“Omnissiah preserve us. They have sent… The flesh bag.” [Monstrosity/Chaos Spawn spotted]
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By Sigmar, some people got really triggered here. XD
Ehhh, you have some point there, @Mayson, but I think you’re underestimating it. The Ogryns definitely talk about the Emperor at times, such as the “Does the Emperor love me?” lines to Zealot, and I’m pretty sure some others. The Professional Vet also talks about him at times, and even the one Psyker is talking about him as his ‘beloved’.
I exaggerate in that they don’t all love the Emperor, but he and their religion comes up all the time. And frankly, as a guy just trying to play a fun game, I don’t care about the emperor or their religion at all (and incidentally, the Professional Vet is religious and brings up the Emperor multiple times in his dialogues, I have played him quite a bit). I don’t think it’s that weird that people on the ground wouldn’t bring him up that much either (aside from Zealot). I’m not missing the subtext of the setting, and Fatshark has good writers - something they’ve always been consistently good about. But rather than subvert the issues, perhaps just don’t bring them up as much.
But this is unfortunately derailing onto people being upset that I am not a fan of 40k (and trying to lecture on the real world? lol), and we really should just let it go. It’s a point to the devs, who I do think pay attention to things on here sometimes.
So back to my original point; if there’s an Admech character and all three voices are just talking about the Omnissiah all the time, I will be annoyed but people who don’t know 40k will also have their expectations failed. One does typically expect a cyborg to be talking constantly about religion, they kind of expect them to be more grounded in science. So having one Admech personaliy who is the ‘The Researcher’ or something in personality, who believes in EXPERIMENTATION (within limits so as not to be considered a Heretek, but still, you know, enough to get people unhappy with them) would be a good idea.
Please no derail, this has a chance to be a fun thread.
Actually, enough to be a heretek might work for the setting. One of the major choices in W40K mechnicus (If you aren’t familiar it’s a turn based tactics game focusing on tech priests with skitari support,) is to choose to favor faith or tech exploration, and it’s one of the major divisions inside the admech.
If you follow the “Xenarites” you get powerful weapons that do damage to the user when fired. We don’t have to go that far, as I always found it a weird mechanic, and it would be worse in a game where healing is rare. You can heal a lot in Mechnicus.
Still, one of our skitarii could be a skitarii that was attached to a Xenarite mission, and got downloaded with their precepts so it would understand the reasons and make intelligent choices. Said mission got purged, the Skitarii was ‘taken offline’ and wakes up to an inquistor’s minion saying 'we have a job for you."
https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Xenarite
There’s actually a convo in the game where the vet talks about fighting the Tau. I can’t find an example on youtube… but it could take a twist like
Vet: “Everyone here fought Xenos or just me?”
Zealot “Faith will lead us against all enemies!”
Vet: “You need faith to be sure, but it’s good to have more in the face of a tau firing line.”
Skitaii: “This unit was present when it’s master was specifically forbidden from adapting tau rifles.”
Vet: “Wait, we could have had… no no that’s not a door I want to open.”
This is a good point. Nurgle often doesn’t use metal at all!
“The omnissiah calls to us to augment our bodies with the true flesh, for the machine is eternal. The enemy is not only disgusting, he lead-ith his followers THE WRONG WAY! Angry Modem noises!”
An Admech toon would not like that…
“What have the dark powers flushed upon us?” might not be w40k enough.
“Hark! The bowels of the enemy hath discharged a parasite!” (too gross?)
Ogryn “Dis place is fulla goo!”
Zealot “It is the stain of nurgle. Take refuge in prayer”
Ogryn “So we pray away da goo? Goo away goo!”
Skitarii “This unit was instructed that there is greater progress made with a prayer and a heavy incinerator then with just a prayer.”
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Just having a fun discussion and the other responses were in the same spirit.
Yes, but the Ogryn’s don’t really understand it. They’re like grown monster children, that have been told all their lives the Emperor is some cool dude. That’s how they conceptualize them, hence these weird questions.
I don’t think they’re too steadfast in this belief. You could probably easily convince them to join chaos in the same childish argumentative manner.
“Oh I know a really cool other dude who loves you and who can make the endless pain of no rations away! Want me to introduce him to you? :D”
Cue the many plague Ogryn and Bulwark / Crusher we encounter. Those have to come from somewhere…
We’re not sure about that third Psyker Personality. Could be the Emperor, could be a Warp Demon manipulating the Psyker. The latter has been theorized, too. After all other Chaos Demons not in line with Nurgle would have a vested interest in Tertium being purged of Nurgle presence, if just to establish their own cult.
To the Chaos factions, people’s lives are a tangible resource to be fought over, even more so than for the Imperium. So can’t say with certainty it’s the Emperor.
First off, nobody here is upset.
Now it is a little weird you’d get so deep into this game while being repulsed by it’s lore, but that’s fine honestly.
Technically speaking the Warhammer universe has plenty of enemies of the Emperor and also many factions that just don’t really care like the Tau.
