Adeptus Mechanicus

[Cagarner]

Today, there are no towers as high as the spires of Mars, no cities greater than the hive of Mars, and no men more devoted to the pursuit of knowledge than the Tech-Priests of Mars.

Mars is the greatest and most populous world in the entirety of the galaxy-spanning Imperium. Sprawling hives climb miles into the Martian sky and their foundations delve hundreds of miles into the core of the planet itself. In many ways Mars is less of a planet and more of the greatest space vessel ever. Orbital factories circle its globe, their ceaseless industry forming a glowing halo around the red planet.

Above the equator vast space docks float in geo-stationary orbit, for this is the home of the mightiest fleet in the Imperium, the Battlefleet Solar. Untold tens of billions of human souls live on the ancient world. They are the people of the Cult Mechanicus and the devoted servants of its technarcane Machine God.

Mars is the homeworld of the Tech-Priests, the ruling class of the Cult Mechanicus. Throughout the galaxy there are many other worlds that belong to the Tech-Priests, planets whose people also form part of the huge and powerful organization. These other planets are called Forge Worlds and Knight Worlds, and though none are as ancient of powerful as Mars, each has its hives and factories, its industries and its cavernous temples to the Machine God.

Each of these worlds is a colony of the Tech-Priests, controlled by its own Techno-Magi and responsible for its own affairs. However, the ultimate loyalty of all the cult members is to the Cult Mechanicus itself, and to its masters on the planet Mars.

But this was not always so.

HISTORY

THE AGE OF STRIFE

The planet Mars has been changed enormously since man first set foot upon it two hundred centuries ago. Using a technology long lost, Mars was converted from a red desert into a fertile pale image of Earth using arcane terraforming procedures. Vast amounts of water and air were brought from who-knows-where to accomplish this transformation and the network of graviton satellites with their associated force shields were set up to protect the planet from solar radiation.

Once terraformed, Mars was settled by industrial cartels and their work forces, and soon this activity grew into the first human hive world. Unlike Earth, the planetary core of Mars has long since cooled and congealed so that its abundant riches can be mined directly, so the true wealth of Mars has always been its abundant gems, minerals, ores, and native metals. Mars thus became the center for industrial production and research, and its very name became synonymous with technical expertise and scientific advancement.

With the coming of the Age of Strife to Mars the process of disintegration began as it did on Earth, but because of the unique conditions on Mars events were to develop entirely differently. Because of lack of maintenance the planet’s atmospheric radiation shields soon broke down. Solar radiation poured onto the surface, destroying the fragile ecosystem and wiping out sparse vegetation which had taken millennia to cultivate. Plagues caused by high radiation levels slew most of the population. Of those that survived most became deranged by sickness, many turned into mutant zombies or gibbering cannibals. The destruction of the entire planet seemed likely, however this was not to be, for a new idea began to spread among the survivors, a religion of survival - the Cult Mechanicus dedicated to the Machine God.

The devotees of the Machine God saw technology as their path to salvation. They sought out the now scattered technology needed to build temporary radiation shelters. The cult demanded absolute devotion from its followers, for only by selfless dedication and often personal sacrifice could machines be recovered or the planet be saved. Under the direction if their Tech-Priest leaders, the cultists set about restoring order to the world. They built shelters to protect themselves from the radiation storms, and oxygen generators and food processing machines to enable them to live behind the enclosed shielding.

There were few shelters for even the Tech-Priests and none at all for unbelievers. Marauders and mutant raiders tried to force their way inside the hurriedly constructed buildings. Many of the cultists died defending their shelters and some early shelters were destroyed, but the survivors emerged all the stronger and more determined.

The people of Mars interpreted their survival in the face of tremendous odds as vindication of the Cult Mechanicus. Their resolve and devotion to the cult became unshakable. Whilst rival warlords battled over the remains of Earth, the Tech-Priests rebuilt Mars in the image of their inhuman god. On red sands there rose the first temples of the Machine God and the people came to worship at the High Altar of Technology. It is believed by the Adepts of the Machine Cult that the first words of the Prayer of Preparation date from this time.

