HH7节译：星语通讯，星炬和什一圣税

The Astra Telepathica, the Astronomican and the Great Tithe

Before expanding the Great Crusade to the stars beyond Sol, the Emperor first ordered the construction of the Astronomican on Terra. Huge numbers of Tech-Priests were brought from Mars to oversee the project and the majority of the Terran population was drafted to construct the towering machine-building or support this labour. At the time, the Astronomican was the single largest artifice on Terra, and the sole purpose of this colossal endeavour was that the entire device was merely a focus through which the Emperor could direct His fathomless psychic energies to generate a partly self-sustaining signal (although few involved were aware of this fact). The psychic navigational beam which the Astronomican generated was able to cut through the Warp and those attuned to its unique frequencies and modulations, the Navigators, were able to use it as a beacon and pole star when plotting journeys through the Immaterium. By this the Warp could be travelled at speeds and with a margin of safety that had been unprecedented —although risk of course could never be fully mitigated— and this was an incalculable boon to both the Great Crusade and the fledging interstellar domain it was creating. Such was its effect that even then some referred to it as the 'Divine Light’, or the 'Emperor's Light’, often without fully realising the literal truth of those words.

在将大远征拓展到太阳系外的群星间之前，帝皇首先下令在泰拉上建造星炬。数量庞大得技术神甫们被从火星带往泰拉监督项目进行，泰拉上的主要人口都被抽调去修建这台高耸的机械，或者支援这项工程的建设。在当时，星炬上泰拉上最大的单一人造物，帝国付出巨大的努力也有一个目的：这整个装置仅仅是一个聚焦器，帝皇可以通过它来引导自己磅礴无比的灵能力量，以形成一个能部分自我维持的信号（不过只有极少数参与者知道这一事实）。星炬产生的灵能导航光束能穿过亚空间，那些适应其独特频率和调幅度的人类——导航者们在引导星舰在非物质宇宙中的航线时，能够将其用作灯塔和导航星。通过这种方式，人类可以在前所未有的安全边际内从亚空间快速通行（当然，风险并不能被完全减轻），对大远征和人类由此正在群星间开拓出的新疆域而言，这都是不可估量的福音。星炬是极其高效的工具，甚至有人称之为“圣光”、“帝皇之光”，但他们往往没有完全意识到这些词在字面意思上的真相。

In addition to this invaluable beacon among the stars, the Imperium would not have been made possible without the creation and continuation of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica. This special corps of inter-stellar communicators was created by the Emperor during the final months of the conquest of Ancient Terra, as the Emperor had foreseen their absolute future need. For the most part the Emperor did not favour the use of psychic talents in others; as a psyker Himself ，albeit one of unprecedented power and control, He was well aware of the dangers inherent in contact with the Warp. Furthermore, the Age of Strife on Old Earth had its own 'witch-kings' and possessed psykers to attest to those dangers, some of whom the Emperor had personally slain. However, He was able to identify those who were strong enough and so with some prudence, certain psykers were employed in a variety of specialised roles within the Imperium, and the astropaths were to be such an exception, being needed not in their hundreds, but tens of thousands. It was to feed this need that the Great Tithe was first envisioned.

除了这座闪耀在群星间的无价灯塔，星语庭的创建和延续也是让人类帝国成为可能的必要条件。帝皇在征服古老泰拉的最后几个月中创建了这个负责星际通讯的特殊团体，因为他已经预见到这个部门在未来绝对会被需要。在大多数情况下，皇帝并不赞成在使用其他人类的灵能天赋；他本人就是一名灵能者，而且拥有着前所未有的灵能力量和控制力，但他也知晓与亚空间进行连接的潜在危险。另外，在纷争纪元中，旧地球本土上也曾出现过“巫师之王”，着魔的灵能者们就是这种危险的例证，其中某些（甚至）是被帝皇亲手杀死的。不过，帝皇也能识别出那些足够顽强的灵能者，所以在保持一定谨慎的情况下，特定的灵能者也可以在帝国中承担各种特殊角色，星语者就是这样的一个例外，而且帝国对他们的需求量不是数以百计，而是数以万计。正是为了满足这种需求，帝国第一次设想出了什一圣税。

The Astropaths

星语者

An astropath is an 'astro-telepath', an individual capable of communicating with others of their kind over vast interstellar distances through phantasmal visions, empathic transmission and vision allegory rather than through words. This is an essential talent as the inhabited worlds of Mankind are many light years apart in physical terms and the only practical way for the Imperium to maintain any semblance of unity is by such communication, however temperamental it may be. All astropaths undergo a special process that moulds their powers and at the same time strengthens them against psychic danger. This is called the 'Soul Binding' ritual, which shapes the mind and cerebral structure of the subject with the Emperor's own psychokinetic force as a potter shapes wet clay. Unfortunately not all candidates survive this ritual— some are driven insane, and all have their personalities altered to some degree. The raw energy of the Emperor's will also has another effect. So powerful are the forces involved that many of the more delicate sensory nerves can be damaged, especially the optic nerves. Consequently, almost all astropaths are blind, whilst many also lack a sense of smell, touch or hearing, a stigmata which sets them as a breed apart even as their sacrifice binds the Imperium together.

