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How does the adeptus mechanicus recruit people? Do they have recruitment drives in schools? Or is it like joining a convent or cloister of monks but grimdark? Can a lowly Forge worker's son become a powerful adept or even a dominus? Can one convert to the cult?

It recruits in a lot of ways.

Martians aspire to join the mechanicus/skitarri, but there's nothing there that says what they select for o rhow they do it.

There are also reports of 'destroyed' prison planets flooding into their ranks as well.

I'd guess they have all sorts of aptitude tests in AdMech-run schools. This will account for the bulk of their recruitment needs (seeing as ForgeWorlds are often pretty well-populated).

As for joining or converting, that probably takes a lot of work and trials. Space Marine TechMarines are trained on Mars and have a dual allegiance after that, for example - they're still serving the Emperor as their Chapter sees him but also venerate the Machine God. But this particular case is due to ancient pacts meant to make sure the SM have tech-versed and trustworthy people in their ranks .

Some Joe "tech-savvy" Average from Somewhere? I guess he could turn up to his local AdMech temple and ask them to test him. Maybe they'll accept him as an acolyte, maybe not. I'd see it as far more likely that parents on some heavily AdMech-affiliated world offer a child for adoption into the tech cult just so he'd be provided for. Raised from childhood in the Cult Mechanicus he'd be like those monks and nuns, knowing nothing of the outside world. Whether he has the makings of an acolyte and someday a TechPriest or not, he'll serve the AdMech in some capacity.

Who wants to join the skitaari??

They kill you by replacing your arms legs and brain with machines and you become a slave.

DorianGray wrote:
Who wants to join the skitaari??

They kill you by replacing your arms legs and brain with machines and you become a slave.

It's a quicker death then joining the Imperial Guard atleast

DorianGray wrote:
Who wants to join the skitaari??

They kill you by replacing your arms legs and brain with machines and you become a slave.

They don't replace your brain, the brain is important because it stops the Skitarii from being Soulless Iron.

They upgrade your brain. Make you smarter. More clear-headed.

You were already a slave. By joining the Skitarii, you gain access to much higher quality augmetics than you would otherwise be able to get. The more augmetics you have, the closer to the Divine Machine you are.

Forget your foolish 20th century ideas about how being a whole, biological human makes you somehow superior to those who need parts replacing with machines. You think your natural-born legs make you better than this guy?

People who grow up on Forge Worlds are raised into the Cult of the Machine. They slave away for decades to earn a single mechanical upgrade because they know that machines are better.

Who would join the Skitarii? Someone who wants to advance beyond menial drudgery. Someone who wants to get closer to the glory of the Omnissiah.

Who would join the Skitarii? A patriot.

They recruit from non-Tech Priest adepts of Forge Worlds. If you do a good enough job you can become a member of the Priesthood.

Forge Worlds have huge populations, not just servitors and Tech-Priests. Lots of menial slaves/workers, middle-level managers, tech-apprentices, etc.. They recruit Skitarii from these same pools of humans.

 Harriticus wrote:
They recruit from non-Tech Priest adepts of Forge Worlds. If you do a good enough job you can become a member of the Priesthood.

Forge Worlds have huge populations, not just servitors and Tech-Priests. Lots of menial slaves/workers, middle-level managers, tech-apprentices, etc.. They recruit Skitarii from these same pools of humans.

I thought so, I was wondering if a lowly worker could be promoted too, or if it's only an aristocrat thing.

I like all these answers so far =D

 Furyou Miko wrote:

DorianGray wrote:
Who wants to join the skitaari??

They kill you by replacing your arms legs and brain with machines and you become a slave.

They don't replace your brain, the brain is important because it stops the Skitarii from being Soulless Iron.

They upgrade your brain. Make you smarter. More clear-headed.

You were already a slave. By joining the Skitarii, you gain access to much higher quality augmetics than you would otherwise be able to get. The more augmetics you have, the closer to the Divine Machine you are.

Forget your foolish 20th century ideas about how being a whole, biological human makes you somehow superior to those who need parts replacing with machines. You think your natural-born legs make you better than this guy?

People who grow up on Forge Worlds are raised into the Cult of the Machine. They slave away for decades to earn a single mechanical upgrade because they know that machines are better.

Who would join the Skitarii? Someone who wants to advance beyond menial drudgery. Someone who wants to get closer to the glory of the Omnissiah.

Who would join the Skitarii? A patriot.

