The material universe is but one aspect of reality.

There is a quite separate and co-existing

immaterial universe. This is commonly known as the warp or warp-space, although it is also known as
the Abyss, the Otherworld, the Aethyrium, the empyrean, the void and the Immaterium. Witch-lore
from ancient days sees it as a birthplace or mother of evil spirits, known as Tiama'at, Ereshkigal, or as
Chaos.
Warp-space may be explained in terms of an endlessly broad and deep sea of raw energy. This
energy carries within it the random thoughts, unfettered emotions, memory fragments and unshakeable
beliefs of those who live in the material universe - it is the collective mind of the universe itself.

All living creatures exist in warp-space as well as in the material universe, although most are
not conscious of the fact. Just as a man's body inhabits the material universe, his soul inhabits that of
the warp. The body is part of the universe and made of matter: the soul is part of the warp and is made
from the stuff of raw, energetic potential. Human sensitivity to the warp is not generally well
developed. The soul itself is not aware: it is simply a coherent lump of chaotic energy maintained
whole by its anchor to the material body. However, in a minority of people this sensitivity is far more
finely tuned. These people are psykers; they are able to consciously control and use the energy of the
warp to affect the material universe. There are many kinds of psykers, not all of them human, some of
whom are tolerated or encouraged within Human society. Others are regarded as dangerous and are
actively persecuted and destroyed.

PSYCHIC POWERS
As power from the warp flows into real-space, it splits into eight parts, each perceived by those
with psychic awareness (often called the second sight) as a separate “color” or type of energy. Just as
the warp comprises ”tides and currents”, over the millennia, recurrent energetic concatenations have
melded together to form the pseudo-”beings” called (variously) Statant Phenomena, Aeons of Physic,
Universal Archons, “Gods,” “Daemons” or Great Manifestations. In realspace, each “color” of
psychic power draws on a certain type of energy from warp-space. This gives each color its own
distinctive effects when used by a psyker. A small amount of raw energy from the warp leaks through
into real-space all the time. Those with psychic powers see this energy as layered mists of color,
building into boiling, turbulent clouds and multihued storms where the barrier between the warp and
realspace is particularly tenuous.
To cast a psychic attack, the psyker pulls energy of one color into himself, draining the surrounding
area as he concentrates and focuses the energy. When he uses his powers, he further weakens the
distinction between warp-space and real-space, allowing more power to flow through, providing
additional impetus to his attack and replenishing the mist of color that surrounds him. To those with
psychic second sight, it appears that the psyker is the centre of a maelstrom as fragments of Warp whip
and twist around him.

As he gathers all the ”energy of one colour”, the storm dies for a brief moment, ”...and he
stands at the calm centre of the boiling clouds - he moulds the power into his chosen form, turning it
with his mind from raw energy into potent weapon of attack or a shield of defence. Then he releases the
pent-up energy, hurling it at his enemy or pushing it out to form an impenetrable shell around him.”
This last is an account of how a ”psychick disturbance” by a ”Thaumofactor of Ancient Meriq” was
seen by fellow presumed psychics. It is of course, described in the most vivid (and quite superstitious
and absurd) language of the tumultuous, primitive Times of Old Night. But this type of hyperbole is
often how modern psykers describe using their own abilities; many use this as evidence that use of
Warp-capabilities leads to cognitive damage of some sort.
Each psychic being interprets what he or she sees according to a personal “understanding” of
the Warp: some as a dance of pure color; others as a strange geometry of mystical symbols drawn from
the arcana; many as images of power and destruction taken from the mythologies of their home-world.
Where one may see bolts of startling color, others will see the talons of huge beasts grappling with their
enemies or strange forms with a Daemonic glint in their eyes, ripping and tearing. For some, skeletal
hands reach out of the darkness with the touch of death, and others see all-consuming hellish fires
burning with the souls of the damned. One will see spiders and beetles whose eyes glow with an
uncanny radiance, and whose feet send out sparks as they skitter along faint webs of color, to reach
with thin feelers into the minds of their victims. Another will see pools of darkness that spread from the
caster to consume everything they meet with the insatiable hunger of the warp.
Even those without the second sight see flickering shadows, or catch a sight of something from the
corner of their eyes, bringing a moment's dread apprehension before the psyker's attack bursts upon
them with its full energy, surrounding them with deadly fires or a cascade of discharges that strike
down all in their path. But generally, that which occurs to a “corticophrenic-non-latent” being is not
visible, and its source is not easily discerned.
 PSYKERS WITHIN THE IMPERIUM
Most Humans do not have psychic powers, although all Humans have at least a limited potential
for psychic activity. However, a small but growing minority of Humans do develop tangible powers.
These people are called psykers by the Imperial authorities - on their own worlds they may be known
by many names: warlock, witch, necromancer, spirit walker, exorcist, speaker in tongues, shaman.
Psykers are dangerous individuals whose powers can only be tolerated when safely harnessed
within the Imperial organization: the psychic universe is the universe of “the Daemonic” and therefore
perilous. It is, as far as Humans of the age are concerned, a universe inhabited by devils and unclean
spirits, aliens that care nothing for living creatures and wish only to use and destroy Humanity. All
psykers, even the most powerful, supposedly offer these aliens a potential means of entering and
affecting the material world.
Every planet in the Imperium is bound by law to control its psychic population. Persecutions or
witch-hunts are an everyday part of life on most worlds. The same laws oblige rulers to set aside a levy
of young and relatively promising psykers for transport to Earth by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica.

