Warhammer 40K Fluff Discussion XVI: Where the Ordnance is Hand-Delivered!

[tyckspoon]

Spinning off the 'Feral World Religion' link - how much Heresy is too much Heresy when it comes to the Imperium absorbing human civilizations? Obviously Chaos worship, xenos, or rampant psykery is off-limits, but how much can you just be 'wrong' about, like in the story?

It's relevant to the campaign I'm currently running (RT), actually. A small cluster of planets has been cut off from the greater Imperium since just after the start of the Horus Heresy, isolated by assorted stellar phenomena. Their principal, and likely the most heretical belief, is that the Imperium was destroyed in the rebellion and they're all that remains of humanity. They remember the Emperor, but having completely missed out on the formation of the Cult Imperialis they don't venerate him as a god - they actually think he's dead. Internally they're very Puritan in mindset, hating the alien and purging any psyker or mutant on sight. On the flip side, they're also very culturally maltheistic as the only Gods they know of are Dark Gods, with 10,000 years of inertia towards associating religion of any kind with demons and evil sorcery.

How would the Ecclesiarchy and Ministorium be likely to react to this, as obstacles towards conversion and assimilation?

That's like 80% compatible with existing belief already. I would bet the biggest block to re-integrating them is actually getting them to believe that the Imperium is in fact still going and convincing them to rejoin peacefully; if they are willing to abide by the requirements of the Imperium, satisfy their tithes, give up their psykers or potential psykers to the Black Ships (another potentially big point of conflict if they're used to just killing them - having somebody show up and say "actually these people are a necessary resource, set them aside for us and we will collect them" might not go over well) etc, I don't think 'the Emperor isn't actually a god' would be enough to bring the full hammer down on them. Wouldn't be worth the expenditure of military might needed to bring a whole system into line when they're otherwise good productive Imperial citizens. Might be a place missionaries get sent to when they're looking for a challenge or as a punishment detail.

If they refuse to rejoin peacefully and have to be militarily annexed, however, I would expect conversion by the sword and attempts to suppress the local beliefs - the new planetary governors would naturally profess the approved version of the Imperial Faith, the current social and cultural leaders would get deposed or killed, and the Ecclesiarchy would assert their claim to be part of the new leadership.

[Lord Raziere]

Spinning off the 'Feral World Religion' link - how much Heresy is too much Heresy when it comes to the Imperium absorbing human civilizations? Obviously Chaos worship, xenos, or rampant psykery is off-limits, but how much can you just be 'wrong' about, like in the story?

It's relevant to the campaign I'm currently running (RT), actually. A small cluster of planets has been cut off from the greater Imperium since just after the start of the Horus Heresy, isolated by assorted stellar phenomena. Their principal, and likely the most heretical belief, is that the Imperium was destroyed in the rebellion and they're all that remains of humanity. They remember the Emperor, but having completely missed out on the formation of the Cult Imperialis they don't venerate him as a god - they actually think he's dead. Internally they're very Puritan in mindset, hating the alien and purging any psyker or mutant on sight. On the flip side, they're also very culturally maltheistic as the only Gods they know of are Dark Gods, with 10,000 years of inertia towards associating religion of any kind with demons and evil sorcery.

How would the Ecclesiarchy and Ministorium be likely to react to this, as obstacles towards conversion and assimilation?

Hm, well they've reacted to most religions as simply making sure their customs aren't changed as long as they worship the Emperor (whatever they name they give him in their own little religion or pantheon) as the Ecclesiarchy can't really make all those religions theirs entirely, their job is more to make sure that they aren't worshipping Chaos gods or Xenos and to approve of a religion as safe so that they don't mistake another cult for being heretics.
its just that...they never elaborated on how they'd react to having no religion at all, like the Ecclesiarchy doesn't LIKE the Space Marines saying that Emps is just a man but a great one nonetheless, but they don't raise a fuss about it because space marines are powerful and its not widely known that space marines think that.

