Standard Design Template (SDT)

A Standard Design Template (SDT) system is an advanced, virtual intelligence computer database created during the Golden Age of Technology said to have contained the sum total of Human scientific and technological knowledge.
The SDT was invented when Human interstellar civilization was at its technological peak. Introduced during the Golden Age of Technology before the onset of the Long Dark, an SDT allowed workers to build anything from a Plasmor Pistol to a fortified city or the fearsome interstellar warships now used by the Imperial Navy.
SDT systems possessed the ability not just to store information but also to produce new designs to meet the changing circumstances seen throughout humanities interstellar expansion.
Examples of SDT technology now in use by the Imperium Dominus are the Dreadnought Ultra-Heavy Battle Tank, the Siege Bikes fielded by the Imperial Legions and the Mastodon APC. Imperial forces (especially those of the Mechanicus Maximus) will go to any length to recover a lost or stolen SDT, or even a hard copy print-out from one, even if it means the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Imperial citizens.
It is said that even the flimsiest rumors of an SDT system will spark cross-galaxy journeys, titanic fleet search operations, and the spending of untold lives and treasure.
During the Gilded Age of Man An SDT system was possessed by every group of Human interstellar colonists before the Long Dark, allowing them to build all of the equipment necessary for survival on an untamed colony planet. During the Long Dark the systems fell into disuse, were damaged or destroyed, and so became increasingly rare, until they were lost entirely.
Some Imperial historians have theorized that scientists during the Golden Age of Technology foresaw the coming of the Long Dark, and created the SDTs to ensure that their knowledge would not be lost to mankinds future generations.
In the Dawning Age of the Imperium, after so many thousands of Terran years after the Long Dark, it is often speculated that none have survived.
What technological knowledge remains from the Golden Age of Technology survives only in the form of SDT hard-copies that have been preserved and copied over thousands of standard years by the Machine-priests of the Mechanicus Maximus, who believe that SDTs are the most holy of artifacts, gifts to Mankind from their Machine God.
== History ==
The Dawning Age of the Imperium is not exactly a technically-inclined era in Human history. It is an age where problems are often solved by brute force and ignorance, where dangers are either too disgusting or too unthinkable to elicit any other response.
Little, if any, technological innovation and invention exists in the Imperium Dominus, and those that come into contact with advanced technology of bygone eras use it with reservations and a reverence that is almost religious.
The Imperial Marine Legions, for example, treat their equipment and armor as if it were imbued with a will of its own -- a fine chest-plate, well looked after and constantly maintained, may reward its wearer by saving his life; whereas a Marine who neglects his equipment may be struck down by a leaking suit or malfunctioning weapon. Such is the divine will of the Emperor.
Much of the technology used by the Imperium Dominus is either recovered from Standard Design Templates, or STCs. These databases were designed during the Golden Age of Technology for use by Human settlers establishing colonies on newly discovered planets.
Their prime function was to enable the colonists to construct any buildings, vehicles or other necessary tools and technologies without prior knowledge or expertise.
Some Imperial historians have theorized that the scientists of the Golden Age of Technology somehow foresaw the coming of the Long Dark, and created the SDTs to ensure that their knowledge would not be lost to mankinds future generations.
The designs contained within an SDT were intended to be able to cope with anything - by the standards of their day they were rough and ready, big and brutish, hard to damage and easy to repair.
During the Long Dark Human civilization on most worlds would revert to pre-industrial barbarism, and almost all of the technological innovations of the previous millennia were lost or destroyed.
All that survived from before that terrible time were debased and corrupted versions of the old SDT designs, scattered and lost on thousands of back-water planets across the galaxy.
These databases contain lost knowledge from the Golden Age of Technology, and both the Martian Mechanicus Maximus, and the Imperial Machine Guilds make it their business to find them -- the SDTs are their equivalent of the most sacred of holy texts, a font of all knowledge, a quest for the holy grail.
== Design ==
The SDT is an advanced, virtual intelligence computer data storage and fabrication system. It was designed to provide construction details for Human colonists during Mankind's early interstellar expansion across the Milky Way Galaxy before the massive Void Rifts of the Long Dark brought an end to all interstellar travel and communication for multiple millennia.
Each group of colonists carried such a system with them when they embarked for their new homes. It enabled the colonists to build efficient shelters, power generators and transports without any technical knowledge and using almost any locally available materials.
The user simply asked how to build a house or a tractor and the computer supplied all the necessary plans in the form of holographic schematics.
The rare complete SDT Library is said to contain the total sum of all knowledge possessed by the great Human interstellar civilization that existed before the onset of the Long Dark.
But as the technological level needed by the majority of the Human population at that time was simple, most SDT systems were for producing relatively unsophisticated technology like threshing machines and simple transport aircraft, not Void energy taps or holographic field emitters.
Very few examples of SDT schematics for the more advanced devices have been found. The SDT systems themselves worked by providing in a hololithic format the full schematics for a machine, device or vehicle according to the given needs of the user.
This resulted in the production of some extremely sturdy, functional designs still found throughout the Imperiums Factions. Since no confirmed reports of a fully functional SDT Library have been made since the Golden Age of Technology, the full nature and contents of the SDT -- and what technological secrets and wonders it may still contain -- remains unknown.
Category:Imperium
Category:Mechanicus
Category:Armaments