Editing Nobledark Imperium Notes (section)

= Adeptus Mechanicus =

in this timeline the AdMech are more like “jerks with a heart of gold” rather than simple “jerks” like in canon. They’re assholes in general, but they actually have some redeeming features rather than being merely tolerated because they provide all the tech like in canon. Case in point the Veyna fiasco.

In canon, the Adeptus Mechanicus noticed the lakes of liquid hydrogen at Veyna’s poles, unilaterally seized the planet for their own use without telling anyone in the greater Imperium, and rounded up all the inhabitants to be worked to death in the nearest Forge World.

Here, the Adeptus Mechanicus noticed the lakes of liquid hydrogen, filed a requisition form to the Administratum to expropriate the planet because of its strategic resources (mostly as a formality of a heads-up rather than to actually ask permission), forcibly relocated the locals to a nearby planet, and then sold them their own planet back to them by offering them jobs working in the factories refining liquid hydrogen.

Is this an asshole move to pull? Absolutely. But compared to what they did in canon it makes them downright saints.

A lot of their assholish behavior is in part due to the whole thing with the Void Dragon and the fact that no one else knows it exists. Lower-ranking tech-priests buy the party line about technology and invention hook, line, and sinker. Higher-ranked tech-priests know about the scientific method and how their tech works, but avoid throwing their weight around because it upsets the pyramid scheme and everyone's terrified of potential influence by the Void Dragon.

STCs are still a sticking point with them. They consider them holy relics of their faith and will do just about anything to get a hold of them, even squabble with other member states. Imperium has a general standing order to turn over all discovered STC printouts to the AdMech, or at the very least give them a copy of the data, and otherwise stay out of the Tech-priests' way

Not entirely clear how they handle xenos. The general suggestion is they're equal-opportunity haters, believing themselves the only ones holy enough to handle technology. They don't care if the person mis-appropriating Dark Age of Technology tech is human or xeno. They want to bring technology to the galaxy (on their terms) to the point that everyone looks at them as the paragons of engineering (Red Man's burden), and they're frustrated that they have one hand tied behind their back by the Void Dragon in contrast to Eldar bonesingers, kinebrach warsmiths, Earth Caste engineers, Hubworlders, etc.

Tolerance of xeno tech is mixed. Less orthodox magi don't care or will look the other way. More conservative will REEEEEE until you stop using it. Planetary governor can tell the tech-priests to get bent but then they usually retaliate by sanctioning your planet, which is bad because AdMech make up 80% or more of all manufacturing. Only factions that can tell the AdMech to shove it and make things stick are those that can reliably make their own stuff like the Interex and squats. AdMech tread more carefully with these groups because they don't have a monopoly. Also because they're usually both Survivor civilizations and have entered under the same deal of relative autonomy as the AdMech, so the Imperium would probably side against the AdMech in this scenario.

Numerous factions, ranging from highly orthodox to reconstructionist/reformist (don't necessarily invent new thing, but spend more time trying to reverse-engineer things based on old data).

==Servo-Brains==
[[Image:Nobledark_Imperium_Servoskulls.jpg|thumb|Imperial Servo-Brains in both Mechanicus and Inquisition styles.]]

True servo-skulls of old are rare outside the Mechanicus and even then they are only common on distant forges, their techniques barely moved out of Old Night by the demands and Edicts of Mars. In the greater Imperium the holy provision allowing the manufacture of conditioned intelligences so long as they are founded upon the natural 'stone old' mind is seen as too valuable an avenue for refinement and advancement to neglect. Pushed by upstarts in the Ordo Cybernetica, the competition of the survivor civilization Hubworld workshops, the sovereign survivor power of Stillness, aristocratic engineereries across the Galaxy, and rumored workshops of the Imperial court hidden away on Cthonia, even the Martian Mechanicus has taken to greater investment in the flexibility, autonomy, and mental capacity in servo-skulls, to the point of the full resanctification of the designation Servo-Brain. Though no Servo-Brain is much more lively than a blank, they remain wholly sapient, and bear some shadow of their former character. Servo-Brains are enhanced with numerous advanced cogitators and memory stacks, vast archives, and sets of powerful narrow-scope pattern recognition cores selected for their work. They are immortal savants with minds and senses desigened for their work. The Servo-Brain has gone from increasingly advanced clerical drone, popular only among the Mechanicus, who had subpar brains to spare for the project to a contingency solution for bodily destruction in the lab, to the honorable and enhancing recourse of the sickly and dying among the learned and mighty.