I love Psychic play. Talk about feeling all powerful. I'll tell about the Psychic Marines the Gray Knights, and Psychic Genestealers.
The Grey Knights are unique among the Legiones Astartes as the only chapter to have full knowledge of the dark secrets of Chaos - they alone know of the existence of Daemons and their appearance in the real world, and they alone are equipped to battle and defeat mankind's most terrible enemy.
The Grey Knights are the military arm of the Ordo Malleus, the inner chamber of the Inquisition dedicated to eradicating all manifestations of Chaos within the Imperium. The Chapter is the only product of the mysterious Second Founding of the Legiones Astartes in the 31 Millennium, raised by the Emperor to protect Humanity by hunting down and destroying Daemons in all their many forms. When the Ordo Malleus enters battle with Daemonic forces, it is Grey Knights that stand alongside the Inquisitors.
The Grey Knights are one of the largest Marine chapters; even so, they are too few to stand against the incursions of Chaos throughout the Imperium. The Ordo must spread them thin, stationing individual squads in the systems judged most at risk. When an Inquisitor seeks aid in defeating Daemons or those irrevocable tainted by the warp, he must hope that a squad of Grey Knights is nearby - all too often there is too little time for a full task force of the Ordo to be summoned.
Grey Knights often aren't called home for decades at a time. To most, the Chapters's homeworld is but a distant memory, but each of them wishes eventually to be buried with honour beneath the fortress-monastery where they were trained for so many of their younger years.
Grey Knight Terminators are all psykers, each with the immense fortitude and strong soul needed to protect himself from temptation and possession by Daemons. They are grouped into squads of five, equipped with Nemesis weapons and Aegis suits of Terminator armour. A grey Knight's Terminator armor is highly ornamented and heavily embossed in a barque fashion and, with the exception of the personal heraldry plate upon its left shoulder, metallic gold in colour.
All Genestealers are psychic. They share limited form of telepathy that lets the members of a brood communicate. They also use their power to hypnotise their victims before striking to implant their seed, lulling them into submission and then erasing the event from their minds. Only when the much-loved firstborn of such a victim is ensnared, bonded to his Hybrid child by chains of parental love, strengthened by the pull of the Hybrid's latent psychic power. From this beginning, a brood of Hybrid and followers will grow, owing allegiance to their founder Patriarch.
The psychic power of a brood is shared between all the members and is focused on the Patriarch. The Patriarch has the strongest soul and the greatest ability to draw power from the warp. He is a mighty psyker and his attacks can be devastating - to those unprepared to face him, it may seem as if the very gates of hell have opened when he unleashes his full power. He also passes on part of this power to his children , feeding and directing current of warp energy towards them and strengthening their own psychic abilities.
In Purestrain Stealers, this psychic power is latent. In many cases, however, Hybrids of the 3rd and 4th generation are able to direct their psychic power, casting psychic attacks to annihilate their enemies or shielding themselves and their kin from harm. Like other Stealers, they draw their power from the brood's shared presence within the warp; each Hybrid benefits from this presence, having a greater ability as part of the brood the he would alone.
Because they draw power from the brood's strongly-bonded souls, the abilities of Hybrids psykers vary less then those of their Human counterparts. Even so, some Hybrids are gifted with much talents than other - it is one of these who will rise to the exalted position of Magus, standing at the right hand of the Patriarch, second only to him in power, and interpreting his will to the Human and other cult followers of the brood.
Last Updated May 20, 1999 by Branden D