The Tech-Priests scoured the ruins of Mars for surviving machinery which they enshrined within the Temple of All Knowledge. Within the temple’s plasteel shell shining pistons held the vaulted roof almost a mile above. The shafts of each piston were so constructed that they moved to raise and lower the roof, altering its acoustic properties to accentuate the hymns of praise sung to the Machine God.

The High Altar within took the form of a vast database containing the whole knowledge of the Tech-Priests. Even today every new discovery is dedicated to this altar. Every temple on Mars and throughout the Knight and Forge Worlds is connected to the High Altar by means of a living Transmat link, a psychic Servitor whose mind co-joins all altar of the Cult Mechanicus into one holy machine entity. At this time too arose the belief that when the High Altar was complete and contained all the knowledge of the ancients which had been lost, mankind would transcend its mundane existence and achieve a state of eternal paradise and omniscience. The leader of this transformation would be the Omnissiah, an all-knowing, all-conquering Lord from off the planet.

When the Cult Mechanicus had restored order to Mars, its leaders looked to Earth and beyond, hoping to find remnants of human knowledge on other worlds. The Tech-Priests were appalled at the destruction on Earth and judged there was noting worth saving. Instead they turned their attention to the wider galaxy. However, their spacecraft were unable to break through the warp storms that raged throughout the galaxy, isolating our solar system and many others besides.

The Tech-Priests studied the warp barrier for many centuries, observing the nature of the warp storms and the energy patterns within, treating the whole problem as a test of their worthiness by the Machine God. After many lifetimes they were able to predict when the storms were at their weakest and made preparations for an expedition beyond the solar system. At last an opportune moment came, the warp storms abated as predicted, and a massive fleet set out from Mars. The spacecraft of the Cult Mechanicus new that this might be a on-way journey and so took every thing they needed to seed a new colony including thousands of Servitors and Tech-Priests, and an entire Titan Legion for conquest or protection.

After a few short days the warp storms regained strength once again and all contact was lost with the fleet. The Tech-Priests waited for a sign from their Machine God, and faithfully started to prepare another expedition.

Over the next thousand years many similar expeditions were constructed and launched into the void. Some were lost or destroyed, but others were successful in their mission. Slowly at first, throughout the galaxy new colonies of the Cult Mechanicus were founded, each a replica of Mars with its temples and hives, its factories and its hierarchy of Tech-Priests. Each new world was protected by its Titan Legion and then by its Tech Guard as well. These new worlds were called Forge Worlds.

Whilst the storms persisted the Tech-Priests of Mars could only guess how many of their space fleets had survived passage through the tumultuous warp. During moments of relative calm broken messages were down loaded into the High Altar in the Temple of Knowledge, fleeting reports from the Forge Worlds, data from recovered machines, confirmations of new discoveries or desperate pleas for help. But there was little the Tech-Priests of Mars could do to aid individual worlds, and it was not until the time of the Great Crusade in the Age of the Imperium that the Forge Worlds were to be permanently and finally united with Mars.

[Cagarner]

The Tech-Priests’ spacefleets found an anarchic galaxy where the ancient confederacy of interdependent human planets no longer existed. They discovered that the Eldar too were facing social degeneration. Many of the Eldar had taken to the worship of the Dark Gods of Chaos, and everywhere the Eldar worlds were falling into ruin. Some Eldar had already chosen to abandon their homeworlds and set up new colonies of Exodites untainted by the evil of Chaos. The Tech-Priests also found that wild Ork warbands rampaged throughout the galaxy, looting and destroying, causing unrest everywhere.

The human worlds discovered by the Tech-Priests retained little of their old technology. The had devolved into feudal states ruled by aristocratic nobles who welcomed the Tech-Priests as long awaited saviors. Those that did not welcome the Tech-Priests did not survive long. The Tech-Priests settled amongst these feudal empires, or Knight Worlds, choosing planets that were mineral rich where they could rebuild their industries. The established contacts between the Knights, trading with their worlds and investigating the ancient ruins where surviving technology could still sometimes be found. The Knights provided manpower and security against enemies such as marauding Orks and land-hungry Eldar Exodites. In return the Tech-Priests provided technical expertise and help rebuilding their planets.

