An Untouchable, also called a Blank or Pariah, is a human born with a negative psychic presence. Where a psyker channels the warp, a Blank pushes it away, making them immune to most psychic powers and deeply unsettling to everyone around them. This rare mutation makes them both feared and invaluable in a galaxy full of witches and daemons.
What makes someone an Untouchable
Blanks aren’t psykers in the usual sense. They’re the opposite: a hole in the warp rather than a conduit for it. Their minds project a field that drains psychic energy and disrupts phenomena around them, causing powers to slide off rather than take hold.
In Imperial classification, a true Blank is an omega-minus psyker, the very bottom of the Assignment scale and the opposite end from a powerful alpha-plus psyker. The term Untouchable marks the difference from lesser negative psykers, who are still partly ‘touchable’ by some psychic effects and don’t count as true Blanks.
- Immune to most direct psychic attacks and mind-reading
- Psychic powers weaken, fail, or are disrupted in their presence
- Ordinary people feel unease, fear, or outright revulsion near them
- Classified as omega-minus, the opposite of alpha-plus
- Rare, and not reliably inherited
The pariah gene
The mutation is tied to something called the pariah gene. It’s inheritable, and there’s a direct correlation between a Blank parent and a Blank child. Some worlds, like the feral planet Vessor, see a higher frequency of Untouchable births than usual.
Nobody knows where the gene actually came from. Theories range from ancient human experimentation to something stranger. The Emperor himself put a moratorium on research into it after early Great Crusade experiments by the Imperial Archotechnologist Corps and the Mechanicum ended in disaster.
Why the Imperium wants them
For all the suspicion they attract, Blanks are too useful to waste. The Officio Assassinorum’s Culexus Temple recruits them as assassins, since a Blank can walk through psychic defences that would stop anyone else. The Sisters of Silence are an all-Blank order, historically paired with the Adeptus Custodes and used to counter rogue psykers and daemonic threats.
Other organisations make use of them too. The Inquisition keeps Blanks on hand to counter warp threats and as interrogators, the Collegia Titanica uses them to protect Titan crews from psychic attack, and even some Rogue Traders employ them as bodyguards against witches and daemons.
- Sisters of Silence: the largest and most well-known Blank organisation, an all-female order serving as the Emperor’s psychic null force
- Culexus Assassins: Blanks specialised in hunting and killing psykers
- Inquisition: uses Blanks as psychic shields and interrogators
- Collegia Titanica: Blanks guard Titan crews from warp influence
- Rogue Traders: employ Blanks as bodyguards against witches and daemons
Life as a Blank
Being an Untouchable isn’t a pleasant life. Their null field makes normal people deeply uncomfortable, often without knowing why. That unease leads to fear, suspicion, and outright hatred, and many Blanks grow up as outcasts, shunned by their own communities.
Their natural abilities can be trained and augmented. Untrained Blanks already disrupt psychic powers passively, but with the right conditioning they can focus that null field, extend its range, or use it offensively. Some are augmented further with technology to enhance their anti-psychic capabilities.
Blanks sit at the uncomfortable edge of the Imperium’s psychic order. A psyker is feared for what they can do; a Blank is feared for what they cancel out. That makes them valuable, distrusted, and often kept at arm’s length even by their own allies.
Key terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Untouchable / Blank / Pariah | Human with a negative warp presence (also called Psychic Null or Blacksoul) |
| Psyker | Human who channels the warp |
| Omega-minus | Imperial classification for a true Blank, opposite of alpha-plus |
| Pariah gene | Inheritable mutation that creates the Blank condition |
| Culexus Temple | Assassinorum temple that recruits Blanks |
| Sisters of Silence | All-Blank order serving the Imperium |
Key facts
- An Untouchable, or Blank, is a human with a negative psychic presence.
- They’re immune to most psychic powers and disrupt them nearby.
- Ordinary humans feel instinctive unease or fear around them.
- They’re classified as omega-minus psykers, the opposite of alpha-plus.
- The pariah gene is inheritable, but its origin is unknown.
- The Emperor banned research into the gene after early experiments went wrong.
- The Culexus Temple and Sisters of Silence both use Blanks.
FAQ
Are Untouchables the same as Blanks?
Yes. Untouchable, Blank, Pariah, Psychic Null, and Blacksoul are all names for the same thing: a human with the pariah gene who projects a negative psychic field.
Can a Blank use psychic powers?
No. Their nature cancels psychic activity rather than enabling it, so they can’t cast powers the way a psyker does. Their presence actively disrupts psychic phenomena around them.
Why do people fear Untouchables?
Their missing warp presence triggers instinctive unease or revulsion in normal humans, and the Imperium tends to distrust anything it can’t easily control. Many Blanks grow up as outcasts because of this.
Why are Untouchables so rare?
The pariah gene is an uncommon mutation, and it only expresses fully in a small number of people. Even among negative psykers, true Blanks are the rarest.