How secure is an astropathic transmission? Can you send "files" this way? I was under the impression that all that can really be transmitted is sentences, feelings, and the like. In our game, we do A LOT of exploration. As such I have charted many warp routes. But could something like a star-map ever actually be transmitted via astropath? In our game we have a small fast ship NPC ship that we use specifically for the running of missions back and forth between our area of space and the area of space that my navigator house makes it's home. All they do is run upgraded star-maps and pick up trade goods for us. This is how our GM controls and explains the process though which mapping a star-map increases profit factor. But this issue transcends just my star-map solution. So again, to reiterate, can complicated information or vids be transmitted via astropathic transmission? Also, how SECURE is this method of communication?

Don't have my book in front of my at the moment, but I'm pretty sure images also can be sent. Obviously, the larger the message the more likely it is to be corrupted, misinterpreted, lost, etc etc. So by "files" if you mean large amounts of information, it's probably not the best way. As for star-maps, well, the image of the planet or a significant feature of it/the system, the stars observed from the planet, etc. can be sent. As for the actual warp route, maybe through a decoded message a Navigator could understand and piece together, though it may also be misinterpreted or change by the time the trip is attempted. A computer data base would be more precise.

As for the security of the transmission, it's kind of like emails. You have passcodes that unlock/lock the emails, cyphers, decoders, scramblers, code words, cants, etc. So it really depends on if you have the key at the under end to decipher the message. The way Astropaths work is that you are a relay station. So not only are you sending messages, you are also receiving messages and having to send them. Most of the time the Astropath(s) have no idea what the contents of the message is, only that it is a decoded message with symbols, letters, numbers, or an unknown image(s) needing to be relayed to a specific location/organization/person. Hence why Astropaths work for the Imperium, and not the Rogue Trader. It is their duty to relay all messages, in order to preserve the Imperium.

As mentioned above, the entire Astropath network consists of relays that do little more than act as send/recieve stations. It's important matters like military matters, sector level politics, inquisitorial and rogue trader duties that warrant having their own Astropath to send messages on command.

As to the content of the messages, well just as the range at which messages can be sent and recieved improves along with the Astropath's psy-rating so too does the quality and content of the messages. At lower ranks an Astropath is little in effect using morse code or some other simple cypher to send messages consisting of a few simple sentences, containing some emotion behind the message such as this:

"Alpha-1 Urgent, Footfall under attack. Xenos fleet in system. Greenskins" such a message would have a sense of urgency and threat embedded in it, and while it would have basic cyphers it would be crackable by experienced Astropaths if they had reason to do so.

A more senior Astropath might be able to send the following message:

*Image of Footfall under attack from several Onslaught-class Ork vessels* "Alpha-1 Urgent, flagship Tempered Will of House Marallis and attendant escorts fighting back Ork fleet in Furibundus system." *Image of a hololith projection of enemy fleet disposition* "Request immediate reinforcements from Adeptus Mechanicus outpost Altar-Templum-Calixis-Ext-17 - clearance Omega-78-Kappa-12" this message would be finely nuanced, with emphasis on the key parts and with clearly discernible imagery attached to it and cyphers that would require a skilled Astropath to begin to crack it.

So my supposition that the logistics of getting my ever increasingly accurate starmaps back to my house to cash them in for PF is correct. Good to know! This is going to get crazier and crazier as we just picked up a small piece of Xenos Tech that plugs into our runecaster and will greatly assist in the difficulty of traveling to stars that we do not have any kind of records of or charted in any way.

Our GM created a new sector of space with 150 different systems and gave me a map covered in stars and nebulae without any markings or context. I have, through my machinations, contacts, and travels managed to chart at least basic information about 38 of these systems. A big part of my character's Meta-Endeavor is the charting and categorization of this new area of space. The map is actually gorgeous, vellum sheet roughly 36" by 24" treated with a combination of love and flames (I burnt the edges slightly and aged it) to make it feel right and I take great pride in marking new routes and ciphers on it. Nothing like a quality starmap to get me in the mood to roleplay a navigator.

This thread was important to me because with all the love I pour into this information, I would hate for it to fall into the wrong hands!

