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Malcador Heavy Tank

2021-02-22T04:36:40Z

2001:8000:1005:FA01:E948:955A:2825:C7FB: There's a reason Assault Guns fell out of fashion

[[File:Malcador_Tank_War.png|480px|right|thumb|When even the [[Taurox]] [[FAIL|have less problems than you,]] you know that your tank has done fucked up.]]
The '''Malcador Heavy Tank''' is an ancient pattern of heavy tank, dating to the [[Age of Strife]] (presumably it had some other designation before [[Malcador the Sigillite]] came around and they re-named it for him). Like the [[Macharius Heavy Tank]], it resembles an oversized [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]], but while the Macharius resembles a Russ that has been cut and extended in the middle, the Malcador looks like someone at [[Forge World]] made a Russ out of silly putty and stretched it.

The Malcador was mass-produced for the [[Imperial Guard|Imperial Army]] during the [[Great Crusade]], where it distinguished itself from other tanks by its speed. Some of the Legions also took it into service to support their Fellblades and Typhons. Unfortunately, its drive was always temperamental at best, and between the loss of knowledge that occurred during the [[Horus Heresy]] and ten thousand years of repair and attempted retrofitting, the Malcador of the 41st Millennium is no faster than any other tank and prone to engine malfunction, represented in-game as a fifty-fifty chance of being completely immobilized rather than slowed down by engine damage. In the [[grimdark|grim, dark]] future, a static tank is a dead tank, and so it has since been superseded by the more reliable and cheaper [[Leman Russ Battle Tank]].

That said, the tanks were never destroyed, merely stored (or "moth-balled", as the practice is also known in the real world), and even though their design is out-of-date and ill-understood, they are still made by M'khand and other Forge Worlds in limited quantities to fill the gap between demand for super-heavy tanks and the production of "proper" super-heavies like the [[Baneblade]]. Many armory worlds still have large stocks of Malcador tanks on hand in case they are needed for an urgent engagement, and they are still used by second-line forces such as garrison regiments and [[Planetary Defence Force]]s. This sometimes bites the Imperium in the rear; during the Siege of [[Vraks]], Malcadors were withdrawn from storage and pressed into battle by the traitor forces.

The utility of Malcador tanks in the fluff (as they were used on Vraks) and questionably on the tabletop is as semi-mobile bunkers. Roll them into your fortified gun line, let their forward mounted weapon savage the enemy, and with Lady Luck and Admiral Awesome on your side, your Malcadors and any supporting forces will peel back to another fortified position before the enemy can dish out too much retaliation. In all honesty, though, the Malcador on the table top would need a notable buff in durability for this to be practical. *cough*Jeremy Vetock, are you listening?*cough*

That said, a line of them attack enemy positions would be quite potent. Limit traversal in exchange for greatly increased turret protection is worth it in such a situation since your enemy would be in front of you without need to worry about flanks or rear. This is what the Imperium uses the Malcador for anyway (line-breaking).

As of 6th and 7th Edition however, the Malcador Heavy Tanks are now Superheavy Vehicles with 5 hull points, making them surprisingly tough. While not quite as indestructible as the famous [[Baneblade]], they indeed fulfill their role nicely as a "Light Superheavy Tank". Because yes, 40k is that ridiculous of a setting to have tanks that can be put soundly into a category like that. As Superheavies, they are totally immune to the entire vehicle damage table. Additionally as a light super heavy they allow to use superheroes rules without your opponent wanting to strangle you for bringing a baneblade to a friendly game.

Like every other tank operated by the [[Imperium of Man]], the Malcador comes in many flavors:

== Malcador Heavy Tank ==
[[File:malcadorbc.jpg|250px|right|thumb|A Malcador Assault Tank. Would have been an okay tank if it wasn't for that fact that [[Rage|the fucking hull turret prevents me from firing at a full 360.]]]]

The original stretched Russ, except it has weaker front and side armor than the Russ and its turret can't spin all the way around. To be fair, during the Great Crusade it was armored enough that anything worth shooting would be within its firing arc anyway. Ambushes by lesser threats than it was meant to fight could be ignored by it, so the lack of a turret became an asset as the armored cover would protect the gun mechanisms from heavy enemy fire. It was a line-breaker after all, not an MBT. The Malcador Assault Tank is a truly ancient design dating all the way back to even the wars that consumed [[Terra]] during the [[Age of Strife]], if anything it can be considered as the [[Papalith]] of Imperial Tanks. It used to be quite good during the Horus Heresy, as its advanced engine made it Fast, and it could mount a [[Demolisher Cannon]] and fire its [[Battle Cannon|main cannon]] at full BS ''and'' make a Flat Out move. By the time of the 41st Millennium, however, the Adeptus Mechanicus have lost all knowledge of how the engine works so they get extra finickiness while moving the same speed as every other tank. The only advantages that this tank has are that its rear armor is slightly better and that it can soak a few more hits since it's a heavy tank.

As you may realize, the Malcador seem to suffer the most in terms of getting the short end of the stick. Other then the numerous problems as listed above, there is also the consideration on how much this tank gets treated in-universe as well. The Malcador was seen as so outdated it was eventually replaced in Legion service by the Land Raider Proteus, and by the time of the Horus Heresy many Malcador tanks had been relegated to the Legions' strategic reserves and second line Imperial Army units, only to be replaced by larger numbers of smaller, more tactically flexible tanks such as the Leman Russ and its many variants. Poor bastard can't catch a break.

In game terms, it really does deserve to have its front and side armour buffed to be on par with the Leman Russ Battle Tank. Its only redeeming quality is that its more survivable thanks to being a super heavy vehicle, though all of its positives end there. Its sponson weapons angles are dreadful, its main gun has limited traverse, it actually has worse armour values than the Leman Russ (as said before), its overpriced for what it brings, and it has the chance to immobilize itself whenever it moves, which if nothing else is crunch that pretty accurately matches the fluff.

Of course, the current rendition of it sets the Malcador's unit type as "Superheavy, Fast Tank", which is hilariously redundant. 7th Edition changed the Superheavy Type to automatically include all of the more specialized rules like Invincible Behemoth, and added default rules for them that didn't require apocalypse. All of this means that the Malcador became immune to all forms of penetrations except for 'Explodes!', gained the ability to Thunderblitz, and move a full 12" while still firing ALL of its weapons.

Ironically, if one was to replace the top casemate with an actual turret (like the one on the Russ), use the alternate box sponsons the Valdor and Infernus use and fix the engine, the Malcador would become a perfectly serviceable Heavy Tank for the Guard, becoming the Tiger to the Russes Panther. But that would be [[Heresy|tech-heresy]] and also regular heresy, because not being retarded is banned in the Munitorum. This is now even stupider with the release of the [[Aurox Armoured Transport#Carnodon|Carnodon]], which is from the same era as the Malcador and basically it's Medium Tank equivalent, yet manages to have both these. Although, the casemate would help protect from flanking strikes and also help in frontal assaults.

== Malcador Annihilator ==

[[File:Malcador side.jpg|right|250px|thumb|A Malcador Annihilator. Those are some nasty guns, but only if the enemy is between 11 and 1 o'clock.]]

Like the [[Predator Tank|Predator]] variant of the same name, the Malcador Annihilator has a set of twin-linked [[Lascannon]]s in its turret, though unlike the Predator, these cannons can only turn 30 degrees to either side which would later come and bite it in the ass as its immobile main turret can also prove to be a problem in a chaotic engagement where the lines of battle interpenetrate and the foe's infantry or armor units can take advantage of the Malcador's [[Herp|limited firing arc.]] Oh yeah, it also mounts a [[Demolisher Cannon]] in its forward hull.

There isn’t a strong defense for the armored casemate for the annihilator except in tight urban conditions in which only a moron wouldn’t have infantry protecting it’s flanks and rear and when assaulting a defensive position or one flanked by other defensive positions. Basically, any time having a turret would be pointless or vulnerable instead of a flexible asset. The Malcador is a line-breaker, i.e. it’s what brutally forces the battle line interpenetration mentioned above. The annihilator, however, has a main gun that needs mobility to be useful as enemy armor isn’t going to sit still and get shot. If it were an exterminator variant (twin-linked rapid firing autocannons) then the limited traversal would be harmless as it would still fulfill the line-breaking function but using the autocannons to suppress the enemy and destroy anti-armor newts while getting close for the demolished cannon to lay waste. But there, God only knows why, is no exterminator variant of the Malcador. Instead, the tank dueling variant reliant on mobility and a proper turret receives a variant. Great job, GW, truly outstanding.

The Malcador tank could also be outfitted with a variety of upgrades and attachments, such as Camouflage Netting, Extra Armour Plating, an improved communications system, a [[Hunter-Killer Missile|Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher]], a mine sweeper, a pintle-mounted [[Heavy Stubber]], rough terrain modifications, track guards, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.

The Malcador Annihilator was originally conceived as a field modification carried out on battle-damaged or unfinished production hulls intended to "up-gun" the tank's weaponry and extend its battlefield utility. The pattern's detractors hold that the variant is a hybrid intended to carry out two roles, [[FAIL|neither of which it can fulfill with any real ability.]] The tank is simply too slow and too large to serve as a true "tank hunter" but is not large enough or heavily armed enough (due to the limited supply of shells for its [[Demolisher Cannon]]) to be matched against a true super-heavy tank like an Imperial Baneblade in open combat.

Additionally, the Malcador Annihilator also suffers the same fate as almost every other Malcador variant. Its fucking engine. As you already know, the Malcador's main engine plant, a thermic combustor design that is a variant for military use of a common pattern used in industrial and agricultural machinery across the human-settled galaxy, is underpowered in relation to the Malcador's sheer size and mass. This reduces its performance and provides very poor fuel efficiency. Combined this with its stupid design choice and general underpowered firepower for something its size and you will get the Imperial's equivalent of a [[Fail|wet lemon.]] Further exasperating its already shoddy military performance. Still, against other, more conventional armored vehicles when it is part of a larger offensive force, the Malcador Annihilator can still prove its worth in the hands of a skilled crew.

This is, literally, a blatant rip of the French [[Wikipedia:Char B1|Char B1]] heavy tank, though the B1 had an actual turret.

