Does the color of the robes the various Adeptus Mechanicus brethren wear signify something? I used to think that they only wore dark red, which might have to do with the color of Mars, but a few sources - such as the Dark Heresy novels - say they occasionally wear white. Is this perhaps something that denotes rank or allegiance to any of their sub-sects?

There's not really a lot of information about the Adeptus Mechanicus and their internal ranking system, to be honest. I can't recall anything off the top of my head... Your best bet might be to look at the "Titanicus" novel, where Dan Abnett has a go at addressing the Collegia Titanica aspect of the Mechanicus, there may be something there, but I can't personally recollect myself.

One factor to bear in mind is that the Adeptus Mechanics is a huge, widespread organisation, and you can bet that the Magi of, for example, the Calixian Lathes, are likely to have a very different ranking system to that of, say Belacane or Mars.

Techpriests are most commonly seen in red robes, so it may be the case that the rarer, more senior magi are the ones who wear white...but that may not apply in every case, on every forgeworld.

Its a bit like school, everyone wears a uniform, except the teachers who wear what they want and being teachers... well, yeah. Highly variable and weird.

Actually, until I read the Dark Heresy novels, I only knew of the red robes. However, the book makes it sound like the white robes are, if anything, more widespread in the Sector Calixis. Strange, considering that even the DH core book has the cogboys in their red .

True, the DH tie-in novels have succeeded in completely muddling the picture. And there hasn't even been a third in the series to round up the plot. That is just criminal. Criminal, I say.

The White robes, as far as I am aware, are a Sandy Mithchell-ism, and don't show up anywhere else.

I guess he thinks the Tech Priests move too fast and need to slow down for some reason.

Sounds just like another case of some author thinking he has a cool idea without looking at GW canon. Not the first contradiction I've noticed when it comes to Mitchell's books.

I'd say it depends solely on you and your group. Dismiss it if you prefer the "oldschool" appearance of the AdMech and/or just want to stick to what GW has established, or adopt it if you think it makes a neat addition to your game (as has been suggested before the colours could probably be used to differentiate between different ranks, departments or even locations).

The "moving too fast" made me smirk.

ItsUncertainWho said:

"Da red wuns go fasta"?

Lynata said:

I'm not entitrely sure this is quite true: a very early white dwarf magazine that covered the Mentor Legion Space Marine chapter has a nice illustration of a Marine Chapter Master being dressed in his armour by a techpriest. As I recall (this is from memory, so apologies if I've got this wrong) the techpriest was wearng a white robe.

So canonically (I hate that word) there would appear to be precedents for white robe-wearing techpriests. It's not just Sandy Mitchell's invention. (er...I think.)

Wasn't that a Chapter Serf? And wasn't that even a black-and-white drawing? I'm fairly sure I know the image you're talking of - unless there's more than one picture of a Marine getting armoured, that is! (I don't recall the actual Chapter in it - too long ago)

I seem to recall (and bear in mind this is an image from a 23 year old white dwarf I haven't read in about 6 years and I have a memory like...like...one of those things with holes in...what are they called...um....a sieve! that's it!) that there might have been a caption to accompany the image which described the Chapter master being dressed by a senior representative of the Adeptus Mechanicus. But again, take that with plenty of caveats!

Lynata said:

The more I think about this image, the more I'm sure it was a techpriest. Back in 1988 the word "Chapter Serf" hadn't ever been used, and the picture was definately in colour. It was pretty good, too. Showed Commander Ran-Thrawl (or something) putting experimental armour through its paces under the direction of a senior representative of the Adeptus Mechanics. And I seem to remember that the white-robed techpriest had a Swiss Army Knife at his belt! I loved '80s 40k, there were a lot of humorous little touches like that.

(Bear in mind this could all be completely wrong, it's been a long day!)

Hmm, then it might indeed be another picture that I remember... even though my memory can be just as hazy, I do recall a black-and-white one.

Though, if it really was from '88, this would mean the 1st Edition (Rogue Trader) - and lots of things were different back then, including clothing designs (such as SoB with spikes on their breasts ). But I do agree that the tongue-in-cheek references had their own kind of charm.

Here's a little look at the past: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-rogue-trader.php

Lightbringer said:

I think I now the picture you mean. Is it the one where the marine is in his power armour 'trousers' (so to speak!) and the tech priest is putting on the shoulder pad?

