres an Inquisition experiment in that who is a psyker, and at least partially "blank".
This fact from Ravenor was new to me, so I'm assuming its in Ravenor Rouge (which I should have read by now, but Waterstones has apparently lost my order).

[Adrian Laguna]

Ravenor has a member of his retinue that underwent surgery to turn him into a pariah

Wat?

Where and when did this happen? The inquisition can surgically remove or invert people's souls?

The Inquisition can do lots of crazy shit. There's a Space Marine chapter whose members were deliberately possessed by a lesser daemon and then the daemon was banished from their body after a few hours.

Also, in this case it would be inverting. Psychic blanks have souls, albeit negative ones (whatever that means). A person with no presence would be psychically kind of like the Tau.

[NecronLord]

The guy in Ravenor (Frauka) has a surgically implanted limiter that limits his effects, so they can be turned off. He was born a Pariah.

It's certainly concievable they could turn people into pariahs or psykers - it's "just" genetics after all. The C'tan made pariahs, the Old Ones made psykers.

[Shadowtraveler]

Where and when did this happen? The inquisition can surgically remove or invert people's souls?

*shrug* According to Eisenhorn, there's a part of the brain responsible for a blank's power. Or something. I can't find my copy of Eisenhorn, but it was definately mentioned in Malleus when they blow up the void shield generator.

And it's not like being a blank is an absolute defense to psychic attack, as the Chaos Titan in Hereticus shows.

[Imperial Overlord]

Where and when did this happen? The inquisition can surgically remove or invert people's souls?

*shrug* According to Eisenhorn, there's a part of the brain responsible for a blank's power. Or something. I can't find my copy of Eisenhorn, but it was definately mentioned in Malleus when they blow up the void shield generator.

And it's not like being a blank is an absolute defense to psychic attack, as the Chaos Titan in Hereticus shows.

A pariah has a warp presence, but its a zone of disruption, a vortex of psychic disruption, instead of a warp soul. So they don't have a warp soul and the vortex disrupts pyschic activity around them. It also disturbs warp souls, which the rest of the human race has. The disturbance and the feed back from it in the human is what causes humans to dislike pariahs and why the effect is stronger in psykers who are more sensitive.

[NecronLord]

A pariah has a warp presence, but its a zone of disruption, a vortex of psychic disruption, instead of a warp soul. So they don't have a warp soul and the vortex disrupts pyschic activity around them. It also disturbs warp souls, which the rest of the human race has. The disturbance and the feed back from it in the human is what causes humans to dislike pariahs and why the effect is stronger in psykers who are more sensitive.

I suspect the influence is also greater according to greater 'strength' of the pariah. Jurgen makes Demon Princes(ses) squeal in pain, and is far more repulsive than the others we've seen, seeming to manifest in the form of un-removable stench.

[Imperial Overlord]

I suspect the influence is also greater according to greater 'strength' of the pariah. Jurgen makes Demon Princes(ses) squeal in pain, and is far more repulsive than the others we've seen, seeming to manifest in the form of un-removable stench.

That would be consistent with what we've seen. Jurgen might also have bad hygene because no amount of cleanliness will make people like him so he doesn't bother trying.

[Teleros]

Going waaaay back to the original Codex: Assassins, the Culexus Assassins came about after the first human pariahs were discovered and taken to Mars for experiments etc. However they had enough on Mars to begin dampening the Astronomicon (!), and so officially the AdMech made a big show of killing the pariahs, shutting down their facilities and so on. In reality however, many were taken to a hidden world and became the Culexus Assassins that we all know and love.

Regarding Jurgen, I think there's also an amount of training needed to fully utilise a pariah's abilities. In Caves of Ice, Jurgen blocks the pariahs auras of a group of Necron Pariahs through his own aura - we know that the aura can (i) be strengthened by nearby pariahs, as in the example of the pariahs on Mars above (like ysalamiri in Star Wars), and that (ii) they both use the same "technology" for want of a better word, so I'm thinking that Jurgen's untrained aura disrupted or scrambled the Necron Pariahs' auras. Finally, Culexus assassins are described as being trained to improve their auras to Necron Pariah-like levels.

[Azazal]

Ravenor has a member of his retinue that underwent surgery to turn him into a pariah

Wat?

Where and when did this happen? The inquisition can surgically remove or invert people's souls?

It's mentioned in the Ravenor story that's in "Let the Galaxy Burn", don't have my copy handy at the moment though.

[white_rabbit]

Finally, Culexus assassins are described as being trained to improve their auras to Necron Pariah-like levels.

The Assassins actually have some extra technology/ability to suck the life out of their psyker targets.

[Karza]

Finally, Culexus assassins are described as being trained to improve their auras to Necron Pariah-like levels.

