Adeptus Mechanicus DEEP DIVE. The Flesh Is Weak | Warhammer 40K Lore

out of all the factions that have come to inhabit the Galaxy within the 42nd Millennium a none truly captured the Grim dark essence of what Warhammer 40K is all about better than the adeptus mechanicus Warhammer plays with a lot of different themes some factions leading into them more than the others the mechanicus somehow manages to combine all of them into a single perfect faction religious fanaticism check spectacular levels of violence and never-ending War check cautionary commentary on the dangers of authoritarian regimes and rigid adherence to tradition check they even managed to throw in a tasteful dose of grotesque body horror I know Space Marines are supposed to be the poster boys of this franchise but nothing screams 40K to me quite like a tech priest Dominus they are a society of machine worshiping Fanatics Humanity's brightest scientists and Engineers who wield some of the most advanced Weaponry Humanity has ever seen yet they have forsaken the path of progress through Innovation viewing the unsanctioned application of science to create new technology as a sin punishable by death instead relying on the ancient technology of Humanity's past and in order to regain this lost archeo Tech they set off into the Stars on a righteous crusade to acquire the most valuable of all resources knowledge but what exactly is the mechanicus all about what is their role within the Imperium how do they wage war and what kind of weapons do they bring to battle what is a tech priest and are they aware that they look unbelievably horrifying we're going to be getting into all that in a whole lot more there's a lot to cover with the adeptus mechanicus honestly just looking at the timestamp I I think pretty sure this is my longest video yet so sit back get comfy and maybe start painting some of those 40K Miniatures in your pile of shame because we're going to be diving head first into the grimdark but before we get into all that I want to tell you about these super cool 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wield some of the most advanced Weaponry Humanity has seen since the days of the Dark Age of technology and are responsible for the construction and maintenance of all of the Towering war machines weapons and armor utilized by all of Mankind's armies to the mechanicus the Quest for knowledge is a never-ending Pursuit the most holy of conquests data and Technology are seen as sacred and to blaspheme a machine's form through Reckless Innovation is a heretical sin punishable by obliteration they glad themselves in the armor of their faith Embrace behind the bulwark of tradition by their will is the machine God's Wrath made manifest and all those that would blaspheme his name will be eradicated with cold mathematical ruthlessness to witness the adeptus mechanicus marching to war is to see Legions of cybernetic Horrors and Solas automatons approaching as a holy procession a righteous Crusade that strides implacably forward on piston-driven limbs ever onward in the Quest for lost knowledge at one point in their lives their soldiers were indistinguishable from other humans but now their Legions have been blessed with mechanical apotheosis through holy Butchery on the anvils of their Mighty Forge worlds each and every one having been reborn as a twisted Fusion of man and machine the weakness of their flesh Stripped Away and replaced with Sanctified steel now reborn in the machine God's image and equipped with a vast array of cybernetic enhancements they are molded into cold logic-driven killing machines it is their sacred duty to deliver the machine God's Wrath to the witch the heretic and the alien now alongside the foot slogging infantry are ancient robotic constructs each one a hulking giant bristling with heavy Firepower they are supported by a host of spider-limbed vehicles that unleash heavy Precision bombardments Vanguard forces of rad Troopers March ahead of their peers delivering storms of a radiated Hellfire to the non-believers with every step up radiation seeps from their esoteric War gear twisting the battlefield into a toxic nightmare in their hour of need the mechanicus calls upon the most ancient of treaties summoning their closest allies to their cause the Towering bipedal War engines of the night households and The Colossal God engines of the Legion titanicus Each of which wielding World quaking Weaponry that can reduce entire cities to nothing more than molten slag with a single shot blessed is he who strides with giants into The Crucible of War so with that Tastefully dramatic introduction out of the way what exactly is the adeptus mechanicus or the priesthood of Mars as they're often called well first and foremost they are the keepers of Mankind's technological knowledge they are the creators of Humanity's machines Great and Small with which they treat with great reverence and honor through elaborate rituals and their Collective faith in the machine God they were a faction with Holden to tradition that carefully guards every single scrap of ancient data recovered through their extensive and exhaustive exploratory efforts you can think of the mechanicus as a complex hierarchy of ruling Tech priests as well as their vast menagerie of followers all within the mechanicus have completely devoted themselves to what they refer to as the Divine Trinity that is the machine God the omnisiah and the motive Force the machine God being the Divine being the cold warships that is said to be the keeper and bestoware of all knowledge within the universe the omnisaya being the Emperor of mankind who they see as the Avatar of the machine God given physical form form in order to walk the material universe and finally the motive Force the energy that allows All Creations be they mechanical or organic to experience life they believe the mode of force is embodied in its purest form through machine Spirits the invisible sentience that resides in each and every machine the Trinity is seen as the embodiment of wisdom and the guiding force of the universe that empowers everything now a quick side note here the term omnisaya is often used in The Source material to refer to the emperor and the Machine God interchangeably because the mechanicus views knowledge as the Supreme manifestation of divinity All Creatures and artifacts that contain knowledge Are Holy the emperor is seen as a supreme object of worship considering just how much knowledge he contains and how much he's able to comprehend this can get a little bit confusing on whether or not they're praying to the machine God or to the emperor they don't worship the Emperor as the one true God of humanity like the rest of the Imperium does he is the Avatar of the machine God thus through the worship of him they are worshiping the machine God directly so so when they say things like praise the omnisaya they may be referring specifically to the machine God to the Emperor or to the machine God through his proxy which is the Emperor the simplest way of thinking of it is that they worship both because both are one in the same the mechanicus views knowledge as an extension of the Divine will of the machine God they see technology and the sacred Act of its creation as the most holy of Concepts now conversely any form of deviance from their Creed I.E the disrespect of machine Spirits through the dissection of the construct they inhabit xenos technology and machines that can think for themselves of which the mechanicus refers to as abominable intelligence are all viewed as the ultimate expression of tech heresy a sin punishable by death the vast majority of Machinery utilized by mankind is absolutely ancient and can trace its Origins all the way back to the time of the Dark Age of Technology it is through the cult mechanicus's fanatical Devotion to this ancient Tech that Humanity has been able to recover a portion of what it had lost so long ago it has become their ultimate mission to recover as much of this lost Tech as possible and thus they have launched hundreds if not thousands of exploratory fleets to scour the stars for even the tiniest trace of lost data if they so much as get the tiniest inkling on the whereabouts of something like an STC they will drop everything they are doing immediately to pursue it although they freely share a portion of their wisdom with their allies sacred data is jealously guarded in order to maintain their power and influence in a carefully choreographed dance with the Myriad different factions that make up the Imperium of mankind and this makes a lot of sense as if it wasn't for the mechanicus's forge worlds their Mastery of Industry their incomprehensible Trove of resources and not to mention their unrivaled knowledge in every academic field and their Legions of cybernetic soldiers and massive war engines then the Imperium surely wouldn't survive into the next millennium thus the mechanicus is given perhaps more autonomy than any other faction they don't settle for exerting their influence solely by integrating themselves throughout all of the other systems that hold the Imperium together far from it they maintain the right to raise their own armies that zealously defend their Forge worlds and make sure the will of the omnisaya is made manifest while also launching various Crusades of their own accord in order to seek out the remnants of Humanity's lost technology in the far-flung and unexplored sections of space although the mechanicus is definitely part of the Imperium it's better to think of them as an Allied Nation with their own goals and Ambitions the mechanicus accomplishes its various objectives by utilizing Legions of slave labor through the creation of unthinking cyborg thralls known as servitors ghastly Abominations that were once living breathing humans that after having been lobotomized heavily augmented and pumped full of toxic materials designed to keep their physical bodies alive are little more than a Mindless drone cursed to carry out menial tasks for centuries or even Millennia since all of humanity views AI as a dangerous and unforgivable sin sir are as close as they are willing to get to such constructs even though they act like an AI at the end of the day they are still powered by a preserved human brain when it comes to the servators that are specifically designed for combat perhaps none are as iconic as the cataphron breachers these guys are super dangerous at close range and can be called upon by a tech priest Dominus to protect them in battle they're equipped with a vicious hydraulic pincer and deadly shoulder mounted cannons some of the weapons they can be equipped with are that of the heavy Arc rifles and the dreaded torsion Cannon this thing uses multiple twisting fields of energy that once they make contact with the target will literally rip them apart in a horrifically gory display what's really interesting and admittedly a little disturbing about these guys is that servators that are grown in flesh Farms are not able to be constructed into one the tech priests have made many attempts in the past but they're too docile and the only human candidates that have proven to be successful are servitors that are made from particularly violent individuals with disturbingly murderous Tendencies the servators that are grown in flesh Farms don't have a soul as they were never alive but something of the murderer Soul lives on Within These dreaded cyborgs fueling the Carnage and destruction Unleashed by their Tech priest Masters the cataphron can also come in the form of a destroyer which gives up its ability to fight melee by taking even more guns becoming a Dependable mobile heavy weapons platform individuals can find themselves on the wrong end of a conveyor belt within a servitore manifactorum in a number of different ways some may have been death row criminals allowed to be forgiven their sins by continuing to serve the Imperium indefinitely some may have been that grown in flesh Farms whereas others may have offended the wrong Tech priest at the wrong time I covered them in the process in which they were created pretty thoroughly in a video called five of the darkest crimes the Imperium is guilty of so if you want the disturbing details make sure to check that video out as well it is through the extensive use of servators within the massive manufacturiums of their Forge worlds that the mechanicus is able to craft the futuristic technology of the Imperium whether that be the mass-produced Flack armor and last Weaponry of the astrom militarum the ships utilized by The Fleets of the Imperial Navy the bolters and power armor dawned by the adeptus astartes in the adeptus sororitos or even the Towering God engines of the collegia titanica but it's not just weapons and armor they make just about everything within the Imperium or at the very least they produce a portion of something utilized in the production of vital resources they make the black powder charges and mining equipment used on the mini mining worlds they themselves may not be Farmers but they produce all of the farming equipment that allow for the endless supply of food that the Agri worlds generate in order to feed the quintillions of human mouths throughout the Galaxy if it wasn't for the many forged worlds of the mechanicus and their use of the servators then Humanity would surely have perished long ago the Imperium of mankind is no stranger to doing things on a simply incomprehensible scale and it makes a lot of sense because it's estimated that the total human population by the time of the 42nd Millennium numbers in the quintillions manufacturing on such a scale comes in the form of the forge worlds absolute Titans of Industry that are covered in forges factories and manufacturems each individual Forge World has their own unique culture fighting style and