Dark Mechanicum - Notable Hereteks: Kelbor-Hal - Kelbor-Hal was once the fabricator-general of Mars, the political leader of the ancient Mechanicum and the Magos Mechanicus of the Cult Mechanicus during the latter days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. When the Horus Heresy began, he willingly swore allegiance to the service of the Warmaster Horus and the forces of Chaos, becoming the first leader of the Dark Mechanicum. In the name of his new allegiance, Kelbor-Hal would unleash the terrible civil war known as the Schism of Mars upon the Red Planet, the sacred heart of the faith of the Machine God.Lukas Chrom - Adept Lukas Chrom was the Forge Master of the mightiest forge temple of Mondus Gamma on Mars during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras. He pledged his support for the Warmaster Horus alongside his master, the Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal. Chrom was quite large, his wide-shouldered frame swathed in a deep crimson robe that did little to disguise the many mechanised enhancements with which he had been blessed. Ribbed pipes and cables looped around his limbs and linked into a hissing power pack that rose like a set of wings at his back. His human face had long since been replaced by an iron mask fashioned in the form of a grinning skull. Wires trailed from the jaw and a pulsing red light filled both eye sockets. Besides his contemporary Urtzi Malevolus, Adept Chrom was considered one of Kelbor-Hal's most trusted followers, a Tech-adept who had followed the Fabricator-General's lead in all things, and who had sworn the strength of his forge city to the Kelbor-Hal's cause. An insufferable and arrogant individual, Chrom enjoyed the favour of the Fabricator-General in return. Chrom secretly constructed a deadly war robot known as the Kaban Machine which possessed the forbidden technology known as A.I. (Abominable Intelligence). Despite his best attempts to keep the project concealed from his contemporaries, there were rumours of the work that he was pursuing in his forge -- experiments on war engines designed with artificial sentience. Each time a rumour of this machine surfaced, the data conduits whispered the name "Kaban," a play on the ancient Gyptian word for their "god" Horus. This implied that the Kaban Machine had been built for Horus Lupercal. Eventually, Adept Chrom unleashed his creation upon the plasma reactors controlled by the Loyalist Mechanicum Adept Maximal in the Gigas Fossae, in a covert attack intended to test the Kaban Machine's abilities. Much of the opposition the machine encountered was destroyed until it was sighted by one of the Knights of Taranis, a Loyalist Knight House stationed on Mars. The Kaban Machine was engaged by one of the Knights, but the Loyalist war engine struggled against the formidable sentient machine. After the reactors of the Gigas Fossae exploded, the Kaban Machine seemed to suddenly disappear without a trace. But unfortunately, it would be discovered intact by an innocent cargo hauler by the name of Quixus, who was in turn discovered by Forge Master Chrom and his Skitarii forces. Chrom had his foul creation turn his weapons on the lowly Menial and execute him. Chrom, after successfully testing the Kaban Machine, commanded it to seek out and terminate one Dalia Cythera -- a young Terran girl bestowed with the very unique psychic ability to subconsciously tap into the total sum of knowledge housed within the Immaterium. Cythera was saved from execution for altering a piece of Mechanicum technology in violation of the Machine Cult's sacred proscription against innovation and brought to Mars by High Adept Koriel Zeth, the Mistress of Magma City, who sought to employ her skills in constructing a device that could transcribe all knowledge from the Warp -- the Akashic Reader. Cythera created the device, but to function it required vast quantities of psychic energy. Such an amount could only be harvested from the Astronomican during Mars' and Terra's mutual alignment. By pure coincidence, this alignment occurred at the same time as Fabricator General Kelbor-Hal and the Adept Regulus opened the Vaults of Moravec, an ancient repository of forbidden technology, thus releasing viral Scrapcode upon the Red Planet. The Akashic Reader, however, proved to be unable to channel such amounts of psychic energy due to a miscalculation, and the Emperor's Warp-energy flooded Magma City, shielding it from all attacks by the Chaos-spawned Scrapcode. The Dark Mechanicum on Mars were puzzled and made afraid by this development, and when they learned that Cythera was responsible