Wayfinder

A Wayfinder (Homo cupitus) is a very particular form of Imperial-sanctioned Human mutant who possesses the Nav-Gene. This gives a Wayfinder the unique ability to navigate a faster-than-light starship accurately through the reaches of Voidspace. This ability makes Wayfinders absolutely essential to the Imperium's continued survival and to all interstellar transportation, communication and commerce.
All Wayfinders are born with additional eyes, commonly called "Void eyes," along their heads and upper body, which allows them to perceive the "psychic light" of the eddies of Void, and the Psychic beacons known as Warp Points, enabling them to fully use their powers in guiding Human Imperial starships through the currents of the Void.
Their ability to sense the tides of the Void is considered a psychic power, although Wayfinders never possess any psychic abilities beyond the powers their Void Eyes affords them.
All Wayfinders belong to a large group of Imperial noble families based upon the grounds of Holy Terra in the great district of that floating world-city known as the Wayfinder's Sector Imperialis. These dynasties are known collectively as the Great Families of the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite.
==History==
The Immaterium, Fold-Space, or "Void" is the separate or parallel dimension of exotic paracausal energy that co-exists with the material world of normal space-time and is both its reflection and permeates it invisibly. It is a roiling, howling maelstrom of force and energy, utterly unpredictable and not subject to the rational laws and linear flow of time in the way that physical reality is.
It is an unquiet, shifting realm subject to massive shocks and vortexes that disrupt its fabric and reverberate across its fathomless deeps in the shape of Void Storms and ill-predicted tides, and amongst it all dwell strange and terrible inhabitants.
Long ago in the immemorial Golden Age of Technology, Humanity first learned of this realm of unreality and how in part to manipulate it, and found that they could project vessels through its depths and have them emerge into realspace having crossed vast distances that even at light speed would have taken generations to accomplish.
Such travel was always dangerous, and only relatively short jumps (although still many light years in span) could be attempted with any margin of safety as the tides of the Void move in complex and inconsistent patterns; starships attempting long journeys often end up wildly off-course, lost permanently within its complex weave or simply shredded to splinters.
Furthermore, such vessels may suffer bizarre shifts, aging their passengers to dust or arriving years after -- or even years before -- they had originally planned. Void Storms and other disturbances can also block navigation completely, cutting worlds and sometimes entire regions of space off for solar days, weeks or centuries. During the Age of Darkness, massive Void Storms and Rifts shook the entire Immaterium, preventing any long range interstellar navigation for over four Terran decamillennia.
For Terran centuries uncounted, Wayfarers have led Mankind between the stars. Theirs is the unique power to gaze into the Void and guide Humanity's vessels across the vastness of the galaxy. This power affords them a special place within the Imperium Dominus, and over time, it has won them great prestige, political power and wealth.
The contemporary Nav-Houses of the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite have a scope of power and influence that is breathtaking to behold, reaching from the farthest world of the human-settled galaxy to the vaulted chambers of the High Lords of Terra themselves.
It is into this position of power and privilege that a Wayfarer is born, gifted with unique and strange powers by the blood of their ancestors. Although they may be one among many within their brood, a Wayfarer knows that they stand head and shoulders above the common citizens of the Emperor's domain because of their unique and priceless ability.
They also know that with training, dedication, and influence, they may rise within the ranks of their House and perhaps even take the mantle of Navitorus Primus -- lord and master of the family and all of its often extensive economic, military and political power.
The origins of the Wayfarers have long been lost to antiquity like so much of Mankind's history, forgotten and buried beneath the weight of millennia of strife and decay. They are an ancient mutated or deliberately engineered psiot strain of Mankind "designed" to facilitate Void travel.
Clannish and insular, they have lived amongst normal Humans since the middling years of the Golden Age of Technology and during the nightmarish centuries of the Age of Darkness nearly dwindled to extinction. It is not known how this unique sub-species of Humans first came into existence, though they may have been the result of long-forbidden genetic tampering with the Human genome in a long-ago age.
Some Imperial scholars suspect the hand of the Emperor (paradoxically) if not in the Wayfarers' original creation, then perhaps in their recreation and certain increase in numbers during the Age of the Imperium -- as their houses gathered to Him and pledged Him fealty after His conquest of Terra succeeding the Terran Unification Wars.