So, it all depends on if these planets think of Emperor as a great man like the Space Marines and thus like him but just need to be informed that he is still alive just....barely on the edge of death more or less, and if the Ecclesiarchy can accept normal humans thinking like space marines in that way, or if these planets think the God-Emperor is a different entity than the Emperor and thus equivalent to a Chaos God that needs purging given how the Imperium speaks of him. I'd say its more likely that the Ecclesiarchy would be gentler in the former case but will probably still try their usual conversion in some way which is to flood the planet with priests trying to convert people no matter what the effect is, while the latter would be....well equating the Emperor to a Chaos God and thus heresy thus purging.
like assuming the Ecclesiarchy doesn't succeed in conversion, the best possible scenario is that they tolerate the atheism as long as they pay their tithes as per the Imperium's bureaucratic demands and write it down as some weird "Cult of Man" and deceive themselves into thinking that they just "worship the Emperor in their own unique way, they do all the other duties just as well as us after all" then go off and find actual heretics to kill.

Of course this is 40k, so....best possible scenario isn't exactly a thing to count upon, but hey its a possibility.

[Artanis]

Spinning off the 'Feral World Religion' link - how much Heresy is too much Heresy when it comes to the Imperium absorbing human civilizations? Obviously Chaos worship, xenos, or rampant psykery is off-limits, but how much can you just be 'wrong' about, like in the story?

It's relevant to the campaign I'm currently running (RT), actually. A small cluster of planets has been cut off from the greater Imperium since just after the start of the Horus Heresy, isolated by assorted stellar phenomena. Their principal, and likely the most heretical belief, is that the Imperium was destroyed in the rebellion and they're all that remains of humanity. They remember the Emperor, but having completely missed out on the formation of the Cult Imperialis they don't venerate him as a god - they actually think he's dead. Internally they're very Puritan in mindset, hating the alien and purging any psyker or mutant on sight. On the flip side, they're also very culturally maltheistic as the only Gods they know of are Dark Gods, with 10,000 years of inertia towards associating religion of any kind with demons and evil sorcery.

How would the Ecclesiarchy and Ministorium be likely to react to this, as obstacles towards conversion and assimilation?

It probably depends on who finds them first. A particularly enterprising Rogue Trader or an Astartes Chapter looking for a new recruiting world? Tell them what's up and coach them on what will keep the Ecclesiarchy off their backs. Ultra-puritan Inquisitor? Oh look at the time, it's Exterminatus-o-clock.

[The Glyphstone]

The specific RT group is question is fairly radical on the xenos front, having outright vassalized a local primitive xenos species and working happily if clandestinely with the Aeldari on threats of mutual interest (Necrons bad, yo.) The Ecclesiarchy is rather irritated with them as a result, but they've got strong allies in the AdMech and Inquisition to counterbalance.

As far as the Emperor, he's remembered with respect as the only 'good' sorcerer, powerful enough to enslave lesser psykers and force them to serve him instead of evil. His fatal error was raising an army of mutant super soldiers who ended up betraying him.

Spoiler: Bonus Round

Show

The planets in question have survived this long without being eaten by demons because of a anomalously high...two or three orders of magnitude above average...expression rate of the Blank Gene. 'Purebloods' form a quasi-noble caste, venerated as the only thing protecting the 'thinblood' majority from daemons and evil psykers. This is also the indirect cause of their psy-phobia, since any awakened psyker almost inevitably and quickly goes bonkers from becoming hyper-sensitive to the pervasive 'blankness' of their world.

[Destro_Yersul]

Spoiler: Bonus Round

Show

The planets in question have survived this long without being eaten by demons because of a anomalously high...two or three orders of magnitude above average...expression rate of the Blank Gene. 'Purebloods' form a quasi-noble caste, venerated as the only thing protecting the 'thinblood' majority from daemons and evil psykers. This is also the indirect cause of their psy-phobia, since any awakened psyker almost inevitably and quickly goes bonkers from becoming hyper-sensitive to the pervasive 'blankness' of their world.

Well that just sounds like an incredibly valuable resource. Damn the beliefs, full speed ahead on turning this lot into a recruiting world for the Inquisition.

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah, if they have that many Blanks, that could help, definitely let the Inquisition know, they'd be the ones that would see the sense in having more Blanks to screw up demons and psykers. Space Marines would be angry at the suggestion that they are all traitors to him and definitely do NOT let the Dark Angels near them, but....assuming you let the right people know it could work, as much as anything else in an Imperium full of contradicting beliefs does.

[Forum Explorer]

Spoiler: Bonus Round

Show

The planets in question have survived this long without being eaten by demons because of a anomalously high...two or three orders of magnitude above average...expression rate of the Blank Gene. 'Purebloods' form a quasi-noble caste, venerated as the only thing protecting the 'thinblood' majority from daemons and evil psykers. This is also the indirect cause of their psy-phobia, since any awakened psyker almost inevitably and quickly goes bonkers from becoming hyper-sensitive to the pervasive 'blankness' of their world.

