Adeptus Mechanicus

• You gain +5 Intelligence and +5 to either Toughness, Agility, or Perception.
• You have 5 Advancements to spend on Dexterity, Logic, Lore, Medicae, Piloting, and Tech.
• You gain +1 Influence with the Adeptus Mechanicus.
• You gain a set of Robes, a Dataslate, a vial of Sacred Unguents, and 100 Askels.
• You gain one of the following: an Augery Array, a Vocal Implant, an Augmetic Respiratory System, or an Augmetic Sensory Organ.
• You gain one of the following: a Augmetic Arm, Augmetic Locomotion, or an Augmetic Heart.

Duties

You can choose one of the following duties to quickly create your character. Additionally, you have +1 Influence with the Adeptus Mechanicus, a set of Robes, a Dataslate, a vial of Sacred Unguents, and 100 Askels.

Apprentice Enginseer

Your duty is to divine the mysteries of Machine Spirits and work with the Holy Engines of the Omnissiah, repairing and maintaining machines of war.

• Characteristics: +5 Intelligence, +5 Agility.
• Skill Advances: Logic (1), Piloting (2), Tech (2)
• Augmetics: Augmetic Respiratory System and an Augmetic Arm.

Apprentice Genator

Your duty is to learn the intricacies of biological forms so that they may be improved upon by replacing the weakness of the flesh with the majesty of the machine.

• Characteristics: +5 Intelligence, +5 Toughness
• Skill Advances: Logic (1), Medicae (2), Tech (2)
• Augmetics: Augmetic Sensory Organ (one eye) and an Augmetic Heart

Apprentice Logis

Your duty is to gather, protect, analyse, and apply information of all kinds in the Omnissiah’s name.

• Characteristics: +5 Intelligence, +5 Perception
• Skill Advances: Logic (2), Lore (1), Tech (2)
• Augmetics: Augmetic Sensory Organ (one eye) and Augmetic Locomotion
  

"The Adeptus Mechanicus are the custodians of all Imperial technology". From the red planet of Mars, they maintain a parallel empire that venerates the Emperor in His guise of the Omnissiah. Their beliefs grant technology a mystic power that must be respected and maintained with prayer, ritual, and careful rites. In their worship of the Machine God, the Tech-Priests try to become more like their divine master. Their elders are more machine than man, with even the majority of their brains replaced by cold logic circuitry and whirring cogitators. This is the ultimate ambition of any "true devotee" of the Machine Cult: to rise through the ranks of the Tech-Priesthood to become a Magos of the order, replete with metal skin and an iron heart.

The Mechanicum is also the keeper of the greatest weapons known to Mankind. Foremost among these are the war engines of theCollegia Titanicus, the Titan Legions. Towering humanoid battle engines standing as tall as a hab-block and carrying weapons capable of levelling entire hives, Titans are only deployed against the direst of foes. Each is an ancient and sacred piece of technology, venerated as a walking expression of the Omnissiah’s might. The Mechanicum also controls other deadly weaponry, including virus bombs and vortex torpedoes that can only be fabricated and deployed with its help. To this end, Tech-Priests can be found in all Imperial organisations. Even the otherwise proudly self-sufficient Adeptus Astartes send Battle-Brothers to Mars for training in the secret ways of the machine. These Techmarines then return to their Chapter and use their knowledge to maintain its arsenals.

There is little, if any, innovation or progress within the Imperium; the principles of power systems, weapons, and voidships are all based on designs and patterns often thousands of years old. This is in part because of "the dangers such rampant technological advancement has brought down upon Mankind in the past", when legends tell of thinking machines and terrible planet-killing weapons that wrought havoc upon the galaxy. It is also because of the Adeptus Mechanicus itself. Every major Imperial organisation is oath-bound to the Cult Mechanicus, which "closely guards the secrets of technology; even the most powerful of rulers must defer to the Mechanicum in matters of technology". Tech-Priests rule over worlds, have their own fleets, and even raise their own military forces to protect their manufactorums and research outposts.

Those who serve the Machine Cult are often obsessed with technology, seeing the divine glory of the Omnissiah in every circuit and rivet and treating the operation and care of such devices as a sacred duty. Their very appearance sets them apart; even in an Imperium where cybernetics are not uncommon, their heavily augmented bodies are nearly inhuman. Many even "choose" to strip away healthy flesh and replace it with bionics to the point where they no longer see themselves as human, but rather as something that has "transcended mortal bonds". Their mental processes are also "augmented", with emotional responses edited or removed altogether and leaving many incapable of normal human interactions.

The result is often a contempt for the bulk of Mankind, seen as the wasteful by-product of evolution and an inefficient component in the divine precision of the Machine God. For the most part, the rest of the Imperium is content to allow the Mechanicum its mastery over their technology, raised to accept that "the secrets of the machine are for it and it alone", though this does breed an aura of distrust.