method of production such as the forged world of ryza which is famed for ITS plasma-based Technologies or the Forge World of stygi's 8 whose Tech priests are known to have a particular obsession with xenos technology and due to their secretive nature are viewed with a lot of mistrust by mankind and the other Forge Worlds the most famous Forge World of all is without a doubt the red planet itself the holy planet of Mars and the birthplace of the mechanicus the forge worlds are the main armories and centers of industry for the Imperium entire planets who have been wholly dedicated to production factories and warehouses cover every livable inch of the rain and trillions of mile-high Smoke Stacks vent toxic plumes of rancid smog High into the atmosphere they are densely populated planets whose citizens are locked in an endless cycle of Labor children being trained from an early age to perform very specific jobs reminiscent of the ones held by their parents every subsequent generation will focus their entire lives on this single job they're seen less as people and more as a single Cog in the great machine that is the Forge World itself every person has a role to fill and so long as every Cog continues to turn in a very precise way then the great machine will continue to produce the people of these worlds spending every waking moment crafting the weapons and armor utilized by the countless armies employed by the various factions that fight in the name of the god Emperor these laborers often have their bodies surgically modified to increase their output now whether or not it was their own choice to do so remains ultimately irrelevant to their Tech priest overlords that rule over these worlds and the teeming billions working below it is a ridge Society of which few ever escape by all accounts the fact that anyone is able to survive on such a planet at all is Testament to the mechanicus's vast knowledge as just about everything conducive to the flourishing of organic life was sacrificed on the Anvil of Industry long ago most forged worlds are toxic in irradiated hellscapes every inch of the planet's surface having been covered in dense sprawling factories and manufacturems there are even some Forge worlds that have purposefully boiled away their own oceans in order to make room for more factories the adeptus mechanicus is fiercely protective of these Forge worlds not only are there skittari forces and the Titan Legion stationed on them but they're also not fond of visitors from outside of the mechanicus they view themselves as independent from the larger Imperium which according to the ancient treaties is not entirely untrue but the sad reality is that the vast majority of these worlds are forever moments away from complete and utter starvation if at any point shipment from an Agri World failed to make a delivery or was delayed in the warp then the entire population would starve thus they are just as dependent on the Imperium as the Imperium is dependent on them it may seem like a brutal existence but the forge worlds are a vital part of the Imperium without their great factories the armies of mankind would falter and cease to exist every planet would subsequently be cut off from one another and they would fall prey to xenos Raiders and the worshipers of the dark Gods Mars is by far the most famous of the forge worlds as it is where the mechanicus originated it is a world that gave over to Holy industry on an incomprehensible scale long ago it is covered in dirt and chem-stained metropolises that span entire tectonic plates it is covered in crackling capacitor Banks the size of entire cities that churned The polluted atmosphere in an attempt to create localized storms pollutants Billow from Mile High stacks of a radiated waste covered in technographs and emitters that Blair binary chemicals and praise of the machine God even though the Imperium is filled with a lot of different Forge worlds each and every one of them owes their fealty to Mars thus it is only the fabricator general of the red planet that is given a seat amongst the high Lords of Terra and speaks with the authority of all of the forged worlds all of the tech priests are collectively known as the priesthood of Mars which is indicative of the planet's Central role within their religion and political landscape they view the red planet as the single holiest place in the entire galaxy and billions of the cult's members will make pilgrimages here each and every year I actually went pretty in depth into the mechanicus's early history in the Titan video that I did and in my timeline video so in order to not be treading over ground I've recently covered I'm going to Briefly summarize it here and you can check those videos out if you want to know more during Mankind's early history Mars would be the first planet to be colonized After Earth and over thousands of years the red world would end up being terraformed to the point where it was nearly indistinguishable from its sister Planet the major exception to that being its iconic Red Sands it eventually reached the point where it was covered in its own forests oceans and was able to exist mostly on its own yet it was still reliant on certain shipments coming from Earth at the dawn of the age of strife when massive warp storms would flood the Galaxy due to the gestating chaos God slamesh Mars and Earth would end up getting cut off from one another without the steady supply of resources coming from Earth Mars would begin to fall apart and slowly reverted back into its previous Barren State now this was a period of great civil unrest for the red planet that saw many Civil Wars amongst its fledgling factions this was the time when the Colt mechanicus was born in that the remaining systems that supported life on the planet were worshiped and it's not difficult to understand where the idea came from without these machines the humans that called this world home surely would have faced a lonely and drawn-out demise it wouldn't be until thousands of years later when slandesh was finally born and ripped their way into our galaxy in a violent explosion that not only created the eye of Terror but subsequently eradicated the Eldar Empire now this obviously wasn't great for the Eldar but for Humanity it represented a glorious opportunity as after the chaos God had been created all of the warp storms that had been being generated by them suddenly disappeared what would follow was a period known as the unification Wars wherein the Emperor of mankind revealed himself LED his armies against the various warring factions of Earth subsequently defeated them and United all of humanity under one Banner under the emperor's rule he banned religious worship by Humanity as he saw belief in false deities as a hindrance that got in the way of scientific advancement he would end up traveling to Mars where the Treaty of Olympus was signed and the two planets were reunited once again now the cult of machine worship had come to completely dominate Martian society and the emperor kinda sort of made a one-time exception for them now why he did this isn't made entirely clear but it may have something to do with the coming of the omnisiah the avatar of the machine God that had been foretold in ancient prophecy since the early beginnings of the cult mechanicus now vast majority of them believe that the emperor was the omnisiah and he very well may have been the Avatar of the machine God like the mechanicus believes but it's also probable that he viewed Mars as an incredibly powerful entity one that would either make for a potent Ally or a terrifying enemy and considering that this was the beginning of his crusade to reunite all of the lost human worlds it's possible he was just placating them in order to avoid an apocalyptic Civil War this one's kind of left up to your own interpretation as the emperor's Crusade got fully underway and more and more planets ended up reunited with Earth and Mars Mars would be fully integrated into the burgeoning Imperium however the mechanicum was not spared the galaxy-shattering civil war known as the Horus heresy where one of the emperor's Primark Sons Horus as well as eight of the other primarks and their Space Marine Legions turned against the Imperium and sought to overthrow the emperor half of Mars would end up siding with the war Master while the other half remained loyal to the emperor this gave way to what is referred to as the great Martian Schism the planet would be fully engulfed in Civil War and the traitors would end up Victorious when the surviving loyalists on Mars ended up fleeing to Earth it was decreed that they changed their name from the mechanicum to the mechanicus this was to differentiate themselves from their traitorous Brethren after the Horus heresy ended and the war master was ultimately defeated the mechanicus and their loyalist allies would take back the red planet the priesthood of Mars would then set about on a zealous Crusade of extermination to purge all traitorous elements from their Forge worlds they did this with the fanaticism born of the truly devout and a quick side note although the Imperial Aquila has undergone many iterations over the years after the horse heresy its symbolism came to take on a different meeting for the citizens of the Imperium one head now represented Terra while the other one represented Mars and the entirety of the Aquila represented their holy Unity the worship of machines is fundamental to the identity of the mechanicus they don't call them the tech Priests of Mars for nothing now it's their belief that organic forms are weak as they are susceptible to age and disease and eventually all of them will rot in Decay whereas the machine is eternal but what exactly does that entail how does the faith work and what are the tenets is there any truth to their wacky beliefs or is it just Superstition run rampant to most of those who live within the Imperium technology is barely understood and whether these people take the form of everyday laborers just trying to get by day by day in the slums of a hive City or esteemed Scholars military heroes or even the pilots of the multi-kilometer long void graphs most believe at least somewhat in the existence of machine spirits that Empower all of the manufactured machines that Humanity has come to rely upon this is especially true of the members of The Cult who make sacred offerings and conduct extravagant rituals of activation in order to keep the machine Spirits appeased this often takes the form of anointing said machine with Sanctified oils sacred unduance and praying to them in binary can't it is their belief that a machine only works because that is the will of the machine Spirit within it a machine spirit that is happy and has been appeased to Ritual and shown respect will continue to work even in hazardous conditions however a machine spirit that has been disrespected and not shown the proper offerings will either fail to work in its entirety or shut down at the most inopportune moment although originally only held by the cult these beliefs have trickled their way throughout all of humanity and nowadays it's not uncommon for a Guardsman experiencing a gun Jam to blame the machine spirit that dwells within their firearm the more powerful the machine the more powerful the spirit within it for example the plasma reactors of ships and the Towering War engines known as Titans are said to have particularly dangerous machine Spirits now I know this seems like Superstition run rampant but there is a lot of evidence to support these Notions many captains avoid varying vessels claim that their ships have personalities or have been miraculously able to navigate themselves and their crew out of violent warp storms of their own accord even after their Navigators have failed there are documented instances of Space Marine land Raiders continuing to roll forward across the battlefield and fight on even after their entire crew has been killed there are even Tales of particularly bloodthirsty Titans who despite the commands of their pilots refused to fall back and continue to push deeper into enemy territory there are rumors out there that machine Spirits are nothing more than misunderstood Ai and that the information that proves this to be the case is a closely guarded secret known only by a handful of the mechanicus's most powerful individuals whether or not this is truly the case though remains one of 40k's greatest Mysteries and if I'm being completely honest with you I don't want this one to ever be solved I like this particular mystery at first glance the idea that this faction keeps their machines running by quite literally praying to them is pretty strange it's as if the adeptus mechanicus has completely forgotten how these ancient machines were work and rather than understanding that a machine comes to life simply by flipping the on off switch for example they instead induct these elaborate hour-long rituals that at one point in time includes the flipping of said holy switch they do not know that it was this one specific act that produced the desired results only that something within the ritual was pleasing to the machine Spirit who subsequently submitted to their will there is a lot of truth to this being just Superstition but to think of the mechanicus as simply a pack of techno shamans who have no idea what they're actually doing is pretty inaccurate by and large the tech Priests of the adeptus mechanicus are incredibly intelligent and have hoarded massive amounts of data and technological lore within towering data Stacks deep within the industrial sprawls of their fortified Forge Worlds the major thing to bear in mind is that the blueprints schematics and ancient manuals that are used to upkeep and replicate these machines have crossed the line from a simple tool into the realm of Holy