Hexagrammic and pentagrammic warding

  • Hexagrammic wards are designed to protect against psychic attacks, as the wards “siphon” away the energy of the immaterium, channelling it into harmless static discharges. Sanctioned psykers will be all too familiar with this type of ward, having been exposed to them during their “stay” onboard a Black Ship.
  • Pentagrammic wards exist to defend humanity against Daemons and repel the corrupt energies they wield. Since the knowledge of Daemons is proscribed, the existence of pentagrammic wards is a secret known to few outside of the Inquisition, with the exception of those at the highest levels of the Adeptus Ministorum and the Tech-Priests of the Machine God.

Purge the Unclean, page 74

Hexagrammic Wards

  • Designed to protect against psychic attacks, these wards siphon away the energy of the psychic powers, dissipating it into heat, light and harmless static discharges.
  • A target protected by Hexagrammic Warding can withstand, to a certain degree, psychic powers, force weapons, or powers of warp entities.
  • Hexagrammic Wards can be created by anyone with sufficient knowledge and right talents.
  • Can be used to imprison psykers.
  • Protects against powers of daemons.

Pentagrammic Wards

  • Created to defend  against daemons and their corrupt energies.
  • Pentagrammic Warding shields its receiver, to a certain degree, against daemonic powers, daemon’s physical form, warp and daemon weapons, and direct warp manifestations.
  • Pentagrammic Wards can only be created by individuals unmarked by the Ruinous Powers. The servants of the Ruinous Powers blessed with Mark of Chaos produce similar effects of binding and protection with means of chaos sorcery.
  • Repels the presence of daemons and protects against their powers.
  • Can be used to imprison a daemons.
  • Can be used to create a daemon-host.

Methods of creating the wards: Technological, Psychic and Mystical

Hexagrammic Wards

Designed to protect against psychic attacks, these wards siphon away the energy of the Immaterium, dissipating it into heat, light and harmless static discharges. Sanctioned psykers are all too familiar with such wards, having been exposed to them during their “stay” aboard a Black Ship.

Technological Hexagrammic Warding

Power Field-Generated Warding

The technological  approach to hexagrammic warding employs signal emitters, field generators, and Faraday cages to create hexagrammic and pentagrammic lpower fields. This method is widely used by the Adeptus Mechanicus, Ordo Malleus, and high-security imperial facilities.

Technologies & Methods:

  • Hexagrammic Field Generators:
    • Machines that emit a protective energy field shaped by hexagrammic harmonies, creating an active defense against warp intrusions.
    • Used in Black Ships, Inquisitorial strongholds, and fortified bastions.
    • STC components: Hexagrammic Cells, Null Bay, see below.
  • Cogitator-calculated warding matrices:
    • Cogitator-linked devices that produce interlocking warding fields, forming a protective grid over an Noosphere and the Imperial automatons.
  • Personal Hexagrammic Field Emitters:
    • Portable warding units mounted on armor or robes that generate a low-energy hexagrammic shield, offering personal resistance to psychic attacks.
    • Used by Ordo Malleus Inquisitors, sanctioned psykers, and daemonhunters.
  • Anti-Warp Barrier Fields:
    • Advanced, large-scale technology that nullifies warp presence within a confined space. Tech level beyond reach of the current Imperium.
    • Examples include Blackstone fortresses.

Advantages:

Consistent and automated—does not require a psyker or ritualist to maintain.
Wide-area protection—capable of warding entire rooms, facilities, or battlefield zones.
Instant activation—can be turned on and off at will, unlike permanent etched wards.

Disadvantages:

Power-dependent—disruptions, sabotage, or energy failure can disable the ward.
Expensive and rare—highly classified technology, often restricted to the Inquisition or high castes of Adeptus Mechanicus.
Limited mobility—large generators are typically static or vehicle-mounted.

Psychic Hexagrammic Warding

Psyker-Projected Warding

The psychic method of hexagrammic warding relies on the power of the psykers mind to shape warp energy into a defensive construct. Sanctioned psykers, Librarians, Rogue Psykers, Heretics, Xenos and certain radical Inquisitors utilize their willpower to manifest, reinforce, or project hexagrammic wards. These energy-imbued symbols function as barriers, deterrents, or nullifying tools against psykers.

Techniques & Methods:

  • Psychic Projection of Hexagrammic Symbols:

    • A trained psyker can manifest a glowing, ethereal hexagram to shield themselves or others from psychic or warp-based attacks.
    • Often used in combat scenarios, psychic duels, and daemon-hunting missions.

