The Adeptus Mechanicus. You can't have science fiction without the science, and the masters
of science for humanity in Warhammer 40k are the Adeptus Mechanicus. Combining cyberpunk
philosophies with elements of zealous piety, the mechanicus are viewed with a mix of fear,
awe, and curiosity. They are both seperate from the rest of the imperium of man as well
as joined at their hip, and their fate is largely tied to that of the rest of humanity.
We'll take a look at the various belief systems of the mechanicus, their history, and of course,
their technologies.
The mechanicus got its start many millenia ago, when humanity first moved beyond terra
and colonized the planet Mars. Mars was terraformed, and a colony began prospering there, developing
their own culture. The colonists of Mars were primarily scientists and engineers along with
miners and manufacturers. This colony would eventually become known as the Mechanicum
of Mars, and in their seperation from the rest of humanity they developed a new religion,
the cult mechanicum.
A number of commandments would later be written by the cult mechanicus to codify their tenants.
The first set are known as the mysteries. First is that life is directed motion, 2nd
is that the spirit is the spark of life. 3rd is that sentience is the ability to learn
the value of knowledge, and fourth is that intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
Both knowing the value of knowledge and understanding that knowledge is key to the cult mechanicum.
Fifth is that sentience is the basest form of intellect, meaning that just being sentient
is not enough, as you have to continue up the ladder of gaining and understanding knowledge.
This leads to the sixth commandment, that understanding is the true path to comprehension,
and the seventh, comprehension is the key to all things. Comprehension for the mechanicum
is notably different than just understanding, a sort of transcendent state of intellect
that every cult member strives towards. Finally, the 8th mystery is that the Omnissiah knows
All, comprehends all. The omnissiash is the god figure of the mechanicum, the embodiment
of all knowledge.
The second set are the warnings of the mechanicum, beginning with the alien mechanism is a perversion
of the true path, which is par for the course for humanity. Next, the soul is the conscience
of sentience, and a soul can be bestowed only by the omnissiah. The soulless sentience is
the enemy of all, which refers to artificial intelligence, or as they usually call it,
abominable intelligence. The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question, and the
machine guards the knowledge of the ancients. Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the machine
spirit, and to break with ritual is to break with faith.
Let's break some of these concepts down, as they are essential to understanding the adeptus
mechanicus and the tech priests. The cult mechanicus believe in the divinity of knowledge,
that the pursuit and understanding of knowledge is the highest and holiest path that a sapient
individual can work towards. A man's flesh is weak and fallible, and ultimately their
body is nothing more than a receptacle to hold their accumulated knowledge. Technology
and machines are a concept of perfection, and tech priests will commonly cast off their
mortal flesh in exchange for machined parts to bring themselves closer to their god, the
deus mechanicus, also known as the machine god. The machine god is believed to be the
progenitor of all knowledge, an omnipresent, omniscient force that is inherent in the universe.
The machine god has appointed humanity as its chosen people, and according to the tech
priests, reveals its designs through selected prophets. Followers of the machine god pursue
knowledge in order to reach a transcended state of comprehension so that they can understand
the deus mechanicus. Since the cult mechanicus believes that all knowledge already exists
in some form, they are more devoted to safeguarding what they know and recovering technology from
humanity's past than researching new technology.
Additionally, the cult mechanicus believes in the concept of machine spirits, extensions
of the machine god that inhabit every piece of technology in existence. Whether or not
a piece of technology functions is entirely based on its machine spirit's disposition.
If a gun's machine spirit is happy, it will fire as it should, whereas if it is upset,
the gun will certainly jam. To appease the machine spirits and make sure they are kept
happy, the tech priests of the adeptus mechanicus will carry out countless exacting rituals,
involving prayers and very specific motions. If even a single screw is tightened incorrectly,
it could upset the machine spirit inside of the piece of technology. As the final warning
says, to break with ritual is to break with faith, so it's less about understanding exactly
how a piece of technology works, and more about believing in a ritual that appeases
a divine force.
I've been using the terms mechanicum and mechanicus interchangeably, but they are not the same
group. The mechanicum was the original organization that developed on mars, and would later be
fractured during the horus heresy. The members of the mechanicum that remained loyal to the
emperor became part of the adeptus mechanicus, renamed to distance themselves from the heretical
dark mechanicum, and they became more integrated with the imperium of man.
Let's go back to the original mechanicum on Mars however. The colony on Mars was largely
independent from Terra, and so during humanity's initial conquests of the stars, both the terrans
and the martians conquered a number of their own planets. The martians made these planets
into massive forge worlds covered with countless factories continually outputting endless scores
of machines. This was an era where humanity's technological knowledge peaked, and the entire
scope of that knowledge was contained in tremendous databases known as standard template constructs,
or STCs. Colonists would be sent down to a planet along with an STC, which would provide
all of the information and plans to create shelters, power generators, transports, and
anything else they might need. The age of strife eventually came however, and humanity
turned on itself, including the empire on Mars. Mars was the site of a great power struggle
involving terrifying weaponry that scorched away the terraformed surface of the planet.
Most humans on Mars fled underground to avoid the deadly radiation from the sun. A single
faction however managed to dominate the other martians, the mechanicum. The mechanicum began
constructing new cities known as forges, each ruled by a tech priest. All of the mechanicum
answered to the highest ranking techpriest, the fabricator-general.