Scripture it's quite literally the equivalent of viewing your car's owner's manual as a sacred document the faith of the cult mechanicus is one founded in Dogma in deeply rooted in Traditions the meaning of many of their rights ceremonies and sacrifices having been lost long ago yet their practice endures it's the difference between knowing and understanding intelligence and wisdom they know how a machine works if they have the corresponding STC utilized in its creation Rod a slots into section B which turns on module X they understand that they get the process that enables the machine to work but they lack the insight into why each individual step in the process created a reaction quick story time when I read about this it reminds me of my high school chemistry classes of which if I'm being honest I didn't do very well in the assignments I did manage to pass involve doing a bunch of pouring and mixing of different ingredients I was able to get the desired results but I have no idea why each and every specific chemical reaction took place but hey at the end day a sea was passing it's not a Perfect Analogy but it's pretty similar to how the mechanicus views technology because knowledge is seen as sacred deviation from the known text in the form of experimentation or the altering of a machine is tantamount to heresy this isn't to say that things like reverse engineering or upgrading existing components have never occurred as they certainly have this kind of stuff just happens remarkably slowly the members of The Cult look at people that would do something like this as wantingly spitting upon the mechanicus's sacred documents needless to say if they're not immediately executed they're often seen as pariahs this ignorance however is rooted in a very real and understandable fear as it was the rampant experimentation and delving into the unknown that led to the complete collapse of Human Society at the end of the Dark Age of Technology when the thinking machines that Humanity of the time had come to rely upon rose up against them and nearly condemned all of mankind to Extinction this was a very real event that the mechanicus takes the remembering reference of very seriously fear of innovation and abominable intelligence is a much more real and immediate danger to them than the fear of ignorance and stagnation thus they Ward themselves in the bulwark of tradition and instead of seeking advancement by Looking forward they look backwards the mechanicus views the acquisition of lost technology and thus its integration into their own systems as a mission of the highest priority every new STC or piece of ancient archaeotech that is recovered is cause for overwhelming celebration it's perhaps one of 40k's deepest ironies that the ancient designs that they venerate are the very same ones that were constructed during the Dark Age of technology and were most likely made with the assistance of the Abominable intelligence they are so afraid of these beliefs are not wholly unique to the mechanicus as large swaths of Imperial citizens also view Tech heresy in the same light as witchcraft a grievous sin not to be tolerated perhaps more disturbing to them than the idea of innovation is that of xenos Technology as anything crafted by the alien is shunned as the damage it could inflict in the wrong hands is unquantifiable humanity is the only species that has been able to craft machines directly in reference to the machine God any machine created by an alien is Blasphemous a perversion of the true nature of the machine Spirit despite their worshiping of machines and their great reverence for the mechanical inventions of ancient Humanity you might be surprised to learn that the cult has little desire to return to the Dark Age of Technology instead they yearn for a time in the future when Mankind and machine have become perfectly blended into a single entity a time in which all will be created precisely in the machine God's image they look at other factions that would work to different ends as foolish and naive and will oppose any that deny the will of the omnisaya or blaspheme Against the Machine God through the act of unlicensed experimentation Discovery or invention the religion the adeptus mechanic as follows is known as the cult mechanicus a religion that injects the Imperial Creed and is instead founded in 16 core tenets revered as the universal laws these tenants give us a greater insight into the mind of a tech priest and their understanding of their place in the universe the universal laws dictate the goals and behavior of every follower of the omnisaya and in essence dictate their thought process by helping them understand the nature of life and its relevance to the machine God the true nature of which is a mystery that the mechanicus continues to pursue in what it refers to as the Quest for knowledge a crusade that has continued for over ten thousand years through the tenets of their faith the mechanicus believes that the measurement of one's worth is quantifiable in the amount of knowledge they have gained over their lifetime that their body of flesh is merely a worthless construct with which to house sacred knowledge when it comes to the universal laws themselves admittedly we don't actually know all of them it's weird you'd think that they would be readily available considering how important they are but alas in order to gain a bit of insight into the them we have to piece together several different obscure sources including the Death Watch core rulebook a PDF titled mechanicus exploratory warbands that was released by specialist games for the now defunct system known as Inquisitor and the lathe World supplement for the dark heresy RPG system the fourth universal law intellect is the understanding of knowledge the fourth law is most commonly interpreted as stating that the ability to comprehend and utilize knowledge is the basis for the measurement of intellect it is entirely possible for any sentience to realize the value of knowledge or stimulus as some members of The Cult mechanicus might refer to it while only possessing simplistic levels of it it's also possible for an archive or holomat to contain vast quantities of knowledge and the understanding thereof without apprehending the value of that knowledge neither of these two examples would possess true intellect in the eyes of a tech priest the fifth universal law sentience is the basest form of intellect tet priests often view sentience as a commonly held trait and they see it as only the first tier of intellect the lowest rung on the ladder of understanding Superior intellect is generally agreed to be developed through the acquisition and understanding of knowledge the sixth universal law understanding is the true path to comprehension the concept of comprehension holds special significance for Tech priests it is often viewed as a state of transcendence a level of intellect that encompasses all knowledge the seventh universal law comprehension is the key to All Things debate rages about whether the key to All Things is a literal or figurative expression and many believe the seventh law means that comprehension of the forces of the universe brings with it the keys to reality the ability to implement any change or creation desired the eighth universal law the omnisiah knows all comprehends all the eighth law enshrines the omnisaya is the Supreme Being The Entity able to comprehend all knowledge in the universe the universal truce 9-11 are currently unknown so we'll jump in on the 12th the 12th universal law The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all now this this is obviously in relation to abominable intelligence and considering just how afraid they are of it it would make sense that it's one of their universal laws 13 and 14 are currently unknown as well so we're jumping in on the 15th flesh is fallible but ritual honors the machine Spirit Organic components I.E people are weak forgetful and ultimately Expendable for the greater glories of the machine God the valuabilities of Flesh can be assuaged through the correctly prescribed rituals to enable the enlightened to interact with the machine Spirit to so dishonor a machine Spirit by not undertaking the correct rituals to honor it is a grave crime and considered extremely risky with certain Spirits for example failing to undertake maintenance rituals on the plasma reactor is sure to end badly the 16th universal law to break with ritual is to break with faith Tech priests rely on ritual over understanding every screw turn in button press is precisely documented for every mechanism they build or use many Tech priests believe that the slightest deviation is an invitation for disaster and unleashing uncontrollable forces now I'll fully admit that this may just be me getting a little bit meta and really poking around inside of outdated rulebooks to try to get a better understanding of a very Niche topic but I think it's worth mentioning that in the Death Watch RPG core rulebook it mentions that the knowledge of the existence of the universal laws requires a successful skill check that is considered an advanced investigation and in this system you don't play as the common citizenry of the Imperium you are a Space Marine a member of the death watch it further goes on to elaborate that advanced skill checks require a very specific training or education that common individuals are not even able to attempt to me it indicates that the core tenets of the mechanicus's faith are intentionally left vague by Design and it's no wonder that they have never been fully established as even in Universe most people outside of their order don't know they exist now I'm gonna make a mention here real quick that if you go to the Lexicon Wiki or the fandom Wiki it does have the other univ reversal truths listed however they don't provide a source for any of these so as far as I'm aware these are not canon I spent a good 24 hours trying to track down the source of these myself and came up empty-handed so if anybody can prove that these are the other Universal truths let me know in the comment section below because I'd love to read that original source the quest to regain lost knowledge and recover the archaeotech of Humanity's past is the absolute top priority for the adeptus mechanicus now in order to accomplish this objective they launch hundreds if not thousands of what are known as exploratory fleets armadas of pioneers that are sent into the Dark Places between stars to further the never-ending acquisition of raw data the Quest for knowledge can take them to some pretty dangerous places thus they are fully prepared to bring about the omnisaya's Wrath to any that would stand between them and their goals it is the ultimate goal of the Colt mechanicus to understand the nature of the machine God it is in this Most Holy of quests that the tech priests and their Legions of cyborg servants launch Holy fleets to explore the frontiers of the Imperium though at first glance these seem to be religious Expeditions the reality is that they take with them an amalgamation of military might that possesses enough Firepower to destroy entire armies the Quest for knowledge is an all-consuming Endeavor to procure data resources and artifacts that they believe are rightfully owed to the machine God these Crusades normally take the form of a forged world's exploratory Fleet each serving as a unique Armada of different vessels that are dispatched to deafening hails of binary hymns they must be fully prepared to face the horrors of the Galaxy as the alien the witch and the heretic will do everything in their power to maintain control of the Lost archaeotech and the mechanicus is fully prepared to Proclaim that which is theirs by Birthright through great and spectacular violence each Fleet is armed with its own cohorts of skitari and countless devoted members of the priesthood they will often be aided in their Quest by their allies within the night households or from other Imperial forces the goals of these Ventures can vary from Fleet to Fleet but often take the form of uncovering lost fragments of human technology locating fresh resources or cataloging emerging Xeno species they delve into the unknown reaches of undocumented space venturing to the far-flung fringes of the astronomicon's light to the cult taking off on such a crusade as a prestigious honor they are viewed as Intrepid pioneers selfless Servants of the machine God that accept great risk in order to fulfill his will because The Fleets will be on their own for extremely long periods of time and they need to be entirely self-sufficient whether that take the form of plundering mineral worlds that they come into contact with or in some extreme cases a cannibalizing vulnerable ships while pressing their Crews into indentured servitude each Fleet is equipped with a wide swath of different Tech Priests of varying specializations and philosophical approaches having a great many Minds working towards the singular task of Shifting through rumors sightings in hearsay within a system for any trace of lost technology allows them to come up with the most efficient Solutions possible when they encounter a world their ships will launch data tethers that invasively probe into the planet this is not a procedure that the citizens of these planets take kindly to and has led to many standoffs with the mechanicus especially if they encounter even the faintest whiff of what they're looking for as they will deploy in Mass immediately and begin their excavation attempt fragments of stcs are among the most highly prized shards of archeotech as they are packed with condensed technical information from the ancient times when the machine Gods chosen were able to work miracles that were almost indistinguishable from sorcery many exploratory fleets are given an open-ended mandate