  • Hexagrammic Warded Auras:

    • Psykers trained in warp defense can generate an invisible warded aura, weakening psychic assaults against themselves or their allies.
    • Used by Ordo Malleus psykers, astropaths under constant warp threat, and powerful sanctioned psykers.

  • Tele- or Pyrokinetic Hexagrammic Wards:

    • Some psykers use kinetic or pyrokinetic powers to carve or burn temporary hexagrammic wards onto surfaces, weapons, or armor.

  • Warp-Dampening Sigils:
    • Special sigils that amplify the effect of psychic wards, often engraved onto a psyker’s purity seals, flesh or armor.
  • Hexagrammic gesture and word:
    • Powerful psykers wield abilities to create short lived hexagrammic wards with just a single word of Enuncia or arcane gesture.
  • Soulbound Warding Circles:
    • Advanced psychic methods to create temporary hexagrammic sigils that persist as long as the psyker’s willpower holds.

Advantages:

Highly adaptable—can be projected onto moving targets.
Reinforces existing wards—a psyker can strengthen mechanical or mystical wards.
Effective against psychic techniques—psychic hexagrammic wards are particularly potent in relieving and protecting from powers of the psykers.

Disadvantages:

Requires psychic talent—useless to non-psykers.
Mentally and physically exhausting—sustained warding can weaken a psyker or even kill it.
Risk of warp backlash—failed warding attempts may attract daemonic entities.

Mystical Hexagrammic Warding

Faith-Based and Ritualistic Warding

Mystical hexagrammic warding depends on sacred rites, divine invocations, and ancient occult knowledge. Used by the Ecclesiarchy, sanctioned psykers and Inquisition, this method focuses on consecration, purification, and invocation of divine or esoteric power to shield against the warp. Unlike psychic warding, mystical warding does not rely on a direct psychic link but instead draws upon faith, ritual power, or forbidden knowledge.

Techniques & Methods:

  • Sanctified Inscription Wards:

    • Created using holy water, sacred ink, or relic-charged wax, these wards are permanently infused into armor, weapons, or fortifications.
    • Used by the Ecclesiarchy and Adepta Sororitas

  • Chanted Warding Rituals:

    • Wards that require long, complex recitations of scripture or invocation of the Emperor’s name to charge them with protective energy.
    • Often performed by Adepta Sororitas, Ecclesiarchal priests, and the Ordo Hereticus

  • Purity Seals and Relics:

    • A powerful combination of holy scriptures, sacred seals, and relic-infused symbols that serve as physical representations of faith-based hexagrammic wards.
    • Wielded by Imperial exorcists, Grey Knights, and Psyker-hunters.
  • Reliquary-Warded Inscriptions:
    • Hexagrammic symbols infused with saintly remains or relic energy to permanently enhance their effect.

Advantages:

Accessible to non-psykers—even those without psychic talent can use them.
Faith-based resilience—stronger against warp corruption and daemonic intrusion.
Permanent effects—properly consecrated mystical wards can last indefinitely.

Disadvantages:

Slow to create—requires ritual preparation, materials, and ceremony.
Relies on spiritual purity—corrupted individuals weaken the ward.
Can be defiled—if tainted, these wards may backfire or become conduits for corruption.

Pentagrammic Wards

Created to defend humanity against daemons and their corrupt energies, these wards are far more potent and secretive. Knowledge of their existence is highly restricted, known only to the Inquisition, the Adeptus Ministorum, and the highest ranks of the Tech-Priests of Mars.

Technological Pentagrammic Warding

Static Power Field-Generated Damping

Unlike hexagrammic wards, pentagrammic field technology is entirely stationary, requiring immense power sources, sacred geometric calculations, and Mechanicus-sanctioned sanctification. These systems are found only in fortresses, daemon prisons, and classified Inquisitorial facilities, with no personal or mobile applications.

Technologies & Methods:

  • Pentagrammic Containment Fields:

    • Massive power field arrays that generate a reinforced pentagrammic barrier, forming an area where daemons cannot manifest or are actively harmed.
    • Used in Black Ships, Ordo Malleus sanctuaries, and cage-vaults for daemons.
    • STC Components: Pentagrammic Capacitors, Warp-Dampening Nodes.

  • Sanctified Chamber Warding Matrices:

    • Cogitator-calculated pentagrammic grids that produce interlocking fields preventing daemon incursion in key Imperial locations.
    • Found in navigator sanctums, astropathic relay stations, and Mechanicus research sites.

