Fortune's Locus has something like the Pharos which they use to navigate the Warp, under the personal control of the sitting emperor (who is known as the "Great Dragon of the Ways"), currently Great Dragon Nanjion Mikara. Within the Dragon's Way, Warp travel can cover significant distances without the assistance of the Navigator gene, and so the Locus does not depend on the Navis Nobilite like the Imperium. They do also have a small number of Navigators, whose assistance allows significantly faster travel within the Way and limited travel outside it. However, these Navigators are enslaved rather than honored; the Locus hates and disdain mutants of all kinds, so the usefulness of Navigators buys them only an exception from the general rule of summary execution of abhumans This policy of executing abhumans and mutants is so absolute that one of the main tools of noble intrigue is to frame an opponent as a mutant. Even the Great Dragon themself, no matter their personal power or influence, cannot be a mutant, at least before taking the throne. Once they ascend, they are no longer questioned; it is understood that the Dragon's Way is not a wholly human device, and its operator may sacrifice some of their humanity in the course of its operation.

This intolerance for mutation stems indirectly from their unusually cozy relationship with Tzeentch. The stewards of technology in Fortune's Locus, the Priestly Mage-Judges, openly revere Tzeentch as the Master of Plans and Revealer of Knowledge, but structure their worship heavily in order to minimize the "gifts" of mutation Tzeentch grants them. Because this open worship is common, reverence for Tzeentch among other segments of Locus society, chiefly the nobility, is also common. Where this occurs it is usually less structured than that of the Judges, inevitably leading to mutation and insanity. In order to discourage this and so prevent the entire noble class and large sections of the bureaucracy from disintegrating into gibbering daemons, the Locus takes a zero-tolerance approach to mutants outside the Judges, which restricts most noble's worship of the Changer of Ways to a small household shrine at which they give thanks on appropriate occasions.

The Court of Priestly Mage-Judges steward the technology which holds the Locus together, and have a tight grip on most other technological enterprises in the empire. Of the critical pieces, the primary design they use is something from the Dark Age of Technology they call Tsujen's Glaive. They do not fully understand the operating principles of the Glaive but can, slowly, create new instances of the device, which have several purposes. The use most critical to the functioning of the Locus is a technorganic implant known as the Phoenix Shoulders, which isolates the mind of the implanted, sheathing their consciousness in a slightly alien mindset which protects them from daemonkind. When going about their daily life without using psychic powers, it is barely noticeable, but the more their minds are pressed by the perils of the Warp, the thicker this protective sheath becomes, meaning they can push the limits of their gift more safely than other psykers. Additionally, it has a final safeguard, called the Heavenly Phoenix Pillar. When a psyker implanted with the shoulders - called a Phoenix Mind - exceeds their limits, drawing more Warp energy than their mind can safely channel, the Shoulders burn through their mind, soul, and body, rendering them comatose and, temporarily, a psychic-null Pariah. This lasts only a few minutes, and always results in the death of the Phoenix Mind, but it almost always prevents the psyker from being daemonically possessed or from having their soul fractured into a small Warp Rift, which are common mishaps when an unprotected psyker exceeds their limits in the same way. This is not perfect, however; in about one case in forty where the Heavenly Phoenix Pillar engages, a Warp intrusion of some kind occurs. While real, this risk remains low enough that the Locus can and does make extensive use of natural psykers in their Celestial Army; it is considered good practice to have a Phoenix Mind in the officer corps of each 'arrow' (which consists of about 300 soldiers, similar to an Imperial Guard line infantry regiment), though having more than a handful per arrow is frowned upon even when feasible. A less widely known fact is that Phoenix Shoulders can also protect sorcerers without a natural gift for the psychic arts. The Judges keep this fact a closely guarded secret for two reasons: first, they gain soft power and a potent mystique by appearing to induce psychic talents in all their members. Second, the protection the Shoulders give to sorcerers is much less reliable than they grant to natural psykers, and so its widespread use would be dangerous. This is not, however, the most common use of Tsujen's Glaive. That is the Tiger's Spine, an implant given to all those drafted into the Celestial Army. Mechanicum techpriests who examined it would consider it akin to low-grade Skitarii enhancement; it connects the recipient to a noosphere and networks them with their fellow soldiers, not destroying individuality but making them orderable as a unit by their commanding officers, moving in unison with minimal chatter and nearly no room for disobedience. An enhanced version known as the Celestial Tiger's Spine is used exclusively in penal legions, enhancing the reaction time, senses, and durability of the recipients but destroying their individuality entirely. The other uses of the Glaive are only ever bestowed on the Dragon's elite personal army or forces within the Court, and in those cases they are always coupled with other tools and enhancements the Judges bestow by other means. Accordingly, it is difficult or impossible to determine the precise nature of the Glaive's other functions, or even how many other functions it has.