Adeptus Mechanicus Characters

From the depths of the Imperium’s greatest cities to the engine rooms of its grand interstellar navy, it is the duty of the Adeptus Mechanicus to "preserve and maintain the great technological works of man". Once a Tech-Priest has been trained and taken their oaths to the Omnissiah, they are dispatched to tend to some part of these great works, spending their years intoning the sacred prayers and rituals that keep a machine’s spirit alive and functioning. Some move beyond these simple processes of maintenance, rising in the ranks of the order to take on more responsibility or expertise. Others aid war efforts directly as Enginseers for the Imperial Guard . They may rule one of the many forge worlds, vital to feeding the Imperium’s insatiable appetite for war machines and other materiel. They could also serve as part of an Explorator Fleet in the holy quest for legendary Standard Template Constructs dating to the pre-Imperial Dark Age of Technology. Equally, they might engage in xenos research on the foes of the Imperium, such as the voracious Tyranids or the brutal Orks. A few might command their own outposts and stations, becoming lords of their own domains and devoting their long lives to the personal pursuit of technological mastery.

Others, such as forge labourers or adept minions, have lesser functions. Most aspire to one day join the Tech-Priesthood, so that they may "better
serve the Omnissiah". "Rarely", some might reject the Machine God and seek lives elsewhere, but still retain more skills and familiarity with technology than almost anyone else in the Imperium. "Many within the Cult Mechanicus aspire to become as close to the Machine God as possible", slowly enhancing their bodies with mechanical components until they are more metal than flesh. This can make them devoid of emotion, as they embrace the cold logic of the Machine God they serve, and sometimes put them at odds with others around them. Just as it relies on psykers, the Imperium could not function without the presence of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and whether its citizens favour a servant of the Omnissiah or merely tolerate him, they "could not survive" without their knowledge and skills.

When Mankind first voyaged to the stars, it went equipped for any eventuality. Knowing that when a colony fleet eventually arrived at its destination the settlers might find themselves cut off from aid and unable to obtain certain natural resources, many took with them the nigh mythical Standard Template Construct (STC) systems. These marvels of technology held details of every single advancement Mankind had ever made, from the tinderbox to the means to re-ignite cold stars. Wherever a colony might be founded, it could be sure that its STC system would provide it with instructions and the means to create the tools necessary to survive there. Should a population find itself without a certain metal, the STC would furnish it with the means to manufacture items from some other, locally available resource, meaning, even at the height of the Dark Age of Technology, planets varied enormously in the levels of technological advancement displayed.

Sadly, no complete STC systems are known to have survived the countless wars and disasters that have befallen man since first he went to the stars. At the most, the only trace of the STC systems are transcriptions of hard-copies, or surviving blueprints and manuals intended to instruct the users in their operation. To obtain an actual STC system, even one long dead, is the dream of every servant of the Machine God. Entire crusades have been fought and worlds have burned upon the mere suspicion that some newly-discovered planet contained such a device. From time to time, traces of some STC design are located, and these studied in impossible detail to ensure they are "pure and free of corruption". If and when declared so, such designs enter the canon of the Adeptus Mechanicus as re-discovered wonders from the far-distant past. Such discoveries are rare, however, and just as likely to describe an item of farming equipment as a mighty weapon of war.

In many ways, it is the search for lost devices collectively known as Archaeotech that drives much of the Imperium’s expansion. The Adeptus Mechanicus operates numerous Explorator Fleets, which plunge into the darkness beyond and within the Imperium’s borders in search of even a trace of such venerated technology. The same is true of the Rogue Traders, who constantly search for new sources of profit and power. For beyond the gaze of Holy Terra, the two factions often come to blows over even a rumour of a Standard Template Construct system.

Much like its secular counterparts, the roots of the Askelline Mechanicus predate the arrival of the Imperium by centuries. Though secretive, even by the standards of their esoteric order, the Forge Worlds of Askellon have dutifully supplied the weapons, ships, and wargear of the sector for the whole breadth of Imperial history. Their silent service is such a given in the halls of power that,  amongst the Lords of Askellon, "maybe we should see what the machine thinks" has become an ironic idiom, indicating an unnecessary or futile effort.

Indeed, even as other wings of the Priesthood of Earth quietly proceed with the sector's abandonment, the Priesthood of Mars tend their forges, seemingly heedless of the threat posed by a resurgent Pandaemonium. Every year, more Explorator Fleets weather the Infernal Storm's fury on their way to and from inscrutable prospects. Every year, rumours of ancient ruins, Archaeotech treasures, even entire parallel societies, fuel the rumour mills in Hiver slums and void-dog watering holes from Port Aquila to Port Lockhart.

The servants of the Omnissiah may have been some of the first humans to settle this part of the galaxy. As the shadows close in around Askellon, the embers from their forges may well be some of the last lights to wink out.