  • Anti-Warp Bastion Grids:

    • Massive fortress networks reinforced with sacred pentagrammic circuits, repelling daemon incursions.
    • Used on Blackstone fortresses.

Advantages:

Extremely powerful—prevents daemon incursions over entire buildings or planets.
Permanent & stable—as long as power and sanctification rituals are maintained.
Combines technology with sacred geometry—allowing for massive-scale daemon deterrence.

Disadvantages:

Completely stationary—cannot be carried or deployed on the battlefield.
Requires enormous energy and maintenance—constant supervision needed.
Heavily restricted—only Ordo Malleus and high ranks of Adeptus Mechanicus have access.

 

Psychic Pentagrammic Warding

Due to the inherent connection between human psykers and the Immaterium, they lack the ability to create true pentagrammic warding through psychic means. Unlike mystical or technological approaches, which rely on faith, sanctified materials, or structured energy fields, psychic pentagrammic wards would require a complete severance from the warp—a feat impossible for a psyker, as their very nature is intertwined with the Immaterium.

While psykers can project hexagrammic defenses, reinforce existing pentagrammic wards, or temporarily repel daemonic forces through sheer willpower, they cannot independently manifest or sustain pentagrammic protections. True pentagrammic warding requires an external source of warding, such as holy inscriptions, relics, or machine-generated field emitters, making it the domain of the Ecclesiarchy, Grey Knights, the Ordo Malleus a rather than sanctioned psykers alone.

 

Mystical Pentagrammic Warding

Faith-Based and Portable Protections

Mystical pentagrammic warding relies on holy relics, sacred inscriptions, and divine invocations to provide both stationary and portable protection against daemons. Unlike technological wards, mystical pentagrammic protections can be carried by an individual, making them essential for daemonhunters, exorcists, and faithful warriors.

Techniques & Methods:

  • Pentagram-Inscribed Armor & Relics:

    • Armor, weapons, and holy items engraved with sanctified pentagrammic symbols, providing passive protection against daemons.
    • Worn by Grey Knights, Sisters of Battle, and Ordo Malleus Inquisitors.

  • Purity Seals & Sanctified Talismans:

    • Blessed parchment, relics, or pendants inscribed with pentagrammic protections.
    • Used by faithful warriors, exorcists, and Ecclesiarchy priests.

  • Daemon-Binding Sigils:

    • Some apostates and radical Inquisitors use ancient, heavily restricted rituals to bind or repel warp entities.
    • Unlike technological methods, this can involve blood sigils, sacrifice, forbidden texts, or relic-bound energy.

  • Litanies of Banishment:

    • Ritual invocations that infuse spoken pentagrammic power into a battlefield, disrupting daemonic influence.
    • Performed by Adepta Sororitas, high-ranking Ministorum priests, and Grey Knight Chaplains.
  • Warpsbane hull

Advantages:

Can be carried by an individual—unlike technological solutions.
Permanent or long-lasting—faith-based wards do not degrade like psychic ones.
Highly effective against daemons—causes pain, banishment, or resistance to corruption.

Disadvantages:

Takes time to create—rituals require consecration, materials, and purity.
Relies on spiritual purity—a wavering user weakens the ward.
Can be corrupted if defiled—Chaos sorcery can twist or invert weak mystical wards.

___________________________________________

The Unholy Side: Hereteks and Xenos Warding

  • Heretical:
    • Hereteks: Radicals within the Adeptus Mechanicus experimenting with xenos and heretical technology are capable to create or enhance technological warding fields.
    • Chaos Sorcery: Mark of Chaos can be used to create similar effects to mystical pentagrammic warding.
  • Xenos Warding:
    • Eldar: Runes of Warding, spirit-stones designed to counteract chaos influence.
    • Jokaero: Jokaerian Power Field, See below
    • Necrons: Blackstone glyphs that disrupt warp energies.
    • Orks: “Waaagh Wardz”—crude but an effective painted red glyphs or exhumed green smoke that can disrupt un-green psychic effects.
    • Dark Eldar: Arcane symbols that manipulate pain energy to negate warp-based attacks.

The History of Warding in the Imperium

The Oldest Defense: The Origins of Psychic Warding

Long before the rise of the Imperium, the first psykers among humanity sought ways to shield themselves from the predatory entities of the Warp. The earliest human civilizations, particularly during the Age of Strife, developed rudimentary psychic sigils and mental disciplines to resist psychic influence. These ancient techniques, often misunderstood as shamanistic rituals or primitive sorcery, formed the foundation of psychic warding, allowing psykers to project protective fields, exorcise daemonic entities, and suppress warp manifestations.