The Emperor in person granted a charter to those Wayfarer groups who swore Him fealty, granting them His legal protection in exchange for their services as steersmen for the many starships of the nascent Imperium.
Later, after the Jovian Edicts were signed between the Emperor and the Vix Mechanicum that brought the Vix-Adepts of the Machine God into the Imperium Dominus, one of its terms required the Emperor to hand over to the Jovian Guilds ten Terra houses of Wayfarers.
The Mechanicum had once possessed its own corps of thrall-born Wayfarers, but these had all been lost to the turbulence of the Age of Darkness, effectively isolating the Gas Titan from its own empire of Forge Worlds.
The Wayfarers provided by the Emperor allowed the Vix-Adepts to once more venture out into the galaxy on their own terms. This was crucial to the Mechanicum's agreement to join with the Emperor and provide the technical expertise required to bring His Great Crusade to reunify the Human galaxy to fruition.
Whatever the cause of its appearance, the "Nav-Gene," as it is now known, has endured across tens of thousands of Terran years and without it, much like the psychic gifts of the astros', the Imperium Dominus would not exist and certainly could not be maintained.
This mutation has not endured through accident, but through careful cultivation. A Wayfarer is the result of focused selective breeding and rigorous genetic screening by their House at every stage of their development.
The unique psychic powers of the Wayfarers are passed down through each generation. The Nav-Gene, which is recessive in nature, can only be preserved by selective interbreeding -- it is lost when a Wayfarer breeds with an ordinary Human who does not possess the gene.
This factor has led to the development of the closely-related Wayfarer families. Even when they attain the rank of full Wayfarer and leave the protection of their House to take up the task to which their nature calls them, their family ties remain strong and bind them tight, reminding them where their true duty lies.
Wayfarers are genetically empowered to see into the Void directly without risking instant insanity or death and hence guide a vessel as it attempts to plot a course in that otherworldly dimension. This is possible because psykers of all kinds, Wayfarers included, use the Empyrean to empower their gifts and to this role of guiding their fellows through the currents of the Void the Wayfarer is uniquely adapted.
The Nav-Gene not only allows Wayfarers to peer into the Void, but it also endows them with some innate resistance to its mind-shattering and corrupting influences.
A Human starship without a Wayfarer to guide it cannot hope to travel far without quickly being lost in the maelstrom of the Immaterium and destroyed. Even so, a Wayfarer's ability only enables them to chart relatively short to moderate length journeys through the Void with any degree of certainty, particularly where the Immaterium is in tumult, but combined with the Emperor's creation of the great beacon known as the Astronomican, the Wayfarer's range was greatly expanded and without them the Great Crusade and the expansion of the burgeoning Imperium of Man would not have been possible.
Whilst the Wayfarer serves the single purpose of guiding Human starships through the Void, and has evolved admirably for this task, they are also capable of far greater control over the strange power they wield and putting it to other uses. These strange and little understood psychic powers seem to result from a Wayfarer's unique affinity for the Void, another gift of their altered genetic makeup.
Little is known about how a Wayfarer's Void affinity works, or exactly how it is that many Wayfarers are able to not only look into the Void but also enact their will on it to some extent, making subtle changes to its currents and tides.
===Needed Pariahs===
One of the fundamental tensions that exists between the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite and the rest of the Imperium Dominus is the fact that Wayfarers are obviously mutants in an Imperial culture that does not willingly suffer the mutant to live save as a brutally oppressed underclass on most worlds. Many dark legends and fables of excess, witchery, and murderous power have grown up about them, and not all without cause.
As a result, Wayfarers are often shunned and feared, and the popular dread at meeting the gaze of their many eyed gazes means that many prefer to have dealings with them only when they absolutely must. The maintenance of the valuable, recessive Nav-Gene through selective breeding has also meant that over thousands of standard years many Wayfarer families have acquired malformations, strange afflictions, or mental abnormalities.
While some attribute these maladies to inbreeding and the close-knit relations between the Wayfarer families, it's more likely that the Nav-Gene itself causes genetic instability and mutation as a Wayfarer grows in power and age. As a Wayfarer ages and suffers from increasing exposure to the Immaterium, the likelihood of suffering from mutations also grows exponentially.
