Dark Mechanicum - Ranged Weapons: Apostatic Matrix - The Apostasic Matrix is one of countless abominations spawned by the Heretek followers of Umbra Malygris in the 8th Century of M41. Neuro-augmetic lore and the study of the Omnissiah’s universal laws was combined and tainted to produce an unholy technology—the Matrix scourges mind and soul with occult energies, tearing down the foundations of the individual's faith and loyalty to whatever he most holds dear. Apostasic Matrices recovered by Ordo Hereticus Acolytes after the Cleansing of Tarycine were embedded within electrostaves. Each metal staff blisters with cogitation nodules, electro-sensors, and mottled field projection devices. As if in mockery of its origins, devotional prayers inscribed in orthodox Machine Cant spiral about its length—many Malygrisians remained convinced of their holiness, it seems, even as they fell into the vilest tech-heresy. A victim so much as grazed by the electrostave is scarred by its power. The Apostatic Matrix reaches into the very mechanisms of the soul, pouring toxins and pain upon the roots of faith, and burning away memories of worship with agonising darts of electro-essence. The immediate anguish is terrible, but the true horror is that the Matrix causes the flower of faith in the God-Emperor to wither and die thereafter. Some Radicals have found the Apostasic Matrix to be a potent addition to an interrogation chamber, and take great pleasure in setting this tool of the Archenemy upon blackened Heretic souls. In the same way that loyal Imperial citizens collapse into tormented apostasy, even the strongest devotees of the Ruinous Powers are given to babbling despair under the Matrix’s ministrations. Istvaanians in the Calixian Conclave of the Inquisition have more ambitious aims: to replicate the Plague of Apostasy engineered by Malygrisians upon the Hive World of Piety, where colossal Matrix devices infused the very air with faithlessness and madness. Istvaanian covens study the electrostaves for hidden signs of this greater tech-lore.Callophean Psy-Engine - A Psy-Engine is a dread weapon: barely controlled, living psyker brains set within a weapon-housing and goaded by neuro-implants to blast foes with the power of the Warp. The Callophean Pattern of this device consists of a lozenge-shaped central body and metre-long insulated director wand connected by flexible cabling. The Psy-Engine’s centre is a transparent housing just large enough to hold four psyker brains suspended in pink-tinged gel, pierced by mechanisms and linked by fluid-tubes. The narrow edges of the Psy-Engine consist of clustered psyamplifiers, null-wards, and fluid support devices joined to the tormented brains within. The psyker is a resource to be expended—this is an Imperial truth. But Heretek Magi-Psykana go too far: forbidden gene-manipulation; neuro-active implants to induce and control psyker manifestation; and holding back psykers from the Imperial Tithe. Archmagos Callophe, incinerated in 583.M41 by Ordo Malleus forces, sought to eliminate the troublesome human element in her psyker resources. Her coven tended vats of pulsing, device-ridden psyker brains, all other flesh cut away and the minds within afflicted by a controllable form of blind insanity. Callophe was not the originator of this vile lore, but her name now attends it. Other Hereteks practice it yet, harvesting the living brains of psykers to consign them to lives of sightless horror and madness. A militant warded against psychic overspill carries the director wand, whilst a Servitor or expendable menial bears the weight of the Psy-Engine. When the militant triggers the Psy-Engine to attack, the maddened psykers within it are goaded to strike at the closest target indicated by the wand (note that the Psy-Engine effectively never runs out of ammunition and never needs to be “reloaded”). A Psy-Engine presents a continual danger to soul and sanity unless it is stored within a stasis field, the heavy psy-barriers of an Adeptus Astropathica facility, or the like. The foaming, blind madness of the psykers within constantly seeps through the Psy-Engine’s null-wards, and anyone within 100 metres is afflicted by half-heard whispers, fleeting visions of horror, phantom pains, and strange urges.Empyric Conduit-Blade - The Heretek Mechanicus faction known as the Empyric Engineers employs numerous device-patterns to turn the Warp upon itself and annihilate daemons that transgress upon their labours. The oldest and most revered is the Empyric Conduit-Blade, a sacred standard for these Machine Cult Hereteks. An Adamantine mono-edged Conduit-Blade is a centrepiece in every Empyric Engineer shrine: inset field-guides of gold run the length of the blade, the hilt is a Warp-mechanism, and at the base of the blade is a socket for a small null-field generator. Vast Warp-machines stand within hidden strongholds of the Engineers, used to draw forth the essence of the Empyrean and imprison it within null-field containments for study. Much smaller null-field generators are constructed for attachment to a Conduit-Blade; they look like glittering gems laced with circuitry, belying the danger of their contents. Inside, raging and incoherent, is raw Warp-matter—without this imprisoned Empryic energy, a conduit-blade is no more than a symbol.