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Indeed, within the [[Imperium]] of [[M41]], the [[Inquisition]] consider it their duty to enact violence against the Navigators in the name of vigilance, crushing even whispered dissent with midnight raids, purges of those they deem heretic – a term used often for those [[Navigator House]]s which [[Inquisitor]]s accuse of manipulating the space lanes for their own advantage.{{Fn|68}} For as much as they are feared, Navigators are also desired which is a danger itself. One egregious example occured during the [[Carnivoration of Cel]] in which nobles from three noble houses of the [[Askellon Sector]] fed their stock of [[Mhoxen]] the cerebral extractions of ritually slaughtered Navigators and then ate the Mhoxen as a gustatory aid which was said to grant the nobles purity of senses, allowing to fully appreciate all flavours – it also led to rampant [[Mutant|Mutation]] among the nobility.{{Fn|18a}}
[[Navigator House]]s are rule ruled by [[Novator]]s, inheritors to their family holdings and it is the millenias-long ambition of every house to one day reach the position of [[Paternova]], the overall ruler of the Navigator Houses and controller of the great [[Navigator Palace]] on [[Terra|Earth]], though few but the most powerful houses have achieved this apex.{{Fn|68}} The Navigator Gene is easily lost through its recessive nature, and can only be saved for future generations through intermarriage{{Fn|7}}{{Fn|10c}} – a genetic reality which has resulted in the complex webs of fealty through which power has concentrated within the houses which truly contest [[Paternova]]; relying upon controlled [[Trade War]] and [[Assassination]] where political alliance fails.{{Fn|68}}
===Biology===
The Navigators are different from other [[Human]]s in a number of ways: they posess a superior lifespan (even without [[juvenat]] treatments one can easily live up to around three or four hundred years),{{Fn|7}}, they are never born as [[Psyker]]s (although classified as psykers in some instances, they can't possess any standard psionic gift, inherently lacking any [[The Assignment|psy rating]]). However the the primary trait of a Navigator is their pineal eye, also known as their [[Warp Eye]], nested in a socket on their forehead.{{Fn|3a}}
[[Image:Dark Heresy The Lathe Worlds - Navigator's skull crossection .jpg|thumb|right|250px|Navigator's skull crossection, showing how the pineal eye connects to the brain{{Fn|52}}]]
Notwithstanding the stigma of the mutant, the protégés of noble houses called [[Navis Scion]]s revel in attention, as it is their trade to be an approachable face of their lineage, and by truth or lie to improve the social connections with Imperial society, though often restricted to its higher echelons,{{Fn|12c}} with the intent of gaining reputation and thus more wealthy and influential clientele.{{Fn|3j}} In legal matters the whole Nobilite relies on the protection of the Paternova whose word is held in high esteem, often against that of any member of the Holy Orders of the Inquisition.{{Fn|3e}} As long as the Paternova does not brand a Navigator or their whole house as renegades,{{Fn|2g}} they may feel as safe as any high ranking noble within the Imperium can. While many Inquisitors hesitate to persecute even a single Navigator,{{Fn|4b}} some more radical Inquisitors{{Fn|4a}}{{Fn|25}} or [[Adeptus Ministorum|Ministorum]] members{{Fn|4b}} in their zeal to eradicate the heretic, the mutant and the witch are known to indiscriminately exterminate even those most vital to the workings of the Imperium.{{Fn|4a}}{{Fn|4b}}{{Fn|25}} Nonetheless, even if the ship's captain is found guilty of treason against the Emperor, the Navigator is granted immunity from any capital punishment that will be incurred on the rest of the crew in their shared guilt.{{Fn|26b}}
[[Image:Rogue Trader Epoch Koronus - cover.jpg|thumb|right|220px|Navigator alongside the captain and his other officers{{Fn|28a}}]]
Aboard spaceships, while the crew might have their varied sentiments towards the mutant at the helm, including officers{{Fn|24}} the captain however often keeps amiable terms with the Navigator.{{Fn|12d}} Whether out of necessity{{Fn|3d}} or genuine trust,{{Fn|12d}} the Navigator is recognisable as one of the most important{{Fn|2a}} and staunchly loyal{{Fn|27}} persons on board, often nicknamed the captain's right hand.{{Fn|2a}} Thanks to their importance towards faster-than-light travel many mutinies have been made null due to Navigator's unwillingness to cooperate with the mutineers.{{Fn|55}} There have been instances of the Navigators instigating rebellions or even taking over the ships in question, though these are rare and managed internally by the edict of the Paternova,{{Fn|28b}}{{Fn|26f}}, lest it mar the Nobilite's general reputation.{{Fn|27}} Due to the Navigators' economic autonomy{{Fn|2j}} it is not on the whole wise for a captain to fall out of favour with them, since at any given moment they may relinquish their contract and just decide to abandon the post at the nearest rendezvous with a point of transit,{{Fn|3d}} essentially stranding the crew until another Navigator can be recruited.{{Fn|2b}}