To offset the fickle nature of the Nav-Gene, many Wayfarer Houses rigorously screen the genetic material of their members and use Gene Scribes to determine the best match between young Wayfarers when marriages are arranged. In addition to the Gene Scribes, the use of divination tools like the Emperor's Tarot are employed to ensure no psychic taint threatens to destabilize the genepool.
The most ancient and traditional houses often use their considerable resources to maintain strict control of their bloodlines through carefully arranged unions, which has made them more resilient to the symptomatic genetic instability that plagues lesser houses.
Others, however, have either neglected such strict control or have tampered with the genepool of their bloodlines to produce more powerful and skilled progeny. Inevitably, this has led to considerable instability in some of the dynasties.
In some Wayfarer families, the genetic corruption of the line has become so severe that only a few members of the clan can move amongst the rest of the Imperium. The remainder remain confined to the family's great estates or in sealed tabernacles aboard ship, their deformities hidden from sight.
These differences have often led to conflict in the past, but such incidents are often brought violently to heel by the localized sects Imperium, before the wrath of the High Lords of Terra is visited upon the culprits and any above them in rank that allowed such action to come to pass.
After all, no one can afford to offend those who hold the Imperium's only key to voyaging between the stars. The Orders Quintus of the Imperial Security Systems is one of the few governmental bodies that can truly move with impunity where the Wayfarers are concerned, and its eye is ever kept on the Wayfarer clans. Yet, even the I.S.S must be circumspect and certain in this task. However, in extreme cases, the Orders Quintus have destroyed entire clans and carried their patriarchs and matriarchs off in the Black Ships for final sanction when necessary.
== Appearance ==
"They hide a darkness in their souls far more repulsive than any warping of flesh or disfigurement of limb. Would that they weren't quite so useful then we could burn the lot of them."
:
As sure as a star will dwindle and die, a Wayfinder will be warped by his genetic heritage over time. "The sins of blood," as the old Imperial proverb goes, "will out." As stable a mutation as the Nav-Gene is, it still gives rise to countless other deformities of body and soul within its host.
This, combined with long-term exposure to the Void, and a psychic amplifying substance known as Khe'rif Spice, almost always ensures that Wayfinders will be afflicted with a number of physical aberrations. Simply being born into a Wayfinder family means that an individual will be eventually mutated in some way. A Wayfinder's resistance or susceptibility to mutation is often purely a function of the genetic stability and psychic purity of his genetic line.
Ultimately, it must be remembered that all Wayfinders are a mutant sub-species of Humanity. Other than the existence of the multiple eyes along their heads and upper bodies, most 'young' Wayfinders are virtually indistinguishable from normal Humans; others possess such extreme physical deviations that their appearance is utterly alien.
But as Wayfinders simultaneously increase in age and consume Khe'rif Spice, their abilities will begin to grow in power and potency. This level of extreme and extended exposure causes their physical appearance to change: Their bodies become atrophied and mutated over time, their heads and extremities elongating into inhuman shapes, and the white and iris' of their eyes gradually begin to disappear, leaving only rows of hardened black orbs lining a pale and mutated body.
These mutations and deformities are common among elder Wayfinders; although the deviations exhibited tend to be limited to specific traits common among Wayfinders. Some bloodlines sustain a set of inherited mutation traits that accompany their strain of the Nav-Gene, while others are subject to random mutations from birth.
As they age, Wayfinders tend to become tall and spindly beings, sometimes growing pale and even almost translucent skin. Other common mutation traits include reptilian or amphibian-like skin, their void-eyes becoming extremely large and losing their iris', and ill-defined facial features. The hands and feet of a Wayfinder could become ridiculously large, and are often webbed. It is very common for Wayfinders to be completely hairless, either from birth or soon after adolescence when their numerous void eyes first begin to open.
Although many mutations can be disfiguring or debilitating, like a Wayfinder's teeth turning into sharp needles or his body becoming uncomfortably large and bulbous, others are beneficial. Fortunate Wayfinders may possess inhuman strength or agility, indomitable willpower, deadly claws for fingers, completely black eyes that can see in darkness, or incredible body regeneration.
