Leagues of Votann Initial 1st April 2022 reveal, new lore & articles discussion

[Scribe]

Ah yes, forget the promise of progress...

 

Lore snips look good enough for me.

[Cryptix]

Ah yes, instead of an day of prayers to make a boltgun you get an day listening to grand pappy Votann rant about space Marines and boltguns before he tells you he forgot where he put the boltgun STC and it'll take 4 centuries to reindex his memory.

 

:P

[Slave to Darkness]

Ah yes, instead of an day of prayers to make a boltgun you get an day listening to grand pappy Votann rant about space Marines and boltguns before he tells you he forgot where he put the boltgun STC and it'll take 4 centuries to reindex his memory.

 

Thats what you get when you use a ZX Spectrum as a big brain computer.

[Angry Banana]

Thats what you get when you use a ZX Spectrum as a big brain computer.

Yea, but they have the 16k ram pack right?

 

I'm excited for the release.  and I'm loving the enormous heads ancestor cores, it's got real Engineer vibes from Prometheus.

[Dark Shepherd]

I wonder if, the "kin" (totally not ai, totally not men of iron we swear) will be pseudo chaplains. Who if they calculate correctly, generate a bonus

I mean Knights just got their own version of litanies to inspire Armigers so why the heck not?

How the psychic phase applies to them will be interesting too

[Closet Skeleton]

 

I am not a huge fan of the cores and in particular them having STCs. It creates a scenario where the Votann cannot fail at almost any noteworthy points.

 

GW has been lax recently in using STC as a catch all term. When they were more diligent, they used 'STC fragment', 'STC', and 'complete STC'. The first two can got a bit fuzzy. Regardless, the general idea was:

• STC fragment - A blueprint or part of a blueprint  produced by an STC or a broken STC. A design to produce a particular product from particular materials.
• STC - A partially functioning/broken STC or a product-limited STC. Able to produce the designs for a particular product/task given a variety of starting materials.
• Complete STC - The "holy grail," can produce designs for any given product/task given any starting material.

Reading the context, the Kin have many STCs the same way Van Saar have an STC. No complete STCs, but complete designs for specific items.

 

 

STC means 'standard template construct'. A Rhino is an STC. The Standardised construction elements in human architecture visible across the galaxy are STCs. STC are not rare.

https://regimental-standard.com/2019/06/05/stc-for-paint-rediscovered/

 

This is clear if you just read any 40k rulebook and what it says on the topic, its consistant across editions. If Black Library and Forge World books get this wrong its their fault.

 

Literally the whole point of STCs as a concept is to allow you to re-use terrain to represent different worlds in spite of humanity's supposed cultural diversity.

 

As a human derived civilisation the Leagues will have STCs so of course there will be data on them inside their computers. It would be breaking the established fluff for them to not have them.

 

The things that don't exist anymore are STC systems which are databases containing all STC data. Which sound a lot like how these Votann are being described but they're clearly different. Sounds more like a Votann is a jury rigged pseudo-STC system.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Closet Skeleton

[Slave to Darkness]

Original fluff for STC's, not paid much attention to anything written after 1st ed, has it changed much since then?

[Sarvis]

Getting some Ulduar and titans vibes off the new direction, similar to how the reintroduction of the Death Guard was Naxxramas-like.

 

Designers obviously big big WotLK fans. Not a bad thing mind.

Can’t go wrong mimicking WoWs absolute peak. Fond memories

[Ashur]

I hope it is revealed demiurgs and squats are one and the same. These new squats sure look "alien" enough to the imperium mentality for that to be possible. And it woud be nice to have a faction you can use both for and against the imperium.

[Closet Skeleton]

Original fluff for STC's, not paid much attention to anything written after 1st ed, has it changed much since then? 

 

 

Not in the rule books, but the terms have been used confusingly in internet discussions for a long time with people confusing a STC system with a mere STC. This is confused slightly by the fact that 'system' has never been capitalised or included in an initiatilism while Standard Template Construct always is.

 

The main thing that happened is the text descriptions got shorter. In Rogue Trader you have 'the STC system' which applies to all human colonies.

 

 

The heart of the STC system was an evolved computer program designed to provide construction details for the colonists.

 

This can be read as saying that humanity's colonists used a system of standardised templates reliant on a computer program. It doesn't say where this computer program was, a legitimate reading is that it never left earth and was singular. Instead of there being a single device called an STCS it implies that the computer program is distinct from the system as a whole and instead might just be a management or regulatory element.

 

 

3rd edition rulebook, last page

During the Dark Age of Technology the human colonists who scattered across the galaxy carried with them a vast wealth of computerised knowledge known as STC, or Standard Template Construct....

...For many centuries the adepts of the Cult Mechanicus have been gathering whatever scraps of information they can discover, and though they are far from completing their quest, their cherished goal of a complete and functioning STC system is pursued with untiring vigour.

