Princeps

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Un Princeps (pl. Princeps) is a senior officer in command of one of the towering Imperial or Chaotic war machines known as a Titan, and all of its crewmen are subordinate to him or her. Princeps are all men and women of exceptional willpower, which is required to enter a mind-link with a Titan and maintain their sanity intact amidst the roaring spirit of destruction housed within the Titan's adamantium hull. Although they belong to the separate military hierarchy of their Titan Legion and the Collegia Titanica, the Princeps are part of the Cult Mechanicus, and as such defer to the orders of powerful Adeptus Mechanicus Magi, who command the might of the Titan Legions and are able to issue them direct orders and decide their assignments.

The Princeps exerts command over his war engine by the means of a Mind Impulse Unit -- a technologically complex neural input device which allows for a cybernetic connection between the human mind and a Titan's Machine Spirit, and the ability to impose his or her will upon it. To establish the link between the Machine Spirit and the human mind requires that the Princeps submit to extensive cybernetic augmentation of his or her central nervous system, either by accepting the implantation of a several cybernetic implants at the back of the neck and skull, a series of implants in the spine which enable the linking of the MIU to the spinal cord or even undergoing entombment in an amniotic tank with large parts of the body rewired to accomodate cybernetic interaction with the Titan.

The process of linking the human mind to a God-Machine is very difficult and dangerous, as a Titan is possessed of a ferociously potent Machine Spirit; one that is unlike any other, harbouring its own savage and instinctive intelligence. The Princeps must break the machine's opposition and bind it to his will -- a feat requiring enormous willpower. Because of this, Princeps are rare individuals, and one of the tasks the Collegia Titanica carries out is to discover them wherever they can be found and train them to command the colossal war engines. Whilst normally the Adeptus Mechanicus searches for its personnel within the Cult Mechanicus, the sheer rarity of such individuals requires the Mechanicus to search in the broader populace of the Imperium. Barely one in ten million possess the necessary qualifications to serve as a Princeps, and even fewer of this number make it through the training to finally command a war engine. Because of this reality, Princeps are immensely valuable individuals, and their home Forge World will spare no effort to recover them should they go missing in action, and if the slimmest chance exists that they are still alive. There are two ways in which one can become a Princeps -- undergoing training in Collegia Titanica academies, as mentioned above, or advancing from the rank of a Moderatus to a full Princepture, which is usually the command of Warhound-class Scout Titan.

When the Princeps is linked to a Titan's MIU, he feels the Titan's body as if it was his own -- his hands become weapon arms, his senses are turned into powerful Auspexes and his skin becomes the thick adamantium hull -- an experience of supremacy and escape from human frailty that addicts every Princeps to his or her link with a Titan. The Princeps is then able to command the Titan intuitively -- he merely needs to think of undertaking an action and the machine complies. During this operation, the Princeps does not lose conciousness of his own body, and is able to simultaneously move and act as normal within the Titan's cockpit.

Relación con el Espíritu Máquina

When a Princeps first links with a new Titan, he or she must break its resistance and force it to acknowledge its new master. Once that is done, however, the Machine Spirit's resistance does not cease, and each reconnection is painful and mentally taxing for the Princeps. Being linked to a Titan will, either through the sheer mental strain of connecting to and becoming a being that dwarfs a human in nearly every respect, or through the actual patient endeavour of the Titan's Machine Spirit, eventually result in the Princeps losing sanity, being broken by the Titan, or being completely overwhelmed by the domineering Machine Spirit, lost in the machine's mental landscape. At this point, disconnecting the Princeps from the Mind Impulse Unit will result in certain death.

There is also a perverse effect to the mind-link: it is highly addictive to the human mind. From the moment he manages to dominate his Titan's Machine Spirit, the Princeps will actively crave being linked to his war engine, for the feeling of becoming a godlike machine of destruction is impossibly intense, and living as a mere human eventually becomes intolerable for some Princeps. Alas, this withdrawal also accelerates the Princeps' descent into madness, straining his mind when he is not linked to his mighty war machine. If a Princeps does not fall in battle, he will ultimately fall to the Machine Spirit of his Titan when his will finally snaps.

