Editing Legio Maleficarum (section)

==Birth of a Psi-Titan==
Servitors and techpriests work the gantries and manufactorums in silence; skitarii and privileged adepts of the Imperium patrol the Arsenal and man the massive anti-orbital defenses. So strangely well-defended is such a remote world, even though the legion of Malleus Obscurus numbers less than twenty machines. Such technology and craftsmanship go into the psi-titans that it takes thrice the time of normal god-machines. Decades are spent blessing just one titan, etching holy scriptures into its massive armour plates and purifying each part down to the nut with a dozen different rituals. Cables are carefully threaded up and down the massive frame from components to the cockpit, tying the entire machine together. After years of construction, sanctification, and purification, a single divine weapon of the Omnissiah is /mostly/ complete. But even though it seems whole it lacks one vital component: the crew.

Every year a veteran princeps of Legio Maleficarum visit the Scholastica Psykana to inspect the newest graduates for viability as crewmen, before even the space marines get their pick. Judging by their stability, willingness to submit, and psychic grade, they choose the legion's new proteges. All other things equal, the students chosen are the most powerful among their peers; a Delta-level psyker is typically sufficient, but only a Beta-level psyker may become a princeps, as the will of the titan may only be matched by a psyker of such power. Candidates are taken to Tyche where they are trained in the ways of the Machine Cult and given a full education in the craft of crewmanship. The intense program is difficult and failure rate is high, but there are no dropouts: by the end of their first year candidates know too much to leave, and they must remain in training until they either meet the standard or die from old age. Such extreme standards exceed even the most elite titan formations in the Collegia Titanica, and are accompanied with lessons from the Adeptus Ministorum and the Inquisition on fighting daemons and the horrors of the warp. The end product takes nearly as much effort as a psi-titan, but it is necessary for the completion of the most powerful psychic weapon system.