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.
- 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.
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 Stormchaser 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. To even the myriad exiles of the Navis Diaspora. Navigators have always had a roll to play in the Sector's history.
But it 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.
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.
Novator Caius Solon is Novator and current head of the House. Well known amongst high society on the Sector capital Duroverum, Novator Solon is a rare type to mingle outside the seclusion of the Navigator’s quarter. More powerful than his House’s only rival, Sereaus de Sousa, Caius enjoys a near-monopoly over the provision of Navigators to the vessels of the Imperium in the Prosperitas Sector – and has a reputation as an affable, if unsettlingly shaped man. He has a habit of wearing masks to hide his warped features, the hereditary result of his Navigator breeding.
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 Annwfyn ethnic 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.
Sereaus de Sousa is the current Novator of the House. An aging woman, she is 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.
Many of the House fear that should she not be able to recover the families lost fortunes and overcome its bad luck, that within generations the House could be extinct the stronger members of the boodline marry out of the House to shed the its history.
House Alil-Máta
Seeded and created in 595.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.
The House does not have a fixed estate as yet, unwelcome on the Sector Capital of Duroverum thanks to the hostility of House Solon towards their arrival and their close ties to the ruling House Durovera to this end they have looked towards settling their roots on either Gaudium or Monacus as both worlds that would welcome the prestige of a Navis Nobilite estate. For now though they keep to their House vessels but regularly visit the Navis enclave on Polarnus Station to offer their services to the Crusade.
While they are readily welcomed by the Prosperitas Crusade and many Imperial institutions they are unwelcome in the eyes House Solon and House De Sousa who both consider the younger House to be a threat. So far only words have been exchanged between the Houses, but without intervention it is only a matter of time before one of the Houses escalates the conflict.
Lady Anwyeth Alil of House Alil, of the Navis Nobilite, arrived as Emissarius-Palatine de Toombes' companion and chosen hand in 595. House Alil is one of the Terran Houses closest to the Paternova of the Navis Nobilite. With the chaos and degradation of the Navigator bloodlines of the Prosperitas Sector, it appears that the Paternova wishes the establishment of new blood on the frontier, and it is House Allil’s duty to guide the foundation of new Navigator bloodlines, an essential thing for the survival of the Sector.
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.
This situation is beneficial for many less-reputable and downright criminal interests to find Navigators willing to demonstrate a bit more 'flexibility' to what ships they will guide through the warp. Such 'renegade' Navigators are a stain upon the Navis Diaspora that means they are treated with more open suspicion and hostility then their House-tied peers by Imperial Institutions. This has proven to be it's own toxic cycle as it has produced Navigators willing to make even more foolish choices with their loyalties and plays a big part in why the Rising Flame has managed to maintain stable interplanetary links without the Imperial astropathic networks.
As a separate branch of humanity the Navis Nobilite do not mingle with the human population unless their situations are so dire that they cannot find sanctuary alongside their fellows. On most worlds where the Navis Nobilite are present they have specific regions known as Navis Quarters where the population comprises entirely of Navigators and their servants here they can move freely rather than disguised or surrounded by rings of servants or within Landcrawlers when they travel through regions where humans are dominant. Not every world has such a luxurious offering to Navigators and for that reason many prefer to stay within the dedicated areas of the voidcraft to which they are assigned, doted on by a legion of servants if socially isolated from the world around them.
Quite unlike the slums that many Abhumans are forced to live in when they live alongside humans, the Nvis Quarters tend to be luxurious places, well appointed and maintained by the investment of the Navigators who visit them tended to by humans who are either raised in service to a Navigator House, or merchants who are open-minded enough about the nature of Navigators to take their coin. For many canny folks seeking advancement the patronage of ones business, such as tailoring, by Navigators outweighs the social impact of being seen to do business with the strange kin of humanity and the most talented might even be uplifted from their station to be servants of one of the families.
In recent years Navis Quarters have been targeted by human fanatics who are quick to blame misfortunes on outsiders and mutants, like Psykers, Navigators enjoy the protection of Arbites and Crusade forces but even then the odd rogue mob has rampaged through Navigator Quarters dealing untold damage much to the consternation of the businesses who make their Thrones there who suffer more than the Navigators themselves who simply increasingly retreat to their vessels and fortified estates.