to operate as they see fit and are given no specific Target other than to plumb the depths of the void and find anything of value as knowledge is the most priceless commodity in existence there are no links that the mechanicus is not willing to go to to protect all of their secrets even if it means committing unforgivable crimes and to really highlight just how far they're willing to go I want to talk about their role in the novel storm of iron now this segment is going to contain some pretty big spoilers for the book so if you don't want to hear them go ahead and jump to the timestamp I've put on screen I'm not going to spoil all of the mysteries of this book but just one big one in particular okay so the story is set on the desert world of hydrochordatus there isn't a lot here other than a single Spaceport in a large Citadel Fortress known as Tor Cristo this Fortress would end up coming under siege by the iron Warriors Trader Legion we as the audience are told that the atmosphere of this world is incredibly toxic and in order to combat the murderous air every single Guardsman here has to continuously take these detox pills that the mechanicus has provided for them they're not able to prevent all of the atmosphere's terrible effects but they will keep them alive one of the main characters of the story Guardsman Hawk ends up separated from his platoon and goes on an away mission of sabotage to fight the iron warriors on his own terms he doesn't have a lot of supplies and has a limited amount of rations and water however it is enough to last him for a good chunk of time the more immediate danger however is that he only has a few detox pills left he figures he's going to fight as long and hard as he can and when the planet's atmosphere finally takes him he will know that he went down fighting but here's the thing he runs out of these pills in only a couple of days but he's on his own for weeks within 24 hours after he takes his last pill he suddenly starts to feel better than he has in years the plague of constant headaches that he had been Afflicted with ever since he stepped foot on this godforsaken planet have finally disappeared he feels younger and stronger more alive live with every passing minute now much later in the story The Iron Warrior Siege of the Fortress is fully underway both sides have taken enormous losses but the iron Warriors definitely have the upper hand by the emperor's divine grace the Imperial fist Space Marine chapter come to the planet's Aid and during one of the meetings of all of the commanding officers including Lieutenant Colonel Leonid of the jurin 383rd dragoons regiment that has been stationed here the Imperial fist known as Esra asks what those pills are that he's seen as men taken Leona gestures at the air around them and tells him that it's poisonous that the transhuman physiology of the Space Marines is able to filter out the toxins almost immediately but us human Fighters we're not so lucky if it wasn't for all those pills they would all be dead in about a week the Space Marine looks incredibly confused and he tells him that he detects no toxic elements in the atmosphere it stinks and leaves a pretty bad taste in the back of your mouth but it was harmless he tells the commander of the neuroglottis an organ that the Space Marines have that is able to detect the chemical components of the anything that they eat he takes one of the pills from him and puts it in his mouth swishes it back and forth and a few seconds later he spits it out it was poison the Space Marine was able to detect a wide swath of different chemicals many of which were known to be extremely carcinogenic he says that the poison is slow acting and barely noticeable and easily confused with other illnesses but a person consuming these on a regular basis would without fail end up developing an extremely advanced form of cancer the pills would be fatal within a period of five to seven years the kernel looks horrified by this Revelation the mechanicus had been keeping all of the men under his command sick he then realizes that he himself has been stationed here for approximately six years he looks around the room and all of the flags of the different regiments that have died here and sees countless names on plaques he starts trying to estimate just how many men and women the mechanicans had murdered but gives up after the calculation passes into the millions the tech priest had ensured that anyone stationed on this world wouldn't live long enough to learn or tell anyone its Secrets the Space Marine asked the colonel what they were really guarding here what was this Fortress built to protect and why was it so important to the mechanicus that they were willing to murder their own people and that's all I'll say on that I don't want to spoil any more of this book than I already did it's awesome and you should definitely read it I will point out that it's a little bit of an older book at this point some of the stuff in it is kind of outdated it was written before the horse heresy got started and so the iron Warriors in the book are sitting there summoning demons left and right even though that's not really something we think of with the iron Warriors nowadays but regardless it's one of my favorite 40K books and you should definitely check it out it also has an audible version so if you prefer audiobooks then you have no excuse you have to read it potentially the most iconic individuals within the entire adeptus mechanicus is that of the tech priests and men and women who in their quest for knowledge continue to replace more and more of their weak human flesh with ever more bizarre and Powerful cybernetic components they are a sprawling priesthood of technicians scientists and religious leaders the children of the omnisaya purveyors of knowledge and The Seekers of the true nature of the machine God if it wasn't for the combined efforts of the priesthood Humanity would have fallen apart long ago however they are also one of the most secretive orders within the Imperium of man through their fanatical Devotion to their faith the majority of tech priests have come to believe that the acquisition of knowledge is worth any expenditure in resources or lives when we talk about the adeptus mechanicus the term Tech priest tends to get thrown around pretty liberally it's become something of a catch-all term for just about any member of the mechanicus that is ranked higher than a menial they are the guardians of machine spirits and the preservers of the traditions of Technology they are the ones that keep everything within the Imperium functioning through their mysterious and esoteric rituals such as the right of ignition maintenance and Awakening most tech priests view their organic bodies as disgusting a form more suitable for a beast than a being capable of reason and logic thus with every scrap of worthless flesh they carve away and every piece of blessed Machinery they integrate into their body they come one step closer to the Pinnacle of Creation The Blessed form of the machine God as time passes and Tech priests advance in their careers they continue to replace more and more of their flesh the amount of augmentations a tech priest has is normally indicative of their rank some particularly ancient Magi at this point are little more than a brain floating in amnionic fluid within the confines of a twisting Fusion of cables armor plating inbuilt weaponry and flailing mechadendrites it is the belief of the priesthood of Mars that to cast off the weak frailties of Flesh allows them to better continue their quest for knowledge these upgrades can come in all kinds of different forms whether they be bionic Limbs and or organs to make them stronger faster and all but immune to the weakness of age and disease bionic eyes that allowed them to see far beyond the normal spectrum of human Vision Auto sanguination wherein all of their blood is replaced with a synthetic chemical substitute that is far more efficient at carrying oxygen and is also laced with a particular chemical concoction that aids in the rapid regeneration of damaged tissue there are also a lot of different cortex implants where in multiple different circuits and chips are implanted into the brain's gray matter to dramatically improve memory and equip the priest with a wide range of computing capabilities that allow them to store and recall enormous amounts of data thousands of times faster than the brain of a normal human could alone there's another thing called a mind impulse unit or an Miu now this one's a little bit more rare and is normally associated with the pilots of a Titan but that's not to say that a regular Tech priest can't use one normally when they're installed it allows them to directly link within control a wide array of different machines such as a shoulder mounted weapon now a particularly bizarre and rare form of augmentation is that of a binary cortex where in the brains of two Tech priests are combined into one and inhabit the same physical form normally one mind and personality end up dominating the other while retaining their entire sum of knowledge sometimes this is done when a tech priest is on the verge of death so that their work may be continued by one of their disciples and other times it is forced on unwilling individuals some like the arch Majors belisarius call are said to be a Gestalt mind of dozens of different unique intellects absorbed by him over the many years whether it be through the literal absorption of other minds or through the process of stripping their own Humanity away bit by bit a tech priest's personality will begin to change the more augmentations they take on becoming more like that of a cold logic driven machine completely free of the weakness of emotion their speech is oftentimes a gargled mess and editing from box casters that they've installed rather than organic vocal cords most tech priests do not see the value in social interactions thus make no attempt to hide the horror of their true nature let alone change their voice to something that sounds more natural to those not as blessed by the machine goddess themselves now on the other hand there are Tech priests who have gone to Great Lengths to preserve as much of their face as possible and use highly advanced voice synthesizers so you wouldn't be able to tell that they've been augmented at all normally these Tech priests take on a more diplomatic role within their hierarchy Tech priests are the masters of dozens of different languages and are able to pick up new ones remarkably quickly due to their neural implants if they speak out loud at all it's normally done in a form of binary can't as most communication is made non-verbally the instantaneous transfer of information back and forth between multiple Tech priests allows for the conveyance of thought questions answers decisions and raw data to be transmitted back and forth between them thousands of times faster than having a traditional conversation they do this by communicating through what is known as the new sphere a piece of arche attack from the Dark Age of technology that was originally discovered in ancient Egypt to those who have been modified to interact with the new sphere information and communication exist as a form of collective Consciousness that emerges from the interaction between human minds and when connected information becomes visible as Shoals of light the way it's described in the novel's mechanicum and brutal cunning almost makes it seem like the mechanicus's version of the Internet it's like an invisible force of data that exists all around us but can only be perceived by those who have been modified and given access to it the tech priests themselves make up the ruling class of a forge world but in a similar manner to the complex and unique forms each one of them can take a so too is their hierarchy now bear in mind that we're talking about the tech priest hierarchy within the 42nd Millennium not the holy Synod of the Lord magos which was a system used pre-heresy and had its own distinct organizational systems Tech priest ranks become more esoteric in cryptic the deeper one and dwells into the mechanicus's Theocratic layers there are thousands of different Specialists that can be considered a tech priest but not all Tech priests are created equal and there does exist a distinct hierarchy within their order although it's constantly in flux and admittedly pretty cryptic above all others is the fabricator General who is the ruler of an entire Forge World beneath him is his fabricator loci which help him with all matters relating to ruling over the planet beneath these two groups are what we generally consider to be Tech priests as to refer to someone as notable as the fabricator general or a fabricator loci simply as a tech priest is a great insult we can break these up into two categories those of the four holy orders the Magi genotors logai and Artisans and then everyone else underneath them such as engine series trans mechanics Lex mechanics and Electro priests so let's talk a little bit more about the four different holy orders and first up is the genitors the genitors are one of the four holy orders of tech priests whose order is particularly obsessed with Organic life something that makes them stand in stark contrast to other Tech priests who reject flesh as weak they view those that dismiss organic components such as flesh and blood as inferior to steel and plasma as naive some may quietly make these observations and never act on them While others are likely to combine mechanical augmentations with Organic ones within themselves just by looking at them you really couldn't tell them apart from other Tech priests they are still clothed in red robes and are host to a bunch of mechanical augmentations but underneath those robes a genitor may have diverted