But the key point is this: None of these factions (may they be splintered off factions from the Imperium or otherwise Xenos / Chaos afflicted) are playable in this game.
Now the Admech Skiitari and the Mechanicus have exactly that quirk you don’t want to see. They are augmented robot-flesh weirdo fanatics, who pray to an imagined or real (you decide) “God In the Machine” Deus Ex Machina Spirit.
Your battery pack actually functions on insertion? OMNISSIAH WILLS IT!
Your volatile Lasgun doesn’t immediately blow up in your face? PRAISE THE OMNISSIAH!
Your car battery runs out of juice? THE OMNISSIAH IS ANGRY WE MUST APPEASE HIM!
It’s their whole ridiculous schtick, so finding a character not resembling this attitude would be outside the norm. That said, pragmatists do exist plenty in the Mechanicus. There is several instances when you play WH40K: Mechanicus.
That said they’d be full in line with the Omnissiah narrative, too.
But that’s yet another element you have to take in consideration here - Just because someone supports an established narrative, doesn’t mean they are fully invested or care. Especially pragmatic thinkers use established narratives to get others to do their bidding. There is so many wonderful IRL examples, but I can’t bring them up. It would derail the thread.
Think any higher institutional leader of renown to ever live. Examine them more closely and you will be surprised how few of them believed their own words coming from their own mouths.
Same principle here. Skiitari morale has to be held high, too. And a strong beliefset is a wonderful baseline for that.
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This is VERY true.
Indeed, many have said that religion brought about most of the wars, and have been slapped hard by the response that it does not, that most wars are NOT over religion at all, but had religion attached later as a way to justify them.
“We’re going to war because we need to control the river AND WITH GOD’S HELP… we will win.”
Take this clip from Spartacus. It should start at 3:27, I couldn’t find a shorter clip.
Gracchus buys a bird to offer up as a sacrifice at a temple for good outcomes.
Julius: I thought you had reservations about the gods.
Gracchus : Privately I believe in none of them - neither do you. Publicly, I believe in them all.
And… a lot of w40k rituals are just praying while doing real maintenance.
“Oh machine god, favor this, thy instrument” [pause to put oil on bolt carrier]
“That it might strike true” [Pause to oil bolt]
“And it’s spirit guide our soldier” [pause to inspect firing pin]
“To victory…” [pause to oil firing pin]
You get the idea. The gun oil might be sacred, but it’s also gun oil.
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Based and Utilitarian pilled.
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And that’s without the “Sisters of Battle are Orks” ‘belief makes it real eventually’ issue which brought the chaos gods into being, which really would derail. But if someone wants to make a topic on it… that would be okay.
Back to the topic though, I have found a book, “Adeptus Mechanicus: Skitarius” by Rob Sanders, and I bought a copy.
I’m not far in, but it begins
“Stroika was Skitarii, from the hydraulics of his legs to the revolving joints of his arm appendages, to the acknowledged frailty of his flesh, he was as the machine god continued to make him.”
“Forge raised on… …Stroika had followed the patient path of protocol and worked his way up the hierarchy of cogs.”
I hope it’ll give me some ideas for Skitarii dialogue! Look like a good read.
Amazon’s brief on the book reads “A discovery of ancient technology sends a skitarii legion, commanded by Alpha Primus Haldron-44 Stroika, into battle on a forge world overrun by Chaos. When a cataclysm cuts him off from his tech-priest overseers, Stroika must rally his forces and battle corrupt machines and Chaos Space Marines if he is to achieve victory.”
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I was joking around myself, hence my exclaiming by Sigmar. 
This is my point, as in where I as a player stand. I enjoy 'tide game gameplay, been playing since VT1. I am not a 40k fan, though. I didn’t even buy the game, a friend gave me a copy.
^ See above. There is no game that scratches the melee itch except this series, and I’ve honestly played the VT games to death.
I know about the AdMech, their history and lore.
An Admech character who doesn’t care about the Omnissiah and won’t even pay enough lip service to the idea is kind of perfect for a reject, though, isn’t it? It would work really well for giving variety, since I’m sure the other two archetypes would be praising the Omnissiah like there’s no tomorrow. The character could even be called the Apostate. I can’t be the only one who would enjoy not having a religious fanatic - something slightly more neutral. It fits the setting (because again, I actually know it fairly well; there are parts I like as good scifi and parts I dislike).
I mean, let’s face it, 40k is the final boss of nerdery, and it’s . . . quite a lot to take in. I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of casuals stopped playing because of the blatant intensity of fascism and weirdness. Can you imagine coming into this blind?
Imagine being terrified of Daemons and Xenos that are constantly trying to extinguish the flame of human civilisation, right? I know you’re not a big lore person, so I’ll just tell you right now with no judgement that the Imperium of Man are actually EXTREMELY tolerant towards anyone that isn’t hostile to them. I humbly encourage you to look up “40K Sanctioned Abhumans” or “40K Sanctioned Xenos” if you don’t believe me.
