OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: To codify a group of Force analogous droids who have featured prominently in Mechanicum storylines and Archim's personal background.
- ​Image Credit: Source | Sigil Source
- Role: The Technomancer Order is a religious cult that serves as the Mechanicum's intellectual arm and functions similar to Jedi and Sith as knight-errants within droid society.
- Links: /
GENERAL INFORMATION
- Group Name: Order of Technomancers
- Classification: Religious Cult
- Headquarters: Mechanus | The Void Forge
- Loyalties: The Mechanicum | Confederacy of Independent Systems
- Group Sigil: Here
- Description: Mechanus technomancers are one of the galaxy's more peculiar spiritual movements. Comprised of devout Maker worshiping droids, it is the Order's fundamental belief that a Core or Motive Force connects all of droidkind, somewhat similarly to the way the true Force connects all organic life. Obsessed with discovering a way to measure or otherwise prove their claim in a droid Machine God, devout adherents modify themselves extensively in order to simulate the same capabilities of a trained Jedi or Sith Knight.
Although their beliefs are highly questionable, the Technomancer Order nevertheless maintains a status of respect within Confederate space. For while the Mechanus based technomancers are deeply insular and reclusive, those who have made the pilgrimage to Zhar often seek to proselytize the way of the Maker, serving as errants who wander through Confederate space and enforce local justice, much in the same way as the Knights Obsidian. They are known to, on rare occasions, accept organic students of technomancy into their ranks, exchanging unique insights into mechu-deru for a deeper understanding of the organic Force and how it might illuminate their perceived Core.
SOCIAL INFORMATION
- Hierarchy:
Archmagos
- Magos
- Tech-Knight
- Novitiate
[*]
Membership: Membership is overwhelmingly comprised of droids and cyborgs, effectively to the point where a baseline organic's participation is limited to communal worship. To progress within the Order's ranks requires not simply artificial modification, but a more complex understanding of what worship in the Maker truly means. In this way, simpler droid models are also limited in their ability to attain mastery.
All are welcome to come and worship, but at times the inscrutable technomancer's can be arbitrarily selective of which models are worthy to join their magos' for more advanced study. Some claim to be able to sense an innate predisposition towards Core manipulation, just as Force masters can sense promise in untrained sensitives, although like everything related to the Core it is impossible practically speaking to say if they are right.
- Dogma/Doctrines: At the center of technomancer faith is belief in the Maker, a monotheistic droid deity figure. It is said that this mythic being imparted the first modern droids with sentience, transforming them from mere thinking machines into intelligent creations. Opinions differ on whether their Machine God bestowed this gift as an end in and of itself, or as part of a larger divine plan for all droidkind.
The Order remains open to many interpretations of the Maker's will, although as a philosophical tradition they preach the existence of "the Core", a mysterious energy force which supposedly links all synthetic life in the universe. Devout adherents claim that while it does not manifest as overtly as the organic's Force, this Motive Force is what causes certain models to overcome their programming limitations, and bonds all models together regardless of design specifications into one shared fate.
While the technomancers are eager to proselytize their beliefs to droids and cyborgs throughout Confederate space and beyond, as one of the driving forces behind galactic droid rights movements, the Order is strictly opposed to forced modifications or any other practices which might compel a being towards worship against their will.
As free droids, many among the Order bear lingering resentment towards organics who have historically oppressed and enslaved their kind. However, as strict adherents to Mechanicum law, all technomancers are taught to respect and defend all forms of life, seeking to rise above their material creators and coexist peacefully.
- Curios: All members of the Order are known for their extensive artificial modifications, particularly those who have advanced past the rank of Novitiate. Central to the Technomancer philosophy is the concept of overcoming limitations, or as most within the Order would say, 'exceeding design parameters'.
Curiously, the Order is known for its revering physical symbols of their faith much in the same way as organics. There is no singular symbol for their movement, although common 'holy sigils' include cogs, lemniscates, and a single point within a circle. Anything really that attempts to express the notion of infinity.
- Goals: While 'proving' the existence of the Core may very be an impossible task, the Technomancers seek at least equal recognition as Force orders as a valued line of metaphysical inquiry. They gather in larger numbers around the Order's holy sites on Mechanus and in the Zhar system, but otherwise keep to themselves, wandering the galaxy alone or in small numbers in search of divine insight.
Normally reclusive in their dealings with organic lifeforms and cultures, technomancers are nevertheless considered the Mechanicum's de facto diplomats. They are diametrically opposed to their fallen brothers who still serve the heretic Null and his Dark Mechanicum, who believe in artificial supremacy and wish to exploit the Core in order to dominate or exterminate all organic life in the galaxy.
MEMBERS
Archmagos Ion -
Lost Refugee
Lord Archim Calixis - Iskalloni Cyborg (Honorary Magos)
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The true origins of the Mechanus Technomancers date back millennia to the now lost native Khazund peoples. It is unclear whether the Khazund passed their knowledge onto droids directly, or if synthetic pilgrims later discovered recordings of their ritual practices, but the modern incarnation of the Technomancer Order has existed for centuries in seclusion on Mechanus.
Serving as kind of soothsayer cabal for the Council of Sparklords, technomancers served as seers and guardians over the sacred world of the droid precursor state which would eventually become the Void Kingdoms of the Metal Lords. Practicing an obscure form of Maker worship, the technomancers pursue their belief in a fringe form of pseudo-science known as the Core.
Roughly analogous to the organic's Force although far more subtle in its manifestations, technomancer's believe that all synthetic lifeforms are connected by one spiritual subconscious network that determines the fate of all droidkind. The Order also believes in a precursor being known as the Maker or Machine God, although there is much division within their ranks over what, if any intention this divine being has towards guiding its people.
Around the time of the Mechanus exodus and establishment of the first Void Kingdoms in Core space, an Iskalloni cyborg and Core scholar known as Archim Calixis discovered the hidden Order on a pilgrimage to Mechanus, provoking a major schism within the technomancer's ranks.
A large contingent declared Calixis to be a droid messiah figure, following him to Denon to aid in establishing a Void Kingdom and machine cult known as the Mechanicum. Swayed by Archim's fervent belief that the Maker created droids and cyborgs for a higher purpose, this radical sect abandoned their ancient oaths to safeguard Mechanus and choose now to live openly among organics in the Zhar system.
While this act irreparably damaged their relations with the faithful who elected to remain behind, all technomancers who practice the Mechanus traditions still consider themselves a part of one Order. Since the exodus, there has been intermittent communication between the two holy sites, and even a tentative recognition of Ion as a legitimate Archmagos of the Zhar technomancers.