from the traditional path of augmentation and that they have embraced organic upgrades as well these may take the form of that grown muscles toughen skin or organically reinforced bones their interest in expertise in Organics is not limited to the human form as their quest for knowledge primarily leads them into the study of alien genetics the ultimate goal being to under understand exactly how they function in order to Perfect The Art of their eradication this subsect of genitors is normally called a xenobiologist they are of great Aid to the exploratory fleets as expertise in non-human forms allows them to quickly discern and catalog newly encountered xenos or indigenous species as well as documented and understand new variations of abhumans found throughout the Galaxy Artisans on the other hand are a type of tech priest that primarily is tasked with designing and constructing engines war machines building spacecrafts weapons military hardware and just about everything else you can think of they are the tinkerers and engineers and often oversee the activity of their Forge World through the control of vast labor forces and servitors Artisans create wondrous devices of archaic Beauty and lethal efficiency their ornate weapons and ingenious War gear is highly sought after by those who live within the Imperium some different ranks of Artisans include that of the forge Lord a title that was more prominently used pre-heresy and indicates the ruler of one of the many mighty forges across the surface of a forged world Mecha sapiens Prater electroids cybersmiths neuromechanics and techno-archaeologists the last of which being individuals whose quest for knowledge takes the form of seeking out lost archeotech in order to recover it and better understand its functions the third holy order is that of the low guy they are the tech priests that are all about numbers they serve the mechanicus as data analysts statisticians and logisticians their purpose is describe future events through mathematics and make accurate forecasts about future expenditures and needs they are number crunchers who have been heavily augmented and can analyze data thousands of times faster than anyone else but even though there's nothing mystical about what they do the members of The Cult tend to view them as prophetic holy figures that are able to glimpse into the future by digging feverishly through the physical and Abstract strata of the universe in order to acquire as much raw physical data as possible some of the tech priest ranks within the holy order of logai are that of the lectio arcanus bibliophiliac hyperationalists monator malevolus and by the final order is that of the Magi imagos is an individual Tech priest who has been recognized as one of the absolute brightest Minds within their respective field thus the title of magos brings with it a hefty amount of respect the term magos can be granted to just about any Tech priest regardless of their specialization there are magos biologists magos exploratories and Mago cybernetica just to name a few now admittedly there is a bit of confusion over whether or not magos is a title rank or a distinct order and the sources tend to vary on this and have different interpretations the generally accepted view is that magos is a catch-all rank for a master of a particular discipline the way I think of it is with a title like that of doctor there are tons of different doctors you can be a doctor of archeology a doctor of Economics or a doctor of just about any other academic field it's not a Perfect Analogy but I hope that helps anyways the Magi are considered one of the four holy orders and a tech priest from one of the other orders is not excluded from bearing the title of magos they are often recognizable by the extreme levels of augmentation that they have received of some of which may at this point be little more than a brain and a couple of organs piloting a mechanized body of hundreds if not thousands of upgraded components these most senior of tech priests are given access to a place within the Forge World known as the machine altars that contains the sum of all knowledge the mechanicus has ever obtained Magi of countless kinds plumbed the depths of increasingly narrow Ravines of Arcane data heedless of the cost in their thrall servants lives if you remember earlier in the video one of the key Universal truths is that to break from tradition is to break from Faith to pursue forbidden technology whether it be experimentation with AIS or anything not created by human hands is a Blasphemous sin punishable by death when it comes to the magos they have a tendency to admittedly be somewhat arrogant some of them are thousands of years old and have been gifted with so much insight into the universe that their sum total of knowledge can contained within them is on a scale simply incomprehensible to us Mortals in this regard many of them tend to think of themselves as above the laws of the mechanicus and will pursue knowledge that runs counter to their sacred doctrines it's not that they don't believe in these restraints as they definitely see them as serving a very important purpose just that laws and rigid adherence to them is something to be practiced by lesser Tech priests for imagos the Quest for knowledge can take a lot of different forms and why they would end up pursuing forbidden research varies from magos to magos and In fairness it's not all of them perhaps they discovered lore that was so terrible it became a nigh unbearable burden questions plaguing their mind that demanded to be answered or mayhaps they may have encountered some form of xenos technology that they believe if properly understood would ultimately prove to be beneficial to mankind that the purest form of that data belonged to the omnisaya and it was their mission to pry it from the vile hands of the alien purify it and add it to the sum total of knowledge amagos engaged in such a Pursuit might find himself shunned or outright rejected by his peers as the cult is conservative to the extreme that's not to say that their Pursuits themselves are ultimately rejected the mechanicus does adopt new technology just incredibly slowly as they have seen the horrors that experimentation can produce better to consult the wisdom of the Ancients rather than experimenting with the unknown there are many cases where a magos produce such a sum total of knowledge that got him or her labeled as a heretic and sentenced to death only for decades or even centuries later to be raised to a status similar to that of a saint and their great work finally celebrated because of the blatant hypocrisy within the mechanicus a wise magos will do their best to separate themselves from their peers in order to pursue their quests they often end up sharing common interests with inquisitors working together with them to hunt down a specific xenos threat and or artifact it's a two-way relationship in that The Inquisitor gains a powerful Ally that has enormous levels of insight into their particular Quarry and the magos is given access to the inquisitor's unlimited ability to procure whatever resources they need to fund their continued research the ultimate goal of most magos is to one day return to their order where they will bow down before the altar of the omnisaya share the knowledge they have gained with the machine God and if that knowledge is found worthy then the sum total of all knowledge will be increased even if it's only by a tiny amount such as the life's work and greatest reward of all those who serve the machine God perhaps the most well known of tech priests is that of the Dominus they are the masters of warfare in all its forms and Weavers of Destruction on simply incomprehensible scales through the application of their terrifying knowledge they can reduce entire worlds to ruin they do not solve the mechanicus's problems through diplomacy or research instead they unleash Relentless and merciless applications of extreme fire it is the Dominus that are given full control over the skittari legions the electro priesthood and the legio cybernetica what's interesting here is that much like how any individual Tech priest can ultimately become a magos they could also become a Dominus if they display a particular propensity for the waging of War it doesn't matter their background whether they have been a biologist engine Seer low guy or just about any other type of tech priest each and every one of them can become an expert in the weapons of the Arcane and Battlefield domination their individual background contributing to distinct styles of war in battle they Feast on a continuous supply of raw data gathered by the units under their command and are fed a never-ending stream of serbo stimulants that keep them operating at Peak proficiency as some of the greatest generals the mechanicus has ever seen they can simultaneously coordinate Frontline tactics aerial bombardments and relay orders to the mechanicus's Allied Forces like the Titan Legions or the night households the augmentations they receive are specifically designed for brutal violence whether they be equipped with an entire arsenal of heavy Weaponry mounted on robotic limbs or have a host of clawed mechadendrites that lash out at any that come in range splitting them from head to groin as they fight the multiple Vox admitters built into their frame Bello hems to the omnisaya while they deliver the machine God's Wrath to the enemies of the mechanicus many of them are said to be able to reach out towards an enemy vehicle and with the twist of their hand rip its machine Spirit from the hull rendering it useless before the supremacy of the mechanicus so important is the role of the Dominus that they are given access to some of the most safeguarded vaults within their respective Forge World it is here that a vast arsenal of Legendary techno-arcane Weapons recovered by the exploratory fleets are held if in their wisdom the Dominus deems it necessary they are permitted access to take any of these sacred artifacts into battle which when used will be capable of unleashing extraordinary Feats of Destruction the bulk of the adeptus mechanicus's military might is made up by the legion's guitari cyborg men and women who have been thoroughly indoctrinated into the colt mechanicus and unflinchingly follow the orders of their Tech priest Masters it is these people that defend the mechanicus's holy Forge worlds and are sent into the most dangerous places imaginable in order to acquire the Lost knowledge that is Humanities by Birthright as we start talking about the different units that fight for and alongside the mechanicus you might notice a pretty huge absence from this video The Towering God engines of the collegia titanica and that's because I've actually already done a deep dive specifically on Titans and I don't want to tread over too much ground that I've already covered they are subservient to the mechanicus but are their own wholly unique faction so if you want to know more about them in their history then go watch that video after you finish this one when it comes to the knights however I haven't actually made a deep dive on them yet but they are on the list so I'll give a brief summary of their history here the reason they are aligned so closely with the mechanicus is that when the night worlds were discovered by Humanity the cult demanded to be the ones that integrated them into the Imperium as the archeo tech of the knights was of great interest to them they would be successful in this endeavor and due to the mechanicum's knowledge of similar ancient machines they had the resources and technology in order to assist in their repairs and many of these night Worlds at the time had reverted back to a feudalistic form of government and the night engines themselves were pretty run down having been in service for over ten thousand years if it had not been for the mechanicum's aid they would have eventually all completely broken down nowadays the Forge World of the mechanicus and the night households are tightly entwined and exist in a symbiotic relationship one that admittedly the mechanicus does tend to have the upper hand in however the major bulk of the mechanicus's fighting forces come in the form of the skittari legions they are the soldiers of the machine God the Protectors of their Creed and the Defenders of the mighty Forge worlds they hail from each individual's katari can trace their origin back to humble beginnings whether that be as a part of the the numberless pools of forcibly indentured laborers or maybe they were vat grown in a flesh Farm it doesn't matter where they come from those who serve the Forge World this Qatari are all zealously loyal and fanatically devoted to the cult mechanicus they view their Tech priest Masters as prophets of the machine God and each binaric order that they issue is seen as a holy commandment due to the reverence the Colt mechanicus holds for ancient technology the robots of the legio cybernetica which we will get into later in this video are held in the highest possible regard this unfortunately cannot be said of this Qatari Legions who are turned out in mass in the Colts production facilities they are viewed simply as a functional and effective tool but never as an individual they may not be blessed by genetic engineering designed for transhuman Supremacy like the Space Marines but their blessed mechanical upgrades allow them to punch much above their weight when faced against the horrors of the Galaxy for the Colt mechanicus there is a tool for every job and a job for every tool whether that be the garrisoning of a Forge World in fabricator moons the merciless punishing of techno heresy or crusading for the most precious of resources knowledge the legion's guitari are both the tool and weapon of choice for the cult mechanicus the