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So they are basically an army of servitor's controlled by a single or group of Magos??

I've merely understood the Skitarii to be heavily augmented, but still in possession of their own free will and intelligence. Like, a Skitarii is to a Tech-Priest what a Crusader is to an Ecclesiarchy Preacher.

If there are sources depicting them to be mindless drones, I guess we have another case of differing interpretations between authors?

Things like Dark Apostle do show them to be fairly mindless. Almost like Servitors capable of carrying out advanced battlefield maneuvers.

Overally/in theory they're meant to be capable of speech and free will though.

Lynata wrote:I've merely understood the Skitarii to be heavily augmented, but still in possession of their own free will and intelligence. Like, a Skitarii is to a Tech-Priest what a Crusader is to an Ecclesiarchy Preacher.

If there are sources depicting them to be mindless drones, I guess we have another case of differing interpretations between authors?

Yeah, they're pretty much this, with minor mods to their emotional centres to make them a bit more compliant on the battlefield.
Occasionally, though, some BL authors do seem to get confused between Skitarii and Battle Servitors, and some use them interchangeably - which is understandable, I guess.

Yeah, I'd say tampered with brains and bodies, rather than the full Servitor treatment, from what I've read. They definitely have emotions and a sense of self preservation.

I've only read the books The Word Bearer's Omnibus and Titanicus, So both seem to vary in description's of Skitarii, So they most likely enter some kind of state of mind in battle like being connected connected to each other kind of like Nids in synapse.

The Adeptus Mechanicus are an extremely diverse organization. They all follow the same set of rules as far as "approved" methods, but each tech priest's designs will be slightly different. Kind of like how Inquisitors all pursue similar goals, but each having their own methods.

So I think there are a whole spectrum of skitarii, ranging from "imperial guard with a couple of mods" up to "pretty much a servitor".

There is a good description in Soul Drinker, the best part of the book in my opinion. They are still human, slightly modded. They can "feel" their weapons and armor, as if it was part of their body.

The term Skittari is actually vague and refers to their armed forces.

The normal foot soldiers are Hyspasists, which are little more than slightly modified Imperial Guard to put it simply. They have a few augments here and there.

Sagitarii are the heavy weapons teams, not to be confused with the Balisteria who fill an artillery role. Cataphractii is the armour, tanks and such. Praetorians are elite more hevily augmented Hyspasists. Finally there are the Tribunes which are their officers; below the Magi and such.

Their simularity to Servitors is that they are augmented in a way to fufil a specific duty, which is to act as an army. They do get minor emotion suppression if I remember correctly though, but they are not lobotomised.

But there are troops called skitarii too I beleive. The big ogryn like ones. In the descriptions I've read they are not mindless servitors but probably do have a lot of control mechanisms in their brains.

Skitarii is the category the abovementioned troops are summarized under. If you go by the Citadel Journal article that detailed them, that is. Issue #21, according to Lexicanum.

CJ did contain some awesome stuff. Shame it ceased to exist. :(

Though it might be a bit of a broader misconception; that there is a hard and fast line between "heavily augmented with brain implants/surgery" and "servitor". Different servitors appear to have different levels of intelligence and ability, though how much is the result of their biological brain and what part is the computer in there is debatable. But the skitarii appear to have some level of brain augmentation, to keep them fearless and cool under fire. As they advance, become more wounded, or are reassigned to other roles, they might lose more and more of their human mind and emotions until you just don't know the difference.

From what I understand, they are similar to guardsmen, but heavily augmented with advanced weaponry and bionics. They do, however, make use of praetorian servitors which are basicly ogryn combat servitors.