It's impossible to predict what boons or burdens the Nav-Gene will bestow, although most Wayfinders are bound to accumulate at least several over their long lifespans.
Except in the most extreme cases, a Wayfinder would never possess all of these mutant traits at the same time. Those born with such extreme mutations might be hidden away or even killed at birth by their House to prevent their bloodlines from being contaminated by a level of mutation that would surely draw the attention of the Orders Quintus -- or even worse, the interest of their rival Wayfinder Houses.
=== Eyes of the Void ===
"Gaze long enough into the Void and the Void will gaze back into you."
: — Ancient Vrit'enbruk Nobilite Proverb
Common to all Wayfinders are the numerous "Void eyes," that almost always manifests as literal mutations they bear along their heads and upper bodies, although in some rare cases trepanning and a set of cybernetic shutter implants made during adolescence will be needed to affect the full release of their power.
These multiple eyes are what give a Wayfinder their power to gaze into the Void and guide starships through its turbulent currents and storms -- more than a mere additional sensory appendage, these eyes are the source of a Wayfinder's power and their link to the Immaterium.
A Wayfinder's additional eyes often resemble a normal Human eye at birth, but as the Wayfinder grows in power and age and the eyes are exposed to the horrors of the Empyrean, it changes. Gradually the eye's sclera and iris darken and the mutated organs harden until they become a set of solid, black spheres.
In some extreme cases the eyelids may also shrink or disappear entirely, leaving shiny black orbs upon the upper body. The eyes retain their connection to the Void even when extracted from the body and while incapable of killing anyone gazing into it, it can still erode their sanity and send them into a psychotic frenzy or otherwise erode their mental stability.
Through these mutated eyes Wayfinders can see directly into the Void, and when their power is honed, pierce material barriers and disguises, and even delve into the souls of mortals. They can also use these eyes to read the currents of the Void — its ebb and flow -- and through this understanding subtly alter it, causing ripples that can be felt within the Materium of realspace itself.
In addition to these lesser powers, the gaze of a Wayfinder's Void eyes when fully opened can kill, the baleful psychic light sheering the very souls from those that gazed upon it, extinguishing them forever in a moment of blazing madness and agony.
These Void eyes are also the Wayfinders' most obvious mutation but often not their only one. They mark them out as mutant and divergent from the greater masses of Humanity, and whilst their position, wealth and bearing serve to protect them from persecution (at least most of the time), Wayfinders are still feared and distrusted by many others for their gifts, and not without cause.
For this reason, Wayfinders tend to cloister themselves away from other people, seek the protection of bodyguards, and use hoods, robes and heavy cowls to hide their Void eyes when in public.
A Wayfinders' Void eyes have other psychic abilities as well, although these are employed far more rarely and are the subject of some mystique. These powers develop with the Wayfinder's experience of the Void, so that they are most often developed by the potent Wayfinders known as the Heirs Apparent.
It is said that these eyes have prophetic powers and are capable of literally peering into the future. Wayfinders are very reluctant to talk about their powers, and it may well be that only the Navitorus Primus, the political leader of the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite, understands the full potential of a Wayfinder's psychic abilities.
Not least of the powers of the Void eye's are their singular ability to deal death; any normal person meeting the gaze of the Void eye's can be killed in an agonizing fashion by sudden mental exposure to the Void. Due to this danger, Wayfinders generally keep their additional eyes covered with layers of wrapping or similar barriers except when they are ferrying a starship through the Void, causing many Imperial navymen, and citizenry to wholeheartedly doubt the existence of the void eyes in their entirety.
Of course, the unique abilities of the Wayfinders have their limits. Outside the range of the guiding psionic light of the Warp Points projected by the presence of planets echoed, and mirrored into the Void, the Wayfinders are far more limited in their ability to guide a starship through the tides of the empyrean.
== Wayfinder Powers ==
Wayfinders possess a number of special psychic powers which represent their respective lineage. The powers of the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite are little understood by any but the most esoteric of scholars, and the Wayfinders themselves, of course.
A Wayfinder is a living window into the Void, a fact mercifully mitigated for their own soul's and sanity's sake by the effects of the Nav-Gene that allows them to perceive the Void's mind-blasting truth in a unique way that allows their Human mind to deal with it.
