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So after watching Bladerunner earlier, i see quite a lot of stuff which i believe inspired 40k, the whole poverty in a massive polluted city with gothic architecture and a kind of grey area between ethics and such.

Anyway, is there any story or stories of servitors or robots going rogue like in the film or Cyberpunk? although i might be wrong as I'm not sure if servitors have emotions or not, have any been tampered with chaos?

Bit of a stupid question, but you know.

Mechanicus (Heresy) novel mentions them.

It details the whole Admech/Dark mech scrapcode/chaos thing with "wandering bands of rogue servitors" that exist on mars and pretty much just prey on tech (or each other).

 chromedog wrote:
Mechanicus (Heresy) novel mentions them.

It details the whole Admech/Dark mech scrapcode/chaos thing with "wandering bands of rogue servitors" that exist on mars and pretty much just prey on tech (or each other).

Oh nice, thats interesting, so their practically on the run from Ad mech and Imperial authorities? any knowledge on what happened to them? did they go off into the EOT or are they still there?

Most of them got killed, or are still wandering around in the ruins of Mars (which is 99% of the planet).

Remember, Servitors are mindless. They don't have much in the way of human emotions or feelings. They're generally programmed to do one task and, while that task might be complex (like Valkyrie Gunship Repair) they don't know anything outside of that skillset.

So a "rogue" gun-servitor starts shooting at the people who were supposed to be its allies, and it uses its various combat protocols to make use of cover, escape & evasion techniques and so on... but it otherwise has no greater purpose or mission.

Keep in mind, unlike in Bladerunner, servitors are highly unlikely to be able to pass for human. What's more even prior to the Heresy, which is when Mechanicum takes place,, the caverns and catacombs of Mars were filled with thousands of years worth of failed experiments, scavenged abominations, and other esoteric technical beings. A rogue servitor is far less likely to be running for its life and far more likely to be hunting for anything and everything it can kill in the shadows of Mars.

In the 10,000 years between the Heresy and M41, there have been thousands if not millions of tech-heresy projects by independent tinkerers, hereteks, and dark mechanicus acolytes that would be the equivalent of rogue servitors. If you're interested in some further examples, there's a few in the Dark Heresy supplement Creatures Anathema.

 Psienesis wrote:

Remember, Servitors are mindless. They don't have much in the way of human emotions or feelings. They're generally programmed to do one task and, while that task might be complex (like Valkyrie Gunship Repair) they don't know anything outside of that skillset.

Or at least they're supposed to. I'm sure sometimes there are glitches in the mind-wipe process and the servitor ends up with a bit more free will and cognitive abilities than intended.

Servitors aren't going to be human level intellects to start with, so "going rogue" is a stretch.

"Developing programming faults" isn't, and I highly suggest you take a look into the Deathwatch RPG book "Mark of the Xenos" which has an entry for a world where the Servitors have gone mad and started hunting down citizens of the Hive Spire where they were.
Samedh something, I think was the name?

 Archie The Death Rider wrote:

Anyway, is there any story or stories of servitors or robots going rogue like in the film or Cyberpunk?

Basically, robots going rogue is the very reason of using servitors in the first place. Humanity used to have lots of robots with advanced AI - they were called Men of Iron or something like this. Than they went Skynet. Eventually humans won but the price was so high they've decided not to go in for this route of AI robots ever again. Thus, all the current imperial tech lacks true AI even when it'd be quite profitable to have one.

Upshot being, you wouldn't get Bladerunner from rogue servitors. They simply don't look or act human enough.

Now, there's all kinds of AdMech genetic engineering and chimeric splicing going on for the Inquisition, the Ordo Assassinorum, and whoever else has both the clout and the scratch to make such things happen.

Fiddle around with those kinds of ideas, and you could do a Bladerunner scenario (possibly involving an Arbiter who may also be genetically engineered...) pretty easily.

I suppose there are always Necromundan pit slaves.
Think "Gladiator", but many of the gladiators had been upgraded with buzz saws and pincer arms to make the fights more interesting. And they're joined by former industry slaves (who been upgraded with mining drills, giant hammers, etc). They're usually filled with hatred for the guild that stole their freedom and modified their bodies. Oh, and a small number of them have diminished (or no) free will.
So, not like "Gladiator".
Some of them spend their (short) lives alone or in pairs in the main hive, seeking to evade the hunt-teams sent after them. Most of them, though, gather together in gangs in the darkest depths of the underhive.
You won't need a Voight-Kampff test to distinguish them from other humans - the slave brands, ownership studs, and the fact that your left hand is a giant, piston-driven metal claw kind of give the game away.


The Inquisition can produce Infil-Traitors that believe themselves to be ordinary people. It's entirely possible that such individuals have advanced bionics set to give human-level strength, but which power up fully once they receive the trigger.

Chaos does some sick, twisted stuff. I can definitely see some dark mech projects involving very much alive and sane people, mutilated and fitted with daemon powered machinery. And some may even like it.

 Psienesis wrote:
Upshot being, you wouldn't get Bladerunner from rogue servitors. They simply don't look or act human enough.

Now, there's all kinds of AdMech genetic engineering and chimeric splicing going on for the Inquisition, the Ordo Assassinorum, and whoever else has both the clout and the scratch to make such things happen.

Fiddle around with those kinds of ideas, and you could do a Bladerunner scenario (possibly involving an Arbiter who may also be genetically engineered...) pretty easily.

Woah, i didn't expect this thread to get this much attention.

I remember reading somewhere that there are scenarios of people getting genetic and robotic upgrades, that in a hive city could make up for a good story.

There is also the Maerorus and Legienstrasse which is pretty damn Bladerunneresque.