 

Which can be read as saying that the Adeptus Mechanicus are attempting to recreate a complete system of standard templates by finding all the fragmentary data, rather than the assumption that the STC system is a single thing that might be found in a single location.

 

Due to 3rd edition's less objective narrator in rule books Its even possible to read it as suggesting that the STC system is an assumption derived myth held the Adeptus Mechanicum and not necessarily something that actually existed in the fictional past.

 

 

4th edition rulebook 120

The Adeptus Mechanicus is driven by the quest for knowledge. This quest takes many forms, including research and exploration, but its ultimate embodiment is the search for ancient Standard Template Construct (STC) systems. These were created during the Dark Age of Technology to provide all the technical information needed to construct anything that settlers might need.

... Any rumour of a functional system is followed up and investigated in force.

 

 

Suddenly STC systems is used in the plural, clarifying those alternate readings and 'complete and functional' is shorted to 'functional' which implies more of a specific device than a cultural element/social system.

 

 

8th edition had a longer section.

 

Created at the developmental apex of the Age of Technology, the Standard Template Construct (STC) system was a was to ensure that all the recently far-flung human colonies across the galaxy could build anything they needed... The user simply asked the machine how to build what was needed and it would calculate everything... ...and present the most efficient way to acheive what the settler asked. The STCs were designed so that the least-accomplished user could still fabricate the vehicle, building, or weapon they needed.

 

...Today there are no surviving STC systems.

 

 

Which further clarifies that there were specific machines widely available on human colonies. But its also ambiguos as to whether STCs is the plural of STC or an abbreviation of STC system so can be misread to imply that STCs are single machines rather than the plans for a variety of machines.

 

What hasn't changed is that Standard Template Contruct is a descriptive term that describes pieces of technology constructed to a standardised template and that these are normal parts of human material culture while the STC system is the thing that doesn't exist anymore.

 

 

Getting some Ulduar and titans vibes off the new direction, similar to how the reintroduction of the Death Guard was Naxxramas-like.

 

Designers obviously big big WotLK fans. Not a bad thing mind.

Can’t go wrong mimicking WoWs absolute peak. Fond memories

 

 

Giant heads have been an architectural feature of GW and older fantasy art for a much longer time than WoW has been a thing.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Closet Skeleton

[Petitioner's City]

It's probably also worth quoting the most substantial recent work on STCs, namely, House of Artifice:

 

 

THE STANDARD TEMPLATE CONSTRUCT SYSTEM

 

Somewhat ironically, Standard Template Construct system devices come in many shapes and sizes. Many are not even machines at all, but simply blueprints or pieces of fragmented digital data produced by STCs, providing designs for everything from eating utensils to starships. The great device controlled by the Van Saar, known only to the clan Archeoteks as the Sacred STC, is the former, a huge mechanical nightmare of a machine that is capable not only of storing construction templates, but also manufacturing working prototypes for further mass production by the clan. There is nothing as valuable to the Van Saar as their STC, and it is always kept in the most secret and well-defended part of the Clan House’s holdings. Currently, this is the Chamber of Light within the underside domes of Hive Primus, just below the primary spaceport. Its exotic energy signature concealed by the reactor run-off from the port, and the chamber itself defended by layers of advanced Van Saar tech, the STC has remained undetected here for centuries. This was not always the case, and in times past the STC has had to be moved, sometimes just before its discovery or destruction by the enemies of the Van Saar. At different periods in the clan’s history, it has been concealed in the wastes, the depths of abandoned hives or even, for a time, in orbit aboard a derelict warship. Moving the STC is, however, no easy feat, as when it is left in a location it takes root – its systems integrating with local power relays, cogitator arrays and servitor clades. Some Archeoteks believe that the STC could not be moved again even if the clan wished it, so enmeshed has it become in the structures of the Chamber of Light and, by extension, Hive Primus – the Van Saar elders hoping they never need to find out.

 

And of course this lovely image by Louise Sugden from it:

 

 

Throughout House of Artifice, we learn more about the STC - or this STC - in the history, culture and activities of House Van Saar:

 

 

 

At the heart of the Clan House is its secret STC, or Standard Template Construct system device. These rare and ancient tools are the most prized of relics to the Adeptus Mechanicus, whose agents and armies are endlessly scouring the galaxy in their quest for these venerated artefacts. Created using long-lost technologies, the STCs were given to colony ships during one of Mankind’s earlier expansions across the stars. Encoded into the imperishable hardware of each machine were the blueprints for all manner of things the colonists might need, from power sources and habitats to armoured vehicles and weapons. In an age during which so much knowledge has been lost to the slow entropy of time, each STC represents a priceless artefact, and in the case of the Van Saar STC, a nearinfinite source of wealth. It is around this wondrous machine that House Van Saar is built, and it is at once the blessing that affords its members continued existence, and the curse that condemns them to sickness and short lives. 