Unlike the use of other psychic powers, Wayfinders do not need to summon the energies of the Void or use arcane psychic foci to activate their powers. Rather, their powers are a result of their innate connection to the Void and the legacy of their genes.
Rumors tell that Wayfinders can curse a man with a glance or hold back the march of time with but a thought, though this is surely conjecture. Most would consider them only marginally better than mutants, although necessary all the same for their ability to steer a vessel safely through the Void.
The following list presents an assortment of some of the most common Wayfinder powers wielded by these sanctioned mutants in the Imperium. These are certainly not all of the powers that might be available to a given Wayfinder, as the Imperium is a vast and strange place.
===== Void Sight Abilities =====
* Skilled Wayfinders can use their powers to mark points of calm in even the most tumultuous Void Storms. And on a micro scale, they can also use this ability to find a stillness in the Immaterium flowing around them that dampens psychic powers and pushes void-entities back towards the edge of the dark pit from whence they came. Many Wayfinder Houses teach their progeny how to seek this calm in the Void, as it may be the only thing that stops the Wayfinder from being torn to shreds and their soul devoured by daemons in the case of a failure in the Meytnai Field.
* Another skill, the power sometimes referred to as the "Bale Spear" or the "Medusan Gaze" is a technique taught to Wayfinders to help them to penetrate the densest of Void Storms and find a safe path to close Warp Points. However, when turned on an individual, this power allows the Wayfinder to look past the facade of material reality, and thus exploit the knowledge he gains from staring so deeply into his foe's soul.
* By understanding and perceiving the "currents" of the Void, the Wayfinder can hide his presence from those who would use the Immaterium to detect him. Whilst it does not in any way mask his presence in the material universe, it can ably hide him from detection by psykers and confuse creatures whose essence and existence are linked to the Void, such as daemons and other Void entities. As the Wayfinder grows in power, he will become harder to detect, as well as being able to mask others' Void signature if they stand nearby.
===== Void Sense Abilities =====
* Disrupting the Empyrean - Wayfinders possess an almost innate sense of the Void. Through little-understood methods of psychic manipulation, the Wayfinder is able to churn up the local area of Voidspace, in essence, creating something akin to a miniature Void Storm in local space. This has an effect on voidships attempting to exit and enter the Void. Ships wishing to enter the Void will need to travel out of the area of disturbance or risk damage. Those voidships wishing to exit the Void must do the same.
===== Prescience Abilities =====
* Divination - Some senior Wayfinders can sometimes learn to use and interpret the portents from the Emperor's Tarot. This form of precognition is much more vague and difficult to interpret than attempting to divine the future by gazing into the Void directly, but remains far safer.
* Evil Eye - On many worlds, three-eyed mutants who can peer into your soul are thought of as bogey-men to scare children into obedience and people whisper that they are a tainted breed that can curse good, Emperor-fearing citizens with but a glance. These legends likely do not truly refer to Wayfinders, but they do echo with the truth of the matter, as techniques exist that can cause a person to attract the malign spirits of the Void, drawing hungry things to them that slowly siphon away at their very mind and soul. The use of this power is reserved for the Wayfinder Houses' most loathed enemies, and these unfortunates soon find that their luck fails them and their allies treat them with disdain.
* Eye of Oblivion - The Wayfinder snaps open his Void Eye and traces the vital lines that bind a creature's animating force to its mortal shell. By psychically striking these places with the utmost precision, the Wayfinder can inflict harm on his target's very essence, and thus defeat foes that might otherwise seem inviolable.
* Foreshadowing - By using his third Void Eye to filter small secrets from the near future, the Wayfinder can choose to make slight adjustments to his actions to avoid harm and manipulate the course of events. Only if the Wayfinder tries to dig too deep into the near future for secrets does this power become so unpredictable that the Wayfinder may become a victim of the Void’s lies.
* Gaze into the Abyss - This power allows a Wayfinder to see a creature's or object's reflection in the Void and learn things hidden from the real universe. This power is most useful in unmasking both psykers and daemons, but has other applications, such as reading residual psychic taint on objects and tracking powerful psychic entities.