Though much of this knowledge was fragmented and inconsistent, it persisted in isolated communities until the Unification Wars, when the Emperor of Mankind systematized psychic techniques. Under His guidance, the first structured psychic wards were refined and wielded by the Legiones Astartes, the Librarius, and early proto-Inquisitorial forces.

The Apex and Decline of Technological Warding: The Dark Age of Technology

While psychic warding has always existed in some form, it was during the Dark Age of Technology that humanity achieved its greatest mastery over anti-warp defenses through pure technological means. Using hexagrammic field emitters, pentagrammic damping fields, and noospheric warp-sealing grids, pre-Imperial human civilizations built entire warp-immune fortresses, weapons, and starships.

However, with the rise of the Men of Iron and the catastrophic collapse of human civilization, much of this knowledge was lost, hidden, or deemed hereteknical. By the time of the Great Crusade, technological warding had regressed, and many of its most powerful applications were no longer understood by even the Adeptus Mechanicus. The Horus Heresy further damaged these secrets, with many Mechanicum forges that preserved the knowledge either falling to Dark Mechanicum and being purged by the Loyalists.

Now, in the present-day Imperium, technological warding survives only in limited, degraded forms, restricted to static null fields and containment vaults.

The Rise of Mystical Warding: Faith in the God-Emperor

The rise of Imperial Creed cemented faith-based warding as a core Imperial doctrine, the true rise of mystical pentagrammic defenses began in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy. With the Emperor ascended upon the Golden Throne, the Imperium came to see warding not as merely a tool, but as a divine protection granted by the Emperor Himself.

The Ecclesiarchy, Adepta Sororitas, and Ordo Malleus expanded the use of holy relics, purity seals, and saint-blessed inscriptions, developing a faith-driven system of pentagrammic defense. Unlike the structured psychic practices of old or the cold calculations of the Dark Age of Technology, mystical warding relies on faith, devotion, and the Emperor’s divine might to repel curses of the witch and daemonic corruptions.

Now, in the 41st Millennium, mystical warding is at its peak, with blessed armor, consecrated relics, and battle prayers acting as the Imperium’s primary personal defenses against the Warp. The Ordo Malleus, Daemonhunters, and Saints of the Imperium wield faith-powered pentagrammic seals, many of which are feared even by Greater Daemons.

The Current State

Though psychic, technological, and mystical warding each have their own origins, they now coexist in a fractured, imperfect state, with different factions clinging to different aspects of humanity’s partial knowledge.

Holy Items vs. Mystical Pentagrammic Warding

Though they share similar effects, there is a critical distinction between mystical pentagrammic warding and a truly sanctified object:

Mystical Pentagrammic Warding

Mystical pentagrammic warding is created through ritual and craftsmanship, requiring purity, devotion, and a structured process. It is etched, blessed, and consecrated by those who understand the methods of daemon-repulsion.

  • A pentagrammic ward functions like a metaphysical shield, repelling the Warp through sacred geometry, invocation, and Emperor-given purity.
  • It requires a conscious act of creation, often involving ritual inscriptions, relics, and devotion to empower the sigil.
  • Without proper preparation, a mystical pentagrammic ward is just a symbol—it does not automatically harm the unholy unless empowered by faith, sanctity, or willpower.

Holy Items & Sanctified Relics

In contrast, a holy item does not repel the Warp through structure, but through presence. It is not merely protected from the Warp—it is anathema to it. This is a fundamental difference that sets it apart from warding:

  • A holy relic exists as a crystallization of faith, its power coming not from inscriptions or sigils, but from the sheer belief of the masses.
  • A daemon touching a sanctified relic is burned not by any inscription, but by the very nature of the item itself.
  • Unlike pentagrammic wards, which can be defiled or weakened if improperly maintained, holy relics are self-sustaining—as long as faith persists, so does their power.

This is why a simple shard of bone from a revered saint can drive away daemons, while an pentagrammic ward requires reinforcement through ritual and faith-based activation.

Talents

Hexagrammic Sign (Psychic/Mystical Ward), Dan Abnett: Ravenor Returned, edited for Ultima Tectum campaign

  • Action: Gesture, Half Action, Duration: DoS Rounds

  • A successful Willpower check (-20) delays an affecting force for one round. This effect can be re-used on the next turn to continue delaying the force. When the sign wears off, the attacking force reaches its target.

  • If the user of the attacking force is killed before the force reaches its target, the force dissipates.