Now this idea is basically high grade heresy but stay with me because if anyone can pull it off it is a rogue trader allied with a powerful navigator house.

Wraithbone is basically crystalized psychic energy so a Navigator and an Astropath working together could determine it's make up and shape and 'fax' that through to another astropath. The astropath at the other end needs to have access to wraithbone but if he does then he reshapes that wraithbone into a copy of the original and there you have it. You have securely sent a physical object from one side of space to the other and anyone without the right tools will be completely unable to decypher your message.

Now I admit there are more than a million reasons why it might not work but the fact that it might is a good enough reason to try.

Something tells me Bone-singing might be a little out of the human range of psychic abilities. Still, it's up to your GM.

I meant reshaping the wraithbone via carving or some other physical method rather than full blown bonesinging but if bonesinging is possible...

Wraithbone reaaaaaaally doesn't work that way.

Of course you're free to allow your players to think it works that way, until the psychic feedback from trying to work it that way alerts a Craftworld that they've been defiling Eldar Wraithbone and are a threat to them.

Boy would that piss them off. Our lord captain has a soulstone from a pre-fall Eldar war leader. His (short) name is "Chu'Lain" and he and our captain talk all the time with each other. If the eldar ever discover that he is with us I have no doubt we would be hunted to the far ends of the galaxy. When we found him he had no knowledge of the Fall or anything that had happened...good times trying to explain that one.

Boy would that piss them off. Our lord captain has a soulstone from a pre-fall Eldar war leader. His (short) name is "Chu'Lain" and he and our captain talk all the time with each other. If the eldar ever discover that he is with us I have no doubt we would be hunted to the far ends of the galaxy. When we found him he had no knowledge of the Fall or anything that had happened...good times trying to explain that one.

A nifty little aspect of this character, but did the Eldar use soulstones pre-Fall? I love the Eldar, my favorite 40K race, and like to think I keep at least rather well up on their history and fluff, but I don't remember them doing the whole waystone/soulstone thing prior to the Fall. Keeping your fellow's and ancestor's memories and consciousness around to talk with is great and all, and could be very useful, but I think they only started doing it because Slaanesh slurps Eldar souls like I slurp cans of Livewire; by IV If they didn't need to protect their dead from the Arch Enemy, they probably wouldn't have soulstones. Again, I'm not sure on this, and an Eldar race without Warithstructs to help fight for them, even in a time where they were much more numerous, seems wrong, but I think that only post-Fall Eldar had these.

Now you can ignore everything I just said. It's still a cool idea, and a very interesting facet of this character. Not sure why the hyper-arrogant Eldar would talk to a "lowly" Human, but I occasionally support them breeding with Humans, or at least seeing them as PEOPLE of a similar calibur, rather than vermin, so maybe this ancient Eldar is just uncharacteristically reasonable; a good reason his stone survived intact, where so many others are lost forever, or find their way into silent Human collections of trinkets.

I had the same concerns, but the premise is that the technology was developed before the fall as a way of cheating death in a way. Great minds would be kept in places of honor where their wisdom would outlive their bodies. In this case, the Eldar in question had never really met a human before, and as he had NO knowledge of the fall or anything that had happened he hadn't been jaded by fifteen thousand years of watching humanity drop the ball over and over and over again. Also, he was very lonely by this point.

At first it was a simply exchange of favors, where he would give the lord captain some insights into the past of his people in exchange for the captain agreeing to give him to his people if the opportunity arose. Then they became fairly close, so much so that we had some Eldar on the ship making a deliver and Chu'Lain asked the captain to hold off on giving him back yet, because he had developed an interest in seeing how things go for the captain and our mission.

At first the only way to talk to him was to take human psychers and let Chu'Lain essentially possess them. But as the Captain's latent abilities came to fruition the two of them were able to just commune naturally.

I assume of course that this eldar is evil and is slowly turning the captain into a vessel capable of holding his essence forever, there is no basis for this in the story OR the fluff...but my suspicions always remain!

And a quick side note: We actually discovered Chu'Lain as one of a trio of soulstones being held by a super shady black marketeer who had set up shop on a rogue planet that used to be some sort of Eldar world.