thing to bear in mind about this guitari is that underneath all of their augmentation and Arcane Weaponry they are just mortal men and women soldiers who have had their bodies Sanctified through scientific Butchery in the machine God's name their bodies are a twisted amalgamation of pallid flesh and sutured cybernetics the vast majority of them have their legs cut off below the knee and replaced with prosthetic ones made of pristine Alloys even their minds are not safe from the Colts modifications as they are a grotesque hybrid of gray matter and networked neuro circuitry there's no real major consistency with these augmentations from Warrior to Warrior and one soldier may have a slot punctured into their skull that houses coiling data tethers While others may have leather Bellows for lungs it's rumored that Within A skitari Warrior's body can be found at least Trace Amounts of every element known to man their extensive modification of allows this Qatari Warriors to excel in just about any environment they may be deployed into due to their nature of hailing from hyper-industrialized Forge worlds even seemingly lethal doses of radiation are nothing to those who were born in such toxic wastes under normal circumstances a unit of skatari is led by a single primary Warrior normally an alpha or a princess whereas a younger's katari may have only been blessed with a small handful of augmentations a senior Warrior like an alpha May at this point in their career be more machine than man the leader in the various units under his control make up what is known as a manipul an organizational unit within the forge world's military multiple Mana poles make up what is known as a cohort and multiple cohorts make up what is known as a macroclad multiple macroclads make up a legion of skitari each mandible is assigned identifying sigils and through their interlocking system of different units every individual's katari understands their place within the hierarchy this is a passage from the novel's guitarist that I think does a really good job of highlighting the essence of this guitar soldiers compatible fusions of combat hormones and serenitives were released slowly into their bloodstream enabling this Qatari to maintain a state of battle Furious calm enemies were dispatched with a ruthless religious fervor this found expression in the cold almost automatic efficiency of their slick aim and death dealing lack of sentiment to an enemy the cybernetic soldiers might appear as machine Spirit guided robots but this Qatari were More Than Just Hydraulics gears and processors they hated with the hearts of men and dreamed the glories of the omnisaya ascendant a day when all true constructs of Flesh and iron might be connected as one a time when the machine God might extend his data ravenous reach and that of his Empire throughout the whole galaxy this guitar ear said to have an unshakable loyalty instilled in them through rigorous training and Relentless indoctrination despite their appearance and unflinching resolve to follow any orders issued by their Superior these men and women are not serviters they are not mindless drones they utilize in loaded tactical schematics meticulous planning and intuitive leaps of logic to respond to just about any threat or change in Battlefield Dynamics information gained in the field of battle is broadcast back through the scatari's nodes of command informing hundreds of decisions per second to such great effect that engagements that other factions may look at as a lost cause are able to be turned into crushing victories it may seem callous but the Colt mechanicus is not concerned if hundreds thousands or even millions of their fanatical servants are struck down in battle the tech Priests look at this Qatari as nothing more than tools tools which will be used to bring about the will of the omnisaya and the utter annihilation of those who would oppose Mankind through their sacrifice do these Warriors produce data and knowledge of the Foe and thus the tech priests are given deeper insight into the enemy's strengths and weaknesses that data will then be distilled and utilized to bring about the mechanicus's ultimate Victory there's a lot of different types of skitary units so let's talk about some of the more iconic ones first up is the skitari Vanguard or rad Troopers as they are also sometimes referred to as these Warriors are so infused with radiation that by simply being in their presence is incredibly dangerous the Vanguard have learned not to only endure their lethal emissions but to also harness it as a weapon terrifying auras of radiation literally bleed from their War gear causing any that are in close proximity to them to fight in a weakened State not only this but their signature rad carbines are capable of unleashing vicious volleys of radiated shells if the enemy is somehow able to survive the initial Onslaught they will eventually fall victim to the deadly radiations Vengeance because of their nature and reputation as being some of the hardiest of all skittari troops the Vanguard is deployed into the most hazardous of War zones known to mankind fighting at the front lines and transforming the battlefield into an irradiated hellscape with every step that they take many outside of their order would assume that this Qatari Vanguard is protected inside of their armor from the lethal radiation but this sadly is not the case as if somebody was to see them without their helmet on they would witness a scarred and hairless face complete with missing teeth and the telltale signs of advanced radiation poisoning such as the price they are willing to pay and their absolute Devotion to the machine God these are the Blessed Warriors that are chosen to Pilot the legendary onigir Dune crawlers a vehicle that is capable of blasting apart squadrons of aircrafts punching holes straight through the battle engines of the Heretics or even utilizing blinding beams of blue light to completely atomize anything that stands in their way they Scuttle about on spider-like appendages that allow them to maneuver over just about any terrain and are bristling with a frankly irresponsible amount of Firepower for their size this guitar you see the Dune crawler as not just a weapon but a walking reliquary protected by the machine God whereas the tech priests themselves see them as nothing more than a tool for Destruction much like how they view this katari it's equipped with a miniature fusion generator in its rear that allows it to continue fighting long past any of the other vehicles employed by their enemies these things can even go longer over rugged terrain than the vehicles of the Space Marines the Dune crawlers have been described as something like a data tick a fat bloated mechanical bug that records an enormous amount of data with each and every shot and every single kill that hard data can directly be sent to its Tech priest Masters or conversely be used to channel critically important Intel to the skittari fighters it fights in support of the vehicle is controlled by a ranger who operates its gun systems and a member of the Vanguard that acts as its pilot and the reason the Vanguard are used in particular is because of their extreme resilience to toxic chemicals in radiation as the cockpit of a dune crawler is basically a poisonous electroid-rich soup by being immersed in the electro-amnionic tank the pilot is given direct communication with the Dune crawlers formidable machine Spirit even for the Vanguard this soup is eventually fatal they will be used up like a battery before being easily replaced with another Vanguard pilot they meet their fate with no complaints as to give their life in service of the machine God by piloting one of his holy reliquaries is seen as a prestigious honor the Rangers are the mass infantry foot soldiers of the colt mechanicus and are renowned for never giving up when in pursuit of their foes the standard firearm that they use is what is known as a galvanic rifle it's a mixture of something old and something new as it has a wooden stock and is modeled after the flintlock rifles of Humanity's ancient past despite the firearm resembling something of an antique the bullets that it fires are incredibly Advanced whenever one of them strikes their target it immediately causes a chain reaction that causes all of the potential energy of them to burn out in a single instance killing them in a blast of electrified force their legendary stamina allows them to hunt their prey all the way across the Galaxy no matter where they would attempt to flee to once the Rangers have been dispatched they home in on their target at a slow yet Unstoppable Pace whether their target take the form of a xenos raiding party or Heretics that would blaspheme Against the Machine God just because they escape the initial onslaught of gunfire doesn't mean they are safe months years or even decades may pass after the initial engagement and the prey May settle into a false sense of security this feeling will be fleeting however as one day they will glimpse a constellation of glowing blue lights approaching against the Horizon the site will be confusing at first and admittedly equal parts beautiful and unnaturally disturbing the lights will grow larger and larger as they move closer towards the target before suddenly opening up and a blazing torrent of gunfire to this Qatari Rangers a conflict is never over until their assignment has been completed no matter how much time has passed or how much distance has gotten in between them and their prey in the end no one escapes the Ranger's judgment so next up on the list is something a little bit more esoteric and disturbing the fighters known as the sicarians the sicarians are a warrior clad that is considered to be one of the most Sinister and feared of all skittari fighters they take the form of two primary units rust stalkers and infiltrators although the way in which they dispatch their targets is unique to both groups they both light sound as a deadly weapon the way in which the infiltrators do this is by emitting disruptive wavelengths from their domed helmets that can rapidly change in frequency this materializes to enemies as a bombardment of overwhelming stimuli enemy voxcasters cry out in anguished feedback whilst vid screens crackle with fizzing static the visual and auditory assault is not only incredibly effective against artificial constructs but is even more damaging and disorienting to organic systems the target's ears ring with deafening tinnitus their Vision turns red as blood vessels burst in their eyes and they're unable to taste or smell anything other than burnt metal it is said that being subjected to such an attack leaves the target being unable to do little else then remember how to breathe rendering them completely helpless as the infiltrator walks into point-blank range and opens fire what's really interesting and admittedly a little disturbing about this horrifying Sonic attack is that other members of this guitar they fight alongside are given null codes that transmute the frequencies into a harmless song The terrifying technical screams give way to nothing less than an uplifting hymn praising the omnisiah because of this the skitori that fight alongside them don't see them as Sonic monsters but instead as holy Warriors committed to a selfless war on the front line the infiltrators are viewed by their Brethren as Noble and righteous but the same cannot be said of the rust stalkers for there is no attempt with them to deny their true nature they are ghastly mechanical murderers now although the origins of the rust stalkers is shrouded in mystery It is believed they were originally designed to function as a cybernetic assassin during Mars's ancient history they would be deployed into the waste to hunt down Rogue serviters or other undesirables that the Colt mechanicum had shunned they proved to be ruthlessly efficient in their Grim tasks and would end up being repurposed and militarized into groups known as killclades these kill clades would then serve on the front line alongside the legion's Qatari by the 42nd Millennium their usage has spread to just about every documented Forge World whatever their individual Origins the rustockers are are famed as some of the best close range assassins that exist in the entire galaxy they slank silently through the Shadows following their princep's order without hesitation after locating their Quarry and moving into position they will wait patiently for the princess to give The Kill Order and set them loose with a silent binary command the princess releases the leash and the rust stalkers fall upon their Foe and a slashing stabbing frenzy a whirlwind of ripping Claws and cleansing transonic blades they are frighteningly fast and move as a spindly blur across the battlefield accelerating on powerful Hydraulics mounted on their light frames before the foe has a chance to react they lunge for their vital systems unleashing the shredding nightmare of their shivering blades rending apart armor and vital systems alike as they butcher their way through the enemy ranks with cold and lethal efficiency what makes them so particularly deadly is the ingenious War gear that they utilize now their signature weapon is known as a transonic razor a blade that emits a low constant buzzing that causes any in the vicinity to experience a destabilizing effect it's not quite as powerful as the ones utilized by the infiltrators but it can cause symptoms like aggressive nausea vertigo and extreme dizziness when the weapon strikes a Target its Sonic feel the matches the Armor's resonant frequency instantaneously allowing the blade to quickly slice through anything it comes into contact with because of the Lightning Fast nature of the attack and the inconceivable sharpness of the weapon it may take several