As a polity Navis Nobilite is a highly influential faction,{{Fn|4b}} which is known for patronage of both persons{{Fn|12b}} and projects,{{Fn|3e}} mostly concerned with matters of explorations{{Fn|12h}} and settling{{Fn|18b}} or re-establishing footholds of interstellar routes,{{Fn|29b}} funding expeditions to unknown space,{{Fn|12h}} bringing colonies back into the Imperial fold,{{Fn|29a}} quelling rebellions in Imperial systems with their private armies.{{Fn|30}} While each house acts as its own separate entity, they all are legally obliged to have an agreement of Paternova to back their decisions up, although this only comes to question when the consensus of allowed actions is broken,{{Fn|3l}} which might end up with the transgressing project being well in motion before Paternova relays their decision. One such enterprise of the expedition out to [[Canis Major]] dwarf galaxy was considered insane by most of the other unaffiliated houses, however when Paternova dictated their edict the fleet was already outside communicative range, and whether their plan to establish a micro-empire in the alien galaxy ended in success or failure is investigated only by the members of the misbehaving house.{{Fn|3g}}
No sane Navigator is ever bold enough to claim that any Warp travel is safe, even if they spend decades without an incident,{{Fn|3i}} thus they also spend much time to be assured of their survival beforehand. They first peer into the void to look for imminent threats, create prognostic temporal deviance of their travels' estimated passage and employ often occult rituals of divination, syncretic to their house or even the person. Those might boil down to reading of the runically emblazoned bones, entering a trance state with a servitor recording their rambled prophecy or reading entrails of specific animals. When all is found satisfying to Navigator's precautions, they excuse any non-Navigatorial staff that might be present in their seclusion,{{Fn|3h}} leaving around only younger members of their family for them to learn their craft.{{Fn|15}} Then they begin a process of entering a trance like state, and melding with a [[machine spirit]] of the ship.{{Fn|3h}} When meld is finished the Navigator sends through the [[cogitator]]s an order to raise the [[Gellar Field]] to entomb the whole ship,{{Fn|37}} excluding their chamber. This signalizes the ships captain that he might start the process of translation into the Warp. Having entered the Empyrean, it floods through the Navigators' bridge, allowing them to become active part of their unreality.{{Fn|3h}} The elder one at the helm is left with the sole command of the ship,{{Fn|15}} since only they can now be fully aware of their surroundings and react appropriately.{{Fn|3h}} They open their eye, and they see their truth of the Warp. Of note is there is no need to lift their circlets obscuring the Eye, as for its warp-sight it is not in any form an obstacle.{{Fn|38b}}
Nearly always the first duty of the pilot is to locate the [[Astronomican]], the Emperor's beacon on Terra, with its radiance and angle of approach divine their current position and in the end the proper route towards their destination.{{Fn|3h}} Its light encompasses the chief part of the galaxy (~50,000 ly radius),{{Fn|10a}}, nonetheless it is not the only point of reference within the Immaterium, albeit the best.{{Fn|3h}} [[Astropath]]s can send dim temporary beacons, by which the Navigator might locate the rest of the fleet{{Fn|10a}} and follow the [[Navigator Primaris]], the elder at the head of the fleet,{{Fn|12g}} those beacons are discernable in a radius of 10 light years.{{Fn|10b}} Although it isn't absolutely necessary as the Navigator can discern tracks in the Immaterium, and follow them in case they got lost, or otherwise in need of tracking someone without their knowledge.{{Fn|2h}} Servants of the [[Chaos Gods|dark gods]] are able to create crude imitations of the Astronomican, supported with a constant sacrifices of brains and blood of slaves, an example of it was an infamous [[Beacon of the Damned]].{{Fn|38a}} Still even without the help of the beacons, the Navigator isn't entirely helpless: there exist charts of Warp travel routes that they were able to consult with prior to the journey; experienced Navigators often know many of those routes devoted to their memory;{{Fn|3h}} and they are able still to consult psychically registered map of routes known and kept in secrecy by their house or any other house they know the engrammatic codes of.{{Fn|3h}} Above it, they can be assisted with [[Warp Antenna]]s, massive force staves strengthening the signal of the Astronomican, [[Warp Sextant]]s, an array of sensors sending the Navigator the data through the cogitators and his submersion tank,{{Fn|23a}} [[Witch Augur]]s that sends information of other material vessels nearby in the Immaterium{{Fn|31d}} or [[Runecaster]]s, which prescience helps the Navigator to avoid Warp Storms.{{Fn|2k}}