Being linked to the Titan's Mind Impulse Unit is a considerable effort in itself, and controlling the war machine's systems precisely is difficult. Most Princeps are incapable of controlling all of a Titan's functions simultaneously due to the sheer, unbearable mental tumult it inflicts, and those who do will only do so for short periods of time. For this reason, Princeps are assisted in operating these towering war machines by junior officers called Moderati -- whose role is to operate some of the Titan's systems in their commander's stead -- lessening the mental strain placed on the Princeps and allowing for the efficient handling of the machine.

The mind-link is a very intimate and immersive connection, causing the Princeps and the Titan to leave an imprint in each other's consciousness and grow increasingly alike over time. The Titan's Machine Spirit will learn from its Princeps and from the battles they take part in, storing the knowledge and making it available at all times and to any Princeps that will command the war machine in the future. The Princeps on the other hand, will, with time, begin to show traits of character akin to those of his or her war engine. The nature of the Machine Spirits varies between individual Titans, however war engines of the same class will be similar. Thus, the commanders of Warhound-class Scout Titans are known to be bellicose and belligerent, and sometimes loners, though the latter may be due to their generally solitary assignments as scouts, while the Princeps of other war engines are more cool-headed and better capable of cooperation as part of a larger force.

Princeps del Caos

During the Horus Heresy, half of the Titan Legions declared support for the Warmaster Horus, and since those ancient times, the fickle blessings of the Ruinous Powers have warped many of them. Although some of the Traitor Princeps have remained largely unchanged, and are presumed to operate their machines as described above, the rest have become hideously disfigured and physically merged with the corrupted war machines they command, linking with them not only in mind, but in flesh as well.

