Tech-Heresy

"Silent in the Calixian extent are worlds from which the Omnissiah has withdrawn His blessings. They trail their parent stars like errant children struck dumb and bloodied. Their ruins are profound, their catacombs endless, their savages sorrowful---for these wards of the Imperium of Mankind have paid a great and terrible price for the tech-heresy of their forbearers."
–Warrus the Secondmost, Indexus Astrae Calixis
Even among the unusually open-minded Explorators of the Adeptus Mechanicus, there are subjects which must be avoided at all cost to remain true to the dictates of the Machine God. A Heretek enthusiastically violates all such strictures, exploring xenos technology, archeotech from the Dark Age of Technology, and dabbling in all facets of technology related to the manipulation of the Warp. He may even be bold enough to develop entirely new technologies, combining components in forbidden manners to produce the ultimate tech-heresy for many in the Cult Mechanicus---innovation. He may go as far as sharing the tools of his trade and the secrets of its ways with those who have not been trained in the mysteries of the Machine God. A Heretek actively seeks out new technology and continuously experiments with new techniques in ways that were once forbidden. He no longer believes that any information, experiment, or device can be ignored. Rather, he deliberately focuses on those technologies that the Mechanicus' teachings once taught him to avoid, with a particular interest in developing Warp-based technologies. 
==Examples of Tech-Heresy==
Engines of Destruction: Weapons are the foremost goal
and desire of many tech-heretics, whether it’s the discovery
or theft of heavily restricted designs---such as atomics or
the dread life-eater virus used as a tool of Exterminatus, the
acquisition of sophisticated relics like the secrets to creating
the induction coils used in plasma weapons, or the pursuit of
alien designs of terrible power.
Gholam and other Forbidden Fleshworks: A Gholam
is an artificial construct made primarily of flesh and synthetic
tissue by the arts of a gene-sculptor. Although a widespread
technology within the Adeptus Mechanicus, many branches
of this lore are considered heretical and forbidden. These,
in particular, include so-called “Murder Gholams”---horrific
organic fabrications solely intended for violence, and
homonculites---bio-forms fashioned from harvested human
organs, alchemical serums, and vat-grown tissue in the shape
of a living thing with no natural origin. Rarer creations
include “Chimerics”---strange amalgam creatures that
combine many sources of DNA to form twisted monstrosities
with utterly unpredictable results, forced psychic mutation,
and unspeakable “slaver parasites”---artificial organic grafts
that subvert the will and the bodily functions of those
unfortunates they are inflicted upon.
According to sacred legend, such fleshworks were forbidden
by the word of the Emperor during the days of the Great
Crusade in response to the horrors that he and his superhuman
warriors encountered in the wars to end the Age of Strife.
Transgenic Blasphemy: In the darkest corners of the Adeptus Mechanicus, certain
heretek Magos Biologis practice transgenic grafting: the
splicing of alien organs and biological matter into human
subjects. Such a procedure is not only extremely dangerous,
corrupting the mind as well as the spirit, but is also an act
of extreme tech-heresy. A Magos Biologis found guilty of
such tech-heresy is likely to be executed on the spot or
whisked away to a black interrogation chamber for further
questioning.
Even attempting such a procedure grants the surgeon and
the victim 1d10 Insanity Points. The procedure requires a
Very Hard (–30) Forbidden Lore (Xenos) Test followed
by a Very Hard (–30) Medicae Test.
Success on both indicates that the splicing is successful,
permanently giving the victim a Trait or Talent possessed by
the alien.
Failure on the Medicae Test indicates that the graft has
not taken and deals 1d10 Damage to the victim (unmodified
for armour or Toughness) and an additional 1d10 Insanity
Points. Failure on the Forbidden Lore Test indicates that the
graft has taken, but the surgeon’s knowledge of alien biology
is flawed—instead of a trait or Talent, the victim instead gains
a mutation (either random or chosen by the GM) as well as
1d10 Corruption Points. Failure on both indicates that the
operation itself is an outright failure, and no additional
penalties are incurred.
Cost 20,000, Very Rare
The Silica Animus: An artificial mind (rather than
a simple cogitator) created from forbidden technologies,
tradition holds that such unholy constructs are inherently
evil and a perverted abomination in the sight of Omnissiah.