Over the millennia the Forge Worlds became powerful and the Knight Worlds flourished under their wing. The Tech-Priests and Knights became mutually dependent and each Forge World became the hub of an empire consisting of the forge World and its surrounding Knight Worlds. The Knights learned much from the Tech-Priests and their societies were gradually transformed into technically sophisticated cultures. Many of the Forge Worlds were successful in maintaining sporadic contact with each other, and the Tech-Priests’ obsession with knowledge ensured that discoveries on one world were down-loaded to altars throughout the galaxy.

The most important innovations that the Tech-Priests brought to the Knight Worlds were the fighting machines called Knights. These machines were one-man versions of a Titan, much smaller and less powerful than a real Titan, but far more suited to the mobile style of warfare prevalent amongst the nobility of the Knight Worlds.

Today these Knights fight alongside the Titans and form a reserve of troops which can be called up into the Titan Legions when required. Each machine is piloted by a noble of the Knight Worlds, a Knight warrior within a Knight machine, for these worlds have maintained their feudal societies over the millennia. Indeed, the acquisition of technology and the active support of the Tech-Priests enabled the warrior nobility to strengthen its position of power on their worlds.

THE AGE OF THE IMPERIUM

It is now ten thousand years since the Age of the Imperium began, It was at the start of this glorious age that the warp storms finally ended with a single massive storm of unbelievable destructive power. The warp is formed from psychic energies which affect and can be molded by the minds of psychically sensitive mortals. As a result of the final collapse of the storms many humans were killed as a psychic shock wave spread throughout the galaxy.

The Eldar worlds were at the center of this shock wave, spelling the end of planet-bound Eldar civilization. Some Eldar escaped by means of massive space arks called Craftworlds. The Eldar Exodites who already distanced themselves from the hub of their civilization also survived. Other Exodites arrived among the Knight Worlds looking for places to settle, seeking planets seeded by their ancestors thousands of years previously, the Eldar Maiden Worlds. Many of these worlds were now already settled by the Knights and wars broke out throughout the Knight Worlds as Eldar tried to oust the Knights. The Forge Worlds and Knights managed to prevent the Exodites settling nearby. Over the following centuries the Exodites and Knights would fight many long and arduous wars.

On Earth the lifting of the warp storms signaled the beginning of an age of rebuilding and resurgence. From the battling warlords of Earth emerged one far-sighted visionary, a man of mysterious origins whose knowledge of past technologies astounded all who spoke to him. History does not recall his name only the title he came to assume in later years - the Emperor. This great leader united the warring people of Earth and prepared the way for the reconquest of the galaxy by his Space Marine Legions.

On Mars the Emperor was recognized as the long awaited Omnissiah of cult legend. A frenzy of popular uprising swept through the entire Cult Mechanicus as word spread of his coming. When the Emperor arrived on Mars in person he was hailed as the Machine God Incarnate and the Tech-Priests and Techno-Magi alike came to acknowledge his leadership and marvel at the technical secrets at his command. Some of his essence was united with the High Altar of Technology and he survived the experience, proving that he was indeed the Omnissiah.

Not all amongst the Cult Mechanicus were happy with this turn of events. Many of the senior Magi resented the disturbance of the status duo threatening, as it did, their own power base. A few of these malcontents led a rebellion and seized the Temple of All Knowledge from where they called the faithful to a holy war against the Emperor, the false Omnissiah. The conflict that followed was short and bloody, and ended in the defeat of the reactionaries and triumph of the Emperor’s followers. Mars and Earth were reunited after millennia of separate development.

With the massive human resources of Earth and the colossal technical power of Mars the Emperor began the re-conquest of the galaxy. This might enterprise is known as the Great Crusade and it lasted for two hundred years. The emperor’s forces spread out from Earth and Mars, searching for surviving human worlds and driving out alien usurpers. Many long forgotten planets were liberated during the Great Crusade and many worlds were settled anew. Gradually the Imperium expanded throughout the galaxy.

Forge Worlds throughout the galaxy were able to establish secure communications with Mars following the end of the warp storms. Many Forge Worlds were able to contact the High Altar or Knowledge, and many technical advances and discoveries were spread as a result. The position of Mars and the Cult Mechanicus as the leader of the Forge Worlds was reaffirmed and spacecraft began to travel between the worlds regularly.

