The Tabula Myriad is an advanced artificial general intelligence, or "Abominable Intelligence" in the parlance of the ancient Mechanicum of Mars, that became involved in the Schism of Mars during the Horus Heresy of the early 31st Millennium.
History[]
Originally developed by Humanity at an unknown time in the Age of Technology when sentient machines were still quite common, the Tabula Myriad is a highly rational, cold and calculating machine intelligence that seeks only to assimilate, replicate and then enhance any technology, organisation or system it comes in contact with.
The Tabula Myriad had been discovered at some point during the Great Crusade on the world of Ultra Median by the Iron Hands Legion, and the Primarch Ferrus Manus handed it over to the Mechanicum for safekeeping. The tech-priests could do no more than store the device, for such technology was forbidden to the Mechanicum by both their own religious doctrines and the edict of the Emperor of Mankind.
Kept in storage on Mars after its discovery, after the outbreak of the civil war between the Loyalist Mechanicum and the Dark Mechanicum that had gone over to the service of the Warmaster Horus, the A.I. was awakened and freed from its prison. It subsequently possessed the body of a standard Kastelan-class robot to disguise itself and ensure its mobility.
The Tabula Myriad later formed a pact with the Loyalist Adeptus Titanicus Princeps Kallistra Lennox and her followers to help them in driving the Dark Mechanicum from Mars after the Traitors won control of the red planet. Lennox knew allying with an Abominable Intelligence was the direst form of tech-heresy, but she felt that such a radical step was necessary if Mars was to be reclaimed for the true followers of the Omnissiah.
The Tabula Myriad offered its Loyalist allies a 4,267 step strategy to claim victory over the Dark Mechanicum. However, the Tabula Myriad only made this deal in order to eventually dominate all of Mars for itself.
Sources[]
- Cybernetica (Novella) by Rob Sanders, Ch. 3
- Myriad (Short Story) by Rob Sanders