seconds for the victim to even realize they have been sliced in half their defeat inevitably Dawning on them and a spectacularly gory display there's a couple of different methods in which somebody can become a rust stalker but they make better candidates the more detached they are from humanity and display particularly violent tendencies many murderers Thugs and killers are taken from a forge world's prison systems and given a new purpose as a rust stalker this isn't to say that all of them are former criminals far from it as in the novels guitarius we are shown that skitari that are mortally wounded in battle and serve the omnisaya well would receive the blessing of future form from their Tech their brains and a few other scraps of vital flesh being encased in an insect-like body of a rust stalker and with the cold logic driven killing machines of the skittari legions the tech priests are never lacking for new candidates the iron Strider ballastari and the sedonian dragoons can trace their Origins back to a period in time during the Martian Schism wherein the ancestors of their order inhabited a vast cratered area full of dense acidic Mist the voracious gases of the Zone made it completely hostile to any life that it came into contact with thus it was said that these ancient people would Mount stilted constructs with which destroyed above the gases thousands of years later their descendants would continue the tradition taking to the battlefield Upon A construct known as an iron Strider engine these things were invented in the 33rd Millennium by a tech priest known as aldebraq Vin and don't let its somewhat silly appearance fool you the machine itself was an absolutely remarkable creation that was as close to perpetual motion as the mechanicus has ever been able to create it is designed in such a way that just by moving the engine powers itself one would assume that such a remarkable device would have earned the tech preset created it unprecedented accolades but the unfortunate reality is that that wasn't the case it is said that he was shunned and mocked by his jealous colleagues and would wind up dead under mysterious circumstances after his death all of the secrets of his designs and the knowledge of how exactly these things worked also mysteriously disappeared as a result the concept of Perpetual Motion would ultimately be abandoned by the mechanicum and they instead rely on replicating the design of the remaining iron Striders even though the knowledge of exactly how they function is unknown the replicated iron Striders as well as the ancient ones created by aldebra himself have never been turned off as the mechanicus fears that if they were to allow the machine Spirit within it to rest it may never be roused again the lore isn't 100 clear on this but I assume the tech priest responsible for maintaining these devices may have to commit to a lot of rich tools to keep these machine Spirits happy in the 42nd Millennium the iron Striders served this Qatari as mountable long-legged Walkers that can effectively be used as an all-terrain vehicle that can exist in constant motion for years at a time the vast majority of their systems are controlled by a servitor that is plugged into the device this allows the rider to focus on the battle the iron Striders are so remarkably efficient that the servitor itself is really the only part that needs to be swapped out every couple of years when this happens and the server wheezes its last necrotic breath if a tech priest is not immediately nearby to initiate the ritual of repair it's likely the iron Strider will continue to March forward in a straight line indefinitely whether that be often to the sunset or in some unfortunate cases directly into enemy ranks when a tech priest is available to repair the engine it will excise the dead flesh of the servitor and install a new one the remains of the former pilot being thrown into the dust without comment or concern the sidonian dragoons who are permitted to ride an iron Strider into battle are esteemed members of this guitari who have earned numerous accolades fighting in service of the cult mechanicus they wield crackling taser lances and emit a burning cloud of ocher mist from incense exhausts that are built into their mounts this mist is reminiscent of the ones that their ancient ancestors dwelt within the Mist can be used to Cloud the dragoons advance and also disorients targets when they charge into enemy ranks and they are absolutely vicious in melee combat and leave a gory trail of skewered corpses in their wake wherever they ride the balistari on the other hand utilize their iron Strider as a mobile sniping platform they take full advantage of its remarkable maneuverability to quickly move in and out of Ideal firing positions not only is their Marksmanship unrivaled within this Qatari Legions but at their command is a vast library of anatomical data including defensive capabilities and weaknesses of every species and factions the mechanicus has ever encountered before the battle begins the balistari will be permitted to download all of the mechanicus's knowledge about enemy leadership figures as well instantaneously memorizing thousands of potential variations in a warlord's unique silhouette they tirelessly scan the battlefield attempting to locate these targets of strategic importance once one has been found an audible chime will be heard and the ballastari will immediately be flooded with a whole host of hyper-focused stimulants when their targeting array falls upon the enemy warlord their prey has mere heartbeats left before they are wiped completely from existence it's said that when they catch the scent of prey there is nowhere left to hide as their heavy Weaponry can punch right through the armored hole of a tank as if it was made of wet paper before impacting the enemy Commander's skull in a violent and gory explosion kill shots coming to the balustari as naturally as breathing does to you or me this guitar that would be selected to join the Cerberus corpse are given the sacred task of bonding with a cybernetic construct known as a cyber canid these devices are seen as a great gift from the omnisaya and to waste it is to face deletion if after several Cycles the writer is able to success successfully bond with their cyber canid amago's haptic will determine if they are deemed worthy to enter the Cerberus corpse after joining the order the Cyber canaanid they have bonded with Will undergo a series of modifications to better suit their new role this comes in two distinct unit types the Cerberus Raiders and the Cerberus sulfur hounds the canads themselves are equipped with razor clawed limbs that allow them to easily maneuver through shattered terrain regardless of where they end up they will be trained in riding their quadrupedal construct into battle the Raiders act like incredibly mobile Scouts that excel at outflanking enemy positions in picking off key assets they use a system of advanced ocular arrays implanted in the rider's skull that are linked with the mount through the new sphere making the rider in their Mount act as a singular entity they are expert trackers and serve like a pack of hunting hounds that can sniff out Heretics no matter how well they may have concealed themselves The sulfur hounds on the other hand are equipped with phosphor blast carbines while their amount is equipped with a device of similar design that allows it to Exhale bouts of searing flame unlike their cousins that are used as Scouts these are shock troops that are remarkably effective at breaking particularly stubborn lines smashing into enemy forces and unleashing concentrated gouts of burning phosphorus that render their enemies to nothing more than piles of Ash and fragments of charred bone the final cast of skittari that I want to talk about are the winged jump troops of the terraxi they have been optimized for instinctive reaction and Agility each one of them equipped with a flight pack that is bonded to the individual Warrior through a series of elements of cogitation these work to seamlessly integrate the wings into the user's Anatomy becoming less of a tool and more of an extension of their own body the terraxi come in two different flavors of winged death dealing the sterilizers and the sky stalkers the sterilizers are trained and indoctrinated to be hyper aggressive and Excel in Death from Above style close range ambushes they are equipped with razor sharp talons on their legs and carry phosphor torches in their hands the sky stalkers on the other hand utilize their flight in incredible maneuverability to reach high Vantage points and which to deal death to the enemies of the omnisaya at long range in the grand scheme of Warhammer 40K the taraxi and the Cerberus corpse are relatively new units and factions that we don't know too much about yet as they were only introduced to us a few years ago so hopefully in a future mechanicus novel we will be given more more insight into their culture but as of right now we pretty much just have their entries in the new rulebooks to go off of the orders of the electro priests are another common unit that you'll see fighting for the adeptus mechanicus on the front lines each and every one is a conduit for the motive force and is absolutely bristling with electrical energies with which they will use to illuminate the heathens of the Galaxy there are actually two different types of Electro priests that have their own unique belief systems and fighting styles and let's just say as is all too common with different denominations of the same Faith they don't tend to get along the congregations of Electro priests are seen as the direct embodiment of the more Arcane and fanatical side of the cult mechanicus their orders are dedicated specifically to the worship of the motive Force the one-third aspect of the machine God that represents the spark that drives all systems be they organic synthetic biological or mechanical the mode of force is seen as the fire that leaps from neuron to neuron and the illumination that reignites cold reactor cores it runs like a current through the bodies of the electro priests they're implants that they have under their skin known as electus connect their entire nervous system together and allow this energy to build frantically over time its power accelerating proportionally based on the priest's mental state when they get whipped up into our religious fervor they can generate bioelectrical pulses strong enough to incinerate incoming projectiles the electors themselves are a device that is worn by just about every member of the machine God's faithful and in their simplest form can be used to remotely access a wealth of identifying and hierarchical data the ones worn by the electro priests however are vastly more complex and Powerful they can take the form of small metallic Wafers silvery streams of motile nanoservators and in some extreme cases even full body networks as they are implanted Under the Skin most of the time they are completely invisible however some Electro priests have theirs designed in such a way that they radiate vibrantly up through their flesh appearing as glowing runes or streaking bolts of lightning they are viewed by their bearers as a prestigious Mark of the machine God's blessing now the reason it's so important that we know about the electus is better understand the two major factions of Electro priest because at the heart of their philosophical differences is the way in which the mode of force and thus the implants used to wield it as a weapon are utilized there are two main sects of Electro priests the fulgarites and the corpuscarii and the two factions don't tend to see eye to eye in a somewhat literal sense as electoral priests don't have eyes as the constant channeling of electricity normally causes them to burn away or bubble out in a dribbling mess at some point in their careers instead seeing by sensing electromagnetic signatures and seeing the world as a crackling vision of the motive Force but also in a more philosophical sense as well you see the Schism that divides the two sex goes all the way back to pre-imperial times back then the corpuscarii believed the machine God's light needed to be brought to the Galaxy that through this Divine Light all Savages could be illuminated their Crusades used considerable amounts of resources but those early Pioneers believe that the omnisaya's power was in infinite the fulbrights on the other hand had the complete opposite perspective and saw the blatant wasting of the Holy motive Force as outright Blasphemous they were appalled by the sheer quantity of resources frivolously consumed by the Corpus christ Crusades they believed wholeheartedly that the motive force was a finite resource and by lavishly Illuminating their ships even though no members of the order needed light to see and in practicing a fighting style that channeled the blast of electricity through the air they were disrespecting the machine God's power this philosophical disagreement would lead as most often do in human history to open Warfare between the two factions these were known as the conduit Wars and even to this day the red planet of Mars still Bears unmistakable scars inflicted by the electropriest and their bitter Wars of Faith by the time of the 42nd Millennium they would reach a point where they could coexist with one another open Warfare between the two factions being incredibly rare but that doesn't mean their issues have been resolved far from it neither side has a ended their beliefs their fighting has just become far more subtle and political in nature the Corpus carry eye Advanced through the battlefield chanting litneys and hymns to the machine God as his energy builds in their veins they are protected by barriers of shimmering energy known as voltage Fields the Fanatics