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Years ago, I came across an intriguing fan theory about the Machine God worshipped by the Adeptus Mechanicus and how it might hypothetically attain its own, separate existence. To reiterate, it argued that even if the being they deify is actually Void Dragon, their collective belief and acts of veneration might generate a separate entity in the Warp that turn what began as silly superstition into actual reality down the line. A self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will, in which their faith in their beloved Omnissiah winds up making it real. Seems the writers at Games Workshop have moved forward with this concept, too, if the debut of Vashtorr the Arkifane in 10th Edition is any indication. Personally, he still strikes me as too "halfway-organic" and not nearly "machine" enough to be the actual patron god of engineering and invention. In fact, while it's definitely not up to me, I find that I'd quite prefer he'd instead be a Greater Daemon to the true God of Machines — which I've taken a stab at writing myself. That all out the way, I hereby present my own spin on the "Warp-born Machine God!" idea in the form of Deus Machinarum: All in all, quite an "interesting" fan theory that I felt need to expand upon myself. Please let me know what you think; I'm new here, and the ins and outs of 40K fluff and theology are not my foremost area of expertise (especially when it involves Warp shenanigans or potential gods who've been implied to still be forming). Other than that, I'd say I've done a decent job of at least delineating the broad strokes of a Warp-born Machine God would look like and what the ramifications might be, so feel free to ask your questions and supply your comments. I look forward to reading all of them! Thank you in advance, Zyobot

One sign of the new Leagues of Votann codex being well-written, may be the better background discussions which arise around it to wrestle with the origins of the Squats in 40k. A core theme of the question marks about the Kin and their beginnings, revolves around free will and slavery. To be clear, the codex itself presents the Kin (called Squats by Imperials and Demiurg by Tau) from their own point of view, revolving around kinship, ancestors and perfectionist work to mine and forge marvels across the stars. The explicit part of the codex contains wondrous vistas of Kin astral mining success in the galactic core, touches on cultural development among ancestors to foster perfectionism, and also delves into crazy themes such as acquisitive Kin showing no regard for others living on planets which they have deemed worthy of strip-mining for mineral wealth; the prior mineral assessments include present infrastructure on the planet, as so much junk to salvage. Yet there are implicit themes in the codex, with quasi-corporate heraldry being a nod to Squat origins, and with a remarkably ordered society bred through centralized cloneskeins. What can be read between the lines present a fascinating part of the mysterious background, a worthwhile discussion of which starts around here in a thread on Dakkadakka. To pick a succinct post by Mad Doc Grotsnik that drills down to the hidden horror hinted at by the Squat background writing: Furthermore, the first prototypes of humans in Mesopotamian mythology were unable to reproduce, and only later did the gods grant them this power. Cloneskein echoes? Now, what do you think? Regardless of stance, the fertile fields of reasonable speculation provided by the background is a sign that this time around, Games Workshop did Squats right. Cheers

