Black Ships - Black Ship Crews: The crews of the Black Ships come from both the Adeptus Astra Telepathica and the Inquisition. The captains and other senior officers of the Black Ships are senior adepts of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. The ships' crews are indentured workers drafted from a number of Imperial planets situated relatively close to Terra.The Astra Telepathica has ancient contracts with these worlds, ensuring a steady flow of suitable recruits in return for exemption from Imperial Tithes. All crew are rigorously tested and scrutinised for any latent psychic abilities or sensitivities and are regularly mind-scrubbed to purge any taint or infection. Navigators for the fleet of Black Ships are all members of the Granicus, Ptolemy and MacPherson Navigator Houses who work exclusively for the Astra Telepathica.Inquisitors, alone amongst Imperial officials, have secured Rights of Passage aboard the Black Ships and have leave to travel freely throughout the entire fleet. They are also wont to oversee the identification, capture and incarceration of particularly recalcitrant or rebellious psykers in whom they have a personal interest.Generally, few other Imperial agents are permitted aboard these dread vessels but occasionally Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Sisters of Silence or higher-ranking members of the Adeptus Terra may be accommodated at the captain's discretion.A Black Ship is a dreadful environment for psykers. Psychically-sensitive crew spend most of their time in the shielded upper decks of the main bridge, as far removed from the containment holds as possible so as to avoid the unpleasant effects of the anti-psychic security measures in place.There are numerous devices and routines directed at the great holds to confuse and confound psychic abilities. Each ship has a troop of specially-trained Adepts whose sole function is to focus their own psychic energies into an Occluding Sphere –- this strange metaphysical device broadcasts an invasive signal into the mind of any nearby psyker, severely disrupting their ability to concentrate or reason and therefore largely curtailing their ability to utilise their talents.In addition to this, oppressively loud and discordant noise is pumped into the holds to disrupt any attempts at concentration or rest. The holds are dimly illuminated for the most part but frequent bursts of strobing light shatter the twilight. Food and drink for the captives is laced with sedatives. The captive population is regularly moved from one hold to another. All of this serves to keep the psykers in a helpless, confused and compliant state. The most dangerous psykers (as identified by Inquisitorial scrutiny) are kept in separate isolation cells deep within the bowels of the containment holds.Adepts of the Telepathica test the psykers being transported, selecting those who are strong enough to shield themselves from possession by Warp entities to begin their training.The Inquisition's role is to scrutinise the tithe gathered from each world to make sure that there is no shortfall in the number of psykers given up, monitor the psykers being transported in case they pose a threat while in transit and (though not their official duty) pick the best psykers for training and use by the Inquisition itself. Indeed, many Inquisition Acolytes with psychic powers themselves began their careers as unwilling passengers on a Black Ship, where their talents were first recognised.The Black Ships themselves are dark places of despair, for they are little more than spacefaring high-security prisons and many of the psykers being transported know full well that they will meet a grim fate at their journey's end. Every solar day, dozens of Black Ships complete their epic journey and arrive at Terra, whereupon they disgorge their cargoes of Human psykers.Each voidship can hold many thousands of psykers within their vast holds. So each and every day, tens of thousands of psykers are sent to the processing halls, graded and passed on through the myriad departments and institutions responsible for ensuring that the Tithe is put to its allotted use.These rarely-seen vessels usually operate only on Inquisition business but occasionally, when the interests of both the Inquisition and the Imperial Navy coincide, a Black Ship will join with an Imperial Navy battle group.While it is a rare Imperial admiral who welcomes an Inquisitor to his counsels, these vessels are highly capable additions to any Imperial force. The Black Ships are described as like a void that blocks out the light of the stars visually as they pass. The captains of Black Ships are often senior Inquisitorial agents with a ship-based defence force of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers or Sisters of Battle.