Warhammer 40K: The Dark Mechanicum Threat
Engine War is on the horizon and Games Workshop has been teasing the Dark Mechanicum for a while now. But who are they? Let’s chat.
Here are the facts:
- Engine War is next and involves Chaos Daemons, Chaos Knights, Imperial Knights and Ad Mech.
- GW has released quite a few Dark Mechanicum hints from Blackstone Fortress to the newer Chaos Releases.
Lord Discordant is wearing Dark Mechanicum Symbols…
…don’t forget about the Negavolt Cultists…
…and you can’t tell me the Venomcrawler isn’t a Dark Mechanicum Nightmare Machine.
- The new short story for the Psychic Awakening titled Release by Dirk Wehner involved some pretty shady Mechanicum experiments – pretty sure those weren’t up-and-up Adeptus Mechanicus Members.
Download the Story HERE
What is this all pointing to? Well, when you start fusing Chaos Daemons and Machines of War that’s kind of the Dark Mechanicum’s thing. While I don’t think we are going to see a Dark Mechanicus Army released with Engine War, the book might be setting up one more piece of that army. But what is that army? The Lexicanum has that covered.
The Dark Mechanicum, or Dark Mechanicus, referred to by themselves as the New Mechanicum, is a Chaos-affiliated counterpart to the Adeptus Mechanicus. Its origins trace back to those who pledged loyalty to Warmaster Horus at the end of the Great Crusade. The Dark Mechanicum serves as a dark “mirror” to their counterparts within the Imperium.
Horus gained the loyalty of a sect within the Mechanicum after promising them STC technology gained from the worlds of the Auretian Technocracy and the opening of the vaults of forbidden technology on Mars. In addition, Horus’s emissaries and spies told the Tech-Priests that the Emperor planned to steal the secrets and technology of the Martian Mechanicum and even eventually enslave the Tech-Priests. Lastly, Horus used the ideological schism within the Mechanicum, between those who believed the Emperor was the earthly representation of the Omnissiah and those who still thought such a figure was entombed on Mars, suggesting it was the Emperor himself who had presented himself as their god in a scheme to make him their servants.
Having won over many of the Mechanicum’s Priests, Horus encouraged his new allies to dabble in previously forbidden technologies, gradually enticing them to the powers of Chaos. In the resulting Schism of Mars, the Dark Mechanicum led by Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal supported the Warmaster during the start of the Horus Heresy and were present on Istvaan V where they used dark and forbidden knowledge against the Loyalist forces. With the defeat of traitor forces after the Battle of Terra and the subsequent Great Scouring, the Dark Mechanicum fled into the Eye of Terror with their Chaos Space Marine allies.
In the 41st Millennium, the Dark Mechanicum are still active, utilizing massive, daemonically corrupted Titan war machines of the Traitor Titan Legions against the Imperium and producing infernal weapons and Daemon Engines from Hell-Forge worlds such as Xana II.
During the Thirteenth Black Crusade, the Dark Mechanicum began invading Imperium worlds that were devastated in the aftermath of the Great Rift‘s creation. Their targets are not picked at random, however, as the Dark Mechanicum are searching for ancient archeotech that will help them complete an unholy weapon of war and terror whose like has not been seen since the Dark Age of Technology.
Want to learn more about the Dark Mechancius – Read More at the Lexicanum
The Dark Mechanicum in an insidious threat that has been a slow burn for a while now. With Psychic Awakening: Engine War on the way, this is one threat that just might leap from the lore to the tabletop!