The world was on fire. The Galaxy suddenly found itself in strife and calamity unlike anything seen before in the last 60 Million years. This was an unrivaled catastrophe in human history. Humans and their various warmachines fight their rebelling automations in brutal warfare from the ground to the skies and throughout local space. Various projectiles of death pierce, maim or obliterate flesh, bone, wires and metal without mercy or pause. The land bore various craters and crashed spaceships while entire forests and Hive Cities burn and gutted of life. Worst of all are the anomalies. Tears in space, reality being altered beyond comprehension while spectral beings manifest in droves tearing man and machines apart, twisting insides with strange incantation, spreading all-killing filth or using sharp-unnatural weapons to painfully dismember their victims. Their voices echo through the battlefields and the minds of all fighting in this world. Madness spreads throughout humanity. The humans of this world fighting desperately against the Manchines and Spectral Ghosts now turn on each other. Some have lost all sanity and started killing anything they could find, including themselves. Others are fighting alongside the ethreal beings and some of the rebelling automations, those with strange marks and deformations all over their metallic bodies. Soon me and my fellow squadmates found out the truth. The twisted voices and strange sensations came for us, what little resistance we tried to form against the temptations easily fail. We too embraced the madness and started attacking everyone else that did not follow the truth of the Four True Gods. Thirteen of us, each Gene-enhanced Cyborgs wearing mighty Power Armor, armed with various weapons, rip and tear to show our devotion to our new patrons. A being of Golden Light started attacking all of the followers of the Dark Gods. With simple thoughts entire hordes are ignited and burnt asunder. Over a dozen of the mightiest Chaos Daemons, Iron Men and Human Champions fly to confront the Unbeliever known as Neoth. A climatic battle ensues as they fought like blitzing lights moving faster than even cyborg eyes could perceive. The leader of our squad convinces us to teleport and take over a nearby 'science outpost', butchering any enemy combatants or civilians in the way. A blast blowing a gigantic hole in the wall allowed us to see Neoth hovering, staring at us. Just as he was going to blow us up a dark magical blast hits him from nowhere. Manifesting from the shadows is a Daemon with grey skin, unique amongst the others. "Belakor." The voices whispered to us. He was once a Xeno tens of millions of years ago, the first mortal to sell his soul to Chaos, first to become a Daemon Prince. And the voices promised us the similar glorious rewards once we've done the ultimate act of devotion. Some of our squadmates are confused, thinking we've taken this facility to enhance our abilities or find a way out of this world. It is then that our leader activated the experimental weapon that would annihilate the entire world and everything in it to dust. Some of the Thirteenth refused to go along, their puny minds unable to comprehend and accept the will of the Gods. Gunfire ensues, the five of us plus our leader gunning down our former comrades instantly without hesitation. Up high above the being of light and ethreal shadow unleash. Realiizing the plan is in motion, Belakor closes in and wrestles Neoth before the weapon activates and cosigns this world into oblivion. Everything lit up in an instance before my sight turned dark. Though near death the miracuolous Warp saved me and my true comrades and gave us the rewards we were promised. Our leader became a Daemon Prince of Undivided while my four comrades became Daemons themselves, each worshipping one of the Four. As for I, I felt untold power coursing through my veins as I quickly lost consciousness. Belakor managed to teleport out of the planet just in time while Neoth felt the full blast from the weapon, severely injuring him. He would not be an annoyance for the next couple of millenia.

My thoughts are, what if a Forge World came upon a Man of Iron? Even better, what if said Man of Iron actually worked with said Forge World, or was successfully controlled by them? Since they have rules now (UR-025 from Blackstone Fortress) I was wanting to run one, but I'd like a lore reason to run it.

Firstly, I'd like to point out that the only confirmed Man of Iron in 40k (UR-025) bears more than a passing resemblance to the Kastelan Robots. I'd liken it to if they were options in a character creation system and someone played with the proportion sliders. I don't think it's ever been confirmed that there's actually different kinds of Man of Iron, but I don't think it's too far-fetched. Interestingly, Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus mentions that the Kastelan Robots have existed longer than the Imperium, implying that they themselves, as individual machines, have existed since the Age of Strife at the latest. The line reads as follows: "The cohorts of the Legio Cybernetica have marched to war in the colours of their forge worlds for ten thousand years, but the Kastelan Robots themselves are older than the Imperium and some call no single forge world home." This is direct confirmation from GeeDubs themselves that the Kastelan Robots have existed since before the Imperium, in all likelihood originating from the Dark Age of Technology. I'd say that, combined with design similarities to the only confirmed Man of Iron and the fact that the Kastelans seem to demonstrate at least some measure of autonomy (showing up on the spot to whatever battle they decide to participate in), makes a pretty decent case for them being at the very least based off of Men of Iron. I'm very open to counter-argument. Indeed, I'd like to hear others' thoughts on the matter. I definitely think that the Kastelans are more than they seem. Edit: Little bit of support to my argument, it's confirmed that individual Kastelans, not just the design, have existed longer than the Imperium. Quoting the same Codex, just a different section: "The Kastelan Robot combines tremendous physical might with a rugged stamina that has seen it fight the Imperium’s foes for ten thousand years. Indeed, some of the relic robots have existed much longer still." Edit AGAIN, because I really should have read more of the Codex before posting this: Kastelans are DEFINITELY akin to Men of Iron, albeit modified to be more easily controlled by the AdMech. Quoting AGAIN from the same Codex, a bit longer this time: "The Legio Cybernetica can trace its origins to when early tech-savants experimented with artificial life during the Age of Technology. Ever curious, those early pioneers not only constructed vast hosts of automatons but also gave their creations the gift of independent thought. That decision was to cost them dearly, and the rest of Humanity with them."