+ inload: Imperial technology +

+ Ghost in the machine – Imperial weapons and machine spirits in Warhammer 40,000 +

'Master-crafted, artificer, relic, [others?] How do these grades of quality compare to each other?'

b1soul, The Bolter and Chainsword

+ This question, asking for clarification or explanation of what terms like 'relic', 'archeotech', 'master-crafted' and 'artificer' mean in-universe, popped up in a forum recently, and it got me thinking about 40k's machine spirits, too. The answer turned into what I found quite an interesting train of thought, so I worked it up into a rather discursive inload that explores my thoughts on Imperial technology in detail. +

+ The usual caveats apply; this is a fictional universe, after all, so there's no 'right answer', but it's fun to explore. I hope you enjoy the read, and please do feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below or on the Facebook group [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. +

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+ Theoretical +

+ As a rule, Techpriests 'sign off' every piece of
manufactured technology with a blessing. +

Let me start by making the claim that the in-game use of terms doesn't necessarily match to what an in-universe observer would use; and even where it does, there's a huge grey area. In general terms, I'd suggest archeotech isn't so much a guide to quality as the other terms. As pointed out above, it – usually – simply labels something as being of pre-Imperial human origin; and usually irreplaceable because the means to create it are lost or forbidden (i.e. non-STC). The quality of it is hugely variable, as these tend to be poorly-understood one-offs, or from a cache that's carefully hoarded.

We then turn to Imperial materials. These are the things, from chainswords and boltguns to Rhinos and conversion beamers, that the Imperium can replicate and mass-manufacture. Usually (but not always) STC-derived, the Adeptus Mechanicus understand how to create these from scratch. Most are manufactured by the Adeptus Mechanicus themselves on Forgeworlds, but since the instructions on how to build them are understood, non-Mechanicus personnel can be trained to manufacture them (under license, and with the supervision of the Techpriests) in bulk, as with tanks and lasguns on hiveworlds like Armageddon and Necromunda; or boltguns and power armour in Space Marine Chapter forges.

A typical Astartes Chapter forge is staffed by slaves, servitors or helots who churn out things like boltgun shells and replacement parts for armour – though even this is implied to be heavily ritualised, more akin to mediaeval scribes copying manuscript pages than a modern munitions factory. The most skillful of these are the artificers – more practised and capable than the other slaves, and granted some freedom.

+ Consecrated and revered: forgewrought Astartes boltgun +

Overseeing the 'staff' are the Techpriests – the Techmarines. These are examples of the master-craftsmen, who can not only follow the holy writ of manufacture as accurately as the artificers, but can also see connections and innovate.

This 'quality level' also intermingles with the in-universe concept of machine-spirits. This concept has been muddied in more recent background, as some machine spirits are suggested to be akin to AI, but the original background was much more evasive. The implication was that machine spirits was something in between Roman lares and penates (i.e. a ghost or animating spirit of a place or thing) and the relationship a gearhead has with his motorbike.

+ The superstitious crew of this Leman Russ consecrate it with red handprints prior to each battle, as an imprecation to its machine spirit for protection. +

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+ Practical +

To put this into context, consider the different sorts of boltgun we might encounter in-game and in-universe. 

Standard boltguns: While harder to manufacture than lasrifles, boltguns are nevertheless churned out on many forgeworlds and hiveworlds in huge numbers. These are destined for hive Enforcers, Imperial guard officers and the like. These are akin to a cheap digital watch; stamped out on an assembly line, assembled in parts by trained workers, and then blessed/passed by a supervising techpriest. When damaged, they are replaced, or jury-rigged back into service by an Enginseer in the field.

I'd suggest a typical Imperial Guardsman would go through the blessings by rote, rather than through religious fervour. He might blame himself for insufficient piety if it jams, but the relationship between man and boltgun is more akin to how we, as modern people, would see a weapon – as a tool.

+ Cheap 'n' nasty. (Boltgun's poor quality, too). +

On a quality scale above that are Astartes boltguns, built within the Chapter forges. Customised to a particular Astartes bearer, these boltguns are more akin to a tailor-made suit. Built with better materials and hand-assembled, they will be inspected and passed/blessed by a Techmarine or Master of the Forge. Culturally indoctrinated to believe that the boltgun is as much a spiritual gift as a tool, the Space Marine will tend and clean the weapon as a religious observance, and have his personal helots keep it in good working order. When damaged, he will take it to the forge to be carefully repaired by a specialised forge-helot, using new parts from the forge. Over time, the Space Marine and boltgun will become better attuned – reinforcing the idea that there is a 'machine spirit' that the Space Marine needs to placate and trust.