  • If target escapes beyond the range of attacking force the force dissipates

  • Using this talent requires Scholastic Lore: Occult +10 and Forbidden Lore: Warp skills.

Aegis Barrier (Technological ward) He’s more machine now than man… page 7
The Tech-Adept has mastered the ability to modulate his potentia coil to project an energy field capable of disrupting aetheric assault. Activating or deactivating the Aegis Barrier costs an full action; and while active, the adept counts as being protected by Hexagrammic Ward.

Items

Armatus Necrotechnicas (Technological ward)
They were a type of anti-Psyker device used by the Imperium during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy.
These secret nano-technic devices were engineered by unknown origins and were kept in the vaults of Ferrus Manus. Outside of the Iron Hands, only the inner circle of the Emperor knew of their existence and were used in the construction of Psi-Titans.
This technology was capable of harnessing the stolen energy of sentient life to power engines of mechanical destruction and repair. How they were spread to the wider Imperium following the death of Ferrus is unknown, but the likely culprit was the defection of a Terran engineer or the tech-clades of Luna, for it is thought improbable that the Iron Fathers would have plundered their Primarch’s Vaults of Mimir. Whatever their origin, these foul technologies were seen on several battlefields of the Horus Heresy.

Black Collar, (Xenos? Technological ward), Extremely rare
Used to contain powers of non-cooperative psykers on vessels of the Black Fleet. When worn nullifies the powers of a psyker. A hood version is Unique in rarity. The power or design may derive from Blackstone glyphs of Necrons that disrupt warp energies.

Cherubim Custodes, (Technological ward), On Angels Wings, page 4
It has pentagrammic/hexagrammic Wards and is linked to a null-field box (used to transport items that have psychic-emanations such as; daemon-weapons, psychic-artefacts, exotic-tomes etc). The box renders the item inside harmless for the duration, is made-of reinforced arma-plas (AP20) and is Vox encrypto-locked. Only the owner of the Cherub can command it to sing and decrypt the vox-lock.
Aesthetics: The Cherubim often have bunches-of-keys and the null-field boxes are usually ornate-chests.

Jokaerian Field (Xenos Technological ward), Daemonhunter page 72
This odd Jokaero altered Imperial force field operates on similar technologies to the massive Gellar Fields that protect vessels while in Warp transit. Inquisitors of the Calixian Ordo Malleus prize this rare and practical device as a means for defense against Warp entities.The Force Field only functions against psychic attacks, but provides its defense against all psychic powers, even friendly ones, that originate more than 5 meters from the user. In addition, any creature with the Daemonic trait that passes or remains within 5 meters of the user suffers 1d10 damage that ignores armour and Toughness Bonus.

Unguents of Warding (Mystical ward), Common, Daemonhunter page 76
These blessed and pungent ointments may be used to scribe sacred rituals and litanies of protection onto armour, which grant the bearer a measure of protection against Warp entities and psychic attacks. Inscribing the unguents onto armour takes 10 minutes per location and each location must be warded. A single pot of unguents is enough to grant protection to one armour location. Inscribing the unguents requires a Hard (–20) Scholastic Lore (Occult) or Scholastic Lore (Imperial Creed) Test for each location. Failure means the runes and litanies must be cleaned off and started again. Any character who is warded gains a +20 bonus to Tests to resist Fear from Daemonic entities and +10 to all Willpower Tests to resist psychic powers. Wards last for one month, though their benefits may be removed earlier at the GM’s discretion (if the character is set on fire, doused in water, or other effect that would remove the Unguents of Warding).

Null Rod (Technological ward) Dark Heresy 2nd edition, page 177
Few things invoke terror as much as a psyker calling on the unholy powers of the Warp to twist reality and rend souls. While faith in the Emperor is always essential, a null rod can also be effective in negating such threats. Most null rods appear as short obsidian cylinders, often crawling with arcane icons and glyphs. Each can dampen the powers of any psykers within 2d10 metres, causing them to take all tests to use any of their psychic powers with a –30 penalty.
They also offer an Acolyte personal protection from psychic attacks by granting a +30 bonus to resist any psychic power that directly affects him. A null rod acts as a truncheon with the Power Field quality when used in close combat.

