So, the vat psykers that Gelt referes to in Creatures Anthema for Dark Heresy, anyone think they may be grown by the stryxis?

This has troubled me, since the never really define the term at all.

I always just assumed that they were some sort of expensive custom made servitor psyker.

Why do you think they have something to do with the Stryxis? Is there something from Edge of the Abyss that suggests this?

Spook said:

'Vat grown' is a common concept in science fiction. You use machinery as a uterine replicator, allowing you to gestate the fetus faster without the inconvenience of a living womb. Edge of the Abyss mentions that the Stryxis make extensive use of vat-grown slaves both as soldiers and for general purposes, custom-grown to suit their needs.

I know what vat-grown is . I meant taking "vat psyker" as a whole.

My impression of them was that they where a mind-wiped psyker brain stuck in a jar "futurama" style with some life support, rudimentary comms, psychic hood and suspensor unit that just follows their owner around using psyniscience to warn of bad things. Dunno if they'd really need to be grown as such, the Imperium has the tech from the Legio Cybernetica to keep them in that sort of support system and plenty of spare ones they can just bung in there that aren't good enough to be full psykers and just good enough to avoid the astronomicons furnaces.

It'd be pretty pricey technology though considering they'd be the complicated bits of mini-dreadnoughts in a way.

I don't really think that the Stryxis are responsible for creating them, no. I also like them better as an Imperial creation.

Under the right story conditions though, I'm sure a Stryxis could sell you some.

In my game I distinguish between Vat-grown Psykers (psykers grown in vats, definitely heretical technology as it is basically about creating controlled mutations), and Vat Psykers (psykers who for various reasons are placed in special vats or containers and basically interact with the world around them through psychic senses and powers alone). Vat Psykers in my game might be placed in such containment for reasons such as: life-support (i.e. Ravenor), being slave-tasked to a single purpose (for example by an Inquisitor who normally hates psykers, but recognizes that he needs to use one for a particular purpose), containing their power (the vat is inscribed with multiple layers of hexagrammatic wards and will cut off life support at the first sign of the psyker losing control over his/her powers), or simply for transportation in stasis or hibernation (since all psykers need to be delivered to Terra by the Black Ships and then the survivors to be shipped back out to their new posting, I think it's convenient and safe to ship them in stasis or hibernation as much as possible).