 

While the Van Saar STC is a miracle of a lost age, it is also dangerously damaged. With every tool, weapon or piece of wargear produced from the STC’s blueprints, a poison seeps through the veins of the Van Saar, irradiating their blood and rotting their bones. So insidious are the damaging effects of the STC that most Van Saar must rely upon complicated survival suits to prolong their lives. By the time a Van Saar comes of age, they will have been sealed into their suit, and the oldest would die in short order if they tried to live without it.

 

 

 

House Van Saar is even more secretive than most Houses on Necromunda, with perhaps the sole exception of the Delaque. Its enclaves are surrounded by layers of security seldom seen beyond the spire, and it is extremely rare for outsiders to be allowed into the clan’s inner sanctums. Even within the clan itself, there is a definite hierarchy based upon proximity to the STC. This ranges from the outermost circles, whose members know nothing of the source of their clan’s tech – or the curse that blights their flesh – to the inner circles, who each know a piece of knowledge about the STC, until finally one reaches the Master Archeoteks, who may actually gaze upon the device itself. Within House Van Saar, the worth of a clanner is measured by their knowledge of House technology, in a strange mimicry of the Adeptus Mechanicus and its hierarchy of Tech- Priests and Magi. Unlike the superstitious followers of the Machine God, however, the men and women of House Van Saar do not revere technology as some mythical resource to be worshipped and ritualised, nor do they preach the perfection of the machine over the flawed biology of Mankind.

 

 

All of these secrets, combined with the sophisticated technology at their disposal, give the members of House Van Saar an understandable sense of superiority over their fellow hivers. A Van Saar clanner grows up knowing they do so in a world of techsavages, feigning tolerance of the ignorance around them, and often playing along with the ritual and superstition of other Necromundans. While a Hive City Mercator Lux electroclast might say the Prayer of Igniting to awaken the lumens of their dome, waving the sacred motive rod over the energy runes until they glow with power, a Van Saar knows full well that they’re just using an omni-tool to flick a power switch. This becomes even more pronounced when it comes to manufacturing. In the vast majority of Necromunda’s manufactoria, poorly-trained workers labour to create goods from barely-understood STC imprints, the plans themselves copies of copies handed down from the lowest levels of the Adeptus Terra. The facilities run by the Van Saar are more akin to artisans’ workshops, where members of the clan meet their production quotas, not with endless hours and slave labour, but by bringing to life ancient machinery and sophisticated techniques almost unknown to the rest of the world. To the Van Saar, these methods are part of their birthright, as normal as the vats from which the Goliaths are born or the Clan Chymist laboratories of House Escher.

 

Their peers in the other Clan Houses perceive this confidence with technology as arrogance, while the Great Houses find it amusing that one of their vassal Houses should consider itself so far above its station. This too, however, is part of the secret House Van Saar keeps. By giving up a grain of truth – the technological expertise so evident in their House – its members hide the greater secret of the STC. Of course, given millennia of history and countless generations, there have been those outside the clan who have learnt about the existence of the STC. Fortunately for House Van Saar, Necromunda is a world of secrets, and every clan or Noble House has its share of dark deeds and useful lies, and is unwilling to expose the others lest their own come to light. Thus have House Van Saar’s secrets endured, benefiting the hive world, and greatly enriching the Clan House itself.

 

 

MASTERS OF ARCHAEOTECH

House Van Saar has learnt well how to hide the technological gifts granted it by the STC. Much of the weapons and wargear the House produces is to the Archprint standards sanctioned by the Adeptus Mechanicus – though of a quality high enough to make them stand out among the usual stockpiles of Imperial ordnance. This is the price they pay to Lord Helmawr for their existence, and it is from these goods that a measure of the hive world’s tithes are paid. The Van Saar, however, keep the finest technologies they produce for themselves, or sell them for extreme profit in the hidden tech bazaars of the underhive. These include energy weapons, shields and armours of a kind found nowhere else in the sector. Doled out to House-allied gangs, these weapons and wargear give Van Saar an almost unassailable edge in gang warfare, while sold to spire nobles and off-worlders they fill the clan’s coffers with credits.

 

Most believe that Van Saar equipment is the result of an ancient archaeotech find, and this is a myth the clan does everything it can to reinforce. House Orlock, in particular, has spent centuries and massive amounts of resources in trying to find the source of the Van Saar archaeotech vault, believing it must either be buried beneath one of the hives or hidden in a remote part of the wastes. What they cannot know is, while many of the objects possessed by the clan are based upon archaeotech designs, they were not manufactured millennia ago. Rather, they are the work of the Van Saar Archeoteks. These inner circle members of the Clan House have an understanding of technology that would be considered heretical by the standards of the Adeptus Mechanicus. And yet, in their own way, the Archeoteks of House Van Saar are as set in their ways as the most hidebound Tech-Priest or unyielding sacristan. Instead of following rote religious dogma laid down by the teachings of the Omnissiah, the Van Saar adhere to the instructions contained in the STC, treating the device almost as if it were divine – much to the horror of the more enlightened members of the House.

