Why are there Librarians? [Minor 1K Sons Spoilers]

[Kuhlbert]

So just finished "A Thousand Sons"...

And it begs the questions - in the modern Chapters, why are there Librarians?

I went back and re-read Index Astartes III - and in that book, the Meeting at Nikaea resulted in Sorcery being banned. But in A Thousand Sons, this is ret-conned on page 355 - there are to be no Legion Librarius' and Psychic powers are banned from the Legions.

This is a bit stronger that IAIII.

So, _if_ this is true - how is it that today most of the chapters _do_ have Librarians, and some of them are using powers as strong as what 1K Sons used.

So for discussion:

a) McNeill over stepped himsefl in the book, and it is only Sorcery/Magic outlawed, psykers are still okay...
b) The Emperor himself later lightened the restrictions, in order to fight the Chaos Legions
c) The Psychic-using chapters ignored the edicts like the 1K Sons (just not as much), and over time, it worked itself back into the norm (since the Emperor isn't around to punish)
d) Someone else (Gullieman?) later reestablished the Librarians post Golden-throne.
e) Some of the chapters (Space Wolves) were a bit ignorant, and didn't think their powers (Rune-Priests) were Psychic powers, and thus didn't think the rule applied to them...and eventually it spread to other chapters...

Setting aside a. (because its no fun to discuss)... what do people think? If the novel "A Thousand Sons" is the proper canon... why would there be Librarians in the chapters today?

Just curious what people think.

[Madness]

Because they are just too damn useful, and sanctioned psykers are a-ok, as opposed to people who dabble into heretical stuff when not intructed to.

[Gotthammer]

I'd go with A followed by B.

[Melissia]

Without a Librarian, modern chapters couldn't do jack on their own. They'd have to rely on civilians to send or recieve messages, for example.

Marines are given Librarians in order to ensure that they are independent. The actual fluff ramifications of this are irrelevant :P

[Madness]

Which is also why I find the Black Templars kind of ridiculous.

[Fellend]

The black templars have civilian sanctioned psykers. What's so ridiciulous with that? I'd say having a bunch of slave psykers to send and recieve messages seems more efficiant than letting your precious librarian do it. Not to mention that all librarians can't even send or recieve messages as that is a special talent not all are gifted with.

Not having read thousands sons yet I can't say for sure but wasn't it the sorcery part that was forbidden general psykery was okay? It seems kinda wrong for the emperor to ban psykers as he is one himself, several primarchs were psykers (if not all) and his friends were psykers.

[Melissia]

Having slave psykers means that they will often see rebellion, lies, falsehood, traitors, etc. You can't lobotomize psykers and still have them keep their psychic ability like you can other slaves. And a traitorous psyker is far dangerous than other kinds of traitors.


Basically, the Black Templars are kinda stupid if they use slave psykers like you say. Okay, they aren't kinda stupid. They're REALLY stupid.

[Madness]

I get that Librarians aren't dedicated astropaths, I get that Librarians aren't dedicated Navigators, what I don't get it is why a civilian guy performing the same exact tasks should be more trustable than a friggin' brainwashed marine.

"Suffer not the witch to live, unless he's not one of your brethren, even better if he's not even in the military and he's a civilian"

What's next? Bonus points if he is totally a fanboy of Ahriman?

[wittdooley]

First, I sincerely doubt that McNeill 'overstepped' here. Let's not kid ourselves and think that the new canon introduced into these books isn't carefully planned and measured.

Second, I'm gonna throw it out there that we don't yet know the Emperor's true intention for his ruling. Remembering that he is the most powerful psychic being in the universe, and knowing that the Imperium would be unable to function without psykers, I'm sure something has simply yet to happen that will lead to the re-establishment of the Librarius. Remember, presently in the HH timeline, no one is supposed to revere the Emperor as a god either.

To Madness-- a great number of books in the Black Library explore the necessity of 'civilian psykers;' all seem to indicate that there are familial bloodlines that breed more potent and able psykers, and as such the chance for them losing control to the warp is far less. It's also been indicated in some of the newer novels (Black Tide) that the Navigator council holds some significant power in the Imperium.

[Melissia]

For my part, my biggest objection is simply "the enslaved will rebel and betray their masters". And Psykers are quite capable of doing extreme damage if they decide to betray and rebel. Especially the subtle ones.