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== Malcador Defender ==

[[File:40287_ced12559c5afcb4ecd338345a4574d30.jpg|right|250px|thumb|Malcador Defender. When you can't pick between a [[Baneblade]] or a [[Colossus (tank)|Colossus]].]]

Recognizing that the mostly-fixed-forward turret was a problem, the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] thought up the Malcador Defender. The turret was given five [[heavy bolters]], each of which covers a roughly 90-degree arc, so the tank can shoot at least one and up to two heavy bolters at anything in any direction (in addition to the sponson weapons--[[lascannon]]s, [[Heavy Stubber|heavy stubbers]], [[Heavy Flamer|heavy flamers]] or [[autocannon]]s). For anti-armor, they kept the hull-mounted [[Demolisher Cannon]]. These tanks were used to horrifying effect to defend breaches in the heretical lines during the Siege of [[Vraks]]. Due to this, the Malcador Defender is arguably (And ironically) the most effective of the Malcador tank variants. [[Lulz|It is more common in many Imperial armories than the standard heavy tank upon which it is based.]] [[YEEEAAAH!|*Cue G.I. Joe theme*]]

Basically, this tank puts the “tank” in “tank”. When you hear the word “tank” think of this baby. It’s a tank-tank.

Due to the nature of its armaments, it is well-suited to close-quarters combat, trench warfare and urban warfare engagements. In this role, the Defender's Demolisher Cannon can be used against well-fortified positions and enemy strong-points, while its multiple Heavy Bolters can sweep areas for hidden infantry and defend the tank from a close assault. Although the Malcador Defender is very cramped, fitting a large crew of 8 into its tightly-packed and blazingly hot hull, it is as prone to engine problems as the other variants of the Malcador tank, and its battlefield role means that it seldom operates far from support or resupply. This can mitigate the design's inherent problems and its firepower and considerable protection can make it a valuable asset to Imperial forces for both offensive and defensive engagements.

The Malcador Defender can be outfitted with a variety of upgrades and attachments, such as Camouflage Netting, Extra Armour Plating, an improved communications system, a Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher, a mine sweeper, a pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber, rough terrain modifications, track guards, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.

If their armor/hull was just a little thicker all the way around, imagine what they could do against Tyranids or footslogging Orks. With the 6th and 7th editions, maybe they can now. Given their fluff cheapness to mass produce (the Malcador and probably this variant and the annihilator, that is) and therefore it's common use in PDFs and the Tyranids coming...hmmm.

Since it's so dang cheap despite its size (likely due to lacking complex shit like a turret and inertia dampener for a too-big-for-the-turret cannon, so it's really just a metal frame with armored slaps nailed to it) the Imperial Guard should make much more use of it as an Infantry Tank. Emperor knows they could use it. Imagine if those heavy bolters were replaced with plasma cannons and the sponsons with assault cannons. Or autocannons on top and heavy flamers on the sides.

Much as the Annihilator is a OC of the Char B1, the Defender is an obvious rip-off of the Mark VIII. Due to this fact, it's rather surprising the Kriegers don't love them.

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== Malcador Infernus ==
[[File:Malcador_infernus_wip_2.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Behold, one of the worst designed vehicles of the Imperium. Even the [[Dreadknight]] is more practical than this hunk of shit. Just get a normal Hellhound instead. Though god help if you do end up in front of it: that's still a Titan gun!]]

It's an [[Inferno Cannon]] taken from a [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] and mounted on a tank. The Malcador Infernus variant has been mostly replaced by the faster and more reliable [[Hellhound]] in front-line Imperial Guard regiments. When the tech-priests realized that they had run out of room for fuel tanks, they decided to put them in a trailer towed behind the tank (instead of mounting several smaller armored containers on the read of the tank). [[FATAL|In retrospect, this was not one of their smarter designs]] though in their defense a few real world tank designers did this as well, though those designers were during the days most people didn’t know tanks existed, the AdMech exists after literally tens of millennia of tank warfare. Though it has a longer range and higher strength than the mini-Inferno Cannon used by the [[Hellhound]] (while on a more armored platform), it has the unreliable engine (compared to the Fast Hellhound), a hull-mounted primary weapon which is disastrously impractical especially for such a close range weapon and has a tendency to explode when catastrophically damaged.

Some Infernus tank crews will use corrosive chemicals as their ammunition instead of Promethium, turning the Malcador Infernus into an oversized [[Bane Wolf]] on steroids. The vehicle is also armed with two sponson-mounted weapons, one on each side. These weapons can be either [[Heavy Stubber]]s, [[Heavy Flamer]]s, [[Heavy Bolter]]s, [[Lascannon]]s, or [[Autocannon]]s. The Malcador Infernus tank can be outfitted with a variety of upgrades and attachments, such as Camouflage Netting, Extra Armour Plating, an improved communications system, a [[Hunter-Killer Missile|Hunter-Killer Missile Launcher]], a pintle-mounted [[Heavy Stubber]], rough terrain modifications, track guards, a Searchlight, and Smoke Launchers.

Immolating enemies is not the only thing the Infernus can do. The massive gout of flames launched from the Inferno Gun is also effective at clearing mines, the sudden heat detonating mine fuses and making large areas safe much quicker than alternative methods.

By the time of the [[Horus Heresy]] many Malcador tanks had been relegated to strategic reserves and second line Imperial Army units, replaced by newer and more powerful designs, although the demands of the galaxy-wide civil war soon brought them back into the fray, while their availability saw them used as test-beds for a variety of new variants designed to plug gaps in supply and resource. During the [[Great Crusade]] and Horus Heresy eras, the elite [[Solar Auxilia]] employed the Malcador Infernus in specialist reserves held at the Cohort level. They were generally deployed to lead advances against enemy forces occupying especially dense terrain, such as trench lines, city ruins or heavily forested areas.

[[Cheese|Do note that this thing is cheese incarnate. You can even upgrade to chem munitions, an S3 AP2 Poisoned(2+) Armourbane hellstorm template that will cover those Terminators in a fine glaze of cheddar.]] With supreme luck you can even pen a Land Raider.

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== Minotaur Artillery Tank ==

[[File:509859.JPG|right|250px|thumb|The Minotaur AKA ''My Anus is a Cannon!'' Fear my ferocious flatulence!]]

The Minotaur is a rare self-propelled artillery piece used by the armed forces of the [[Imperium of Man]] that can trace its origins back to the [[Great Crusade]] and maybe [[Dark Age of Technology|even earlier.]] The Minotaur was designed as a forward deployment fire support vehicle, and this is proven by the Minotaur's outfitting with an unusual amount of heavy armor and the vehicle's extreme durability.

Some [[Tech-priest]] thought it would be a good idea to take a Malcador chassis (though it could be based on what appears to be an earlier variant, or the original chassis design) and mount two [[Earthshaker]] cannons on it. The cannons are so large that it had to be mounted backwards in order for the tank to remain balanced and not dig into the dirt [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_(tank_destroyer) (this happened in real life with the Archer tank destroyer)]. Even though it looks goofy, and still has an unreliable engine, this design choice makes it the only tank [[Lulz|stronger in the rear than in the front,]] leaving it less vulnerable to [[Deep Strike|deep-striking]] assault troops. [[FATAL|That and the fact that it can deliver what amounts to a shot from a twin-linked ''basilisk'' point-blank.]] It probably would have been a better idea to put this configuration on a [[Macharius Heavy Tank]] instead, though.

When it needs to move again, it simply drives out forwards through the path it had already made for itself. The Minotaur's deck layout is also unusual, as everything from the engine and drive systems to the weapon and ammunition storage is spaced out evenly over the entire superstructure. The primary weapon system, a massive Twin-linked Earthshaker Cannon, is housed in a wide, centralized axis point, and features a complex hydraulic recoil suppression system. The centralized positioning of the weapon system allows the artillery piece to remain stable while firing its weapons even when positioned on difficult terrain.

The Minotaur is not armed with any other weapons but can be upgraded with a Pintle-mounted Heavy Stubber or a Storm Bolter. Despite this, Forge World has given it 2 Heavy Bolters in 8th Edition, likely because they just doubled the weapons of a Basilisk. I guess it has sponsons now?

During the 41st Millennium the Minotaur is a rare relic of war that very few will ever see, with the number of Forge Worlds capable of producing them having dropped steadily over the last millennia. With the steady replacement of this vehicle by the Basilisk, the Minotaur may soon become just another casualty of war. Although it is rumored like always that the Minotaur is stockpiled by those greedy fucks in the thousands inside of Departmento Munitorum storehouses, only specialized siege companies of the Imperial Guard will ever get to deploy their awesome firepower.

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== Valdor Tank Hunter ==

[[File:496832.jpg|right|250px|thumb|The Valdor. For those who want to turn those pesky [[Monolith|Monoliths]] inside out.]]

This variant was not named for Malcador, but for Constantin Valdor, Captain-General of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] during the [[Great Crusade]] and [[Horus Heresy]]. The Valdor tank mounts a [[Neutron Laser]] that somehow causes an electromagnetic pulse in tanks it shoots (it's an electrolaser, although the EMP is an afterthought for an already powerful laser weapon), but also risks getting damaged by the feedback if it misses. Because there wasn't enough room in the tank to put shielding around the reactor that powers the laser, the tank is more prone to catastrophic damage and its crew is at an increased risk of getting [[cancer]]. Not that the Imperium cares about tank crews' health.

Initial production runs were channeled to the elite [[Solar Auxilia]], in particular those cohorts operating against foes equipped with heavy tanks or in the case of the myriad xenos enemies still infesting the stars, tank analogues.

While not yet in common use (at that time), Imperial logisticians had projected that its services were likely to be required in ever greater numbers (Oh how they are ''wrong'' given the circumstance of the 41st Millennium), especially where Loyalist Solar Auxilia were called upon to fight the Traitor Legiones Astartes and the heavy armored vehicles they had ready access to. Ancient records found at the Scholastica Bellicose on the planet Mordia show that the Valdor Tank Hunter was most widely used during the [[Great Scouring]] after the Heresy, when the Imperium led the great counter-attack against the Traitor Legions, driving them all the way to the [[Eye of Terror]].