+ An Astartes boltgun is created for its bearer; both weapon and symbol of faith. +

+ Artificer and master-crafted boltguns +

For particularly important figures like officers, an Artificer, rather than a helot, may supply the replacement parts and do the repair. The parts will be a better quality (higher tolerances, better craftsmanship), and perhaps highly decorated. This again reinforces the idea of a machine spirit, as the better quality materials mean the officer's abilities with his weapon improve. As with the Ship of Theseus, this weapon, which is now what we'd call an artificer boltgun in-game, remains the officer's original boltgun and – crucially – retains the machine spirit of the weapon. Having been well-treated, the machine spirit rewards the officer with greater skill and accuracy (or so it appears to him). The boltgun may now look very different; gilded and chased with jewels; inscribed with prayers for the marine's fellows, or curses on their enemies; and perhaps finished with a purity seals.

Imagine next that the officer's weapon is, at last, lost or damaged beyond repair. Mournfully, the officer takes what remains to a techmarine, who lays the weapon's machine spirit to rest. Given his rank, the officer is gifted with a new boltgun. This one is built from scratch by a techmarine; perhaps the Master of the Forge himself. Built to exacting qualities and made with the finest materials – as befits the officer's standing – it is what we term master-crafted. To us, we'd see it as a fantastic machine – a brand new Ferrari to the other marines' Mercedes. To the Space Marine Officer, it is a new boltgun, but one that has an inherently more puissant machine-spirit – fiercer, stronger and more aggressive. It may be more accurate than the much-loved lost boltgun; less prone to jamming, and perhaps with a unique diagnostic device created by the techmarine. However, it may equally be unfamiliar; uncomfortable. The officer feels the machine spirit resists him; must be placated or tamed.

+ Master-crafted, artificer-enhanced or a relic – who can say?+

To our eyes, the the artificer-enhanced original boltgun and the replacement master-crafted boltgun would be similar in functional ability – the officer seems to be able to kill the same amount of the Imperium's enemies. There is no inherent functional difference, but more of an aesthetic one. It would be a matter of taste as to whether the classic or the replacement is 'better'; to continue the car metaphor, the artificer original might be seen as a classic E-type Jaguar or Rolls-Royce, while the master-crafted replacement might be seen as a top-of-the-range Ferrari or Tesla. Different strengths, different appeals.

+ Relic boltguns +

After centuries of heroic service, this master-crafted boltgun has itself been enhanced and decorated by generations of skilled artificers; blurring the in-game definitions of master-crafted and artificer. The machine spirit has been tested and proved triumphant; its character has settled. Perhaps it has mellowed from its fiery beginnings in the forge, becoming so reliable it seems to never jam, while keeping a higher rate of fire than any other in the armoury. Perhaps the spirit has remained cantankerous; granting victory only to those who can tame it. A reputation has sprung up around the boltgun; a reputation that is well-known not only to the officer, but to his men. Perhaps it is granted its own familiar or honorific name.

One day, however, the officer falls. The weapon is borne from the battlefield alongside him, its retrieval granted all the respect of the warrior himself. Totemic to the Company, the boltgun is handed down through further generations. Depending on the Chapter's view of its machine spirit, perhaps it is gifted to another officer for a time. Perhaps it is only brought out to inspire the men at critical junctures, or Company rituals. Perhaps it is returned to the Forge, where it is loaned out to other officers, the weapon's reputation inspiring them. This is a relic boltgun.

+ Honour the battle gear of the dead. +
+ Only the Emperor is higher in our devotion. +

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+ Innovation and technology in the Imperium +

Before we go further, it's worth noting that – as with all material in 40k – everything you have been told is a lie. It's good nerdy fun to chat about this stuff and explore those parts of the universe that haven't had as much attention as others, but any of my personal interpretations are naturally open to discussion – please do leave your thoughts below. With that proviso in mind, let's explore the relationship of research, technology and machine spirits in the 41st Millennium.

+ STCs and humanity +

Firstly the vast, vast majority of all technology in the Imperium is STC-derived. The Standard Template Constructs were devices that pre-Imperial humans took with them on humanity's first steps into the stars. Able to adapt to local conditions and materials, the STC devices created efficient, rugged designs and products to enable settlers to survive and thrive.