Mechanicus doctrine states that the machine spirit of a Silica
Animus is a twisted mockery of the soul of man, treacherous
and insane. Ancient texts tell apocryphal stories, shrouded in
metaphor, of such murderous and powerful creations during
the Dark Age, and the legions of iron men that served them,
blaming them in part for many of the terrible wars that laid
humanity low in that lost time.
Malifica: Perhaps the darkest and most arcane of all
sciences is the technology created to manipulate the energies
of the warp or psychic force. A necessary evil for the
Imperium and a cornerstone of its existence, it is a dangerous
and volatile field of study.
At the outer regions of the accepted uses and patterns
of this tech lie terrible devices and desires, and the melding
of daemonic spirits with machinery and the channeling of
the raw power of the empyrean through technology has
long been a thing forbidden by the Mechanicus. For those
reckless or insane enough, the temptation to pursue such dark
experiments is great, offering the possibility of creativity
and function unfettered by reason or the surly bonds of the
universe’s physical laws.
The Proteus Protocol: Considered little more than a
myth by many but the ultimat egoal of an obsessed few, the
Proteus Protocol is an ancient and heretical technology for
transferring not only the engramatic knowledge and memory
of an organic brain, but also the personality and will, granting
in effect complete mental and spiritual immortality in an
artificial physical form. Of the few legends that surround this
tech, some state that the abominations created are soulless
beings with dark desires and alien hungers that can never
be satiated. However, these warnings often fail to deter the
Protocol’s most ardent seekers.
The Anima Chorus: Within the annals of the Calixis Sector, there is established
provenance for the perpetuation of such tech-heresies as the
Anima Mori, particularly among the works and disciples
of the infamous Arch-Heretek Umbra Malygris. It was he
who was reputed to have rediscovered the blasphemous
technology known to the Adeptus Mechanicus as the
Sarcosan Wave Generator. The generator releases a strange
bio-aetheric radiation waveform that reacts with dead flesh,
saturating it and filling it with unnatural life.
The energy alone is enough to bring corpses back to
spasmodic and uncontrolled life. However, if the energy
wave’s effect is amplified via a special implant unit (which
may be attached to almost any reasonably intact corpse),
its power increases tenfold, animating, sustaining, and
controlling the cadaver. The wave energy is invisible to
normal sight, but its source may be perceived by human
ears as an eerie discordant moan, which gives the generator
unit its other name---the Anima Chorus.
==In the Calixis Sector==
Throughout the tumultuous history of the Calixis
Sector, the specter of tech-heresy has often plagued
the Adeptus Mechanicus of the Lathe Worlds. Threads
of tech-heresy have spread from the far reaches of the Sleef
Outworld to the center of Scintilla itself. The halls of the
Panopticon have often rung with binary-cant curses and dire
oaths against the pernicious hereteks that infest the Sector.
The reasons behind the prevalence of such tech-heresy in
the Calixis Sector are many, but one theory from Arch-Magos Korvikal Quietus was that the Sector’s remote location, far from
the center of Imperial control, is a major factor. Others claim that
the opportunities the Koronus Passage provides and the unique
features of the nearby Jericho Warp Gate have drawn hereteks
like moths to a flame. Whatever the truth, the Lords Dragon have
ruthlessly sought out and crushed tech-heresy wherever it can
be found, often working alongside the Inquisition---though the
Iron Wall of Silence sharply limits such cooperation.
Amongst the most notable groups tasked with eliminating
and purging hereteks are the militant sects of the Adeptus
Mechanicus, such as the Myrmidons and the Divine Light of Sollex---but there are other groups also highly interested in
keeping tech-heresy from corrupting the pure knowledge of
the Omnissiah. These organizations include the Magos Juris
and, indirectly, the Lathe-Covenant Council itself.
Tech-heresy is often interpreted differently across the galaxy.
There are many common schemes that the Mechanicus often
label as such, but it is rarely found in such prevalence as in the
Calixis Sector. The masters of the Lathes have placed their own
stamp upon the tolerance and definitions of tech-heresy; for
example, acquiring and studying xenos technology is rarely
considered such, due to the particular focus on Explorator
matters and the Thulian doctrine of High Fabricator Castellar.
