Navis Nobilite

Imperium Portal

"There are powers at work within this Imperium besides Him on Earth. These powers wax and wane with circumstance, but they never vanish. In dark corridors and hidden chambers they continue to exert an almost invisible influence, secretive and pervasive.
Just such an institution are the Navis Nobilite, the ancient Navigator Houses."

– Scriptures of the Arch-Heretic Hy'Galas.^[15]

Navis Nobilite
Navis Nobilite symbol
Parent Agency:	Imperial Fleet[2]
Headquarters:	Palace of the Navigators, Terra[11]
Leader:	Paternova (represented by the Paternoval Envoy)[12]
Armed Forces:	Various Security Forces[8]
Established:	M30[5]

The Navis Nobilite is an ancient organisation predating even the Imperium by several thousand years, and is comprised of a unique form of mutant called Navigators who have the unique ability to navigate spacecraft through the warp. The Navis Nobilite are part of the Adeptus Terra and Imperial Fleet.^[2]

History

The Navigator Gene was first developed by Humanity in roughly M22. The development of the Gene was instrumental in allowing for humans to colonize the Galaxy via Warp Travel. As such, the new Navigator class grew into a powerful organisation independent of any government or cartel. The Navigators eventually coalesced into Great Families which in turn formed a broad union known as the Navis Nobilite. The Navis Nobilite was able to weather the Age of Strife and eventually merged into the Emperor's Imperium.^[5][6] During the Age of Exploration, the Navigator Houses began to survey the systems that would later form the Imperium.^[3]

Status

The Navigator Houses hold a unique position within the Imperium; they are not answerable to Imperial authority, but tend to toe the line because of the mutual benefits each side receives. Furthermore, members of the Navis Nobilite are compelled by ancient and binding oaths to serve with the Adeptus Mechanicus for a set duration in return for the Techpriests' services, serving the Imperial Navy and Merchant Fleets. A Navigator can also be rewarded with a Free Charter, which allows them to lease their services to whom ever they choose to.^[9]

This autonomy does not however, protect the Navigators from the agents of the Inquisition. The Ordo Malleus has been assigned jurisdiction over the Navigators, to ensure the taint of Chaos is not able to take hold. Given the slightest reason, the Inquisition will ruthlessly purge any offending parties; goods and assets are seized, midnight raids on Navigator palaces are followed by arrests and a purging of those seen as tainted; their fate to be burnt as heretics or locked away in Inquisition torture chambers. As such, the Navis Nobilite are all too willing to tackle this problem internally.^[1b]

The Navis Nobilite has been known to act violently when its status is threatened. During the Horus Heresy, the Paternova dispatched agents to destroy the Dark Glass artifact due to the threat it represented to the Navigators' monopoly on Warp Travel.^[4]

The Navigator Houses

The Navis Nobilite consists of several Houses or Great Families, each consisting of a large group of related Navigators who reside in a literal House. This house is generally a large fortress-mansion presided over by the Great Family's leader, or Novator. There the Novator lives with his immediate family and retainers.^[14]

Each family is very close and often very large, and different families are often allied by marriage, while others are rivals.^[10] The families are organised into Houses and have their own unique traditions and positions dependent upon their own histories. For instance, House Belisarius is led by an individual referred to as the Celestarch and has its own standing military trained by the Space Wolves.^[1a]

Nostromo Navigator House emblem^[13].

It has been stated that it would be impossible to catalogue and critique each of the Navigator families, but many can be grouped into broad categories, representing their unique strain of the gene as well as their area of influence and way of life. For example, Navigator Houses in the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse are categorised into four prevalent groups:^[5a]

• Magisterial Houses are those most closely related to the original Navigator families. They are the wealthiest and most traditional and will have holdings in the Navigator's Quarter on Terra. Due to the maintenance of their bloodlines, they are less susceptible to the symptomatic mutations of being a Navigator.^[5a]
• Nomadic Houses have relinquished their properties and have taken entirely to spaceborne lifestyles; they are perhaps the most skilled of Navigators but have difficulty relating to planetary cultures.^[5a]
• Shrouded Houses have somehow lost their status in relation to other houses and exist in a state of decline; sometimes referred to as Beggar Houses by other Navigators. Individual Navigators have little support from their own families, making them quite resourceful, while their Warp Eye often becomes more perceptive.^[5a][5b]
• Renegade Houses are those families that have been rejected by the Paternova either by turning from their ancient traditions or have been exiled due to conflicts with other houses. They are unable to maintain their genetic purity and often suffer the most mutation but can also benefit from new strains that might occur.^[5b]

Notable Houses

• House Achelieux
• House Belisarius
• House Brobantis
• House Castana

Great Navigator Houses

The largest and most powerful and wealthy Houses of the Navis Nobilite are known as the Great Navigator Houses. They are all supported by complex networks of fealties, oaths, tithes and contracts, which has allowed the Great Houses to have almost total control over the movement of goods across the Imperium.^[15]

Known Great Houses

• House Davor-Jarni^[15]
• House Hals-Viati^[15]
• House Locarno^[15]
• House M'edici^[15]
• House Sixtus^[15]

