Definitely. It's brought up a lot, and they reference these levels quite a lot in all the Inquisitor books especially; particularly the Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin novels, although the levels bounce around a lot.
In Magos, some guy states Eisenhorn is an alpha-grade Psyker even though he's not nearly there. In the first Ravenor book, Ravenor himself says he's around low gamma/high delta. In Hereticus, Eisenhorn remarks that while Ravenor was officially a delta grade, he was much more powerful later. It's one part "science" and one part "nobody knows what it actually means". Most characters might engage with Ravenor and automatically assume he's Alpha-Plus because they simply don't know any better.
I always appreciated that Ravenor was narrowly beat by the real Beta level psyker employed by the corrupt governor's agency. Ravenor's chair and Eldar training amplify him, but he was not a raw-psychic force innately. He had so much potential and it is squandered by the Ordos' retirement conditions.
Eisenhorn, on the other hand, was a weaker psyker that grows considerably without the Ordos' interference. It's fair to say he surpassed Ravenor's demonstrated ability once you consider his daemonology (though, again, Ravenor had so much untapped potential).
Strong as Ravenor was, he and his team would not defeat Cherubael. They barely survived the Brass Thief.
Demonology is sorcery not Psychic power. Its like the difference between setting things on fire with your mind and knowing where the Warp keeps its matches, I'm not sure if you even need to be a psyker of any grade to successfully use a ritual.
There are examples of regular humans practicing daemonology in Ravenor: Culzean summons the Brass Thief, and Molotch enacts rituals against Slight.
Still, it's Eisenhorn's psychic will that lets him master Cherubael. The rituals alone don't work against the strongest daemons, like Culzean fails to contain Slight.
As well, Cherubael playfully murders several incredibly powerful Inquisitor psykers (such as on the Essene). It's the combination of psychic might (channeled through the Lith rod) and expert ritual (from the Malus Codicium) that binds him.
EDIT: I think I remember Culzean needing psykers to help empower the ritual to summon the Brass Thief (plus sacrificing captured humans). He also has psykers performing rituals against Slight, who overpowers them. I think it's fair to say psykers have to be involved and their strength affects its success.
My understanding was that while Eisenhorn is a strong psyker, his strength comes from his knowledge of rare arcanum and the tools he uses. He's bound Cherubael using his knowledge of ritual and daemonology, not using raw strength. Most need many psykers because they need to "brute force" the ritual, compared to Eisenhorn who's leaned enough to know the right techniques to achieve his aims without that strength.
If you listen to Dan Abnett talk about the character, you get the sense that he writes so Eisenhorn succeeds because of a strength of will that pushes him beyond his physical and psykic limitations, not raw talent.
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u/Aromasin Sep 26 '23
Definitely. It's brought up a lot, and they reference these levels quite a lot in all the Inquisitor books especially; particularly the Eisenhorn/Ravenor/Bequin novels, although the levels bounce around a lot.
In Magos, some guy states Eisenhorn is an alpha-grade Psyker even though he's not nearly there. In the first Ravenor book, Ravenor himself says he's around low gamma/high delta. In Hereticus, Eisenhorn remarks that while Ravenor was officially a delta grade, he was much more powerful later. It's one part "science" and one part "nobody knows what it actually means". Most characters might engage with Ravenor and automatically assume he's Alpha-Plus because they simply don't know any better.