Editing Navigator (section)

==Origins==
Navigators were created through [[Transhumanist|genetic engineering]] during the [[Dark Age of Technology]] when humanity realized that a special kind of person could find his way through the Warp better than any piece of technology. Though warp travel is possible ''without'' Navigators, it requires huge banks of cogitators to perform the necessary calculations and is limited to short jumps somewhat analogous to a sailing ship hugging the coastline rather than cutting right across the sea (although when you read the retconned fluff on [[Tau]] ships it gets more confusing, since they used to use the cogitator method). Psykers such as Librarians or Sorcerers can also fulfil the duty of guiding a vessel through the warp but they are far less reliable and not particularly sustainable when compared to perpetuating bloodlines of capable Navigators, who, with the third eye in the middle of their forehead, can look directly upon the Warp and perceive its currents, allowing longer and safer journeys through the very heart of the warp.

Since the [[Astronomican]] didn't exist at the time before the [[Imperium]], we can only assume the humans of the Dark Age of Technology only proceeded with very short warp jumps, or used artificial warp beacons or some sort. It is known that devices such as the [[Imperium Secundus|Pharos]] existed, which acted as warp lanterns capable of illuminating worlds for safe travel, but they are considered to be non-human in origin. There are Astronomican relays that act as basically lanterns to the Astronomican's lighthouse so it's entirely possible there were Dark Age equivalents and technological equivalents of Navigators during the height of the Dark Age of Technology. Which would certainly explain why all of the Navigators were living on Terra instead of scattered by the Age of Strife: they had been replaced by then. In any case, the combinations of Navigators and the Astronomican gave the Imperium a huge advantage in reach that would be unmatched by anything short of the [[Webway]] and facilitated the [[Great Crusade]] and the maintenance of the Imperium up to the current date.

The issue of whether Navigators are true psykers is a hazy one. Though it is blindingly obvious that they are mutants with a strong connection to the warp, they <u>never</u> manifest psychic potential in the same way as a traditional psyker and are not subject to the same risk of psychic phenomena or perils of the warp when attempting to manifest their abilities. It is described that Navigators use their abilities in a more intuitive and passive manner, therefore they might be considered "safe" in comparison to the cataclysmic potential of an unbound psyker since a rogue navigator has little to no risk of being possessed or accidentally summoning hordes of daemons on a bad day. However, some particular uses of their powers might lead them on a much slower path to insanity due to their connection with the warp; while some abilities ''(such as Immolate the Soul)'' skirt the boundaries of acceptability that can lead to Navigators being named witches or sorcerers regardless of the truth. In any case they are not collected by the [[Black Ships]] nor are they subject to the same sanctioning processes and restrictions that ordinary psykers are. On the flip side, technologies and techniques that affect psykers have similar sorts of effects on Navigators so the two groups overlap each other to at least some extent. With the Blackstone Fortress game giving rules for a playable Navigator (Espern Lorcano) with Smite and the new [[Horus Heresy]] wargame giving Navigators their own unique power, it’s safe to assume they are psykers of some kind, though divergent enough that no normal psyker can just pick up the traits of a Navigator or vice versa.

The genes that make a Navigator are recessive (which leads to some suspicion [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Big E]] had a hand in their creation). If a Navigator mates with a regular human, all their kids will be normal. ''(Just like what happened when Septimus, a normal human, had a son with Octavia, a Navigator before Variel kidnapped their child to create Decimus as [[Talos]]' successor)'' They thus had to form an endogamous caste by resorting to lots and lots of in-breeding, giving rise to the oft-told Imperial Navy joke, "How do you tell the difference between the Navigator's sister and father?" "You don't, they're the same person!" (sound of laughing followed by [[Blam|a summary execution]]). While there is an even more grimdark selection technique that was discovered before the industrial age which would theoretically allow to more rapidly increase their numbers while mitigating some inbreeding issues, apparently GeeDubs nodded off in their biology class right after the definition of "recessive gene". ''Which is absolute bs, as interbreeding the navigators with the vastly more abundant average human would produce a much bigger hybrid population capable of producing 25% Navigators and 50% Hybrids in their respective offspring, while mitigating inbreeding effects, sadly rendering most of the navigator house breeding canon Grimderp instead of Grimdark. Of course, one could also rant about the absurdness of the navigator phenotype being entirely MONOGENETIC, which might require a gene of nearly chromosomal size dimensions, but this might just be too much realtalk.''

