IA: The Machinists

[Mechanicum]

updates - 08/07/09

updates - 23rd June 2010

 

Index Astartes: The Machinists

 

Origins

 

Within the fractured ranks of the infamous Chaos Space Marines there exists a cabal of renegades dedicated to the mastery of the machine, addicted to the raw power of Chaos, these warriors strive to attain the mechanical and demonic perfection needed to control and create new and more deadly daemonic war machines.

 

Known only as the Machinists, these former Techmarines and adepts of the Dark Mechanicum have banded together for mutual protection following the failure of the Horus Heresy and the infighting that quickly engulfed the fleeing Traitors. Together they fled deep within the eastern fringe, claiming the minor forge world of Detritus as their new stronghold; such an isolated base protected the Machinist from Imperial counterattack for several decades.

 

Freed from the limitations of Imperial Dogma these newly christened Chaos Marines quickly became obsessed with the barriers between the material and the immaterial, the mechanical and the daemonic, and through the use of arcane knowledge, gained from centuries of dark deeds the Machinists sought to blur the boundaries between the powers of technology and the warp, using its limitless power to fuel their future endeavours.

 

However their newfound technology offered little protection from the massed armies of the Mechanicum, who arrived over Detritus with the intention of reclaiming the planet in the name of their false Emperor. During the following 70 year campaign the Machinist Cabal and its Dark Mechanicus allies were slowly pushed back to the worlds primary forge complex, and defeat seemed inevitable.

 

In an act of utter desperation and to preserve what was left of their merger forces, the cabal brokered a deal with the infernal Daemon-smiths of the warp spawned Soul Forge. The Machinists promised to supply their new patrons with a steady supply of souls for their forge and in return were granted a weapon capable of destroying the invading forces of the false Mechanicum. The weapon, a massive warp-bomb, created a localised warp storm which eliminated the invaders and engulfed the entire planet and the surrounding system in the raw power of the Empyrean.

 

Thanks to this unholy bond the Machinists have survived to this day by constantly harvesting the souls of their foes and searching the galaxy for fresh opportunities to secure new forms of exotic archotech that the Machinists can put to use in their future creations and to further their role in the Long War against the followers of the false Emperor.

 

Homeworld & Recruitment

 

The Machinists hold dominion over the world of Detritus, deep within the eastern fringe. The planet was once a prosperous forgeworld, abandoned by the adepts of Mars after a seventy year war of attrition against the forces of the Dark Mechanicum which resulted in the world’s exposure to dangerous levels of warp energy following the detonation of a powerful warp-bomb. Pollution and warp corruption has since transformed Detritus into a dangerous death world, its once mighty forges reduced to a sprawling industrial junkscape, its surface covered in a mass of scrap metals, old machinery and deadly toxic pools, its sky tainted with unpredictable electrical storms.

 

Once under their control the Machinists sought to plunder the worlds technological secrets; but to their surprise discovered that many of the abandoned Manufactoriums were still operational and were quickly converted to serve their new masters in their future endeavours.

 

The bulk of the planets population was wiped out in the aftermath of the Horus Heresy, those that remain suffered from rampant mutations forcing the Machinists to recruit potential Space Marines from external sources, ranging from fallen members of the cult Mechanicus to their brothers amongst the Astartes; the Machinists will welcome anyone into their ranks providing they possess an innate understanding of the technological arts. Willing aspirants are harder to locate but once within the corrupting influences Detritus’ atmosphere such arguments are mute, as they are forced to serve their new masters or lose themselves to mutation and spawndom. These new recruits bring with them a variety of different cultural beliefs, causing Machinist warbands to exhibit high levels of individuality and tactical independence when operating alone for extended periods of time.

 

 

Organisation

 

The Machinist cabal organises itself around the eight greatest forges of their homeworld, established when the world was first conquered by the forces of Chaos, each under the command of the most successful of their warlords, the so called Warpsmiths. These powerful individuals make up the Overseer Council, which act as the main body of authority and disciple within the cabal.

 

Each Warpsmith commands the loyalty of his own warband and those of lesser Machinist lords that possess forges within his territory. In most cases these warbands maintain operational independence, conducting mock wars against rival Warpsmiths to improve their sinister creations and to increase their prestige among the warbands of the cabal, only leaving their homeworld to gather resources and fresh sacrifices, in order to uphold their bargain with the soul forge, from the surrounding systems.

 

However the high standards by which the Machinist Cabal recruits prevents them amassing a large enough force to pose a direct threat to the Imperium, a typical Machinist Warband only contains a small number of Chaos Marines – a ranking Warpsmith and his chosen apprentices – the bulk of their fighting strength is instead made of their no less deadly, if slightly unpredictable creations and mechanical minions.

 

Combat Doctrine

 

The Machinists believe that in order to defeat your enemy you must first understand them, preferring to study enemy movements and attack strategies before committing their forces in counter attack, such tactics have caught many imperial commanders off guard as they often mistake the Machinist as simple Chaotic zealots.

 

In combat, the Machinist mechanical creations can always be found at the forefront of any engagement, where arcane technology and their bionic resilience allows them to withstand considerable damage that would cripple more conventional warriors whilst unleashing devastating volleys in return.

 

The Cabal rarely commits itself to large scale engagements as their insular nature prevents them from openly trusting their so called allies, especially those with ties to the original nine great legions, who view the Machinist as self obsessed upstarts who refuse to share their technology and mastery of the daemon-engine with their brother Chaos Space Marines.