Of all the variants, the Valdor is perhaps the rarest and most expensive of them all. As a result, they are rarely deployed amongst the Imperial Guard's armored regiments. The 1st Cadian Armored Regiment, which helped to defend the Imperial Fortress World of [[Cadia]] in the Cadian Gate, possesses a total of only ''5 Valdor tanks''. During the Siege of Vraks the 88th Siege Army's intelligence officers believed that there was no more than 30 Valdor tanks stored inside of Vraks Prime's vast Departmento Munitorum storehouses, and these tanks were not utilised by the Vraksian Traitor Militia until much later in that infamous meat grinder.

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== Dracosan Armoured Transport ==

[[File:Dracosan.jpg|right|250px|thumb|The Dracosan is also known as the [[-4 Str|roided-up]] [[Chimera]].]]

A Heavy Troop Carrier built on the Malcador hull, the Dracosan was the foremost troop transport for the Imperial Army in the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy. It was large enough to accommodate twenty troops, and heavily armored enough to protect them from intense enemy fire. Its protection was greater than the ubiquitous [[Rhino]] and it is equipped with either a powerful twin-linked [[lascannon]] or a mighty [[Demolisher Cannon|demolisher cannon]] at the expense of some of its transport capacity.

The Dracosan was a common sight in the 30th Millennium, being manufactured under compact by several dozen Forge Worlds across the Imperium to standards only usually required of war machines destined for service with the Legiones Astartes. A heavily armed and armored carrier, the Dracosan was large enough to accommodate a fully strength Solar Auxilia Infantry Tercio of twenty auxiliaries, and heavily armored enough to protect them from all but the most intense of enemy fire. Being intended for service in hostile environments and even the void of space, the Dracosan needed to be absolutely air-tight as not to endanger the lives of its passengers and crew.

Equipped with a fearsome array of weapons of its own, the Dracosan could steadfastly defend itself against enemy counter-attack and pound enemy positions to dust before the auxiliaries disembarked to storm what remained of their objective. Given the necessary resources and expenditures to build such an exceptional vehicle, the Dracosan was employed almost exclusively by forces configured in the [[Solar Auxilia]] pattern, whether these "regular" Excertus Imperialis units or other forces following the same order of battle, such as the household troops of certain [[Rogue Trader]]s Militant or, occasionally, the elite retainers of high status Imperial Commanders. Of course, since at the height of the Great Crusade about a fifth to fourth of the Imperial Army ground troops were Solar Auxilia...

Unfortunately, unlike most Malcador variants, the Mechanicus suddenly went [[Derp|full retard]] and forgot, for the most part, how to construct these things. Which is beyond retarded since the thing is obviously just a fucking Malcador without a turret, using the space saved for a troop bay. And it was built by dozens of Forge Worlds so...yeah, that's basically the same as forgetting how to build the Leman Russ. Not happening.

== 8th Edition ==
GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE! The Malcador is now actually somewhat good! Now occupying the Heavy Support slot instead of being a Lord of War (with the exception of the Valdor Tank Hunter and the Minotaur), Malcadors share most of the Leman Russ' stats, with the exception of a +6 bonus to Wounds and +1 Leadership (woo?). In addition, apparently Big Bobby G. reminded the AdMech how to fix the damned engines, so they move just fine now, and with the elimination of weapon facing, the clunky turret design is no longer an issue. However, they can not be taken in Squadrons and have Forge World's inferior version of Grinding Advance, which simply eliminates the BS penalty for firing the Demolisher cannon that the Annihilator and Defender carry. So while they still have certainly not dethroned the Leman Russ as the lord and master of Imperial armor, taking them is now actually a valid tactic, as a serviceable heavy to the Russ's medium.

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
Image:Lemalcador.jpg|Someone managed to fix the Malcador by kit-bashing it with a Russ. <s>Why on Terra the Mechanicus doesn't do the same is anyone's guess</s> {{BLAM}} {{BLAM|Modifying tech is ''HERESY''!}}
Image:Plasma_Ram_A.png|Look we can either power the main gun or turn around not both.
</gallery>

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Adeptus Mechanicus

2021-02-22T04:35:13Z

2001:8000:1005:FA01:E948:955A:2825:C7FB:

{{awesome}}
{{Infobox 40k Nations
|name= Adeptus Mechanicus
|image= [[Image:AdMech_Flag.jpg ‎|300px|center]]
|bgcolor=
|fgcolor=
|Capital=[[Mars]]
|Official Languages=Cant Mechanicus (Major dialect Lingua-Technis and local dialects), Low Gothic (local variants), High Gothic
|Power=Galactic Great Power, effectively Galactic Superpower due to being a critically important subordinate organization to main Superpower
|Size=Galactic 125 Known Forgeworlds totals presumably in the tens-of-thousands or possibly higher depending on total Imperial planets Numerous outposts and research stations Various enclaves or legally exlusive zones in the wider Imperium
|Head of State=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]]
|Head of Government=[[High Lords of Terra#Members|Fabricator-General of Mars]], Martian Parliament
|Governmental Structure=Feudal Theocratic Technocracy (''Before Great Crusade'') Semi-Autonomous Corporatocratic Theocratic Technocracy (''Great Crusade-Present'')
|State Religion/Ideology=Cult Mechanicus / [[Omnissiah]] worship
|Demographic=[[Humans]], various [[Servitors]], assorted Transhumans and Cyborgs
|Military Force=[[Skitarii]], [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Collegia Titanica]], [[Ordinatus|Centurio Ordinatus]], [[Legio Cybernetica]], [[Imperial Knight|Knight Houses]], [[Imperial Navy|Adeptus Mechanicus Fleets, Explorator Fleets]]
}}
{{Topquote|I am... a machine|An ancient Terran Cybernetic law officer, serial numbers "R080-C0P" defended Hive City Detroit from those who would abuse the Omnissiah's subjects}}
{{Topquote|Sometimes I wonder why you submitted to the changes." "Improvements! I submit to no one. I chose them.|A-4D & General Grievous, in a galaxy far far away... }}
{{Topquote|Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.|Freeman Dyson}}
{{topquote| I’m an engineer, and that means I solve problems. Not problems like, what is beauty, because that would fall under the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems| An ancient Terran, known only as “The Engineer”, who was likely the first to use cybernetics. Namely, his own new hand.}}

Basically what happens when you combine the extreme technophilia and cyborg-fetishism of the [[Cyberpunk]] Genre with the religiosity and aesthetics of Medieval Catholicism, the '''Adeptus Mechanicus'''; [https://youtu.be/7p3H5avBJs0 Formerly] known as the '''Mechanicum''' and often shortened as '''AdMech''', is an organization in the [[Imperium of Man]] (In the loosest sense of the word) that simultaneously operates as a government ministry, religious organization and Technology Corporation, responsible for science, technology, engineering, manufacturing and most of the Imperium's Industrial production, as well as the operation of the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titan]] Legions.

The Adeptus Mechanicus, whose individual members are known as [[Techpriest]]s, own dozens, maybe hundreds of heavily polluted planet-factories known as [[Forge World#Planet|forge worlds]], which are covered in massive manufactoria or, as they are known to speakers of Low Gothic, 'work'. The largest forge world of the Adeptus Mechanicus is its homeworld [[Mars]], on which the most badass weapons ever known to man are made, most of which they refuse to share. Despite being part of the Imperium, the AdMech was actually its own nation and a respectable superpower in its own right throughout the Great Crusade and largely is to this day. The 'being-part-of-the-Imperium' shtick was a symbolic gesture of goodwill signed by the Treaty of Mars, but was codified when they became the "Adeptus Mechanicus" after their former leader fell to chaos. They still secured quasi-independence and private property rights though, courtesy of [[Awesome|marching an Imperator titan into the senate chamber and holding them at building-sized gunpoint]].

The Adeptus Mechanicus is basically the definition of a Mega-Corporation, or a [[Monopoly]]. They are simply so rich and powerful, and have totally privatized the production and manufacturing of technology for themselves, that they can basically buy the government and its politicians. The Imperium may hate the AdMech for being Heretics, but they have private claim to all the various Forgeworlds, Manufactoria, Mining worlds and Research Stations needed for the production of Imperium war machines. Where else can you even buy a new cellphone or have repair maintenance for your servitors, if not your local Techpriest? Because of this privatized monopoly, the AdMech has become an Empire within an Empire, and can ''possibly'' survive without the Imperium, while the Imperium cannot survive without the AdMech.

They have a monopoly on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk all the really cool shit for themselves (aside from the overpowered DAOT artifacts in the emperors basement)]—like Titans, [[Ordinatus]], and other wonderful stuff—only letting the Imperials have it when absolutely necessary or if they're threatened personally, with the justification of keeping the good shit away from [[Chaos]] in case an army rebels. They have two armies of their own, which are not anything like the [[Imperial Guard]], as they are mostly composed of badass angry technogrunge cyborgs that are more violent than ED209, [[Servitor|lobotomized minions]] manufactured out of clones and heretics, and [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|giant, world-devastating Super Robots]]. They are also technological rivals with the [[Tau|space weeaboos with transforming mecha]] (at least in tech that doesn’t assrape the laws of physics) and potentially have made a few advances beyond the [[Eldar]], though the Eldar are much more advanced in psionic technology (so much so that Craftworld technology is basically literal space magic).

Only the [[Necrons]], an entire race of robots whose race-wide robotization was not their most advanced feat, eclipse them technologically. The Adeptus Mechanicus are conflicted on how to perceive the Necrons; some see them as perverse because it's alien, some are envious of the Necrons, others revere them as agents of the Machine-God and tend to kill themselves attempting to [[Looted|loot]] Necron tombs (though [[Void Dragon|there may be truth to this]]).

They typically look like a cross between [[Star Wars|Jawas]] and [[/co/|Doctor Octopus]] with a healthy dose of [[Dune|The Bene Tleilax]], as well as wearing the sort of re-breather masks that you'll typically see on riot police. So yeah, pretty fucking [[Awesome|awesome]].

Basically, you can build what you want but knowing how always comes from the Mechanicus. They are the cap on advancement and science and who knows what technological secrets and who is permitted to build what and where and for how long. It’s entirely justified as anyone trying to advance separately invariably learns the hard way that the AdMech’s superstitions of tech might not be all that superstitious after all.

