Hello fellow heretics. I have a question regarding the Khorne 'Brass Collar' reward. My GM is treating the description of it as if the only thing that it does is make Blood God's Contempt impossible to fail, but I don't know if that's appropriate. The collar's description is as follows:

"A brass collar, cruelly spiked and engraved with the sigils of the Blood God, materialises around the character's neck. Forged in Khorne's weapons-foundries, it may never be removed, but its blessings will protect the recipient from enemy sorcerers. This gift works in the same manner as the Blood God's Contempt Talent (see page 120), except no Willpower Test is required to resist psychic powers."

My GM is treating the collar as still requiring the hour to perform a ritual, and the infamy point is still necessary as per the part of the description that says "This gift works in the same manner as the Blood God's Contempt Talent." I, however, believe that the collar is supposed to work the same as the Blood God's Contempt Talent, just without the need to sit around and curse at sorcerers for an hour.

Main question: Is the Brass Collar a constant effect of negating psyker powers, or is it merely an accessory to the Blood God's Contempt talent that causes you to never fail, and still requires you to cast Blood God's Contempt every session?

Purely by RAW, your GM appears to be right. RAI, I can see how you could arrive at both interpretations. There's never been an indication that the Collar would require any kind of preparation, but then again, there's never been an RPG entirely focused on Chaos either, so some additional detail may be warranted.

The Collars of Khorne are used primarily by the Flesh Hounds, I kinda doubt Flesh Hounds would be doing a ritual, or have infamy points to spend, so I'd say it just functions without the hour and infamy point.

I have to agree that while your GM's interpretation is correct by RAW, I think your interpretation hews closer to both fluff and balance. It's hardly unreasonable to imagine that a gift designed to protect against psykers provides a rather all-encompassing protection against psykers, especially since all it does is produce a slightly inferior version of being a Null.

On top of this, I find the actual duration and phrasing of Blood God's contempt so unclear that any excuse to not have to deal with it is a good one in my book. For example, it doesn't mention if you must spend one infamy point per power or one per hour long cursing ritual, which likewise doesn't state for how long it's effective. I think the intention is one hour and one infamy points grants a game session worth of protection, but it's not too clear.

Put simply, is it that unreasonable to assume that Khorne, hater of psykers, decides to grant a potent item to protect against psykers that... actually protects against psykers, always, regardless of if the champion doesn't curse them or spends a point of infamy? If not, the filthy psykers could just ambush him when he's not looking! It certainly fits his style to make them eternally protected against psychic treachery.

And hey, if not, you can always start the session with not activating it yet, having a psyker pc or minion buff you with warptime etc like crazy using Profane Symbols and THEN curse them for being filthy, filthy psykers! TADA! Pysker boosted Khornate Berserker that's immune to psychic powers. OOC and silly, yes, but a rather good example of why it kinda makes sense the collar is permanent and outside the control of the one granted it.