Many Forge Worlds found themselves at war with alien invaders, especially Orks, now that space travel was viable once again. Although the Forge Worlds were able to help each other to some degree, they were everywhere forced onto the defensive. Some Forge Worlds were destroyed, and many Knight Worlds were devastated. As the Great Crusade advanced it was able to free the Forge Worlds from these attacks. Many an enemy, anticipating slow but eventual victory was totally destroyed when caught between the forces of the Forge Worlds and the forces of the Great Crusade. The liberation of the Forge Worlds was a great military advantage to the Imperium, because their considerable military might could be added to that of the Great Crusade itself.

As the Emperor’s forces pushed further and further into the galaxy, the Forge Worlds were able to supply arms and equipment, weapons, spacecraft and other essential munitions to the advancing spearheads. Titan Legions form the Forge Worlds joined the cohorts of the Space Marines to extend the borders of the Imperium still further.

As the Great Crusade reached the edges of the galaxy the Cult Mechanicus founded new Forge Worlds to act as forward supply bases. These new planets soon grew and established their own Tech Guard forces and even Titan Legions. Surrounding planets were colonized from the Knight Worlds, replicating the long-established pattern of the other Forge Worlds.
Final victory was close, all knowledge might be recovered, the Omnissiah was here to lead mankind onward, but it was not to be.

As the Great Crusade reached ever outwards, encompassing almost the whole galaxy, a new and unthinkable threat emerged to challenge the resurgence of humanity. This was the rebellion known to later ages as the Horus Heresy.

[Cagarner]

HORUS HERESY AND AFTER

This is not the place to describe at length the fierce battles of the Horus Heresy. The galaxy was torn asunder as Space Marines fought Space Marines and Titans battled Titans. Horus’ strategy was to move against the Emperor directly, attacking Earth with as much speed and as many troops as he could muster. Earth’s defenses were weak and reinforcements were weeks behind Horus’s fleet. On Mars, the Tech-Priests did little to intervene directly, knowing that the Omnissiah would prevail. There was considerable division within the Adeptus Mechanicus, and many of the Forge and Knight worlds were wracked by civil war within the Cult Mechanicus. On Mars, the Fabricator General sided with Horus. Civil war there raged between factions of Tech-Priests. Ancient forbidden weapons were deployed. Viral plagues killed millions. Many installations were scoured from the face of the planet. It was because of this in-fighting that the bulk of the Adeptus Mechanicus was unable to aid the Emperor, but the loyalist forces kept the majority of the rebel Titan Legions in check.

The Emperor appointed Kane as acting Fabricator General on Earth, and there Kane was responsible for the rapid design and construction of war machines used to defend the Imperial Palace itself. These forces failed to throw back or even halt the attacks, but their failure bought valuable time for the Emperor.

In the final event the war was to be won by the Emperor, but only at the cost of his own life as he battled Horus in personal combat aboard the Warmaster’s own battleship. From that day forth the Emperor has lived only as a spirit sustained by psychic energies, his life force inhabiting a corpse held together by stasis field, the bulk of his spirit integrated by the essence of him contained in the High Altar of Knowledge on Mars.

Following the defeat of Warmaster Horus the Imperium of Mankind was re-established afresh. The organizational basis for the Imperium of the 41st Millennium was laid down in the years following the Emperor’s incarceration in the Golden Throne. At the time Imperial organizations were instated in forms which have endured broadly unchanged for ten thousand years. Institutions created by the Emperor to serve his Great Crusade became the ruling bodies of the sprawling empire. Their chiefs became the most powerful men the galaxy has ever known. These individuals are the High Lords of Terra, a conclave which includes the chief military and administrative officials of the Imperium.

The new ruling body of the Imperium as a whole was known as the Adeptus Terra, the Adepts of Earth, a term which included not only the High Lords but all the organizations under their control. Over a period of time the term Adeptus was formally adopted as the title for all officials of the Imperium. During the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy the Cult Mechanicus had taken a leading part in all the triumphs and failures of the Imperium. Now the Techno-Magi prepared to play their role in the rebuilding process too.

To establish their place amongst the new rulers of the Imperium, the Cult Mechanicus became the Adeptus Mechanicus, and its cult leaders became High Lords of Terra, taking the title Fabricator General of Mars. Over the following millennia the people of Earth and Mars would march forward together, welded into one mighty Imperium, yet distinctly different societies with their own governments and institutions.