The Adeptus Astra Telepathica

The Adeptus Astra Telepathica is dedicated to the recruitment and training of psykers for service
throughout the Imperium. The headquarters of the organization is on Earth, but its ships travel the
Imperium and its offices extend over most of Human space. The institution is divided into a teaching
body called the Scholastia Psykana and a recruiting body known as The League of Blackships. These
two are united under the Master of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica and his advisory council of several
hundred senior officials drawn from the main divisions. An addition to the League of Blackships are
the faceless cohorts of the Sisterhood of Silence. No mere man knows anything of these terrifying
paladins, and they are almost never seen outside of the holds of the Blackships. Those that do see a
Persecution Squad of the Sisterhood at work are likely the next target.
The League of Blackships
The League consists of a substantial fleet based throughout the Imperium. The ships visit each
world every hundred years or so. As the fleets approach their destination, the ruling Imperial
Commander is instructed to prepare the customary levy. On many planets, this is a holy time - a time
for rejoicing as the young hopefuls gather for their chance to be taken to the stars and serve the unseen
Master who rules them all. Once the levy has been collected, the Blackship Captains make an initial
evaluation of their cargo before proceeding to the next world in their circuit. When the holds are full,
the Blackships turn towards Earth. It is common for Inquisitors to travel on board these ships, as this
gives them a good opportunity to investigate a planet's potential for psychic corruption and other
heresy. The Inquisitor will be trailed, however, by the relentless presence of the unendurable Sisterhood
of Silence. These anti-psychic witch-killers are a paramilitary order, the martial wing of the
Departmentos Investigatii. These “black” departments, often thought done away with after the Great
Crusade, serve two masters. The first is their nominal subservience to the Master of the Adeptus Astra
Telepathica. Their second “master” is said to the Inquisition.

The Scholastia Psykana

The Scholastia Psykana is a vast teaching institution dedicated to the training of psychics. Most
recruits are drawn from the levy collected by the Blackships, but a minority are handed over by the
Inquisition, the Judges or through other channels. The role of this institution is to teach young psychics
how to develop and control their powers. The future of each psyker depends on his abilities and
character. Initial evaluation divides the levy into several groups depending on their innate psychic
power and their willingness to serve the Emperor.
Sacrifices
The psychic levy inevitably includes many whose powers are too random and whose minds are
too vulnerable. If left unrestrained they would soon perish and their doom would lead to further deaths
- maybe even to the destruction of entire Human worlds. In a teeming universe their loss is of no great
matter but even in death they can serve, for the Emperor must feed upon raw psychic energy if he is to
survive as the protector of Humanity. They become sacrifices to the Emperor, their souls leached from
their bodies to sustain the Father of Mankind.
 The Human Navigator
Unlike the closely packed empires of some races, the Imperium is flung wide across the entire
galaxy, its worlds are often hundreds if not thousands of light years distant. Normally it would be
impossible to maintain such a vast area of space as a single political entity. In fact, a canny observer
would argue, it doesn’t actually happen, but the wishful thinking of quadrillions of silly Humans makes
it appear that way...

