eclaimator

The most-skilled and certainly least trusted of the Adeptus Mechanicus functionaries are the
Reclaimators. It is their task to redeem raw materials from old and damaged systems, to scavenge parts
and be tasked with the endless cycle of minor repairs needed to keep a starship flying or a hive's
infrastructure from collapsing under its own weight. By necessity, a Reclaimator's skills begin to stray into
a higher understanding of machinery and technology than most and many learn to worship the Machine
God in a fragmentary and superstitious manner, marking them apart from others of the Mechanicus.

Reclaimators themselves are often sent into dangerous or unsafe areas with little direct supervision, and
they scavenge and salvage a good deal more than their masters know. As a result, most Reclaimators
have a well-deserved reputation as suspicious, shifty characters who sell their skills and the items they
retrieve or repair for a good profit on the black market. Many have links to criminal gangs and more than
a few are willing to resort to robbery and even murder to build up their spoils if they think they can get
away with it.

Secutor

Some Tech-priests are drawn to the path of the Secutor through a fascination with the unique and
intellectual challenges warfare provides, while others feel themselves drawn to the intricacies and
beauties of creation and destruction, or the sacred art of weaponsmithing. Others simply see this path as
a means to an end, either for the protection of the Machine Cult, the furtherance of their own
independent researches, or some other, hidden agenda.

Regardless of the reason for their vocation, a Tech-priest skilled in such destructive arts as the Secutor is
an invaluable ally for an Inquisitor, and makes for a singularly lethal Acolyte. The only downside to such
an association is that the Inquisition can never be fully sure where the Tech-priest Secutor’s loyalties lie
-- even more so than others of their kind -- or what ancient and dark secrets they may themselves
possess.

Techsorcist

Techsorcist

A Techsorcist

Created by Magos Eremor in the latter half of the 36th Millennium in response to the reappearance from
the Warp of the Space Hulk Fatum Posterus, within the Calixis Sector the Techsorcists have long been on
the frontlines whenever heretical technology has been found. Some Forge World Tech-priests develop an
interest in analyzing corrupted Machine Spirits. Unusually for Tech-priests, Techsorcists are capable of
intuitive thinking, speculation, and improvisation, and are famous for their lateral and often unorthodox
process when strict logic and standard procedures fail.

This is an invaluable tool for an Inquisitor trying to understand his foe's weaknesses. In the service of the
Inquisition, a Techsorcist performs all the typical tasks of a Tech-priest, but has a deeper understanding
of how Chaos mutates and adapts technology. Within the Calixis Sector the ranks of Techsorcists have
swelled as the demand for trained daemon-hunting Tech-priests has grown. A trained Techsoricist, if not
several, are in the employ of nearly every Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in the sector.

Adeptus Mechanicus Divisions

Collegia Titanica

The Collegia Titanica is the division of the Adeptus Mechanicus that commands the Titans -- colossal
robotic combat walkers which are the most potent ground weapons capable of being deployed by the
Imperium. The Collegia was one of the groups of the Adeptus Mechanicus that went over to the
Warmaster Horus Lupercal almost en masse alongside the Legio Cybernetica during the Horus Heresy.
The name "Adeptus Titanicus" is also used for the corps of Titans fielded by the Mechanicus.

The Collegia is subdivided into organisations called "divisiones," such as the Divisio Militaris, Divisio
Mandati, Divisio Telepathica and the Divisio Investigatus. The most important of these divisions is the
Divisio Militaris since it actually includes the Battle Titans, and is itself further divided into the Titan
Legions or Titan Orders: groupings of Titans such as the Traitor Death's Head Legion, the Fire Wasps
Legion or War Griffons Legion. Each Titan Legion is commanded by an officer known as the
"grandmaster" who may also be the princeps of the most powerful Titan in the Legion.

Each Titan is manned by a crew consisting of a single princeps in command of the Titan, assisted by
varying numbers of Moderati, Sensori, Steersmen, Tech-priests, Enginseers, and Servitors. The number of
each is dependent on the type of Titan.

Princeps - The training of a princeps begins at an early age and ends with eight years at the Collegiate
Titanica on Mars. The cadets receive their uniforms and cybernetic MIU implants in the final year, before
field-training starts with an attachment to a currently-operating Titan for observational tours. A princeps
commands their Titan through an MIU's (Mind Impulse Unit, see above) cybernetic link to the Titan's
artificial intelligence or "Machine Spirit", controlling both their crew's actions and the Titan's movements
through their thoughts. The Titan becomes an extension of its princeps; when it is damaged, they feel
pain, when victorious, they feel elation. This link grows so strong that the princeps' mental health will
slowly deteriorate when unlinked from the machine. They can assume direct control of any system,
though it is usually aiming and fire control that is taken. In a Warlord or Imperator-class Titan the
princeps is sometimes placed in an amniotic casket to provide full sensory immersion in order to control
the truly massive Titan without difficulty. Regardless, Titans must have both a princeps and a command
crew to function. The princeps' relation to the Titan is similar to that of a Space Marine within a
Dreadnought cybernetic shell. However, Titans are capable of eventually developing their own sentient
minds from centuries of experience. The cybernetic link in some cases gets so strong that the princeps
becomes neurologically integrated with the Titan, and cannot be removed until they die of natural
causes. A princeps who commands a Legion of Titans is ranked as a "princeps maximus" or
"grandmaster", though an entire Legion of Titans has very rarely been fielded since the Horus Heresy.

