I know, weird question and I'd *assume* not, but is it strictly forbidden for a Tech Priest of Mars to marry?

edit: Failing that, would they keep any family ties?

I have not seen anything in the Fluff that would prohibit it. Most likely,Tech priests do have something akin to marriage in order to maintain their family's power. (Tech priests are also the ruling class on forgeworlds remember.) I would guess that these are arranged marriages that are more akin to a "Genetically fit for purpose" outlook rather than any sort of emotional entanglements. Just my 2 cents though!

From my understanding, Tech Priests are strongly encouraged to cut themselves free from all emotional ties and all desires of flesh. While there may not be a strict ban on marriages, I don't see a married Tech Priest having a good shot at advancing through Mechanicum ranks.

As for keeping family ties, it's kinda hard on a Forge World, considering all babies are taken away from parents right after they are born and then raised in Mechanicum facilities, their entire lives dictated by the Mechanicum.

Radwraith said:

Each forge is ruled by a Magos and it's not for familial power that dictates rulership. Usually each forge is specialized in doing one thing well. Construction of las weapons for example, one could just work on the focusing crystals for las weapons. When a Magos dies the next senior magos takes over.

As Morangias says, you cut all emotional ties and are unmarried. Forge serfs that are married will have their children taken to where the Mechanicus believes they should be. True servants of the Omnissiah devote their time to becoming one with the machine, not with another.

So does that mean that Forgeworld serfs are strictly there to feed into the ranks of the AdMech? Obviously the majority of tech-priests live a long, long time with their implants & conversion, but it's a good Q, not something I'd ever considered before.

OP

The whole process of raising children on Forge Worlds is a crazy experiment in totalitarian eugenics. At every stage of development, a man born on a Forge World is monitored by qualified Mechanicus staff and his career path is dictated by the results of these measurements... starting right after birth. Each and every aspect of raising and education is meticulously planned to ensure everyone ends up in position he's most qualified for. That's the theory at least, sure sucks to become a helot because you failed your kindergarten entry test.

While marriage doesn't - as far as I'm aware - outright contradict anything known about the creed of the Omnisiah, it most definitely conflicts with the spirit of the creed.

That doesn't mean techpriests can't love or marry, but it probably does mean that both are borderline or outright heresy. I'd strip a techpriest in love of peer:admech and similar things, and without a sympathetic inquisitor throwing his weight around, I'd brand a married techpriest a heretic.

Morangias said:

Before, even. Mech worlds vary, and how they're run tends to be at the discretion of the top Magos/Magi. But it's at least not unheard of that the entire population is engineered specifically to whatever tasks they're to perform in life.

I wouldnt go as far as to call Marriage a Heresy in the Eyes of the Omnissiah, but certainly frowned upon. And not socially supported, so no inheritance benefit, legal privilegs or other martial boni.

Perhaps even "closeted", you know like Techpriest Uncle Bob has this special female colleague he spends much time with studying. And nobody in his social circle goes deeper with asking how much time and where. And perhaps gets oversseen on the occasional promotion.

Please to remember that emotionless killing machines are boring characters.

AluminiumWolf said:

Tech-Priests aren't emotionless killing machines, they're a group of Cyber Spocks.

Morangias said:

What, totally loses it every time someone says something bad about his mother? Is the child of a vulcan who married a human for love? Goes in to heat every few years in which he fairly seethes with lust?

Every vulcan character struggles between their passionate nature and their training to suppress these dangerous emotions.

So, I dunno, I suggest tech priest do marry for what are supposed to be pragmatic reasons - to unite families, for procreation or the tax breaks or whatnot (as vulcans do). There then follows much plot as the participants either come to love each other more than they should, or can't stand each other and have affairs with people they shouldn't and so on.

Or maybe tech preists are supposed to be celebate, but spend all their time rogering the choirboys.

Either way, they are imperfect, conflicted, utterly convinced that their own logic is correct and that of their rivals is flawed (I mean, when you get a group of people in a room who are all utterly convinced they are observably, provably correct you get... The Internet!). Something. Anything. Not perfect creatures of pure thought.

Because emotionless robots are boring non-characters.

Seriously, man, stop trolling.

Stop reaching for the entirely dried up well of emotionless non-characters. If you find youself thinking, man it would be totally awesome if this character had NO PERSONALITY WHAT SO EVER!!!!11!, think No! That is a stupid idea. Ask yourself instead how you can make a character someone can play?

--

By and large, I think it is going to be more fun if the noosphere or whatever the Techprists data network is called is a never ending flame war between competing schools of thought fought with endless debate, SOTA Icebreakers, self-aware toxic memes, weaponised blogging, related combat software and the occasional ortillery strike than if everyone sits down and rationally decides on a course of action.

