Out of the blue the regular-looking (if perhaps a littly wimpy) guy suddenly goes all Emperor-Palpatine on the other guy in the bloodpit. Or perhaps he just stares at the other guy while pumping his hand, and the big, strong undefeated champion collapses to his knees, blood pouring from his eyes and nose.

Or any other normal situation where a Psycher who has not advertised his true nature suddenly starts Warping around.

How do folks react? Many flee in terror. Others might attack with cries of "Buuuuuurn the witch!!!"?

What if he tears of his cowl and displays his sanctioning brand? Will most folk stop and say "oh, that's ok, then!" or will they decide to err on the side of caution and BUUURN THE WITCH!!!!

Your thoughts appreciated

I think it depends most citizens are taught to fear the psyker so they are probably just going to flee, those who would Burn the Witch response are probably not going to care about the sanctioning brand, if all they see is the psyker throwing his power around killing people he obviously has went rogue and is something that should be stopped before he damns you all, especially if he was hiding what he was before, the reasoning for sanctioning brands is so people can see what you are and treat you as is proper for such abominations, I always though the general hate and fear most pskers are met with was one of the draw backs to playing the psyker.

I fall into the 80% flee in terror, 20% grab the torches, pitchforks, lead pipes, or anything else that is at hand to remove the abomination to the Emperor's judgment.

I don't think a sanctioning brand would mean anything to the average citizen after witnessing warp powers in use. I believe a unrelenting rage would overtake the true believers at having been forced to witness such blasphemies.

I agree- then again, it depends on the context: how private it is, and how much they payed to get in and see it. For the tougher guys, it might be how much they bet (and lost) on the bigger guy that might bother them.

I would say in a regular circus events, if it was a bunch of criminals fighting it out for the enjoyment of the local population, such a display of power would warrant a mass riot. Whereas a more private or criminal showings that promise a certain level of destruction, such a display might actually gather up cheers or booing instead of fear.

In a normal crowd situation, it would take someone with "Command" and a "successful fear test" before an angry mob can be gathered up. Once these people get home, and realize the gravity of the situation, the braver ones might pick up pitch-forks and head back (depending on how horrifying the psyker's display of power was. Burned up some cars with a few bolts of fire? Sure, Hunt him down and burn him, see how HE likes it. Blew up someone's brains by looking at them? Let someone else deal with it.)

His sanctioning brand won't save a Psyker that displays destructive powers like those. That thing is meant to protect him from people going "Burn the Witch" when he says hello- not when he actually starts blasting things.

The Book of Judgement mentions several punishments for witnessing Perils and Phenomena, and they all include Death, imprisonment & torture. No one wants to be subjected to that. Better kill that witch before he triggers one if he's gone whacko in the middle of the streets, burning up everything.

Darth Smeg said:

The answer is of course (as most of the time...): It depends.

A Feral World near the Halo Zone is differnt from a Hive World in the Segmentum Solar and so on...

In my view most Imperial citizens will not ever see a Psyker in their life, at least not while actively using a psychic ability. Many even do not know Psykers exist or simply think they are a mythos or something the Ecclesiarchy preaches about in their sermons in an abstract way. On the other hand many Imperial citizens might believe witches exist in a way that people in medieval europe believed witches exist, maybe just because the clerus is preaching about them or the Arbites are arresting the boy next door for his strange behaviour.

These normal (non-Adeptus) citizens certainly do not know what a sanctioning brand is and what it is good for. Only nobles and those higher up in the planetary hierarchy (Enforcer General, PDF Commander, Government etc.) might know its use, but could ignore it as well.

Clearly visible psychic effects would certainly lead to abject terror in the normal citizen and an aggressive mob would only gather (and attack) if a very charismatic and/or religious agitator is around to raise the crowd.

The adepts of the Adeptus Terra (and all its sub-branches) are different of course and mostly sort of higher educated. They might react in terror as well, though might call the local Adeptus Arbites, Adeptus Astra Telepathica and/or Ordo Hereticus after getting away. They normally might recognize a snactioning brand as well.

Divination - at least those Diviners fitting the planetary culture - seem to be more widely accepted in the Imperium as of course are Astropaths (and to a lesser degree Navigators). Of course these normally feature less fearsome abilities (at least visbly so) than the average Biomancer or even Pyromancer.