So far as their overall purpose goes, they’re basically the replacement of the Unification Wars’ Terrawatt Clan (who might still exist on Terra, nobody knows). After the Primarchs weren’t around to keep people from being stupid, the Imperial Cult became gigantinormous and the Mechanicus went on basically a techno-jihad and assimilated every independent scientific community, group, club, and individual or just killed any that refused. Since the Ecclesiarchy can build such things as their Rosarius shield generators and powered armor among other major technologies despite refusing to work with the Mechanicus on tech unless there is no choice, it seems likely any surviving scientists fled to other branches of the Imperium like the Ecclesiarchy for protection. Either that or the Mechanicus rules the Imperium utterly and just pretends to keep the High Lords around as a rubber stamp. This is 40k so either is equally likely.

It should be remembered that various civil wars in the Mechanicus, the reasons why the Steel Confessors were created, and other details seems to imply that by the 41st millennium the Adeptus Mechanicus has settled into its duty and become staunchly loyal to the Imperium and no longer circumvent or ignore laws and regulations although they are very much isolationists. Other than building stuff, the Mechanicus seems to have focused very heavily on its spiritual duties and doesn’t really seem to with-hold technology that doesn’t require an artisan to hand-make and a tech-priest to babysit so long as you can afford paying them for it. The Mechanicum wouldn’t have done that, but the 41st millennium Mechanicus appears to have decided on just building the shit people ask for so long as those people are capable of pampering it (and paying), and repairing/maintaining the stupidly advanced super-tech not even they understand and gawk at. So, now the cause of Grimdark has shifted away from the AdMech hoarding as it no longer does without good reason and into the Imperium being incompetent (or just callous to the core) and its Planetary Governors obscenely greedy instead of just forking out the cash to buy the good shit for the Guard regiments they raise.

==The Commandments of the Mechanicus==
[[File:AdMech_Map.jpg|500px|right|thumb|Map and legend of known AdMech worlds.]]
The Mechanicus have some ideas that they abide by:

'''The Mysteries:'''
#Life is directed motion.
#The spirit is the spark of life.
#Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
#Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
#Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
#Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
#Comprehension is the key to all things.
#The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

'''The Warnings:'''
#The alien mechanism is a perversion of the true path.
#The soul is the conscience of sentience.
#A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
#The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all.
#The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
#The machine spirit guards the knowledge of the ancients.
#Flesh is fallible, but ritual honors the machine spirit.
#To break with ritual is to break with faith.

== What the Mechanicus does ==
[[Image:Mechanical-man.jpg|thumb|300px|right|[[Awesome|"You may say, it is impossible for a man to become like the Machine. And I would reply, that only the smallest mind strives to comprehend its limits." - Fabricator General Kane.]]]]
The main role of the Adeptus Mechanicus is to maintain the advanced equipment of the Imperium; which despite stereotypes, they are actually very good at. Most of their rituals to appease machinery are pretty much the same methods we would use to repair our machinery with a whole bunch of religious iconography mixed in. The terms used by the Mechanicus are quite similar to our engineers if you swap some of the words (replace machine spirit with A.I, sacred oils with lubricant etc.) Because of its religious nature some of the components of the rituals are unnecessary but almost all Tech-Priests skip or abandon the unnecessary stuff in dire situations. It's also implied that the so-called holy chants are really them repeating instructions to themselves-useful for remembering what you're doing. The cases where chanting is actually necessary is where they are working with something like a [[Land Raider]] or Titan - both of which have a temperamental machine spirit - that you don't want to piss off.

They spend a lot of time traveling across the galaxy looking for some old laptops called "[[Standard Template Construct]]s" that have all the info necessary for the first human colonist do their job well (mostly a mix of Ikea and "high-tech for dummies" manuals). This is the reason why you will end up selling groxburgers if you study to be a scientist (unless you have balls or are a spess mehreen artificer who might make something really good) in the [[Imperium]]: everything was already done by the ancients in the Dark Age of [[Cyberpunk|William Gibson]] and recorded in these STCs, [[Jokaero]] be damned. Thanks to glitches, lack of maintenance, and Chaos corruption, nearly all the STCs found by the Mechanicus are more fucked up than Windows Vista. While the recoverable STCs are often useless or incomplete, there are rare instances where they are functional, such as the STC data of the Land Raider and the Land Speeder as well as Centurion armour. Another nice example is the one found in the novel Skitarius by [[Rob Sanders]], where the badass protagonist helps the Adeptus Mechanicus priests to find a sort of "Empyrean Bomb", capable of dissipating warp phenomena (this bomb's utilization would've negated the cause of the post-Iron War part of the [[Age of Strife]], which was caused by humanity's worlds being cut-off by [[Warp Storm|Warp storms]]). More often than not STC data comes from print-outs from fragmented STCs, or copies of these print-outs. These printouts, when discovered, are studied, translated and argued over for centuries before any useful products are made from them. If they ever find an undamaged complete STC, this would likely cause a schism within the Mechanicus and tear the Imperium asunder. It's worth noting that different writers seem to have different ideas of what an STC is. Some depict them as a single blueprint for some high-tech equipment, some depict them as a database of those blueprints, and on at least one occasion an STC was portrayed as a massive 3-D Printer. The Adeptus Mechanicus also sometimes attempt to loot [[Necron]] tombs and will gladly put an entire world at risk for this, and act like it's blasphemy of the most serious kind when people wall it off because of the goddamn killer robot skeletons! The idiots. The Priests of Mars also will not mind getting their hands on Xenos artifacts to see how such "blasphemies" can work, and maybe give a hint of how a [[Orky|"pure" design should have been.]]

[[Image:MECHANICUS.jpg|thumb|500px|left|The faculty of engineering never looked so cool!]]
Very rarely does the Mechanicus actually invent something. While they do adapt designs occasionally, the only things they actually invented from scratch is the [[Lascannon]], the Dunestrider perpetual motion machine (whose creator was promptly executed and all designs lost upon creation), as well all the [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]], except for the Reaver and Apocalypse Classes, which were invented during the Age of Strife and the Dark Age of Technology respectively. Which is pretty odd, until you realize they invented them [[Horus Heresy|pre-heresy]]. Even things like [[Land Raider]]s and [[Land Speeder]]s, which were said to have been given critically important parts by the famous Mr. Land himself, were actually just made from really old bits Land found in the galaxy's third biggest library/archive/warehouse (the one on Terra). Well, they also invented the Infernus pattern Predator. Sure they built it on the [[Rhino Transport|Rhino]] chassis, but they created a pattern without killing everyone involved. Of course, they aren't ''actually'' "inventing" it; they are using "divinely inspired reason" to create something that has always existed, implicit in the logical structure of the universe. This is, interestingly, not a new idea, traceable back to philosophers like Plato. Conveniently, the Mechanicus will play to no end with the meaning of the word "invent" if they must get job done, as too often and despite /tg/'s cartoonish flanderization your average techpriest has the common sense to "feel divinely inspired" whenever his/her neck is on the line, you know, desperation is the mother of all inven... Ahem, I mean, "divinely inspired reason". More recently, several of the cogboys under the influence of Archmagos [[Belisarius Cawl]] have relearned actual innovation, producing entirely new designs like the [[Repulsor Tank]]. If they'll produce something that isn't a ripoff of crappier franchises is another thing else entirely. Most in universe and out just wish they could recreate mass Volkites in 40k and other 30k era shit that hasn't been ported over yet, as well as [[Plasma#Phased_Plasma-Fusil|Plasma that doesn't explode when overcharged or requiring such a thing.]]

It's also important to mention is what they ''do not do.'' The Mechanicus by and large are the greediest gits in the galaxy, on top of being feudal as fuck. They hoard technology like it is going out of style, which would be fine, if they didn't hoard and defend it, but that isn't the point. The point ''is'' that each and every Forge World will basically [[Monopoly|try to own, buy, sell and take by force any existing technology]] while mostly paying lip service to Mars, and they're sure as hell not giving that STC of paperweight they found the other day to a neighboring Forge World. Getting a part, gun, computer, vehicle, schematic, program, eyepatch, cookie recipe, or even a [[Miniatures|tiny plastic model]] that wasn't specifically mass-produced and shipped to the [[Departmento Munitorum]] so ''they'' can give it to you, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk is nearly impossible.] Anything with any kind of passing significance or interest to the Mechanicus is guarded by 7-foot cyborg death machines. Anything in the private possession of a Mechanicus operative that ''might be'' harder to make than a bolt or nut is treated like the holy grail. I dare you to try and [[rage|take an 8,000 year-old flash drive from a techpriest who just found it.]] It's worse than taking little plastic models from [[tg|fat men]] [[neckbeards|with beards]].

=== Mechanicum Understanding of Science ===
There's the common misconception that the AdMech don't really understand science and approach all tech with ritual and superstition. That's arguably wrong. First thing first, both Mechanicus and AdMechs are very much alike to a medieval guild: superior wouldn't teach their pupil but the bare minimum needed to do their job. For example, young Tech-priest would know that if the light isn't turning green, he should (akin to a ritual) switch that circuit breaker and press that button, but they wouldn't know what it ''actually'' does. It doesn't mean that they don't learn real science while progressing through the ranks.

In the "Mechanicum" novel they demonstrate theoretical knowledge of physics. Yes, it's set in the 31st millennium, but it's quite clear that even in the 41st they know "normal" sciences like mechanics, thermodynamics, biology, optics, quantum physics, etc. The AdMech definitely has as much scientific knowledge as we have today, and probably more. And they are quite happy to play with it. What they don't really understand, and don't like to play with (unless absolutely forced to), is the hyper-advanced tech from the Dark Age of Technology. Basically, if it isn't so advanced that it's literal techno-sorcery, then they don't mind messing with it. Which is why we get goodies like Power Armor and Terminator Armor from back before such things started to decline; even volkite weaponry before that went out of style. But, they're not going to meddle with ridiculously advanced technology because they might create an abomination like something from the Long Night. In fact, it's entirely possible that's how horrifying techno monstrosities like those in the Age of Strife came into existence.

