The Cog Mechanicum, symbol of the Machine God
The Machine God (also known as the Omnissiah or Deus Mechanicus) is the theological entity worshipped by the Tech-priests and other servants of the Adeptus Mechanicus as the embodiment and bestower of all knowledge and technology in the universe. For many in the Imperium of Man, this belief conflicts with the orthodox theology of the Imperial Cult where the only God of humanity is the Emperor of Mankind. But since the Adeptus Mechanicus is vital to the survival of the Imperium, conflict over this issue is often avoided by the Mechanicus' willing conflation of the Machine God's avatar in the physical world, the Omnissiah, with the Emperor himself. This compromise truly satisfies neither believers in the Cult Mechanicus or the Imperial Cult, but it keeps the peace between the two faiths and the Imperium functioning.
Cult Mechanicus
The Cult Mechanicus, the religious hierarchy of the Adeptus Mechanicus that upholds the worship of the Machine God, 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, an eminent and omnipotent spirit governing all machinery and knowledge in the universe. Generally, this deity is held to be an aspect of the God-Emperor (or, most commonly within the Cult itself, both are held to be aspects or faces of the same divine being). The Omnissiah is believed to be friendly to humanity, and to be the originator of all human technological and scientific knowledge. Subservient to the Omnissiah are the pantheistic 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.
The Quest for Knowledge
The ultimate goal of the Cult Mechanicus 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 Quest for Knowledge. 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 the 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 Mysteries of the Cult Mechanicus
- Life is directed motion.
- The spirit is the spark of life.
- Sentience is the ability to learn the value of knowledge.
- Intellect is the understanding of knowledge.
- Sentience is the basest form of Intellect.
- Understanding is the True Path to Comprehension.
- Comprehension is the key to all things.
- The Omnissiah knows all, comprehends all.
The Warnings of the Cult Mechanicus
- The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path.
- The soul is the conscience of sentience.
- A soul can be bestowed only by the Omnissiah.
- The Soulless sentience (i.e. Necrons) is the enemy of all.
- The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.
- The Machine Spirit guards the knowledge of the Ancients.
- Flesh is fallible, but ritual honours the Machine Spirit.
- To break with ritual is to break with faith.
The Void Dragon
According to the beliefs of the Cult of the Dragon, the Machine God may actually be the C'tan shard known as the Void Dragon, an ancient entity of immense power. It is imprisoned in a Necron-built Stasis Tomb beneath the Noctis Labyrinth on Mars. The mighty C´tan was imprisoned by the Emperor himself before he even publicly emerged to found the Imperium of Man on Terra and initiate the Unification Wars over 10,000 Terran years ago. At that time, the Emperor proved unable to kill the C´tan even with his great power, and so he imprisoned it beneath Mars so that the powers of the C´tan, though passive, would cause the Adeptus Mechanicus to emerge, which the Emperor needed as support for his future Great Crusade to reunite Mankind. This so called "Grand Lie of Mars" is buried deep beneath the sands of the Red Planet in an underground complex which is actually the Void Dragon itself.
The truth of this seemingly insane legend has become more credible since the mass awakening of the Necron army. It is said that a small amount of Necron forces managed to breach Imperial defences in the Segmentum Solar and land on Mars itself after destroying some of the Noctis Labyrinth Mine Complexes.
Upon landing, countless Mechanicus Skitarii and Titan forces quickly despatched the small Necron expeditionary force. Although the Necrons were eliminated, their purpose on Mars remains unknown to the Imperium. More striking is the fact that they breached vast areas of Imperial space (including the Segmentum Solar itself) undetected. The Mechanicus enforced a Perdita zone around the entire Noctis Labyrinth after this incident, presently still enforced by an entire Skitarii Legion.
Sources
- Mechanicum (Novel) by Graham McNeill
- Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook (5th Edition)