The Cog Mechanicum of the Adeptus Mechanicus
A forge temple, also sometimes called a forge-fane, a forge, or a forge-city if it is unusually large or populous, is a place of sacred research and manufacturing of machines, weapons, vehicles, and other advanced technology on a Forge World for the ancient Mechanicum and later the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Dark Mechanicum alike.
A forge can range in size from a single building or manufactorum all the way up to the size of an entire hive city that is home to billions of people. A forge is the primary geographical unit of a Forge World and is a centre dedicated to the Machine God's sacred Quest for Knowledge. Forge-cities can be protected by Adeptus Mechanicus Battle Congregations and the ancient forges of Mars were known to be home to Titan Legions and Knight houses.
The senior tech-priest of a Forge Temple holds the rank and title of Forge Master, but usually holds at least the rank of magos, and more usually that of archmagos, in the Cult Mechanicus.
Even a minor forge holds a great amount of data in the cogitators of its archive towers, kept at an optimum temperature by wall-mounted atomisers spewing cooling incenses. If necessary, this amount of data can be transferred elsewhere, taking at least ten solar hours to complete for the last few thousand zettabytes. Only a skeleton crew of tech-priests is necessary to successfully complete the data transfer.
Sources[]
- Mechanicum (Novel) by Graham McNeill, 1.04, 1.05
- Knights of the Imperium (Novella) by Graham McNeill, "Nemonix"