 

Gene Seed

Comming soon

 

Beliefs

Comming soon

 

 

 

Comments and critisims are most welcome

[The Emperor's Fists]

I Like it alot so far, however i jsut find the necroborgos to be hard to believe. otherwise i think its great.

[Severus6]

Having read through this once again, it peaked my interest. First and foremost, I am assuming that you will be using Codex CSM,...? Secondly, I think the idea has merit but I believe you need to add more to the concept,...why did all of these Tech marines from several different legions form together after the Heresy? How did they make contact and when would they be able to find the time? Please bear in mind this is not a slam on your idea, I do believe it has merit, I just wonder if it wouldnt be better to simply go with something simpler or less invasive.

1. A small contingent of Dark Mechanicus that have spread their ideas.

2. A renegade group (a squad plus,...maybe a little more) from either the Salamanders (we are tired of helping the weak), the Iron Hands (there is no help for the weak) or the Preators of Orpheous (we wish to surpass the AM in knowledge concerning lost archeotech); each of these Chapters have close ties to the AM and could naturally fall into that arena.

3. Something has drawn this group of like minded renegade Astartes from many different Chapters to this planet; something has called to them,...the vast majority share or have a deeper understanding of technology than their brethren.

 

Just a few ideas, hope they help.

 

Severus6

[Mechanicum]

First off, I am glad you guys like by warband idea, I took me ages to think up a plausable, less common Chaos DIY chapter.

 

To answer your question Sev, I was considering having my traitors band together to try and prevent they degeneration into Obliteratorhood, which the codex implies was the fate of my heresy era Tech Marines.

 

But I am open to suggestions regarding to this.

 

 

However I orginaly plan the Machinists to be very indvidualistic and independent, with each marine operationg or along with his own personaly recruited aprentaces when away from the their homeworld, more details on this area to come.

 

 

 

One a side note, sorry fro the lack of updates, I've been focused on getting my necron force fully painted for min campain later in the week, but now that their completed I can turn my attention back to the Machinists.

[Severus6]

To answer your question Sev, I was considering having my traitors band together to try and prevent they degeneration into Obliteratorhood, which the codex implies was the fate of my heresy era Tech Marines.

 

Run with that. That works and it is more than feasible.

 

However I orginaly plan the Machinists to be very indvidualistic and independent, with each marine operationg or along with his own personaly recruited aprentaces when away from the their homeworld, more details on this area to come.

 

I think that would come later,...when the group has enough troops to protect what they have created. I can see a lot of servitors with these guys (demons?) and possibly smaller groups/cliques within the larger group.

 

Severus6

[Tutteman]

I am liking this idea, including the concept of staving off the decay into Obliterators. And the way you could use existing rules to represent so much of this, servitor demons, yes please! :)

[Mechanicum]

firstt post now updated, I sould have the remaining section posted in the next few days

 

 

comments and suggestion are most welcome

[The Emperor's Fists]

I really like it all. My favorite part is the territory fighting

[Hellios]

So they want to find a cure (or did) for the techno virus but what stance do they have in regards to Obliterator cults and more importantly the Princes of Obliteration who maybe don't want them to find a cure? Has this ever brought them into conflict and as these groups have links with the Soul forge as well how will this change (if at all) how they work with the Dark Mechanicum :)

[Mechanicum]

Thats a lot of questions :)

 

1. They attampted to prevent themselves from every getting the virus but inadvertently released the virus during their research on their homeworld - the entire cabal are now infected.

2. The view Chaos as a tool to fuel their forges and their creation, and as such see themelves as better than warp creatures, hence they don't want to become obliterators as they see it as becoming slaves to Chaos

3. As a temp. fix to their infection they make a deal with the Soul Forge as detailed in the first post

4. As to realtions with obliterator cults, they see themelves as better than them, and when they do encounter each other, chances for conflict is - their likly after the same pice of technology after all.

5. As for the Dark Mech, they would likly be on friendly terms ie. i'll share my secrets it you share yours - as they both deal in the creation of Daemon engines.

 

Hope this answers your question, I'll go into more detail once I write up the beliefs section.

[The Emperor's Fists]

sooooooooooooooo why didnt they just stay with the emperor like thier moms told them "Stay with the emperor! and dont go near that nasty maelstorm otherwise you will get a virus that fuses your skin into your armor, drives you insane, makes you a hulking 7 foot 800 pound killing machine that can grow every weapon you touch out of thier arms at anytime"

[Codex Grey]

I think the concept for these guys is great. I think you have to be careful though, as a powerful organization like this would draw some serious attention, the sort of attention GW would have already have written about, if you know what I mean.

 

I wouldn't make the 8 warbands too large. And although the Warpsmiths are probably quite fearsome in combat, I would have most of the warbands' fighting strength (aside from their mechanical monstrosities) be made up of mercenaries, including traitor humans, renegade space marines and maybe even some aliens. This keeps them from being to powerful on their own, decreesing their threat level, making them more believable, and it provides even more possiblities with the different types of Mercs.

 

Just my thoughts anyways. Let's see more.

[Mechanicum]

Emperors First - They came from the traitor legions so they don't care what the emperor thinks

 

as for their size, the bulk of their fighting strength come from daemon engines and servitors, each warband contains a minor warpsmith and his aprentices, compinded with their creations which are used for the bulk of the fighting.

[Mechanicum]

Revised original material and added the Combat Doctrines section

 

Comments welcome