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Hello all! So my fiancé and I will be joining a Dark Heresy Campaign and she wants to be part of the Mechanicus but not a tech priest. The only ranks lower than tech-priest that we could find are tech-thralls or Servitors which she doesn’t like as an idea for a player character. So Dakka, are their any official ranks below tech priest in the Martian hierarchy? Outside of the military I mean, people that would be working in forges or factory’s or as technical adepts that sort of thing?

Also I have an idea for my own character as an ex-Skitarri that regains autonomous function due to a wound sustained fighting as part of a garrison on a frontier world. The power of the alien weaponry makes him question the laws of the cult Mechanicus and he becomes a Heretek seeking out knowledge of forbidden tech in order to find a way to get back at the Xenos who wounded him and obliterated his comrades. Does that seem plausible?

ok gonna deal with both ideas. ok to start.
the Admech does have essentially lower ranked people, but they're not really tech preists they're for lack of a better term, assmbly line drones, just regular people putting stuff together. they're not going to have many technicly skills beyond "I bolt the wheel on the rhino!" This BTW in dark heresy would be taking the forge world background, not the tech preist class. she'd need to basicly ask herself "what skill set does my character posess that makes me of value to an inqusitor?" (she might be someone who in between working in a factory had a side busneiss selling stuff that "fell off the line" etc. there's lots of room to be intreasting but her idea would mean not playing a Tech Preist in terms of class etc) if she wants to play a tech preist but without the baggage of being a tech preist umm.. proably not going to work.

As for your Skitarri idea. this could be a problem and is one you absolutely need to discuss with your GM before you even consider. An Inqusitor HUNTS Heratics affter all. now he might be fine with something like this, because your guys inqusitor is a radicall, but if he's playing a game based around a puritian inqusitor it obviously won't work. Also a Skitari seems an.. odd fit. they're, as I understand it, lobotomized, a head wound isn't going to suddenly fix that. However, I can suggest a slightly differant approuch. make him a guardsman who is part of a guard regiment taken from a major manafactorum world. in a major battle against a xenos foe, he lost his lasgun and was forced to grab a nearby weapon off the ground, it happened to be a xenos weapon, and defended himself, after the battle was cleared he was put up for execution by the Comissarite but the Inqusitor stepped in and took him into his retuine, he has since made a point to study and try to udnerstand xenos weaponry in the service to the Inqusitor. that might work a bit better IMHO.

Thanks for the feed back! So essentially for her there’s not much room below the level of tech priest in Martian hierarchy beyond menials who would not really work for a Mechanicus background character?

As far as the Skitarri, I was kinda going for the older idea of them before the plastic models came out, but even with them I thought lore wise they specifically aren’t lobotomized like Servitors and retain much of their higher brain functions in order to better fufill complex orders? I mean as with everything in 40k there’s probably a big sliding scale of “how much higher function they retain or is inhibited and how is it inhibited (parts of brain removed, or simply a device implanted that blocks certain neurons from functioning or communicating). I understand that in the modern concept of Skitarri they have the nuro-sync implants that allow their Mechanicus handlers to essentially directly control each soldier like an avatar, but they are also able to function independently without direct control or programming as well I thought which is why they are better/different than weapon Servitors?

To be part of the Mechanicus but not a techpriest doesn't leave a lot of options indeed. There are the skitarii. As I understand it, they are not properly lobotomized the way servitors are. They have brain implants that allow techpriests to remote control them if needed and their loyalty is probably hardwired for "safety reasons", but they can still think and act on their own otherwise. Tinkering with those implants could certainly cut the techpriests out of their mind. Surviving whatever damaged the circuits but didn't fry the brain would be pretty exceptional; I guess you could see it as a sign from the Omnissiah or some such.

Aside from skitarii, I guess there are apprentices. Techpriests have to start somewhere after all... Depending on who is training them and how far they are in their training, they could know a lot of tech-lore or nearly nothing, so there's room to work there.

Finally, there are sacristans, the guys who maintain knights. They're not fully-fledged techpriests, but they are trained on a forge-world. Officially, their loyalty is to the noble house they serve, although there has to be some Mechanicus indoctrination in their training too.

