One of my players is trying to convince to allow him to create some tribalistic "tech-shama" as a techpriest with a feral homeworld, his argument is a lopst ark mechanicus form the golden age of technology that crashed in hte planet with no hope of being able to leave the planet. The feral inhabitants adopted Ark Mechanicus and the Omnissiah into their tribal beliefs along with techpriesthood practices with some changes of course (for example dressing in robes made of xeno hides and using tribal percusion in their incantations). It's been about 10 milleniums since the ark mechanicus crashed and the planet was rediscovered some centuries ago.

I kind of like that plotline, so now the question is this: How should be the background of such character? and in gameplay terms what should be the correct modifiers?

I've already thought about the planet being half feral, half forge because of the way to live in an Ark Mechanicus and the tribal way to gather resources.

So what should i do now to give life to this character?

I would say you either focus on the forgeworld (which allows for Tech-Priests) or on the feral side (which..does not)

My reason behind this: If their is technology on the level of a forge world, this technological aspect will become the "dominating" factor, with those primitives either rounded up as work force or getting pushed to the edge (outcasts).

In a feral case, I would treat this as an "background package" allowing "Tech-Use" as starting or basic skill while the -10 for "Feral World" still applies
100xp should be more then enough as a charge.

I would argue that if it is "feral" as the focus of the world's tech level then the problem with sustaining tech abilities is that they couldn't keep making things. They might be able to learn about tech from books and therefore know about it (CL/FL tech) but use might be just a basic skill.

In terms of the background they might well have pieces of dead tech as the foci of rituals and any items that still worked would be rare and wonderful artefacts that might normally be considered magical but instead are considered hallowed relics of those that came before.

Well, fluffwise the mechanicus Ark must be from the Age of Strife for two reasons.

The first one ist that during the Dark Age of Technology there is no way for an mechanicus Ark to exist because at this time the cult mechanicus has not been established on Mars. Only because of the events of the Age of Strife the Tech Priests of Mars became a power of their own with their very specific kind of believe.

The second one ist that during the Dark Age of Technology there was no "feral" Planet. In this time all human colonies had their very basics of technology to keep their technological standard alive, though they were dependent on further trade routes until the colony had achieved the status of autarchy. And its the same here too. Only because of the Events of the Age of Strife those colonies degenerated into Feral Worlds or even rose to small empires that had been recaptured by the great crusade.

If you want to create this background fluffwise the Ark must be one of the explorator Vessels that have left Mars in the Age of Strife and somehow has reached a feral planet where it crashed. But those Arks were equiped with the technology to create a colony from scrap so they must have lost a lot of their equipment on the crash. But when they lost so muchs its highly doubtable that the cult mechanicus was even able to survive such a long time until itsrediscovering. You just have to Imagine, the colony they stranded on had propably more advanced technology than this ark and degenerated into that mess.

Another thing is that the early Tech Priests of Mars were very strict in their believes. Nut as zealous as our Tech Priests "today" but very strict. They fought for their very existence on Mars against the Techno-Barbars and this Believe has been proven right for them because of their "understanding" of technology that had led them to victory. So its highly unnatural for them to accept any "babaric" behaviour that nearly had killed them on Mars. They would simply make those "ferals" their servants.

But though if you can bypass all this arguments, ther is a very hard one - the Treaty of Olympus.

When the rediscovering by the greate Crusade began every presence of the Mechanicus and its former beeing was independent and belonged to the Priests of Mars. Then and "now" they would not tolerate such a babaric aspect of their pure logical believes, thats an insult that either gets "reeducated" or elimenated, no Option. Though the Mechanicus has some shisms (Most important the old and new way) there are very few basics every Tech Priest must follow and these are logic, logic and logic. There is no room for an "uneducated" Feral in the Ranks of the Mechanicus. The gifts of the Omnissiah would be insulted unless this scum has been turned into a servitor. There may be Fortifications/Laboratories on a Feral World but the inhabitants would be still the same kind of Tech Priest we know and love.

