Astra Telepathica – Why are they so important? – Part 5

In the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica had evolved into the formidable backbone of the League of Black Ships, and the Scholastica Psykana. This evolution, however, was not without its trials. Vany, a cunning manipulator, managed to ensnare the current Master of the Adeptus in a plot that threatened to expose his waning psychic abilities. Vany offered a simple, yet ruthless deal – obey his commands, or face the Emperor’s mercy. The Master, known as Feder, had no choice but to acquiesce, thereby preserving his life and influential position.

Under this new, coerced reign, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica underwent significant transformation. Its two divisions, the League of Black Ships and the Scholastica Psykana, were unified under the leadership of the Master and a consultative council of high-ranking officials. The Adeptus Astra Telepathica of this era was a far cry from its days during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy, where it bore an armed unit known as the Sisters of Silence or the Witch Hunters.

The Sisters of Silence were a special operations unit, all-female witch hunters devoted to eradicating psychic threats to humanity. Their base was the Somnus Citadel on Luna, a satellite of Terra. Their mission was clear: hunt down and kill rogue human psykers whose actions posed a mortal danger to the newborn Imperium of Man. These women, known by many names – Untouchables, Pariahs, Blanks, Psychic Nulls – possessed an innate anti-psychic capability, a result of the Pariah Gene they carried, which shielded them from all forms of psychic attack and made their minds unreadable.

The Sisters of Silence were also responsible for supervising the notorious Black Ships of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. These ships followed the expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade across the Galaxy, meticulously hunting down all unauthorized psykers. Their grim task was to capture or eradicate the psykers, and transport the captured ones to Terra, where their fate was sealed – either trials and heavy service for the Imperium or death.

Despite being few in number, the Sisters of Silence commanded great respect within the Imperium. Most servants of the Emperor regarded them with awe and reverence, and few dared to interfere with their grim duties.

After the Horus Heresy, the Sisters of Silence disappeared from human history, believed to have been either destroyed or absorbed into the Imperial Inquisition. However, they reemerged in the 32nd Millennium during a massive Ork Waaagh led by a Warlord known as The Beast. The Silent Sisterhood played a key role in defeating this threat and preventing a catastrophe of unimaginable scale.

Even after the official dissolution of the Order after the Age of Apostasy in the 36th Millennium, enclaves of the Sisterhood continued their fight for the Imperium, albeit in a more covert fashion. With the resurrection of Roboute Guilliman as the Lord Commander of the Imperium and Regent of the Emperor following the formation of the Great Rift in the year 999 of the 41st Millennium, the Silent Sisters began once again openly serving alongside the Imperial Armed Forces.

In the 41st Millennium, the League of Black Ships forms a recruitment division for the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. These pitch-black starships gather and transport psykers from the worlds of the Imperium to Terra as part of the Imperial Tithe. These Black Ships, filled with sorrowful psykers – are a fearsome sight to behold, a testament to the grim and dark reality of the 41st Millennium.

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