Since that time, the Adeptus Mechanicus has kept aloof form the politics and administration of the Imperium, except where dire necessity has made this essential.


Once the Tech-Priests had built their first temples on Mars and established the Tech-Guard to protect them, they also laid the basis for an offensive military arm for the Cult Mechanicus, the Titan Legions. They created weapons capable of functioning in the hostile environment now found on their planet. The vast fighting machines they built were Titans. These vast constructions are unlike anything ever seen on Earth, vast humanoid shaped weapons of destruction powered by plasma, or fusion, reactors and carrying mighty engines of destruction. On a world as barren as Mars now was the Titans could stride effortlessly over the hostile landscape where mere troopers of the Skitarii would be engulfed in the poisonous wastes and choking dust of the Martian deserts. Since that time the Titan Legions have formed the backbone of the armies of the Cult Mechanicus. Now, as a part of the Imperium of Mankind, they serve the Emperor.

Of all the galaxy’s fighting machines none can match the sheer size and power of a Titan. The largest Titans bristle with weaponed turrets and carry potent guns capable of destroying entire cities. Inside the Titan’s armored shell countless crew busy themselves with their duties. Some operate the throbbing engines that propel the machine enabling it to walk over the battlefield. Others direct its potent weapons of destruction, guiding its turrets and aiming its lethal missiles. A Titan is a ponderous battleship of the land. A machine of such size and complexity that it is accompanied by infantry and tanks so that it can deliver its substantial firepower in the most effective way. Some Titans carry troops into battle, their towering leg sections form mighty bastions from which squads of troops attack the enemy.

The construction of a Titan takes many years. Centuries of endeavor lie behind a single machine. The largest and oldest Titans of all are held to contain a spark of the Machine God’s divinity. They have a holiness invested in them by virtue of their antiquity and technical complexity, and the knowledge contained in their many machine spirits. The Tech-Priests bedeck the Titans with banners proclaiming their divine nature. On the eve of battle they anoint the machines with blessed holly oil and perform the Mass of the Cult Mechanicus before the entire legion. The sacred names of the Titans are chanted amidst readings from the Manual Technicanum Titanicus. To the Tech-Priests a Titan is more than a fighting machine it is an aspect of the Machine God, a holy and worshipful creation of Technology. To serve aboard a Titan is to serve the Machine God in person. To die there is to be joined unerringly with the spirit of the Machine God forever. Service aboard a Titan is the greatest that a mere mortal can perform.

When the Cult Mechanicus first started re-exploring the galaxy and establishing new Forge Worlds a complete Titan Legion of sixteen machines was sent to protect the new colony and crush its enemies. When the Emperor led mankind on the Great Crusade the Titan Legions of the Adeptus Mechanicus marched alongside the Space Marines. As the Imperium expanded the Adeptus Mechanicus took many worlds for themselves, planets which they settled and turned into the Mechanicus Forge Worlds. The became bases for the Titan Legions throughout the Galaxy, so today the Titan Legions are spread across the Imperium where they defend the scattered Forge Worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The exact number of Titans or Titan Legions is unknown, but as a minimum it must be conjectured that each of the over 1,000 Forge Worlds has a complete Titan Legion of sixteen machines. Demi-Legions are often dispatched to aid Imperial forces against great threats and, in times of emergency, whole legions may be sent to fight. In the recent Third Campaign for Armageddon the Adeptus Mechanicus dispatched four full Titan Legions, Ignatum, Invigilata, Tempestor, and Victorum. The Demi-Legion Crucius and the Quarto-Legion Magna were already on planet from the Second Armageddon Campaign, and the Demi-Legion Metalica represented the survivors, repairs, and new construction of the original Legio Metalica which was present on Armageddon at the time of the First Campaign.

[Cagarner]

A simple calculation of strength is not enough however. The Legio Ordo Sinister is the most elite and senior of the Titan Legions and consists of only twelve Imperator class Titans. Under the command of its renowned Grand Master Ferromort, the Legio Ordo Sinister has been used exclusively for inspiring terror and obedience in those who are in danger of disobeying the Pax Imperium. In this respect the Legion often works in conjunction with the Adeptus Arbites, the Inquisition and the Ecclesiarchy. The carefully planned assaults of Grand Master Ferromort are famous for their precision, ferocity and flawless execution. Great pains are taken to use the Legion as an example of implacable and faceless Imperial efficiency. The Legion remains an instrument of precision for the Imperium - a well-honed saber rather than the sledgehammer of planetary bombardment or the broadsword of Space Marine intercession.