Arch-Magos Ralwure the Golden leads a conservative faction that considers
harming or interfering with an ordained Tech-Priest’s person
to be tech-heresy. In particular, this faction advocates severely
prosecuting Rogue Traders of the Koronus Expanse who
sometimes abduct Tech-Adepts and force them to serve as
Enginseers on their vessels.
The High Fabricators of the Lathes decree (and the Lords
Dragon enforce) the following to be tech-heresy across the Calixis
Sector and the Lathe Worlds (including those domains outside the
Sector), though this is, of course, not a complete listing.
A Clear and Present Heresy
Among the greatest threats these groups encounter in the
course of their duties are the Logicians. This particular cult
embraces a philosophy of progress based upon a single tome,
In Defence of the Future: A Logical Discourse.
The Logicians are well equipped and supplied, but their
greatest dangers come from their seductive ideology and their
allies. Few amongst the Calixian Mechanicus suspect that the
Logicians are assisted by the secretive Recongregators faction of
the Inquisition, but given the relations between these two rival
organizations most would not register surprise at this revelation.
To a lesser extent, the Phaenonite faction also dabbles in
tech-heresy and has connections to the Stygiasts, a group of
apostate Tech-Priests. The Phaenonites have acquired through
their Stygiast partners a collection of cyber-augmented elite
warriors known as Maltek Stalkers, and the battles between
the Malteks and the Lathe Forge Guard have been savage
clashes that leave countless dead on both sides.
Censure Betrayal of the Cult Mechanicus
Simply put, all those who break a pact with the Adeptus
Mechanicus are to be reviled. Any apostates of the Omnissiah,
outcasts or exiles, and especially those who dare truck with
the daemonic, must be given no assistance, no quarter, and no
mercy. As enforced in the Calixis Sector, the Lathe-Covenant
Council has a number of rulings applying this censure to the
Tech-Witches of Ammicus Tole.
Ammicus Tole, one of the Logician hereteks on Sinophia,
abruptly broke all ties with his parent group and began
gathering his own followers. It is presumed that Tole was
serially disloyal, for he had earlier also abandoned the Cult
Mechanicus for the Logicians.
The Magos Juris assigned to the case discovered that Tole’s
group had become a cult, and he had led them into rituals of
the Warp that had irrevocably corrupted the technology that
they came into contact with. The Lathe-Covenant Council
acted quickly to alert the Inquisition, and assisted them in
rooting out the majority of the cult, although some remnants
did manage to escape offworld to Cyclopea. Among the most
egregious of Tole’s creations was the Prognosticaon, a device
of divination that could, with the proper use of sacrificial
blood, closely predict the future.
Avert any Twisting of the Sacred Genes of Mankind
There are many amongst the Calixian Mechanicus, particularly
Magos Biologis, who are devout to the belief that the form of Man
is, in itself, to be revered. This creed states that the gene-structure
of humanity is as the Emperor intended it---any unnecessary
alterations to the human gene-code is, therefore, anathema. The
exact definition of what is “unnecessary” meddling has waxed
and waned over the centuries since the founding of the Lathes,
but there are currently many amongst the Lathe-Covenant Council who cast great doubt upon even the smallest changes.
Most shun more elaborate modifications such as those procedures
that produce enhanced Gland Warriors, though when enough
thrones are applied it is still discretely carried out.
The Sector itself was nearly rent asunder by the tech-heresies
of Umbra Malygris only a few decades ago, and the blasphemies
he was responsible for are still strong in the memory banks
of the Calixian Mechanicus. Malygris pioneered the
dark art of bioforging, a horrific forced mutation of
the human body into a hulking, armored thing
capable of surviving for brief
periods in vacuum.
The Apostatic Matrix, another of Malygris’
inventions, twists the very fabric
of the mind to turn faith into heresy. He also developed
a method of fusing human biology with
that of alien races, mixing xenos gene-code
into his captives with a process that became
known as transgenics. The High Fabricator
has decreed that Malygris’ name be accursed
forevermore within the transmit data-streams,
but not even he can deny that Malygris
possessed a formidable genius.