* Held in my Gaze - The unflinching third eye of a Wayfinder locks a creature in place with a gaze that pierces flesh and bone to see the immaterial essence of all things. Most commonly employed against psykers, this ability can be used to render them effectively powerless and prevent them from calling upon their abilities. It is also undeniably effective against creatures with a strong connection to the Void, such as daemons, upon which it can have spectacular and devastating consequences.
* Immolate the Soul - Wayfinders have the ability to tap into the Void and bend it to their will through their Void Eye. By carefully channelling the power of the raw Immaterium, a Wayfinder can cause flesh to blister and spontaneously combust. In fact, it seems that the more corrupt a person is the quicker and more savage the burning process. It is powers such as this that can cause the uneducated to rightly fear the Wayfinders and give cause to hunt them down as witches and sorcerers. However, the more pious members of the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite feel that this power has been bestowed upon them by the God-Emperor Himself so that they may prosecute His enemies with cleansing flame, and it is rumoured that these pious members of the Wayfinder Houses use this power to hunt down errant members of the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite.
* Inward View - There are many myths about the Wayfinders' "third eye", its origins supposedly harking from the ancient past of Old Earth itself. The Vrit'enbruk Nobilite knows that such stories are not wholly mythical, though, and that it is entirely possible to discover hidden knowledge and a degree of inner calm using the Wayfinders' own unique brand of introspective meditation. Many of the older, more cloistered members of the Wayfinder dynasties spend prolonged periods in their Reclusiam Chapels, meditating upon philosophical issues and esoteric lore.
* Mind Shielding - By using a rare, ancient relic known as a Cerebrum Cowl, Wayfinders can tap into their innate mental resistance to the Immaterium and use it to shield others from psychic mental influences. While the archeotech is normally used to amplify the powers of the mutants for Void navigation, it can also be used to disrupt and protect from psychic-based mental attacks and traps and other such insidious threats.
* Obliterating the Immaterial Wake - Using arcane knowledge of Void physics and even special techno-arcane devices (such as a ship's Void Vanes), the Wayfinder can influence tides in the Void and attempt to obliterate any trail left from his voidship's passing through the Immaterium and even realspace, making it difficult, if not impossible, to track. Using this ability is distracting and physically taxing, however, as the Wayfinder risks unconsciousness and physical damage.
* Pass Unscathed - Being so closely linked with the Void, it is no surprise that Wayfinders have developed techniques to avoid its corrupting influence on both themselves and those around them. With a great deal of effort, the Wayfinder can slow the insidious effects of the Void for a short period of time, relying on his mental fortitude to touch the poison of Chaos without being corrupted by it.
* Seek the Path - The Wayfinder uses his third eye to peer through the Immaterium around him, piercing the churning clouds of the Void to find the causeways of least resistance to his target and assessing the paths of its reaction before it can even move to defend itself. In this way, the Wayfinder guides his own attacks to their destination while circumventing his foe's desperate attempts at defence.
* Stacking the Deck - Wayfinders, by their training, are taught the basics of starship naval combat. Wayfinders are also able to perceive flickering shadows of possible future events. By peering into the streams of time and space and studying the currents and eddies of the Void, the Wayfinder can attempt to position his vessel for a more optimum firing solution, angle it such a way that the ship’s armour is able to better deflect an incoming attack, or even point the ship in the best direction for a tactical retreat.
* Stripping the Husk - With this power, the Wayfinders are able to quickly snap open and close their Void Eye, unleashing a blast of energy that immediately shears flesh from bone. In a gruesome display, Wayfinders who utilize this power can reduce an opponent to a pile of steaming bones and quivering meat in a matter of moments.
* Stupefy the Soul - Some Wayfinders are able to moderately control the Void energies that can spew forth from their Void Eye. While most can kill with a look, other Wayfinders can stun their opponents. By only partially opening his third eye, the Wayfinder can shock the souls of living creatures. Sometimes this merely stuns the opponent, but there are other times when the Wayfinder may wish to ‘push’ a bit further into a foe’s mind causing him to suffer fear and shock as the Void assails both minds and spirit. This has the added results of forcing the opponent into fleeing or suffering a complete mental melt-down as his grip on reality shatters from the power of the Void.
