Editing House Van Saar (section)

==Organisation==
Van Saar organises its gangs differently from the other Houses of Necromunda, not least because they promote their leaders from the most educated or innovative among them, rather than the most brutal or violent. This tendency in turn reflects itself on the territories that the gangs themselves hold, generally turning into machine temples and forges in imitation of the fabricator vaults of the House itself.

The hierarchy of House Van Saar is divided down two lines. The first are the '''Archeoteks''' who are somewhat synonymous with Tech-Priests, albeit without the religious dogma surrounding technology. They exist at all levels within the House and are arranged into descending circles, with the innermost circles having direct access to the STC itself and have varying degrees of understanding about its workings. Because they work so closely with the STC, they receive the largest doses of radiation, therefore most of the Inner Circle Archeoteks have significant augmetic replacements and cybernetic enchantments by necessity. As the ranks move away from the STC there is correspondingly less access and knowledge provided, to the point that the outermost members of the House may not ever realise what they possess, or why they are constantly exposed to debilitating radiation.

Not all members of House Van Saar are gifted with an affinity for technology, but still find purpose on the factory floors, in work crews, in official militia, or [[Necromunda#The Game|in the gangs]]. Therefore the second line of hierarchy has have a more traditional chain of command. Though a variety of professions exist, leaders are commonly referred to as '''Primes''', with their immediate subordinates called '''Augmeks'''. Beneath them are the '''Teks''' and '''Subteks''' who fulfil the most menial roles; though it would be a mistake to consider these individuals as dumb, uneducated, or disposable, the same way that other lower class groups in the Imperium might be, as even the lowliest Subtek will be expertly trained for his assigned role.

Separate from both lines are the '''Neoteks''', who represent promising candidates for promotion. Their particular talents tend towards the actual manipulation of technology. Thus they are permitted access to some of the more dangerous or unpredictable examples of what the STC is able to produce. This provides two functions: the first is that it allows the field testing of new prototypes, which is a dangerous process since not everyone can guarantee exactly what it will do, so the data gathered will be invaluable to the betterment of the house. The second function is that if the Neotek survives being the guinea pig for new technologies, they will have proved both their worth and their dedication, and tend to go far as Archeoteks or Primes depending on their chosen vocation.

===Relationships===
As the foremost experts on technology, House Van Saar maintains strong links with the Mercator Lux and the Pyromantic Conclaves, who dominate the light/electricity and the fuel industries respectively. This relationship works well for all sides, as the Lighting Guild and the Fuel Guild don't really understand the systems that they claim dominion over, and are content to allow the Van Saar to perform repair works for them. In return, Van Saar gain the ability to discretely tap into the hive infrastructure and use what they need without drawing too much attention.

The House also maintains links with the secretive Noble [[House Catallus]] as well as any number of charlatans and "Fallen Houses". Despite the fact that Van Saar are a ''bona fide'' Clan House in their own right, they still came from a line of ash-scavengers, and their power base and primary source of wealth must remain a tightly kept secret. So alliances with these dubious members of upper society allow them to maintain airs of legitimacy and throw off the scent for anyone who tries looking into the matter.

In the 39th Millennium, House Van Saar played a part in the creation of [[House Goliath]], ostensibly as an attempt to refill the waning labourer population following an attempted [[Cult of the Redemption|Redemptionist]] uprising, the creation of fit and healthy vat-grown donors could have served to provide House Van Saar with a way of replacing their own failing flesh and organs. However the resulting Goliaths had even shorter lifespans than that of Van Saar, rendering the project a failure from that perspective, with Van Saar blaming [[House Escher]] for the betrayal. For their part, House Escher also blamed Van Saar for the Goliath's sterility, depriving them of potential breeding stock.

Secretly, the result was manipulated by outside sources in order to maintain the status quo of dependence between houses. Van Saar trade for the rad-purgatives supplied by [[House Escher]] and in return provide them the components for the parthenogenesis process they need to reproduce, preventing any one House from gaining too much independence and dominance over the others.

House Van Saar maintain an ongoing alliance with House Goliath, providing them with the amnio-vat technology required to maintain their population in exchange for the raw materials that the Goliaths can obtain from the inhospitable depths of the hives. This deal grossly favours the Goliaths, but was instituted in part to provide a means of striking against House Escher.

===Technologies===
The technological ascendance of House Van Saar gives them access to items would be considered "rare" even in more prestigious institutions. Even the "standard-issue" bodyglove is a complicated arrangement of various technological devices that constantly monitor their health and provide life support functions, as well as providing the connections to their wargear, allowing overlay of targetting technology over their field of vision, or the jacks for connecting with other larger pieces of equipment. The use of Mind-Impulse-Unit (MIU) technology is very commonplace, allowing for the installation of servo-arms/rigs all the way up to specialist servo-suits that carry small arsenals of wargear and protective gear.

Van Saar have perfected the art of las-technology as far as possible for any institution not connected with the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] and produce a variety of mid-range rifles, las-carbines, las-sub-carbines, and even las-"shotguns" capable of peppering a wide arc. Yet, despite such mastery over las-weaponry, Van Saar does '''not''' have the bulk of the Imperial export contracts and so their weapons are unlikely to end up in the hands of the [[Imperial Guard]]; and try as they might to compete for the contracts each time they come up for renewal, they always get awarded to [[House Escher]]. The reason given is that Van Saar weapons tend to be ''"over-engineered"'', which is an undesirable trait in something so straightforward and workmanlike as a lasgun. Van Saar lasguns also likely cost a lot more, even within the mechanics of the game a Van Saar lasgun is double the credit value of an Escher lasgun ''(that performs the same way)'' and costs up to ''seven times'' more once you add all the Van Saar bells and whistles.

The Noble Houses still encourage the competition, knowing that they can buy advanced Van Saar weapons for their own private use ''(likely in House militaries)'' and give them an edge over their rivals.

Despite their setbacks in the lucrative lasgun contracts, Van Saar are the '''only''' House with the capability to manufacture Plasma and Melta weapons. While other Houses may certainly have their own patterns ''(like the Goliath Combi-Plasma-Stub pistol for instance)'', the primary components for those weapons will have almost certainly come from a Van Saar artificer's workshop.

The aforementioned Hystrar-pattern energy shields are a unique variant of conversion fields that are wrist mounted and offer arguably better protection over a normal conversion field, albeit only in a limited arc. They are also one of the few insitutions outside of the Mechanicus that routinely produce, and use [[Radium Weaponry|rad-weaponry]], with their protective suits offsetting the dangers of exposing themselves to such technology.

Van Saar are also unique on Necromunda in that they breed and modify the large native arachnids for the purposes of turning them into [[Servitor]]s, creating '''Cyberachnids'''.