Renounce the Empyric Device
This tech-heresy involves studying and
constructing the device-patterns of the
Archenemy. To the Calixian Mechanicus,
any technology that touches upon or
manipulates the Warp, such as the hallowed
Gellar field that protects voidships during
Warp transit, is to be considered cautiously
and is often suspect, for any malfunction
or deviation can spell disaster. Thus,
tech that directly seeks to channel and
direct the corruption of the Warp
is tech-heresy of the worst sort
and is often seen as a direct link
to apostasy. Using technology
to bind a Daemon is but one
example of this tech-heresy.
The Arch-Magos Callophe
once studied the effects of human
psykers upon the material world,
but her research violated
many of the Mechanicus’ most sacred precepts. In time, she was incinerated through
Inquisitorial edict, but she had left behind a staggering
number of empyric devices and an organized group of
hereteks known as the Empyric Engineers.
One of Callophe’s most well-known developments was
the psy-engine, a crude weapon capable of harnessing and
directing the power of a number of disembodied psyker brains.
Her followers also built ætheric resonators, weaponized frames
that channeled Warp energy into vicious, crackling blades.
Abjure the Unliving
The Calixian Mechanicus refers to the protean engineering
for returning life to the dead as the tech-heresy Unliving.
Adapting technology to raise or communicate with the dead
is considered vile by the Lathe-Covenant Council, and is to
be stamped out wherever it is encountered. This has much to
do with a former member of that council, the outcast Magos Vathek. Infamous both in the Tech-Priesthood and amongst
the Inquisition, Vathek devised several machines that operate
on a principle known as the “Sarcosan wave,” originally rediscovered by Umbra Malygris. Sarcosan wave
generators restore a measure of life to the dead,
animating corpses with an unnatural hunger
in an unspeakable mockery of the living. The
Sarcosan wave generators built into Vathek’s
own carapace have allowed his survival in
many encounters that should have been fatal.
According to the agents of the Lords Dragon,
Vathek has made preparations to leave the Calixis
Sector for some distant destination. He has begun
forming around him a group of similarly apostate
Tech-Priests that has been dubbed “the Stygiasts.”
The speculum umbrae is a similar creation of the Animal
Mori, that purports to allow
communication with spirits
of the dead. Firmly renounced
by the Lathe-Covenant Council,
the current theory within the
Calixian Mechanicus is that such
devices instead are contacting the Warp or
are somehow transmitting “echoes” of living
souls rather than the truly dead. This has not
tempered the Logicutioners when they find those possessing such heresies.
Abhor the Silica Animus
Few things are more loathsome to the
Calixian Tech-Priesthood than any
who seek to resurrect the Iron Men
or other horrors of the Dark Age of
Technology. Tech-Adepts of the Lathes
reject with horror any idea of soulless
sentience, called by some the Silica
Animus or "Abominable Intelligence.”
Without a machine-spirit, a
device is but a shell. If that
device, however, contains an animating intelligent force, it is
no longer technology that can be trusted and relied upon, it
is no longer part of the Omnissiah’s great plan---it is nothing
less than damnation made real.
Both the Inquisition and the Magos Juris have hunted the
heretek Nomen Ryne for his blasphemies of the Silica Animus.
Ryne’s most infamous discovery was that of the so-called 13th
Pattern of Cogitation, an outlawed set of rubrications that can
give life and sentience to a soulless machine. Many claim that
the schismatical data-patterns in the deep infotombs of Lathe-Hadd are also his work, but no connection has been proven.
Naturally, the Calixian Mechanicus purges any and all machines
found to possess any data-markers of this 13th Pattern, and in
many cases the Techsorcists have been called in to assist.
Ryne has so far escaped justice due to his cunning---he
has constructed a number of frighteningly lifelike automatons
shrouded in the robes of a Tech-Priest. These “False-Men”
spread as far as Alactra, and the Magos Juris intercepted a
number of them attempting to book passage into the Koronus Expanse. Ryne’s work has also birthed other abominations,
such as the beast-minded mech spiders and murder-cogitators,
hand-held devices that can assassinate a machine-spirit.
One of Ryne’s greatest followers is a Tech-Priest formerly
associated with the Inquisition, Cyrrik Scayl.
Other examples of this tech-heresy include the mech-assassin
automata known as Gholams and Golephs, both of
which have plagued the Calixis Sector for decades. Of late, an
entirely new pattern---the Caryatid---has emerged, bearing
far more advanced weapon systems and hunting protocols.