With the machines so easy to maintain and able to innovate, humanity gradually lost first the need – and then the ability – to innovate. After a golden age of expansion, the Dark Age of Technology ended with a galaxy-wide war between humanity and the intelligent robots they created; a war humanity narrowly survived.

+ Abominable Intelligence and the tech-priests +

+ Techpriest of Mars, carrying both holy STC-tech
and relic non-STC. +

Distrustful and guarded, it's implied the survivors rejected technology, using it only where necessary, and never again creating artificial intelligence – referred to in modern 40k as 'abominable intelligence'. The tech priesthood of Mars largely stems from these events; collecting all knowledge and keeping it hoarded and away from those who might use it – for once the genie is out of the bottle, killer robots aren't far away. The Adeptus Mechanicus is generally seen as builders and scientists; practical engineers, but at root it's a questing religion that values knowledge. To the Cult, technology is a reflection of knowledge, rather than an end in itself.

Humanity relies on technology, however, so a balance has to be struck. STC-derived tech, is generally regarded as 'safe'; and (in-universe) it's for this reason that so many Imperial structures, vehicles and the like are visually identifiable as Imperial: it's simple, rugged, reliable and time-proven. In theory, the Adeptus Mechanicus monitor and control all technology. In practise, this is impossible, and there are thus non-STC technologies.

+ Innovations, recombinations and new technology +

Beyond the types of tech we've looked at above, there's new stuff occasionally created by the Adeptus Mechanicus. These start out as one-off devices to test out a magos' pet theory or similar. By virtue of being made by a magos, this is 'master-crafted' material; but in-universe there's an important distinction between craftsmanship  and innovation. The former is beyond reproach; the better the craftsmanship, the closer a device is to the perfection of the Machine God, from whom all machine spirits emanate. The latter potentially skirts blasphemy or heresy; but is not necessarily forbidden to the highest echelons of the techpriesthood – or at least those who are powerful enough to defend themselves from rivals.

It's easy to think of techpriests like modern scientists or engineers, but in terms of characterisation, they share as much in common with particularly conservative priests, dilettante 18th natural philosophers and classic fantasy wizards as those professions. While much of the culture leans away from creation as blasphemous (after all, it's akin to playing god), certain radicals – such as Belisarius Cawl – do manage to create genuinely new things.

This is far from normal; and unless a Techpriest has very powerful sponsors (like a Primarch, for example), he or she would likely be considered a heretek and killed. Instead, 'new' technology within the Imperium comes not from innovation, but from combining existing elements in different ways: STC-derived tech is a little like very complex Lego, if you like.

Hugely insular and hidebound – and for arguably very good reasons (no-one in universe wants killer AI back) – this new material is not usually researched and developed in the way a modern reader might imagine; but rather by piecing together existing STC designs (the holy writ of the Machine God) in new combinations. The creation of such devices is as likely to be led by a flight of fancy or reinterpretation of a partial text as anything else.

+ Visualising Standard Template Constructs  +

I like to imagine crumbling old print-outs found, like some latter-day Dead Sea Scrolls, in an ancient cavern, and pored over by generations of arguing techpriests; some producing heat-guns from what they can piece together, others a new sort of ship's engine – or perhaps a more reliable toaster. Whether any of these are the original intention is by-the-by: when the only tool you've got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The old background to the Rhino vehicle is an excellent example. Lacking a complete Armoured Personnel Carrier STC (because relatively few colonists needed such vehicles, and of those that did, no plans survived Old Night), humanity is instead served by a repurposed tractor, with advanced armour and high-power weapons crudely mated to the hull.

+ Heresy-era non-standard wrist-cannon +

On the battlefields of the 41st Millennium, the sort of innovative tech described above is very rare – the sort of thing we might see as in-game Relics; or wielded by a Magos Dominus of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This is because research and development has slowed to a near-halt in this period; things are sliding back into a new dark age.

This is nicely contrasted with the 31st Millennium – i.e. the Great Crusade period – where tech is still in development. The ur-example here is Space Marine Armour; and it's worth contrasting the improvement and refinement of power armour against the alternate patterns of boltguns.

The former is an example of how the rugged STC designs from across the galaxy can be combined to create new, better hybrid versions. The latter are simply different STC machines' answers to the same question, varying owing to local materials or conditions.

The point is that apparently new creations are much more likely to be reinterpretations or different combinations of existing Imperial technology than genuine innovation. Such creations may one-day be standardised – the various Space Marine flyers are examples of in-universe vehicles that have been reconstructed from ill-understood or partial STCs; and the Razorback is an example of a techmarine-led battlefield alteration, that was later sanctioned by the Adeptus Mechanicus – an act equivalent to historical religious doctrinal differences in the real world.