Still, the hominids keep in contact, and in doing so, keep something of a species-culture alive,
although not the ”grand unified Imperium” they pretend to. What makes this contact possible is the
existence of human Navigators. Navigators are a sub-species of Humanity, some of whom resemble
humans so closely that they are indistinguishable, others are so physically alien that the relationship is
hardly apparent. All Navigators are capable of entering a trance-like dream state in which they are able
to mentally steer a spacecraft through the medium of warp space.
Under the intuitive guidance of the Navigator, a ship is able to traverse distances of tens of
thousands of light years in a single jump. Perceived journey time is 1-4 days per thousand light years,
equivalent to 1-6 months of real time. Even so, a journey from one edge of the galaxy to the other
would take between 85 and 510 months of real time. For these reasons, worlds remain self-governing
even within the Imperium.

The Great Families of the Navis Nobilite are uniquely composed of a particular form of human
mutant, called Navigators for their common set of “talents”. Their mutation is not a spontaneous or
natural one, but rather the result of genetic engineering conducted in the distant past during the earliest
history of the Navigator Houses. This engineering created the Navigator Gene that distinguishes
Navigators from ordinary humans and other, more easily-disposed-of mutants.

The gene itself can only be preserved by intermarriage, as it is lost when a Navigator breeds
with an ordinary human. This factor has led to the development of the closely-related Navigator
families. The genetic creation of Navigators has a single purpose: to endow a human with the ability to
steer a spacecraft through warp-space. Only Navigators can do this - no other human or machine has
the ability to navigate warp-space in quite this way. It is this ability that allows current Human
spacecraft to travel so quickly compared to previous craft.
Without Navigators to steer its ships, the Imperium would quickly fragment into thousands of separate
stellar empires, each only a few dozen light years across, whose spacecraft would be obliged to use tiny
and dangerous blind jumps to cover interstellar space.

The physique of Navigators is unusual. The feature which distinguishes all Navigators is the
Third or Warp Eye situated in the centre of their forebrain or ”frontal lobe”. Nearly all young
Navigators traditionally work in space as pilots. Over the years they gradually increase their familiarity
with the warp and their powers become stronger. This mental maturation may take as many as fifty or a
hundred years of space flight, but as Navigators can live for three or four hundred years this is not a
great proportion of their lives. As they grow more experienced they also change physically. The white
and iris of the eye gradually vanishes, leaving a single black pupil. The eye itself bulges somewhat,
and the eyelids shrink, leaving staring orbs. Other mutations are common, and truly strain the already
hateful, contemptuous “tolerance” of the average Imperial for even sanctioned mutation. Many
Navigator individuals bear no phenotypic resemblance whatsoever to any others in their Family, despite
incestuously-close genetic ties. In fact, many Navigators depart entirely from the Human norm, and
have been mistaken on occasion for aliens or daemonic beings.
Specifics of the Navigator's “Eye”
The unusual feature shared by all Navigators is the Third Eye or Warp Eye. At a greater age, this Eye
can be seen as a protrusion in the frontal lobe under the skull. It is quite visually disturbing, and
psychic-sensitives often claim to ”feel a throbbing color emanating from it”. Navigators normally keep
this eye's bulge covered with a bandanna or covering, which is itself often decorated with an eye. This
has led many humans to doubt the existence of this Third Eye.

In fact the Third Eye is the focus of the Navigator's power. The eye enables the Navigator to see
the shifting currents of warp-space and so to guide his spacecraft within the warp. It is said that a
Navigator can always see the warp even when he is in the material universe, and that it is this constant
exposure to the unnamed horrors of Warp-radiance that leads to their strange physical changes. It has
been known for Navigators to react suddenly and violently to invisible things in the warp, and to
collapse, lose their sanity or even die as a result.
The Eye has other powers too, although these are employed far more rarely and are the subject
of some mystique. These powers develop with the Navigator's experience of the warp, so that they are
most developed of all in the Heirs Apparent. The uncovered stare of a Navigator can kill a man.