Cult Mechanicus

n the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, the Cult Mechanicus is the religious foundation of the Adeptus Mechanic. 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 Cult Mechanicus
The Cult Mechanicus believes knowledge to be the manifestation of divinity, and holds that anything embodying or containing knowledge is holy because of it. The supreme object of devotion is therefore the omniscient Machine God, an immanent and omnipotent spirit governing machinery and knowledge. Generally, this deity is held to be either subordinate to or an aspect of the God-Emperor (or, most commonly within the Cult itself, both are held to be aspects or faces of the same being). 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 artefacts 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."

Subservient to the Machine God are the Machine Spirits, who are believed to inhabit all machinery and which must be appeased, lest the machinery fail. Belief in machine spirits cause the Adeptus and others they instruct to make frequent prayers, offerings and so on to their machinery and show it inordinate amounts of respect.

Some believe that these actions, in turn, cause the machines to break less often since they are not mistreated and damaged with careless use, creating a self reinforcing system. However, with the ability for Techpriests to repaire tanks mid-battle with more prayers/rites than actual mechanical application, it seems that divine intervention plays an important role. The ritualized process and the worshipping of the machines leads to slower production as every bit of equipment must be inspected and "purified" to Imperial standards.

Research is also slowed to an almost nonexistent rate, because much of the old technology is lost and a complete STC unit has not yet been discovered. Another downfall of this is many blueprints for older technology (the Dreadnought, for example) are lost.

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. The warnings
 * 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.
 * 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.

Machine God
The Machine God (also known as the Omnissiah or Deus Mechanicus) is worshipped by the Imperial scientists and engineers (primarily the members of the Adeptus Mechanicus) as the bestower of all technology and scientific wisdom.

To some, this conflicts with the puritanical Imperial theology where the only god is the God-Emperor of Mankind. But since the Adeptus Mechanicus is vital to the survival of the Imperium, confrontation on this issue is often avoided by simply dismissing the Machine God as an aspect of the Emperor, something the Cult believes officially. Furthermore, since the Techpriests have created such precious equipment like the Golden Throne, their faith in the Emperor cannot be doubted.

Alternative Theories
There are some hints in the background stories that the Machine God may actually be the C'tan Void Dragon, an ancient entity of immense power. It is rumored that the Void Dragon sleeps in a stasis-tomb on Mars, the home planet of Adeptus Mechanicus. What ramifications such an assertion, if proved true, may have on the future of the Warhammer 40,000 universe has yet to be revealed.

This rumour has been more convincing since the mass awakening of the Necron army. It is said that a small amount of Necron forces managed to breach Imperial defences in the Segmentum Solar and perform a landing on Mars itself after destroying some of the Noctis Labyrinth Mine Complexes.

Upon landing, countless Mechanicus forces quickly dispatched the Necron expedition. Although the Necrons were eliminated, their purpose on Mars is unknown. More striking is the fact that they breached vast areas of Imperial space (including the Segmentum Solar itself) undetected. The Mechanicus enforced a perdita zone around the entire Noctis Labyrinth, enforced by an entire Skitarii Legion.

Machine Spirit
A Machine Spirit is a spirit believed by the Adeptus Mechanicus (and, from that source, by most other humans from the Imperium of Man) to inhabit and control a piece of machinery.

The functioning, or lack thereof, of any machine is believed to be the result of its spirit's disposition. To keep their machine spirits happy and cooperative, operators therefore make numerous ritualised advances to their machinery. These depend on the machine, but in most cases include various maintenance rituals and prayers of function and occasionally also an offering or libation. This is increased if the machine is large and/or important.

Machine spirits are believed to be bestowed by the Machine God and subservient to him. They are in every vital weapon used by those who following the Emperor. From bolters to power armor, the blessing of the Machine God allows for the Emperor's enemies to be defeated. Even members of the Elite Death Watch are careful to leave some of the original power armor colours as not to offend the machine spirit that resides within.

Alien Technology
Because alien technologies do not make observances to their machine spirits, many among the Adeptus Mechanicus see them as grave heresies that must be destroyed rather than studied, even if superior to human-manufactured counterparts in operation. This view is not universal, however. Indeed, many human colonies near the boundaries of the Tau Empire were found to be using Tau technology for agricultural purposes during the Damocles Gulf Crusade, and the offending colonists were punished with penal sentences.

However, the prohibition of alien technology serves the purpose of hindering and punishing those who trade with prohibited species and betray the Imperium.

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (or Abominable Intelligence, as it is known in the Imperium) is generally prohibited in the Imperium unless a human is combined with it or part of its circuitry. This is to ensure the intelligent machine does not rebel against its human masters. However, some machines are allowed such an intelligence under the guise of having an especially active machine spirit. An example of this is the Land Raider tank, which can continue to move and fire, albeit with a lesser ability, even if its crew is unable to fight. Titans have particularly complex machine spirits and can exhibit personalities of their own.