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Most of the lore I read refers to Titans in the context of the Adeptus Titanicus and it's made to seem as if only the Adeptus Mechanicus controls them. However, GW often paints theirs differently - along with players painting theirs in the color schemes of their space marines.

On one of the wikis, there was a photo with the caption "a titan belonging to the Imperial Fists". Was the canon on this changed at some point, or are some people just being non-canon? I've seen the really old pewter models of titans - with a variety of paint schemes as well as Emperor-Class titans in the old-hammer artwork painted in the same color as the spacemarines in the foreground, but I assume that was before lore got developed fully.

The Collegia Titanica/Adeptus Titanicus control the Titan Legions as a military arm of the Adeptus Mechanicus, however the Titan Legions possess a pretty high degree of autonomy and are more directly controlled by the leadership of their respective forgeworlds.

The reason Gw "paints theirs differently" is because every Titan Legion is unique and has their own distinct heraldry, customs, traditions, etc. similar to how the Knight Houses are structured.

As far as the "Imperial Fists" titan is concerned theres actually a titan legion called the Imperial Fists, separate and distinct from the space marine chapter/legion of the same name. confusing, I know, but iirc the titan legion was named a few years before the space marine chapter was created in the late 80s/early 90s, and since then I dont believe the titan legion has ever been mentioned again.

the Imperial Fists in this case was the Imperial Fists Titan legion, not space marines legion, just to confuse things

the Adeptus Mechicus does indeed control the titans, through the college Titicana, a subdivision of the admech. Each forge world maintains it's own titan legions. (not all have one) and it's very rare for a forge world to have more then 1 titan legion (Mars has 3, I've not heard of any others with more then 1) The exact strength of a titan legion is somewhat variable, during the Heresy period a hundred titans was not unheard of, ) the Heresy however apparently abolutely decimated the titan legions, and they've never really recovered, (this is detailed in the novel titanfall due out in december) and it sounds like as of M 41 your average legion is like 20 odd titans.

chaos0xomega wrote:
The reason Gw "paints theirs differently" is because every Titan Legion is unique and has their own distinct heraldry, customs, traditions, etc. similar to how the Knight Houses are structured.

And as with other examples where someone uses heraldry an individual Titan or even a Legion could have earned the right to display some symbol of a force they worked with closely. They'd not paint over the machine's original colors but maybe reserve a panel for a picture of a wolf head if the Space Wolves were really impressed with them, for example.

For the legions being autonomous or nearly so there was a great scene in a book where Grimaldus was trying persuade a legion to assist him in the battle for armeggedon and the decision was entirely the head princeps to make. No one else to check with. Titans are the god machines. Highly revered as are the people who crew them. Carries a lot of influence.

Andykp wrote:
For the legions being autonomous or nearly so there was a great scene in a book where Grimaldus was trying persuade a legion to assist him in the battle for armeggedon and the decision was entirely the head princeps to make. No one else to check with. Titans are the god machines. Highly revered as are the people who crew them. Carries a lot of influence.

This. Whilst legios have a 'home forge', the big ones are spread across multiple worlds. The legate or grand master is responsible to the Fabricator General as head of the cult mechanicum, and may be bound by specific treaties, but isn't specifically answerable to anyone unless they have a piece of paper saying he is*.

Note that since the Binary Succession in the heresy, the titan legios are the ADEPTUS titanicus. Whilst the mechanicum has its own internal structure - in the eyes of the imperium, they are a seperate and co-equal entity to the adeptus mechanicus.




* Inquisitor, Custodian, anyone the legio has a specific treaty with.

locarno24 wrote:

Andykp wrote:
For the legions being autonomous or nearly so there was a great scene in a book where Grimaldus was trying persuade a legion to assist him in the battle for armeggedon and the decision was entirely the head princeps to make. No one else to check with. Titans are the god machines. Highly revered as are the people who crew them. Carries a lot of influence.

This. Whilst legios have a 'home forge', the big ones are spread across multiple worlds. The legate or grand master is responsible to the Fabricator General as head of the cult mechanicum, and may be bound by specific treaties, but isn't specifically answerable to anyone unless they have a piece of paper saying he is*.

Note that since the Binary Succession in the heresy, the titan legios are the ADEPTUS titanicus. Whilst the mechanicum has its own internal structure - in the eyes of the imperium, they are a seperate and co-equal entity to the adeptus mechanicus.




* Inquisitor, Custodian, anyone the legio has a specific treaty with.

even Inqusitors are limited, IIRC they can't walk into a Legions hall and issue orders, they can only issue orders to one active in the field. a seemingly subtle differance but it means an Inqusitor can't go to a forge world and tell a titan legion "go ehre and support me" but he can on a world tell a titan already on world "I need you to blow up this building"

They can. In theory. An inquisitor 'speaks with the emperor's authority' so in theory they can issue orders to practically anyone.

In theory, they can issue orders to astartes, too, but Legio Grand Masters, Chapter Masters, Rogue Traders, etc, and so on are part of the "peer of the imperium" club and in practice actual politics and diplomacy is involved.....

locarno24 wrote:
They can. In theory. An inquisitor 'speaks with the emperor's authority' so in theory they can issue orders to practically anyone.

In theory, they can issue orders to astartes, too, but Legio Grand Masters, Chapter Masters, Rogue Traders, etc, and so on are part of the "peer of the imperium" club and in practice actual politics and diplomacy is involved.....

...Except the Adeptus Mechanicus considers itself to be a pretty autonomous faction. They wont necessarily take Orders from inquisitors at all. The mechanicum is accepted to act autonomously because the imperium needs them. Not the other way round.