That alone makes the planet excessively valuable. With that to offer the Imperium, they could get away with nearly anything short of openly worshiping Chaos.

[Fyraltari]

In the context of the video as a self-contained and humorous allegory, sure.

But it doesn't work as any kind of serious commentary on the 40k fluff, which again is probably not the intent, but this is a fluff thread and I felt the need to make that link.

It was a funny video. Sorry if it seems like I'm taking it too seriously.

Well, while it’s obvious exaggeration to suggest that the Space Marines can’t tell each other apart within their own chapters it’s not wrong to say that for an outsider members of a specific chapter would be pretty much interchangeable. Sure each Space Wolf is different from another but they all have ‘wolfy’ as the core of their personality. As for wether they are humans they are it’s a matter of boundary, how removed from homo sapiens (and the space marines are way further than any real-world homo species ever were) can one get before stopping to qualify as human? Especially since they are not only modified physiologically but pshychologically (‘they shall know no fear’).

Hm, well they've reacted to most religions as simply making sure their customs aren't changed as long as they worship the Emperor (whatever they name they give him in their own little religion or pantheon) as the Ecclesiarchy can't really make all those religions theirs entirely, their job is more to make sure that they aren't worshipping Chaos gods or Xenos and to approve of a religion as safe so that they don't mistake another cult for being heretics.

The funny thing is that this means they are actually fine with heresy (same basic religion as me with doctrinal differences) what they object to is paganism (an other religion than mine) and apostasy (leaving my religion for another).

its just that...they never elaborated on how they'd react to having no religion at all, like the Ecclesiarchy doesn't LIKE the Space Marines saying that Emps is just a man but a great one nonetheless, but they don't raise a fuss about it because space marines are powerful and its not widely known that space marines think that.

Given that this is Warhammer 40k, I’m pretty sure any atheist not essential to the Imperium in some way better have a good bunker handy because their hometown wether forecast is about to say ‘prometheum everywhere’.

[snowblizz]

That alone makes the planet excessively valuable. With that to offer the Imperium, they could get away with nearly anything short of openly worshiping Chaos.

That's not quite how the Imperium operates though. If you have something to offer the Imperium takes it. If it is very valuable they expend incalculable resources to get it. If they still can't get it, no one can and bam Exterminatus.

Even when there's a good negotiated solution that benefits everyone the Imperium has trouble with that solution. That's how bonkers the set-up of the universe is and why it is so tricky to make things work even remotely normally.

Furthermore, the Imperium is just as likely to "strip mine" the world because we need all of that *now!* erasing said resource in a generation. Because planning for the future is hard when you need everything already yesterday. Again, when the universe's backdrop is the most egregious tropeing it's hard to set up meaningful "compromise positions".

The only way I see it working out is the various branches of the Imperium not able agree to who gets everything so they kinda stalemate on the issue of sharing the spoils leaving some rom for the subjects. A balance point that naturally is only one nutso Inquisitor away from exploding in their faces.

[Kris Strife]

Well, while it’s obvious exaggeration to suggest that the Space Marines can’t tell each other apart within their own chapters it’s not wrong to say that for an outsider members of a specific chapter would be pretty much interchangeable. Sure each Space Wolf is different from another but they all have ‘wolfy’ as the core of their personality. As for wether they are humans they are it’s a matter of boundary, how removed from homo sapiens (and the space marines are way further than any real-world homo species ever were) can one get before stopping to qualify as human? Especially since they are not only modified physiologically but pshychologically (‘they shall know no fear’).

Space Wolves are probably one of the more individualist factions among space marines, considering important it is to have their personal name and saga added to the list of glorious accomplishments that the chapter celebrates. It actually creates a problem among their bloodclaws, as they tend to get themselves killed in the attempt, and even Wolf Lords (or whatever their captain equivalents are called) will sometimes act in a manner that's petty, and insulting to those under their command in order to get more personal glory.

That's not quite how the Imperium operates though. If you have something to offer the Imperium takes it. If it is very valuable they expend incalculable resources to get it. If they still can't get it, no one can and bam Exterminatus.

Even when there's a good negotiated solution that benefits everyone the Imperium has trouble with that solution. That's how bonkers the set-up of the universe is and why it is so tricky to make things work even remotely normally.