Felicia Tayber from the Cain novels is a low-level Enginseer but "was not considered eligible for the priesthood because of her inability to adopt the more spiritual side of the Cult Mechanicus (especially her Weakness of Flesh)".

The Cult Mechanicus is quite wide and has many levels, you can just make up a minor rank for your fiance and it would be fine.

Each Mechanicus Forge World is led by a Fabricator-General, or a similar official with a different title, and beneath him his Fabricator Locum. Each Fabricator Locum can call upon Magi Technicus, Metallurgicus, Alchemys, Cogitatrices, Pedanticum, Tech-assassins, hive monitors and Holy Requisitioners, who in turn can command a body of fabricators minoris, Fulgurites, Corpuscarii, overseers, underseers, stasis clerks, and techno-dervishes. Each sub-division within every facet of the order is split into dozens of ranks.

Lower Rank Mechanicus:
Mechanicus do have Tech Adepts who are Tech Priests in training from my understanding. But the definition on the wiki site says its recieved for "office workers" that don't necessarily have high rank.
https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Adepts

Skitarii Hereteks:
Skitarii aren't lobotomized like people have been saying. In older fluff such as the novel Helsreach they were, but more recent lore has shown that Skitarii are more customized per a Techpriest's personal preference. Read the book Skitarius, its not the best, but it shows the perspective of a Skitarii. Additionally there may be a case for a Skitarii Alpha Primus to go rogue as they are given more independence.

I know some people will be upset with this interpretation because back in the old fluff Skitarii and Servitors were seen as almost identical by the writers, but give GW some credit. In the first Adeptus Mechanicus codex release they made Skitarii much more interesting.

Skitarius shows Alpha Primus Haldron-44 Stroika under command of two Tech Priests. The first takes what Stroika has to say and allows the Alpha Primus to carry out missions on his own. The second routinely overrides Stroika's misgivings and freewill in order to complete the mission how the Tech Priest sees fit. Stroika himself even has arguments with other Alphas under his command. Granted he gives them more narrow commands to avoid disobedience via omission (i.e. You didn't say we couldn't kill all the civilians, just to minimize casualties).

Really get your GM to approve all of this because some 40k players get very Old Man "Back In My Day" about lore and don't like the updates.

This lore is awesome guys, it helps alot. How far do you think a forge world would go to get their hands on a former skittari, once they learned that one of their presumed dead soldiers was actually alive an kicking with full on free will somewhere?

 agurus1 wrote:
This lore is awesome guys, it helps alot. How far do you think a forge world would go to get their hands on a former skittari, once they learned that one of their presumed dead soldiers was actually alive an kicking with full on free will somewhere?

Depends on the Tech Priest. The Forge World itself wouldn't care as much I'd imagine. For instance Skitarii are usually only given pertinent data for a given task. In Skitarius, Stroika had to download more detailed data on Orks because they showed up. His initial "software" only covered general combat tactics, he downloaded Ork data to have specialized information.

So maybe your Skitarii has only limited classified knowledge that pertains to the Forge World (Unless they were part of the Fabricator General's personal guard). But your Skitarii might have information pertaining to some Tech Heresy that his previous Tech Priest was into. Most Skitarii are seen as expendable and one going rogue isn't unheard of especially on long solo missions.

What would a Forge World or Tech Priest send after a former Skitarii? At the very least one Sicarian Rust Stalker. They are Skitarii Assassins and are often tasked with hunting down excommunicated Ad Mech personnel. At most the Tech Priest might send a Killclade which is 3 units of Ruststalkers and one unit of Infiltrators (Between 20 and 60 Skitarii). The Infiltrators send out auditory signals that sound like Ad Mech Chanting to allies and eardrum rupturing static to enemies. Typically the Infiltrators will track a target and incapacitate them with binary attacks while the Ruststalkers go in for the kill.

Very interesting thank you. Speaking of techna-Lingua when would an individual become versed in it? I imagine my Skitarri character would know it but would my fiancé’s if her character is lower than a tech priest? I imagine unaugmented or lesser augmented humans would have trouble understanding or speaking it?