The Assassins actually have some extra technology/ability to suck the life out of their psyker targets.

Yep, that weird-looking helmet of theirs, called Animus Speculum.

*shrug* According to Eisenhorn, there's a part of the brain responsible for a blank's power. Or something. I can't find my copy of Eisenhorn, but it was definately mentioned in Malleus when they blow up the void shield generator.

And it's not like being a blank is an absolute defense to psychic attack, as the Chaos Titan in Hereticus shows.

A pariah has a warp presence, but its a zone of disruption, a vortex of psychic disruption, instead of a warp soul. So they don't have a warp soul and the vortex disrupts pyschic activity around them. It also disturbs warp souls, which the rest of the human race has. The disturbance and the feed back from it in the human is what causes humans to dislike pariahs and why the effect is stronger in psykers who are more sensitive.

Malleus offers another explanation. This is right after Eisenhorn and buddies blast the void shield projector of the manor Esarhaddon is hiding in.

With the generating projector killed, the void shield collapsed in on itself, blacking out the palace systems with the thunderclap of electromagnetic rage.

Blacking out Esarhaddon's seething mind too.

My research into untouchables, through Alizebeth and then through the Distaff she created and ran, had indicated to me that perhaps psychic power, no matter how potent, relied in the final analysis on the electrical workings of the human mind, the firing of impulse charges between synapses. Untouchables somehow blanked this, and triggered a disturbing and disarming vacancy in the natural and fundamental processes of the human brain. That, I had initially concluded, was why psykers don't work around untouchables... and why forgetfulness and unease is prevalent in their company. And, ultimately, why they disturb and upset humans so, and psykers doubly so.

I'd turned the old void shield into a brief, bright untouchable event.

And now, Emperor damn him, the heretic psyker Esarhaddon, temporarily rendered deaf, blind, and mute, was mine.

Eisenhorn's supposition gains some support from the fact that the EMP did incapacitate Esarhaddon for a while, though it makes me wonder how untouchables would affect full-blown demons then, since I doubt they have a real brain as such. Of course, it could be he's simply wrong, and while EMP does have bad effects on a psyker, that's not the mechanism untouchables use. I do find the idea of some humans being walking ECM systems a bit funny .

Has it been explicitly stated somewhere how untouchables work?

[Karza]

Has it been explicitly stated somewhere how untouchables work?

Argh, ghetto edit: I mean apart from the usual "they're psychic nulls that disturb people around them" line. What's the source of that vortex explanation Imperial Overlord posted?

[Xon]

Malleus offers another explanation. This is right after Eisenhorn and buddies blast the void shield projector of the manor Esarhaddon is hiding in.

These are not incompatible descriptions of how a Pariah effects people around them.

Warp souls are nothing more than a reflection of someone's emotions (aka unconscious mind), but emotions are purely a physical result of the brain's chemistry and electrical activity. That (advanaced) electronics technology can generate a 'warp soul' and mechnical technology can enter/exit the warp means it is primarily the result of some quantum effect highly effected be the flow of electrons.

Imperial Overlord is describing what is happening on the Warp side of the effect, while Eisenhorn is seeking to generate the real-space events of the same thing.

[Imperial Overlord]

Eisenhorn's supposition gains some support from the fact that the EMP did incapacitate Esarhaddon for a while, though it makes me wonder how untouchables would affect full-blown demons then, since I doubt they have a real brain as such. Of course, it could be he's simply wrong, and while EMP does have bad effects on a psyker, that's not the mechanism untouchables use. I do find the idea of some humans being walking ECM systems a bit funny .

Has it been explicitly stated somewhere how untouchables work?

1) The EMP worked because it disrupted neurons in Esarhaddon's brain. The book is quite clear on that. It is the brain that interacts with the warp so the EMP didn't mess with the warp but it did screw up Esarhaddon's connection to it.

2) Pariah's have a whirlpool like vortex in place of a warp soul. This disrupts nearby warp activity and negatively affects nearby warp souls. Since warp souls are linked to the brain, this is disturbance is registered by people on one level or another and they react negatively to it.

[Teleros]

Finally, Culexus assassins are described as being trained to improve their auras to Necron Pariah-like levels.

The Assassins actually have some extra technology/ability to suck the life out of their psyker targets.

I think it's a case of both - I know the Animus Speculum can amplify / focus it too.

[Imperial Overlord]

Has it been explicitly stated somewhere how untouchables work?

Argh, ghetto edit: I mean apart from the usual "they're psychic nulls that disturb people around them" line. What's the source of that vortex explanation Imperial Overlord posted?

Inquisitor, specifically the rulebook sections. Available as a free download at Specialist Games. The strongest Untouchables, Pariahs, have an "negative presence" in the warp.