Furthermore, the Imperium is just as likely to "strip mine" the world because we need all of that *now!* erasing said resource in a generation. Because planning for the future is hard when you need everything already yesterday. Again, when the universe's backdrop is the most egregious tropeing it's hard to set up meaningful "compromise positions".

The only way I see it working out is the various branches of the Imperium not able agree to who gets everything so they kinda stalemate on the issue of sharing the spoils leaving some rom for the subjects. A balance point that naturally is only one nutso Inquisitor away from exploding in their faces.

I don't think this works when the planet's people are the super rare and valuable resource in question, as is the case here.

[Cheesegear]

For those who've read it:

Is Psychic Awakening worth a Let's Read?
i.e; Is it just terrible enough for me to rip it apart, but not terrible enough for me to hate it and quit halfway through?

For those who've not read it:

Do you give a **** about Psychic Awakening enough that you want me to read it?

[LansXero]

I don't think this works when the planet's people are the super rare and valuable resource in question, as is the case here.

Of course it does. They'd get shipped off to become assassins, get cut open to see why their genes are more transmisible than the norm, get sent off to become sisters of silence or get dragged by every Malleus inquisitor several sectors over to be added to their retinue. Guarding 1 measly planet out in the middle of nowhere is a luxury the Imperium can not afford, when half the Imperium is under constant daemonic siege beyond the light of the astronomican.

The world will be a husk of itself within the decade, and a fleeting memory before a century.

[Fyraltari]

The world will be a husk of itself within the decade, and a fleeting memory before a century.

If whoever is in charge has half a brain though, they'll set up a breeding program with a ten-chidren policy for every blank and/or forced artificial insemination. Hell in 10, 000 years the Imperium should* have had that done a long time ago.

why their genes are more transmisible than the norm

This one is a no-brainer, the role the blanks play in this society allowed them to rise to the top of the social hierarchy giving them more and better access to resources, protection from the others and a wider choice of sexual partners meaning a more numerous offspring who will in turn have access to the same advantages.. This makes the Pariah gene* a naturally selected trait. In fact given how genetics works and how long they've been isolated it's likely everyone on the planetis descended from the blanks they had back during the Horus Heresy and the majority of the population carries a weaker variant. Or not. The Glyphstone's choice.


*should be pariah allele but whatever

[Forum Explorer]

For those who've read it:

Is Psychic Awakening worth a Let's Read?
i.e; Is it just terrible enough for me to rip it apart, but not terrible enough for me to hate it and quit halfway through?

For those who've not read it:

Do you give a **** about Psychic Awakening enough that you want me to read it?

Not really no. They aren't bad enough.

That's not quite how the Imperium operates though. If you have something to offer the Imperium takes it. If it is very valuable they expend incalculable resources to get it. If they still can't get it, no one can and bam Exterminatus.

Even when there's a good negotiated solution that benefits everyone the Imperium has trouble with that solution. That's how bonkers the set-up of the universe is and why it is so tricky to make things work even remotely normally.

Furthermore, the Imperium is just as likely to "strip mine" the world because we need all of that *now!* erasing said resource in a generation. Because planning for the future is hard when you need everything already yesterday. Again, when the universe's backdrop is the most egregious tropeing it's hard to set up meaningful "compromise positions".

The only way I see it working out is the various branches of the Imperium not able agree to who gets everything so they kinda stalemate on the issue of sharing the spoils leaving some rom for the subjects. A balance point that naturally is only one nutso Inquisitor away from exploding in their faces.

That's kinda the point though. The Imperium has a pressing need to use those Pariahs and would be more than willing to overlook a little atheism in order to acquire them.

[LansXero]

If whoever is in charge has half a brain though, they'll set up a breeding program with a ten-chidren policy for every blank and/or forced artificial insemination. Hell in 10, 000 years the Imperium should* have had that done a long time ago.

The Temples have to get theirs from somewhere, so maybe they have? They aren't sharing any info though, and might get badly possessive of this imaginary world. Cant imagine many people telling them no, who wants to piss off the master of assassins, specially with how the Imperium is doing lately?

This one is a no-brainer, the role the blanks play in this society allowed them to rise to the top of the social hierarchy giving them more and better access to resources, protection from the others and a wider choice of sexual partners

Thats exactly why Magos Biologis will dissect the whole lot of them. None of that generally applies to pariahs, who are drowned by their own parents due to the awful gaping emptyness thats where their soul should be. Popular, powerful, beloved pariahs are an extreme oddity and as such will be forcefully studied and their remains distilled into psyk-out weaponry. The Imperium doesn't do "happy unique situation" it does "mass production of lesser copies" due to the scale it has to operate at.