The Flow of Power

Though the Mechanicus has planets scattered throughout the sector, its thundering heart is the world of Cerix Magnus. From the apex of its tallest monutain-hive, the Arch-Fabricator of the ruling council, the Quorum Primus, issues directives that guide the machinations of forges and Enginseers across over a hundred worlds.

Though it has "absolute power over every servant of the Omnissiah" on its own, irradiated soil, the Quorum exerts little direct authority over its sister forges. Instead, it acts more as the 'first among equals', the others being Selvanus Binary and Core Theta, while lesser worlds, such as Rhodin IV, find their influence waxing and waning across the centuries. This position is further supplemented by a tangled array of contracts with the wider sector:

"Throughout the Age of Imperium, Cerix Magnus has led the forge worlds of Askellon, entering into a number of reciprocal arrangements with other factions including several nearby Knight Worlds. In return for the supply of weapons and other advanced materiel they manufacture, the numerous other worlds serve what needs it cannot meet itself. These range from raw natural resources vital to manufacturing, to Knights and other forces in times of armed conflict, to a supply of sinners to be converted into the many servitors each forge relies upon for its many tasks."

 - from Cerix Magnus.

Since "Outsiders are not welcome upon Cerix Magnus, nor indeed any Adeptus Mechanicus holding in the sector", it is difficult to gauge the breadth and depth of the forces the Lord Fabricator and their subordinates can call upon to protect their interests. Certainly, the Askelline Mechanicus rarely, if ever, requests aid from other branches of the Adeptus Terra. Many consider the Quorum's tendency to keep its own problems in-house as merely another another expression of the machine cult's arcane tendencies. Others see this more as a sign of a guilty conscience. However, all can agree that this approach renders Mechanicus affairs almost completely impenetrable to outside scrutiny.

Cracks have started to appear in the facade of late, concerning the conduct of High-Fabricator Dinuum, ruler of Selvanus Binary. A "longtime protégé of several on the Quorum Primus", the Magos has doubled-down on the puritanism typical amongst Selvanians, complementing it with a level of isolation more appropriate to a quarantine or seige than a prominent Forge World. Multiple complaints have been received at the Cyclopia Sub-Sector Praefecture on Desoleum in the last few decades, from Chartist Captains treated with suspicion, intimidation, and even open hostility, as they go to deliver and recover their chartered goods. The Quorum has so far offered no official comment on the incidents, but it's an open secret that Dinuum has become more and more reluctant to answer the summons of his nominal superiors.

Purity and Piety. Dinuum faces criticism and resistance from within Selvanus Binary as well as from his superiors on the Quorum. Every decade, he and the dissenting sect calling itself the Forged play an increasingly vicious game of cat and mouse in the hidden places of the planet. Above, an artificial moon looms in geosynchronous orbit, its ancient doors sealed to all but the handful of Askelline Magi whom Dinuum considers his superiors.

The Brass Scouring. No region of the Imperium was untouched by the Horus Heresy, nor the millenium of retribution and consolidation collectively referred to as 'the Scouring', and the Askellon Sector is no exception. For the Machine Cult, scattered records "hint at an unnamed treachery during this period, but areas of the three forge worlds’ archives have been deliberately sealed or even destroyed, and the truth may never be known. Echoes of this terrible occurrence, whispered as the Brass Scouring, still ring across the millennia, however".

Some point to this as the cause for the Askelline Mechanicus' secrecy, excessive even by Martian standards. Others have drawn connections between this event and stories of lost Forge Worlds, secret Titan legions, and the ceaseless passage of the Explorator fleets. Whatever the wild claims, all the stories agree that, however much the Quorum knows, they aren't telling anyone.

The Kappellax Correlation. Benighted as the Askellon sector is, it likely would have been abandoned millenia ago if not for the work of the legendary Arch-Magos Argo Kappellax. Her proofs, collectively referred to as the 'Kapellax Correlation', or 'Kappellaxian secrets', led to the revalation that the Warp storms afflicting Askellon "were not legion but instead a singular storm, rising and falling, though no aerythmatical formulae could fully predict its actions". Though 'unsolvable', the Correlation has been an integral part of navigation in the sector for millenia. Many have attempted to refine Kappellax's work or apply it elsewhere across the years; those who misuse its knowledge, however, have a tendency to wind up either dead or purged.

The conjectures of Unknown. A respected figure in the Ordo Xenos, Klor Durran recently drew much mockery with claims that the semi-mythical 'Men of Iron' could be found throughout Wilderness Space. Derision faltered, however, as the data from which the Inquisitor had drawn this conclusion was used to "predict a pattern of events [that]... without exception, ... have come about". Durran is currently in hiding, fearing the attentions of his more paranoid colleagues as well as whatever legends his research has revealed. Many fear, however, what his convictions could lead the increasingly Radical alien-hunter to disturb.