So, my groups first game of RT will be starting soon, and while I am familer with the mechanics of an Explorator, I'm less sure on the roleplaying aspects. I'm actually coming at this from a Warhammer 40K point of view (Angels of redemption rule!!!), and on the tabletop the tech marine just fixes the vehicles.

So what do Explorators belive? They are actually junior tech-priests sent out to explore, right?

What, or who, was the Omnisiah? Is this another name for the God-Emperor, or is he a seperate being? If he is a seperat being, where does the God-Emperor fit into an Explorator's beliefs?

My only actual exsposure to a tech-priest is Vex, from the Dark Heresy novels. Is he typical? Are there other books that give good representations of tech-priests?

Thanks

-Erich

Technically, they are normal Techpriest. The choose the path of the explorer, so they more specialiced in this way. From the view on the personality, they more open to the world outside of the Mechanicum. So, I hope you can make something about this.

Omnisiah means prophet of the machine god. Also it is the Mechanicum believing of the god-emperor.

Vex is a good example of a minor techpriest, other good examples are included in the following novels:

Malleus from Dan Abnett, part of the Eisenhorn trilogy, Magos Bure is an excellent example of an older techpriest.

Titanicus, also from Dan Abnett, a war on a forgeworld, some examples of various techpriests and other members of the Mechanicum.

Mechanicum, part of the Horus Heresy saga from Graham McNeill. The Heresy reaches the Mars, Some interesting background informations, but a very distant age.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Mechanicus

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Explorator

I haven't read all of these yet, but they might have some good nuggets for you.

Erich said:

Explorators are tech-priests sent out to search for new/old technology and knowledge. They believe in the same things tech-priests believe in: machine spirits, the Machine god, the sacred nature of knowledge and technology, etc.

Erich said:

My understanding is that the Omnisiah is the Machine-God... the divine incarnation of all knowledge. The relationship between the Omnisiah and the God-emperor is one of theological debate. IIRC, the official line is that the Machine God is the God Emperor. However, it has also been said that they are seperate beings but that the Mechancius venerate the God Emperor because he has great knowledge (knowledge = divinity, so a person who knows more is more holy, the God Emperor knows more than any other being and so is the most holy). It has also been suggested that the Omnisiah is actually a C'tan called the Dragon... I suspect the truth is all of the above, depending on who you ask.

LuciusT said:

Unless i miss my guess, the Omni ssaih is the me ssiah of the Machine God, not the Machine God it's self. As the messiah of the Machine god, the Omnissaih is the physical embodiment and mouthpiece of the Machine God. due to the Emperor fulfilling an ancient prophesy back before the Great Crusade, the majority of the Adaptus mechanicus believe that the Emperor is the Omnissiah, the prophet of the machine god but not the machine god it's self.

Edit: to putr it anouther way, the relationship of the Omnissaih and the Machine God is a lot like the relationship between Jesus and God in various Judao-Christian religions... which often gets just as muddled.

Graver said:

For this and other reasons I would love to see a sourcebook (either RT or DH) for the Adeptus Mechanicus.

As an Explorator, your job description more or less reads 'Risk Damnation, Earn Fabulous Prizes.' You are not a junior tech-priest. You are not a mid-ranked tech-priest. You have been initiated into the darker secrets of the Cult Mechanicus: you know of the Dark Mechanicus, you know of the Men of Iron, you know of the STC constructs, and you know that true Machine Spirits are a definite rarity. You know, in short, that a lot of what you were taught through your early career was deliberately misleading. And the reason you are viewed as worthy of this information is that you have also been taught why.

You know more about the Dark Age of Technology than anyone outside the Mechanicum. You know that men learned to rely unquestioningly on machines, treated them without respect or honor, and then granted them sentience, and that the result was a fall from a height greater than anything the Imperium has ever known. You know that the Cult Mechanicus' purpose, above all else, is to avoid a repeat of the Dark Age of Technology. Towards that end, it has taught the Imperium to venerate the machine as a partner of humanity, not as its unquestioning tool. It teaches the teeming masses to offer sacrifices unto the machine that it might serve them. It teaches them to respect and honor the instruments by which mankind claims dominance over the stars, all so when the Mechanicum finally gets humanity back to Dark Age levels of technology this time we will not **** it up .

And you know that you serve an instrumental role in that quest. The relics of the Dark Age are scattered across the galaxy, and if it is to be avoided again the Mechanicum needs to be the first group to find them. If they are useful, they can be taken, and analyzed, and returned to Mars to undergo centuries of testing before being released to the wider Imperium. But that's not the most important thing; generally the useful relics can be recognized and utilized by lesser tech-priests.

No, the most important duty of the Explorator Magos, the reason that he or she has been taught all the horrors of the Dark Age, is the other kind of relic. The ones that must not, in any circumstances, ever be found. The Magos' most important duty is to recognize such things as the horrors they are and take all possible steps to destroy them.

To be an Explorator is to know that the lord-captain continues to have a ship at your sufferance, but that you continue to exist at the lord-captain's sufferance. You will do as the captain asks, within reason, but the captain must understand that when you demand a course of action be taken, that action WILL be taken, because the alternative is a second Fall, worse by far than any atrocity the lord-captain could possibly know of.

To be an Explorator is to be willing to turn a blind eye to a thousand tiny forms of tech-heresy so that abominations beyond the minds of lesser men cannot come to pass. It is to know that while in the hallowed halls of Mars logic reigns supreme, out on the frontier you get a lot further with a kind word and heavy armament than you get with the heavy armament alone. It is to understand that compromise is the only alternative to absolute failure of your holy mission, and so knowing how to hold your tongue-or-analogue-thereof until the time is right.

To be an Explorator is to risk damnation by a thousand tiny cuts in exchange for the hope that your name might be recorded forever as the discoverer of some fabulous prize, or as the final destroyer of a monstrosity older than the Imperium itself.

So no pressure.

Ze Pollack said:

Wow - I dropped by the forums looking some rules info on Explorators for a new campaign I'm starting, but I'm leaving inspired. Well written, sir!

Very nicely put. You have my applause.

Ze Pollack said:

Bravo.

Thanks for all the imput guys. It really helps.

Trouble Entendre: The web sites you listed are GREAT .

Ze Pollack: that was a great post. Just out of curiosity, what are your sources?

-Erich

Mainly the second book in the Grey Knights series, Dark Mechanicus. Book chiefly covers "This Is What Happens When You Can't Tell Good Relics From Bad Ones."

An entire forge world gets converted to radical tech-heresy, jumps itself into the warp for thirty years/two centuries to build a chaos titan legion, and jumps out to deliver them to the Thirteenth Black Crusade, all because one magos decided that this thing he found was so incredibly holy it needed to be shared with all his brethren. Blah blah it gets beaten, and the book closes with a report being delivered to the data-vaults of Mars, where a lexographer crosses off one more Standard Template Construct off the list of things Explorators need to be on the lookout for.