* The Course Untraveled - Time is not an arrow that flies straight and true, but rather, a tangled web of moments and possibilities. The Course Untraveled power allows a Wayfinder to negotiate this web, stepping fractionally from one moment to another, and in the process, altering his position in the physical world. The use of such a power is extremely dangerous, however, as the Wayfinder is not actually physically travelling in place as if he were teleporting through the Void, but rather choosing an alternate future in which he wishes to inhabit. He risks both injury and madness in trying to step outside the flow of time in this way.
* The Lidless Stare - If a Wayfinder opens his third Void Eye fully, anyone gazing into its depths will witness the power and mind-breaking unreality of the Void. In an instant, they witness the chaos boiling beneath the skin of existence and for many, it is the last thing they ever see.
* The Void Unbound - By gazing directly into the mind of a psyker, the Wayfinder is able to pierce the barrier between the psyker and the Void, opening a door to the Empyrean and unleashing a storm a chaos that devastates his victim from within. This terrible power was pioneered by the dreaded Elutrian Confederacy, who harbor hatred for all psykers and consider them inferior to Wayfinders.
* By consuming Khe'rif Spice and then examining the flow of the Void around them, a Wayfinder can anticipate near future actions and thus move outside the normal flow of causality by choosing strands of reality and slipping between them. Whilst this power can be of great benefit to the Wayfinder, it is also very dangerous, and should he lose control, the results can be disastrous for both him and anyone near to him in local space-time.
* When a void-capable starship travels through either realspace or the Void it has the potential to leave a faint trail, the lingering shadow of its Void-Drive's emanations. Using their additional eyes, a Wayfinder can follow this trail across the stars when even Aux-Readers can fail.
* Void Watcher - Using this power and gazing into the void whilst aboard a starship, the Wayfinder can learn things about space in the immediate vicinity of his vessel. This can reveal hidden dangers such as mines, void creatures, and concealed ships, as well as more mundane perils like asteroids and debris. With skill and practice, a Wayfinder's void sense can become amazingly precise and reach out across millions of kilometres of space.
* Vigil of the Warp - Wayfinders must be ever watchful for danger when guiding a vessel through the Void, and be capable of reacting at a moment's notice to the caprices of the shifting tides of the Void. On the battlefield, a Wayfinder can turn this power to his advantage, reacting to strikes before they arrive or even calling allies to move out of harm's way moments before an enemy can land a killing blow.
== The Wayfinder's Sanctum ==
On every Imperial designed void-capable starship, the Chamber of the Wayfinders was a domain unto itself. Typically designed to resemble a spheroid between two to ten decks in diameter, the enclosed micro kingdom of the Vrit'enbruk Nobilite was built into the framework of Human-made ships while they were still in their stardocks and super foundries.
Often, the great orbs were delivered by the representatives of whichever noble Wayfinder house was oath-sworn to guide the vessel, wholly finished, ready for interface with the new ship and untouched by the hands of common shipwrights.
Indeed, there were stories of some great vessels that had sailed the void for hundreds of Terran years, and never once had their Wayfinders ventured outside their sanctum. Power, communication and utility conduits would feed the needs of those within, and in return they would do as they were commanded.
With their void eyes open, the Wayfinders would guide the way from star to star. Without them and their preternatural psychic gifts, any semblance of a galaxy-spanning Imperium Dominus would be an impossibility.
=== Nav-Chamber ===
Wayfinder Tanks or Nav-Chambers as they are simply known, are both used and primarily constructed by the Tech Leagues of the Nav-Guilds for the main uses of containing and protecting the mutated and weakened bodies of their high value Elder Wayfinders. Also it had the ability to assist in the activation and focus of the Wayfinders psychic ability to navigate starships through the eddies of voidspace.
Nav-Chambers are large, anti-gravitational tanks built into the Wayfinder's Sanctum and filled with Khe'rif Spice in either a liquid or gas state, in which an Elder Wayfinder would be placed in at the waning years of their 'human' lives. In which, their bodies would be suspended in mid-air, and a constant flow of spice would permeate the tank, being released through vents or siphons after each use. A small speaker-like outlet, placed on the tank, usually at the side, allowed the Wayfinder to communicate to the outside (especially after their mutations in later life would impede their ability to use primary forms of Human speech). Ordinarily, these tanks, and their respective Wayfinders, were guarded by a contingent of Vrit'enbruk Militant.