for the protection of Magma City, they decided that she must be terminated. The Kaban Machine, following one failed attempt on her life, finally tracked the girl down near the entrance to the Noctis Labirynthus. At that point, Cythera and her companions would have certainly died, were it not for two Knights of House Taranis who had been tracking the sentient machine ever since the destruction of Maximal's plasma reactor. The Knights succeeded in overcoming the Traitor robot by outwitting its A.I., but both of their own war engines were damaged in the fight.Yelav Draykavac - The infamous Dark Mechanicum Archmagos Yelav Draykavac of the Cyclothrathe Mechanicum first rose to prominence in the Horus Heresy during the wars of the Coronid Deeps, and would go on to become one of the most accursed and hated figures of the Dark Mechanicum. Declared Heretek Ultima by the Great Synod of Martian Unification, and held responsible for, among other atrocities, the Genocide of Goth, the Lucine Travesty and the death of the seventeen worlds of the Donia League, his long war would extend far into the Great Scouring and beyond. His ultimate fate was yet to be ascertained, though his warship the Sacra Astra's abandoned hulk was discovered adrift in the Maelstrom. In its encrypted data-archive was be found much of the extent knowledge of the Dark Mechanicum now possessed by the Adeptus Terra. This dark archive contained many unexpurgated strategic reports, personal analysis and djinn-data from Draykavac's many battles, including a detailed account of the counter-invasion of the Agri-World of Numinal.Urtzi Malevolus - Adept Urtzi Malevolus was a Forge Master during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy eras who was loyal to the traitorous Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal and his Dark Mechanicum. Besides his contemporary Lukas Chrom, Urtzi Malevolus was considered one of Kelbor-Hal's most trusted followers, a Tech-adept who had followed the Fabricator-General's lead in all things, and who had sworn the strength of his forge city to Kelbor-Hal's cause. Master Adept Malevolus favoured dark bronze for his face mask, and a trio of green augmetic eyes set into the metal illuminated the interior surfaces of his red hood. Malevolus' red robes were fashioned from vulcanised rubber, thick and hard-wearing, and a monstrously large power pack was affixed to his back, its bulk held aloft by tiny anti-gravitic suspensor fields. Remote probe robots darted back and forth from his body, kept in check by the coiled cables that connected them to the senior Adept. He later openly supported the Dark Mechanicum forces during the Schism of Mars. Following the end of the Heresy, his ultimate fate is unknown.Regulus - Regulus was a high-ranking Tech-adept during the Great Crusade and Horus Heresy era. He had granted his forge and all its holdings to the Fabicator-General Kelbor-Hal when he had left to accompany the Warmaster Horus and his 63rd Expeditionary Fleet to the furthest corners of the galaxy during the Great Crusade. He had once served as an emissary for the Adeptus Mechanicus to the emissaries of the new Imperial government established on Terra, honing his diplomatic skills. Horus later sent Regulus, who had already thrown in his lot with the Traitors, to Mars to secure the tentative support of the Fabricator-General for the Warmaster's cause. Regulus convinced the Fabricator-General of the Warmaster's resolve to support increased autonomy for the Mechanicus against the autocratic rule of the Emperor. As a show of his appreciation for the Fabricator-General's support, Horus provided information to Kelbor-Hal through Regulus that allowed the Tech-priest to open a repository of forbidden knowledge known as the Vaults of Moravec, which the Emperor had ordered sealed two centuries earlier -- for they contained innumerable artefacts of technology that had been fashioned or corrupted by the malign power of Chaos. But their dark bargain was struck, and the Fabricator-General accepted Horus' proposal and joined forces with the Warmaster, assisting the Traitors with all of the technology of Mankind at his disposal. Regulus' ultimate fate following the Horus Heresy is unknown.Blind King - In 550.M37, during a dark period of history for the Imperium, known as the Occlusiad War, the northwestern fringe of the galaxy was being ravaged by the Heretek cult known as the Apostles of the Blind King. The Blind King's cult viewed humanity's very existence as an affront to the Machine God. The Apostles uncovered wondrous artefacts lost in the Dark Age of Technology that