This bothers me. Possibly my fluff is out of date, but I don't recall the Adeptus Astra Telepathica being the body of all the Imperium's psykers. I remember it as being exclusively the structure of Astropaths. I mean assorted clerks and support staff, etc. But essentially it was the Astropaths. Imperial Guard psykers or anywhere else sanctioned psykers might end up, were not part of this adeptus.

So fluff-wise, this grates just because of that. However, further to this, is the fact that any psyker from any other background will be unsanctioned! Now you might get the more radical Inquisitors occasionally making use of an unsanctioned psyker at their own discretion... just conceivably. But as a pretty good rule, unsanctioned psykers are a pretty big no no as I have always understood it. Along the lines of "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live". If you find one, you either kill it or pack it off on the Black Ships where it belongs (assuming the ships are available).

I would like the option of playing an unsanctioned psyker, sure, but I don't want to have to pick a particular background not to be one. Unsanctioned could easily be implemented as an option. You could even give a small bonus in some way to represent their untamedness if you want to compensate for the huge amount of trouble they may face. But that's secondary. It seems to me that Sanctioning should come as standard for any PC psyker.

That's my thoughts. It just seems weird and constraining to me to have one set background (in practical terms) for psykers when I can easily make holy Warriors from a Ministorum background (like the Sisters of Battle) or assassins from an Imperial Guard background (like scouts) or Sages from Adeptus Arbites (lawyers or strategists) or a Seeker from an Arbites background (a detective) or from an Outcast background (a bounty-hunter or smuggler). Lots of variety. Except for psykers. Make them sanctioned by default and then let them pick backgrounds as they choose!

In my opinion, making the elite advance the only way to play an unsanctioned psyker would be a decent way to handle things.

According to the information on Lexicanum and from what I've read in the fluffbooks, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica is indeed the Adeptus that captures (the league of Black Ships) and trains (Scholastia Psykana) psykers. However, when I read the description on p246 in the DH1 Core Rulebook, I get confused as well. According to the description on p34 of the DH2 beta, it is the as the other fluff describes it.

I believe that the training for psyker which in DH1 took years is absorbed in a single background in DH2: the idea would be that their sanctioning took so much time and such a great toll on them that their past was not so much an influence on their current persona as was their psyker training.

According to the information on Lexicanum and from what I've read in the fluffbooks, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica is indeed the Adeptus that captures (the league of Black Ships) and trains (Scholastia Psykana) psykers. However, when I read the description on p246 in the DH1 Core Rulebook, I get confused as well. According to the description on p34 of the DH2 beta, it is the as the other fluff describes it.

I believe that the training for psyker which in DH1 took years is absorbed in a single background in DH2: the idea would be that their sanctioning took so much time and such a great toll on them that their past was not so much an influence on their current persona as was their psyker training.

I agree with this entirely. From what I've always understood, the AAT are, with a few exceptions, the ones responsible for training psykers in the Imperium. Off the top of my head, two of the exceptions are the assassin temples (particularly culexus) and inquisitors, neither of which produce sanctioned psykers. While the AAT background does allow you to play a non-psyker, I feel it's primarily function is to allow players to make sanctioned psykers.

However, there doesn't seem to be much incentive to actually play as a sanctioned psyker, other than avoiding some corruption. Sure, there's the social stigma and roleplay complications that might come about but I don't think the book put enough emphasis on this. There's also the problem that they're meant to be highly unstable, which isn't addressed in the book.

According to the information on Lexicanum and from what I've read in the fluffbooks, the Adeptus Astra Telepathica is indeed the Adeptus that captures (the league of Black Ships) and trains (Scholastia Psykana) psykers. However, when I read the description on p246 in the DH1 Core Rulebook, I get confused as well. According to the description on p34 of the DH2 beta, it is the as the other fluff describes it.

I believe that the training for psyker which in DH1 took years is absorbed in a single background in DH2: the idea would be that their sanctioning took so much time and such a great toll on them that their past was not so much an influence on their current persona as was their psyker training.

I agree with this entirely. From what I've always understood, the AAT are, with a few exceptions, the ones responsible for training psykers in the Imperium. Off the top of my head, two of the exceptions are the assassin temples (particularly culexus) and inquisitors, neither of which produce sanctioned psykers. While the AAT background does allow you to play a non-psyker, I feel it's primarily function is to allow players to make sanctioned psykers.

However, there doesn't seem to be much incentive to actually play as a sanctioned psyker, other than avoiding some corruption. Sure, there's the social stigma and roleplay complications that might come about but I don't think the book put enough emphasis on this. There's also the problem that they're meant to be highly unstable, which isn't addressed in the book.

Arguably, "Sanctioned" is mere semantics. After all, even a psyker that is employed by an Inquisitor or an Assassinorum Temple is sanctioned by that organization to operate in their name.

Well looks like my fluff is out of date. I'm certain that the Adeptus Astra Telepathica used to be only Astropaths. But that's obviously changed.

Well in gnat case, I don't mind all psykers having gone through there but I still dislike the rules structure that all psykers need to have that background (for values where need = pretty much has to rather than need = required by rules). All the other roles have the option of multiple backgrounds. And some of those backgrounds are appropriate for Psykers. You can have psykers in the Imperial Guard or other backgrounds. It's an unnecessary restriction that comes about through Sanctioning not being standard. It should be because then a whole new range of options open up.

Arguably, "Sanctioned" is mere semantics. After all, even a psyker that is employed by an Inquisitor or an Assassinorum Temple is sanctioned by that organization to operate in their name.

Arguably, but I think it is coming more to mean has gone through the whole Black Ships -> Terra process. Without that, they've never been properly tested.