There is no formal rank structure in the Navis Nobilite beyond that of the family, unlike the Imperial Nobility bloodlines do not 'adopt' heirs when a Navigator bloodline intermingles it only ever does so with other Navigators - a human/Navigator relationship would be expressly forbidden not only by the Imperium with its genetic purity laws but the Navis Nobilite itself which carefully curates its own bloodlines to ensure the strongest possible manifestations of the Navigators gift.
At the head of the Nobilite stands an individual known as the Paternova, never seen in public it is believed they are a heavily mutated example of their kind - to hear Navigators talk of the Paternova is to hear of an individual who holds similar status in their three eyes to the God-Emperor themselves. The Paternova is not simply a political post but the effective leader of the entire Navigator species guarding its interests and guiding its evolution it is by the Paternova's hands that all attempts to alter or interbreed between Navigator bloodlines are approved. Based on Terra there is only one such individual that holds this post, represented in public by the Paternoval Envoy a ranking Navigator chosen to be the most senior interface between the Navigators and the Imperium.
Beneath the distant Terran-bound Paternova come the heads of each family the Novators - unlike in human Noble Houses where house leadership is granted to a nominated heir, the Head of a Navis Nobilite house is always the eldest and strongest Navigator often they will be old enough to have outlasted siblings and much of their family will have interbred to the point that they can effectively consider the bloodline to originate from themselves with their offspring and grandchildren and other subsequent generations considering the Novator part of a 'parental' heirachy rather than their social superior.
Normally the Novator will be surrounded by multiple consorts, Navigators extensively interbreed within their own families to preserve their genetic lineage and as result many of these may be of the same blood as the Novator - these are the Senior Navigators of the House but their power is diminished by the fact that they are kept close to the Novator at all times.
Beyond the immediate consorts of the Novator, seniority is not determined by age but by strength and prestige - the Navigator gift has been known to wax and wane depending on the success of individual House breeding projects but Navigator genetics can be random and while they develop over time a powerful young Navigator can leapfrog over her weaker elders to take postings aboard more prestigious vessels.
Every Navigator's body changes over time and mutates as they age, in some cases this is compensated for in increasingly extreme fashions such as elaborate costumes that conceal the features of the Navigator or even mobile fluid tanks with shaded glass so that the form of the Navigator within cannot be observed. But eventually their deviant appearances become too hard to hide. These individuals, the so-called 'Hidden', are restricted to their Houses estates where they can continue the aid their house often becoming a consort of the Novator to preserve their genetic strengths or seeing to administrative or perform creche and child-raising duties for young Navigators who are not tainted by Imperial attitudes towards their strange forms.
At the bottom of the hierarchy are the failed and broken, those who possess Navigator blood but for whatever reason are too weak, mutated or injured to perform their duties. Worthless to their House they live lives little better than Servants as they try to prove they have some value to their families.
Navigators are as dependent as Nobles on the presence of serving classes to run their Households, or to provide them with security. However because of the general fear and hostility of members of the Imperial Citizenry towards the more mutated examples of Navigator-kind found within their estates such as the 'Hidden' the Navis Nobilite cannot recruit so openly. Often each House maintains several indentured bloodlines of Servants often maintained and bred with the same meticulous detail as the Navigators apply top themselves - these individuals are educated by the House, free of the indoctrination of standard Imperial education they are more open-minded about the secrets of the Navigators and more accustomed to their mutant forms.
Almost an alien sub-culture to the wider body of humans in the Prosperitas Sector the Servants of the Navis Nobilite tend to be distant from other humans in a way that manifests almost as 'arrogance' towards their fellow humans, as if their service to such a vital race as the Navigators marks them as 'different' to normal humans. Often they are, the products of Navigator eugenics programs they are bred for their roles, some Navigators become so fond of specific servants they will often contract members of the Adeptus Mechanicus to create imprints of their brains on death, patterning those minds onto vat-grown servants to give them an almost infinite supply of their specific favoured servants.
Just as the Imperium see's the Navigators as a necessary evil, the Navigators see their human servants as a resource at worst, and 'pets' at best, favoured servants can rise highly, but they are nothing without their Navigator masters.