The Court, unlike the Mechanicum, has little internal variation over methods or aesthetics of their forces. Besides the Glaive and its tools, their technology relies on a variety of tools for creating mentally-responsive vehicles, buildings, and tools, similar in broad strokes to the wraithbone constructs of the Eldar. (They deny any connection exists.) Because they are built to mentally interface with near-baseline humans, much of their technology is vivomorphic, based on animals or plants common to the life experience of the population. Vehicles are usually zoomorphic; large tanks resemble turtles (they are still tread-propelled, but the legs move vestigially whenever the propulsion is engaged), atmospheric and void fighters resemble birds of prey, large void transports and battleships resemble whales, etc. Complex sessile artifacts may also be zoomorphic but is more often based on plants; for example, the primary factory complex on Sanshin Mu is shaped like a forest of willow trees, with the fine manipulation required in assembly done by manipulating the "branches". Where these devices are not modeled on living things, they still usually take the form of natural situations or everyday items; for example, the assembly lines of Sanshin Shei take the form of rivers, with each significant station a "dam" with a number of zoomorphic maniples moving on and off to carry out the work. Cheshlin Chi'in structures their facility, which creates the Locus's largest void battlecruisers, to look like an enormous ironsmith's forge; the massive "anvils" contain computer databanks and covert connections with which to program the section of the craft which sits on it, the processors configured while the physical forms are fine-tuned, and the "bellows" blow "smoke" which is actually diagnostic nanite swarms.

Any human citizen of the Locus, or, in principle, sufficiently high-status aliens, can qualify to become one of the Judges of the Court. It requires passing a series of examinations, the first open to any citizen who can licitly sit the three days it takes to administer. (The lowest-class of the Locus rarely can secure the three consecutive days of leave at the correct time of year, and only the truly exceptional can pass it on the first attempt, so in practice only the merchant class and above are permitted.) For those who pass the high bar required for that examination, many opportunities open up, among them the right to attempt the second level of examinations. This continues through five tiers of examination, each securing more prestigous and lucrative opportunities in the secular government and eligibility for increased enhancement by the Court. Those who pass the fifth tier are formally invited to enter the Court. Advancement within it is based partially on quality performance of one's official duties and partially on continued examinations, four more levels of which separate a novice Judge from one who is considered qualified to oversee an Arsenal Planet. You might expect that these exams, both public and internal, test knowledge of technology, general intelligence, creativity, or other such mental attributes which might assist a candidate in their duties as a Judge. In this, you would be wrong; their content is much more esoteric. The bulk of the public examinations concern matters of philosophy and aesthetics, and the remainder are extremely strange questions such as "Choose one: Tortoise with shattered shell. Blue reflected off a pure-diamond icosahedron. The mental feeling of a solar flare wiping the life off a planet just after you finish a lengthy environmental survey on that planet. Explain your choice." The internal exams are, if anything, less coherent, usually including several neologisms ostensibly describing the subjective experience of operating Mage-Judge augmetics, none of which are explained to the test-takers and few of which have ever been used in any published work prior to the administration of the test.

Several species of alien sapient are permitted, though given second-class citizenship relative to humanity. Most prominent are the Jokaero Technosavants, though whether they are sapient is a matter of debate. While the Locus is no more able to control the Jokaero than the Imperium or any other race, the Dragon's Way is capable of blocking or redirecting their usual methods of long-distance void travel, and so the Locus maintains several well-populated Jokaero reserve planets, with large sections of their population redirected once or twice per generation in order to clear space for Locus salvage crews to comb through to secure Jokaero weapons technology. The Star Serpents, a sinuous, reptilian race who can comfortably survive intrasolar void travel, are widely relied on in asteroid mining operations, for which they are paid in unusually-textured formulations of promethium (which they consider akin to a gourmet meal). The K'Nib, a six-armed, three-brained species of ancient origin, have potent natural camouflage and see use as scouts and sentries, as well as in merchant storefronts where they can handle transactions as quickly as three or more humans.

Structure of Celestial Army: Squads are nine soldiers or larger, deploying in diamonds. These rotate slowly on the battlefield, allowing the soldiers in the rear to reload and relax fractionally before their shift ends and they move back to the front. At the largest, three small squads join as one 27-man squad, though this is only done in unusual circumstances. Squads are led by a Chunshei. In cases where multiple squads combined and multiple Chunshei are present, the most experienced is designated Chiashei and takes precedence. A camp is 81 soldiers, commanded by a Duwei. Three camps (273 men) make up an arrow, commanded by a Niru. Three arrows (729 men) make up a chariot, commanded by a Beiyu. This is the smallest unit which has a dedicated armored column beyond the basic transports every camp keeps; armor deployed alongside a smaller force will have its own commanding officer (usually a Judge) and be in a different chain of command. Three chariots (2187 men) are a party, commanded by a Nalji. Three parties (6561 men) are a vanguard, commanded by a Youji. This may alternately be called a rearguard or flankguard, if it is assigned to a battlefield role where that is a more accurate description. If deployed in the main line of battle it is usually referred to as a vanguard. Three vanguards are a banner (19683 men), commanded by a Gusan. Three banners are an army (59049 men), commanded by a Junwan.