Null Zone (Psychic Ward) Forsaken System page 130
XP Cost: 15 DN: 7
Activation: Action Range: 20m
Duration: Instant Multi-target: No
Keywords: PSYCHIC
Effect: Drawing on the Emperor’s own purity, you twist the power of the Warp to temporarily expel its malign influence from a specific area.
Potency: [1] +10m Range. [2] Double the radius of the null zone.
When you successfully activate this power, select a point or target in range. You create a null zone with a 6m radius centered on that point or target until the start of your next Turn. The DN of all Psychic Mastery (Wil) Tests made within the null zone is increased by your Willpower Rating. The Invulnerable Armour Trait has no effect inside the null zone.

Psychic Dampener, (Technological ward) Inquisitor: Thorians, page 33
Used almost exclusively by the Ordo Hereticus, a psychic dampener disrupts the flow of Warp energy within its range of effect, disturbing the psychic powers of others. Any psyker attempting to use a power within fifteen yards of a psychic dampener must re-roll a successful Psychic test – if the second test fails, there is no chance of psychic feedback.

Soul net, (Technological ward) Inquisitor: Thorians page 33
A soul net was one of the Thorian’s crude attempts to replicate the technology embodied within the Eldar spirit stones. It is a latticework of psycho-conductive material that is designed to activate upon death to trap the escaping soul of the wearer.
Unfortunately, it interferes with the psychic aura that surrounds the wearer, reducing them to a comatose state or even killing them. This side effect has now seen use as a weapon against Daemons and psykers. A soul-net is used in the same way as a bolas. A Daemonic or psychic character entangled by a soul net loses any Daemonic or psychic abilities they have whilst entangled.

Hexagrammic Tattoo (Mystical Ward), Extremely Rare Dan Abnett: Ravenor Returned, edited for Ultima Tectum campaign,

  • A runic marking with a constant effect, usually tattooed onto the head beneath the hair to keep it hidden.
  • Delays an affecting force for 1 round.
    • Good quality: Delays for 2 rounds.
    • Best quality: Delays for 2 rounds and grants +10 to Willpower checks.
    • Poor quality causes 5 wounds when overpowered.
  • When overpowered, the tattoo bursts into flames. The bearer must pass a Toughness check or suffer 1 Wound.
  • The talent required to create a hexagrammic ritual tattoo demands Scholastic Lore: Occult +10 and Forbidden Lore: Warp +10.
  • The quality of the tattoo is determined by the Degrees of Success (DoS) accumulated on the skill check when crafting it.
  • Alternative Methods of Creation:
    • Ritualistic scarring may be used instead of tattooing. This method provides slightly longer protection but causes greater wounds when overpowered.
    • Invisible ink can be used to make the tattoo harder to detect, increasing its rarity by two steps.

Hexagrammic symbol, (Mystical ward) Extremely rare, Ultima Tectum campaign
Worn as a amulet or a headdress. Item has constant effect while worn. Delays affecting force for 1 round, +10 to an opposed WP tests vs psyker. Good quality 2 rounds. Best quality 2 rounds and +20 to an opposed WP tests vs psyker.

Hexagrammatic Wards,  (Technological ward) Extremely Rare, Enemy Within page 49
This upgrade uses powerful wards and a latticework of nullcircuitry to protect not just the wearer’s body, but also his soul.
Effect: The wearer gains a +20 bonus to tests made to resist any psychic attack or manipulation directed at him. The upgraded armour’s Armour points are doubled against hits inlicted by
psychic attacks. The Warp Weapon quality does not ignore the AP provided by this armour.
Used With: Carapace and power armour.”

Pentagrammaic Wards, (Mystical ward) Disciples of the Dark Gods, page 120
“By use of certain occult rituals, holy symbols, and even non-Euclidian mathematical formula, wards can be inscribed on physical objects or areas to bar or constrain the presence of warp entities. The secrets and knowledge needed to create such wards are considered proscribed and dangerous, and aside from cultists and magi, they are the sole purview of the Ordo Malleus. The reason for this ban is simple—such wards can be easily altered to help a sorcerer or witch control and enslave rather than simply deny the daemon. This fact has led some in the Inquisition down the path of Radicalism and destruction in the past.

The Effects of a Ward
A ward creates a barrier that a daemon or warp entity finds difficult to breach. Areas, objects, and even people may be warded by inscribing the relevant occult formulae.
Daemons and warp entities wishing to interact with a ward (crossing a warded space, picking up a warded object, attacking a warded character, etc.) must pass a Willpower Test to do so. If the daemon or entity fails this Test by three or more degrees, it suffers Malediction. If it passes this Test, then it may act freely (cross the ward, attack the character normally, etc.) If it passes this Test by more than three degrees of success, the ward is completely overcome and destroyed.
Note: Even if it passes the Test, if the ward remains intact the daemon or warp entity must take the Test again if it wishes to cross the ward subsequently (i.e. make attacks against a warded character the following Round, cross back over the warded area, etc.)

