Navis Nobilite Houses of the Prosperitas Sector

Where some Abhumans suffer extreme discrimination within the Imperium for their deviation from human norms, Navigators are far removed from such prejudices. A mutation of humanity the origins of the Navigators are unclear, they first emerged during the Dark Age of Technology, long before the rise of the Imperium, and have lived alongside them ever since, engineered or a 'blessing' upon their human peers, Navigators use a mutant Third Eye set in their forehead to perceive the Warp in ways that others cannot and navigate vessels through the warp.

Four Facts About The Navis Nobilite

• They can see the Warp. Navigators are valuable because of a gift known as the Third Eye a unique mutation that develops as a sensory organ in the center of the forehead that appears like an eye. This sensory organ allows Navigators to perceive the tides and currents of the warp, as well as the light the Astronomicon a great psychic beacon on Terra that allows them to tell directions in the Warp and guide their vessels back to reality without risk of becoming adrift in that realm. It has other potentials too, for to look into the Third Eye produces horrific reactions from most mortal souls, and it can inflict physical and mental damage to look into it when it is open, for this reason many Navigators wear headwear that cover their eye, or have bionic lenses implanted to prevent others from staring into its deadly gaze.

• They Are Nobility. Such is the precious nature of Navigators and the long-standing independence of their Houses that unlike other mutants and abhumans who live their lives as chattel or 'lesser' beings in the eyes of the Imperial hierarchy, Navigators are treated as nobility. Though they do not intermarry with human Nobles (in order to preserve the stability of the Navigator gene) an individual Navigator holds a huge amount of political weight and is treated as precious by the Nobility, should they grow discontent, the Imperium would be adrift without their aid navigating their vessels through warp space.

• They are inhuman. Over the course of a natural lifespan of around four hundred years (without the aid of medical treatments like rejuvenat) Navigator bodies change and become increasingly inhuman in appearance and many are born with physical aberrations. This is both a combination of the warp exposure their duties entail and the instability of Navigator Physiology, which is more so than any other Abhuman, which is what makes it so ironic that they hold the highest status of all Abhumans.

• They are few. Not every ship in the Imperium has a Navigator most Chartist Vessels cannot afford the prices the Navigator Houses demand in Thrones and Favours, and go without, relying on short calculated warp jumps and sublight travel instead. Most Navigators are promised to the great Imperial institutions and the warships of the Imperial Navy, those in private service generally are only found on vessels of the Nobility of those helmed by Rogue Traders.

Navigators in the Prosperitas Sector

The Navis Nobilite are ancient bloodlines that stretch further back than any Imperial one, the Navis Nobilite have existed far longer than the Imperium after all.

The Navigators, if they know it, keep their origins a mystery. Most Mechanicus Biologis would largely assert that - in all likelihood - Navigators are a product of the gene forging techniques of the Dark Age of Technology, a tailor-made branch of humanity designed to pilot vessels through the warp. Though the commonly accepted canon encouraged by the Ecclesiarchy and the Navis Nobilite itself is that Navigators emerged to aid mankind with its manifest destiny of extending rule to the Galaxy, some even hint at the God-Emperor's hand in their creation, a convenient truth to explain the status of such (often) visibly inhuman creatures despite everything the Imperium preaches that calls for the destruction and discrimination of nonhumans and mutants.

Navigators have naturally always had a role in the foundation of the Prosperitas Sector from House Solon who accompanied the very first Imperial ship, the Storm Chaser to enter the Prosperitas Sector at the start of M41, to House De Sousa whose cursed existence is intertwined with the Sectors, and who carry the stain of once having members of their bloodline pressed into Regency service until their liberation by the Imperium, Navigators have always had a roll to play in the Sector's history.

Though the Sector has its established Houses, it is not uncommon to find Navigators in the Sector who come from none of those bloodlines. Many are exiles by choice or mandate, who have drifted out here to the Prosperitas at the frontier of Imperial space seeking employment aboard a voidship if not least to maintain the lifestyles they are accustomed to living. Though the Navigator diaspora must continue to cautiously court the attentions of the Navis Nobilite Houses of the Sector as not to cause offence and risk an assassin's blade at their throat, there is enough excess work aboard Rogue Trader vessels to that the Houses are uninterested in for a unlineaged Navigator to find a place without offending her social superiors. For this reason it is a haven for such individuals amongst this rare subspecies to escape the mistakes that they have made in the past.

But the history of Navigators in the Prosperitas Sector has not been without tragedy.

It was amongst the Navigator diaspora that settled within the estates of House De Sousa on Nivalis that were the root of the Warp Cult that ignited chaos and brought about years of civil war on Nivalis was formed. These traitors were stopped by forces of the Inquisition before they could achieve anything substantial, but their actions sparked sector-wide attacks upon Navigators forcing Imperial forces to defend precious Navigators from attacks by ignorant citizens.

Though that period of rioting is long quelled, a general distrust of Navigators remains in the common citizens of the Prosperitas Sector, fear and superstition keep Navigators of both Houses and Navis Daspora alike cautiously self-segregated behind specially designated 'Navigator quarters' or 'enclaves'.

House Solon

The Navigators of House Solon have the prestige of once having been the companions of Warmaster Durovera, as it was a Navigator of this House who guided Durovera’s fleet and her flagship the Storm Chaser through the winding warpways of the Sol-Prosperitas Corridor. Thus, to the Navigators of House Solon goes the lion’s share of postings aboard the most prestigious ships of the Prosperitas Crusade. The House’s main branch is located on Durovera itself, where the Navigators lay claim to a vast fortified spire atop the planet's Northern Pole. It also has additional holdings aboard Polarnus Station, close to the beating heart of Crusade High Command, where the Novator of the House often visits and is welcome at the Warmaster’s table.

