Warhammer: The 11th Primarch - The Black Emperor Chapter 718 - 717: Sixteen Percent Blanks, Ambition to Creat

932.M30.

Segntum Obscurus, Antimar Subsector, Feral World Vessor.

The Shadow-pattern Stormbird bounced in the airflow. Nareth looked down through the narrow viewport.

The Primarch drew the Osiron mind staff. His consciousness expanded.

On black basalt mountains, in treacherous, vicious ravines, burly n wrapped in animal hides, their faces painted with terrifying warpaint, raised their un-sighted matchlocks and fired crude black powder as they ran.

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK...

At the extre range of four hundred ters, the matchlocks accurately struck beasts charging between the rocks.

The Vessorines fearlessly charged the roaring, lion-like beasts. Their ferocity turned to innate cunning before the clash.

They nimbly dodged, causing the beasts to crash into rocks, then struck with their weapons.

This was the Vessorine way: calculating, watertight, always seeking the most efficient strike.

He took in the Vessorines' battle within his consciousness. His eyes lit up.

He imdiately recalled the future Inquisitor Gregor Eisenhorn's assessnt of the Vessorines:

"Frankly, I'd rather face angry Kasrkin than them."

Kasrkin were the elite of the Cadian Shock Troops, guarding the fortress world of Cadia against the Chaos threat.

"Any Cadian who can't handle a lasgun by age ten was born on the wrong planet" speaks to the brutal threats they faced.

Through generations of fighting Warp horrors and mortal champions of destruction, the Kasrkin had beco the ultimate warriors of the vast Astra Militarum.

They faced Chaos's Black Crusades, defending Cadia.

Eisenhorn was an Inquisitor in the Segntum Obscurus, having fought alongside Kasrkin many tis in his legendary career. His assessnt was authoritative.

It was no re politeness. When he belatedly realized his attackers were Vessorine rcenaries, he felt genuine fear.

He realized that had he known earlier, he might not have risked returning to save his mortally wounded pilot, dea.

Unlike cold, ruthless Inquisitors, Eisenhorn mourned the deaths of his followers.

He would never abandon them if there was any chance of rescue.

His self-doubt showed even this legendary Inquisitor, who had banished powerful daemon hosts, was unsure he could survive a Vessorine attack.

As the Stormbird descended, he took in the entire battlefield.

He suddenly felt thirteen black points.

They were like thorns, piercing the net of his consciousness.

His consciousness seed to strike reefs. His coverage shrank.

Light and shadow flickered in his eyes. He instantly ascended to the third level of the Magnus mindset.

His consciousness, like a tide, swept down.

On the ground, thirteen Blanks looked up in terror. They felt a powerful will, like a mountain, pressing down.

Blanks did not always completely suppress psykers.

Powerful psykers were only sowhat suppressed, their abilities sowhat weakened.

Master Astropaths often kept two Blanks nearby to suppress their own powers.

With a flicker, he took in all the Vessorines in the area.

Eighty-two.

The corners of his mouth curved. Over fifteen percent.

"Continue." He ordered.

He knew the larger Vessorine tribes numbered nearly a thousand. There was no need to linger on a small tribe of less than a hundred.

The Shadow-pattern Stormbird flew on. He took in battlefield after battlefield.

Vessorines ran with superhuman endurance, hunting beasts in the treacherous mountains.

The innate warriors could fight for days without food or water, until their enemies died.

When tribes t, they attacked without rcy.

Bullets shattered heads. Blades pierced chests.

As weapons shattered in the bloody lee, they charged, spinning kicks knocking weapons aside, thick arms choking necks.

He knew Vessorine military training gave equal ti to marksmanship, swordsmanship, and unard combat.

He tallied twelve tribes of varying sizes encountered along the way: one thousand eight hundred thirty-seven people, two hundred ninety-four Blanks.

He preliminarily concluded: the proportion of Blanks was about sixteen percent.

'Indeed, as I suspected. The Vessorines have a higher proportion of Blanks than one in ten, but less than one in five.'

'And every tribe has Blanks.'

'Could the Vessorines' innate resilient will be related to the presence of Blanks?'

The Vessorines, fighting day and night on a brutal feral world, could also resist Inquisitorial interrogation.

An ordinary Vessorine Janissary, Vormack Tar, had resisted Eisenhorn's psychic interrogation.

He knew that, at Magnus's behest, Ahzek Ahriman had taught Lemuel Gaumon.

Gaumon, one of the four founders of the Inquisition, had taught his psychic techniques to other Inquisitors.

Eisenhorn was an Alpha-level psyker, the teacher of Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor, skilled in psychic probe techniques.

Yet he needed chemical aids to pry open the mind of an ordinary Vessorine Janissary, Tar, a testant to the Vessorines' steadfast will.

'Blanks are rejected wherever they go. Their presence makes others uneasy. Yet among the Vessorines, Blanks are integrated into the tribes.'

'Growing up together, through generations of evolution, the Vessorines have beco accustod to the discomfort of fear, tempering their resilient will.'

'Hmm, the Vessorines' lack of reverence for the God -Emperor stems from their lack of need for faith, their overcoming of fear, and the fact that their Blank nature, their negative Warp projection, prevents them from feeling His light.'

He asked himself.

'How did the Emperor subdue the Sisters of Silence?'

'Superhuman charisma? Or overwhelming psychic power?'

The "ntor of Disorder's" eyes flickered. Though his psychic power could not match the Emperor's, he was confident he could subdue the powerful Vessorines.

'Vessorines transford into Shadows of Order would be powerful warriors.'

'Hmm... ordinary Vessorines' psychic dullness is similar to the Custodes'. The Blanks are like the Sisters of Silence.'

'The Emperor has the Custodes and the Sisters of Silence. Hmm... not fantasy...'

The Emperor had millennia of accumulation and dark secrets from the Four. He could cultivate high-sequence beyonders on the Mother and Moon Pathways, who would gain so life-domain authority at Sequence 2.

'Hmm, if I take Arkhan Land, the Selenar Gene-Cults, and the Sangprimus Portum during the Heresy, it might be possible to create my own Custodes and Sisters of Silence.'

As his ambition stirred, his eyes flickered.

Hundreds of black points made his consciousness rapidly contract.

A powerful Vessorine tribe, nearly a thousand strong.

'This is one of the largest Vessorine tribes.' His eyes narrowed. They had falcon tattoos on their necks.

He whispered: "The Sorbor tribe."

He thought of the Sorbor tribe's leader, whose swordsmanship matched Eisenhorn's. He ordered.

"Open the hatch."

As the airlock opened with a rumble, he spread his golden wings and leaped.

....

A/N: The high proportion of Blanks among the Vessorines is from the official novel Enemy of My Enemy, Chapter 10, page 153 of the print edition.

The Sorbor tribe also originates from that book.

....

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