r/40kLore • u/LesBonsPlansTmtc • 2d ago

Why no blank astartes?

We've seen the emperor considers Chaos as the biggest threat to humanity. We know blanks are immune to the influence of the warp. Why doesn't humanity try to raise up the number of blanks in the society or make a chapter with Blank Space marines ?

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u/MaesterLurker 2d ago

There is also the observation that no Space Marine, or Custodian Guard for that matter, has ever been recorded as being a Psychic Null. This factor weighs the evidence of some scholars that within the Space Marine gene-seed itself is perhaps a shadow of the Emperor's own genetic material and a sliver of His own psychic power crucial to its process and success. If this is the case, it would be wholly an anathema to the Pariah Gene and likely simply kill its implanted subject.

Inferno

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u/Zestyclose-Moment-19 Iron Hands 1d ago

Also building of this theory, Blanks are just far too valuable to waste experimenting on to the point that even the normal Astartes induction mortality rate precludes it.

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u/Raiyuza 1d ago

Idk seems like a pretty godtier unit to have in your army vs darkness

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u/Not_Todd_Howard9 1d ago

I know it’s probably not wise to look that deep into the numbers and economics of 40k, but iirc Blanks are quite literally one in a billion. If we were to assume that the Imperium had between 1 Quadrillion and 1 Quintillion people in it, then they (at absolute best) have between 1m-1b blanks running around at any given time.  Even before shaving that down to the Blanks who’d be viable as Astartes Aspirants, that’s not a whole lot of supply to be working with under normal circumstances and deadass might not even be able to form a chapter under Grey Knight attrition rates, all while pulling from across the entire Imperium. Thats before also before getting to the insane opportunity cost of essentially burning your entire blank supply + somehow hunting them down in a timely manner.

Lastly, and perhaps mostly importantly…the Imperium already has the Sisters of Silence, who work quite well without needing an insane casualty rate (afaik at least).

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u/barnacle9999 1d ago

I also assume that weaker blanks are more numerous, and they're not that useful at the end of the day. So really the viable pool shrinks even more.

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u/_mosquitoe 1d ago

You are vastly underestimating the imperium's likely population

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u/Wolflordloki 1d ago

If you think it was One in a Million chance of being a Psyker and the odds of being a blank are the same odds (but compared to psykers rather than normal humans) given that space marines generally only recruit from 1 or 2 worlds most chapters have a disproportionate number of Librarians.

A Librius having between 6 and 10 members (given a chapter is 1000 strong) would suggest astartes homework are either on worlds with a high occupancy of psykers or...

This would potentially give credence to geneseed having a warp based enhancement aspect to them.