The Technocult, also known as the Machine cult is the semi-offical name given by The Church of the Crossed Heart to followers of the Mechanicum faith whom supply and maintain virtually all of the church's technology, engineering and industry.
although they serve with the Church of the Crossed Heart they have their own version of worship that differs substantially in theology and ritualistic forms from that of The Twelve Angels. Instead the Technocult worships a deity they call the Machine god or Omnissiah. The Technocult believes that knowledge is divine and comes only form the Omnissiah thus making any objects that demonstrate the application of knowledge , i.e machinery, or contain it (books) holy in the eyes/ optical implants of the Techcult. The Technocult regard organic flesh as weak and imperfect, with the rot being veiwed as a divine message from the Omnissah demonstrating its weakness, thus making its removal and replacement by mechanical, bionic parts a sacred process that brings them closer to their god with many of its older members having very little of their original bodies remaining.
Structure
The Technocult is split into three core sections or "Gears".
Mechanicus Administratum
containing nine permanent members the Mechanicus Administratum is the ruling body of the Technocult. Made of the most senior and experienced Tech priests the Mechanicus Administratum sees to all administrative, domestic and diplomatic issues for the Technocult. Each permanent member has nine other Tech priests serving under them for three years with nine more beneath them.
Mechanicus <>
The largest of the Gears the Tech priests of the <<>> are responible for the recovery, research, maintainace and production of all of the Cult's technolgy
Mechanicus Militarum
Although most of the military needs of the cult are carried out by the church certain situations deemed far too important to be dealt with by <> such as the protection of the Technocult's airship the Iron Forge and conducting expedition in search of perticaler artifacts are carried out by the Mechanicus Militarum the main military body. The soldiers of the Mechanicus Militarum are know as the skitarii although the smallest of the gears and tiny compared to more conventional forces they yeild some of the best and most advanced weapons in the world
The Mechanicum
The Mechanicum believes knowledge to be the manifestation of divinity, and holds that anything embodying or containing knowledge is holy because of it. The supreme object of devotion is therefore the omniscient Machine God (also known as the Omnissiah), an eminent and omnipotent spirit governing all machinery and knowledge in the universe. Generally, this deity is held to be an aspect of the Twelve Angels (so as to not offend the church). The Omnissiah is believed to be the originator of all technological and scientific knowledge. Subservient to the Omnissiah are the Machine Spirits, who are believed to inhabit all machinery and which must be appeased before a piece of technology is used or repaired, lest the machinery fail.
<work in progress>The search for Knowledge
The ultimate goal of the Technocult is to understand and fully comprehend the glory of the Omnissiah. The communal and personal attempt at this form of enlightenment is known as the Search, involing
<>
<>
due to the Church's stance on old world knowledge every memeber of the cult is trained to memorise every detail of any books and records they can find <> under the guise that they are looking for hidden codes left by the twelve angels<> before they are destroyed <> once this knowledge has be memorised priests will then attempt to share this knowledge with other priests as soon as possible so to ensure that it is not lost in the event the priest dies
<>
the knowledge a priest has learned is considered far more valuable than their life <> the cult will deploy what ever forces they can muster (or convince the church to supply) to ensure the priest's knowledge can be recovered and relayed to the rest of the cult
<>
The Cult believes that all knowledge already exists in the universe, and it is primarily a matter of time before it can be gathered together to complete this quest.
<>
The Cult is therefore disinclined to perform most basic scientific research and development. Despite this, some original scientific research does continue on Mars and the other Forge Worlds of the Imperium, enough to keep Imperial technology advancing steadily, if extremely slowly. The faith of the Cult is defined by a series of sixteen precepts, known as the Sixteen Universal Laws, which have been divided into two sets of eight precepts known collectively as the Mysteries and the Warnings, which are listed below.
<>
The Tyranicus
Deep within the Technocult's airship the Iron Forge lies their greatest secret, standing at well over two stories tall and armed with massive weapons the Tyranicus is a awe inspiring testament to the technological prowess of the old world. Found by the cult in rotting away in old world ruins sporting extensive battle damage it was recovered with haste and stored in the deepest workshop of the Iron forge to avoid drawing suspicion form the church. Since then the cult have made extensive repairs and aesthetic modifications to the war machine in hope of returning it to it's former glory to no avial however as the machine remains silent and inoperable but one must only wonder what horrors this machine was built to face. Although it continues to sleep the cult have been able to successful replicate the ammution needed for the Tyranicus's main weapons and the fuel required for its mighty engine and many advances in material science and weapons technology have been made through the study of the Tyranicus's hull and weapons however the true breakthrough came from extensive study of its inner systems by the cult's tech priests showing that the mighty war machine requires a pilot to interface with it's slumbering machine spirt in order to guide its movement and fury however no method to do this or rouse the machine form its long dormancy but no method of doing so have been found thus far and remains a key area of research for the cult however should the machine spirit ever awaken it would prove to be a near unstoppable weapon of the Omnissiah's wraith...