The Lords Dragon are said to be intensely interested to find
out more about the Caryatids and destroy their source.
==Lesser Tech-Heresies==
The true nature of what constitutes tech-heresy is vague
enough that it can encompass a truly wide variety of subject
and activities. Generally speaking, in the Calixis Sector there
are several definite actions that are considered amongst the
lesser tech-heresies (called such because they do not fall
under one of the other major categories).
Misuse of Technology
An extremely broad category, this usually refers to the adaptation
of technology to a use other than that for which it was intended.
Such misuse can be as simple as otherwise innocent technology
used against the Adeptus Mechanicus rather than for it,
transmitting blasphemies against the Omnissiah through a vox-network,
or even abusing a chronically recalcitrant machine-spirit
(such as venting one’s frustration with the offending machine in
the presence of a Tech-Priest). Naturally, due to the imprecise
nature of this category, it is easily misunderstood and rarely
draws major attention from the Calixian Mechanicus.
The case of Illucis Grizvaldi is an excellent illustration of this
particular lesser tech-heresy. Grizvaldi, a previously low-profile
heretek, took over a small section of Scintilla and began liberally
transforming its citizens into bestial servitors loyal only to him.
The Inquisition intervened in the matter and Grizvaldi was
seemingly summarily executed, but in reality he escaped and his legacy has lived on. From time to
time, other hereteks seek to match or copy Grizvaldi’s atrocity. He himself now targets the planet of Merov.
Unsanctioned Communion with the Machine
The influence of the Lathe-Covenant Council can be quite
powerful on the attitudes and outlooks of the Tech-Priesthood
at large within the Calixis Sector. The extremely conservative
faction, led by Arch-Magos Ralwure the Golden, has campaigned
at length to establish a set of activities as tech-heresy. Ralwure’s
diatribes on this subject are the stuff of the legend, and thanks
to his influence, the Council has decreed in his favor. Thus, for
the lay citizen (one not belonging to the Calixian Mechanicus) to
craft unsanctioned augments, or scavenge technology (particularly
the pernicious Reclaimators lurking in the depths of the Calixian
hive cities) has been declared tech-heresy. This policy has sought
to go so far as to also include interfering with or harming a
Tech-Priest’s person, but that has yet to be fully adopted. The
extent of this particular category is replete with a complex set
of precedents and exceptions that only those within the Cult
Mechanicus could truly understand.
==Bronze Malifects==
"I’ll never forget the beast of bronze. It was in the wards that it came for us, autolimbs and machine-legs all fused together. It clambered over rotting mattress and rusting frames, with scalpels in every one of 10 bronze hands, lusting for the flesh it had naught of. “Fire, you dogs!” I cried. Rot their hides for not pulling triggers in fear first of all, but they rallied, bless them! Those zealous hands fired ‘til naught was left whole, and bronze-melt ran to the blood-gutters. There’s the Emperor’s welcome! There’s how we greet the warp!"
–Jagamar Elste, Fenksworld, 3.237.795.M41
A strange tech-heresy gripped the Josian Reach in the latter
half of the 8th century M41. The augmetic scholae, techadepts
who built and maintained cybernetic devices, became
warp-tainted in many diverse locations. The hereteks built
malformed machine altars and conducted corruptions of
Mechanicus rituals. They succumbed to madness and mindrust,
engraved screeds of warp-nonsense across every surface,
and toiled upon twisted devices.
One such device is the bronze malifect, an ugly arrangement
of bronze augmetic limbs infused with a murderous spirit of
the warp. Inactive, a malifect appears to be a large heap of
war-damaged augmetic arms and legs, as though they were
removed from dead Guardsmen and thrown in a pile. On
closer inspection, the arrangement is the deliberate work of a
madman. The bronze autolimbs are plasma-welded together
such that the mass is joined into one large device, capable of
articulation and movement: a stump to a wrist, legs side by
side, an arm projecting from a thigh, and so on. Data conduits
and power lines weave throughout the whole, linking small
potentia coils and scavenged flexor-devices. Heretek sigils
and nonsensical machine cant scripts are inscribed upon the
most crucial linkages.
When active and infused with the power of the warp, a
malifect moves rapidly with purpose and malignant intent.