It is said that the Paternova of the Navis Nobilite on Terra once cast out the House, exiling them for crimes against their kind. But through Durovera’s patronage, they were able to bury and obscure their darker past, and be welcomed amongst the most powerful Navigator Houses within the Sector. Unlike many patrons of House Durovera, House Solon did not turn its back on the Primus House during its worst years -- a loyalty that has been rewarded when the Duroveras finally reclaimed the title of Warmaster. The current Novator of the House, Caius Solon, is one of the few members of the Navis Nobilite that actively engages with high society on Durovera, as he feels that partaking in Noble society is an essential tool for securing more clients for his House.

As the leading House of the Navis Nobilite within the Prosperitas Sector, Solon does have its enemies, many of whom are other Navigator Houses who envy its position and power. To this end, Solon is protected by a network of spies and other agents who keep an eye on its enemies, and end any threats to the House swiftly and quietly.

House De Sousa

House De Sousa is cursed with bad luck, a the inception of M.41 when the Houses scions were found as chattel in service to the Archenemy Regency, an otherwise loyalist House with strong ties to the Ruwwad and Annwfynethnic groups, the bloodline had lived as slaves to the Regency for some ten thousand years since the Sector fell beneath the heel of the Archenemy. Upon their liberation the House had been keen to find a home for itself but bad luck would follow it, as if cursed for their years of service to the Archenemy foul misfortunes would befall vessels with a De Sousa Navigator, they would become becalmed in the warp, or appear off course, even appearing month or years later.

At first the De Sousa believed that the 'curse' was sabotage by House Solon, but in time they began to believe in superstitions themselves. Avid collectors of lore from the era of Regency rule, it was always rumoured that the De Sousa archives were filled with proscribed books. Were that true, the House might well he poured over them in search of a cure to this bad luck. Perhaps it worked, for a time, for until 584.M41, House De Sousa seemed stable, it's fortunes rising. It came to settle on Nivalis, where it was welcomed by the Ecclesiarchy, allowed to grow its estate and live alongside the Priesthood cultivating an image of piety putting away the dark rumours of its past, even going so far as to create an enclave for Navigators of the Navis Diaspora with the blessing of the Planetary Governor of Nivalis and the Arch-Confessor of the Priesthood.

But all was not to remain as House De Sousa's curse struck again, heretical Navigators pledged to a Warp Cult had long exploited the Houses kindness to establish a festering presence within the De Sousa estate and the Navis Diaspora enslave. After murdering the Arch-Confessor of Nivalis, Danic Vitalus, the Cultists attempted to bring about some form of warp disturbance, they were stopped at cost by the Inquisition. But the chaos had already spread too late did the House and its allies realise that information of the Navigator's treachery had reached the commonfolk of Nivalis. Despite pleas for calm, and the fact that the House had been an unknowing pawn in the cults plan, the situation on Nivalis degenerated into planet-wide rioting, which in turn spread across the sector.

Many Navigators were killed in the immediate aftermath of the riots of 584.N41, forcing Arbites and Crusade forces to grant protection to them - House De Sousas's scions and assets were the worst targeted and with the arrival of Cardial Grulge on Nivalis late in 586.M41 the House quickly realised that it would no longer be welcome home under the heel of someone like Grulge. To make matters worse, those Navigators who survived the riots held House De Sousa responsible for those deaths for being naive enough to have not noticed such taint.

In disgrace, the House, having lost many of their holdings, having abandoning possessions and years of ties with the Ecclesiarchy in their estae on Nivalis, fled to the void. Since that day, the House has become nomadic, unwilling to return to Nivalis with its brutal overlord, Grulge. The De Sousa’s luck does not appear to have improved over the last few years; a number of its vessels were lost to Pirate raiders while traversing the Cadian Trade Spine, and this state of affairs means that many of its more lucrative contracts to provide Navigators to Imperial vessels have fallen through, in favour of not only House Solon, but even lone Navigators, once too afraid to challenge the family, who were better able to secure contacts thanks to the superstitions of void sailors.

In recent years, the desperation for allies and finances has seen the once-proud House turn to less conventional sources of income, trading its Navigators to serve out any contract out of hope that they will be able to maintain some of their style of living - this has led to a number of poor decisions. And rumours of their forbidden library being slowly traded and sold off to disreputable customers has attracted the Inquisition who, rumour has it, have put a tight leash on the House using the threat of sanction if it does not provide the aid the Inquisition wishes.

The current Novator of the De Sousa family is Sereaus de Sousa, an aging woman, well past her prime and wracked with a number of hereditary diseases, consequence of the inbreeding of the Navis Nobilite. The Scions of her House are nervous that she is reaching the end of her years, and few of them are prepared for the role, having lost so many senior Navigators to the violence on Nilvalis. There are rumours that her youngest offspring fled the family several years ago, only to be found dead in a private apartment on Monacus, her eldest daughter, once the heir presumptive of the House, died aboard the St Sanguinius in its recent loss in 584.M41.

Sereaus fears that should she not be able to recover the families los fortunes and overcome its bad luck, that within generations the House could be extinct as her boodline marries out of the House to shed the history of the House.

House Alil-Máta

Seeded and created in 585.M41 with sanction from the Paternova, Huse Alil-Máta is a a cadet branch of the Terran Navigator bloodline of House Alil. Known for being the masters of words, House Alil are often the 'heralds' of the Paternova and the senior-most members of the Navis Nobilite, a rare calling as few Navigators would trade being at void for the bustle of a Noble Court. Though they initially were believed to be an extension of the retinue Paternova's Envoy to the Prosperitas Sector, Anwyeth Alil they have quickly proven to be more than a diplomatic presence as the House has established itself quickly, providing much-needed Navigators to the Crusade in order to shore up shortages in the other Houses of the Sector.

....TBC.....