Astropaths - Astropath Transcendent: The Astropath Transcendent is a rare individual, indeed. He is a psyker whose powers and very essence has been touched by the light of the God-Emperor Himself and who is able to form a lifeline of communication across the limitless gulfs of space, his soul armoured against the gnawing taint of the Warp beyond. Each Terran year, uncounted millions of psykers are born across the vast breadth of the Imperium. Most are detected and interred until collected by one of the fearsome Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. These vessels travel the galaxy in great circuits, their stygian holds inexorably filling with nascent psykers with each stop they make. The fate of the vast majority of the psykers is to fuel the insatiable fires of the Astronomican so that the Imperium might be held together for another solar day. Of those allowed to live, a tiny fraction are judged strong enough to undergo tutelage and go on to serve the Imperium in a staggering array of capacities.As noted above, those chosen to become Astropaths undergo the ritual of Soul Binding, in which the body and soul are scoured clean of the temptations of the Warp by the searing purity of the Emperor's beneficence. After solar months of fasting, prayer, and ritual preparation, the psykers are brought into the very depths of the Imperial Palace in processions of a hundred at a time, there to undergo a ritual that will kill them, drive them insane, or bind them for all eternity to the Emperor. So intense is the ritual that the supplicants' sensory organs are almost totally overloaded -- leaving them blinded by the experience -- with many suffering further nerve damage, incurring loss of smell, touch, or hearing.Relying as heavily as the Imperium does on the Warp for galactic communication, it has a great demand for Astropaths, and each newly created Astropath who survives the Soul-Binding is inducted into the ranks of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. There he learns to send his thoughts singing across the galaxy via the medium of the Warp, adding his psychic voice to entire choirs of his fellows, and communicating with others of his kind on planets light years distant.It is a rare Astropath indeed who rises beyond his given duties and responsibilities in the ranks of the psychic choirs. Of those few who do so, most are placed in charge of Astropathic facilities and relay stations dotted across Imperial space. Those with the sharpest wits become itinerant emissaries or officials of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica itself or serve on the staff of Inquisitors or Lord Militants. Some of the most self-aware and strong-willed of their kind serve their vigils alongside Rogue Traders, casting their thoughts out far beyond the realms of Man into the great voids beyond the Emperor's domains.It takes a special type of Astropath to serve on the fringes of what is known, and such Astropaths must be both hard-hearted and savvy individualists if they are to persevere. Though the experiences vary wildly from one Astropath to the next, many are driven slowly mad by what they describe as cold, alien thoughts echoing in the black gulfs at the edges of the galaxy, while others find themselves growing increasingly alone the further out they travel, as the psychic voices of their fellows recede into the celestial distance. Those few that can endure these rigours are granted the title of Astropath Transcendent, and are both respected and a little feared by their contemporaries.The duties of the Astropath Transcendent are a microcosm of those performed by the more established and ordinary psychic choirs of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. Most Rogue Trader ﬂeets are accompanied by little more than a handful of Astropaths, with perhaps only one being stationed on each vessel, and so their position is one of grave responsibility. They provide the only means of viable communication between widely scattered vessels, not to mention across interstellar distances, and as a consequence are highly valued members of the Rogue Trader's inner circle. Many Rogue Traders would not even consider setting foot on the soil of a new world without an Astropath Transcendent at their side, ready to summon aid at a moment's notice should disaster strike.