The daemon-spirit within guides the machine beast and
senses terrified victims through unknown means---the
malifect incorporates no ocular components or processing
devices capable of initiating movement. It is the warp alone,
clothed in metal, hungry for death and pain, that motivates
the device.
The bronze malifect is guard and ambusher within remote
Machine Temples and drifting medicae vessels touched by
the warp. It has a simple-minded fascination with medical
tools: saws, scalpels, hooks, clamps, and probes. The daemon
within exhibits a low cunning, lying in wait until its lust for
flesh can no longer be suppressed—and then it leaps forth to
choke and stab. More complex strategies are beyond it. The
bodies of the dead are left torn, sliced, and splayed open as
though examined by a mad vivisectionist.
Other perversions of medical tech-devices and machine
spirits accompany outbreaks of tech-heresy in the Josian
Reach: the dead made to rise and walk on warp-infused
machine limbs, the living driven irrevocably insane upon
operating tables, and sacrificial altars made of scalpels
and bone-saws. Of all these, the bronze malifect presents
perhaps the greatest danger to servants of the Holy Ordos.
==The False-Men of Nomen Ryne==
"Twice across the past decades have I come face to face with devices that pretend poorly to be men, clad in red robes of the tech–priest, acting as clumsily as serf mummers playing Mechanicus upon the feast stage. I have held conclave with Interrogators and Inquisitors who have seen the same. The intellect of the arch–heretek Ryne labours these centuries, hidden in some secret retreat, sustained by tech–devices stolen from the Machine Cult. He works towards the pinnacle that is the Iron Men, but has not progressed past these false–men, these manikins."
–From the Journals of Inquisitor Felroth Gelt 3.582.710.M41
It is not known whether Nomen Ryne himself was the originator of the unholy Thirteenth Pattern of Cogitation, a way to construct cogitation cores that is reviled by the Calixian Mechanicus. By the 9th century M41, such questions of origin have become unimportant. The Thirteenth Pattern is endemic amongst outlaws of Golgenna and Malfian hives; devices and unsanctioned cogitators travel the black paths of smugglers and pirates alongside vox-heresy and scofflaw augmetic limbs. 
The Mechanicus hatred of Ryne has not diminished, as his name and influence have only grown over the centuries. Cults arose with the spread of cogitation-heresy, such as the Children of Ryne who worship the arch-heretek as an Imperial saint. It was through these cults that the Mechanicus and the Ordos first learned of the false-men of Nomen Ryne, for the false-men are angels in the eyes of Ryneite hereteks. 
Enough false-men have been dismantled by the Ordos for their nature to be clear, albeit horrifying. The false-man is a machine built to appear as a heavily augmented tech-priest, incorporating all the traditional Mechanicus cybernetic modifications, or at least the appearance thereof. A falseman is capable of volition, speech, and planning---more than enough to cast it as the forbidden Silica Animus, an attempt to recreate the dread Men of Iron and so bring back horrors of the Dark Age of Technology. But false-men are paltry manikins by comparison to the Men of Iron. Their speech is disjointed and often irrelevant, as though mad or mind-rusted. Their reactions to circumstance are similarly telling---unexpectedly violent, strange, or illogical. Their movements are off-key and inhuman, exactly as though a machine pretended to be a man. Yet they can construct techdevices, plan ahead, and perform the functions of a fabricator tech-adept. 
False Machine Temples populated by false-men exist in the Malfian subsector. The Children of Ryne believe falsemen bring messages and new tech-patterns from Nomen Ryne himself. Some false-men claim to be Nomen Ryne. It is possible that insanity and a strange form of ascension to life eternal in the embrace of the machine lies behind these centuries of heresy---but both the Cult of Sollex and the Ordos Calixis are set on destruction of the false-men and are little interested in answering deeper questions.
==Logi-Daemons==
"We gathered warp–maddened survivors and heard testament of man–crushing red serpents, strange ribbons, and a burning light that brought insanity. We scoured the district for any remaining daemonic presence and prepared to hunt down those responsible the abomination. We found nothing but tales of horror and a lingering taint of death and the warp---no heretics, no witches, no daemons."
