STC
From Warhammer 40k
STC (Standard Template Construct) systems were advanced computers created during the Dark Age of Technology, which are said to have contained the sum total of human technological knowledge.
The STC technology was invented during the Dark Age of Technology when humanity was at its technological peak. A system was possessed by every group of colonists at the time, allowing them to build equipment necessary for survival. During the Age of Strife the systems fell into disuse, became damaged or destroyed, becoming increasingly rare, until becoming lost entirely. In the Age of the Imperium after so many thousands of years it is unlikely that any have survived.
What technological knowledge remains from the Dark Age of Technology, survives only in the form of STC hard-copies, preserved and copied over thousands of years.
[edit] Design
The STC system was an evolved computer designed to provide construction details for colonists. Each group of colonists carried such a system. It enabled the colonists to build efficient shelters, generators and transports without any technical knowledge and using almost any locally available materials. The user simply asked how to build a house or a tractor and the computer supplied all the necessary plans.
[edit] Age of the Imperium
Although the most advanced technological information eludes the Adeptus Mechanicus, through their efforts, much has been either recovered or reconstructed through comparison of copies.
Recovered STC data eventually lead to the ability to construct such mighty vehicles as the Land Raiders, and rediscovered STC designs serve as the basis for all other Imperial technological advancement.
While STC machines would be the crown jewel of human technological achievement, they would also lead to the loss of that same knowledge. Men of Iron, or AI constructs, created by humans would eventually turn on their masters, sparking a major war with humanity that would see much destroyed and lost. This war occurred during the Age of Strife, though it is unclear whether it came before or after the cataclysmic warp storms that destroyed the earliest human empires.
After mankinds downfall and the following years of neglect, it has become very rare for an intact STC to be found. Only through the recovery of the ancient print outs from the STC systems has mankind scraped together much of its knowledge and its current understanding of Dark Age technology.
Known STC data in use by the Imperium has created the ubiquitous Land Speeder, Thunderhawk gunship and Land Raider of the Adeptus Astartes, along with lasguns, starship parts and almost anything imaginable. Perhaps the most important fragments of any STC led to the creation of the Land Crawler, a farming and utility vehicle that has kept the Imperium fed since its earliest days.
An STC for the Castigator class Titan was once discovered; however, it proved to be corrupted by Chaos and was destroyed by Justiciar Alaric of the Grey Knights. Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt also once found an intact STC (for Men of Iron, no less!), but this was also corrupt and had to be destroyed as well.
[edit] Sources
- Codex Imperialis, by Rick Priestley
- Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, 1987, by Rick Priestley
