The Long Night Part One: Embers in the Dusk: A Planetary Governor Quest (43k) Complete Sequel Up

The Role of Librarians in the Varangian Guard

Due to the absurdly high psyker production of the Trust, especially Avernus, the Varangian Guard is "blessed" with a near unheard of proportion of Librarians to Battle Brothers. Often there will be ten Psycic recruits taken from the Unseen University and its branch on Midgard and placed into a Century of recruits.

While it is incredibly unlikely all of those selected will survive enough do that that are few companies with fewer than five Librarians in a group of around one hundred other marines, with more than that not being uncommon.

The training of these psykers primarily takes place on Avernus, where there is an abundance of skilled teachers and where the circumstances are best suited to push the will power of these psykers. Those that survive these trials are best suited to becoming Astartes, though the techniques that only Librarians can learn due to their gene seed are taught on Byzantium itself.

Because much of their early training is spent on Avernus they are often slightly more distant to their peers than is normal and have to catch up on the trials of the other core worlds. However, since much of the later training of initiates is done on Avernus where they and their Techmarine counterparts primarily train, most barriers are broken down. Avernus demands nothing less.

In many ways there has not been a shift in the role of Librarians, they are still tactical assets able to bring their powers to bare and shift the course of a battle, be it through illusions, warp fire, divination, telekinetic storms, augmenting the prowess of their brothers or dispersing hostile warp powers. What has shifted are three things, power, powers and numbers.

The first is power. The effects of astartes gene seed are augmentative. This is a well-known fact a human implanted with gene seed will grow stronger in all ways, this includes psycic abilities. In the Imperium this boost was especially useful as strong stable psykers who were eligible to be implanted with geneseed were a rarity (primarily due to many reasons ranging from psykers of that power being rarer, most chapters recruiting from planets with relatively low population sizes compared to a Hive World ect.), so most chapters had to rely on the gene seed to turn a Zeta or Epsilon psyker into a Delta or Gamma. Those that Imperial chapters recruited who were naturally stronger usually ended up as the Chief Librarian of their chapter.

In the Trust however, the sheer number of strong psykers produced is very impressive to say the least, with the conditions of Avernus being especially primed to turn them into potential recruits for the Guard. This means that there are very few Librarians under the power level of a strong Gamma and a more than significant number at the level of Beta. This increased power has proportionally increased the level of feats the Librarians can normally achieve. Where a Librarian of an Imperial chapter could on average conjure a fire storm able to wipe out a division of infantry a guard Librarian can punch significant holes in tank columns on a semi regular basis.

The powers too are of significant importance. Many of the techniques of the Unseen University are markedly more potent than the Imperial equivalents especially when used by an Astartes. In addition, there are the powers learned from Avernite wildlife, which many are able to use with some impunity due to how powerful and stable they are. The most famous example of this Harta Lee Chief Librarian of the first company, who's expert use of phased blinking and partial phasing turns the already lethal astartes into a near untouchable, ever moving blur, creating a trend to live up to among many Librarians.

In addition, due to their uniform power, stability and skill being on par with strong Primaris Psykers, many of their number are capable of utilising the Banishment and Soul Flame powers with impressive regularity.

However, the most fundamental difference in the Librarians is that there are simply more of them. Where a successful Imperial chapter's companies would at best have two Librarians (one Codicer and one Lexicanum) the average company in the Trust has enough for them to be on multiple fronts and allows for psykers who specialise in different roles.

This is not to say that all Librarians are not skilled in most aspects of their craft, but many do have one area in particular that they are better at. Thus, a diviner Librarian can remain to advise their Captain while the rest assist on various fronts with their powers. There is simply more variety and availability of their skills. This includes Librarian Choirs which before were only seen very rarely in the Imperium.

Of course, when all the Librarians of a company come together they are a force to be feared as these men have trained together their whole lives and are able to support one another instantly, with the tactic of bunching up all the Librarians becoming a popular and effective delaying tactic against Orkish Gargants.

In terms of hierarchy, one Librarian in a company is the Chief Librarian, who leads the others in a company. His second in command is an Epistolary with the rest being Codiciers. Often too a company will be joined by Dicens Lexicanum undergoing their final trainings. In turn the Chief Librarians report to the Grand Master Librarian* Publius Figulus.

Outside of battle the Librarian's duties are many, the most important, while on deployment, being to maintain contact between army battle groups. As Librarians can keep in contact with each other over immense distances compared to normal neo astropaths, as well as being less fragile, Librarians are in constant communication with each other, keeping each other informed of movements casualties and other things in case immediate support is needed.

In fact on the suggestion of Chapter Master Julius a small contingent of Librarians are present at all times on Midgard, awaiting an emergency connection from a battle group so the Trust may mobilise at rapid speed.**

When not on deployment many things have changed and not changed for the Librarians once again. They are still the keepers of knowledge for the chapter and so they write down the battles and reports of the fights they have fought, however they are much more interested in history. Many Librarians will take short sabbaticals to the Muspel Archives to immerse themselves in the histories of man's ancient and modern past.

In addition, the Unseen University has left its mark upon the Librarians, with the pursuit of knowledge being highly prized. This is most pronounced and fascinating in the understanding of psycic frequencies, particularly the frequencies of their own geneseed. A large conclave of Librarians has formed who spend their time researching their geneseed's frequencies, to create new powers in addition to powers they already have from it and seeing if they can unlock the secrets hidden within the geneseed.

*There was significant debate on whether or not the Head Librarian of the Chapter should be the Master Librarian, the Grandmaster Librarian or a new rank should be invented for the Chief Librarian's of companies. In the end Grandmaster Librarian was decided upon.
**This group of librarians is switched out on a Semi regular basis, but so far it has been regarded as a post of absolute seriousness.

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And done.

Probably not what @Durin had in mind, but hey ho.

@Binge-Reader satisfied for a bit