Dark Mechanicum - Heretek Savants: The strictures and dictates of the Adeptus Mechanicus are many and harsh; they form a labyrinthine and iron-clad code that defines every aspect of the lives of the Omnissiah's priesthood, including their outlook and practices. Their purpose is as simple as it is unwavering: to control and regulate knowledge and its use, stifle blasphemous innovation, and above all maintain the Cult Mechanicus' stranglehold on the Imperium's technology.To become a Heretek Savant by that phrase's purest definition is to abandon this code, at least in the Tech-priest's private thoughts. It is to embrace individual innovation, experimentation, and free will and stray from the path ordained by the teachings of the Archmagos Doctrinal. For a Tech-priest to do so is every bit as rare, as radical and heretical as a Confessor of the Adeptus Ministorum straying from the Imperial Creed, and the consequences for those that do stray, should their deviation be discovered, is every bit as harsh.Although rather than a pyre, Heretek Savants can look forward to having their cybernetic implants ripped bodily from them while alive and whatever meat that remains useful recycled into servitor components to pay for their sins against the Machine God.Heretek Savants can come to their Renegade position for a variety of reasons, the most common of which includes the simple exercising of their free will away from the structured environments of the Machine God's domains. Such tech-heresy is particularly prevalent among those Tech-priests who serve in the Explorator cadres or are assigned to the Inquisition's service.The consequences of self-reliance and forced adaptation in the field away from help can affirm the Omnissian faith for some Tech-priests, but for others it can lead them increasingly to question and to innovate in order to overcome adversity and seek their own answers. Others come to tech-heresy for darker reasons, such as personal ambition and the obsessive quest for power and knowledge which will allow them no respite and lead them to increasingly rail against the narrow confines of the Cult Mechanicus' approved technologies and patterns.Regardless, the path of tech-heresy is a dangerous one and as perilous in its own way as tampering with the powers of the Warp. Exposure to the artefacts and lore of the alien and the technological sins of Humanity's ancient past can be every bit as corrupting, both for the body and the soul.Secrecy is as vital for Heretek Savants as for any other whose knowledge and actions would condemn them in the eyes of the Imperium because discovery will lead to sanction and destruction by the power of the Cult Mechanicus. This usually leads to a slow distancing of themselves from their fellows in the Mechanicus and a deep-seated paranoia of discovery.As a result, Heretek Savants rapidly gain a merciless and suspicious streak centred on their own self-preservation, increasingly favour implanting (often heretical) weaponry and defensive systems into their own bodies, and will stop at nothing in the service of the Quest for Knowledge.Becoming a Heretek Savant is a matter of choice and opportunity rather than induction into a secret cult or service to a master, and all that is needed is for the Tech-priest to turn their back on the sacred doctrines of the Omnissiah and have the will and capability to do so.From this point on, they risk censure and destruction by the Cult Mechanicus if their heresies are discovered, and while there is nothing to stop them furthering their rank and position in the Adeptus Mechanicus, they are forever more false of heart and must remain eternally vigilant.