Moderati (sing. Moderatus) - The moderati are the officers who comprise the command crew of a Titan
that take the princeps' orders and act on them, monitoring the Titan's auspices and scanners, firing the
weapons and making sure all systems are functioning normally. Although they also have MIU links to the
Titan like the princeps, they cannot assume command nor can they interface directly with the princeps'
own dominant neural link, instead using their links solely to provide information about the Titan's state
in battle.

Sensori (sing. Sensorus) - The third-ranking member of the bridge command crew, the sensori is the
Titan's Tactical Officer and controls and monitors all the sensory inputs of a Titan, from the aural sensors
to the simple visual inputs. It is also their job to spot and acquire targets for the moderati (or princeps)
to engage. They also deal with all Titan communications, decrypting or relaying vox messages to the
princeps' display screen on their command throne as necessary.

Steersman - The fourth member of a Titan's bridge crew, the steersman controls the Titan's stability and
is essentially the driver of the Titan.

Knight Houses

IKErrant battle

An Imperial Knight Paladin in battle

Thousands of standard years before the rise of the Imperium, Mankind reached out to the stars and
settled many far away worlds. Among the apparatus of colonisation were formidable war machines
known as Imperial Knights, which existed to protect the settlers from any threat. These small combat
walkers are one-man versions of a Titan. However, a Knight is smaller and less capable in combat than
even the smallest class of true Titan utilised by the Titan Legions, the Warhound-class Scout Titan.
Knights normally deploy in squadrons comprised of several of these war machines. These ancient
battlesuits stand thirty to forty feet tall, are protected by nearly impenetrable Ion Shields and armed
with a devastating array of heavy weapons. Imperial Knights are colossal war machines that tower over
the battlefield.

The strongholds constructed from the remains of ancient Terran colony starships are ruled by the
descendants of the first human settlers of those far-flung worlds, mighty warriors who enter combat in
their towering armoured battlesuits and who are sworn to protect and guard the Imperial citizens who
inhabit their worlds. The descendants of the early pioneers who settled their respective worlds were
found in the knightly houses of the Imperial Knights.

Known formally as the Questoris Familia, these dynasties of Imperial nobility evolved from the need to
protect the early human settlers of the Knight Worlds from indigenous species discovered on their alien
planets. These proud and haughty warriors can trace their bloodlines back to Terra itself and are known
as nobles. Over the millennia, the pilots of these massive war suits have established a rich culture, with
noble houses each sworn to the defence of their homeworld, and bound by oaths of fealty to the Golden
Throne of Terra and the Adeptus Mechanicus of Mars.

Centurio Ordinatus

The Centurio Ordinatus, a section of the Mechanicus' Divisio Militaris, is the Adeptus Mechanicus
organisation responsible for the development, maintenance and operation of the mighty Ordinatus war
machines. Every individual Ordinatus is a unique construction and named for the Imperial world on
which it was first employed or built.

Each Ordinatus is a unique weapon that is designed for a specific purpose or for a particular battle. This
explains why the Ordninatii Tech-priests that operate these massive war machines of the Machine God
are configured using special augmetics to aid their intended purpose.

Legio Cybernetica

The Legio Cybernetica is one of the oldest sub-branches of the Adeptus Mechanicus and is responsible
for deploying fully autonomous robots for both combat duties and support tasks intended to aid Imperial
armed forces in the field. The Legio Cybernetica can trace its lineage the time before the birth of the
Imperium of Man when Mars was the capital of an independent interstellar empire ruled by the Tech-
priests of the Cult Mechanicus. Its members regard themselves as an elite within the ranks of the
Mechanicus, as they have a long history of serving the will of the Emperor of Mankind.

However, many of those within the Legio broke faith with the Emperor during the Schism of Mars, siding
with the traitorous forces of the Warmaster Horus and fighting alongside his Traitor Legions throughout
the Horus Heresy. When this conflict ended, the Traitor cohorts of the Legio Cybernetica fled into the Eye
of Terror, where they remain to this day, warped and twisted by their exposure to the power of Chaos.

The remaining Loyalist elements of the Legio Cybernetica pledged themselves anew to the Imperium and
its members took binding oaths of loyalty more terrible than any taken even by the Astartes. Over the
millennia since the Heresy, the Legio Cybernetica has regained the respect and admiration of the rest of
the Adeptus Mechanicus as well as the other myriad Adepta of the Imperium.

Collegiate Extremis

The Collegiate Extremis is the judicial branch of the Adeptus Mechanicus. It is similar to the Adeptus
Arbites in function: traitors to the Omnissiah are prosecuted and their crimes analysed. At its head is the
Lords Dragon, an ancient cabal orchestrating the Collegiate, perhaps of Archmagi Veneratus of whatever
divisiones of the Mechanicus serve in the Collegiate.

The main leaders of the Collegiate Extremis would, in theory, be on Mars, and each Forge World would
have a Lord Dragon of its own to command the local members of the collegiate, but this is based on
circumstantial evidence. The Collegiate's will is enforced on Forge Worlds by attached Skitarii Provosts, as
they are known, and the Magos Juris carry out their will across the galaxy. In many ways the Collegiate
Extremis serves as the Mechanicus' own internal variant of the Imperial Inquisition.