allowed the creation of supernovae from the hearts of living suns. Constellations were forever changed as the Apostles purged the outer Segmentum Obscurus. War raged for a decade, until the Navigator Joyre Macran discovered the palace-warship of the Blind King hidden in a fold of Warpspace. Escaping with his knowledge, Macran guided the Emperor-class Battleship Dominus Astra to the palace's location. The Blind King is killed when the Dominus Astra's Lance batteries pierce the palace-warship's hull, and without their leader's prescience the Apostles were swiftly overcome and exterminated.Decius Abraxas - Once a disciple of Paracelcus Thule, Abraxas became convinced that the Omnissiah's greatest truths were hidden beyond the Calyx Expanse, claiming that these mysteries were evident in the psycho-technology of certain xenos races, notably the dreaded Yu'vath. Defying the tenets of the Mechanicus, Abraxas sought to unlock the ultimate secrets of the universe by awakening the psychic potential sleeping in the relics of dead empires. For more than a century, Abraxas explored the Expanse, from the Heathen Stars to the Accursed Demesne and beyond into the Unbeholden Reaches and Alenic Depths, delving into the darkest recesses in search of artefacts resonant with psychic power. Amassing a hoard of xeno-technology, Abraxas and his disciples undertook some of the most heinous experiments imaginable (at least in the eyes of the Mechanicus), integrating proscribed alien artefacts into their own bodies and fusing the machine-spirits of their holy augmetics with these profane xenos devices. Though unsubstantiated by any verifiable eye-witness accounts, rumours abound that Abraxas and his acolytes were able to channel the psychic energies of these artefacts through dormant areas of their minds and manifest abilities akin to those of the most potent psykers in the Imperium. While Abraxas himself disappeared into the Rifts of Hecaton nearly seven decades ago, several of his students still wander the Expanse, following in their master's footsteps.Etolph Cycerin - Tech-adept Etolph Cycerin was once a loyal servant of the Adeptus Mechanicus. He was stationed on the Mechanicus Forge World of Hydra Cordatus at the planet's single Imperial bastion -- a citadel and manufactorum complex known as the Tor Christo, which secretly contained stored tithes of Space Marine gene-seed. Sometime during the 13th Black Crusade in 999.M41, an unnamed Warsmith of the Iron Warriors Traitor Legion, under the orders of Abaddon the Despoiler, attacked Hydra Cordatus in order to steal the hidden stores of Imperial Fists gene-seed that was kept there. It was Adept Cycerin who commanded the outer defences of the Imperial citadel. When a Chaos Dreadnought smashed its way into his strike-hardened bunker, Cycerin prepared to sell his life dearly, but was spared due to the unexpected intervention of the unnamed Warsmith. The Iron Warriors then proceeded to infect their captive with a techno-virus that altered Cycerin's organic and mechanical bio-components, leaving the Tech-adept hungry for even further change. He later willingly turned to Chaos to satisfy these cravings, serving the Iron Warriors and the Warsmith who attacked Hydra Cordatus' successor, Honsou. As Cycerin continued to change, he all but gave up the rest of his humanity as he became an amalgamation of Dark Mechanicum machinery and mutated flesh suspended inside Chaos-tainted amniotic gel. During the second attack on Calth against the Ultramarines, led by the Warsmith Honsou and his large Chaos warband known as the Bloodborn, Cycerin was able to interface and launch scrap-code (computer virus) attacks from the Warsmith's command vehicle, known as the Black Basilica, that overwhelmed and shut down the Ultramarines' defences. Cycerin was close to overwhelming the Loyalist Magos Vianco Locard's defences and seizing control of the Praetorian Gun Servitors deployed on the Ultramarines' side, but was thwarted in his attempts by Raven Guard Captain Aethon Shaan, who had secretly infiltrated the command vehicle, killing Cycerin shortly before blowing up the Black Basilica with demolition charges.Exospectre - The Exospectre is the undisputed master of Forge Castir, self-proclaimed heir to Hellwhisper, and -- for the present -- pre-eminent Arch-Heretek of The Hollows. The Exospectre is a name that rings with dread and glory in equal measure across many of the Gloaming Worlds. The Exospectre has no other name that is known within the Screaming Vortex, but rumours and conjecture of his origins are nearly ubiquitous throughout the Gloaming Worlds. In appearance, he