A way to get around this would be a very recent discovery of such a Tech-Heretek Cabal (As the Mechanicus would call it) that has been "cleansed". But an intelligent Inquisitor saw his chance to get a Tech-Adept without his loyalty to the Mechanicus for himself and therefore safed this individual to have is very own Tech-Adept that has no alligieance to Mars. But if you take this way you should be sure that you have an Heretec in your group that gets shot on sight if any proper Adept knows who or what he is. And the Mechanicus has ways to do this even if its an akolythe of an Inquisitor. Pro forma they are even independent of the Inquisition and the Adeptus Terra would not let a "simple" Inquisitor harm their diplomacy to the Adeptus Mechanicus if they killed an heretec they had evidence for, its their good right to handle their buisness.

Statwise I would suggest this:

Dont give him the +5 on Strenght or Toughness. (His Idea seems to be some kind of minmaxing here because this are some of the Attributes that turn Tech Priest already into Combat Monsters) Also this makes no sense. He is neither a great Hunter nor a Warrior of his Society. He is an Shaman, a Tech Shaman that has not been promoted to this posision because of his martial talents, but because of his well… intellect… for feral comparsion.

Instead I would suggest an Imperial Statline. So he is pretty "average" but for his special feral kind quite clever and strong in his will. A Staline with +5 Int would simply make no sense. Those Statlines are for Worlds that are better than average. But because feral is worse than average he will improve to… average.

Talents/Skills would look like these:

Tribal Dialect - Explains Itself

Iron Stomach - "

Primitive gets somehow changed. The malus for tech Uses gets droped, but for that he will recieve a -20 Fel/Int to Tests involving the official Mechanicus and their social behaviour, rites, etc. The -10 for formal and civilised Situation is still in effect, the -20 is reaseoned because the mechanicus will take it much more worse if the rite is wrong than the most aristokrats that will just likly "pissed" if you use the wrong knife on the bankett.

Rite of Passage - Explains Itself

Wilderness Savy - "

All tests that would improve Tech-Use or Similiar Task by any way are a complete no-go. There is no reason why such a cut-off Tech-Shaman should be better than any average Tech Priest in the Imperium. And treat him like someone special. He would be the best Tech-Shaman his Tribe hade for a very long time and therefore he gets his very strong -10 Tech Use Malus droped. Thats all he can wish for. He is the bright star of this feral scum if it comes to his intelligence. The Einstein of his people, though for the rest of the Mechanicus he is just as good as any other new adept.

Maybe you could make him a Reclaimator, the alternate Scum career rank from the Inquisitor's Handbook? The fluff is somewhat similar to the idea your player has in mind: a dabbler in the mysteries of technology, using bits of half-understood knowledge, pieces and fragments of broken machines, and some intuition and luck to make it all work.

There might also be something in the Lathe Worlds supplement.

I think a Scum character with the reclaimator package would be the best way to go personally. A Full on Feral Tech Shaman is perfectly in character but he is unlikely to be well inititated into the formal ways of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The PC can then choose appropriate skills.

I would see such a character has having Tech Use but also relying on a certain amount of charlatonisim and stage magic to convince people he knows what he is doing.

Seeing as technology basically IS magic in WH40K, I don't see why he couldn't be descended from a long line of Tech-Shamans, the keeprs of some ancient secrets, now long burried and hidden from the world. It may be that millenia ago there were thousands of these priestss, but now what few relics remain are holtly-constested betwwen the tribes. Of course, each tribe is lead by a a tech-shaman, who the people revere with a misture of awe and fear. This tech-shaman always trains a single apprentice in the secrets of techno-magic. They have little clue why what they do works the way it does, but by strict adherence to rote rituals, they pass down the knowledge. There may be pilgrimmages, and quests to a sacred place which is the last reamining tech structure on the planet, etc.

Certainly an oddity - and the suggestion of 100XP cost to buy to right 'traits' - sounds about right to me. I might even impose an XP penalty for some of the initial advances (or have the PC 'buy' the standard skills) to represent his clearly limited knowledge but I think it would rock.