 

 

At some point in the 35th Millennium, the arcology vessel, Van Saar, was disgorged from the Warp and crashed in the ash wastes of Necromunda. Various records from the time describe a void ship falling to the wastelands, though at this time Necromunda was still a lawless place, only recently under the control of the Imperial House, and such occurrences were far from unusual. Here the records of the Van Saar diverge, and it becomes unclear as to who first recovered or emerged from the wreck. Some say the first Van Saar were ash scavengers driven out from the hives, who found the ship and its STC, taking their name from the ancient lettering on the vessel’s hull. Others, many Archeoteks among them, claim it was Van Saar himself who crawled from the wreck – after having spent millennia in stasis. Those in power prefer this second theory, as it roots their lineage on Terra, the cradle of humanity. What is known is that, for a time, the Van Saar operated out of the wreck of this vessel, perfecting their understanding of the STC, and using the wonders it produced to become rich and powerful among the duster families and outland tribes. Scattered accounts from these first centuries of the clan’s existence tell of them as archaeotech scavengers and tech bazaar brokers, all sworn to keep the secret of the STC. Even as the Imperial House and others sought to uncover the truths they jealously guarded, their downed vessel grew into the centre for a thriving outland settlement known throughout the Great Equatorial Wastes as Junkertown.

 

 

RISE OF THE ARCHEOTEKS Not long after the emergence of the STC, a secretive coven of techno-savants formed around it, perhaps assembled by Van Saar himself. Realising the importance of the device and the power it offered to any who could master its secrets, these savants made efforts to ensure its safety. They were the forefathers and mothers of the Archeoteks, and everything within the Clan House has been built upon their desires. As Junkertown thrived, various Archeoteks rose to custodianship of the STC, each with their own schemes as to how to use this wondrous device for the betterment of their people, as well as keep it out of the hands of the Imperial House and, by extension, the Imperium. Some of these, like the Arachni-queen Lothrun Ves, spent her life reverse-engineering the gifts of the STC and adapting new technologies from their secrets; others, like Keples Seros, trained and dispatched thousands of agents to scour Necromunda for archaeotech, hoping to encode the STC with new patterns and create new hybrid techno-objects. All these tech-lords added to the growing cabal’s wealth of knowledge and, over time, the secrets guarded by the Clan House continued to grow and deepen.

 

Perhaps the most unusual of these Archeoteks, as recorded in the Annulus Teknika of the clan Archaeoscriveners, was Sater Davos. A tech-ganger from Hive Rothgol, Davos had joined the Van Saar of Junkertown after uncovering a cranial spike in the depths of his hive. Driving the spike into his brain, Davos was gifted with its unique mnemonic engrams – crafted by the Iron Lords in centuries past. This turned Davos into an intellect of truly staggering ability, even as it withered his body and forced him to become dependent on an arachni-rig just to move. With this grand intelligence, Davos’ first task was to dominate the depths of Hive Rothgol, though as soon as he had subdued his rivals and grown excessively wealthy he grew bored, the savagery of inter-clan warfare no longer holding his attention. It is written in the Teknika that, at this time, Davos learnt all he could of Necromunda and its people, hoping to find something to hold his attention, and that it was during his search that he uncovered the clues pointing to the Van Saar’s STC. His interest aroused, he travelled to Junkertown to see the device for himself and learn of the plight of the Van Saar – unravelling the tale of the lost colony ship, the forgotten tech messiah and the grand and rare device itself. Davos became convinced that the Van Saar were the descendants of a people out of time, and it was his duty to return them to the lost age they had come from.

 

Whether Davos was driven by the mnemonic codes of the Iron Lords imparted to his brain by the data spike, or perhaps his heightened intelligence had led to madness (or maybe he was mad all along), the arrival of the tech-ganger marked a period of extreme expansion for the future Clan House. Junkertown thrived and the tendrils of the Van Saar began to work their way into many aspects of Necromundan society – it becoming quite fashionable for the Noble Houses to have one of the tech-artisans as part of their household. Many surviving holo-portraits of the great and noble rulers of hives from this time show a member of the Van Saar lurking in the background, bedecked in the exquisite archaeo-devices for which they were known. At this time, Davos also began to address the issues of the exotic radiation that had plagued the Van Saar people since they first uncovered the STC. The first survival suits, designed to extend their rad-attenuated lives, were made, artificial organs and bio-augments were perfected to keep their bodies working, while the first circles of the Archeoteks were created, limiting those who could stand in the presence of the STC. Within a generation, the Van Saars’ great secret was buried further (so none could uncover it as Davos had), while the influence of the House of Artifice had grown exponentially. Davos’ true goal of sending the Van Saar back to their lost age, however, eluded him.