is a towering figure over two metres in height, his bulky form concealed by layers of mouldering, ragged robes that swathe him from head to toe. A host of slithering Mechadendrites are all the limbs he requires, and the susurrus of oiled metallic scales accompanies his every move. Eccentric even by the standards of Hereteks, the Exospectre does not normally speak, preferring instead to plug one of his Mechadendrites into a number of Servitors specially-modified to issue his commands. Some agents of the Inquisition have claimed that the Exospectre possesses multiple bodies, each kept in its own stasis chamber connected to a transmat altar. Despite his formidable reputation, many Hereteks seek out the Hollows in order to apprentice themselves to the Exospectre and learn what they can of his secrets. The style of technology within Forge Castir is a product of the Exospectre's genius intellect and desire for precision-crafted individual works; nearly all of the technology he personally oversees requires vast amounts of resources and time due to his search for perfection in every rivet, cog, and node. Amongst the Exospectre's finest creations are the Aposticators, the Tech-Assassins and their Velocireaper hunting packs, the Prophitects, and the Excrucimancers.Furnace Lord - On the Dark Forge World of Samech located within the Jericho Reach, the Magi of Samech create profane combinations of authorised Imperial technologies, unconsecrated archeotech, unholy creations of Chaos, and even the inhuman workings of the xenos. These abominations represent the real nature of Samech -- a world where nothing is forbidden when it will garner influence and stature, of technology and knowledge brokers willing to deal with anyone or anything as long as payment is made, of agents ever searching for undiscovered technologies to exploit. Samech is more than a simple fallen Forge World, it is a planet in constant tension between dozens of rival forge cities, each fighting, scheming, and struggling for dominance. Only the forge that can intimidate, bribe, and irrefutably demonstrate its mastery of all technology is fit to rule Samech and its Magos to proclaim himself the Furnace Lord. Such rule extends only so long as another forge does not topple it through their own exhibitions of more powerful weaponry, alliances with xenos and Chaos warhosts, or access to lost archeotech. The current Furnace Lord keeps his heavily augmented head above his rivals by ensuring his personal agents are the first to uncover new technologies for the power of his forge. These agents scour the Reach in their infamous spiderships, questing even into the Black Reef or the devoured worlds far rimward of the Drift in search of technological riches they can exploit.Illucis Grizvaldi - The notorious Heretek Illucis Grizvaldi and his Heretek cult followers are known to prey upon Imperial fears in regards to the immortal soul and its possible destruction. They do so by heavy-handed use of Oblivion Volitors. These 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 Mankind 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 perception of a psyker, there is little difference between an Obliviate and an aggressive Combat Servitor. Illucis Grizvaldi held court for his Heretek vermin upon the world of Scintilla at the opening of the 8th century of M41. 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. The Arch-Heretek had destroyed for all to see the essence of the faithful by means of the heavy, clacking augmetics embedded in their skulls. It was through such tools of fear and death that Illucis Grizvaldi held sway over his underhive domain on Scintilla before the Inquisition forced him to flee. Grizvaldi still remains at large to this day, his current whereabouts unknown.Umbra Malygris - The infamous Renegade Magos Umbra Malygris, known to Inquisitorial records as Malygris the Damned, led a widespread and insidious Heretek cult that flourished in the Malfian Sub-sector of the Calixis Sector in the 6th century of M41. Many great crimes against both Imperial Law and the Cult Mechanicus’s own doctrines were laid against him, including the fashioning of forbidden silica animus, corpse vivication and the unleashing of experimental viral strains on unsuspecting populations to test their effects. Eventually the Renegade was tracked down and he and his followers destroyed in bloody confrontation with a joint Inquisitorial-Mechanicus purgation. Since then, his works and researches have been brutally, but not completely, suppressed.Phayzarus - Magos Phayzarus, the Perjurer, is one of the most notorious of the