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+ Regional tech +

+ Nur Na Phom warrior; carrying non-standard local firearm. +

A final note here, on something that doesn't get discussed much; and that's regional tech. It's glossed over, or only touched on in the background, but if you want to do any 'deep thought' on how the galaxy really works, you quickly come to the conclusion that the Adeptus Mechanicus must either operate a sort of technological realpolitik as regards most materiel in the Imperium, or be constantly at war with tech-heretics – or both, of course!

Gamewise, we're familiar with weapons and equipment looking a certain way, or having easily-distinguished features, like the distinctive flash suppressors of lasguns. To some extent, this makes sense; particularly when we consider that STC-derived tech is explicitly said to look fairly similar the galaxy over. Nevertheless, the scale of the galaxy means that there must be huge variation, even within STC designs.

I don't regard this as a problem, however. The sort of double-think necessary to proscribe certain technologies to certain people while allowing them to others enriches the setting, rather than detracts from it.

Just as the representation of deities varies through culture and time, so I suspect at a macro-level the Mechanicus must police only egregious uses of technology – xenotech, for example, or corrupted technology; and leave the enforcement of the letter of tech-doctrine to the purview of the local techpriests.

The result would be a massively diverse, rich aesthetic; an inhabitant of the 41st Millennium would be surrounded by a chaotic and baroque mix of technologies as far removed from the models as we are from that time.

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+ Modelling Imperial tech +

+ Forget the promises of technology and science, for so
much has been forgotten, never to be re-learned. +

From an out-of-universe point of view, identifiability is important for gaming. We need weapon types to look distinct from each other for clarity. However, this distorts the player's expectations of what the universe would look like; giving rise to rivet-counting suggestions that such-and-such weapon or armour can only look a certain way.

For pure modelling, creativity is the order of the day. I'd encourage you to use parts from all over to pursue your vision, even if they differ from the 'standard model' for a particular piece of tech. The Inq28 groups, epitomised by John Blanche's wonderful artwork and Blanchitsu-style of modelling, really capture this spirit well. I'd suggest that it's an equally valid reflection of the universe as the studio's.

I don't want to suggest that I dislike the cleaner look, either. Jes Goodwin's sculptural clean lines and cunningly-developed concept sketches create a sense of verisimilitude that is sometimes lacking in the more expressive Inq28 style.

For myself, I find myself stepping between two camps. I can see the appeal of accurately recreating the details of a particular mark of Space Marine armour – after all, unless we evoke the particular artwork, we can't really be said to have modelled it accurately; and accuracy will aid in recognition, leading to better, friendlier gaming, if that's a consideration. However, equally strongly, I think that the artist's vision should want to go beyond any specific fixed idea, and really show off a personal vision.

However, note I don't say that the more esoteric Inq28/Blanchitsu approach is more valid than the more coherent studio/Goodwin approach. Clean, uniform troops are fully within the scope of the setting; and it's the very juxtaposition of clean figures with spikier outré warriors is part of what gives 40k its punky aesthetic.

The whole point I'm making is that even the Imperial part of the 41st Millennium is huge – longer than recorded history, and spread across a million worlds. Viewed in this way, the idea that X technology only looks a certain way is clearly absurd; however restrictive and punitive the Adeptus Mechanicus are, there's always going to be a hungry family willing to break the rules to eat. The only real restrictions are therefore what you consider to strike the right balance between your own interpretation and that of the broader hobby – and even that only matters if you want to share it publicly.

In short, accuracy to the figures or a single style of art is not the only option. Hitching your cart to any artist or style is an inherently reductive approach – the best you can achieve is a facsimile. Quite apart from anything else, I argue it doesn't properly capture the underlying essence of Imperial technology, which is diverse, varied, and often bespoke. To the inhabitants of the 41st Millennium, technology is to be feared and honoured with equal, religion-tinged fervour; and never, ever trusted.

In sticking rigidly to any existing 'visual canon' – whether that given by the miniatures, or by a particular artist – we naturally restrict ourselves. I'd argue that far from properly representing the fictional universe, such rigidity slightly misses a strong part of the appeal of the grim darkness of the far future – and worse, discourages you from saying what you want to say.

In the grim darkness of the far – and fictional – future, there's no truth, and there aren't any gatekeepers to aesthetics. Every model you make, alone and when set alongside other miniatures, in different styles, already fits in perfectly.

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