Either way, I would find a way to make it work because it sounds epic!

You could also give him the Uziel/Heterodyne Station forge world origin which is available in the free lost dataslate web supplement .

In the Calixis sector Uziel is a feudal world which is controlled by the machine cult and as a result it has a culture that is both primitive and advanced.

in terms of character creation:

• Tech priests get to choose between having the rite of awe and the rite of fear talents
• Oher characters can choose between having the trade (agri) or trade (smith) skills as well as substituting common lore (tech) for forbidden lore (mechanicus)

Uziel may be a feudal world, but the adeptus mechanicus has hundreds of them, some of them even classified as knight worlds. By no means this results into somewhat like primitive Tech-Priest.

In the end no official Mechanicus World would produce a primitve Techno-Shaman (With the capability of a real tech-priest) because this absolutly contradicts some of the very basic believes and conventions the Ad Mech represents. That is like a pacifist Space Marine.

Indeed the scum career of reclaimaitor would be very fitting, more precise its absolutly what he looks for. Additional I wounder where a Tech-Shaman would even get its implants like a friggin potentia coil from? Even for the Adeptus Mechanicus these implants are not that easy to fuse witht he human body. How would a primitive feudal tribe do that without even the needed facilities, the supplys and so on? Though I want to clarify that feudal scum is seen as to primitive to even take this career RAW.

And you have to take one thing into consideration: Such an individual would be branded as a heretek and will be executed by the law of the mechanicus regardless where they cross paths as long as they know what he is.

FieserMoep said:

You're right that this would most likely be the case. However, Acolytes are often special individuals, or are otherwise picked and elevated by individual Inquisitors for a variety of reasons. What if a more Radical Inquisitor discovered this Acolyte and decided to take him into his service and offer him his protection? Consider giving the character "Enemy: Adeptus Mechanicus." Could make for some interesting roleplaying situations.

As for how implants are installed: maybe the Acolyte is not a fully-fledged tech-priest but the missing implants are provided by some of his Inquisitor's Radical contacts. The ancient texts they have preserved on his world allow them to install a few minor implants but once the Inquisitor takes and interest, they get the rest done.

Just a thought.

The problem is that the Ad Mech is one of the most powerfull sub-factions of the Imperium… well I am sure its the most powerfull one. How much protection can an Inquisitor offer? He must be standing in person infront of the barrel aiming at this heretek to make the Ad Mech stop. There is no document that he can create that offers protection of the wrath of the Ad Mech, even if they know its an akolythe of an Inquisitor that would not make them stop.

Nobody would dare to create political disturbance with the Ad Mech to protect one unimportant akolythe. Everyone needs the Ad Mech and the law is on their side, thy are allowed to hunt down and kill any heretek they know of - the only exeption is an Inquisitor itself but for that it would require some political barganing and this inquisitor can be sure to recieve no favor of the Ad Mech.

For sure this can create some interisting situation but do you realy want an encounter with an Ad Mech Kill-Team? Their dedicated combat troops are among the best the imperium can offer, some units are even more combat effecient than space marines and combine the toughness and firepower of a tank just into one individual. But atleast these would be some encounters that force you players to run which is in my opinion an important factor of roleplay too. They have to understand that not every battle can be won.

But on the other side this character is only playable in a radical group because is status as heretek will make his company heretek too. And if they are not radicals themself he will be the bad guy of the group for any rightous man of the imperium. No rightous man would accept a slanesh cultis too, right?

And if you make the implants available at some heretek "blackmarkets" the better qualities of items will be not availalbe or this inquisitor is dealing with a very powerfull heretek faction of the Ad Mech and this creates more hate than you can imagine.

Just think of that example.

Your Shaman is walkin in a Hive, some Techguard notices his implants but he does not wear any signs of the Ad Mech or is unable to fullffill some rites. How do you think would they act if they notice that some of the holiest blessings and gifts the omnissiah can offer are fused with the flesh of a heretek? Well, in my opinion they would melt down his unworhty flesh from the tainted implants by some plasma torches. And those who try to protect him get shot by some praetorian servitors or skitarii without having any chance to win this fight.

