Editing Imperial Knight (section)

===The Throne Mechanicum===
A Knight's Machine Spirit is of a particularly unusual type: to interface with the suit, an aspiring noble must first join with the Throne Mechanicum (the Knight's control system) in a ritual known as the Ritual of Becoming. Due to a quirk in the bonding process, the device retains an imprint of each of its former pilots' personalities at the time they were first bonded, and as a result individual suits will develop traits echoing those of their former masters. The link also affects the noble's own mind as well; exposure to the metaphorical (or possibly literal, since there's been at least one case where a Throne Mechanicum took over operating the Knight when its noble was slain by using the memories of its old operators) ghosts in the machine inevitably causes the noble to develop strong positive feelings towards the concepts of fealty and hierarchy along with a near-mystical reverence toward the noble's ancestors. Nobody knows why this is, but the Mechanicus thinks it may have been a failsafe in the original plans meant to ensure that no noble would willingly betray or abandon his own House or perhaps a means to guarantee that the Knights would be more inclined to act as colonial defenders. Either way, this benefits the Mechanicus rather neatly.

This kind of "ghost in the machine" presence exists for true [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Imperial Titans]] as well, though in their case the machine spirit is more of an AI/second ego, and storing past Princeps' personas is something that happens, but the Mechanicus try to avoid/scrub out. Go see the Titan page for a more in-depth comparison.