 

In the timeline, lots of snippets:

 

 

954.M36 – CIRCLE OF THE ARCHEOTEK

Tavor Hessia, taking the title of First Van Saar, convenes the inaugural gathering of the Archeoteks. Formed from tech-savants, scrapper-lords and hereteks, the Archeoteks are the secret guardians of the STC. During this time, both wonders and horrors are wrought by the Archeoteks in equal measure, some loosed upon the world, others buried out in the wastes where they might never see the feeble light of Necromunda’s sun again.

 

061.M37 – THE RISE OF DAVOS

The brilliant tech-ganger, Sater Davos, rises to power within the Archeoteks, having unravelled the secrets of Junkertown and travelled across Necromunda to behold the STC for himself. In his time, many wonders will be rediscovered by the Van Saar and they will grow into the foundation of the modern House.

 

411.M37 – CULT OF CHRONOS

After centuries of rule over the STC and its attendant Archeoteks, Sater Davos mysteriously vanishes. Speculation is rife among the Archeoteks, many believing he has finally perfected his archaeo-chronometrix, a device with the power to pierce the veil of time itself. Almost overnight, a group within the Van Saar, known as the Cult of Chronos, emerges, dedicated to finding Davos or replicating his work.

 

698.M40 – MADNESS OF COGS

The discovery of an alien engramic presence deep beneath Hive Primus almost destroys the STC when it is accidentally inloaded into the servitors tending the great machine. Before the hateful xenos code can fully infect the device, a cabal of Archeoteks inload it into their cranial implants – the engrams driving them all insane. For years afterward, the maddened Archeoteks are found wandering the underhive, babbling about being cogs in the machine and trying to awaken the alien code once more.

 

879.M40 – WAR OF THE CYBERLORD

Concealed by an identity-altering Falsehood, Landri Cyberia, a venerable agent of the Iron Lords, infiltrates House Van Saar upon the orders of his ancient masters. For over a year, Cyberia steals secrets from the STC, until the device itself turns against him, knowing him to be an interloper. What follows is a techno-war in the depths of Hive Primus as the Archeoteks hunt down and destroy everyone tainted by Cyberia’s touch

 

246.M41 – WAR FOR THE STC

Duke Lorun Bethrin Van Saar tries to steal the STC, dividing the Archeoteks of Hive Primus into two warring factions. A secret war rages amongst the upper echelons of House Van Saar for close to a year, both sides trying and failing to claim the STC for themselves. In the end, the Archeoteks of the Second Circle purge those of the First Circle for their crimes against the Three Laws.

 

911.M41 – OTTO’S FOLLY

Duke Otto, in a fit of paranoia, seeks to move the STC – but, to his horror, discovers it can no longer be moved from the chamber in Hive Primus. Instead, he creates a dozen facsimiles of the STC to serve as decoys, though this has the unfortunate side effect of drawing attention to his plans, archaeotech hunters and off-world agents descending upon the enclaves of the House.

 

996.M41 – THE END OF TIME

Something within the STC seems to awaken, systems coming online that have lain dormant for millennia. The Archeoteks believe some emergency protocol must have been triggered as the ancient machine offers up rare weapons and wargear of kinds never seen before – leading them to wonder just what dark event the STC is preparing to face.

 

Also more:

 

 

HOUSE STRUCTURE

 

‘The Great STC is the sun, and we are the planets held in orbit around its brilliance.’

Auto-omnisavant Gethrius Van Saar of the Third Circle

 

Like ripples spreading out from a stone striking the surface of water, so are the structures of House Van Saar – built around the central locus of the Sacred STC. Ostensibly, the nobility of the Clan House are its lords and masters, the most senior taking the title of Duke Van Saar, the name as much one of family as it is of tradition. In truth, however, it is the Archeoteks who hold the majority of power within the clan, their understanding and control of the STC ensuring their position. Beyond these inner circles are the emissaries, agents and primes of the Clan House – each one with a specific role to play in its workings. Some of these are either not aware of the STC’s existence or know of it only vaguely. Even so, they do their duty for House and hive, placing their faith in the strength of the technology the clan produces and their sense of superiority that proceeds from it.