And you know that even in the 41st century, Anonymous still cruises the web looking for lulz.

I would not say they are emotionless creatures that as a character class no one wants to play because they are boring. They have desires, dreams, and interest in a great many things. Things that most people do not understand or are "allowed" to understand.

I would say that Noctus is probably closest to how it would play out. While Tech-priests are of course fundamentally human - although they can be pretty well modified - they are also part of an organization and follows a creed that looks down on things like love and erotics as base things unfit for a servant of the Machine God. Hence they might tolerate such things but it won't be something that the tech-priests want to draw attention to and which will without a doubt work as a serious hinder for their career within the Adeptus Mechanicus. This could of course be entirely fine the tech-priests in question as they might not be all that interested in leaving the flesh behind but I don't think that they rise very high unless they keep it very much in the closet.

And as is probably not suprising the lower ranks may well be able to get away with things like that but no way that a senior member would be allowed to conduct such activities, if discovered.

AluminiumWolf said:

Lack of emotion != lack of personality. Try and tell me that Data had no personality. Or, hell, goddamn Hannibal Lecter.

Most low-ranking Tech-Priests are quite like Spock - they have a full spread of human emotions and bodily needs, but strive to ignore and excise them for cult reasons. It doesn't change until they reach the highest echelons of power, when they can undergo a Rite of Pure Thought and actually realize the ideal of pure logic not clouded by emotion. Some Magos, mostly Genetors and Explorators, don't undergo the rite ever, believing their emotional, intuitive side to actually remain beneficial.

But hey, there's something about lack of emotion in the Mechanicum description, so obviously you must go "hurr durr emotionless characters are badwrongfun, stop liking what I don't like". I'm sick and tired of your nonsense. Emotion is but one possible driving force behind a character, by no means the only one. Just because you lack the mental capacity to appreciate or play unemotional characters doesn't mean everything must conform to your narrow-minded view.

I never looked at tech priests as spock or data, I always play them as victorian or medival scientists or clergy. Of course they have human impulses, but those come second to the work of science or the lord, in the case of tech priests both simultaneously.

They don't. Machines don't marry.

Morangias said:

Data wants to be more human. He has a cat. He gets drunk and sleeps with a co worker. He tells jokes. He likes to pretend to be Sherlock Holmes. He has an identical brother with emotions that allows the actor to ham it up. Eventually he gets an Emotion Chip.

He isn't really an emotionless robot. There is a yearning for emotion that frankly comes across as sadness.

I can see several situations where Data would get married. He could want to try to prove he could feel attachment (like a gay man marrying to get a Beard), someone could fall in love with him and he could not want to let them down (I think there was actually an episode like that), or he could decide that he has formed a really strong bond with someone and wants to show it.

If this was about all Tech Priests secretly wanting to become more human I'd have no problem with it. Well I would a little, because I still think it is silly to have a whole class of people who all want to become more human. By and large I think it is easier if someone squirts authors with cold water every time they want to write in yet another set of emotionless non-characters.

Hannibal Lector I am less familiar with, but he surely enjoys killing people and winding up and scaring Agent Starling. And he has a sense of humour (I'm having an old friend for dinner...).

jpomz said:

So they question is, what do they do?

Try their very hardest not to be human and be more like machines. They often go through procedures to remove their emotions, or stifle them. The only emotions most tech priests can feel are the primal instinctive life or death ones. You can't portray a tech priest as humans having human emotions, because in all honesty they're not even human. They're computers with some meaty bits.

And you are happy with someone at your table trying to play that are you?

Someone with no interests, no opinions, no likes or dislikes, no attachment to anyone or anything?

A character who does nothing but stare blankly in to the middle distance?

AluminiumWolf said:

Opinions, likes, or dislikes don't have to do with emotions so much, I really think you're lumping too much into the emotion category. They're logical, but they're also fanatical machine priests. Think of them as nerdy stoic hackers who go gaga over incense and new toys. Also, if anyone roleplayed how the characters in 40k are according to canon, none of the characters would come off as likable because they'd be too pious. And finally yes, because I'm tired of cliched super emotional and angsy whiners as main characters.

Machines don't get excited about cool toys either...

---

So maybe Tech Priests don't marry, but the bond they form with the devices in their care is deeper than anything a mere flesh human could understand. Course, then they may form a bond with another tech priest, or possibly a meat human designated for the purpose of carrying their offspring.

And it takes a lot of passion to deliver a really good fire and brimstone sermon...

I forgot where I read this, but tech priests don't breed. Nor bond. It was in a black library book though. The only tech priests that act remotely human are very, very low ranking. Sorry boss.