–From the journals of Inquisitor Felroth Gelt 3.267.690.M41
The Calixian warp is fickle and sometimes the very shape
and movement of objects within the Materium can excite the
tides of the Immaterium. Then the barrier between realities
thins and daemons far beyond any human conception or
emotion spill forth to wreck brief havoc.
This type of event has happened often enough that the
Inquisition in the Calixis Sector has become aware of it.
Certain complex configurations of rods, spindles, and other
structures can conjure forth daemons and the fury of the
Empyrean when manipulated in a particular fashion. The
Ordos know these configurations as Logi Daemonis---a term
derived from the babblings of witches and careful notes of
heretek tech-priests who sought revelation from Empyric
engineering. Numerous suppressed references refer to “logi
maleficium,” “perfect words,” “warp-questions,” and the like.
To the Ordos, a Logos Daemonis construct is an instruction
to foul beasts of the Empyrean and a danger to Mankind
by its apparently innocent nature until moved into the final
configuration. The attendance of any other form of warpcraft
or psyker taint is not necessary for a Logos to activate
and call down destruction upon all around it.
The Inquisition has never obtained an intact Logos
to examine, as the fury of a warp manifestation destroys
that which created it. Known Logi have existed within
manufactory equipment and moving scaffolds, or were
crafted by the insane in the form of folding metal-wicker
altars. All recorded daemonic manifestations created by
Logi have occurred in crowded holy places: cathedrals,
saint’s shrines, and Mechanicus manufactories. The Ordos
considers this last fact as proof of malign intent, as it is the
nature of the Archenemy to strike at the holiest places of the
Imperial Creed.
An active manifestation begins with the raw light of the
warp pouring forth from the Logos, as the barrier of the
Materium gives way. The warp-light will drive weak men
mad, burn flesh, and set fire to flammable materials. Invisible
warp-spirits pour from a Logos to possess terrified Imperial
citizens, forcing them to stand and watch the warp-light
until they combust—or walk into the warp to be destroyed.
More powerful daemons emerge from the Logos as fires
start to burn and Imperial citizens flee or die. They ripple
forth as streaming ribbons of warp-matter, formed into
shifting shapes and outlines that hurt the mind. The ribbons
knot into central bodies and create limbs by enmeshing the
dead and possessed with loops of warp-stuff. In the midst of
fire, warp-light, and insanity, these strange daemons stride
about the zone of manifestation until the Logos melts and
the grasp of the Empyrean fades.
From activation to vanishment, a manifestation might last
less than 10 minutes, leaving the building in flames, and all
who did not flee, dead or carried into the warp. Unless quickly
controlled, rumor, fear, and panic will spread through the
populace. Whatever the result, the area will bear a disturbing,
inhuman warp-taint evident to psykers for decades.
==Obliviates==
"Obliviates are mere empty shells, the echo of a horror already taken place. Had the faith of the enforcers of 12-L held firm, they might have steadfastly slain obliviates and hereteks alike. I have seen greater feats from oft-maligned Magistratum squads. But in low Karvelt they faltered in terror at what the obliviates represented, and so were torn apart by soulless flesh."
–From the Journals of Inquisitor Felroth Gelt3.056.707.M41
The Ministorum Calixis preaches that “the Emperor protects”
refers to the immortal soul of the Imperial subject. Death is
not to be feared, but destruction of the soul is a horror almost
beyond words—it is a fear that can roil hives to uprising
and overturn the Dictates Imperialis in panicked riots. The
body of one whose soul has been destroyed is a terrifying
abomination, and to burn that empty shell upon the pyre is
an act of cleansing.
The notorious Illucis Grizvaldi and his heretek followers
prey upon these Imperial fears through heavy-handed use
of oblivion volitors. These tech-devices are a corrupted and
clumsy pattern of neuroaugmetic; when surgically implanted
into the brain, an oblivion volitor turns a man into a soulless
“obliviate.” Obliviates are empty shells, living on after the
soul is consigned to nothingness.
Hereteks further augment obliviates with crudely implanted
blades and metal fangs, so as to use them like attack animals.
They debase the divine form of man by whipping obliviate
packs to savage their foes. But the true weapon is terror---terror of oblivion brought to cherished souls, terror that the
God-Emperor’s protection is sundered.
