Taghmata Omnissiah - Structure of the Taghmata: Each Forge World of this ancient age was itself a patchwork web of complex loyalties, made up of independent and semi-independent domains, both in terms of physical infrastructure and territory and, perhaps more importantly, of knowledge, craft and sacred rite. So it was that each Forge World was not merely a powerhouse of industrial production vital to the wider Imperium which it provided for, but also an empire of secrets unto itself. While nomenclature and structure was hardly uniform between them, the masters of these empires were its magi and archmagi -- its "Learned Ones" -- each were lords both temporal and spiritual whose power was that of life and death in their own domains.Each of these high-ranking Tech-priests specialised in a particular facet of the Cult Mechanicus' lore or commanded a sizable measure of their world's infrastructure as their portion, and by this right took their place in the synod that provided the Forge World with its governance and control. Each magos commanded their own resources and military might, armies of retainers and cohorts of war machines outfitted and formed by their master's will and in accordance with their master's specialisation and proclivity.These were the "Taghma," the building blocks from which the Taghmata were formed. When a Forge World's master, the Fabricator Archmagos-Intendant or Archmagos Archimandrite under whose rule the Forge World's synod served, called a Taghmata into being, it was the sworn duty of each magos to provide such troops and assets as was demanded of them, and through them such lesser Tech-priests and adepts, sub-cults and esoteric orders who owed fealty and vassalage to the high magos were called on, and so on throughout the patterns of seniority and allegiance that crisscrossed the Forge World.In many cases such calls to arms reached far beyond a Forge World and its star system to distant outposts, expeditionary fleets and client worlds tied together by patronage or ancient treaty or pacts of allegiance. From its number the synod would choose several of its own, well-versed in the arts of destruction, or with proven battlefield experience, to operate as the Taghmata's command structure. Such commands were much sought after by many magi, both for the power and prestige they would bring, and for the potential for acquisition of new knowledge and reward they offered.In practise a Taghmata could be of greatly varying size, disposition and scope, the nature of which was often determined by the role it was called on to serve. Before galactic civil war was to rock the Imperium, the Taghmata was primarily mustered as a purely defensive measure, commonly when a Forge World came under direct attack.On Forge Worlds such as Tigrus and Phaeton which came under frequent assault owing to the proximity of hostile xenos forces, this led to powerful and highly-experienced Taghmata formations which effectively became standing armies, while others such as the isolated Stygies might go for many solar decades without external threat, and so when needed Taghmata protocols were required to be enacted afresh.Smaller Taghmata elements would also be raised and formed during the Great Crusade to arm and equip Explorator expeditions, to garrison outposts in hostile or hazardous regions of the void. They were also formed more rarely to provide armed diplomatic escorts or deputations to the expeditionary fleets and Rogue Trader Militant fleets. The latter two needs, however, were primarily the province of the specialist military commands of the Mechanicum not loyal to any single Forge World: the Titan Legions, the Ordo Reductor, the Legio Cybernetica and the Skitarii of Mars.