Editing Setting:Navigator: The Masquerade (section)

== On the Nature of Navigators ==

A common citizen of the Imperium likely knows of Navigators only as myth; powerful beings who guide the Emperor's ships across the void.  Those with some education on the nuances of warp travel believe them to be relics of the Dark Age of Technology, created by some long forgotten means.  An exceptionally rare few among the highest echelons of the Imperium "know" this to be a masquerade.  That they are in "truth" mutants, and that the corrosive effects of the warp takes its toll as they age.  This secret must be kept for the good of the Imperium, which could not stand without their singular skill.  The Imperium does not ask, and the Navigators do not tell, the High Lords are content, and the economic heart of the Imperium beats on.

But this too, is a masquerade.

The truth is far, far worse.

All life, or at the very least, all life that feels, casts a shadow in the warp.  For most, this shadow is but a particle, a single mote in the dense, swirling miasma that is the sea of souls.  A rare few, the psykers, the astropaths, cast a larger shadow, akin to a fish in a sea, with which they may cast their minds into the warp for knowledge or communication, or to draw energy into themselves.  But this is merely a shadow of their psyche, a reflection in a mirror; frown, and it will frown in turn.

But the Navigator's shadow, can smile back.

The truth behind the Navigators is that they possess a dual soul; their shadow in the warp has a psyche all its own.  It is, after a fashion, a daemon, possessing a separate will and consumed by an overwhelming desire to feast on the warp energy of other beings.  The navigators were "gifted" this condition by none less than the Lord of Change.  It is by this second, daemon soul that they can perceive and comprehend the warp; and it is through their third eye that they are connected to it.

Navigators are not, strictly speaking, daemonhosts.  They simply have two souls, one of which is a very hungry daemon that wants to eat other souls; as long as it is placated, it doesn't fight for control.  

When a Navigator casts the gaze of their third eye upon a living being, they are able to pull that being's warp presence into the material plane, where it is vulnerable, and then draw it back into the warp, into the waiting maw of their daemon.  What effect this has on the victim depends on how completely they are drained, ranging from dazing and weakening, to outright fatal if their warp presence is consumed completely.  However when an infant is drained there is the possibility that they will survive the loss of their soul.  The result is a blank, a psychic null, untouchable by the warp.

This process can also be reversed to create a warp bond, forcing the warp energy of the navigator's daemon into the target to bind them to their will.  This can be somewhat difficult as the navigator's daemon soul is loathe to give up any of its power.