The Mechanicum of mars began to dispatch fleets out into the universe once again to claim
planets in the name of the machine god, and the forge worlds became not just sites of
endless production, but also essentially massive shrines. The mechanicum also battled with
the techno-barbarians present on Terra, whom they viewed as savages who used technology
that they did not properly venerate. This hostility lasted until the god-emperor unified
terra and traveled to Mars to negotiate a treaty. The emperor arrived on Mars in a golden
ship, and managed to fully repair a machine with a single touch, leading many members
of the mechanicum to declare him as the omnissiah, the physical representation of the machine
god. This of course made the treaty process a lot easier, and so the treaty of mars was
signed, in which the mechanicum would agree to provide countless weapons, ships, vehicles,
and other equipment for the emperor's great crusade, and in return the emperor would permit
them to retain their religious autonomy, as well as retaining control of any forge worlds.
With the treaty signed, the great crusade of the imperium could begin, but it would
also be the start of a schism in the mechanicum. Not all of the mechanicum believed the emperor
to be the omnissiah, instead seeing him as a sort of false prophet, who would eventually
strip away the mechanicum's autonomy. Some also resented the fact that the emperor had
turned the mechanicum into one giant engine of war, and that he had forbidden the mechanicum
from researching certain technologies, such as AI.
Some time later, when the horus heresy broke out, Horus sent a mechanicum representative
named Regulus back to Mars to convince the fabricator-general to join him against the
emperor. Horus promised the mechanicum that they would retain their autonomy in his empire,
and that they could research whatever technology they wished. The fabricator-general at the
time had already resented the emperor, and so he led what would become known as the dark
mechanicum in a civil war against their loyalist brethren. The battle became known as the schism
of mars, as the traitors fought against the loyalists, and millions died both on the surface
of mars, as well as in the space around it. Ultimately, the dark mechanicum emerged victorious,
and the loyalist mechanicum survivors fled Mars, although imperial forces managed to
blockade the planet until after the battle of terra where Horus was slain.
In the aftermath, the dark mechanicum fully joined the forces of chaos alongside the chaos
space marines, and the remaining members of the loyal mechanicum are remade into the Adeptus
Mechanicus, a key component of the newly reforged imperium of man. The fabricator-general is
now given a position as a High Lord of Terra, the chief governing body of the imperium.
The Mechanicus continued to dive deeper into their beliefs, becoming less and less capable
of creating new technology, and instead focusing on venerating and worshipping the technology
they currently possess. Despite this though, they do relentlessly continue their search
for STCs, the holy grails of knowledge. So far, no intact STC has ever been found, and
the mechanicus gets by with only ancient print outs.
So, the techpriests of the adeptus mechanicus in the 41st millenium are a bit more priest
perhaps than engineers, but they still are responsible for some incredible pieces of
technology. Everything from lasguns, to bolters, to rhinos, to cruisers and battleships are
built and maintained by the mechanicus for use by the imperium of man, and additionally
reserve some technology for their own armies, notably titans. A titan is a massive, robotic
mechs ranging from 50 feet tall to hundreds of feet tall or larger. Titans are an incredibly
fearsome sight on a battlefield, and are easily capable of leveling entire cities or carving
trenches out of a planet. The Mechanicus also field some of the mightiest ships available
to humanity, called ark mechanicus, used as part of their ongoing quest to find and reclaim
STCs. The primary infantry of the mechanicus are the skitarii, fanatical warriors heavily
augmented with cybernetics, capable of fighting in almost any atmosphere and equipped with
advanced weaponry. The Mechanicus are also responsible for creating servitors, mindless
drones used to carry out simple tasks across the imperium. Either vat grown or made from
lobotomized criminals, servitors are capable of acting with only the most basic instincts,
programmed to only follow a task they're designed for. They generally feature cybernetic enhancements
related to tasks such as carrying heavy loads or mining, but there are some servitors that
carry out combat roles.
Most of humanity in warhammer 40k is wrapped up in a zealous belief in a religion, and
the adeptus mechanicus are an interesting facet of that. Rather than continually moving
forward to create newer and more impressive technology, they only look towards the past
in desperate hope of finding lost knowledge. They have complete and utter faith in the
machine god, but there might be something rather interesting about the machine god.
It's said that many millenia ago, the man who would become the emperor of mankind battled
with a creature known as the dragon of mars, and sealed it away deep underneath Mars, in
the noctis labyrinth. It's unknown why the emperor imprisoned this creature instead of
just destroying it, but its possible that he lacked the power to do so. It's unknown,
but believed, that this dragon is actually a C'tan, the oldest creatures in existence
that betrayed the necrons and went to war with the old ones. This c'tan, named Mag'ladroth,
or the void dragon, was said to be the most powerful of the c'tan, and its unknown what
it's fate was after the war in heaven, but it's whispered to be slumbering beneath Mars.
There are discussions then, that what the original mechanicum worshipped was not an
omnipresent machine god, but instead a c'tan sleeping underneath Mars. This is all hearsay
at the moment, but the ramifications could be drastic if this were the case.
Combining cyberpunk with religion is a very interesting combination, and the adeptus mechanicus
end up being one of the most interesting aspects of humanity in warhammer 40k. It's said by
some that the imperium could not survive without the mechanicus, but the mechanicus could survive
without the imperium. While that's certainly a topic for debate, it would be interesting
if a schism ever developed between the factions, especially if the c'tan underneath mars actually
woke up. Either way, the mechanicus operate in a very complicated and conflicted form,
caught between a yearning for knowledge and a fanatical devotion to ancient rituals.