Take the Lasgun for example. There are almost infinite patterns of lasguns, many developed ''after'' the great crusade as the lasgun wasn't all that common back then. The AdMech understand materials and mechanics well enough to create different stocks and triggers. They understand optics to a decent degree as they can focus the las beam with different barrel lengths. What they don't understand is the power pack, because the power pack is a scary super advanced piece of technology that will not only hold enough energy for a hundred shots powerful enough to kill an armored man, but it can be easily recharged thousands upon thousands of times. And they don't have the slightest clue as to how it works. Such problems do not occur with more primitive technology: in Calixis sector many stub cannons and autopistols are constructed from scratch by Techpriests during meditations.

There's a quite good reason to that. The ultra advanced science used in the Dark Age of Technology was developed with the aid of AIs and super advanced computers. It's entirely possible that even the scientists of that time didn't fully understand their science and a lot of r&d was done automatically by artificial intelligence's far superior to that of any human's, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OHn5ZF4Uo&t with programing so complex no human actually knew how the damn thing was thinking]. Now you can't do this anymore because you know that AIs will try to kill you. In the "Mechanicum" novel the Dragon Caretaker says that the Emperor engineered the creation of the Mechanicum. Why would the ''atheist'' Emperor create a machine cult if not because it was the only way to retain technology that humanity would have no possibility to comprehend anymore once the AIs were wiped out.

This is interesting because it's said that the Emperor defeated the [[Void Dragon|Dragon]] during the late Roman Empire, for this purpose. This means that he foresaw the rebellion of the machines and the long night and allowed it as a means to develop a technology that could then be salvaged after. Or he just realized that a monster capable of controlling machines locked a stone's throw from Earth was really, really bad and decided to hedge his bets. If no AI rebellion, hyper-advanced cult of scientists dedicated to humanity. If AI rebellion, salvation for mankind. Either way, Man wins.

Then the Horus Heresy fucked up everything. And yes, the cult mentality of AdMech were involved probably more than they should have been. But the real reason that they don't go around innovating and creating new stuff is because it doesn't pay off. The real "power" of their technology comes from the Dark Age of Technology stuff and they are not able to touch that.

And this is not all. The lack of AIs and uber computational power hinders understanding advanced science to a point. it also absolutely wrecks your ability to produce practical applications of said advanced science. Let me make an example. You are fifty years in the future and fusion energy is an everyday reality from fusion power plants. ITER worked after all. You are transported on to a desert island and you have all the scientific knowledge of humanity in your brain. You are asked to build a practical fusion based power source. You can use any tool and component but you don't have access to computers. Can you do it?

Nah. You can understand perfectly how the thing should work and how to design one. But without computers you don't have the ability of run the extremely complex calculations and simulations to optimize the reactor to the point that it produces more energy than it consumes. So they hand you a blueprint of a currently working reactor. Can you build it now? Sure. You have a blueprint and the theoretical knowledge to understand what you are doing, so you build the damn thing.

Then they ask you if you can build another but slightly different. Bigger? Smaller? More powerful? Less powerful? Doesn't matter. Can you do that?

Well... maybe? You have the blueprints of a working design and you have the theoretical understanding on how it works, so you can try to modify it. But you still don't have the computational power to validate your modifications so... you can try? Best case scenario, it works. Worst case scenario? You nuke the whole fucking island. On the average? It will kinda work but it will be less efficient/polished/optimized compared to the original design.

So you don't really like to modify the original (standard) template (construct), unless you are '''really''' forced to. That's the mechanicum mindset. People who think they're better than this almost always become examples demonstrating that the Mechanicum and later Mechanicus have the right idea.

The main proof of higher echelons of AdMechs actually knowing what they are doing is the existence of Tech-heresy. Apart from AI and other Dark Age of Technology forbidden stuff, pretty much anything NOT supported by the STC falls into this category (like [[Space Wolves]] Techpriests mounting Lascannons inside Predator turret). In many FFG books, for example, it's implied quite a number of Magi actually invented something and then went through a long a hazardous process of proving that it totally was in the STCs all this time and they just happened to stumble upon it.

The concern about experimentation is probably why they’re wary of merely slapping new guns on existing tanks. Sure, it’s harmless and not something that’ll go wrong, but they prefer not to set a precedent for modification.

The absolute worst-case possibility is, of course, that the AdMech hoards STCs because it doesn’t largely have a scientific understanding of anything more advanced than the tech produced on Hive Worlds and Civilized Worlds. The terrible possibility exists that knowledge is being lost because it was not known in the first place and all that was possessed was instructions on building things.

== History of the Adeptus Mechanicus ==
[[File:Techpriests_are_still_human_deep_inside.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Who said they are not human or lack the human factor? And thanks to Priests of Mars this is canon. Also, DAWWWWWWWWW!]]
The Mechanicus was established in the distant past, when a bunch of <s>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk machine worshiping technophiles]</s> normal people terraformed Mars during mankind's dominating of the Solar System and colonizing of the galaxy. Thus Mars became an extremely technologically advanced society of astronauts, scientists, engineers, manufacturers, and miners wherein they could pursue advances in technology and power the [[Dark Age of Technology]]. During the [[Age of Strife]], their precious atmosphere was punctured, and solar radiation <s>beat down on their filthy heads</s> burned the land, boiled the seas, and took the sky from them, nuking all life. Everybody either died, hid underground, or turned feral. After hundreds of years of living from half-working mechanical bunker to partially-pressurized archaic hab spire; people began to look upon technology as a saviour and way to return to the former heights of glory. Thus, a new cult spread amongst the people of Mars, wherein they paid reverence to the Machine God. [[Just as planned]]. And then they joined the [[EMPRAH]] because they saw him as an aspect of the Machine God called the '[[Omnissiah]]'. As if the parallels aren't already tremendously clear at this point.

Except it's giant load of bullshit. The Tech-priesthood were FORCED to acknowledge the Big E as an incarnate of Machine God at gunpoint. This happened after they sent pretty much their entire fleet and army to Terra to prevent the Unification of meatbags, so they can continue to raid ancient Terran tombs and libraries once or twice a century. The Emperor's fleet fucked them so hard only one in ten returned to Mars to tell the tale, so the Fabricator-General was very cooperative when the Emprah's armada arrived in Mars' orbit. At least they managed to get a special exemption from the "no religions" rule, possibly because the Emperor already knew about the Dragon of Mars (see below; though it wouldn't be the first time a head of state was a hypocrite or practiced double standards). In exchange for giving the Imperium all the guns and tanks they needed, the Emperor promised the Fabricator-General full autonomy on all Forge Worlds, access to Navigators and Astropaths for space travel, and all Archeotech found during the [[Great Crusade]]. Naturally, this smoothed things over between the two factions, resulting in the Treaty of Mars and the beginning of the Imperium; As a sign of their alliance, the Emperor changed his sigil from the lightning bolt, as used by the [[Thunder Warriors]], to the two-headed Aquila.

Hilariously, the "Machine God" may actually be the [[Void Dragon]], one of the ancient [[C'tan]] Star Gods. The Void Dragon is actually one of the most powerful of the C'tan, controlling all machines. All those techpriests are going to have serious problems when it wakes up...It's on Mars because the EMPRAH roofied it and turned it into an angry cave on Mars. It's now guarded by the Mechanicus in their Noctys Labyrinth. This point of view is not certain, so the Machine God may be anything like the collective mass of all machines or the sum of all knowledge, neither would all Mechanicus accept a C'Tan as their lord (but that's the point, they don't know it's a C'tan if it is). But it's a more [[Grimdark|fun]] version, isn't it?

The Mechanicum only lasted till midway through the Heresy. Loyal tech magi were evacuated from Mars when the Death of Innocence hit the planet and a new Fabricator General was elected. This posed a bit of a problem for the Mechanicum as a whole as the previous Fabricator General was technically still the head of the Mechanicum and still held Mars. Various allied and vassal parts of the Mechanicum had a legal meltdown as to who they were supposed to be loyal to - the nation they were a part of and technically still subordinate to or the overarching Empire they had sworn fealty to by proxy. Martian loyalists suggested the creation of a new Adeptus to put the Mechanicum on a level playing field with the other sections of the council of Terra, gaining a voice in the running of the Imperium as a whole. The other sections weren't keen on the idea but took the opportunity to roll other Martian assets into Terra's direct control. The Martian ambassador resolved the complicated Binary Succession issue by literally walking an Imperator Titan right outside the council chambers until the council agreed. Thus the modern Adeptus Mechanicus was formed.

They also created a [[Steel Confessors|Chapter]] of [[Space Marines]] meant to be loyal to them over the rest of the Imperium once. The Imperium actually reacted rather well, only taking their toy away instead of smashing the fuck out of every Forge World and mind-raping every Tech-Priest and servitor involved, which the Imperium is fully capable of doing but it wouldn't be worth nearly the effort unless something extremely stupid happened.

== The Machine Spirits ==
[[Image:Magos Dominus.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Your average Magos]]
{{topquote|If you run from technology, it will chase you.|Robert M. Pirsig}}

The "[[Machine Spirit]]" is the Imperium's version of Artificial Intelligence, mainly because after the reunification of [[Earth|Terra]]; the Emperor forbade the use of AI in machinery (partly because of the ancient rebellion of the [[Men of Iron]], but mostly to prevent Chaos-corrupted AIs from skullfucking them, Skynet style).

For all the importance of Machine Spirits to the Mechanicus, it's not entirely clear what they actually are. One theory holds that there is actually a semi-sentient AI fragment in virtually everything electronic, a leftover from the Age of Strife. These "ghosts in the machine" must be appeased, or else they'll fuck with the targeting systems in your Bolter at the worst possible moment, start doing doughnuts with your Land Raider, and generally act like [[dick]]s. All the ritual and apparent silliness of the Cult Mechanicus, then, is actually necessary to keep the machines operating.

The prevailing theory within the Mechanicus itself seemingly holds is that a Machine Spirit is a fragment of the Machine God itself. Whether this is simply rhetoric (you need to keep your gun oiled, or it'll backfire, and the cogboys are really picky about how you oil it) or the actual truth (the Machine God extends its awareness to literally every machine in the universe, which is disturbingly more possible than one might think), the fact remains that Machine Spirits are real enough to severely ruin your day (or your continent, in the case of an itinerant Titan). The ritual and mysticism surrounding the Cult Mechanicum's everyday activities is far more important to them than even the Imperial Creed.

