I have 2 gaming groups and they have decided they would like to meld and play RT, this in my opinion is an ace idea, so after asking the players which PC's they would like to play Kelly decided she would like to be the navigator.

Bearing in mind she (Kelly) has the least amount of 40k lore i dont think she new what that really meant, after I and another player gave her a brief lowdown she was still happy to do so.

I have no problem with having her play the navigator and will proceed accordingly but i just wanted to know if in 40k lore there has ever been any female navigators, i dont think i have ever heard of any!

RT rulebook gives some idea of how a young navigator often acts, basically as a bit of a rake, however for a female character this may not be entirely welcome (although knowing Kelly i am sure thats just what she will do)!

Any help welcome.

Cheers

'very' Dirtyscribe

It's been noted in most 40k lore that, while in most positions males are most common, the only position where the fluff states women are not scene is in the Astartes (issues with this can be brought up in the 17+ page disscussion in the Deathwatch forum). Moreover, as the navigator gene is inharited, one would reasonably expect nearly equal numbers of female navigators to male navagators. So while one might not expect to typicaly find female navigators putting themselves out for obsucre and dangerous positions like on a Rogue Trader's ship, its easily within reason.

Its worth noting that the Imperium is not sexist, though many of its member worlds may be. There are a lot of very powerful women out there, so a self-important noble woman is not likely to draw much more attention then simmilar man, unless the world they're visiting has particularly different customs.

As far as I know there are just as many female navigators as male. It is just a genetic mutation after all.

Now the question arises, how often will she be required to procreate or be implanted with an embryo by her family? The bloodlines must be kept up to keep the navigator gene strong. I'm sure her family has scheduled her breeding cycles for years in advance. Or they have just plucked everything out and she has dozens of offspring that she is unaware of.

Also, most of the fluff I have read seldom calls a navigator either male or female. More often than not they are secluded and never seen. Only spoken of and too through vox.

Thank you noble forum dwellers, as always your wealth of information/inspiration has proved invaluable (especially the idea that she has a breeding cycle) and i have a renewed faith in those illuminated by The Emperor's divine light.

May your ships be strong and swift and your Rogue Traders find themselves fat of purse.

Yours always,

Dirtyscribe

if you need some 40K lore to back you up might I suggest the BL novel Farseer (by William King if memory serves); there is a scene where one of the main characters, a navigator, is in a sumptuous place owned by the navigators gilds playing a game of regicide with a female navigator; he muses about petitioning her house for marriage and then thinks better of it as they were unlikely to approve.

I am sorry not to have more details to hand but if I can find the book then I would be happy to supply them.

DW

The novel SOUL HUNTER has a female navigator, Eurydice Mervallion of the Navigator House Mervallion, as one of the main characters.

Legacy by Matt Farrer is another novel where a female navigator is one of the mainish characters as well.

I'm struggling to remember which one, but there's also an appearance n one of the Cain novels.

The Navigator houses will each work on their own logic, and may have a patriarchal or matriarchal bias. Extensive genetic damage may also give individual houses a gender bias, either in births; survivors or effective Navigators. Any breeding programs are likely to be unique to to the house, and active Navigators on the fringe of the Imperium are the least likely to be involved in them.

There are female Navigators in their general backround (you know, for a children navigator you need two... preferably both Navigatos) and novel appearances are in Soul Hunter, Wolfblade (novel with highest Navigator cast ever), Sons of Fenris, Legacy and Traitor´s Hand.

Cheers:-)

I'm struggling to remember which one, but there's also an appearance n one of the Cain novels.

I'd be intrigued to know - I only remember two female techpriests (his one-time girlfriend and the daughter of the chartist captain in Caves of Ice). The only navigator I can remember is in one of the interludes from Death Or Glory when the High Command discusses the Waaaaagh-boss' little weirdboy trick.

The Navigator houses will each work on their own logic, and may have a patriarchal or matriarchal bias. Extensive genetic damage may also give individual houses a gender bias, either in births; survivors or effective Navigators. Any breeding programs are likely to be unique to to the house, and active Navigators on the fringe of the Imperium are the least likely to be involved in them.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. Considering most houses place their navigators in Navy, AdMech and Rogue Trader vessels (Chartist captains mostly won't be able to afford them), I could see them granting reductions in cost if the captains guaranteed their navigators the opportunity to meet with other ships' navigators of the same house in the vicinity to... preserve the bloodline.
I don't think the Navis Nobilite would be able to afford ignoring their members active at the fringes.

Cifer said:

That figures - it's the only novel I only read once...