 

The Three Laws

 

 

 

THE THREE LAWS

 

In the early centuries of House Van Saar’s existence, before it was even recognised as a Clan House, many among the inner circle of Archeoteks used the bounty of the STC for their own personal gain. Often, these keen-minded men and women were innovators and inventors, some bordering on hereteks with their tinkering with the technologies of Necromunda. These excesses led to many archaeo-horrors being loosed upon the hive world (some of which still roam its wastes to this day) and the Clan House coming close to destruction more than once. After the disappearance of the Archeotek Sator Davos, who himself had almost brought House Van Saar to ruin, his successors decided to place limits on the power one Archeotek could ever wield. Thus were the Three Laws constituted – edicts which have endured for centuries and preserved House Van Saar with both their simplicity and their power. All inner circle Archeoteks (the only members of the clan who interact directly with the STC) must follow these Laws, and to break them is punishable by exile – or even death.

 

The Three Laws of the Archeoteks are as follows:

• No Archeotek may allow the STC to be harmed, stolen or misused, either through design or ignorance.
• Archeoteks must use the STC solely for the betterment of House Van Saar, except where it conflicts with the First Law
• An Archeotek may only innovate the technologies of the STC if doing so does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.

 

The Rad-Phage that comes from the STC:

 

 

 

THE RAD-PHAGE

 

The Van Saar STC emits constant and damaging exotic radiation, known to the Van Saar as the Rad-phage. To hide its presence, House Van Saar keeps the device concealed behind thick, leaden shields and energy fields, though this means its own members are continually bathed in its harmful particle emissions. Even worse, this exotic radiation clings to everything the STC produces, especially if it relies upon the advanced archaeotechnologies now lost to Mankind. This is one of the reasons the Van Saar reserve the most advanced objects only for themselves, for they could easily draw unwanted attention with their taint, and the majority of their other tech is merely high-quality forms of existing Imperial weaponry and wargear. The result is that all members of House Van Saar are, to some extent, poisoned by the STC, its energies withering their bodies and turning their blood. For most, this means an early death or unnatural aging, their flesh succumbing to decay before its time. For those closest to the STC or those who utilise the most powerful output of the ancient device, it means their bodies will be ravaged unto accelerated organ failure and death. To combat the effects of the Rad-phage, House Van Saar long ago created its iconic survival suits. These complex garments help to regulate their wearers’ bodies even as they fail – pulmonary cleansers and aortic pumps keeping them alive. Most dangerous of all the effects is that to their brains, the exotic energy breaking down the organ’s cells and robbing them of their most prized possession – their minds. To deal with this, most Van Saar wear a neural-purger, the spine-like device plugged into the base of the skull acting as a shunt for dangerously-irradiated cerebrospinal fluids. Such is the energy absorbed by the neural-purger in the oldest Van Saar that it can even begin to glow, resembling a coiling mechanical serpent writhing in the gloom of the underhive.

 

Also the STC requires power :D

 

 

House Van Saar territories usually cluster around the primary heat sink of a hive, where their gangs and leaders might better control the great city’s energy production. Control of vital energy distribution and generation is of great importance to House Van Saar, as are their ties to the Mercator Lux and Mercator Pyros who oversee the great fuels of the hive world. The Clan House’s interest is not just mercantile in nature – though they do make good wages from overseeing the energy infrastructure for their allies in the Merchant Guild. The STC, and its output, require vast amounts of raw power to function, drinking deep of the thermal well of Necromunda every cycle. It helps the House of Artifice retain its secrets if it can syphon off this power without the knowledge of the other Clan and Noble Houses – most of whom pay little attention to the exact distribution of a hive’s energy resources. Another benefit to House Van Saar granted by their control of the primary heat sinks, reactors and other power resources of their world, is that a thermal core or plasma well makes an excellent cover for the exotic radiation that inevitably surrounds their Artifice Houses and gang strongholds. So close to the blazing energy of the power source, the clanners of House Van Saar blend in against the background – and if they suffer from a few extra rads, it is nothing compared to the output of the STC.

 

The STC itself is found in the Chamber of Light:

 

 

Hanging below the great sky-platforms of the Hive Primus Galeous Spaceport, itself descending from the base of the spire, is the Chamber of Light, wherein rests the STC of House Van Saar. Sheltered from the auspexes of orbiting vessels and the electro-scrutinator divisions of the Palanite Enforcers, it is encased in a half-dozen layers of security, each one more fiendish than the last. Surrounding the chamber is the great Artifice House of Hemnes, a labyrinth of domes, habs, reactor housings and workshops, each with their own security fields, power-suited guards and clades of murder servitors. Beyond these there are secret passages that lead deeper still into the territory of the Van Saar, extermination-corridors bathed in enough radiation to kill most Necromundans but to which an Archeotek is immune (or at least less affected), and baffle-gates that only an augmented mind could hope to work – the complex codes and ciphers driving the weak-minded insane. Those who survive the secret passages must then answer three questions, a final test for an Archeotek to make sure they are still true to the Three Laws. If at any stage the Archeotek – or intruder – falters then they will be destroyed; energy projectors and field generators descending upon them to rend them down to their component atoms. Once an Archeotek of the inner circle – for none others are allowed to gaze upon the STC – passes these tests, they may enter the chamber itself. Suspended in a web of cables, the STC hangs; pict-casters and data-slates around the chamber endlessly scrolling through complex diagrams and schematics, as a legion of servitor-savants manipulate the great machine. In the shadow of the STC, the Archeoteks gather to do their work – crafting Archprints to be manufactured in the Artifice Houses or even occasionally using the machine itself to turn out a prototype. More often than not, they meet to discuss the future of the Clan House, all bathed in the potent radiation of the device.

