Explorator Fleets of the Prosperitas Sector

You can find many common notes about the Machine Cult on the Adeptus Mechanicus page.

Four Facts About the Explorators of the Prospertias Sector

• Most of the Machine Cult think of them as the "oddballs" - Though Imperial history is littered with stories of Explorator Fleets leaving their Forgeworlds on a quest for ancient technology. The Explorators of the Prosperitas Sector enjoy no such respect. For the most part they are by-and-large nonconformists, losers of political battles and embarrassments exiled to a collection of ancient and esoteric vessels that roam the frontiers of the sector.

• They are mostly poorly supplied and rely heavily on salvaged technology - Explorator vessels often began life as a standard-pattern design but over years of service have been heavily modified by their occupants. Life as an Explorator is not easy, the Forges of the Prosperitas Sector often provide them with maintenance and supply only in trade for the technologies they might have salvaged in thier explorations and most have to deal with a myriad of different powers within the Prosperitas Sector, such as the Great Houses in order to keep their vessels running.

• Their beliefs are varied and they often face persecution by the rest of the Machine Cult - because of their reputations, Explorators find themselves under the scrutiny of the Ordo Malagra or 'Magisterium' the Tech-Inquisitors of the Machine Cult who deal with those who deviate and possess the power to declare a Tech-Priest "Heretek" - a sentence that normally results in Servitorisation. Indeed many Explorator vessels face supply issues for fear of interacting with Ferraeus and Naximus Prime and being declared heretek by some uncompromising hardliner of either Forge's Magisterium.

• There are lots of Explorators in the Prosperitas Sector, and they have no central leadership - Though it is common to speak about the 'Explorator Fleets' the idea of mustering more than one Explorator vessel at once is laughable. But there is a lot of them, the Prosperitas Sector is rich in Archaeotech of the Golden Age and with only 500 years of history has yet to be picked clean making it fertile ground for Tech Priests -some- might call 'scavengers'.

However, one of the biggest draws of the Adeptus Mechanicus to the Sector, aside from its abundant resources, is an abundance of Archaeotech and ancient ruins. Vast fleets of Explorator Ships compete with rakish Rogue Traders as they blaze passages into the Untamed Worlds on the Rimward edge of the Sector, eager to find treasures of the Golden Age on human colonies untouched by the Imperium in thousands of years.

The Explorator Fleets Beyond their traditional territories, vast fleets of vessels adorned in the Cog Omnissiah and filled with arcane technologies jealously guarded by the Machine Cult carry out the ultimate will of the Omnissiah across the Stars. These are the Explorator Fleets. Their crews of void-nomad Tech-Priests and Mechanicum servants explore ancient worlds and lost sectors in a ceaseless quest to reclaim technologies lost to the depredations of time. No one Explorator fleet is alike, each has their own character and nature, and within the Prosperitas Sector where the Rimward Marches contain the promise of the remnants of lost human cultures each of the Forges maintains a sizable fleet, though a number of independent fleets and those who began their journeys from forges years away from the Sector ply the warp-ways too.

Service in the Explorator Fleets is something of an unusual duty for a Tech-Priest. The majority of the Priests and Menial servants within them are born on one of the vessels, but there are those who are assigned to the duty from more static places of birth. For these latter Priests, the Explorator fleets are something of a place of exile; to be assigned to an Explorator fleet without the declaration of a Crusade by the Machine Cult is a sign that a Priest has been cast out by their superiors. To this end, most Tech-Priests look upon those who serve in the fleets as eccentric strangers at best, and at worst, blighted exiles best kept outside the perfectly ordered society of their Forges.

Rank and Organisation amongst the Castelli Priesthood Despite its dangerous neophilia, Castellum’s rulership is clear and hierarchical; the Fabricator-General Every-Simply-Connected-Closed-Three-Manifold-Is-Homeomorphic-To-The-Three-Sphere Lockwood runs a pious and efficient planet, with her Fabricator-Locum Continuity-For-All-Delta-There-Exists-Some-Epsilon-Such-That-If-Y-Lies-Within-Epsilon-Of-X-Then-F-Of-Y-Lies-Within-Delta-Of-F-Of-X Witherick strictly overseeing the day-to-day operations of the planet.

Beneath these two lie the various senior 'Heads of Collegia' who are responsible for overseeing the various areas of research and design being pursued by the various departmento's of their Collegia. Between these Magi and their senior 'Review Boards' all other Magi are judged and scaled depending on their worth to the Forge, their research gaining priority until it becomes worthless or is surpassed by another, somtimes Magi will form working groups to cooperate, but more often than not the Magi of Castellum are rigidly independent, quite paranoid and highly protective of their ideas for fear of losing favour and access to the vital resources needed to pursue their passion.

Often, if a Castellum Tech-Priest loses research and funding they will put themselves in self-exile rather than suffer the shame of facing their peers, joining the Explorator Fleets until such a time that they discover something worthy of attention that will enable them to retake their place back on their homeworld and regain favour with their superiors in the Forge hierarchy.

Naming Traditions of Castellum The strange sects of the Adeptus Mechanicus that forged Castellum have equally strange naming traditions, while other naming styles are welcomed on Castellum most of their number adopt the traditions of the primary Castellum sect. These puritanical-like names are taken from the vast scientific canon of suppositions, theorems and other sacred lines of text worshiped by the Mechanicum and chains them together into vast hyphenated first names followed by fairly 'Imperial' surnames.

Were someone familiar with the ways of Earth-that-Was the might consider this not far removed from naming traditions of Puritans.

Notable Priests of Castellum Fabricator-General Every-Simply-Connected-Closed-Three-Manifold-Is-Homeomorphic-To-The-Three-Sphere Lockwood is the Fabricator-General of Castellum. A pious and efficient Magos, “Three” Lockwood runs her young and vulnerable planet with a canny eye for political advantage. Despite the constant manoeuvring and political sparring with her neighbours on Ferraeus, Lockwood gives the outward appearance of being concerned with nothing more than the spiritual and moral welfare of her charges.