Servitors and skitarii all seem to understand binary or lingua technis or binharic cant or other techno-babble (not sure if these are different languages or the same one with different names). So the augments needed for "Mechanicus speak" must be very common and I imagine it would be among the first things a new techpriest would get installed.

In fluff, almost every time a techpriest must speak gothic, there's some bit about how he's annoyed at having to use such an inefficient way of communication. Sometimes techpriests haven't spoken with their actual mouth for decades and sound really awkward. Some don't even have vochal chords anymore and use speakers. So basically, speaking normally on a forge world would be pretty unusual, something only unaugmented menials might do.

The Lambdan Lions Scions "maintain a limited understanding of Lingua-technis" as they're AdMech auxiliaries, but it's mentioned they're augmented.

Maybe an ex-Collegia Titanicus Moderati?

 agurus1 wrote:
Hello all! So my fiancé and I will be joining a Dark Heresy Campaign and she wants to be part of the Mechanicus but not a tech priest. The only ranks lower than tech-priest that we could find are tech-thralls or Servitors which she doesn’t like as an idea for a player character. So Dakka, are their any official ranks below tech priest in the Martian hierarchy? Outside of the military I mean, people that would be working in forges or factory’s or as technical adepts that sort of thing?

Also I have an idea for my own character as an ex-Skitarri that regains autonomous function due to a wound sustained fighting as part of a garrison on a frontier world. The power of the alien weaponry makes him question the laws of the cult Mechanicus and he becomes a Heretek seeking out knowledge of forbidden tech in order to find a way to get back at the Xenos who wounded him and obliterated his comrades. Does that seem plausible?

Well EVERYONE is part of the military in some form in 40k
To dispel that right there.
And tech priests aren’t particularly high on the imperial totem pole.
Around the same general or lesser prestige than a sororitas.
And no. There are no ‘ranks’ lower than tech priest.
Which is a normal dude like you or me if that’s the reason she doesn’t want to play it.

Theres plenty of ranks less than priest. Theyre just not particularly important. But even the Fabricator General started of as a base human at one point.
Belisarius Cawl was a lowly Tech Acolytum around the time of the heresy.
Basically, think of a rank in a church. Wack Tech in front of it and theres your ranks. Tech candle carrier, tech bell ringer.

the ancient wrote:
Theres plenty of ranks less than priest. Theyre just not particularly important. But even the Fabricator General started of as a base human at one point.
Belisarius Cawl was a lowly Tech Acolytum around the time of the heresy.
Basically, think of a rank in a church. Wack Tech in front of it and theres your ranks. Tech candle carrier, tech bell ringer.

Quasirobo?

Ork-en Man wrote:

the ancient wrote:
Theres plenty of ranks less than priest. Theyre just not particularly important. But even the Fabricator General started of as a base human at one point.
Belisarius Cawl was a lowly Tech Acolytum around the time of the heresy.
Basically, think of a rank in a church. Wack Tech in front of it and theres your ranks. Tech candle carrier, tech bell ringer.

Quasirobo?

The way gdubs do things im surprised they havent already. If it was the 80s or 90s. They wouldve.

 ThePrimordial wrote:

Well EVERYONE is part of the military in some form in 40k
To dispel that right there.
And tech priests aren’t particularly high on the imperial totem pole.
Around the same general or lesser prestige than a sororitas.
And no. There are no ‘ranks’ lower than tech priest.
Which is a normal dude like you or me if that’s the reason she doesn’t want to play it.

Depends on the Techpriest. Enginseers are the equivalent of Sisters of Battle, in my opinion. But a Techpriest Magos is equivalent to Chapter Master combined with a Planetary Governor.

The Magos of a Forgeworld supplies arms to multiple armies (i.e. Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Sisters of Battle, Imperial Navy, etc...). Piss off a planetary governor you have a politician and his PDF to contend with, piss off a Space Marine you have a Chapter of 1000 transhumans to deal with, piss off a Magos you are going to have to deal with losing access to supplies and a countless army of cyborgs with access to Titans and Spacecrafts. The Sisters of Battle wish they had access to the infrastructure at the hands of a Techpriest.

Sisters of Battle Canoness can promise bodies, but a Magos can promise bodies, ships, weapons, and supplies.