The Paternova

The Paternova is the great leader of the Navis Nobilite, who is chosen from the most powerful Navigators of the Great Families. The Paternova rules from the Palace of the Navigators. His position is far more than just one of leadership, he is able to somehow control, or amplify, the warp sight of the other Navigators. Without him, Navigators would suffer a considerable reduction in their ability to navigate the warp, with some losing the power altogether. When this happens warp travel becomes far more unstable. As the Paternova never leaves his Palace he, and the Navis Nobilite as a whole, are represented in the Senatorum Imperialis by the Paternoval Envoy.^[14] The current Paternova is Francisco M'edici 14th of the Great Navigator House M'edici.^[15]

Another important position within the Navis Nobilite is the Consul Pre-Eminus.^[7]

Security Forces

The Navigators maintain their own heavily armed security forces, mostly designed to protect the Navigator Houses and guard the Navigator's Quarter on Terra. In times of war the great wealth of the Navigator's allows them to gather mercenary armies that can rival a Planetary Defense Force or System Defense Fleet.^[8]

Trade Wars

Conflicts between adversarial Navis Nobilite Houses can result in what is referred to as a trade war. These are controlled conflicts with set contracts for the rules of engagement during the quarrel, such as disallowing assassination attempts, open-warfare, destruction of assets, or other rules to mitigate damage. Open warfare is uncommon between Navigator Houses.^[16]

Though assassinations are often used between feuding Navigator Houses, open warfare is not uncommon as well. While this can occur without warning, a Navigator House can also formally declare a Trade War against a rival House. The Imperium's Administratum allows this to occur, as the Navigator Conventions ensure a Trade War is waged in a controlled fashion, that limits the amount of damage that can be done and prevents a Navigator House from destroying their rival. This is done by restricting their attacks to targets that both Houses agree to and using only forces that are under their direct command. Shipping lanes, mercantile operations and equipment are usually attacked in a Trade War, along with the Houses' employees and individual Navigators that have been declared as targets as well. All attacks must be limited to only the warring Houses themselves as well, which means that subsidiaries and allied lesser Navigator Houses are off limits. However, this last rule is often broken. Besides the number of lives lost in the conflict, Trade Wars can also result in a Navigator House losing control of commercial contracts, markets or shipping routes to their rivals.^[15]

Because they are paranoid that a Tradewar could always be declared against them, Navigator Houses go to great lengths to not appear militarily weak and pay well to maintain private armies. Mercenaries and Assassins are used as well, but if a House can not or will not pay to hire or maintain an army, they will instead train their slaves or penitents to become their soldiers. But because of how expensive a Tradewar often is, they normally do not last long. Regardless of what their reasons were for waging them, the warring Houses will not often see it worth justifying the cost it would take to win a Tradewar or the potential loss in profits they can occur. Due to this premature ending, Tradewars tend to produce bitter enmities between the warring Houses and leave many scores unsettled. The Great Navigator Houses though, do not see Tradewars as open conflicts. Instead, they are merely viewed as an extension of the Great Houses' customary means of conducting a competition between rivals.^[15]

See also

• Astra Cartographica

Sources

This article includes background material from a Black Library publication re-released under the Heretic Tomes banner which, per the Heretic Tomes Publication Disclaimer, contain parts which are considered outdated and in contradiction of established background lore.

This article or article section is based on information from a Fanatic Press publication such as Fanatic Magazine or one of its predecessors (e.g. The Citadel Journal, Necromunda Magazine, etc.). These publications regularly featured articles submitted by hobbyists, and as such, their content may or may not be in contradiction to established background lore.

• 1: Wolfblade (Novel), Chapter Two
  • 1a: Chapter 2
  • 1b: Chapter 6
• 2: Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition Rulebook, pg. 139
• 3: Farseer (Novel), Chapter Four ^{Heretic Tomes}
• 4: The Path of Heaven (Novel), Chapter 20
• 5: Rogue Trader Rulebook ^[Help]
  • 5a: pg. 176
  • 5b: pg. 177
• 6: Horus Rising (Novel), Timeline
• 7: White Dwarf July 2019, pg. 42 - Indomitus Crusade Fleets
• 8: Rogue Trader: Battlefleet Koronus, pgs. 49-50
• 9: The Inquisition (Background Book), pg. 61 - Teodor Minodya
• 10: Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, pg. 150
• 11: Inquisitor: Navis Nobilite (Games Workshop website) (saved archive page, dated April 2008)
• 12: Codex Imperialis (Background Book), pg. 14
• 13: Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War - Part One, pg. 36
• 14: White Dwarf 140 (UK), pg. 59
• 15: The Citadel Journal 18, pgs. 28-29 - Navigators: The Return of the Imperial Navigator ^{Fanatic Press}
• 16: Rogue Trader: The Navis Primer, pg. 21

Uncited

This article purports to rely on sources which are not cited in the body of the text. For help on citation see the citation guidelines. You can help Lexicanum by fixing it.

• White Dwarf 140 (UK),
  • pg. 52
  • pg. 53
  • pg. 58
• Codex Imperialis (Background Book),
  • pg. 6
  • pg. 14
• Exterminatus Issue 7, pgs. 4-14