To the psyker, there is little difference between an obliviate
and an aggressive combat servitor. The Mechanicus Calixis
have many times pressed upon the Inquisition that the
results of heretek destructive neuroaugmentation are often
indistinguishable from many servitor patterns. Speculation
following from this observation is best kept quiet, however.
It is doctrine within the Ordos and Ministorum that oblivion
volitors destroy the soul—and it is thereby in the interests of
the Mechanicus to earnestly aid in suppressing what might
otherwise have been a lesser tech-heresy.
Illucis Grizvaldi held court for heretek vermin upon
Scintilla at the opening of the 8th century M41. Iron-clad
hereteks paraded those who once spoke against their master:
the newly made obliviates were leashed and naked---bloody,
drooling, and empty-eyed. The idea that those torn souls
would never feel the God-Emperor’s embrace put terror into
Imperial hearts. For all to see, the arch-heretek had destroyed
the essence of the faithful by means of the heavy, clacking
augmetics embedded in their skulls. It was by fear and death
that Illucis Grizvaldi held sway over his underhive domain.
However, these unfortunate victims of such a process
are by no means related to those rare humans who case no
shadow in the Warp; Untouchables, or “Blanks” as they are
sometimes called. The Obliviate’s soullessness is of a different
kind entirely; their minds irrevocably broken and twisted by
heretical technology.
Thirteen bestials were discovered by Brecht District
Magistratum in the low- and mid-hive strata over the course
of late 705 and early 706.M41, minds and souls destroyed
by oblivion volitor neuroimplants. Ministorum preachers
performed exorcisms, ward-prayers, and blessings upon the
wretches, and word began to spread. It was judged necessary
for the Ordos to act before fear and rumor led to greater
unrest in the hive.
==Vore-Weapons==
A vore–weapon is a made beast, a living assassin’s tool crafted
by heretek genetor and xenobiologis tech–adepts from raw
xenos breeding material. This crafting is a dangerous practice
for a Calixian Mechanicus priest. While the Omnissiah
blesses the toil that created grox, beremoth, and a dozen
other worthy agri–breeds, the creation of new xenos beasts
from breeds declared corrupt or vile is tech–heresy. The line
between the holy and the heretek xenobiologis is smudged
and often redefined, but creation and use of vore–weapons
are emphatically tech–heresy in the Calixis Sector. No
faithful servant of the God–Emperor would create or employ
such obviously corrupt xenos life, and those who do must be
hunted down and burned.
The most common breed of Calixian vore–weapon is a
thin worm–like creature less than a handbreadth in length,
bristling with hard spines. It is possessed of startlingly strong
hooked fore–limbs and a maw of razor–teeth. It can coil to
leap clear across a room if needed and employs its hooks and
spines to scuttle with alarming speed.
A vore–weapon is docile until enraged by chemical
cues. Typically, an assassin activates and throws the vore–
weapon upon its target by means of an armored gauntlet
of particular design. A frenzied vore–weapon is fast, fearless,
and extremely aggressive. It tears through even light armor
to get at the flesh beneath, and then rapidly levers, thrashes,
and burrows its way within to destroy internal organs. Once
the xenos has maw and fore–spines within flesh, the target
is as good as dead.
Just as for an assassin’s envenomed dagger, however, a
vore–weapon is ineffective against the armored, the alert,
and the forewarned. Its primary use is often as a coded
missive intended for someone other than the victim---the
assassin’s master displays power and ruthlessness in using a
heretek’s vore–weapon, and threatens the same terrible death
to those who continue to go against his wishes.
The noted Inquisitor Embuleos raged against vore–
weapons in his lifetime, calling them a great heresy forced
upon the Imperium by negligent and degenerate Magi. Despite
periodic purges by the Calixian Ordos and Mechanicus,
vore–weapon breeders continue to practice their ugly craft
throughout the Calixis Sector. Renegade Tech–priests and
biologis hereteks outside the Machine Cult ensure that the
wealthy and unscrupulous have access to this terrifying
means of assassination. They cultivate squirming colonies of
the beasts, hidden away behind facades of wealth, and hold
court for the factors of assassin guilds and death cults.
In recent years, more and more of these bizarre living
weapons have been used to commit murders across the Josian Reach, leading some to speculate that a large storehouse of
these xenos creatures somewhere in the region.