But yes, Warhammer offers always a way to play the strangest charakter you want, the only thing we can measure is how far you are away from the fluff but in roleplay we have to keep the group compatibility into account to. So everyone in your group must be some heretic or they will just become one by the company of this shaman. And the Talent "Enemy: Ad Mech"… hell… that is a ******* strong one… you have an enemy litteraly everywhere but the most primitive feudal world. And this enemy has access to the most powerfull of all soldiers and weapons the imperium can offer.

I would say you are wildly overstating. Look at the Ad Mech as they stand now: It requires rites and litanies to perform the most basic of functions on any machine. Screwing in a lightbulb may require a 300 word chant dubbed the Litany of Illumination, simply to appease the most venerated and holy machine spirit. With this sort of religious, mystical voo doo, how could you say the techno-shaman would be out of line?

This browser sucks, it keep s erasing lines or paragraphs if I hit backspace. So pardon me if any typos or grammatically poor sentences go uncorrected, i fear losing my full post!

Scenario: A Feral world, if not actuually a death world, in which a vast minority rules the masses by virtue of their technological marvels. These individuals use a sacred divination tablet (Auspex) to select suitable, worthy chosen ones to receive the blessings of the great Cog (genetic scans to ensure a high probability of surviving the implantation process). While they put on a great show for the ignorant population, the secretive and exclusive sect of techno-Shamans maintain absolute autonomy simply by keeping the limited tech that is oh so vital, like water purification systems, working and under their control. The sect, though small, is large enough to ensure the continuation of the sect through teachings, dataslates, holologs, vox-and pict- recordings, and ensuring that there are always enough members to re-implant the augmentations from fallen members into the new initiates.

And why should such a mechanicus outpost degenerate into tech-shamans in the first place?

Basicly this is how an explorator outposts survives if he has been left by the fleet. Why should they fall from their believes and become renegades? There are thousands of ad mech outposts on feral or death worlds that stay true to their believes. For what reason should those priests on your world abbandon their logic and very believes for this is all their live is dedicated to? As long as their outpost is working, as you described, there is no need to degenerate because there is nothing to compensate. If there is no decay, there is no need to become less than they are. Though we know that there is a constant loss of technology this affects the larger scale of the ad mech, not a single world bases cult. And if this cult is cut off and developes into something complelty else we have still the problem of tech heresy. Just because they did not know it any better or had no chance to see their faults this does not mean the ad mech forgives them, by no chance.

BangBangTequila said:

I had a similar problem: I wrote out a long post about how all of this might have happened, how the ad mech would be fine with it, and how to make all of this work but the forum ate my post.

Short version: Thanks to the research of the iInquisitor, the ad mech discovered something they wanted on the planet and the tech-shamans were not so much heretics are 'missing some bits of lore and tech' to get it 100% right, then maybe the ad mech simply 're-educates' the population. They claim it as a lost forge world, send in a delegation and start re-orthodoxy-ing everything up to snuff. They dig up the tech that has laid burried under the surface for centuries. Any tech-priest not willing to submit to re-education are destroyed.

As to the population: they're used to obeying the most powerful tech-shaman. So when a magos and his crew come down to re-establish the proper governance of the planet, everybody pretty much falls into line.

That would mean two things: 1st: the next generation of tech-priests from this planet would be 'Forge World' tech-priests. 2nd: those tech-priests who were re-educated tech-shamans could easily be considered 'Feral' Tech-priests. Yes, they would be hypno-indoctrinated into the 'modern' adeptus mechanicus cult and learn all of the litanies they were missing from thier education, but they would also keep a certain feral flair. And maybe that flair is what the Inquisitor wants and so the ad mech agrees to send the newly-indoctrinated tech-shaman…er, priest to serve as an Acolyte.

As is often the case in WH40K as in real life: politics often trump other concerns and in this case it may just be easier to convert the willing population than devote ressources to a needless war that might damage the treasured 'relics.'