This makes the Pariah gene* a naturally selected trait. In fact given how genetics works and how long they've been isolated it's likely everyone on the planetis descended from the blanks they had back during the Horus Heresy and the majority of the population carries a weaker variant. Or not.

The issue being that whatever the population may be worth, their world is worthless. If it hasnt been found it means that its out of the way, outside chaos incursion routes and trade networks. Therefore, keeping something that valuable protecting a worthless rock makes no sense in the current Imperium. Best case scenario they all get shipped off to somewhere important like Vigilus or whats left of the Cadian sector or wherever. Worst case, just make psyk-out grenades out of all of them, CSM with no access to psykers and daemons are still space marines, no point risking all of these falling into their hands or stretching the already thin resources protecting an out of the way world.

The Glyphstone's choice.

Of course, they can just go and do whatever they want, but then, why even ask?

[Grim Portent]

Best case scenario for such a planet is they manage to arrange a conventional tithe to the Imperium, except instead of resources or guard regiments it's blanks. Initially this tithe would be very high, as is standard practice for worlds rich in a resource.

Over the ensuing centuries and millenia the best blanks would be taken away at a young age and distributed to the various agencies that use blanks, the remaining blanks would be encouraged to inbreed to avoid them having children who may not express the pariah gene.* Over time genetic defects, the culling of the strongest blanks and other issues caused by having a large portion of their breeding pool taken away each generation will start to take effect, weakening the blanks as a group and making them less and less useful.

Eventually the blanks either become dysfunctional genetic abominations or have to breed outside their lines, likely with other planet's nobility. Either way they begin to resemble the average planets nobility, just with a slightly higher chance of blanks being born. The Imperium takes ages to properly adjust the tithes to reflect the new state of things, and it remains customary for the manpower tithe to be paid in the children of nobles for a long period of time after the children stop being particularly useful in themselves.

In the meantime the various Adepta would be integrating themselves into the planet, though how heavily they would invest in a presence does depend on how densely populated the world is. There may be a few accountants and a priest assigned to the ruling household, or they may begin building full scale administration centers and temples in all major communities.



*As nobility they may already be doing this.

[Borgh]

it does "mass production of lesser copies" due to the scale it has to operate at.

exacty. The imperium runs on a flowchart:

this thing we have here is:
1. Irreplacable! we will deploy them within a generation though, due to some pressing need. Oh...now it's gone forever.
2. Reproductible! Neat, now we can dilute the original recipe to to the point of homeopathy....Oh now it's gone forever.

It is mostly plot armour though. If you can convince the universe to not-yet-decide for any reason you could get away with some things. Going "Well it is not gone yet" should work too, that is basically how imperium as a whole operates.

[Renegade Paladin]

For those who've read it:

Is Psychic Awakening worth a Let's Read?
i.e; Is it just terrible enough for me to rip it apart, but not terrible enough for me to hate it and quit halfway through?

For those who've not read it:

Do you give a **** about Psychic Awakening enough that you want me to read it?

The only one I've read is Greater Good as its the one that has my army's stuff in it, and the fluff is so utterly forgettable that I actually didn't finish reading it.

[The Glyphstone]

For anyone who wondered, I was reading the debate and got a lot of good stuff from it. What I was hoping to gain was material for a 'good ending' and a 'bad ending' depending on the actions/inactions of the PCs during the campaign epilogue WRT this little pocket empire hidden away in the Halo Stars. Which I did.

[Don Qui Ho Tep]

For those who've read it:

Is Psychic Awakening worth a Let's Read?
i.e; Is it just terrible enough for me to rip it apart, but not terrible enough for me to hate it and quit halfway through?

For those who've not read it:

Do you give a **** about Psychic Awakening enough that you want me to read it?

I'd be into it! I've only read Faith and Fury and thought it was a pretty good first half of a book, and was pretty disappointed with its lack of conclusion. But I'm really curious what's been developing on other fronts of the Galaxy and wouldn't mind a humorous commentary while I'm learning.

[Cikomyr2]

I know that the existence of Psykers isn't a secret in the Imperium and that most of humanity consider it a curse.

But what about the Blanks? Is the existence of blanks a secret held by the higher ups? If not, would it be considered a blessing or a curse?