Now all rise for the anthem of the AdMech:
01000110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100001 01101011 01101110 01100101 01110011 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100100 00101100 01001111 01101101 01101110 01101001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01100001 01101000 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110101 01110011 00001101 00001010 01000110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101100 01101001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000001 01101110 01110100 01101001 01110000 01100001 01110100 01101000 00101100 01100011 01101001 01110010 01100011 01110101 01101001 01110100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01100101 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110101 01110011 00001101 00001010 01000110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000010 01100101 01100001 01110011 01110100 00101100 01101001 01110010 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01100101 01100011 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110011 00001101 00001010 01000110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110100 01100101 01101101 01110000 01110100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000110 01101100 01100101 01110011 01101000 01101100 01101111 01110010 01100100 00101100 01110011 01101001 01101100 01101001 01100011 01100001 00100000 01100011 01101100 01100101 01100001 01101110 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110101 01110011 00001101 00001010 01000110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110010 01100001 01110110 01100001 01100111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000100 01100101 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101111 01111001 01100101 01110010 00101100 01100001 01101110 01101001 01101101 01100001 00100000 01110011 01101000 01101001 01100101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01110101 01110011 00001101 00001010 01000110 01110010 01101111 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110010 01101111 01110100 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100011 01100001 01100111 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101111 01101101 01100001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 00101100 00001101 00001010 01001101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01000111 01101111 01100100 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110011 00100000 01100110 01110010 01100101 01100101

For the fleshy weaklings who don't speak the sacred language of the AdMech:
http://www.roubaixinteractive.com/PlayGround/Binary_Conversion/Binary_To_Text.asp

Presumably initiates are directed to the priesthood or the Skitarii or servitorisation or whatever by means of properly applied and sanctified aptitude tests.

When your testing the mass groups for skitari compatabity, you could also pick out the most promising ones for further tests and see if they are worth training in the higher orders.

They have giant population to use so even a micro % is fine for recruiting prospective priests.

That or the grim dark orphanages /cloisters training programs.

The Ad Mech controls its own worlds, replete with their own population of humans who are raised in its culture.

People who also show a, healthy, interest in technology are also accepted into the Cult Mechanicus. Receiving training and such, and as they grow in rank more implants.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tiger9gamer wrote:

 Harriticus wrote:
They recruit from non-Tech Priest adepts of Forge Worlds. If you do a good enough job you can become a member of the Priesthood.

Forge Worlds have huge populations, not just servitors and Tech-Priests. Lots of menial slaves/workers, middle-level managers, tech-apprentices, etc.. They recruit Skitarii from these same pools of humans.

I thought so, I was wondering if a lowly worker could be promoted too, or if it's only an aristocrat thing.

I like all these answers so far =D

Its very much a meritocracy. If you are good at what you do, you'll have promotions.

Even the Fabricator General on Mars was once a regular old human, a few thousand years ago.

I actually don't think the Mechanicus is a meritocracy.

They seem more interested in people who "get" the rituals and mysticism behind the technology, not how competent they actually are with the technology itself (though it's obviously a factor). That's why so many heretechs in the background are either A) very curious and generally forward thinking B) very intelligent. They don't want someone who knows a lot about machinery, they want someone who thinks and feels the way they do about machines.

Honestly it's probably just as corrupt as the Administratum and Ministorum, filled with nepotism, insane laws, incompetent leaders, bizarre practices no one actually understands, borderline total detachment from reality and an excess of force coupled with a grim enthusiasm about crushing their enemies.

Also menials live incredibly short lives, which is why forge worlds use a mostly servitor/automated workforce. Graham Mcneil does a great job showing how quickly the often press ganged work forces of the Mechanicus die.

Another issue is most menials follow Ministorum teachings which the Mechanicus completely abhors. They might be "logical" but I doubt they'd be open to the idea of a "heathen" performing the rituals to operate their precious machinery.

Bronzefists - you're missing something important, because otherwise what you're saying makes a lot of sense.

The key ingredient you're missing is that as far as the AdMech is concerned, understanding the rituals and mysticism behind the technology is being competent with it. It's a meritocracy, but how they measure merit is skewed.

A whole asston of places. For instance, becoming a servitor is a form of punishment. The AdMech is so ridiculously diverse you simply cannot label all of the ways. Oh and robots are cool.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
Bronzefists - you're missing something important, because otherwise what you're saying makes a lot of sense.

The key ingredient you're missing is that as far as the AdMech is concerned, understanding the rituals and mysticism behind the technology is being competent with it. It's a meritocracy, but how they measure merit is skewed.

Exactly.

Plus for all the ritual and mysticism there is still a lot of real technical skill and knowledge. They deal with things that would boggle our comprehension on a daily basis.

Well, yes - because the rituals are user manuals and maintenance guides translated into ritual so that it can be taught orally.

