Interlude: On the Nature of Ridable Space-Whales

From the notes of Igneous

There are many species of space-whale in the universe. When not twisted by the psionic power of a worshipful orc village, they range in intelligence from dog-like to super-human.

Some of the humanish intelligence space whales have joined the Omnissian church and enhanced themselves with bionics. They find mechadendrites extremely useful given their lack of fingers. They also developed a new bionic implant: a socket into which standard ship modules can be hot-plugged. Some even implanted geller-fields, though the need to stare directly into the warp with their native senses often drove them insane. (Space whales' primary senses are vision and a sonar variant using ontology waves,)

A handful of tech-priests thought the insanity problem could be solved by installing the same bionics on non-sapient space whales. This seemed to work. There are many ethical issues, which caused the Prime Omnissian Church to exile the practitioners, but Omnissiah Himself has not smmitten them. They continue to publish in the Journal of Practical Astrocetology, which Igneous skimmed to decide if it was a good place to publish his own recent case study. The article caught his attention, mostly because of the Omnissian schism.

Compared to conventional ships, nonsapient bionic space whales have some advantages. Their ontological sonar is more detailed than a standard active augary, and their tough leathery skin heals from damage at an extraordinary rate. They also have some disadvantages. They are not perfectly obedient, and may require Animal Ken checks to calm or control. Similarly, they can be effected by enchantments, which shield do not block.

(Space squid also exist, but if you put a Geller Field on a nonsapient space squid and take it into the warp, it ends up possessed by Slaanesh. No one knows why.)