[The Glyphstone]

I always assumed the sheer hyper-rarity made them an unknown factor, rather than deliberate suppression. Knowledge of them is probably peripherally suppressed in the sense that you want to maintain ignorance about the Warp in general and they fall under that header.

[Grim Portent]

The average Imperial barely understands what a psyker is. To the normal people they're just one of many boogeymen mentioned in the priests sermons, and a scapegoat for various problems. On the rare occasions they meet a psyker they usually resort to local superstitions intended to protect themselves from various nonsensical dangers rather than knowing how to actually interact with one safely.

Blanks meanwhile are vastly rarer than psykers, and so basically unknown, and have an aura that makes people hate them. The average person will just consider them really unlikable weirdos, on the rare occasion one demonstrates any of the odd phenomena that is sometimes linked to blanks they'll probably just brand them a witch and revert to basic practice, which is to say alienating them at best, killing them at worst.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

As I understand it, though people (including the blanks themselves) might not know what exactly they are, they make people feel uncomfortable to be around. Which would probably lead to social difficulties, though their lack of obvious physical mutations means that they won't fall victim to the the more extreme measures. They'll just be isolated.

Those who know what it is will likely consider it a curse, maybe (I would guess) somewhere along the lines of being an abhuman. You can understand their use, but you'd still keep them at arms length or whatever the range of their "unease" effect is.

And as Glyphstone said, keeping people generally ignorant about the Warp would likely preclude a proper understanding of how Blanks work.

[Cikomyr2]

Other question. Would a Blank feel uncomfortable around another Blank?

[The Glyphstone]

Other question. Would a Blank feel uncomfortable around another Blank?

My headcanon is no, because it's the absence of something that makes people unconsciously repelled by them. Since most Blanks don't even know something is wrong with themselves, I think that's circumstantial proof that they can't perceive the difference between themselves and normal humans. Which means another Blank would feel no different than a non-Blank.

That, and if Blanks were affected by Blanks it'd be almost impossible to train Culexus Assassins. No one except another Culexus could possibly stand being around them long enough to impart lessons, and if even they drive each other nuts it fails completely.

[Wraith]

That, and if Blanks were affected by Blanks it'd be almost impossible to train Culexus Assassins. No one except another Culexus could possibly stand being around them long enough to impart lessons, and if even they drive each other nuts it fails completely.

"Low powered" Blanks are used as servants within the Culexus Temple for this very reason. They're not bothered by being surrounded by several dozen Omega-Minus level nulls, whereas for a baseline human it would be torture.

[The Patterner]

exacty. The imperium runs on a flowchart:

this thing we have here is:
1. Irreplacable! we will deploy them within a generation though, due to some pressing need. Oh...now it's gone forever.
2. Reproductible! Neat, now we can dilute the original recipe to to the point of homeopathy....Oh now it's gone forever.

It is mostly plot armour though. If you can convince the universe to not-yet-decide for any reason you could get away with some things. Going "Well it is not gone yet" should work too, that is basically how imperium as a whole operates.

This is a truth with modification though, Navigators are still around (and their houses are extremly powerful), so considiering that this is a resource similar to that I think the Imperium would try and find a way to make it work without diluting it.

[LeSwordfish]

"Low powered" Blanks are used as servants within the Culexus Temple for this very reason. They're not bothered by being surrounded by several dozen Omega-Minus level nulls, whereas for a baseline human it would be torture.

Similarly I'm sure there's a few throwaway lines in the Eisenhorn books about how various members of his Distaff are more comfortable in each other's company than anyone else.

[thethird]

Blanks feeling comfortable around each other is good design, that way they breed more blanks.

My headcanon is no, because it's the absence of something that makes people unconsciously repelled by them. Since most Blanks don't even know something is wrong with themselves, I think that's circumstantial proof that they can't perceive the difference between themselves and normal humans. Which means another Blank would feel no different than a non-Blank.

That, and if Blanks were affected by Blanks it'd be almost impossible to train Culexus Assassins. No one except another Culexus could possibly stand being around them long enough to impart lessons, and if even they drive each other nuts it fails completely.

Given that and that you have a world full of blanks, are the "normies" the ones that are considered to have a problem? If the norm is that everyone is blank enough to feel comfortable around the other blanks, would the not blank people be the odd ducks?

Or is blank rejection societal? And if the society doesn't reject blanks can "normies" grow accustomed to blanks and not reject them outright?