So, as Forsaken Bounty implies, the Navigator's station from which he does the voodoo that he do so well is called the Oculus. I thought it might be interesting to hear what people's speculative ideas of what this Oculus would be like were. I looked up the word in Wikipedia for inspiration, and it states that in French Classical architecture, it's a circular or oval window, often set in dormers on the upper floors of buildings.

It's also, however, a term used for an opening in the apex of a dome, such as that seen in the Pantheon in Rome. Naturally, oculus is from the Latin word for "eye" which also resonates with Navigators in general for obvious reasons.

I'm picturing something of a chamber accessible from the bridge, but isolated. Perhaps it has a clear observation dome through which he can observe the warp with his third eye, or a circular rose window-like oculus for the same. Judging from artwork though, and the fact that direct observation of the warp seems insane even for Navigators, it perhaps makes more sense that the Navigator would use a helmet-like device from a throne.

What are your thoughts, guys?

The third eye is what allows a Navigator to look upon the warp without going insane.

I view the Oculus along the lines of the Emperors throne room on Death Star 2 in in Return of the Jedi, just more opulent. The large rose window with a throne or other control device from which the Navigator can look out and send course corrections to the bridge.

Many books make references to Navigator and Astropath towers. These towers are exclusive to the group and allow these groups to be comfortable and secluded from the rest of the crew.

AkumaKorgar said:

Actually, that's the entire point of the Navigator gene - Navigators are the only humans able to look directly into the Warp without suffering for it.

I've always considered the word oculus to be symbolic, it doesn't literally look anywhere or have any eye like properties but its where the navigators look from, hence it can look like pretty much anything. All it really needs is somewhere comfy fo a navigator to spend a loooong period of time (a warp journey for instance) and links to the ships navigational and warp propulsion systems so the navigator can guide the ship (even if this is simply a computer monitor and a vox link to the bridge dwelling helmsman.

My players ship, the Thors Redemption was an old Navy cruiser and the Oculus there is a room with 5 comfy pod type couchs (they have a navigator for each pod but typically only three are plugged in at any time). Each pod has a wealth of displays and MIU links for the navigators to plug in or interact with the ships navigational gear directly.

The room is circular and the pods radiate out from a large central pillar where all the cables from their pods go. Each of the 5 navigators onboard has added deocrations such as wall hangings, rugs, paintings, etc to the room and it looks a bit of a mishmash of styles due to this. Each pod has an armoured covered that drops over the navigator when they are active, protecting them in the event of any rough stuff. The Oculus is strictly off limits to everyone on board from the captain down to the techpriests. Anyone needing to go there (to fix some maybe) has to allowed entry by the navigators.

Basically what Gribble said with the addition of a measure of soundproofing and such more to avoid distractions.

Why do you need a description? It's the front cover of Edge of the Abyss.

I figured it was whatever helped the Navigator visualise what they were doing in a rational way. As my shortlived navigator styled himself as an Armada era ships pilot and wore a huge bicorn to cover his warp eye along with huge frockcoats and frills while about in society his Occulus had rolling water walls and pitched timbers and a great big ship's wheel. Occasionally you heard gulls cawing and the waft of salt from the chamber.

The rest of the crew thought he was a bit eccentric although it made explaining everyone having warp dreams about penguins very easy. "Why yes fellows, I had to take a diversion near the antarctic to avoid the warp kraken!"

Bit of a shame for balance purposes he had to be relegated to NPC since his warp eye attack was too devastating.