Funny thing happened the other day. I rolled up a new character, and when I reached the dreaded divination table i got "Mutation without, corruption within". I swallowed hard and rolled on the minor mutation table, and to my wierd surprise got the "Wyrdling" result. Effectively making my Dusk born Guardsman an unsanctioned psyker. :S

But all in all it was a nice concept, the problem is what can an unsanctioned psyker expect in the service of the Inquisition? I envisioned the PC as a sniper of sorts, and so chose the powers Chameleon and Unnatural aim (him being from a feral world like Dusk, he has no "real" knowledge of the warp but is more into myths and campfire-tales concerning "spirits and schamanism in the woods"). So he has a primitive heathen beliefs that the spirits of the wilderness can be invoked to one's favour, and because he is a wyrdling these beliefs manifests themselves for real (hiding him from enemies and making his shot true and striking).

The tricky part is, is it plausible for a person to hide his powers even though he is being inducted into the Inquisition? And rules-wise, can a Wyrdling ever advance further with his abilities? (buying higher psy rating as elite advances etc.). Has anyone else ever found themselves in this kind of predicament? :S

Sure I could've just rolled again on the divination table, but this result kind of appeals to me in a wierd way (cool character concept to say the least).

Your own superiors will either have to know about your powers (and thus be at least somewhat radical) or be ignorant of them, in which case you'll need to hide them even more thoroughly than you would otherwise. Many people will execute your character or send him off to the Black Ships should his abilities become known to them. Obviously turning part-invisible will be a massive give-away should you pull the power off in front of anyone else, and most psychic phenomena bring about an abrupt end to your career. Unless, of course, all your cell mates are of a radical inclination as well.

Or go the route of the Novels.

Your power works because of your heathen gods, which actually are some aspect of Emperor, andpeiople just think you both highly devout and highly lucky in your abilty to not be seen, after all, you're a Sniper, you're not meant to be seen, and shoot really well.

After a few sessions something might happen, ie a Spirit from your world manifests, thats when people might start getting a little suspicious of you..

In my view and version of the =][=, it would be entirely possible for a wyrdling to become an acolyte and remain so for many a year. Lets face it, the =][= is not omnipotent or all knowing else they wouldn't have to root out heresies and cults and try to get to the bottom of naughty acts. The =][= also dose not even know everything about it's own onquisitors much less their underlings or else various radicals wouldn't be able to get away with creating daemonhosts, running around with corrupted weapons, or secretly looking for the next Horus to dethrone the Emperor.

If your Inquisitor isn't into having a wyrdling in his service, you will have to hide it from him or her but at least the powers you selected are fairly low key (as long as you don't up and pull a predator in front of everyone (hide first ;-) ). I personally don't think most phenomena would give the character away unless the phenomena is obviously connected to or emanating from him. Spooky voices suddenly being heard would be an indication (to those with FL (Psyker) ) that a psyker was mucking about but there'd be no indication from the phenomena alone as to who that psyker was.

In the end, i don't see it as being that big of a problem unless you get careless.

As for elite advances on psy raitings, I would personally say "no" if it were my game. There are many grades of psyker, most being only capable of one or two parlor tricks. I think the wyrdling fills this role of psyker quite nicely. The power he's achieved is all he's going to get barring outside influences and I would want to keep it that way. besides, with only two powers to use, the chances of you messing up and getting careless is far less likely so not getting more power is a good thing ;-)

I think im beginning to like the concept of being a covert psyker. Its kind of like another swedish RPG I've played (Called "Mutant: Heirs of the apocalypse" in english). Its basically the old post-apocalyptic game called Gamma World in a slightly different setting. There you can play a Psi-Mutant (mutant with psychic powers) they look like normal humans, albeit usually of a more slim build. However people are in general intensely paranoid of Psi-Mutants (afraid of mind-control and mind reading and such), therefore it's usually quite the task for a Psi-mutant to keep his powers secret from the rest of the group, and when they do get exposed it's a pretty shocking event.

However Psi-Mutants in that game dont accidentally summon daemons when things go wrong. They usually suffer from psychic trauma or brain haemohrraging (in other words: things that dont harm others than themselves).

Varnias Tybalt said:

I totally think you should go for it. Sure, the guy might not have a terrible long life expectancy, but it sounds like it could be a lot of fun while it lasts. As for progressing Psy Rating through elite advances, yes, rule-wise you can do that. Of course, all Elite Advances are up to your GM. But it isn't more impossible than what your GM wants it to be.

Have fun!

As I read Illumination and some of the other adventures, it sticked out to me that there is "controll" of the adepts at the end of any mission. A control for corruption. I really appreciate this, since the =I= has to be sure their underlings are clear (if they are not of the radical kind...).

Never the less, if your =I= isn´t a radical, I think you will be discovered.