 

For anyone interested in them, it's well worth reading the book.

[Doghouse]

I quite like this new take of them, the adaption of the old Living Ancestors is quite a nice touch.

[Cactus]

Great breakdown by Closet Skeleton, and while I was replying an excellent lore dump from Petitoner's City. I'll read that and return later.

 

My interpretation of the Rogue Trader "STC system" is that it is an abstract usage covering the machines and designs that collectively make up the STC system (method, or way of doing things).

 

I agree that later usages of "STC system" are more likely referring to the manufacturing machines and associated repository of designs. This is closer to modern usage in "computer system" meaning all the hardware and software that collectively make the thing work.

 

When I see "STC" with no clarification I mentally insert whichever of product/template/repository/machine/system makes most sense to me in context.

 

The rhino APC that your battlebros ride in is an STC product.

The designs, blueprints and assembly instructions for said rhino are an STC template. Variation between templates in different locations gives rise to the Mars-pattern or Necromunda-pattern etc.

The machinery that reads the template and manufactures the product from local resources is an STC machine.

The machinery and its repository of templates (some have many designs, others only a few) is an STC system. There are many of these, so plural usage refers to the STC systems of more than one location.

All such machines and templates make up The STC system.

 

A couple of things have occurred to me while writing the above. First, the templates are not necessarily human-readable. Digital wafers, reels of tape or punch-cards. Also the template might only be the instruction "run routine A-5500-XV" with the actual technical information and line-by-line instructions held elsewhere in the system. This makes any innovation almost impossible without the knowledge/software needed to understand the data, and means that a newly rediscovered STC template might not be complete enough to run on any STC machine other than the ancient and corroded one it was found with. Lots of work for a Magos Data-Recovericus!

 

Second, the 'complete STC system' that the Adeptus Mechanicus covet is likely impossible. To be truly complete it would have to incorporate all templates and their variations. No single location will have had that. Even if a full set of templates that was despatched in a colony ship before the Age of Strife was ever found, it would not necessarily include later designs and modifications. Imagine looking for a computer running the 'complete Linux system'. All versions, all forks, with all their changes and incompatibilties. It's never going to happen. (Yes, you could put all the source code in one place. It's an analogy, not perfection.)

Edited April 24, 2022 by Cactus

[Sarvis]

 

Getting some Ulduar and titans vibes off the new direction, similar to how the reintroduction of the Death Guard was Naxxramas-like.

 

Designers obviously big big WotLK fans. Not a bad thing mind.

Can’t go wrong mimicking WoWs absolute peak. Fond memories

 

 

Giant heads have been an architectural feature of GW and older fantasy art for a much longer time than WoW has been a thing.

 

Big heads were not what either of us were referring to, at all? Not sure where that came from. We were referring to the general aesthetic

Edited April 24, 2022 by Sarvis

[Kastor Krieg]

TL;DR version is basically "STC" is both a technology of "3D printers" that were preloaded for colonists with "build files" of things you can "print" - the standard template constructs.

So, "STC" is both the programming and the hardware it runs on and the general technology that enables both.

[Orange Knight]

I'm very excited about this new faction, and the thing that excites me most is the new lore.

 

How do they interact with the Imperium? Are they allies or merely tolerated? What does the Lord Commander make of them?

 

How sophisticated is their technology?

 

Are they the ones who shared the secrets of Ion technology with the Tau?

 

Where have they been?

 

So on, so forth. Just getting details on the history of this faction is as much to look forward to as the new models, for me personally.

[Closet Skeleton]

It's probably also worth quoting the most substantial recent work on STCs, namely, House of Artifice:

 

For anyone interested in them, it's well worth reading the book.

 

Which just seems badly written to me, sorry. It starts out okay with the specification that its talking about a STC system device and then uses STC as the short form of that throughout.

 

Should have just given the darn thing a name or coined a new initiatialism like 'Standard Template Factorum'/STF. To remind me of the topic 'Votann' is much better world building to be honest.

 

The rhino APC that your battlebros ride in is an STC product.

