Mechanicum (Lovehammer)

The Three Ways of the Machine

 

It is no understatement that the Imperium owes as much to laboratories on Luna as it does to the great forges of Mars and Mercury. Most citizens of the Imperium are quite well acquainted with the two groups of Mechanicum Adepts, but not many are aware that the “cogboys” and “blue-skirts” originate from the same source, or that there is a third group.

The Mechanicum used to be a unified transhuman cult on Mars during the Age of Strife. Their many forgeworlds originate from this age as well, as the Mechanicum used to send ships into space, despite heavy Warp storms. Some of them managed to reach inhabitable worlds and their crews settled down, transplanting the cult of the Omnissiah to new grounds.

Mars had made peace with the Emperor during the Unification of Terra, recognizing him as the Omnissiah. Thanks to this union, the Imperium gained access to a reliable production base, which allowed our fore-fathers to traverse the stars without problems again.

The First Schism happened shortly after Senshi Mercury was discovered on Olympia. While clearly a genius, many of her ideas were at odds with the doctrine of Mars, chief among them being that new knowledge is possible to discover. With the backing of Perturabo, Ferrus Manus and Vulkan, she was quite a formidable political and social force, causing many young, talented adepts to switch allegiance. This was demonstrated by them casting away the traditional red of the Mechanicum and donning blue robes instead.

The new group moved themselves and their workface to Mercury, which lent to their name: The Forges of Mercury. While not as numerous as the Mechanicum, the Forges of Mercury supply the Imperium with products ranging from devices of daily usage to deadly weapons.

The third group is much more sinister, as it emerged during the Age of Heresy. Even among the Adepts heresy had raised its ugly head. Mars was nearly torn apart by war. Who knows how much precious knowledge would have been lost had it not been for the existence of the forges on Mercury?

The traitors, as their kin among normal humans and Astartes, have proven themselves to be cowards and instead of facing the end like men, they have fled to the Eye of Terror along with the treacherous Word Bearers and Alpha Legion.

The Dark Mechanicum exists still to this day. In the Eye of Terror, it produces waves upon waves of defiled machines, using designs dating back to the Age of Heresy. They provide the heretics with Titans, tanks and other parodies of Mankind’s technological wonders.