heretical Magi of the Dark Forge World of Samech in the Jericho Reach, whose desecrations not only encompasses the machine, but also the Machine Cult's sacred Quest for Knowledge. Once a respected scion of Forge Dimeris, Phayzarus specialised in penetrating the datacrypts of human memory. Over time he developed a vast network of Cogitators that could extract crude meaning from the neuroelectrical readings of a subject’s brain. While the other Magi of Dimeris were content to reap the secrets his discoveries revealed, it was not enough for Phayzarus’ addiction to knowledge. In the seventh century of M41 he obtained the corpse of a fallen Space Marine and extracted the warrior’s Omophagea organ for study. After years of analysis, splicing, and self-experimentation, Phayzarus succeeded in replicating the Omophagea’s memory-absorbing abilities by grafting a sample of the organ into his own spine. He did not long enjoy his success before the new tissue began to fail. Without the divine interaction with the source of the Space Marines’ blessings, the Progenoid Gland, his ill-gotten gift began to fade. In order to maintain his covetous hold, Phayzarus reforged himself for a single, unimaginable purpose: to hunt Space Marines. He turned all of Samech’s forbidden science to his cause, re-making his body into a self-repairing amalgam of metal and artificial flesh to rival a member of the Adeptus Astartes. Using subsumed knowledge, he acquired powerful archeotech, and ruthlessly documented every scrap of wisdom and every verse of battle doctrine he could absorb concerning the Angels of Death.Nomen Ryne - The Arch-Heretek Nomen Ryne has plagued Tech-priests of the Malfian and Golgenna Sub-sectors of the Calixis Sector since he issued his Precepts Mechanicus in the 4th century of M41. Originally a Levelist, he taught a tech-focused form of that suppressed creed of equality: that the God-Emperor provided Mankind with technology as weapon and shield against the darkness and that it was His most ardent desire that all men be so armed, equally and in brotherhood. Ryne declared the Mechanicus to be slavemasters and sought to spread tech-knowledge to all. Nomen Ryne vanished into hiding several years after the issuance of his Precepts, declared Heretek by the Mechanicus and Heretic by the Adeptus Ministorum. The Cult of Sollex hunted Ryne’s followers most zealously, as their number included many known for their skill in constructing unsanctioned Cogitators. The Mechanicus' hatred of Ryne has not diminished, as his name and influence have only grown over the centuries.Cyyrik Scayl - Cyyrik Scayl is a Tech-priest Magos of the Lathe Worlds, the Forge Worlds of the Calixis Sector. Cyrrik Scayl left behind his homeworld of Hadd to serve in the Ordo Hereticus in the 7th century of M41. During his time with the Inquisition, Scayl became obsessed with tech-heresy, deeming it endemic to the Calixis Sector. He became famous for his long-winded rants that the Inquisition should take a deeper notice of blasphemies against the Omnissiah occurring under its purview. When his clumsy attempts at oratory failed, Scayl withdrew from the Ordo to pursue Hereteks personally. Once in the field, Scayl found his perspective changing. An encounter with the Arch-Heretek Nomen Ryne led to an epiphany for Scayl, and rather than hunting Hereteks, he joined their number as an ardent convert.Votheer Tark - Votheer Tark was a senior Tech-adept of the Dark Mechanicum who joined the Warsmith Honsou's Bloodborn warband of Iron Warriors and the Daemon Prince M'kar before the invasion of Ultramar in 999.M41. Tark's warband participated in the bloody contest known as the Skull Harvest, hosted by the Renegade Chaos Lord Huron Blackheart on the world of New Badab, located within the Maelstrom. When Honsou won the Skull Harvest, Tark swore allegiance to the Warsmith after his victory. By the time of the invasion of Ultramar, Votheer Tark had all but given up his organic body, and was little more than scraps of tissue and brain matter, preserved in an amniotic vat, suspended within a spider-like machine that appeared deceptively fragile. When Honsou dispersed his Bloodborn forces across several planets within the Realm of Ultramar, Tark's forces deployed to the world of Quintarn. There, he quickly planted a series of Dark Mechanicum forges across the planet. With these Dark Forges, Tark was able to convert salvaged agricultural machinery and the wreckage of destroyed war machines into refurbished war engines. With this ability to replace his losses with impunity, Tark's forces soon overran many of the cities and quickly began