# Super Psykers



## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

why hasnt the imperium had more figureheads like malcador the sigillite who are superpowered psykers on his level. obviously at the time this guy could communicate over vast areas of space and various other powers that ive vaguely read about (eldar afraid of him?!). 

He was second only to the emperor and that was 10k years ago so what with evolution and what not, you would have thought that there would be some big hitters in the imperium. why hasnt there been?!


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## KellysGrenadier (Jul 13, 2008)

There are, if you think about it fairly. Agun Soric from the Gaunts Ghosts novels could effectively avoid death without knowing it. And he wasn't even an alpha-level psyker.


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## killmaimburn (Mar 19, 2008)

Alpha level psykers go crazy = alpha level psykers get killed/die/turn to chaos. That's why. The imperium has strong psykers though (librarians, inquisitors like ravenor, eisenhorn, commodus voke...)


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## Cato Sicarius (Feb 21, 2008)

I think he means Psykers that are _real_ super-psykers, equivilent to Malacador the Sigilite (or even better than him). For instance, Tigurius can communicate with the Hive Mind and survive, now that's what I'd call a _super-psyker_.


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## Exitus_10 (Jul 14, 2008)

They maybe the ones worthy enough to be shipped of in the Blackships to be fed to the emperor, thus keeping them(population) in check. You see Emperor needs a lot of A-grade souls to survive and be converted into the Astronimicum(sic) beacon, there maybe others hangin around like the Sensei(Emperor's real conceived children) who are shunned by the Imperium and are rare to find and be heard of.


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## NerdyOgre254 (Jul 16, 2008)

Think about it like this:
The psyker rankings are Plus-Alpha, Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, and i don't know how much lower it goes.

Ravenor, for example, could mentally control people and burn out minds from distances well over a thousand kilometers (as demonstrated by the fact that he watched and interacted with his agents on Sameter from space). 

Consider the fact that he was only a low-Gamma Psyker, even when wired into his chair (which carried some heavy duty psy boosters).

Now, let's assume that, like most things, Psychic ability follows a Bell Curve. 

This is what a Bell Curve Looks like.










If you can imagine 'blunt' people in the middle, people with the Pariah Gene on the far left, and Psykers (of any level of power) on the far right, then you see just how few psykers there are.

Also:

There's only been a very, very few super-psykers in the existence of the imperium, including:
1. Emperor
2. Malcador
3. Tigurius

I'm not including some of the Primarchs, because they were created, not born, and as such are not really human.

Now, consider this:
There have only been 3 superpsykers of the human race in 10,000 years.

How many people have been born, lived, bred with other humans, and died in that span of time? A lot. I like maths, but i'm not dumb enough to try and work that one out, even working out a rough number.

And this is before you factor in things like miscarriages, possession, superstitious people, the Black Ships, and a million other things.

Basically, the odds of being a superpsyker are so infinitesimally small that its a miracle that the human race has Tigurius when they need him the most. 

Hope that answers your question conclusively.


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## Exitus_10 (Jul 14, 2008)

Well that is the most conclusive answer I've heard in a while


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## Talos (Aug 4, 2008)

you forgot one super psyker Ahriman. I mean surely he is a super psyker. 
When I read about Psyker in fluff they seem so powerful so I wonder how strong a Lord of Change is as they should be alot more powerful than most psykers.


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## Cole Deschain (Jun 14, 2008)

Well, let's not forget, TECHNICALLY the Emperor isn't "natural" either....

And Tiguris may have been a Psyker anyway, but he's also pumped full of Gene-Seed.

Malcador's very much a rara avis.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Tigurius isn't anything special. He's no more powerful than Mephiston or Ezekiel, for example-- he's a chief librarian, so he's got a fair amount of witchcraft at his disposal, but he's not able to relocate the population of an entire planet with a series of thoughts and gestures as Magnus could, for example. The Emperor is definitely a supernatural being, to boot... Space Marine Librarians, some Inquisitors, and certainly every single Grey Knight are probably the most powerful, on average, sanctioned Imperial witches.


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## Kharnage (Sep 24, 2008)

What about Sarpedon of the Soul Drinkers? Or would he be on the par of an ordinary Librarian with one extra power?


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## Abbo (May 30, 2008)

Are the grey knights really that powerful?
Hard to corrupt?: Yes, powerful enough to be on the level of malcador? I don't think so...
Malcador does not sound like a guy who needs weapons to fight like the grey knights do. 
Heh, i really was rooting for the guy trying to take Malcador's place in that sisters of battle novel, he had a pretty solid plan, if he was telling the truth.


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## Talos (Aug 4, 2008)

No Grey Knights are no where near the power level of Malcador. Space Marine libbys arnt very powerful at all- Yes that UM talked to the hive mind but that is about it/ The imperium really does not like Psykers so they try to keep there power low.
Grey knights are only powerful psykers in that they can keep off the corruption of chaos even when fighting daemons.

The most powerful Psykers are problemly the Eldar Farseers then the Servants of Chaos. Although I am not sure who can see the future better a Farseer or the Fateweaver.


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## lawrence96 (Sep 1, 2008)

i dont think the real question isnt what are the chances of being born superpsyker, but why dont more people reach that level through training?

if think about it surely psyker ppowers are like muscles, some poeple are born with more powerful/developed muscles than others making them stronger however you can alter strength with weight lifting, other training, protein supplements and steroids (and probably a 100 other ways) so surely psykers could "weight lift" to increasse the power of their abilities even further.

course you have to be careful while doing so else you could end up possesed.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Grey Knights on the whole are not that strong. Some can't even visibly manifest a psychic power. They have enough to channel into a force weapon. Their power comes from combining their collective strength and letting the most powerful of them channel it.