  • Creating a Pentagrammic Ward: Creating wards requires access to time and ritual materials (sacred inks, blood, silver dust, etc.), as well as the knowledge of how to do so—which in game terms means that a character must possess the skill Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) at +10 or better.
  • Creating a ward requires passing a Hard (–20) Forbidden Lore (Daemonology) Test. Success indicates that the character has created a ward with a modifier of +0. For each two additional levels of success gained, the ward’s modifier is increased by –10. A failure by five degrees or more when trying to create a ward can have disastrous effects, requiring a roll on Table 6-2: Psychic Phenomena (see page 162 of Dark Heresy).
  • Temporary Wards: A temporary ward takes 1d10 minutes to create, although attempting to ward a large area (such as a house) takes considerably longer. Temporary wards last for 1d5 hours plus a number of hours equal to the number of successes achieved during creation. Temporary wards are also vulnerable to being physically damaged, which may diminish or destroy their effects.
  • Permanent Wards: These wards must be made a part of the very fabric of the area or object to be warded and effectively double the amount of time taken to create that object, building, etc. These wards, as their name suggests, are permanent until overcome, desecrated, or physically destroyed.
  • Warded Weapons: Close combat weapons (other than Power, Daemon or Force types) may also have wards inscribed onto them. Such weapons deal Holy damage, and any daemon suffering a Critical Hit also suffers Malediction (see page 118).
  • However, temporary wards on weapons quickly become eroded in heavy combat, typically failing after a single Combat encounter (the GM has the final say-so on this).

Pentagrammic Wards, (Mystical ward) Extremely Rare, Enemies Beyond page 44
One of the Ordo Malleus’s most closely guarded secrets, these wards come about through a complex and arcane process of occult rituals, holy symbology, and the application of lost aerythmetical formulae. When complete, pentagramatic wards block Warp entities, and are often so potent that even approaching one is enough to damage or banish a Daemon.
Effect: Whenever a character with the Daemonic or Warp Instability trait becomes engaged in melee with the warded armour’s wearer or begins his turn engaged with the wearer, that character must make a Hard (–20) Willpower test. If the character fails, he suffers 1d5 Energy damage per degree of failure (ignoring armour and Toughness bonus). If the character scores 4 or more degrees of success on the test, however, the pentagramatic ward shatters and the armour permanently loses this upgrade.
Used With: Any armour or garment.

Purity Wards (Mystical ward) Unique
The new Grey Knight is implanted with silver hexagrammic and pentagrammic Purity Wards under his skin which cover his entire body and help to prevent daemonic entities from touching or contaminating him.

Vortex Pendant (Chaos sorcery ward) Tome of Fate page 42
Vortex Pendants come in many forms. Some are jewels worn about the neck, others are ornate silver wristbands, and can even take the form of golden crowns covered in microscopic
symbols of Tzeentch. The only common element to a Vortex Pendant is the way they shift in size, colour, and dimension—endlessly changing their form, sometimes imperceptibly like the hands on a clock. When used against an enemy psyker, however, a Vortex Pendant can rip into the target’s mind, tearing his psyche apart and leaving him powerless.
The psyker must have line of sight to his target in order to use a Vortex Pendant. It requires a Full Action with the Ranged and Concentration Subtypes, and is activated via an Opposed Hard (–20) Willpower Test. For every Degree of Success, the target will lose the ability to use one psychic
power he possesses for the remainder of the encounter.
Randomly determine what psychic powers are lost. A Vortex Pendant has no effect on those without the Psyker Trait, and when used by a character not dedicated to Tzeentch, the Opposed Willpower Test will be Very Hard (–30) instead.

Star vessel and habitat components

Gellar Field (Technological ward), Rogue Trader corebook page 199, edited for Ultima Tectum campaign

The Gellar Field is ensuring the survival of starships as they traverse the Immaterium. Without it, no vessel could safely enter the Warp, for it is the only barrier preventing daemonic entities from breaching reality and consuming the souls of those aboard.

A Fusion of Hexagrammic and Pentagrammic Warding

The Gellar Field is far more than a simple energy shield—it is a complex technological marvel that incorporates both hexagrammic and pentagrammic warding principles into a technological form.