I also humbly beseech you to refrain from derailing this thread. Many of us come here to have fun and discuss relevant 40K topics to Darktide.
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0010 This statement is true.
It would be against the will of the machine god to derail this wireless neural congress.
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I’ve been talking about an idea for an Admech character this whole time, but people wanted to argue with me.
The Apostate would be a functional and fun concept for an Admech character who would fit the role of a reject!
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No argument against the Apostate Personality was intended on my behalf. I think that the Apostate Personality could be the Skitarii/Tech-Adept equivalent of a Loner Psyker!
If you look back up to the beginning of the post my binary translates to “My existence is agony.”
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Anyone have evidence of an admech apostate of any kind?
I’m not 100% they are possible because the admech program faith in with the augments and cogitators. There are several forms of heretic though.
The Skitarii in my book often states he feels the Machine God’s presence as he becomes as one with his brothers in battle, networked to act in perfect unison like a giant machine. Then battle ends and he becomes the individual again. In the opening he discovers an STC fragment and something to do with gellar shields is on it, and his master is really worryed the admech won’t distribute the information but will put it in a vault somewhere.
The Forge Master General of a major forge world sends his personal shuttle to fetch them, (Alpha Skitarii and tech priest head explorator) except not really them but the prize, and the explorator-lord says so,
“It it not for us, but for the machine god’s wonder.”
“Are we not all the machine god’s wonders?”
“Yes. But we are not all equal.”
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Agreed. The “Apostate” Personality shouldn’t be sympathetic to Chaos or Xenos, they could even simply question the idea that the Emperor and the Omnissiah are one and the same.
Right, though how strong are we using apostate as a term? That might be a minor heresy, perhaps even one with a significant following, but it’s not a denial of the Machine God as a thing.
The biggest group of heretics in the machine cult seem to be the Xenarites who want to study xenotech, but there’s no reason there wouldn’t be dozens or hundreds of fractions.
Oh, on the book, the conversation goes on between the Alpha and his master,
Stroika had assigned the rangers as a planetary escort [honor guard] ensuring that the visored helm and plate of each soldier gleamed. their robust hydraulics had been soaked in baptismal oils and received special attention for the slightly lag or fault. With ceremonial battle cloaks and polished galvanic rifles Stroika was certain that the lex-70 range expatriai would do both himself and his magos proud.
[Long segment about his master taking on the role of explorer to avoid forge world politics]
The only individual who seemed to have gone to no extra preparation was Tokora himself, whose brazen bionics went unpolished and whose robes were dark with the stains of maintenance and grease. Even the Explorator’s spoiling stench had gone unmasked. Stroika’s processors told him there wat a 16.349% chance the magos was too busy with his preparations, but based on what the officer knew Tokora felt about forge world politics, he estimated a 43.998% chance likelihood that it was intended as some kind of slight or insult.
[Strokia takes off his helmet, he’s still got a human head though with a lot of attachments, including threaded rings over his eyes.]
Strokia looked to Magos Tokora, and opted for the modulated informality of speech. [really like this line…]
“That Fabricator General sends his personal barge for you my lord,”
“For ME?”
“For you.”
“No, Strokia unit. For the Treasure we bring him. He honors the Machine God’s wonder with his barge. Not our own.”
“Are we not all the MG’s wonders?”
"Yes, but we are not all equal in his eyes. One cog may turn another through a set of gears,
and yet by the nature of the mechanism the two cogs never meet. We are those cogs, dutifully turning, lending power to the betters turning above us. "
“But are we about to meet the Fabricator General?”
“BY the grace of your function you have been allowed your curiosity, Do not use such a hallowed gift for insolent suggestion.”
“My lord I…”
“I know what you are thinking before you do, Strokia unit. Do not forget that. If your questions proceed from a spiritual impulse…”
“They DO magos!”
“Spoken like a Cult Soldier.”
Strokia did not know if this was a compliment or not…
“These events are unusual in their historic significance. Protocol is being subverted. You are to me as I am to the Fabricator General. As billions are to him. Yet he is nothing to the Great Maker, who is the glory of the Machine Absolute. The Omnissiah can make us, and he can break us. In this instance, something wonderful has happened. A gift long lost has been given back to our empire, this audience with the fabricator general is not an honor. It is a FORMALITY. I tell you this, the Omnissiah has bestowed this gift upon us all. I shall be FLESH DAMNED before I let it end up in the depths of some vault or used as a political payoff. It shall function as it was intended and through that function honor us all. I would not meet with this nest of silicon vipers were they not to be the key to such a realization.”
“Then you hold no regard for the fabricator general and [the leadership of this forgeworld]?”
“I hold them in every regard. I simply wish tto be that cog far removed. I do not wish to be coated in the grease of their oily dealings.”
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Honestly, I’m just using the term “Apostate” because someone coined it and I just couldn’t find the effort to argue over a name 
I mean, I guess you could say to question is to doubt and all that, but that belief is a lot more common in the Adeptus Mechanicus than most would believe.
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