As to Super psykers, delta and gamma level are as rare one in a billion, so beta and alpha could one in a trillion, and alpha plus might only come along once in a few generations, and this could be on a remote planet were he gets burned as a witch before he reaches adulthood. Which is no bad thing as they invariably go uncontrollably insane. 

This also begs the question of how Malcador didn't go crazy, if he was just a normal human.


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## Cole Deschain (Jun 14, 2008)

As I said.

Malcador was a rare bird.


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

yeah malcador seems a one off, he maybe would have been the ruler of man if the emperor wasnt around (making me abit suspisious of him now lol). hope they expand on his fluff lot more in future HH publications.

i was thinking that maybe by having the blackship around they caused a dilution of the pysker gene in mankind and actually been a negative thing for mankind. if those psykers had added the the genepool then maybe mankind could have exceeded the eldar as psykers on a wide scale, hard to do with chaos around but the eldar had the advantage of developing their talents without the influence of chaos so if man had the same chances i think they would have been able to deal with chaos fair better than possible in the current universe if you get what i mean.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Unknown Primarch said:


> i was thinking that maybe by having the blackship around they caused a dilution of the pysker gene in mankind and actually been a negative thing for mankind. if those psykers had added the the genepool then maybe mankind could have exceeded the eldar as psykers on a wide scale, hard to do with chaos around but the eldar had the advantage of developing their talents without the influence of chaos so if man had the same chances i think they would have been able to deal with chaos fair better than possible in the current universe if you get what i mean.



Good point. Maybe there's an Inquisitor out there carrying out a psyker breeding programme, trying to breed super psykers in a sheltered environment. It wouldn't take too many generations to start seeing Alphas and Betas. With similar training to Grey Knights you could have a whole army of them.


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## Absolon (Jun 7, 2008)

While there have not been millions of super psykers there have been more than enough in the fluff. Look at the incident that put Ravanor in his chair. It was a parade of alpha psykers that broke free. If I remeber correctly the Soul Drinkers encountered an Alpha that could fly between worlds without a ship. Not t mention the Apex Twins.

The question to ask is why are all the Alpha's bad guys


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

it probably would take a mortal emperor to maybe start a school to train the very best and be a benefit instead of a danger but its not likely to happen. imagine if malcador had lived, maybe he would have furthered the psyker program or maybe he was instrumental in their oppression to keep himself in power. you never know, i see potential in most characters to have helped the fall of the emperor until GW rule otherwise.


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## killmaimburn (Mar 19, 2008)

Well alpha psykers almost inevitably go insane if they are humans (eldar/sorcerors/some librarians are special cases) and even if they don't drive themselves insane, that level of power allows so much warp energy to flow that corruption is almost guaranteed. And you can only train you psyker energy to an extent, because your genes set a limit eventually. You can build your control and your mental discipline, but a gamma psyker will never become alpha only through "training".


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## NoiseMarine (Jun 8, 2008)

Absolon said:


> While there have not been millions of super psykers there have been more than enough in the fluff. Look at the incident that put Ravanor in his chair. It was a parade of alpha psykers that broke free. If I remeber correctly the Soul Drinkers encountered an Alpha that could fly between worlds without a ship. Not t mention the Apex Twins.
> 
> The question to ask is why are all the Alpha's bad guys


the psyker they ran into still had a ship to travel between worlds, but he enslaved a population of billions with his mind and somehow gave them the power to be undead or whatever happened there... its a bit fuzzy...


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## Epic Fail (Jun 23, 2008)

Wasn't Malcador the Empy's brother? As in from before the Emperor got on the roids and became super human supreme?


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Epic Fail said:


> Wasn't Malcador the Empy's brother? As in from before the Emperor got on the roids and became super human supreme?



The Emperor was _born_ a super human. There weren't a whole lot of steroids around in 10,000bc when he was born. As far as I can remember Malcador had been with him since the start of the reunification wars on Terra. There was never a mention of Malcador being immortal like the Emperor.


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## Kharnage (Sep 24, 2008)

> The question to ask is why are all the Alpha's bad guys


Intoxication with the power of the warp.


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## Amra_the_lion (May 26, 2008)

space marine chief librarians are above average, not super. Alphas wipe your 2000pts off the table if it knows your coming. not really friendly game powerlevel  but apocalypse... oh yes...


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## Unknown Primarch (Feb 25, 2008)

the thing with malcador being a one off is that the odds are that huge that he shouldnt be the only one of his power. i mean over 10 thousand years the human population of the galaxy would have been like a trillion trillion people, not all psykers granted but a fair portion would have been and a fair portion of a trillion trillion is still a hell of a lot of people and for there to be not another one of such high power is crazy. i suppose some could have turned to chaos and various other things but surely one could have slipped through the net and come out good.
i think GW need to hire some story delelopers to try and tie up some loose end with the fluff so people can be clear on some things. hate all this guessing crap and never finding the true answer.


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## Corporal Chaos (Nov 27, 2007)

They are out there on some backwater planet waiting to be found or perhaps in hiding waiting for the chance to step into the void when the emperor dies. They may even rule over a solar system that has been lost to terra. Not truely knowing their own power. There are so many ways that a single super-psycher could be overlooked, or hidden, that they will remain unnoticed until a galaxy shattering event that brings them to the forefront to be the next big thing. Could happen.

This is post #69 the magic number


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## Kendares (Sep 9, 2008)

maybe haveing shiped alot of the psykers to be fed to the Emp didnt help humans gain more powerful psykers. and even the Emp himslef isnt he like the reincarnation of 40 shamans or something like that? i do not remember where i got that from. and do the gene-seed implants boost psykers abilities?


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