PDF lore.

[GrandMagnus]

Hi guys, I was wondering if forge worlds posses a PDF force or do they only rely on their skitarii, knights and titans? Or is it a mix of both?

[Magos Takatus]

I don't think there is any official background on this but I would imagine it would be a mix of Skitarii and nearly endless legions of expendable combat servitors. After that you've always got construction and utility servitors I suppose. I wouldn't expect there to be a Imperial Guard style PDF force but the the holdings of the Adeptus Mechanicus are pretty large and diverse so if you want a PDF force with more Astra Militarum units then go for it.

[Luther - the fallen]

In the old fluff most of The Skitarii were hyspiasists (sp?), which were similar to the Imperial Guard, though slightly modified, both physically and mentally.

[Heliomanes]

In "Titanicus", you find a Forge World with coexisting and, to some degree, competing institutions and organizations - including a PDF. I prefer that take in my own headcanon, since I find the complexity "realistic", for lack of a better term.

[Closet Skeleton]

PDFs aren't regulated things. Some feudal worlds only have a bunch of crossbowmen as their 'PDF'.

 

A Forgeworld could have an Imperial Guard style defense force separate from its Skitari while a Highgrade tithe world that raises multiple guard regiments a year might just have a 'PDF' consisting of a bunch of over-weight middle managers who can't keep their subcontracted hive gangs in line.

[jeffersonian000]

It’s best to think of a PDF as a planet’s military that didn’t get tithed to the Imperium. As in, they are Imperial Guard rather than Astra Militarum.

 

SJ

[GrandMagnus]

OK, that clears it up, thank you! :)

[Xisor]

You may all feel free to think as you please, but current Astra Militarum lore is relatively clear on the matter.

 

Data, data, data!

 

C:AM, pg 8:

"Every imperial commander in the imperium, also known as a planetary Lord or Imperial governor, is responsible for the Defence of their world. This is crucial as a planet may need to defend itself against the predictions of myriad nefarious enemies for many months, or even years, before reinforcements arrive. To this end, they are duty bound to recruit, equip, train, and maintain a fighting force. On some planets this may take the form of an official military or garrison force. On other worlds the duty to defend their world my fault dozens of separate armies, tribes and hive gangs, some of which may even be warring factions who unite to oppose an invading foe. In any case these, forces are unlikely to ever leave the confines of their home world.

 

Each of these forces is an individual body within the wider Astra Militarum - a separate Militarum Regimentum."

 

In that respect at least, the distinction between PDF and IG Regiment is clarified by the AM Codex: it's siphoned off, in some form. And, as seems easily implied by the Codex, that would also apply for the case of 'topped-up and siphoned of in one go', e.g. 'recruiting a new regiment with no involvement in home defence'.

 

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For the Adeptus Mechanicus, working back from that passage, it would seem to me that a "forge world" may be distinct from a "Forge World" (speculation & consider on Kiavhar's relationship to Deliverance). That is, some *heavily* industrialised Ad Mech heavy worlds may seem Forge Worlds, but if they have an overseeing Imperial Commander, they will accordingly have other mandatory instituations & obligations (tithe, ecclessiarchy, Adeptus Arbites accountability, Astra Militarum obligations [maintain a force appropriate to the Imperium's proper guidelines to defend the planet, and to contribute to off world wars as needed], Astra Telepathica duties etc).

 

But if an Adeptus Mechanicus world *fully* falls under the jurisdiction of the Adeptus Mechanicus alone (e.g. no conventional Imperial Institutions at all, a sovereign world), then those won't have a madated AM garrison force by the Imperial Commander, because they don't have an Imperial Commander.

 

For box-ticking exercises, I could see the ruling Techpriest being afforded the title Imperial Commander, but with the whole thing being short circuited thereafter: the intent is to protect the Emperor's world and cooperate with the AM in other wars, but with forces 'auxiliary' to and not directly administered by the departmento munitorum.

 

Similarly, I can imagine more difficult/complex cases, but it strikes me the simple rule would apply: Imperial Commander implies PDF (etc), no Imperial Commander implies analogue responsibility expected of senior Techpriests, but oversight/e forcementioned is complicated, and also you'd ... digital implementation!

 

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Plausible?

[Heliomanes]

The Imperium is massive and has lots of variance by nature. Attempting to cut through the complexity by introducing a simple "If X then Y" seems to go counter to the fluff, at least my reading of it.

For instance, the discussion of what constitutes an "Imperial Governor"  or commander is a good one, and goes at the question of how much of an independant and monolithic entity the Adeptus Mechanicus truly is. We have examples of diverse factions fighting for different interpretations of this balance, some even pushing for civil war - and others denying the independant nature of the martians altogether, especially after they became an Adeptus.

I can totally imagine some world where the local nobility is fighting back against the conclave of Magi being granted Governorship, calling them "martians and not true imperials", double guessing their "true" loyalties publicly etc. Or worlds where the governance and makeup of the PDF becomes similarly colored by local customs and power struggles. Some worlds are described as having a local Fabricator General, with the powers, rights and duties of an Imperial Governor as a part of his or her title - while others are described as having a token Imperial Governor that is futilely struggling against the diverse conclaves of Magi that are the true movers of the forge planet.

There's lots of examples like this, especially in the surprisingly deep and detailed lore from the roleplaying games that FFG developed, like Dark Heresy. I'll unpack some of the books one of these days (I've been moving to a new city recently) and see if I can find some of the examples, rather than keep boring you with fragmented memories.