DOTLAN EveMaps

The Adeptus Mechanicus is an organization that predates the Imperium itself, known originally as the Mechanicum of Mars. Though the Adeptus Mechanicus was formally integrated into the Imperium by the Treaty of Mars almost 10,000 years before the "present" of the 41st millennium, it retains an unparalleled degree of autonomy for an Imperial institution.

Whereas nearly all the rest of the Imperium follows one of the various cults of the God-Emperor, the Adeptus Mechanicus is virtually synonymous with the Cult Mechanicus, another faith that could easily be considered heretical to the rest of the Imperium if the Adeptus Mechanicus was not so greatly needed for the survival of the Imperium and if the tech-priests had not proven their loyalty to the Emperor in countless ways.

The Adeptus Mechanicus is important because the Imperium, despite its technologically advanced state, has a very limited knowledge of how its technology functions. This has only reinforced the view that the building and use of advanced machinery is almost as a magical or religious act, fraught with ritual and inviolable instructions. The Adeptus Mechanicus, with its inherent understanding of the Machine Spirit and the Machine God, has a near-monopoly on Standard Template Construct (STC) designs and other technological knowledge, and consequently wields a large amount of power as the main supplier and repairer of everything from farming equipment to interstellar warships.

The Cult Mechanicus believes knowledge to be the manifestation of divinity, and holds that anything embodying or containing knowledge is holy because of it. The supreme object of devotion is therefore the omniscient Machine God (also known as the Deus Mechanicus or Omnissiah), an eminent and omnipotent spirit governing machinery and knowledge. Generally, this deity is held to be either subordinate to or an aspect of the God-Emperor (or, most commonly within the Cult itself, both are held to be aspects or faces of the same being). The Omnissiah is believed to be friendly to humanity, and to be the originator of all human technological and scientific knowledge. Subservient to the Omnissiah are the Machine Spirits, who are believed to inhabit all machinery and which must be appeased, lest the machinery fail.

An interesting note is that The Void Dragon, one of the C'tan deities of the Necrons, is supposedly hidden somewhere beneath the surface of Mars. This could be what the Adeptus Mechanicus worship as the Machine God. This is a highly classified secret in the Imperium.

The Quest for Knowledge

The ultimate goal of the Cult Mechanicus is to understand the Omnissiah. The communal and personal attempt at this is known as the Quest for Knowledge. The Cult believes that all knowledge already exists, and it is primarily a matter of time before it can be gathered together to complete the Quest. It is therefore disinclined to perform much original research. Some original research does happen, but its results are quarantined and tested for very long periods before being put to further use. The Quest for Knowledge is encapsulated within tenets of the Cult, which dictate the goals and behavior of every tech-priest. The most important tenets are known as The Sixteen Universal Laws. These laws are divided into two categories, "The Mysteries" and "The Warnings".