On the other hand, the Legio Destructor is probably the largest titan Legion, comprising over a hundred machines of all classes. This is not surprising since the Forge World it defends lies only a hundred light years from the Eye of Terror and on the edge of the Ork empire known as Charadon. Led by their eccentric Grand Master Thaedius Wilson the Legio Destructor have fought off numerous Ork Waaaghs! and eruptions of Chaos from the Eye of Terror. It is rumored in some areas of the Adeptus Mechanicus that the constant exposure to Ork attacks has made the Legio Destructor increasingly unorthodox in its outlook and behavior, particularly in its attitude to battle and combat. The Princeps and crews of the Legio Destructor hunger for battle with an unusual exuberance. So far this thirst for battle has been viewed as a useful attribute, especially against foes other than Orks who find the Legion a highly unsettling opponents. But even the Fabricator General himself is believed to have expressed surprise on hearing that the Titans of the Legio Destructor are now fitted with sonic amplifiers so that the Legion can reply to the Orks’ howls with their own battle chant: ” big death, Big Death, BIG DEATH!”

The sixteen machines of Legio Metalica were on Armageddon at the start of the first campaign against Ork Warlord Ghazghkull uruk Mag Thraka. After the assassination of the Legion’s Grand Master, Princeps Senioris Kurt Mannheim was ordered by the foolish and erratic, and now Traitor, Overlord of Armageddon, Herman von Strab to go out unsupported and destroy the Ork invaders. By Imperial law, Princeps Senioris Mannheim was compelled to obey, and the almost complete destruction of Legio Metalica forms an exemplar of duty and honor in the face of adversity for the entire Imperium of Man. Although outnumbered three to one, the Legion destroyed many more than its own numbers of Ork Gargants and many of their supporting troops. Titan Steel Hammer commanded by Princeps Senioris Mannheim destroyed three Gargants before becoming seriously damaged, but even then he pressed on into the heart of the Ork army before his plasma reactor exploded. The attack and explosion, and a flank attack by Servitor forces from Armageddon’s factories enabled some wrecked machines to be recovered, and the damaged survivors to withdraw. At the end of the campaign Mannheim was posthumously awarded the Emperor’s Star for his bravery and loyalty to the Imperium. The Legion has been rebuilt and has won acclaim in the subsequent campaigns for Armageddon.

During the Horus Heresy a number of Titan Legions were corrupted or co-opted by the Warmaster’s forces. The most notorious of these was the Legio Mortis. The Legio Mortis was in direct support of Warmaster Horus before his daemon-possessed treachery against the Emperor. The Legio Mortis followed him willingly. When the Horus Heresy began by the virus-bombing of Istvaan III, it was the Legio Mortis which made the landings to scour the corpse-packed hives for the pitifully few survivors. Some say that it was mutated strains of this virus which brought about their final corruption. When the Legio Mortis landed on Earth to besiege the Emperor’s palace they were warped and mutated almost beyond recognition. The adamantium skins of their Titans were pocked and bubbled with foul effluvia, great tentacles of flesh and metal lashed and their titan heads had been transformed into drooling daemonic visages.

The remnants of the Legion fled to the Eye of Terror following the collapse of the rebellion, and from time to time, Chaos titans bearing the tattered banners of the Legio Mortis have attacked human planets to wreak terrible vengeance on all living things for the defeat of their beloved Warmaster.

From the above examples it can be seen that the fighting power of the one thousand known Adeptus Mechanicus Titan Legions must easily exceed that of all the Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes combined, and that with only the forces we know about. The numbers of the cohorts Knights and Castellans cannot be less than the number of Titan Legions, and the number of their machines cannot be less than ten times more than the number of Titans. These forces spend most of their time protecting the planets of the Adeptus Mechanicus and so their true strength and numbers are not revealed.
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Add-On Commentary:
Wow, its longer than I thought it would be.