to outnumber the Ultramarines forces deployed against them. Though Tark lacked strategic acumen and failed to grasp essential military tactics, the overwhelming numbers of his forces and his ability to replace his losses soon put the Ultramarines on the defensive. Perceiving the threat that Tark's forges presented, Ultramarines Scout Sergeant Torias Telion valiantly led a group of Scout Marines behind the Forces of Chaos' lines. The Ultramarines were then able to infiltrate the Dark Forges and destroy them from within. Losing his single advantage, Tark's forces were soon routed by the wrathful Ultramarines. It is not known whether Votheer Tark survived the Bloodborn's defeat. His current whereabouts are unknown.Paracelsus Thule - Many standard centuries old, Archmagos Paracelsus Thule's Explorator fleet disappeared out beyond the edge of Mankind's domain for decades at a time. It is said to be vast, and many Explorator Tech-adepts and Magi have served under his tutelage over the years, passing on his teachings to their juniors in turn. Thule's instruction centres on identifying pre-Imperial human technologies and sets the goal of finding the relics of Mankind's glorious past above all other concerns and risks. This lack of caution makes Thule and those following him something of a radical faction within the Cult Mechanicus, but a powerful and influential one in the Calixis Sector. Thule's disciples centre their pursuit of the Quest for Knowledge entirely on analysis and study, valuing the acquisition of pure knowledge above all other concerns like engineering or other applied sciences. They disdain physical confrontation and are often so wrapped up in cogitation they fail to notice what is in front of them. Some Inquisitors appreciate this curiosity in their Tech-priests, finding it preferable to the narrow thinking and conservatism many others of their kind demonstrate, even though curiosity almost always carries its own dangers. Thule's beliefs formed the basis for the radical faction of the Adeptus Mechanicus within the Calixis Sector, known as the Disciples of Thule.Ammicus Tole - The Arch-Heretek Ammicus Tole controls the decaying world of Sinophia and its corrupted Sinophian Machine Cult. He fled to Siophia to hide there from the Inquisition. Tole’s followers include Tech-witches, Hereteks, and lesser Chaos Sorcerers who clutch at words written by their master. Their tech-knowledge is a mix of rote practicality and mysticism, gained either from tortured Mechanicus Adepts or gleaned from Tole’s own writings. The Tome of Ammicus Tole, while largely consisting solely of heretical ramblings, hides true Warp-rituals and working device-patterns. Most Tech-witches possess only a few pages or fragments within a failing dataslate. To all but his inner circle, Ammicus Tole is a rumour -- a distant and hidden lord of tech-heresy.Vathek - Little is known of Magos Vathek's career, before he was cast out from the Adeptus Mechanicus and became a hunted Renegade. It is thought that he was a student of Archmagos Thule before some incident or event drove him mad, turning him into a Renegade hunted equally by the Inquisition and the forces of the Machine Cult. Vathek is obsessed with acquiring and perfecting dark technological lore. In particular, he desires the technological means to restore full life to dead tissue, although he is also known to have created forbidden weaponry, crafted flesh Gholams, and experimented with a variety of prohibited alchemical and energy systems. His forbidden experiments are already reckoned to have cost upwards of 3,000 lives. Aside from his drive for dark scientific lore, Vathek appears to have no known goals or plans. He also does not cooperate with or serve others, fashioning only unliving Servitors as his needs arise. Some theorise that Vathak's true obsession is somehow discovering a means to restore biological life to his own decaying flesh. Vathek's current whereabouts and activities remain unknown.Epsilus Dammek-Yoth - Epsilus Dammek-Yoth is an Arch-heretek and Xenarite, a Tech-priest who believes in studying and using alien technology, from the Forge World of Stygies VIII. He wields the master-crafted Power Axe called the Sufferer Shattering Axe. He infiltrated the Ark Mechanicus Caestus Metalican under the command of Magos Dominus Faustinius who led a Mechanicus expedition to the world of Silva Tenebris. When it was revealed that Tenebris was actually a Necron Tomb World, Epsilus used other tech-priests that he had corrupted to stage an uprising aboard the Caestus Metalican in order to claim the Necrons' technology for his own.