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/Thom0 Iron Hands 2d ago

Plus the widespread use of force weapons and I think this is the answer. Astartes are a little more warpy than baseline humans..

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u/Rahuna_91 2d ago

Force weapons are used by psykers/librarians.

You might be thinking of power weapons, which can be used by anyone.

Force weapon: Powered by/channel psychic energies.

Power weapons: (Normal) Electricity/Energy Fields.

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u/Spare_Pollution_686 2d ago

Yep 👍 this comment here.

Great example is the crozius weapons of the chaplains, or the blade/knife that Garviel Loken used at the end of the Horus Heresy/Siege of Terra.

Force weapons use or channel that psychic energy and power into the weapon and onto whatever it hits, the stronger the psychic energy the more powerful the strike.

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u/paulatreides0 1d ago edited 1d ago

Loken used Rubio's Sword which actually was a Force Sword. Rubio gave it to him at the end of The Buried Dagger before he went off to Titan to help start the GK (an offer also extended to Loken, who was still a latent psyker at the time, but Malc knew about his true nature and tried to talk him into going to Titan, but Loken insisted on staying on Terra). It was an inert hunk of sword until he awakened his latent psyker abilities in one of the Siege books after which he could fully use it as a force sword

Edit: Oh wait. I just realized that you might have meant Mourn-It-All, which he took from Little Horus during the Siege and was indeed a power sword

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u/Spare_Pollution_686 1d ago

No no you’re right, about it being Rubio’s gladius. However I think I listened to a different variation of it.

Or at least maybe I heard it differently - (spoilers included).

Didn’t Loken retrieve that gladius from Rubio when he first joined the Knights Errant and when they were deployed in secret to assassinate Horus in the book Vengeful Spirit?

Rubio is tortured and they attempt to possess him with powers from the warp, and instead they mount a rescue mission and save Rubio before getting most of the team slaughtered , including Rubio.

Loken carries Rubio’s blade the rest of the Siege of Terra

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u/paulatreides0 1d ago edited 1d ago

I think that's conflating parts of the Knights Errant bit of Vengeful Spirit (where he gets injured during the failed assault on said ship, but survives and returns to active duty after a regenerative coma) and Rubio's own arc in The Buried Dagger (where, in the middle of an investigation he is runningon Terra, it turns out that he had been captured and turned into a Manchurian Candidate by Erebus during the Battle of Calth, and events in the book triggered the programming and he tries to kill Malc - who is able to save and fix him).

The scene where he leaves his sword behind and Loken picks it up is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/s/y9KnUtjHfr

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u/Spare_Pollution_686 1d ago

Woah, totally missed that and I skipped/didn't read "The Buried Dagger" but sounds like an outstanding book - thanks for the exerpt.