Editing Hektor Heresy (section)

===Rise of the Autopostates===
{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left: 10px; width: 35%;" 
|
<center>'''NON-CONFORMISM IN THE MACHINE CULT'''</center>
[[File:Planet Carbon Aluminum Sphere Earth-Like Lt.jpg|right|160px]]
For scholars familiar with the Cult Mechanicus of the 41st Millenium, Kalkas Tygian's fixation upon non-conformism as the Heresy blossomed can be baffling. How could a world like Al-Sherar defy the Martian Parliament, giving adulation to the Machine God in their own rites and even encouraging divergent thought among other Forge Worlds?  Yet when we discard our preconceptions the truth is laid bare.  The Mechanicum of the Great Crusade held a great many divergent views, even on Mars itself.  Tygian could find a majority in favour of political dominance over Al-Sherar, but every attempt to impose one creed across the Tech-Priests of the Galaxy was met with internal opposition.  Only after the civil war, when dissent on Mars was a sign of Heresy punishable by death, would the Red Planet seek a final reckoning with Al-Sherar and her Non-Conformist League.
|}
Although individuals, martial brotherhoods, and even whole Forge Worlds had aligned themselves with the Traitors and Loyalists, [[Mars (Hektor Heresy)|Mars]] herself remained curiously preoccupied with internal affairs as civil war erupted.  Fabricator-General [[Kalkas Tygian]] had been fighting a long war of influence and political calculation against dissidents within the Machine Cult.  In particular, the Non-Comformist League led by the headstrong kazi of [[Al-Sherar]] were a far greater concern to the Martian Parliament than squabbling among the Primarchs.  For decades after its discovery, Al-Sherar had reached out to heterodox Forge Worlds - at first in the Segmentum Pacificus, but eventually across the Galaxy - offering political and material support to those who did not embrace the narrow creed of Kalkas Tygian.  Documents of admittedly dubious pedigree indicate that Tygian's advisors were examining plans for limited wars to curb the Non-Conformist League's influence even as the Voidwatcher's sorcery threw the Warp into turmoil.  Only once it was no longer possible to look out across the Galaxy as a whole was Kalkas Tygian forced to take stock of the Solar System's troubles.

Unfortunately, Mars was not merely an observer, for the hand of Chaos had touched the Red Planet too.  Within the Forge Temple Ubris Tyrrhena, [[Vilyon Luthier]] had assembled an army of Abominable Intelligences, each possessed by a daemon of Slaanesh.  These vile "Choristers" were able to pervert the Machine God's order and seize control of servitors about them.  The first Forge Temple to fall to a Chorister was Urbis Syrtis.  Its masters were slain and stripped for components, and its forges set to the work of creating more minions of the Ruinous Powers.  As Luthier's onslaught gathered pace, panicked Magoi began to dabble with forbidden knowledge in the hope of finding an answer.  '''Lyster Larrey''' attempted to unleash a potent virus to destroy the Chorister; his efforts only saw the division of the A.I. into Slaaneshi and Nurgilite fractions, and Larrey's soul lost to the Father of Plague.  A more subtle plan arose in the mind of '''Duniya Kaanesh'''.  Kaanesh discovered that Luthier's Choristers could only interface with a limited number of Servitors and attempted to overload their communications by creating mountains of servitor skulls about a planned battlefield.  Although the Choristers were incinerated by Volkite fire on that blood-soaked ground, Kaanesh's blasphemous acts were an oath of fealty to Khorne, God of Fire and Blood.

Not all lost their heads in these dark days, but Kalkas Tygian was forced to admit that the situation was dire.  He could not signal Alexandri of Rosskar to offer the aid of the Cult Mechanicus, but perhaps the Regent could lend his Silver Cataphracts to the struggle for Mars.