At the lower and middle levels, yes. I think the higher ranks are more capable and able to innovate. One example would be the hellfire bolter shell, developed as a response to the Tyranids.

Of course, an important part of that innovation is the theological knowledge required to defend it. "Well, this component is an STC widget, and those are STC doodads, whatnots and thingummies, so clearly this finished item must also a blessed STC design. Otherwise the Omnissiah wouldn't allow it to function."

Plus there are plenty of sanctioned things which are not STCs. For example, most Space Marine gear is not made from an STC or is only loosely based on one.

Power/Terminator armor, bolters, everything on the Rhino chassis, and Land Raiders are all non-STC items.

The Ad Mech also does new research. Its just heavily monitored and vetted against existing doctrine to ensure it is pure. Thus it happens slowly.

Such as the Razorback "STC", which is a bit like Lieutenant Kije.

Don't forget that many servants of the Omnissiah are vat-grown clones. I suspect that fair numbers of Skitarii are genetically engineered from the test tube for their role and have little choice in the matter.

Not that they don't recruit from menials or other ranks in more conventional fashion, of course. Still, it stands to reason that a Skitarii who was purpose-bred and raised from birth for a combat role would be more efficient than a more 'normal' recruit who has to be augmented, indoctrinated and trained later in life.

My two cents.

If the structure of the AdMech is anything like that of the Adeptus Terra (AdTer), then many positions will be hereditary. A person's kids will get the same job as their father, and his father before him going back in an unbroken line for hundreds of generation. The Imperium is a feudal system that runs entirely on tradition, there is only very little social mobility possible for the most part. The AdTer for example are mostly composed of hereditary work-slaves (who, unlike their name suggests, are actually highly skilled and pretty affluent). The only possibility to get into the AdTer is to get recruited as a lowly menial after which you may one day be considered worthy for induction into the AdTer and earn the title of adept.
I suspect the AdMech follows a similar feudal structure.

Technically, all Adeptus are part of the Adeptus Terra.

The Adeptus Terra is made up of,

Administratum
Departmento Munitorum
Officio Assassinorum
Imperial Guard
Imperial Fleet
Templars Psykologis
Officio Sabatorum
Planetary Governors
Adeptus Astra Telepathica
Adeptus Astronomica
Adeptus Custodes
Adeptus Arbites
Adeptus Astartes
Navis Nobilite

Only the Ecclesiarchy, Inquisition, and Mechanicus are not officially part of the Adeptus Terra.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Adeptus_Terra

All of these organzations are radically different and have their own area of operation. Their organization will not be the same.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
If the structure of the AdMech is anything like that of the Adeptus Terra (AdTer), then many positions will be hereditary. A person's kids will get the same job as their father, and his father before him going back in an unbroken line for hundreds of generation. The Imperium is a feudal system that runs entirely on tradition, there is only very little social mobility possible for the most part. The AdTer for example are mostly composed of hereditary work-slaves (who, unlike their name suggests, are actually highly skilled and pretty affluent). The only possibility to get into the AdTer is to get recruited as a lowly menial after which you may one day be considered worthy for induction into the AdTer and earn the title of adept.
I suspect the AdMech follows a similar feudal structure.

The Adeptus Terra are also the biggest destination for Progena - anyone who doesn't make the cut for the Tempestus, Inquisition, Sororitas or Commissariat ends up as part of the Adeptus Terra... which is why they're some of the scariest pen-pushers in fiction, because you never know when one of them might have shared hand-to-hand classes with Ciaphas Cain...

 Grey Templar wrote:
Technically, all Adeptus are part of the Adeptus Terra.

The Adeptus Terra is made up of,

Administratum
Departmento Munitorum
Officio Assassinorum
Imperial Guard
Imperial Fleet
Templars Psykologis
Officio Sabatorum
Planetary Governors
Adeptus Astra Telepathica
Adeptus Astronomica
Adeptus Custodes
Adeptus Arbites
Adeptus Astartes
Navis Nobilite

Only the Ecclesiarchy, Inquisition, and Mechanicus are not officially part of the Adeptus Terra.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Adeptus_Terra

All of these organzations are radically different and have their own area of operation. Their organization will not be the same.

Yeah, the information is from Codex Imperialis, and mostly refers to the bureaucratic division of the AdTer, the Administratum, which is like 99% of the AdTer anyways.
But still, the entire Imperium is a feudal system, and other groups, like the Navis Nobilite or Adeptus Astronomica are also hereditary. The only groups not hereditary are those that recruit through the Schola Progenium and psykers.
So yeah, taking that into consideration, the AdMech is likely feudal and hereditary in nature as well.