Warhammer 40K: All Hail The Holy Servitor
Come Loremasters and learn of the tireless cogs of the Omnissiah’s will. The Holy Servitors, without which the Imperium would grind to a halt.
Servitors are mindless drones of flesh and metal used to carry out simple, manual tasks. They are one of the few tolerated forms of robotics tolerated in the Imperium as they are simply surgically enhanced cyborgs, not true artificial intelligence.
The Cogs of the Omnissiah
While many are vat-grown, often a criminal, particularly one who has offended the Cult Mechanicus, will be sentenced to “Servitude Imperpituis” and will be handed over to the Tech-priests to be mind-wiped, reprogrammed, and cybernetically-enhanced to serve some specific, rudimentary function. Servitors are mindless, possessing only the most basic of instincts. Their brains are programmed to perform only the task they were designed for. The altered and fragmented brain of a Servitor functions poorly unless constantly supervised. Most will go into a state of mindlock, babbling incoherent nonsense as the Servitor tries to assert some form of awareness.
Servitors are created by the Adeptus Mechanicus, and supplied to departments of the Adeptus Terra such as the Administratum, and to the Inquisition. Servitors make up the vast bulk of the population of Mars and other Forge Worlds, where they fulfill the role of workers.
There are many types of Servitor, each designed for a certain task. Typical Servitors are “Technomats” which operate and service machines, “Holomats” which act as holographic recordists, “Lexomats” which are like human computers with tremendous calculating powers, and “Drones” which are living robots – stupid and essentially mindless slaves ideal for menial work and little else.
Servitors are often used to carry out the more dangerous or labourous duties, such as heavy mining. They also accompany Tech-priest Enginseers on the battlefield with the Imperial Guard, as well as Space Marine Techmarines. These types aid in the repair of vehicles or sometimes carry large and dangerous weapons such as plasma cannons. For both forces, the Servitors are practically identical cybernetically, although the servitors of some Space Marine Chapters are created from failed Marine Initiates. Perhaps the most feared of all the Servitors are the Praetorian Servitors, a class of heavily armed and armoured Servitor deployed by the Adeptus Mechanicus to guard the Tech-priests and temples dedicated to the Machine God.
In theory any living thing with a sufficiently-developed nervous system can be converted into a Servitor, as evidenced by Servo-Raptors, Psyber-Eagles, and the Black Gobbo gretchin, but it is generally considered a sin against the Omnissiah to create them from sapient xenos. This has not, however, stopped a number of Magos from doing so despite their professed loyalty to the Mechanicus. House Delaque builds Spektors from Piscean brains, Vettius Telokcommanded Servitors made of Orks, and Explorator Magos Caul went so far as to retrofit his Servitors with Tau weapons, communications systems, and even anti-grav suspensors.
Common Classes of Servitors
- Technical Servitors are a common sight in the Imperium; they are not intended for combat but are very useful in assisting battlefield operations. These are referred to as “mono-tasks”, being physically changed and augmented to perform a specific function. Commonly they are used as load lifters and cranes, but more exotic mono-tasks include the heavy weapon mount and the mobile weapons rack. These are the standard Servitors that accompany a Tech-priest.
- Combat Servitors are modified mono-task lifters intended to fight in close combat, and they are normally equipped with some form of power fist or sword in place of their lifter arms.
- Gun Servitors are intended to provide fire support for a Tech-priest as he works, and often they will have whole limbs replaced with implant weapons. Many will have ammunition hoppers mounted somewhere on their bodies so they can lay down continuous curtains of fire without needing to reload.
- Medical Servitors (also known as Med-Servitors or Medicae-Servitor) are programmed to provide medical care.
- Cenobyte Servitors (also — Cenobite Servitors) assist the Chaplains of the Black Templars. They are used to carry relics into battle and intone prayers to the God-Emperor, as well as all other jobs given to normal servitors. It is known that the Neophytes of the Black Templars who failed their duty became Cenobyte Servitors.
- Retriever Servitors are designed for live capture, provided the target can be recovered from the servitor afterwards. They are usually mounted with a webber on its exterior, and a primitive auspex package is often added for tracking bio-signs.
- Ecclesiarchal Servitors are exclusively used by the Sisters of Battle. They are specially modified by the Adeptus Mechanicus to suit the Sisters’ needs and are dispatched first into combat zones to provide essential infrastructure for the Sister’s campaigns; as well as providing maintenance for damaged vehicles and buildings. The Ecclesiarchal Servitor also has the ability to dismantle enemy fortifications, using its deep knowledge of structural engineering to cause extreme damage to enemy buildings.
- Choir Servitors are skinny, limbless cyborgs with concealed the mechanical workings to keep them halfalive. Iron plates are bolted over their eye-sockets and vox-amp grilles are fixed over their mouths. Their heads are linked with ribbed cables connecting their singing in perfect synchronicity. Other models include a variant hardwired into a massive mechanical steam organ.
- Servitor-Ogryn – Ogryns that have been converted into Servitors.
- Obliviate – a type of servitor utterly devoid of cognition, left a soulless automata. The Mechanicum was forced to accept it as a form of Tech-Heresy due to the pressure of Adeptus Ministorum and Ordo Hereticus, abhorred with the destruction of the soul.
- Kataphron Battle Servitor — Powerful war Servitors used by the Mechanicum. Completely severed from all emotion and independent thought, these machines are little more than a living weapon controlled by Tech-Priests. They are much larger and more powerful than the Servitors used by the rest of the Imperium.
Learn Of Even More Categories of Servitors
Lexicanum
~Blessed is the Grace of the Omnissiah who allows even the fallen and heretics to yet serve the Will of the Master of Mankind!