Throughout the sea of the Empyrean, there are multiple dangers natural to this environment, Warp Storms,{{Fn|3h}} Warp Reefs and Warp Shoals made out of rampant and hard to predict eddies of the Warp.{{Fn|19b}} Recent stellar phenomena like supernovas, or new black holes might put the Warp into a disarray,{{Fn|38a}} gravity wells,{{Fn|26d}} Warp shadows{{Fn|39a}} and temporal disruptions,{{Fn|26c}}, some star clusters,{{Fn|3c}}, even binary systems{{Fn|26d}} all those might steer the Navigator way off their target, while they try to evade both stationary and predatory elements of the Warp.{{Fn|3h}} Some of those phenomena might be artificial,{{Fn|2o}}{{Fn|20d}} sometimes suspected to purposefully hide and protect regions of space from being violated by human presence,{{Fn|2o}} others still are but accidental, like the satellite relay surrounding all the planets of the [[Threnos]] system, which blast Imperial liturgies through all frequencies making this region impassable for Navigators, causing irritation even by its proximity. Due to that, no one entered the system for millennia.{{Fn|20d}} Navigators tend to avoid all of those, however some posited possibilities of traversals of such basal danger as the ubiquitous Warp Storms,{{Fn|2n}} and some in acts of desperation or greed chose those routes. Many of their ghostly ships trapped in the timeless sea for eternity.{{Fn|39b}} Yet, still some of the dangers come seeking the ship directly, warp presences of many kinds, that might appear to the Navigator in a shape of monstrous predatory animals,{{Fn|3h}}, often Navigators report to at least hearing cries of [[Flesh Hound]]s in the Warp.{{Fn|33b}} Even if considered one of the few creatures in the known universe able to stand against influence of the warp with some surety, Navigators are nonetheless still touchable by chaos.{{Fn|46}} Some navigators are known to acquire Eldar [[Dreamstone]]s, which help to alleviate the nightmares that can plague Navigators after their shift of work.{{Fn|46}}
Besides his ability to steer the vessel from any danger, the Navigator is able to influence the Warp surrounding it,{{Fn|2f}} while able to create small vortexes that may keep them on route, they may as well create whole Warp Storms with their power, use the prescient waters of the Warp to position their ship in an optimal attacking position when forced to battle within the Empyrean or obliterate the trail of their ship confusing those who might track them.{{Fn|12f}} Alternatively if employing a [[Mimic Engine]], they are able to change their trail signature to aid in any potential subterfuge.{{Fn|31e}}
*{{Endn|Note 1}}: There is conflicting sources regarding whether Psykers or Navigators appeared first. According to the [[Deathwatch Core Rulebook]], scientifically proven psykers are proven to exist sometime between M18 and M22. It lists Navigators as appearing later between M22 and M25.{{Fn|21b}}
*In the very first mention and appearance of Navigators in 1st Edition within [[Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader]] (1987),{{Fn|10c}} and [[Warhammer 40,000 Chapter Approved - The Book of the Astronomican]] (1988),{{Fn|16d}}, the Navigators' Third Eye is unmentioned, and the attached images of Navigator are devoid of this feature.{{Fn|10c}}{{Fn|16d}} This peculiar part of their anatomy was introduced with the novel ''[[Draco (Novel)|Inquisitor]]'' (1990),{{Fn|61}} It was first mentioned and illustrated in [[White Dwarf 140 (UK)]] (1991),{{Fn|7}} the Navigators kept being mentioned in all of the [[Warhammer 40,000]] wargame setting's editions since (although devoid of images), but the first mention of the Third Eye in a proper core setting rulebook happened in [[Warhammer 40,000 6th Edition Rulebook|6th Edition Rulebook]] (2012).{{Fn|8a}} Across roleplaying systems the Third Eye was first mentioned and rendered in a miniature with [[Exterminatus Issue 7]] (2003), a magazine addendum to rules of the [[Inquisitor (game)|Inquisitor]] game system,{{Fn|17a}} and for the first time in a proper rulebook in [[Dark Heresy Core Rulebook]] (2008), being mentioned in multiple roleplaying systems for years prior to wargame setting's 6th Edition.{{Fn|20b}}
==See also==