Princeps notables

• Ramus Macabee - Posiblemente considerado el Prínceps más condecorado de las Legiones Titánicas. Sus logros tácticos son de obligada lectura en la Collegia Tactica. Dirige personalmente a un Titán Warlord llamado Imperius Dictatio.
• Danferus - El princeps Danferus fue el Princeps Majoris de la Legio Metallica durante la Segunda Guerra por Armaggedon y murió a bordo de su Titán, el Imperius Quintus, cuando subió a bordo de un piedro orko.
• Esau Turnet - Senior Princeps Esau Turnet was the commander of the Dies Irae, an Imperator Titan of the Legio Mortis, during the Horus Heresy. He was known to have high expectations of the crew of his Titan. By the time of Isstvan III, Turnet had already sworn allegiance to Warmaster Horus, and was privy to what the Warmaster had planned for the loyalists on Istvaan. Just before the virus strike, Turnet ordered the Dies Irae sealed up and the weapons taken offline. After the strike and the subsequent firestorm, Turnet ordered the guns reactivated, to open fire on the Death Guard loyalists. One of the moderati, Titus Cassar, confronted Turnet with his treachery and began a brief autopistol duel with the Princeps, which ended when Cassar was killed by the other moderati, Jonah Aruken.
• Rufus Aquila - Rufus Aquila was the Princeps of the Imperator Titan Aquila Ignis and part of the Legio Mortis, during the Horus Heresy. The Legio sided with Horus during that conflict and became corrupted by the powers of pestilence, which Rufus and his crew willingly gave themselves to; thoroughly corrupting themselves and the Aquila Ignis. During the Schism of Mars Rufus was deployed by the Legio Mortis, during their walk on the Magma City and the defending loyalist Legio Tempestus. Though he succeeded in destroying the remnants of Tempestus, the destruction of the Magma City by Adept Koriel Zeth unleashed a torrent of lava that destroyed the Aquila Ignis' main body, killing the Princeps and leaving only its corrupted Hellstorm Cannon behind.
• Sidarius Calvin - Sidarius Calvin was the Princeps of the Warlord Titan Semper Sanctus, part of the Legio Praetor, and took part in the Battle for Macragge, during the First Tyrannic War. The Princeps and his consorts were stationed to defend the Northern Polor Defense Grid, when it came under attack from a large wave of Tyranids. As the battle began, Sidarius fired upon the smaller Tyranids until he sighted a Hierophant Bio-Titan advancing upon the defenders. Deeming it a threat that had to be immediately destroyed, Sidarius advanced the Semper Sanctus through the horde of smaller Tyranids to engage it, firing upon it as he did so. As the Semper Sanctus fought the Hierophant, it continued to wade through the smaller Tyranids to do so and soon its legs became immobilized, when their bodies clogged the Titan's leg joints. The Hierophant soon fired upon the trapped Semper Sanctus and destroyed its left arm, killing several of its crew in the process. Now unable to move or fire upon the Tyranids, Sidarius could do nothing as they began to crawl upon the Semper Sanctus, seeking to kill its crew. Unwilling to allow the Titan to be taken apart by the Tyranids, Sidarius initiated a reactor overload which completely destroyed the Semper Sanctus, as well as the Hierophant it had been fighting.
• Enoch - Princeps Enoch commanded the Warlord Titan Invictus of the Legio Astraman, during the invasion of the Forge World Graia by both Ork and Chaos forces. During the initial Ork invasion the power to Manufactorium Ajakis, where the Invictus was berthed, was disrupted preventing the Titan's release from its mooring clamps. Enoch and his crew could do nothing as the Orks rampaged across the Forge World. This continued for some time until after the subsequent Chaos invasion, as Captain Titus, of the Ultramarines, and his squad fought their way through the Manufactorium to the Titan and engaged its back up generator. Titus explained to Enoch that he needed the Invictus to fire upon the Forge World's Orbital Tower, where the Chaos Lord Nemeroth was opening a Warp Gate big enough to allow his fleet to enter through. In order to do this Titus needed to place the Power Source, created by Inquisitor Drogan, into Invictus to power up its weapons enough to do the job. Enoch was hesitant at first because of the breach of protocol, until Titus convinced him of the severity of the situation. With reluctance he showed Titus where to place the Power Source and with the Invictus' power increased he fired upon the Orbital Tower, partially destroying it and closing Nemeroth's Warp Gate. The firing of its weapon, overloaded the systems of the Invictus and with confirmation that they had succeeded, Enoch powered down the Titan.
• Pietor Gearhart - Pietor Gearhart was Princeps Maximus of the Legio Invicta for several centuries. He commanded from the Warlord Battle Titan Invictus Antagonistes. Lord Gearhart commanded the Legio during the well-known execution to save the world of Orestes from an invasion of Chaos Titans. Gearhart earned the nickname "The Red Fury" from the ferocity with which he won many of his victories.
• Ervin Hekate - Ervin Hekate was the princeps of the Imperius Dictatio.
• Kurtiz Mannheim.
• Indias Cavalerio - Indias Cavalerio was Princeps Senioris of the Legio Tempestus during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. During the Schism of Mars, Cavalerio piloted the Warlord Titan Victorix Magna against the Legio Mortis. Cavalerio was badly injured when his Titan was destroyed during the fighting and had to survive in an amniotic tank afterwards. After being bonded with the Deus Tempestus, Cavalerio lead the Legio Tempestus in the defence of the Magma City, where they were struck down by the Titans of the Legio Mortis.
• Camulos - Camulos was a Princeps of the Legio Mortis during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. The Princeps of the Imperator Titan Aquila Ignis, Camulos ran the Titan Legion on Mars while Princeps Esau Turnet was deployed with Horus. During the Schism of Mars, Camulos sided with the traitorous Mechanicum Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal, and led the Legio Mortis' Martian forces against loyalist throughout the planet, most notably their hated rivals Legio Tempestus. During the Battle of Magma City, an overflow of lava unleashed by Tech-Priest Koriel Zeth engulfed the Aquila Ignis, leaving only one of its arms behind and killing Camulos.
• Kel Sharaq - Kel Sharaq was a Princeps of the Legio Tempestus during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy. Piloting the Reaver Class Titan Metallus Cebrenia, during the Schism of Mars he served as 2nd in command of Tempestus forces after Legion Master Indias Cavalerio. During the battle at Magma City during the Schism, Sharaq was killed when the Metallus Cebrenia was destroyed by the Legio Mortis Imperator Class Titan Aquila Ignis.

Fuentes

Traducido y extraído de Lexicanum inglés y Wikihammer 40K UK.

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