+++The Astronomican+++

The Astronomican is the psychic homing beacon that allows Navigators to traverse warpspace.  It is the duty of the Adeptus Astronomica to maintain the Astronomican. To this end the organisation recruits a proportion of the young psykers collected by the psychic levy of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. This is the main source of recruitment for the Adeptus Astronomica and consequently the vast majority of its senior members are psykers. A smaller proportion of its staff are not psykers, but are drawn from the ranks of those slave-families which have provided menial workers for the Adeptus for thousands of years.

The Adeptus Astronomica is a small organisation based in a remote complex known as the Forbidden Fortress. Uninvited access to the Fortress is not permitted - even Judges and Inquisitors must seek permission before they can enter.

The Forbidden Fortress is built in a sheltered crag near the tip of a vast mountain range in a land once known as Nepal. To outside appearances the mountains remain unchanged by the hand of man but in fact the Forbidden Fortress extends deep down into the rock and throughout the entire mountain range.

The leader of the Adeptus Astronomica is the Master of the Astronomican. His task is to oversee the organisation and to represent it on the Senatorum Imperialis as a High Lord of Terra. The object of the Adeptus Astronomica is to teach and train young psykers so that they can serve in the Astronomican.

The organisation is really a vast teaching institution controlled by a class of older members known as Instructors. Some Instructors are accorded the title High Instructor and entrusted with the guardianship of certain aspects of the organisation's teaching. Its day-to-day affairs such as maintenance and provisioning are taken care of by a body of administrative functionaries.

Young psykers are initiated as Acolytes. They are taught how to control and use their powers in much the same way as psykers taken by the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, but in addition they are introduced to the Lore of the Astronomican. They learn the value of their lives, study philosophy and are gradually brought to an inner understanding of the universe and the nature of the warp.

Only those who achieve this mystic state can become members of the Chosen, those who will give their psychic energy to the Astronomican. The rest, those whose studies fall short of this ideal, remain within the organisation and become Instructors or are absorbed as administrative functionaries of the Forbidden Fortress.

THE CHOSEN

The pinnacle of an Acolyte's existence is to be selected as one of the Chosen. This is a considered a great honour. The Chosen are regarded as occupying a unique and rarefied level of existence far beyond that of the Instructors or even the Master of the Astronomican. The Chosen's head is shaved and he wears yellow robes and the scarlet badge of the Chosen. The rest of his life is spent in prayer and contemplation, until he is called to serve in the Chamber of the Astronomican.

THE CHAMBER OF THE ASTRONOMICAN

The Chamber of the Astronomican is a huge hollow sphere carved from a single mountain peak. Its outward form is a giant dome, the lower half of the sphere being buried under the rock. Ten thousand multi-tiered seats cover the entire inner surface of the sphere. Each seat faces the very centre of the sphere where a raw ball of psychic energy dances in space.