Visitor Q said:

I think so! Not sure about the shoulder pad, but yeah, he only had his legs armoured whilst his chest was bare. Not sure if it was a Tech-Priest either, but I recall he was robed and hooded, though that could probably be anyone. Too long ago. :/

Lightbringer said:

I think the picture is this: www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1860157_KittingOutXL.jpg

The picture is black and white but the cloaks' nuance lets me think they could be red or green.

I remember having seen it in an article detailing a space marine's improved organs.

Berengario said:

Nope, sorry, that's not it. After a few pints, I have stumbled home, and dug out the correct image. Page 40, White dwarf number 98 from waaaay back in February 1988, 23 years ago. It's not the image set out above. The caption reads " Imperial Commander Nisk Ran-Thawll being guided through the experimental armour's non-standard activation process by a senior member of the Adeptus Mechanicus." The image is a full colour representation of a Mentor Legion marine being dressed in what looks like Mk VI armour by a white-clad Adeptus Mechanicus Techpriest. And I'm wrong: he DOESN'T have a swiss army knife at his belt, he has a small wrench instead.

EDIT: do a google images search on "Ran-Thawll". You'll see the image I mean.

Aye, Rogue Trader then ... I suppose they canned the idea later on? Still, makes you wonder if that novel author actually remembered that (or rather has seen this very image on Lexicanum) or if it was pure coincidence.

Weird. White looks strange on a Tech-Priest - I guess I'm just too used to the crimson version.

The Mentor Legion's fluff was pretty cool back then. Sadly, the more removed the Marines got from ordinary people, the less sense it made. I wouldn't think they still loan squads of Astartes to the Imperial Guard these days.

The Robes of the Adeptus Mechanicus are a Rust Red color. Sometimes their robes are a lighter Rust Red or a darker Rust Red. Sometimes a Rust Red trimmed with white, gold, silver or black. It is a rare Tech-Priest who wears white robes. It probably denotes a particular faction of the Adeptus Mechanicus that we outsiders would never truly be able to understand the specifics of, unless we had half our brain replaced with a Cogitator. It is actually more common for them to wear black robes that to wear white, though the Tech-Priests who wear black robes are usually the Hereteky kind.

There is a picture of a white-robed tech-priest on page 111 of the 5th edition BRB, it's an old picture though. I'm not sure what the difference between red and white robes on tech-priests. I would think it shows whether the priest works with information, and mechanical things. White would show information work, as it gets dirty more easily.

Of course assuming the mechanicaus would do something like that is silly, as grease on white robes might just be a sign of working recently, or mean nothing at all.

Black is the Mechanicus mourning color, used if a forge world falls.

Lynata said:

Really? The official "named" Tech-Priest (Delphan Gruss, still available through the GW online store, image below) available for the Inquisitor range is depicted with white robes in the Inquisitor rulebook, which was published years before Sandy Mitchell's Dark Heresy novels.

White-and-red isn't quite the same as all -white, though it's still worth pointing out. Of course, this begs the question what meaning the colour might have. It seems this guy is a Magos Explorator, anyone have other official GW images of these guys?

(I'm going to assume that Gruss is not meant to actually be an Inquisitor despite the miniature having this title on GW's website - even though that would be a neat explanation, his character is missing it in the Inquisitor rulebook ... though that one sadly lacks a picture)

Lynata said:

While I can't find my hard copy at the moment, there is commentary in the colour section of the Inquisitor rulebook (a part not included in the downloadable copy) that goes into some of the thoughts of the sculptor and painter when working on the model. I can't remember the details, though.

No, Delphan Gruss isn't an Inquisitor; all the models in the inquisitor range are prefixed that way in GW's online store.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

N0-1_H3r3 said:

I managed to dig out my copy of inquisitor and found the bit about delphin gruss, so here it is:

"Painted by martin Footitt: Delphin Gruss is one of the more influential memebers of the cult mechanicus, so I chose to move away from the traditional red robes fo the techpriest, instead giving him white robes to make him stand out from the others of his order. However , I still retained the red demi-tabard to confirm his allegiance to the Machine God. The gold lettering and equipment all denote that he has risen in the ranks of his temple. The actual banding reads that he is a protector of the faith and guardian to the machine God in High Gothic."