一名星语者就是一名“星语传讯员”，这些个体彼此同类之间能够跨越广阔的星际距离进行交流，交流手段是幻觉、移情传输和视觉寓言，而非文字。这是一种至关重要的天赋，因为人类的各个定居世界在物理层面上都彼此相隔数光年之遥，帝国维持任何统一表象的唯一可行方法就是使用星语通讯，不过星语信号也可能是变化无常的。所有星语者都要经历一个塑造他们能力的特殊过程，他们对于灵能危险的抗性同时也会被增强。这就是所谓的“灵魂绑定”仪式，帝皇会利用自己的灵能致动力量塑造接受者的思想和大脑结构，就像陶工给湿粘土塑形一样。不幸的是并非所有候选者都能从仪式中幸存——有些人会被逼疯，而且所有接受了仪式的灵能者们都在某种程度上改变了他们的个性。帝皇意志那未经雕饰的能量也会产生其他效果。所以，几乎所有星语者都双目失明，同时大多数人也会缺失嗅觉、触觉和听觉。尽管他们的牺牲将帝国团结在一起，但这种耻辱也使他们成为一个区别于普通人类之外的人种。

The Great Tithe

什一圣税

In order to fuel and provide manpower for the creation of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica, a vast and intricate organisation was created, the Divisio Astra Telepathica, and many of the resources gained by the initial conquests of the Great Crusade were diverted to its establishment. It was vast in scope and its key function was to execute one of the fundamental goals the Emperor Himself had set for the Great Crusade; the marshalling and regulation of all human psykers across the ever expanding worlds of the Imperium. This seemingly incomprehensible task required hundreds of thousands of functionaries and technicians, billions of tonnes of raw materials to construct specialised facilities, and most significantly, an absolute concentration of a body of psyker lore on a scale perhaps unknown before in humanity's long history.

为了给星语修会的创建提供人力，帝国设立了一个庞大且复杂的组织——星语院，大远征初期征服所获取的资源有很多都被用于该组织的建立。星语院的工作内容庞杂，主要责任是执行帝皇本人为大远征制定的基本目标之一：从帝国不断扩张的领土上对所有人类灵能者进行编组和监管。这是一项看似无法理解的任务，需要数十万名工作人员和技术人员，数十亿吨用于建造专业设施的原材料，以及最为重要的:一座对大量灵能知识进行了绝对集中的资料库，其规模在人类漫长的历史上可能前所未见。

While the astropaths remained the major focus of the Divisio, within the Great Tithe's shadow grew scores of sub-organisations: administrational blocs, logistical corpus, dedicated techno-cults and arcane academic faculties, all shrouded in deep secrecy to maintain their absolute security. These included most notably the chambers of the Scholastica Psykana, an institution of bound and bonded psykers who were deemed strong and stable enough to induct and train others of their own kind into the Imperium's service. Suborned to them were new organisations such as the fledgling Primaris battle psyker programmes, the training of the mentally conditioned truthsayers of the Administratum, and much that went unseen.

同时星语者仍是星语院的主要关注点，并什一圣税的阴影下组建了数十个次级组织：它们的政务集团、后勤语料库、专门的技术教派和神秘的学术机构，这些部门全部躲藏在森严的机密中以维持绝对的保密性。其中最为著名的就是灵能经院，这个机构由被束缚绑定的灵能者们构成，他们被认为强大和稳定到足以引导和训练其他同类们为帝国服务。灵能经院还派生出了新的组织：比如新生的高级战斗灵能者培训部，为政务部训练精神被调控的真言师的部门，还有许多常人看不到的部门。

Above all of these sub-groups and of vast practical importance was the League of Black Ships, a dedicated fleet of specialised, purpose-built interstellar craft, their masters and crew fashioned to carry out the harvest of humanity. From the start however, it was clear that the Divisio would also need its own militant wing specialised not only in conducting the Great Tithe of psykers the Emperor had decreed, but in combating the very evils the tithe sought to prevent directly. The onus of this dread task fell upon the newly- formed Divisio Investigates.

在所有这些次级团体中，具有巨大实际重要性的是黑船联盟，这支专门舰队由为特殊目的而建造的星舰组成，舰船上的主管和船员们都被训练塑造成收捕人类的专家。不过，很明显从一开始星语院中就有属于自己的激进派系，他们不仅专长于征收帝皇宣布的灵能者什一圣税，而且擅长于对抗什一税所试图直接阻止的邪恶之物。这项可怕的任务就落在了新成立的调查部身上。