The Techpriests of Mars got around the restrictions against "Abominable Intelligence" in true WH40K [[grimdark]] fashion: cut out the "Artificial" part and make it organic, and vice versa. Nearly every piece of sophisticated machinery in the Imperium operates via a cogitator, analogous to a modern-day microchip, which is basically the cloned or recycled brain of a human converted to function like a horrific cyborg CPU. This interpretation of the "Machine Spirit" is particularly disturbing, to be sure, but is necessary because the Iron Men incident and Age of Strife in general made the Imperium fear the "Silica Animus". The only true difference between a semi-organic cogitator and a true AI is that their machine spirits cannot learn or improve on their own, and therefore must be manually programmed by their operators if they need to learn or do anything that is outside their current programming. Thus, it is now ''nearly'' impossible for machines to rebel on their own, quelling the fears of the Imperium.

In any of these cases, it can be easily understood why machines are revered by the Mechanicus and why they are treated like sentient beings. Although, the AdMech is a bit fuzzy just ''how'' sentient machines are; are they somehow capable of thought like organics or no more sentient than your bread toaster at home?

== Forge Worlds ==


See [[Forge World#Planet]] for a comprehensive list of all Forge Worlds.

Forge Worlds are all based on Mars. Literally so -- the AdMech so revere the nuke blasted hellscape of Mars that they intentionally terraform other planets into it. Filled with a combination of research labs, libraries, churches, forges, warehouses and factories, the Forge Worlds provide the Imperium with the vast majority of their equipment. However this didn't stop the Mechanicum from setting up shop anywhere they could during Old Night and the Great Crusade, including the volcanic Mezoa and frozen Altus Ferro.

Each Forge World has their own color scheme, themes, and specialties, similar to Space Marine chapters or Imperial Guard regiments.

=== 8th Edition's Forge Worlds of choice are: ===
* '''Mars''': The original. Likely has a C'tan (The [[Void Dragon]]) buried inside it. Mars is a radioactive desert wasteland where factories and other forge world bits are built on top of kilometer deep ruins of previous bits, all infested with insane robots, sentient demonic warp viruses, and other things that go bump in the night that have been dicking around since the Horus Heresy. Immediately after the Dark Age of Technology they went full ''Kin-Dza-Dza'' and devolved into atmosphere-less techno-barbarianism until the Emperor showed up after he conquered Earth.
* '''Lucius''': Teleportation and Armor specialists, as well as known for a strange "solar blessed" metal called Luciun. Lucius is hollow, with an artificial star inside. Was attacked by Hive Fleet Leviathan, they survived by hiding inside their planet and sending out hordes of Servitors, letting them get eaten, then using Servo-skulls to pull the techy bits back underground and put them on new cloned bodies before the biomass could be absorbed, effectively starving the Leviathan forces to death. Had a civil war called the Inculcata Schism that almost caused the planet to ''implode'' (teleportation specialists is a nice way of saying "experiments with warp tech"), so they wear red as a way to kiss up to Mars. This is a common theme among forge worlds as Mars seems to be the only one with even a speck of sanity and at least performs it's dumbass experiments on other planets instead of their own home.
* '''Agripinaa''': Right outside of and now the front line to the Eye of Terror. After Cadia fell a good number of refugees fled to Stygies VIII and Agripinaa... who forcibly conscripted them into their Skitarii and Servitor forces. They effectively blackmailed millions of desperate refugees, trapped on their planet and in orbit, and turned them into various flavors of mindless or brainwashed combat cyborgs (well, maybe brainwashed, they might just be cyborg soldier badasses sworn to Agripinaa). Although, given Agripinaa became basically the replacement of Cadia in a way, their reaction is probably a justified act of desperation especially since they weren't know for doing that to refugees before. Also known for sending incursions around and occasionally ''into'' the Eye of Terror.
* '''Stygies VIII''': Had '''two''' Titan legions based on it during the Horus Heresy, '''both''' of which turned traitor. They were saved at the last minute by the [[Eldar]], leading to them having a soft spot for Xenos (mind, they still fully believe in human superiority and conquering/exterminating aliens..it's just that they will consider appreciating that Xenos aren't totally worthless all the time). Home to the Xenarite faction, a faction that believes in studying Xenos technology, officially to better understand why Humanity's technology is superior. Stygies is also home to the "Runic Priests," (No, [[Space Wolves|not those]]), a faction of AdMech specialized in intuition, speculation, and improvisation. Ultimately considered "too big to fail," the High Lords of Terra declared they were to be left alone, despite flirting with Xenos crap and Heretekal science (because the High Lords generally are extremely pragmatic and don't give a shit about almost anything non-Chaos). Eventually the Inquisition found out and decided to purge the planet anyway, in the '''Xenarite Schism'''. Stygies VIII responded by unleashing a computer virus that constantly purges the Administratum and the Ordo Xenos' computer systems of any evidence or discussion of how Stygies VIII is technically a Heretek world, while the Xenarites went mostly underground. [[Deathwatch]] Kill Teams still frequently attack them, alongside various Xenos forces who want their tech back. Stygians are stealth specialists, which they will deny whenever asked; they're also known for pretending to be from Mars when needed due to their color scheme. Currently invading the Eldar Webway in an attempt at raiding the [[Black Library]].
* '''Graia''': Even more aspie than normal AdMechs, Graia are nearly immune to psykers due to being too logical to manipulate. Notable for their space station that covers a huge portion of their planet, which is actually a space ''ship'' which Graia move around, and even take through the warp! Recently it returned to Graia and then again departed, this time bringing Graia with it (making us all wonder how big 40K ships really are even if this is a giant one). Both Chaos and the Necrons target them for it. The whole Forge World lives on this <s>yellow submarine</s> space thing due to opening some sort of portal to ''somewhere'' on the planet's surface long ago. Known for refusing to retreat even when losses are guaranteed because to do so would mean their logical predictions were wrong (or there is some human spirit remaining deep inside...nah it's totally sheer ego). Red on their uniform is ostensibly because they are loyal to Mars, but actually because [[Blood Angels|they like blood]] (because logic).
* '''Metalica''': Metalica is a completely sterile world, no atmosphere, no life, no anything but ''metal''. This may or may not be due to an [[retcon|ancient copyright scouring]] by a musical group bearing a similar name. Their Titan Legion was nearly destroyed during the Second War for Armageddon; their Princeps was ordered by Planetary Governor and notorious incompetent boob/traitor [[Herman von Strab]] to attack a horde of Gargants that outnumbered them three-to-one with no support like suicidal maniacs, and when that predictably failed the Legion then [[Death Korps of Krieg|''became'' suicidal maniacs]] by [[Astral Knights|self-destructing]] in the heart of the Ork forces because they weren't allowed to retreat. Totally ''not'' the noise AdMech -- their guns are intentionally loud to ''proclaim the glory of the Omnissiah.'' Metalica is also known for being the first Imperium force to go on a Tyranid safari. That's right, they're '''[[Awesome|actively hunting Hive Fleet Leviathan.]]''' They are, in fact, ''so metal.''
* '''Ryza''': Energy shield and plasma specialists, who have nothing to do with the [[Tau]] because they managed to remain relatively unmolested until the Mechanicus found them again during the Great Crusade. They have been invaded by [[Orks]] repeatedly, to the point that most of their Forge World's output goes directly to its own self defense. The more red on a Ryzan's robe, the more important they are. Led an aborted invasion of the Maelstrom in an attempt to go after the DarkMech world of Sarum. Ryza has a sect of Ruststalkers that have gone rogue, but still worship the Omnissiah so whatevs, it's all good. Known for being very ''enthusiastic'' towards melee combat, may or may not be due to Ork influence. In short, they're shield good, plasma good, and rip and tear good. Fuck yeah!

=== 8th Edition was nice enough to flesh out several back-canon Forge Worlds as well: ===
* '''Triplex Phall''': Isolated, on the far east side of the galaxy, Triplex Phall has recovered a ton of STC and Archeotech but refused to give it to Mars. Basically AdMech Protestants. Mars now has a Skitarii Legion following them around with express instructions to warn Mars if Triplex Phall forces find anymore secret tech. Invaded by Hive Fleet Kraken, attacked by Typhus, and invaded by Daemons. We can only imagine the only reason the rest of the Mechanicus hasn't crushed them and taken their stuff is either the STCs are that potent or that the Machine Cult would rather space Protestants have it than to risk the data being damaged or destroyed. Or their STC data is useless junk important solely for religious purposes but not worth bothering with in the practical. Or the AdMech already stole it as it is extremely doubtful that Triplex Phall has the data to avoid however Mars has learned to enforce its will over the last ten thousand years (and the Inquisition's help, probably). That, or the daemons corrupted everything or Mars fears they have.
* '''Deimos''': The moon of Mars, gifted to the [[Grey Knights]] of [[Titan]] at the end of the Horus Heresy. Originally responsible for building the favored patterns of [[Rhino]] and [[Predator]] during the Great Crusade, they now make Grey Knight wargear and use Servitors to transfer the material between the Grey Knights and Deimos, mindscrubbing them at each end, allowing both organizations to keep their secrets. Deimos has ''three'' different Knight houses, because apparently the Grey Knights aren't enough knights for Deimos.
* '''Voss Prime''': The most Mars-fanboyish of the Mars Fanboys, has a focus on Legio Cybernetica robots. Closest Forge World to Armageddon. Voss has a huge asteroid field that repelled an Ork [[Waaagh]] merely on accident. Known for good tanks, but crappy plasma weapons. Not to be confused with Voss, which is another Forge World not too far away from Voss Prime. During the [[Great Crusade]] they made enough [[lasgun]]s to ''arm the entire [[Solar Auxilia]] with''. Builds weird ships the Imperial Navy didn't ask for, like slow light cruisers and frigates with torpedos. Also, either Voss or Voss Prime builds ships double the size they normally are. Which makes for utterly terrifying monsters of the stars. Imagine a Retribution or Apocalypse or Emperor=class that's ''double sized''.
* '''Gryphonne IV''': The lost Forge world. They are responsible for a lot of Imperial Guard support-tank patterns, thanks to the real-life [[Forge_World#Company|Forge World]]. The Tyranids ate their planet after they refused to listen to Inquisitor Kryptman, so they have become the first nomadic Forge "World": a space fleet actively seeking out a planet they can terraform into a new Mars. Whether or not Gryphonnians want to terraform said world into (degenerate-biome barren world) present-day Mars, or a (lush and properly-terraformed) Dark Age of Technology Mars is anyone's guess. Gryphonne IV is ''definitely not'' [[Craftworld|copying anything]]. Bet they won't hesitate to listen when Inquisition experts tell them shit's about to go down next time.

