Navigators and servo-skulls

[Macabre]

Just a curious question about navigators and servo-skulls, or rather more accurate, the navigator third eye and servo-skulls. Now we all know that servo-skulls are the skulls of faithful Imperial servants that are granted the honour of continuing to serve after death, likewise it is documented that the navigators third eye also maintains many arcane properties even after death. Now whilst I wouldn't dare suggest the possibility of servo-skull-navigators piloting Imperial ships (preposterous), would it be too inconceivable for a servo-skull with a navigator eye to maintain the arcane abilities such as 'the lidless stare', that act as deadly familiars to less scrupulous Imperial Agents?

[Dolnikan]

I think it won't retain those qualities, if I remember it correctly from the Inquisition War books(I know they're outof date) the navigator's eye is used after death as a map and the characters can look at it without getting killed, the eye would require a living being to function properly.

[Draco Ferox]

I would say that the Navis Nobilite families would keep the corpses after they die, and inter them in tombs beneath their properties on Terra.

While technically an inquisitor can demand that a skull be handed over for his use, I don't see the navigators complying.

The following questions will need to be adressed:
1. will the navigator family allow it, or would the inquisitor have to steal it from their household on terra?
2. Would the inquisitor stealing it make the navigators refuse to help him travel through the warp?
3. would the navigators make any attempt to reclaim it? (hmm... scenario idea?)
4. would the skull still retain the ability to use the eye?
5.

Sorry to be so negative, but I don't see navigator skulls working. Not being one to simply point out problems however, I would like to give a few alternative ideas.

That said, maybe what might be better would be a navigator Nephilim, who would still be able to use his abilities, but to a lesser degree than a fully fledged navigator.

Another idea I quite like would be an inquisitor who has formed a strong bond with a navigator, and the navigator then leaves instuctions that upon his death, his head is to be made into a servo skull for the inquisitor.
Some vestige of his/her personality may remain, enabling him/her to still use some of their previous abilities.

For a third idea, a navigator who has been corrupted by the warp, and hunted down by the inquisitor, who then has them turned into a servo skull in order to allow them to repent for thier crimes against the Emperor, and because they are too dangerous to be returned to their family, as some vestige of warp corruption may remain, and allowing the navigator houses to be exposed to this is an unacceptable risk.

You have also given me an interesting idea regarding the making of Servo-skulls from the skulls of psykers.

[DapperAnarchist]

The skulls of psykers are mentioned as being useful as psychic foci, much as a crystal copy of ones own skull is (Eisenhorn has one). I would imagine that the skull of a navigator, while extremely rare, would be very useful for certain rituals or for the control of certain psychic manifestations...

[InquisitorHeidfeld]

Not only would the factors which Draco raises be significant obstacles I'd suggest that there is another, potentially more significant one...

Servoskulls are skulls packed with robotic components - none of the examples I've run across at least maintain such soft tissues as the vitreous humours of the eyes for example... which leaves the Navigator skull with an empty socket with no special ability... though you could always jam a laser in there or something...

[Macabre]

I was subscribing to the notion that the navigators third eye actually becomes vitreous and hardened after death like a glass lense rather than decomposing.

[DapperAnarchist]

Which is exactly how it is described in the only source I know. The Navigator's eye in Inquisition War is a smooth, hard stone-like spheroid, which can be carved into.

[InquisitorHeidfeld]

Does it become that in that instance or is it made that way (by artificial mineralisation post mortem)?

The Navigators are human at a basic level so such behaviour occurring "naturally" would seem a little odd to say the least...
The only explanation I can think of at present would be the build-up of Warp energies marshalled by the eye which would, eventually, perhaps turn it into Warpstone.

The possibility that it slowly calcifies throughout life might be viable but you're not going to get hold of the skull of a very old Navigator - that secret is almost as well guarded as The Emperor himself... an eye doesn't tell much, particularly because it's an expected anomaly, but the skull is another matter.

[DapperAnarchist]

The Navigators might be human at a basic level, and perhaps might even be able to still interbreed (though the Navigator genes are recessive), but to say that they are human... they were gene-engineered some 25,000 years prior to the current date (I think? Dark Age of Technology and the Human Stellar Empire start sometime around 15,000 AD?), and have been exposed to the warp almost constantly since then... I doubt much humanity is left in them.

[MarcoSkoll]

If you take Alerod from our current RT RP as in anyway representative, then I can confirm the lack of humanity. We were only about four hours into the adventure when the rape started, and as such, the family of the lady navigator involved isn't very happy.

But yes, navigators aren't exactly human. The idea that their third eye vitrifies after death would be one of the least unusual things about them.

[Dolnikan]

If I recall correctly it is already solid while the navigator still lives, this could be caused in a natural way, for instance in bones or it could even be possible that is is a mass of crytallized biomolecules arranged in its structure from early development.

[Macabre]

To be honest, if the Navigator gene was manufactured artificially, vitrification of the third eye during the navigator's life would make sense, it would certainly help prevent the navigator from being blinded. Plus we are thinking that this third eye is in fact an eye, when it could be a lense like formation of transparent bone that forms part of the skull.

[DapperAnarchist]

Or perhaps its not something that naturally occurs in humans at all, but instead some sort of psycho-crystal, similar to that used by the Eldar? Exactly what was used in the creation of the Navigators, and who was involved, we don't know.

[Macabre]

So have we reached a consensus that the navigators third eye can be used as an arcane weapon (as described in the Inquisition War trilogy) and can be mounted on a mobile platform such as a servo skull?

[MarcoSkoll]

You've got my support. It sounds 40k, whether or not it's perfectly canonical.

Whether it'd be lethal in the same way after death is another matter (I suspect it relies somewhat on the Navigator themselves), but I'm sure you could throw something at it. For example, here's some waffle that suddenly came to mind:

Laedren coils are largely forgotten by the Imperium for being associated with the fearsome subject of the warp, but these devices produce an aethyric field when sufficient voltage is applied. Much like one would imagine a ferromagnetic object can pass on a solenoid's magnetic field and attract iron filings, a Laedren coil can "magnetise" a warp permeable object like the third eye so as to allow it to draw in warp energies in the much same way it would have done while the Navigator was alive.