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Tech-priest

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Targetdrone.gif This article is about the the Adeptus Mechanicus rank; for the Novel by Rob Sanders, see Adeptus Mechanicus: Tech-Priest (Novel).

A Tech-priest is an adept of the Adeptus Mechanicus. They are the members of the Cult Mechanicus, a priesthood which forms a hierarchy of technicians, scientists, and religious leaders. The Tech-priests provide the rest of the Imperium with its technicians and engineers.

A Tech-priest.

Though their bodies often incorporate many mechanical components, Tech-priests are human or abhuman[17], unlike the slave-machine Servitors which carry out all the heavy and monotonous labour for them.

Overview

Tech-Priests are Adepts of the Cult Mechanicus. The premiere engineers and technological specialists in the Imperium, they accompany nearly every branch of the Imperium to maintain machinery. Tech-Priests will provide religious rites, anti-corruption wards, and repairs to Machine Spirits to any machine they are qualified to oversee.[5]

The term ‘Tech-Priest’ covers a thousand different roles. Genetors probe the mysteries of the biological, creating ever stranger cyborgs and slaughtering xenos by the thousand in order to excise yet more secrets. Artisans create and restore truly wondrous weapons of war, from ornate gamma pistols to the mind-boggling immensity of the Ark Mechanicus. Magi of all stripes pursue esoteric agendas as likely to end in triumph as they are disaster. Across the galaxy Transmechanics, Lexmechanics, Enginseers, Secutors, Trifactors, Myrmidons and Technoshamans labor alongside the wider Imperium to bolster Humanity’s war machine. Within the Adeptus Mechanicus the ranks become even more esoteric. Each Fabricator Locum can call upon Magi Technicus, Metallurgicus, Alchemys, Cogitatrices, Pedanticum, Tech-assassins, hive monitors and Holy Requisitioners, who in turn can command a body of fabricators minoris, Fulgurites, Corpuscarii, overseers, underseers, stasis clerks, and techno-dervishes. To even begin to comprehend the towering edifice of the Cult Mechanicus takes far more processing power than the human brain can provide.[5]

Tech-Priests are often fast-grown in vats, infused with a instinctual level of knowledge due to data uplinks during their gestation. Members are born already post-adolescence and are promptly put to work.[8b]

Equipment

The personal equipment and wargear of a Tech-Priest varies greatly and can consist of anything from standard weaponry to more exotic pieces of Archaeotech. However typical wargear includes their Mechadendrites and an Omnissian Axe which acts as a badge of office. Tech-Priests of militant orders such as a Dominus are equipped with more radical weaponry such as Eradication Rays, Macrostubbers, Phosphor Serpenta, and Volkite Blasters. They are also typically protected by a Refractor Field.[9a] Standard Tech-Priest Enginseers are equipped with less exotic weapons, such as a Laspistol and Servo-arms.[9b] Tech-priests also have internal computational systems capable of running trillions of calculations in a few seconds.[23]

Hierarchy

The Tech Priest hierarchy

Fabricator-General

Every Forge World maintains a ruling Fabricator-General and his subordinate Fabricator Locum.[5] However it is the Fabricator-General of Mars that is the leader of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and as the Magos Mechanicus is also the head of its Cult Mechanicus. He also invariably holds a position on the High Lords of Terra. Accordingly his subordinate and second-in-command is the Fabricator Locum of Mars.[1][2]

The Ruling Priesthood

Tech-Priest[22]

The Ordinary Priesthood

Tech-Adept

Tech-Adepts, or Tech-Priest Adepts, are low-ranking individuals in the Adeptus Mechanicus[24a] who have the intellectual potential to rise into higher positions within the Machine Cult, and take on the mantle of Tech-Priest.[25a] Others might forego this pursuit in rising in the ranks of the Mechanicus and take another path in life. In some circumstances, adepts might forego their pursuit of rank within the Martian Priesthood and instead take up other opportunities, such as the rare instance of pursuing a career as an Inquisitor.[27]

The lowest ranking Tech-Priests Adepts primarily serve in menial roles, supporting the work of higher ranking Tech-Priests. More often than not their primary functions are maintenance and construction duties, but as a Tech-adept progresses and acquires greater knowledge, they are relieved from the more trivial day-to-day tasks and allowed to study and learn of the greater mysterious and missing techniques that have prevented any kind of progressive development in the Imperium’s technological base.[24a]

Tech-Adepts are some of the lowest ranking of the Martian Priesthood and can serve in general purpose roles or sometimes more specialized ones.[24d] General menial work might include doing census work within a food or water starved sector of a Forge-City.[8a] Many of the lost technological arts used by the Imperium are known only to the Mechanicus priesthood and those they choose to share their sacred knowledge with. Many secrets of manufacturing are now known to but a handful of the inner circle of the Adeptus Mechanicus Magos and their tech-adept artisans.[24b] Through rune and hammer, the Tech-Adepts are the wards of the arcane and they guard their knowledge jealously.[24c]

Some cybernetic systems are only provided to tech-adepts of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Some of these Bionic Augmentations and implants include bionic limbs or organs, subskin armour, cerebral implants, various forms of Archeotech, and many others.[25c]

Acolytum

Tech acolyta (plural),[29e] acolytum (singular) are unranked members of the Cult Mechanicus that are still learning the lower mysteries of the Machine God.[29c] They are treated as inferior to an ordained adept. The Mechanicus often treats acolytum and other low-rankers as little better than the common masses and other Mechanicus dregs.[29b] Acolytum don't have any ordained ranking and must prove themselves competent in several fields before being able to secure their first ranking.[29d]

Many acolyta are promising young children. Some Forge Worlds also train their acolyta in combat, sparring with other youths using electro staves while under the watchful guidance of a Warleader.[29e]

Known Tech-Priests

Known Tech-Adepts

Images

See Also

Sources

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