Rybel Gorth the Watcher in the Dark

Rybel Gorth is unusual among the saints of the Calixis Sector because in life he
was a psyker. Shunned by the Ecclesiarchy at the time and
held in deep suspicion by much of Imperial society, Gorth
was seen as a “necessary” second-class citizen. It is written
that in his early life he worked aboard a warp-faring vessel,
aiding the Navigator and helping to protect its passengers
and crew. His story begins, however, during the evacuation
of Canopus during the Heresy of Numbers. At this time,
the world was being turned to ashes by bitter civil war and
a great army of heretics had turned upon the Ecclesiarchy.
Formerly a haven for religious learning and scholarly study,
Canopus was filled with thousands of prominent and learned
members of the Ecclesiarchy. Rybel Gorth’s ship was the
only one to reach the world before the end and took aboard
hundreds of Ministorum officials and scholars before making
a hasty retreat into the warp. Tragically, however, the ship
became lost in the warp and years dragged by as it searched
for escape. During this time, the crew and passengers began
to die. Fearing the loss of the wealth of knowledge he had
been part of rescuing, Gorth used his powers to draw out and
store the minds of those who died, keeping them safe within
his own. When the ship finally broke free and found its way
to safe harbor, Gorth was half mad with a brain brimming
with a hundred minds. Before he died, he transcribed the
gathered knowledge of the scholars of Canopus, ensuring its
survival. For his sacrifice, the Ecclesiarchy at the time blessed
his memory and raised him to sainthood.
Rybel Gorth has few shrines and statues erected in his
honor. Even now, centuries after his death, a certain distaste
of him exists within the Ministorum. Even the majority of
citizens who know of him, see him more as a malevolent
presence rather than a source of comfort and guidance. They
associate their fears about psykers and the warp with the saint,
seeing him as the embodiment of this evil. There are those,
however, that do not have their vision clouded by such fears.
These are mostly scholars, adepts and, of course, psykers.
These people see Gorth for what he was---a powerful psyker
who was able to use his gift to hold the warp at bay and
keep safe those around him. He has become a protector of
those who would deal with the forbidden and the unknown,
especially psykers who try and divine secrets from the warp
or use it to send messages across the stars. Psykers often say
prayers to Rybel Gorth when they use their powers, hoping
that he will protect them from the perils of the warp. Scholars
who seek ancient secrets also pray to him lest they unearth or
awaken the unnatural. The tale of Rybel Gorth is also often
taught to Imperial psykers during their training, impressing
upon them the importance of their devotion to the Emperor
and the Imperium.