Deciphering the Mechanicum "Notable Divisions" chart.

[Yodhrin]

This has been bugging me for a while, ever since I read the Mechanicum organisational chart in the Heresy books from FW. It has a section off to one side marked "Notable Divisions of Techno-Arcana", a few of which are new and, as someone who's not studied Latin or Classics, I can't figure out what several of them actually mean. As in, what specialism do they indicate?

 

To start, here are the ones which are either obvious or already known;

 

Exporator

Genator(geneticist)

Alchemys(chemist)

Metallurgicus(metallurgist)

Logis(logistician)

Dominus(Legio Cybernetica)

Myrmidex(Myrmidon cultists)

Provender(food production? As an aside, I like that they went with a word that refers to animal feed as well as food more generally, really reinforces how the Mechanicum view their Forgeworld populations, heh).

 

Then the ones that confuse me;

 

Hespherstari

Vulpaxis

Lictanex

Cordantor

Mhalagra

Lachrimallus

 

Cordantor could refer to some kind of munitions expertise, a corruption of Cordite? The best I can do for Hespherstari is maybe botanist; Hespherstari - Hespher- Hesper(alt name for Hesperus) - Hesperides(Greek nymphs, daughters of Hesperus, tended a garden). But those are just total stabs in the dark, and the others I don't even have a guess - anyone with Latin/Classics knowledge know if these are corrupted/misspelled actual words, or just made up gibberish?

[Kilofix]

From Horus Heresy 3:

 

Malagra are Magos Warlords of the Prefecture Magisterium charged with enforcing the doctrine of the Omnissiah and the execution of the Heretek. (Basically the 'Judge Dredd' of the Mechanicum).

 

Lachrimallus are work masters and overseers of tech thralls.

[CommodusXIII]

Here are some possible Latin/Greek roots:

 

Vulpaxis - fox

Lictanex - languages

Cordantor - heart, or rope

Lachrimallus - tears

[Grandmaster damion]

If memory serves Lictanex are linguist and communication experts who also serve as Code Breakers and encrypters  

[Nehekhare]

as someone who's not studied Latin or Classics, I can't figure out what several of them actually mean.

 

as someone who has (doctorate degree, although more specialized in ancient greek than latin), I may be able to help...

 

Explorator - lat. "scout"

= Explorer

 

Genetor - gr. "creator" in a biological sense "begetter", "father", ancestor. From the same root comes genos (lat. genus), which means family or species. 

= Geneticist

 

Alchemys - chaemeia is the ancient greek work for egypt (black earth) and also means (black) magic. combined with the arabic article al-, it is the name of a mystical tradition in medieval latin, which (metaphorically) tried to transform lead (the soul) into gold (divinity) by using the philosopher's stone (wisdom). 

= Chemist

 

Metallurgicus - metallon is greek for mine/quarry. -ourgos (from ergon, "work") means "someone who creates something from [stone]"

= Material Scientist

 

Logis - gr. logizomai means "to count, calculate"

= Mathematician/Logistician

 

Dominus - lat "Lord, Master" (btw gr. kybernetes is the helmsman of a ship and as a verb means "steering")

= (Robotics) Operator

 

Myrmidex - the greek Myrmidons were the tribe that Achilles was king of. It is derived from myrmaex "ant" because of their strength.

= Battle Magos (btw magos is the greek word for the persian sorcerer-priests)

 

Provender - lat. proventus is "harvest", a provendor would be a person who makes things grow.

= Agricultural Scientist 

 

Hespherstari - Hephaistos is the greek god of fire and craftmanship, while hesthaen (from hennymi) means "to clothe, dress"

= Armorsmith

 

Vulpaxis - lat. vulpes is a fox (carnivorous/scavenger animal), lat. pax means peace and gr. olpes is is flask of oil used to conserve things

= Mortician

 

Lictanex - lat. licitatio is an "auction", combined with lictor (a servant of roman official who dealt with crowd-control) my guess would be

= Commerce/Communicational Scientist

 

Cordantor - lat. cor (gr. kardia) is the heart (seat of the intellect), cordatus means sensible, wise; could also be applied to the data-core of a machine-spirit

= Philosopher

 

Malagra - lat. malus/gr. malos is evil, ago means "to drive away"

= Judicator

 

Lachrimallus - lat. lacrima is the tear of drop of sweat, malleus is the hammer.

= Slave-driver

[Battybattybats]

 

as someone who has (doctorate degree, although more specialized in ancient greek than latin), I may be able to help...

 

 

Malagra - lat. malus/gr. malos is evil, ago means "to drive away"

= Judicator

 

 

Thankyou for your awesome informative post.

As for Malagra rather than Judicator could they be the organisation of Techsorcists (Techsorcists and Techsorcist weapons are mentioned in the FFG RPGs) used to erase corrupt machine spirits, remove daemons from machines and purge scrapcode? Or be involved in Geller Field tech to protect ships traversing the Warp?

[Reough]

Hasn't malagra been previously mentioned as being the heretek hunters? Maybe for 30k mechanicum?

[Nehekhare]

The sinister Malagra are the Magos-warlords of the Prefectur Magisterium, charged with enforcing the doctrine of the Omnissiah and the execution of the Heretek and the transgressor (HH3)

Is judicator the wrong english word then? To me, it sounds like the internal affairs division of the mechanicum military police.

I could imagine they'd have use for techsorcists. This, however, is not to be confused with warp-technology.

[Reough]

No I'd say judicator was right, I think lacrimalleus is a clever one too, as they're the ones who organise the tech thralls.