Cult Mechanicus

The Cult Mechanicus is the religious foundation of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Although the worshippers of the Cult Mechanicus are members of the Imperium, they have their own version of worship that differs from the standard worship of the God-Emperor. The religion of the Cult Mechanicus values technology above all else and views technology as the ultimate destiny for mankind.

The Cult Mechanicus
The Cult Mechanicus believes knowledge to be the manifestation of divinity. The supreme object of devotion is therefore the omniscient Machine God, an immanent and omnipotent spirit governing machinery and knowledge. The Machine God is believed to be friendly to humanity, and to be the originator of all human technological and scientific knowledge.

Aspects of Worship
The 4th Edition Rulebook generalizes the aspects of worship as follows :

"According to the teachings of the Cult Mechanicus, knowledge is the supreme manifestation of divinity, and all creatures and artifacts that embody knowledge are holy because of it. Machines that preserve knowledge from ancient times are also holy, and machine intelligences are no less divine than those of flesh and blood. A man's worth is only the sum of his knowledge - his body is simply an organic machine capable of preserving intellect."

The Machine God
According to the Cult Mechanicus, technology is a higher form of life than that created by processes such as evolution. Only a divine source could have inspired the perfection of form and function attainable in machines. This divine source is the Machine God. The Machine God is not to be understood in the Abrahamic tradition of a god; it is not a person, but rather a force immanent in the universe. For unspecified reasons, it has appointed humans as its favored people, and reveals its true designs and machines to them through select prophets. In order to interact with a personal world it was also prophesied to create an avatar, the Omnissiah. In the early days of the Great Crusade, the Emperor of Mankind was recognized as Omnissiah, prompting the Treaty of Mars and the alliance of the Cult with the burgeoning Imperium of Man.

Machine Spirits
The Cult also believes in the existence of machine spirits, minute fragments of the Machine God descended into every machine in existence. These fragments of their deity naturally command a great deal of respect, and they are also believed to be directly in control of the machine's operation. This means that techpriests and others they instruct generally make many ritualized advances to their machinery in order to insure their spirits are compliant and respected, and thus that they operate properly. These rituals often include many operations of a potentially mechanically useful nature, such as lubricating an axle, securing a screw or similar, but also operations of no immediately visible value such as sacrifices, chants, libations and the like. The belief in machine spirits is also the cause of the Cult's stance on alien technology. As aliens do not recognize the spirits of their machines, such devices are enslaved and maltreated. Because of this, humans should not make use of alien technology even if superior to human-made counterparts. Orthodox Cultists usually advocate the destruction of alien technology to free its spirit, while more radical followers may excuse their study, safekeeping and even use in the name of the Quest for Knowledge.

Quest for Knowledge
The ultimate goal of the Cult Mechanicus is to understand the Omnissiah. The communal and personal attempt at this is known as the Quest for Knowledge, and followers view this endeavour as paramount and more important than any other concern. Generally, the Quest is pursued by scientific and exploratory endeavour. The Cult believes that all knowledge already exists, and it is primarily a matter of time before it can be gathered together to complete the Quest. It is therefore disinclined to perform much original research, and considers it more important to safeguard that which it has already accrued and gather more by searching for STC templates and the like. Some original research does happen, although the results of such endeavours are strictly quarantined for many years before being disseminated publicly.

In the Quest for Knowledge, members are guided by the Sixteen Universal Laws. According to Gavin Thorpe, a prominent member of the Games Workshop design studio, the sixteen laws, or "lores" are as follows:

The Mysteries

 * 01. Life is directed motion.
 * 02. The spirit is the spark of life.
 * 03. Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
 * 04. Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
 * 05. Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
 * 06. Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
 * 07. Comprehension is the key to all things.
 * 08. The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.

The Warnings

 * 09. The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path.
 * 10. The soul is the conscience of sentience.
 * 11. A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
 * 12. The Soulless sentience is the enemy of all.
 * 13. The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
 * 14. The machine spirit guards the knowledge of the ancients.
 * 15. Flesh is fallible, but ritual honours the machine spirit.
 * 16. To break with ritual is to break with faith.