The "big" Forge World remains Mars, with [[Cawl]] being the only unique character in the AdMech force. (Hieronomus Tezla says hello.) Lucius and either Metalica or Ryza (depending on the edition) round out the "main three" Forge Worlds, fluff wise.

However, each world has their own rules and details in the fluff, although the new ones remain somewhat intentionally vague for [[your dudes]] purposes -- Triplex Phall lends itself to odd conversions because "It's Archeotech!"; Deimos lends itself to borrowing some Grey Knights aesthetic and allies; Gryphonne IV being nomadic lends itself to battle damage and the like. Even the "old" forge worlds get some additional flavor in the new fluff -- Stygies VIII lends itself well to sneaky types or Xenos conversions and allies; Agripinaa force-conscripting refugees encourages Servitors / Skitarii converted from Imperial Guard (or even Ecclesiarchy and Necromunda). Metalica going on a ''fucking safari'' for Hive Fleet Leviathan splinter fleets just screams "Nid Hunter" Skitarii.

== The Religion of the Adeptus Mechanicus ==
(Forgive OP's bellicose statement, but the fluff and novels pertaining to the AdMech are rather obscure to whether or not they truly understand what they talk about.)

Begin Rant/file exc.//>>

''Children, I'm fucking fed up with your shit. Cult Mechanicus IS NOT a replacement of rational thought with religion for the sake of operating machines.It's a (in-universe) developed philosophy of collective rationalism. AdMechs don't throw their critical thinking out of the window. They just already took this thinking, put it on a pedestal, brought it to its apex (Dark Age), suffered for it, suffered for it again (Horus Heresy, Schism of Mars), then looked at it and asked : "What do we do now?" Every Mechanicum is a rationalist, in a meaning that when he goes through all the critical thinking to the basic reason of his existence, he takes on the dogma of Quest for Knowledge. That he exists to Rationalize the Universe, move towards learning and understanding the Universe and its laws. It's also a collective quest - adept doesn't seek knowledge just for himself, he sees all the Adeptus Mechanicus as one single huge Gnostical Engine, a Machine of Comprehension designed to learn. He's just a single little gear in the heart of enormous Over-Intellect gathering and producing knowledge.

''For what sake? AdMechs thought a lot about this question, and took one answer.

''For the sake of Mankind.

''Now THIS is where shit gets religious.

''As of it now, humanity utilizes science for egoistical purposes of survival (scientists need something to eat) and/or domination, which can be understood by every human through his instincts. Society of Mars, however, got devoid of this motivators, as they dropped their human instincts, so they had to find new goals. This is where the Schism takes roots, as well as the "Cult" part. Every rational human can tell you that objectively life has no meaning. Accepting that fact is what brought the galaxy Necrons and Iron Men. AdMechs knew that this is what they wish to avoid. And the most effective way to avoid that is to walk the irrational way and put a sense for your existence through Faith.

''This is what they did.

''They are the fanatics in the sense that they BELIEVE that Universe CAN be comprehended, while they have 0 proof of that. They BELIEVE that critical thinking works, while living in a Galaxy that laughs at any attempts of rationalization. They BELIEVE that Quest for Knowledge can be completed. And it this faith, they are being paradoxical and irrational. And they know it. Lets have a look at Universal Laws, that Mechanicum use as the foundation of their philosophy.

''The Mysteries

''01. Life is directed motion.

''This gives a definition to "life", as existence of individual. A definition that basically says "Only that thing which irrationally takes a (faith) direction for its way can be called a Living Thing".

''02. The spirit is the spark of life.

''Here they recognize the illogical existence of Souls and Warp, and their defining roles in being representation of one's beliefs.

''03. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.

''04. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.

''05. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.

''Here they define ability for rational thinking.

''06. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.

''07. Comprehension is the key to all things.

''And HERE they put this thinking as their Way to exist.

''08. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

''And establish an ideal, to which they are heading. --Anon

End Rant/file//>>

Another Magos adds:
There's definitely variation in the creed between forgeworlds and different cults-- even post Heresy, Mars is not unified-- but a lot of them operate on this sort of platonic/hermeticist logic. Regardless of whether they believe all knowledge already exists or that the disciplined mind can create new things, the religion is trying for union with some perfect being. Whether that's taken to mean "become a robot because the flesh is weak", "find salvation in logic", or even "cultivate the Omnissiah within you" (which would lead to radical differences in practice, from penitent cyberization cults to contemplative engineering orders, which we see in the many faces of the Mechanicum, [[Koriel Zeth]], Forgeworld Mezoa, the [[Myrmidon]] Orders, etc), it all leads back to a cautious quest to be the best you can be with logic as your guide.

===The Void Dragon===
A lot of their tech stuffs come from the Void Dragon that the Emperor bested and imprisoned on Mars ages ago as so humanity could gain mastery over machines. While it might have worked pretty well back when the Imperium wasn't the festering portaloo of a grimdark shitpit it is today, it's pretty much a matter of time before it escapes. The Necrons already attempted to raid Mars - they got vaporized before they could really even do anything, but the fact they managed to even land proved a point the High Lords of Terra had been turning a blind eye towards for ages.

If the T-800s get what they want and party on Mars long enough to wake the Void Dragon up, it's going to be a pretty goddamned bad day for just about any human not [[Feral World|wearing loincloths and still bashing rocks together]]. The few Mechanicus agents who have figured this out have either gone rogue, blammed or gone totally bonkers, ripping all the implants from their flesh. And when you're a member of the Mechanicus, that's about 80% of your body.

Of course, the even worse possibility is that the void dragon enjoys this situation, as every time the tech-priests remove their flesh and place more machine into it, they could be feeding him a fraction of their soul. As there are quite a few tech-priests out there, and humanity being the rabbits they are, this would give him a lifetime of souls to be eating, and a personal army that is very much willing. Ironically, given this, it could mean the Void Dragon might side with humanity as an endlessly increasing supply of soul-stuff. The Mechanicus gets its implants and technology and does not lose enough of their souls to not pass on when they die, the Void Dragon gets a bit of soul from each of them and their numbers endlessly increase with humanity's ever growing population. Everyone wins and, as we all know, Dragons are rather protective of their hoards....

By the way, the "Void" Dragon is actually only called "The Dragon" in the official fluff, probably as a reference to Metropolis. <s>But for God knows what unreasonable reason, /tg/ insists on calling him the "Void Dragon", thus confusing him with an Eldar aircraft, or with an Eldar pirate warband. Unless it's an obscure vidya reference. Whatever, maybe it just sounds cooler.</s> The [[Eldar]] refer to it as the "Void Dragon", and the aircraft and pirate warband take their names from it.

'''UPDATE:''' The new Codex: Necrons written by our [[Matt Ward|Spiritual Liege]] reveals the necrons are no longer enslaved by the C'tan, instead they are their sworn enemies for tricking them into giving up flesh. They were probably going to Mars to capture the Imperial held C'tan shard of the Void Dragon as they won't see humans reliable, or perhaps they were under control of another shard, and wanted to liberate it, oh whatever, for what we know it may have been [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trollzyn]] trying to loot Mars. Or, maybe they simply realize that having a C'tan that can control technology on a planet-sized machine-scape is a ''bad'' idea. It is unlikely that the Void Dragon would have been shattered, though. Because it is hard to do that to something with technology when that something has complete control over all technology. Yeah. Which, in hind-sight, might be part of the reason why the Necrons went into hibernation. Because when you are a living machine and you just pissed off something that controls machines... it is a good time to ''run away'' really fast.

The only thing that changes as a result of that is once the Void Dragon (shard or whole, who knows?) wakes up, it will be the only C'tan with ready access to an army, and a pretty damn huge one at that- so it's not only going to be a real bad day for the Imperium, but the Necrons as well.

'''UPDATE 2:''' And now it seems the World Engine of [[Astral Knights]] fame was supposed to be en route to Mars in order to allow his usurper Phaeron to get himself a new Void Dragon Pokémon, good thing he got sabotaged.

== Why Everything is so Grimdark ==
"The Mechanicus does NOT have the technology. They haven't been living on some fancy paradise planet since pre-Fall. Mars is an anarchic nightmare shithole the moment you leave the safe zones into the kilometres of labyrinthine corridors beneath it full of rogue machinery, self-aware and malevolent AI from before the Fall, and the daemon programs of the Heresy. EVERYTHING in the databases is fucked. The databases are fragmented over the entire surface to the extent that it would be impossible to see one-tenth of the total files in the ludicrously extended life of a Magos even assuming that they are completely safe to visit. And they are not.

The files have been corrupted into madness by the Fall, and the unleashing of the most potent informational warfare systems ever to exist to defeat the Iron Men. Nearly all of Mars was rendered uninhabitable, what they live in now is built on the top of the ruins. They send archeotech expeditions in to find shit, nearly all of them never come back. The sheer number of rogue war machine running around in there is sufficient to rape the mind. Then came the Heresy, which was not earth-exclusive. Mars as the second most critical planet in the Imperium was the site of fighting nearly as ferocious as on Terra, with Mechanicus loyalists and Hereteks fighting tooth, nail, and mechadendrite everywhere. Ancient machines were unleashed, viruses both normal and daemonic unleashed into all the computer systems. Nearly every single stored record on Mars was rendered unusable, and those that survived are half the time self-aware and don't like you, or daemonic and actively try to kill you.

