Early Adeptus Mechanicus in Rogue Trader

In the lore of Warhammer 40,000, the Adeptus Mechanicus is a mysterious organisation. But that's nothing compared to how mysterious the Adeptus Mechanicus is once you start digging into its origins. When I read the 1st edition rulebook for Warhammer 40,000, I was surprised to see my favourite IT cult at all, and I was further surprised that it was mostly recognisable. However, they've definitely evolved a little since the early days. Here's what we know about the Cult Mechanicum from Rogue Trader, the very first Warhammer rulebook ever published.

Most significantly, there's no mention that the Adeptus Mechanicus originated on Mars, and in fact on page 139 it's stated that the Adeptus Mechanicus is mostly found on Terra. Obviously some scribe got things confused while recording this, because today we all know that the Mechanicum is spread far and wide across the galaxy, with their homeworld being Sol's red planet.

In the pages of Rogue Trader, early depictions of adepts of the Mechanicum looked like classic mad scientists, with bald heads and severe white scrubs.

Overall, these adepts look more fleshy than augmetic, so we must assume that either the illustrations were mislabeled by the scribe, or that the remembrancers who created the drawings didn't understand what their subjects. Here's an illustration of something called a technomat:

And here's a "test-bed subject" with an augmetic arm, eye, and powerpack. The term "servitor" is used elsewhere in Rogue Trader, and from the looks of this "test-bed subject", I assume its label must have been a poor translation of "servitor".

Religion

There's also no indication that the Mechanicum is a cult, and there's certainly no mention of the Omnissiah. I think we can safely assume that an Imperial zealot wrote these records, in an attempt to whitewash the Mechanicum's fringe beliefs. To be charitable, I guess we could alternately suppose that this scribe just couldn't comprehend the concept of the Omnissiah, and so avoided the subject altogether.

What is stated is that the Adeptus Mechanicus dabble in arcane knowledge from the Age of Technology, and that their secret research is basically beyond common understanding. That sounds cultish, and some are referred to as Tech-priests, so there's clear religious connotation.

The robes of the Adeptus Mechanicus are listed as being white, in the book. Both the "mad scientists" and the technomat illustrations admittedly suggest at least some white clothing, but I have to wonder whether white robes signify the Terran contingency. Either that, or the scribe was just confused entirely. To the scribe's credit, though, I've seen white robed Adeptus Mechanicus in White Dwarf and codices. Red robes are iconic, but by no means is red the only colour for the cult's ranks.

Tech-priests

I get the feeling that much of the reporting in Rogue Trader concerns low-ranking Adeptus Mechanicus. Maybe it's because the author lists the Mechanicum close to the Administratum, but I get the feeling that most of the scribe's exposure to the cult has been on Terra, and in the administrative halls of governance. Luckily, we do get illustrations of what we now consider iconic Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests.

Here's an illustration of an Enginseer:

And an illustration, I think, of a Skitarii (note the hand flamer with the bifurcated skull).

Here's another Skitarii, armed with a classic Transuranic Arquebus, supporting a rogue trader:

And finally, a picture of a mysterious cultist in a definitively red robe, but largely shrouded beyond classification:

Early representation

I think it's fair to say that Rogue Trader didn't exactly have a unified vision for what the Warhammer 40,000 world looked like, and I don't think that's a bad thing. Because the book is all over the place in its visual style and concept art, the nascent setting was probably easily adapted by lots of different players to fit their own vision of dystopia far, far into the future. Was it space gothic, or punk, or comic book, or classic horror and scifi movie? Nobody seemed to know for sure, so I would guess that players made it into whatever they wanted it to be.

Of course players do that today too. But having a consistent visual reference for the standard design of the setting can be helpful if all you want is to implement the visual style that eventually dominated the setting.

The Adeptus Mechanicus looks a lot more familiar in my copy of Codex Imperialis, with text that specifically talks about its Martian origins. Seeing its early days in Rogue Trader is interesting though, and I think the mental exercise of retro-fitting the undeveloped ideas of 1st edition into the modern game is actually quite fun. In fact, I'll go a step further and say it's a roleplaying exercise. When you imagine that inconsistencies are due to decades or centuries of misinformation, half-remembered lectures, and singular encounters, it's easy to find yourself in the shoes of a future scribe trying to piece it all together for a report. No idea what an Omnissiah is? Skip over it in your report! You've only met 1 Adeptus Mechanicus in your entire life, and he was wearing white? Put down that they all wear white! And so on. It's an entertaining roleplaying experience, and it's exactly the kind of game-around-the-game I love.