  • Hexagrammic Warding: One of the primary functions of the Gellar Field is to mask the psychic echoes of the ship’s crew, preventing their presence from attracting warp entities. The Immaterium is an ocean of predatory daemons, drawn to mortal souls like carrion birds to a corpse. Without hexagrammic suppression, the ship would shine like a beacon in the Warp, inviting disaster.

  • Pentagrammic Warding: While hexagrammic patterns ensure the ship is hidden, pentagrammic warding actively repels and prevents direct intrusion from warp entities. The energy field generated by the Gellar Field acts as an anathema to the creatures of the Warp, creating a metaphysical barrier that seals the ship within realspace, no matter how deep it is submerged in the Immaterium.

Key Aspects of the Gellar Field

  • Functionality: The Gellar Field generates an energetic bubble of realspace, shielding the ship and its crew from the hostile environment of the Warp and the entities lurking within.

  • Imperative Operation in Immaterium: A ship’s survival depends entirely on the continuous operation of its Gellar Field. Even a momentary fluctuation can result in daemonic entities invading the vessel, leading to catastrophic consequences.

  • Gellar Field Emitter: Aethyr resonator projecting the field around the ship. Often located to a statue of the God-Emperor on the externel hull of the vessel.

  • Technological Variations: While most Imperial ships use standardized Gellar Fields, there are more advanced or esoteric variations. Some pre-Heresy and Mechanicum ships experimented with warp-nullification fields, blackstone shielding, or psychic-reactive alloys, but many of these advancements have been lost. Some archaic or classified models may have incorporated psyker-brain-based enhancements, though such techniques are also likely lost.

  • Limitations: Though powerful, Gellar Fields are not absolute. Warp storms, sabotage, and field instability can disrupt or collapse the field, exposing the vessel to instantaneous warp intrusion. Certain entities or warp-based anomalies have bypassed even a functioning Gellar Field, leading to corruption, possession, or the complete destruction of a ship and its crew.

The Gellar Field is the only reason Imperial space travel is possible, yet it remains as technological enigma to the Imperium.

Hexagrammic suppression cells (Technological ward) Power 2 Space 1 SP 2
A block of heavily warded chambers designed to contain all but the most potent psychic phenomena. The armored cells can function as either prison or shelter as needed.
Rumors of Warpcraft: Decrease a habitation or a vessel morale permanently by 3.
Warp Containment: When traveling through the Warp, roll on the Warp Travel Encounters chart only once every full 10 days (minimum of one roll per trip).
Dark Harvest: When working toward any objective, the players earn an additional 100 Achievement Points toward completing that objective if the Game Master decides the transport, confinement, or protection of psykers is directly involved in the task.
-Is able to contain raging powers of alpha level psyker. Contains six separate cells.
-Walls of the component are infused with warding inscribed to heat resistant materials and huge cryogenerator is included for providing necessary protection against overheating of the warding.

Null bay (Technological ward) Pow: 3 Space: 2 Hostile Acquisition page 73
These forbidding chambers are lined with rare and exotic psychically neutral materials. The gleaming black walls of the cells in these holds are capable of containing all but the most powerful psykers in relative safety, though Rogue Traders should ask themselves why they would want a hold full of psykers in the first place. Certain organizations have uses for unsanctioned psykers, but the Ordo Hereticus takes an aggressive interest in those who dabble in such a trade.

The unscrupulous Rogue Trader Horak Ilganus was drawn, quartered, then placed in stasis at the moment of his death (so he may live forever in agony) by a cabal of Inquisitors on Fenksworld after he purchased just one of these bays.
Witch hold: This hold allows transport of up to 100 psykers in solitary containment cells. When secured in a cell, all Focus Power Tests made to activate psychic abilities (or any other tests involving warp powers such as a test to use a Navigator’s warp eye) suffer a –60 penalty. When working towards an appropriate Criminal Objective, the players earn an additional 50 Achievement Points towards completing that objective.
The Keening: Whenever this bay is in use, decrease Morale by 3 as a result of the psychic residue of misery from its prisoners.

Warpsbane Hull (Mystical ward) Pow: 1 Space: 0, Very rare Rogue Trader page 199 edited for Ultima Tectum campaign
The entire hull of the vessel is covered with silver, hand-inscribed Pentagrammic wards. These reinforce a Gellar Field projected from a 50 meter statue of an Imperial Saint, located just fore of the bridge.
-Component is capable to protect star vessels from the raging storms of warp.
-Knowledge of their creation is becoming rare and Gellar Field has become imperial standard.

Ebony Metal (Technical Ward) – Blackships are technologically advanced vessels covered in anti-psychic wardings and constructed from a psychically resistant ebony metal.