Editing Black Ships (section)

==Adeptus Astra Telepathica==
The "League of Black Ships" is the second-largest armed fleet in the galaxy, after the [[Imperial Navy]]. It falls under the purview of the [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica]], and its function is to gather [[psykers]] for [[Astronomican|processing]] on [[Terra]]. Its ships stop at a planet and tell the governor to hand over all the psykers he has as part of the [[Imperial Tithe]]. {{Blam|'''OR ELSE.'''}} [[File:Psyker Towers.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Your lovely accommodations on your free pilgrimage to Holy Terra. This particular example is fused with a Space Hulk infested with [[Genestealers]]. [[Dwarf Fortress|Enjoy your stay.]]]]

Because of the extreme volatility of its cargo, every cell is heavily shielded and warded; even then, sanity-blasting horror awaits those who enter, and the fates of those gathered is almost inevitably painful death of one form or another. Crews of [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica Black Ship|Black Ships]] are stringently tested and monitored for any possible spark of psychic potential and are routinely mind-scrubbed to limit any corrupting exposure from the tainted cargo that the ships carry.

It transpires that a significant portion of the defunct [[Sisters of Silence]] found employ in the Black Fleet after their dissolution following the [[Horus Heresy]]. Considering it was always part of their function prior to the civil war, it makes sense that enough of them would remain to continue the role, even after the organisation was disbanded. The fact that they never received a mention up until the return of [[Roboute Guilliman]] could be attributed to the level of secrecy afforded to the Black Fleets in general; virtually no-one outside of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica knows how large the fleet is, or the route of planets that they take. Additionally, very few outside individuals are ever accommodated passage on a [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica Black Ship|Black Ship]], with only the Inquisition or other high ranking individuals such as Space Marines or Sisters of Battle may ever be allowed to board, and only at the discretion of the captain.

Their journeys can be long, but there are so many in service, and so many being brought into service all the time, that there is a constant stream of thousands of psykers arriving at Terra every day.

While they are only ever a background organization in the fluff, their importance to the Imperium is paramount, not least due to the fact that they harvest potentially dangerous and untrained psykers from across the galaxy. But if the flow of psykers to Terra was to ever stop or slow down, the [[Astronomican]] would eventually fade out due to its constant need for replenishment. Additionally, the Golden Throne itself would cease functioning, as its own separate need for psychic sacrifices need to be met. In fact, since M36 the number of psykers required has increased four-fold since the Emperor's entombment. Combine that with the Great Rift splitting the Imperium in half and the colossal increase in psykers being born across the Imperium, and the Black Fleet is more busy now than ever before. Although considering the fleet only visits a planet about once every hundred years, it is pretty safe to say that the amount of unsanctioned psykers produced by planets is not the limiting factor on how many psykers arrive on Terra for sanctioning.

Not all psykers "acquired" in this manner are [[Golden Throne|sacrificed]], mind you. Those who don't go insane on the ride to Terra, or those who are exceptionally powerful, are often sanctioned and sent to fight amongst the Imperial Guard or alongside the Inquisition in one of its many arms. Those that are not the very cream of the crop but still good enough to serve end up as [[Astropath]]s. Many of these psykers are collected as children too, because if they are powerful or stable enough, they will be more impressionable and easier to indoctrinate and unlike older ones, the strongest of youngsters can be handed over to a Space Marine Chapter to undergo the trials to become a [[Librarian]] (Or for the really exceptional ones, part of the [[Grey Knights]]).

[[Navigator]]s are not collected on Black Ships: Despite being psykers of a sort, their lineage is carefully cultivated by the Navigator Houses, which are tightly bound to the service of the various institutions of the Imperium. Since their genes are recessive and vanish after one generation of interbreeding with baseline humans means that Navigators simply do not arise on worlds where they do not already hold sway, and ''never'' as random mutations. Rogue Navigators ''do'' happen, both as individuals and as entire houses running renegade, but in those cases they are just as likely to get {{BLAM}} for forsaking their mandated duties. This all means that the worlds where the Black Ships visit are not likely to even have any Navigators to hand over for processing.