However, the Navigator genome is not stable like [[abhuman]]s, and thus they are deemed mutants. While their bodies conform to the holy human form while they are younger; prolonged exposure to the Warp, coupled with unstable genetics will result in the Navigator developing mutations that deviate too far from the human form to be publicly accepted. The rate and sequence of mutation is not uniform and varies from family to family ''and'' from Navigator to Navigator. However, the mutations are cumulative, eventually resulting in something that looks like a [[Slann|giant frog]]. These members are known as the Elders, who actually form the leadership of a House. To maintain a public appearance, the Elders select the patriarch or matriarch of the House, known as either a '''Novator''' or '''Celestarch'''. In the earlier days of the Imperium, these grand poobahs used to accompany expeditions and were so talented they could guide fleets through the most tempestuous warp storm. Nowadays they're too precious to waste on anything dangerous, save for inter family murder-bickering on Terra or as a last resort.

===The Imperium===
When the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor]] set about uniting [[Terra]] and preparing to go to the stars, he was presented with a bit of a dilemma: Part of the [[Imperial Truth]] that he was spouting maintained that "Humans" ''(ie: not mutants)'' were destined to rule the stars, unfortunately he was still centuries away from getting the [[Webway]] project up and running. Simply put, the Emperor needed the Navigators, even if he was fully aware of how "age before beauty" was a horrible lie to the Navigators.

Deciding "fuck it, we need space travel", the Big.E. went to the '''Paternova''' (the leader of the Navis Nobilite) and made an agreement: "Keep to yourselves in your part of Terra and your mutant Elders out of sight, and we'll pay you to fly our starships and protect you from some of the more zealous anti-mutant groups". The Paternova agreed, and thus humans can fly through the Warp, using the [[Astronomican]] to navigate.

It is strongly hinted that the Emperor detested the unofficial and disproportionate power Navigators had over the Imperium and planned to do away with the Navigators following the completion of the [[Webway]] [[Golden Throne|project]]. While some Navigators were involved in the development of the technologies that the Emperor would later use (i.e. genuinely loyal Navigators or just ones who were trustworthy once bought off), the greater knowledge of the plan was kept from the Navis Nobilite for fear of how they would react with the loss of their monopoly on space travel and potential obsolescence. Indeed, during the [[Horus Heresy]] the Navigators considered the ''mere prototypes'' of the Webway project to be such a threat that they were prepared to sacrifice [[White Scars|a loyalist legion]] in order to destroy the technology. In hindsight, all of the problems come from the Emperor trying to cash-in on the Webway instead of building on the Navigator gene for like, navigator servitors or navigator Machine Spirits or something. Or just building more Navigator houses since he probably invented the bastards anyway and just tell them that he'll make sure there are enough Navigators to match the number of ships and if ship-building is outpacing their breeding he'll make more Navigators to take up the slack and the increased (and taxable) economy will bring increased wealth to the ancient Navigator Houses. Heck, even with the navigator servitors/machine spirits idea he could have bound all official Imperial government ships to be guided by Navigators and leaving the alternatives to civilians and military only (making said official ships faster, while individuals could still hire their services).

In the 41st millennium, the Navigators are part of the [[High Lords of Terra]], represented by the '''Paternoval Envoy'''. A lot of people in the [[Administratum]], the [[Ecclesiarchy]], and the [[Inquisition]] aren't too thrilled with this but they can't really do anything to the Navigators without irreparably crippling the Imperium. The more extreme ones ''still'' try to do something about it. Imperial dogma is frequently contradictory. Pointing this out is <s>[[Paranoia|treason]]</s> [[heresy]]. Kadak Mir serve as the current envoy by order of Guilliman, replacing Uila Lamma, it is suspected she was removed for advocating for too much reform to the Imperium's laws, which went against Guilliman's more cautious measures.

That said, it's important to remember that their power is balanced by the fact it'd be impossible for the Navigators to launch some sort of rebellion or purposefully cripple the Imperium, as they'd still rely on astropaths to communicate and they (usually) wouldn't exactly be helping with that. There are exceptions, but the rule remains true. There's also the fact that while Warp travel without a Navigator is much more difficult and time-consuming, it ''is'' possible and many large interstellar empires of humans have been made before the Great Crusade reached them despite lacking Navigators. Yes these only had a few dozen to a few hundred star systems, but they had dramatically smaller populations than the Sol System and so would have had very little interest in expanding with any speed (and unlike the Emperor, weren't aware of the ticking doomsday clocks of Chaos forming a coherent threat before he could force a stalemate through enough manpower, [[Necron]]s waking or [[Ork]]s hitting critical mass and rebuilding to Krork before anyone could stop them). The Navigators are no doubt keenly aware of this. They might not be replaceable, but they are not strictly necessary either. All it would take from the Imperium is sponsoring increased ship building (perhaps offering many Writs of Trade as incentives) so that numbers of vessels traveling makes up for the slower travel time and the Navigators become irrelevant. To say nothing of the numerous other psykers and even psychically attuned technology the Imperium has that could theoretically replace Navigators.