If you come back with a schematic, it is almost certainly gibberish, and if it isn't, it's probably corrupted into uselessness. If it does come back whole it was probably malevolently fucked with so that instead of a Lasgun power cell it's a fucking grenade set to detonate the second you finish building it. Why do you think they want off-world STCs so damned much if they had them all here? The fucking Heresy is why. Off-world they only have to contend with the Fall's war and its effects on the machinery plus twenty thousand years of degradation with no maintenance. But at least off-world it'll probably just not work instead of actively seek to kill you.

Why do you think they seek to placate the Machine Spirit? It's because it exists. The fragments of trillions of self-aware programs, flourishing during the Dark Age of Technology and shattered by Man in his war with the Iron Men, imprisoning the few who had not set themselves irrevocably into the machinery, a prison smashed wide open by the Heresy. Everything that can hold programming in the Imperium has a shard of a program in it. EVERYTHING. And you'd better fucking please it or it will do everything in its power to make your day shit. Sure, if it's a Lasgun it'll just not work or start shooting off rounds by itself, but if you piss off a Land Raider you can say bye-bye to half a continent. They apply these principles to things without spirits by habit, since they're so used to dealing with tanks that if not talked to just right might go rogue and annihilate the Manufactorum before they can be killed.

This is why they do not like ANYONE fucking with technology because it is so rare to find anything that just works it is critical it not be compromised. That, and they do not have the actual knowledge to fuck with it intelligently, just through experimentation, which inevitably leads to slaughter. Pressing buttons to see what works is fine in a 21st-century computer, but it is a very stupid thing to do at the helm of a 410th-century starship with the destructive power to end solar systems. The entire knowledge base of humanity was lost. Not forgotten, but outright lost. Everything at all, poof. Nobody knows anything because the Fall fucked everything up and the Heresy double-fucked it. To rebuild the theoretical framework needed to design new technologies that don't kill everyone near them would require starting from the ground up. They don't have the time, and they never have.

This gets on to the point of war and what it does to technology. Someone will parrot that it makes it go much faster. Yes, it makes practical applications of technology go much faster. It also utterly stops all research on the scientific theories behind those technologies. This means that when war chugs along for a decade or two things get done. It means when it goes on too long you run out of theories to turn into technologies, and then you run out of technologies to apply. You stagnate. When you have been fighting in a war for survival in a drastically overextended empire, this is what happens. You are desperate for any extra material that can possibly be produced. Half your entire fucking military might went rogue, smashed the half that stayed, leaving you with the tattered shreds of a war machine to keep hold of an empire that was reaching straining point with an army far larger. There is no time for the sort of applied research programs that took Man twenty-five thousand years to develop, in a time of unprecedented growth and prosperity.

This is also why the Adeptus Mechanicus insists on cargo cultism. It's because when you are dealing with things you barely understand because everything you knew about them was destroyed it is the safest and most reliable option. The rituals do not exist for mysticism, they exist because they are the most practical means of building, repairing and maintaining the equipment they have with the knowledge surviving. You don't understand why pressing that button makes it go, because the manual tried to take over your brain and the copies are all unreadable and the research base that would let you reverse-engineer it does not exist and cannot be built.

Why are the Tau doing so well with their technology? Because they had peace. Eight thousand years unmolested by any enemy and they were helped the entire time by the most advanced biological race in the galaxy. Give the Imperium eight thousand years of peace and I can guarantee you it will be harder than it was during the Great Crusade.

Since some still don't get the idea, try this.

Build a library, fill it with all human knowledge. You take it elsewhere when you need a book from it, but the book is only a simplified copy. You don't understand the real book, and you don't need to. Nobody takes the real books anywhere because why would you when there's a whole library there?

Now that library goes rogue and the maintenance machinery starts killing everyone any-fucking-where near it. Where the fuck did they all come from, you swear to god there weren't this many, and there weren't because they're using the library's information to fight their war. The government fights a battle that destroys the planet against these robots and tears apart the library to stop them from using it, only to be destroyed in the process. The library is leveled, cast into flames, every book burned and every computer virus-laden.

Then comes a man who worked there. He talks to the few surviving library workers, assembles their information, and starts rebuilding a city around the library and expanding it as the librarians find little scraps of paper and fragmented bits of files that stuck together just right to read something. They rebuild a library from scrap on the ashes of the old. It isn't a shadow on the glory of the old, but it is all they have.

Then the city turns on itself, kills its master, and the librarians turn to rage. Half of them kill the other half and destroy the remnants of the library because where they're going they won't need science. Everything burns and the city is left to a scattered few survivors, walls open to the world, with the hungry predators circling.

The Adeptus Mechanicus is the sole surviving librarian, desperately scrabbling through the ashes of paper and splinters of hard drives for anything to help him and the city he needs to survive just a second longer.

The Imperium isn't grim because things suck by choice and could be fine if a sensible person came along. That sensible person wouldn't survive fifty seconds of the reality. The Imperium is grim because every single shit decision, every single sacrifice, every single death, every single man woman and child suffering a shit life in the worst conditions imaginable, is the absolute best that can be done. It is a study of the worst happening to everyone and what part of your humanity must be sacrificed today just to stand a chance of survival, and all it asks is whether or not it would have perhaps been better to die."
• Baron von Evilsatan

== On the Tabletop ==
''See also [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus(9E)|AdMech 9E Tactics]]''

8th Edition has landed, and the AdMech are resurgent. Having Cult Mechanicus and Skitarii merged together into one list was good enough, but they also merged Imperial Knights as "Questor Mechanicus" -- AdMech aligned Imperial Knight houses. Imperial Armor: Fires of Cyraxus is coming out "real soon now" which will have AdMech vs Tau and promises a bunch of new stuff, as well.

The biggest change, outside of the Knights now being part of AdMech (which means they can be repaired!) is the promotion of the Enginseer from Elite to HQ, allowing for a cheap HQ option if a tax is needed.

The Mechanicus received an entire army's worth of new plastic models and rulebook! Praise the Omnissiah!

At the moment, the AdMech is divided into a number of different mini-factions. Currently, the [[Skitarii]] and the Cult Mechanicus army have been fully released. There is also the "Titan Guard" Secutarii on the way, but they're a Forge World army. The [[Legio Cybernetica]] is also part of the Adeptus Mechanicus, though aside from the Kastelan, they're [[Horus Heresy]] only. There's also the Taghmata, which are like feudal troops, but they're not as much of a thing in the lore of 40K (though they have a HH dex, see below.)

The current releases include Skitarii, who are like if the Guard were badass technogrunge medievalpunk super-soldiers with access to all the good shit, spider-tanks, scout walkers that are basically the Sentinel if it was good, Servitors on tank treads that will wreck your shit, giant crazy-tough robots that will wreck your shit harder, and a plastic Magos HQ unit! Truly, venerate the Omnissiah, and He will provide. The Cult Mechanicus, meanwhile, consists mainly of half-naked tech-priests with a fetish for electricity and some battle servitors, including the aformentioned Kastelan. Tech-Priest Magos are also the only figures in modern 40k that carry [[Volkite]] weapons. The upcoming Titan Guard are divided into Peltasts and Hoplites, which are fitting descriptions as the former look to be ranged skirmishers, while the latter are heavily armored spearmen (the spears happen to shoot electricity.)

Newly released units include cavalry units (riding mechanical dogs), winged Pteraxii, a new HQ, and an honest-to-Omnissiah ornithopter.

== Notable Members ==
* [[Archmagos]] [[Belisarius Cawl]]: Creator of the Primarines, their wargear, and Big G's current armor.
* [[Arkhan Land]]: An archivist who discovered STC fragments which brought about anything [[Land Raider|with the]] [[Land Crawler|name "Land"]] [[Land Speeder|in it]].

==Gallery==
{{Promotions}}
<gallery>
image:Adeptus_Mechanicus.jpg
Image:TechpriestChiyo.jpg|D'awwww.
Image:Mechanicuuuuus.jpg|SANS SKULL
Image:AdMech_Couple.jpg|D'awwww. By the way this is canon.
Image:CircleA_AdMech.jpg|PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
Image:rave_heretek_by_psykerscum.jpg|Someone got Chaos on my Mechanicus, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbAUwi4D3Ew now with theme music!]
image:1318818198286.gif.jpg|We're not sure if that's tech-heresy or an actual activation ritual. Ask your local Magos for clarification.
Image:Leokadia chernabog by mr culexus-d3hxqx2.jpg|showin' a little augmented leg
Image:AdMech Scientific Method.jpg|Science in the 41st Millennium.
Image:Madonna mechanicae by sexual yeti-daubney.jpg|TECHPRIESTESS TITTIES <s>(extra heretical)</s> Only Xenos are heresy.
Image:T girl by skeenlangly-d2y4n3p.png
Image:Time to technical inspection by SkeeNLangly.jpg|Nice Spot for a purity seal.
Image:Female Tech Priest 1.jpeg|A female tech priest with some differences compared to some of the other girls here.
</gallery>

==See Also==
*[[Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World Creation Tables]]
*[[Skitarii Army Creation Table]]
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Adeptus_Mechanicus (9E)|Adeptus Mechanicus 40k Tactics.]]
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum_(30k)|Heresy Era Mechanicum Tactics.]] - 6th/early 7th edition rules. Very different from the 40k version.
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum:_Taghmata_(30k)|Mechanicum: Taghmata (30k)]] - Current 7th edition rules. Still very different to 40k.
*[[Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus]] - The official Vidya Gaem

==Links==
*[https://store.steampowered.com/app/673880/Warhammer_40000_Mechanicus/ The Mechanicus video game,] an [[XCOM]]-style game where you play as a bunch of tech-priests raiding a [[Necron]] tomb. It's definitely one of the better 40k games to come out in the past few years.
*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyLLeKcxw24U8s8C24FyUQ0EVS30stymM The soundtrack from the Mechanicus video game,] which is easily some of the best 40k music out there.
*The Adeptus Mechanicus are [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17PM-UMVud8 avid music lovers.]
*This is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ecvLRxb3MU their theme] done by [[HMKids]].
*And one for [https://youtu.be/Jb8J1zx2Lrg the Machine Cult].
*And their [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy-sVTaZRPk War Cant], play it the next time your Techpriest needs to get pumped before a battle.
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TvN5lCVkRk The Adeptus Mechanicus], whenever not cockslapping toasters.

{{Mechanicus}}
{{Imperium}}
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{{Template:40k-Governments}}