 

The machinery and its repository of templates (some have many designs, others only a few) is an STC system. There are many of these, so plural usage refers to the STC systems of more than one location.

All such machines and templates make up The STC system.

 

Second, the 'complete STC system' that the Adeptus Mechanicus covet is likely impossible.

 

STC product is silly when construct already has that noun ending, assuming that Construct wasn't intended as the verb form which would make no sense. Its ATM machine all over again.

 

The 8th edition rulebook definitely has a confustion between 'an STC system' which existed in plural across colonies and 'the STC system' which is singular and responsible for limiting the diversity of human material culture.

 

If you go by the third edition version of the Admech's 'holy grail' then they're not looking to find a single complete system but to complete their system which would be possible. I think the point of the Admech's quest is more that they chase up rumours of supposedly complete systems not because that's a realistic expectation but that they're so dedicated even the silliest version of a rumour still needs attention. I blame Ghostmaker for confusing what the normal version of the Admech's exploration missions are supposed to be.

 

Which gives good reason for the Leagues to be keeping the Admech out.

 

TL;DR version is basically "STC" is both a technology of "3D printers" that were preloaded for colonists with "build files" of things you can "print" - the standard template constructs.

 

So, "STC" is both the programming and the hardware it runs on and the general technology that enables both.

 

According to the Necromunda writers and general fan community yes, according to the main rulebooks no. Even the Necromunda sourcebook implies that the manufacturing ability of the Van Saar STC isn't necessarily the normal way these things work and doesn't actually imply the system is fully automated since they need all these guys in radiation suits to operate it. I think the Van Saar's production ability is more like a very automated modern car factory than a Star Trek replicator box.

 

The 'Standard Template Constructs' mentioned as being among the Votann's data are clearly designs and blueprints, otherwise they would have called the Votann itself an STC system. The article also implies that not all the technological information in the Votann is Dark Age stuff.

Edited April 25, 2022 by Closet Skeleton

[Halandaar]

Big heads were not what either of us were referring to, at all? Not sure where that came from. We were referring to the general aesthetic

Sure, but the "general aesthetic" of Ulduar and Titan facilities in WoW in general are themselves heavily informed by other, older fantasy properties, not least Moria from Fellowship of the Ring (the movie predates WotLK by some 7 years, and in turn was based on older artwork by John Howe and Alan Lee) and indeed the artwork from Warhamer Fantasy Battle, like these from the 6th Edition Dwarf army book:

The basic point is that the look of the Leagues of Votann is not so much based on the look of the Titans from WoW, but that both of them are based on the broader history of Dwarven tropes from fantasy in general.

[lansalt]

Van Saar's STC

This fluff is amazing, but like others have said, I have to wonder how they've dodged the attention of the AdMech until now. Because the nanosecond a tech-priest suspects anything the whole planet will be invaded by Mars, probably with the help of the Imperial Fists too.

[Karhedron]

This fluff is amazing, but like others have said, I have to wonder how they've dodged the attention of the AdMech until now. Because the nanosecond a tech-priest suspects anything the whole planet will be invaded by Mars, probably with the help of the Imperial Fists too.

A well guarded secret I guess. Or maybe the Admech are reluctant to get involved on Necromunda precisely because it is a recruiting ground for the IFs. STC or no, Astartes tend to be very territorial about the holdings.

[Shinespider]

 

Van Saar's STC

This fluff is amazing, but like others have said, I have to wonder how they've dodged the attention of the AdMech until now. Because the nanosecond a tech-priest suspects anything the whole planet will be invaded by Mars, probably with the help of the Imperial Fists too.

 

 

I don't take it too seriously. Necromunda is designed to be a big, bombastic theme-park. The Imperial Cult fanatics have SoB-level miracle powers. It's all wild and a lot of it doesn't make perfect sense in the wider context of the setting. 

[Spagunk]

 

This fluff is amazing, but like others have said, I have to wonder how they've dodged the attention of the AdMech until now. Because the nanosecond a tech-priest suspects anything the whole planet will be invaded by Mars, probably with the help of the Imperial Fists too.

A well guarded secret I guess. Or maybe the Admech are reluctant to get involved on Necromunda precisely because it is a recruiting ground for the IFs. STC or no, Astartes tend to be very territorial about the holdings.

 

I thought the fluff someone posted indicated it's heavily shielded from cogitators and the prying eyes of AdMech?

[phandaal]

Squats should launch with at least one of each unit type.

 

HQ, Troops, Elite, Fast Attack, Heavy Support.

 

Assuming the HQ can be taken more than once, that gives the ability to create any of the standard detachments right off the bat.

[Captain Coolpants]

Have they confirmed how they are being introduced into 40k yet? Their own codex? Or a small supplement like assassins used to be?

[Karhedron]

They have implied they will be getting a full range. Just how full is anyone's guess.