can summon lightning at will through their electrostatic gauntlets through violent bursts of energy the machine God's Wrath is funneled into their enemies and in what they believe to be an act of mercy and great generosity The Condemned is granted the Ecstasy of full body electrocution in that brief second before death the heretic will be forced to witness the machine God's holy light before being shaken apart and burned from the inside out in stark contrast to the overzealous use of the motive Force the Fulbright do not fight it ranged and instead crackle with energy they have stolen from those they have bludgeoned to death in combat whereas the corpuscari believe in the generous spreading of the machine God's light throughout the Galaxy using it to enlighten non-believe levers the fulgarite instead seek to reclaim it to tear the bioelectrical life force from the heretic the witch and the Alien and bind it with the omnisaya that only those deemed worthy by the machine God should possess his life-giving energy to this end they would willingly render every culture that did not fully devote themselves to the worship of the omnisaya to nothing more than Dust in the Wind to the fulgarite the wasteful use of energy is a sin on par with allowing a heretic to wield its power they Don no armor and forsake the use of any powered Weaponry marching directly into the enemy ranks and bludgeoning them to death with their Electro leech staves a device constructed out of multiple conductor rods that draw energy out of the target with every strike storing it in a series of capacitor cells on one hand these weapons are incredibly effective against war machines or any form of powered armor or weapon but in a disturbing twist they are also able to suck the bioelectricity from living creatures their foes collapsing to the ground after a single strike strike their corpses left cold and motionless as the fulgarite warrior strides onward into battle the stolen energy being used to power the holy instead of the heretic the legio cybernetica is said to be one of the oldest branches within the adeptus mechanicus and is responsible for the production and maintenance of all of their robotic constructs sacred war machines that have gone unchanged for thousands of years and are as revered by the mechanicus as they are feared by the enemies of mankind long ago they were said to control Legions of these constructs but nowadays each one is seen as an absolutely Irreplaceable Relic as the knowledge needed to produce many of the more powerful robots was lost long ago the cybernetica can trace its Origins back to the days of the Dark Age of Technology when scientifically minded individuals built great hosts of automata and gave them the power of independent thought this was a grievous mistake one in which Humanity would pay for dearly with the coming of the men of iron thousands of years later at the formation of the fledgling mechanicum the sacred Accords known as the Crimson Accord of Mars was created to serve as the Cornerstone of doctrinal law one of its decrees was that any who would attempt to resurrect The Forsaken heretical practice of creating what they referred to as silica animus soulless automata or abominable intelligence would be tortured until death human curiosity however is a Fickle thing and despite the consequences and many others would attempt to utilize this technology believing themselves Superior to those that had come before and that they were intelligent enough to avoid the mistakes of the past some believe that it wasn't just something being able to think that it was sentient's equivalent to Humanities that was the root of the problem and thus experimented with AIS and no more intelligent than beasts these lesser works of synthetic life were deemed sacred and thus the Bestia mechanica and their Kindred were deemed just intelligent enough to not be a threat to Mankind's continued existence that being said their Kindred would be handed over to the new newly formed legio cybernetica to control others however took a far more heretical approach blending machines with sentience they pulled directly from the immaterium these attempts would lead to disastrous consequences there are few surviving records of these experiments and those who attempted them but accounts from the time of the Horus heresy indicated that warmaster Horus would end up sponsoring the creators of these terrifying war machines this was the origin of what would become known as the dark mechanicum but we're going to end up covering them much more in depth in their own video despite the fact that the robots or battle automatons they would end up creating were either wholly dependent on a living human to issue them orders or if they had any form of intelligence it was no greater than that of a really dumb toddler or a really smart Labrador Retriever something even broaching a thinking machine was treated with great caution by the larger mechanicum thus from the beginning it was decreed that the cybernetica would be broken down into smaller independent units known as cohorts effectively limiting the power of any single mag most Dominus by locking them into a weaving web of fealty and Reliance upon the great machine Lords of the mechanicum and its Forge World their robotic constructs are nearly identical to the dreadnoughts employed by the Space Marine chapters in parts and construction the only major difference between them other than their appearance and weapon systems is that the robots are equipped with a cortex an artificial brain constructed from synthetic proteins and enzymes rather than being piloted by a mortally wounded Space Marine these synthetic brains had been imprinted with firmware routines allowing them to follow simple commands like opening doors moving to a specific location or engaging certain battle protocols the cybernetica is capable of creating all kinds of different robots whether they take the form of non-combatants like robot crawlers in Servo automata or those made explicitly for Warfare like the castellan robots the castle in themselves are gifted with immense physical strength and rugged stamina they are the ultimate War Machine in that they Harbor no sense of Doubt or weakness each one is an unliving Giant assign specific War purposes by their data Smith Masters their thick heavy plating and sheer bulk grant them the ability to weather enormous storms of heavy fire whilst utilizing their Advanced array of weapon systems to deliver the omniscaya's Wrath to all those that would deny the cult's superiority these robots have been in service to mankind since the earliest days of the mechanicum and although not confirmed many Forge worlds claim to have functioning models that have been in service for Millennia even before this the claim itself is not entirely out of the realm of possibility as the technology and knowledge utilized in their creation has existed since the Dark Age of Technology unfortunately the knowledge has long since been lost so all of the castillans in service are at bare minimum multiple Millennials old thousands of years ago the robots of Legion cybernetica were said to exist in numbers large enough to single-handedly lay waste to entire xenos Empires but those days are no more as the vast majority of these great machines have been lost to time each and every one is viewed as a Priceless and irreplaceable thus only mago's a particular Authority are able to requisition their use and if one was to be lost or Falls in battle the mechanicus will sanction extreme expenditure in order to recover them the castellan robot is only able to follow simple commands and thus will enact one of many carefully designed battle protocols they are not intelligent enough to switch them on on their own and thus a data Smith is required if the data Smith ends up getting killed or at the very least separated from his robotic host the castle in will follow the commands of the selected protocol indefinitely until they run out of energy which in an active war zone of constant fighting could potentially take weeks to occur there were Tales of Castle and robots that have continued in their brutal assault waging in an unceasing war of brutal and Mindless violence against the enemy their Rampage continuing through a city's empty streets long after the last corpse of their foe have grown cold some of the known protocols that castles utilize are that of the Conqueror where a robot will advance at frightening speed charging straightforward into enemy ranks like a massive of murderous wrecking ball they batter their way through hordes of enemies swinging massive piston-driven fists that obliterate anything they come into contact with including flesh armor and even the ferrocrete of enemy fortifications with relative ease conversely when the guardian protocol is enacted the castlin will forsake fighting in melee to instead reroute the subroutines normally dedicated to Locomotion to that a Precision bombardment once activated the robot will lock in place their heavy weapon systems roaring to life and becoming a protective Bastion of unrelenting Firepower they dismissed that preferred this protocol will often replace a castulance fist with a set of phosphor blasters further amplifying the robot's catastrophic damage they are able to inflict at long range once the data Smith initiates their ballistic subroutine the robot unleashes a hurricane of glowing phosphorus shot the white hot spheres impacting the Target and sizzling wildly as they eat through flesh and armor alike the cult mechanicus is decreed that flesh is weak and the Machine is pure to this end the opportunity to command a group of these holy machines is the equivalent of being tasked with leading a host of angels into battle I don't think it's that out of line to say that the mechanicus is one of the most interesting factions in all of Warhammer 40K they have access to some of the most advanced technology that Humanity has ever seen and sit upon a throne built of raw data they are privy to the wisdom of the universe and with each and every exploratory Fleet that they launch they come ever closer to understanding the true nature of the machine God although their efforts have persisted for over ten thousand years the Quest for knowledge is far from complete they yearn for a day when man and machine will Bond as one and the will of the andesiah will be made manifest they will continue to wage their Holy Wars across the Stars until the Glorious Day of apotheosis comes to fruition I love the mechanicus as a faction they are easily one of my favorites but even still I can't help but feel a deep sense of sadness whenever I read about them despite their overwhelming numbers and ridiculous level of Technology they were a faction built upon the foundation of lies and hypocrisy the ability to truly innovate was lost long ago and is practiced only by a few who they deem as Heretics Innovation being replaced with reverence for the time in which Humanity was the architect of its own destiny they emulate the great minds of the past by forsaking that which allowed them to accomplish true greatness in the first place they are completely enslaved to ancient history Bound by rigid adherence to tradition and esoteric rituals whose true purpose and meaning has been lost to time discernment and comprehension have been sacrificed in the name of right dogma and edict they view themselves as Superior to all those not as blessed by the machine goddess they and callously strip away more and more of their Humanity with each and every day they condemn all those that go against their Creed as blasphemers viewing any that would dare attempt unlicensed Innovation as a heretic yet they continue to inflict all manner of atrocity against their own people by their account they maintain their alliance with the Imperium only as it furthers their own goals and Ambitions the what happens when the leaders of holy Terror decide to pursue a path they deem offensive to the machine God they believe their way of life laws and system of Faith to be superior to all others while conveniently ignoring that they are completely dependent on the Imperium to continue to exist but it doesn't matter they will continue their Relentless quest for knowledge sending fleets into the darkest corners of the Galaxy not in the name of Discovery and advancement but in the desperate attempt to get one more fleeting glimpse into a better age so long as their armies maintain the ability to obliterate any that would offend their Creed and their holy machines continue to be appeased through their ritualistic sacrifices the cult mechanicus will stay the path dragging Humanity into the future by shackling them to the Past driven ever onwards towards entropy and ignorance the deepest irony being that every action they take to inch ever closer to the emulation of the machines they hold so sacred is done with the fervent faith and obsessive ambition of mortal men no matter how fiercely they deny it no matter how much of their flesh they sacrifice no matter how close they get to the Grand designs of the machine God the mechanicus is ultimately a slave to its own Humanity

Channel: WesHammer

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Keywords: warhammer, warhammer 40k, warhammer lore, warhammer 40k lore, adeptus mechanicus, mechanicum, mechanicus lore, tech priests, 40k mars, adeptus mechanicus lore, games workshop, skitarii, skitarii lore, titans, 40k titans, titans lore, 40k knights, imperium of man, astartes, space marines, god emperor, omnissiah, machine god, machine spirits, weshammer, deep dive, 40k deep dive, magos, inquisition, imperium lore, 40k tera, faction deep dive, 40k explained, ad mech lore, ad mech

Id: 9K84LBcyI5k

Length: 100min 54sec (6054 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 10 2023