Technoarcana (Tech-Priests)
The Technoarcana of the Machine Cult are a thin shadow of what the Martian Priesthood was once capable of unleashing - but they are not without their horrific potency - the advanced examples of technology hoarded by the Mechanicus give them a distinct technological edge against the foes of the Imperium - this is why Tech-Priests are so valued by the Inquisition where it can bring them in as agents for their deep and advanced knowledge of technology can make them as much a deadly fighter as a skilled artisan.
Power Tests
Several traits and abilities request that a character performs a Power Test - this is a test with a 25% chance of failure. In all cases you can always delay a test until it would not interrupt the flow of roleplay or combat - you are free to do it earlier, but we generally recommend doing tests at the end of a combat for example.
The standard suggestion for doing this is take a bag of beads and fill it with 12 beads, 9 of one colour (representing success) 3 of another (representing failure) and do a draw. But any other method capable of determining a 25% chance of failure is acceptable.
There may be conditions where this will flip and it will be a 75% chance of failure and a 25% chance of success.
Omnissian Technoarcana
Sometimes called Cybertheurgy the ‘powers’ displayed by the servants of the Omnissiah reflect their chosen specialisations within the Machine Cult - like any religious organisation the Cult is organised into various sects and orders within orders each representing the specialised nature of the Tech Priest, each such Order granting those who become members of it access to the jealousy hoarded technologies claimed by ancient patents as the exclusive technologies of that Order.
The Technoarcana are divided into two types Rites and a Martian Device - each Order has access to a handful of Rites, and a single Device which can take many forms. They also suffer from Feedback-Curses representing the specific malfunctions and glitches that that Order is prone to when they fail a power test.
Some Rites and Devices can be pushed to gain additional effects but at added risk of suffering a Feedback-Curse.
Once for each scene in which you use a Martian Device and once for each time a character pushes a Rite or Device you must make a Power Test, otherwise you will suffer one of the Feedback-Curses.
All Tech Priest can access the following generic rite;
Rite Communicet Machinis
After some time spent in communion with a device with a Machine Spirit or a Cogitator you may ask a ref a question - if this device is not guarded or protected by high-level datadjinn you may push to ask a ref if you can instruct it to do something instead.’
A character with the Tech Priest trait can choose to join one of the following Orders;
- Ordo Lacyraemarta
- Ordo Macrotek
- Ordo Malagra
- Ordo Myrmidon (pre-req. Servo-Harness Trait with the Weapon of Old Night sub-trait)
- Ordo Luminen
- Ordo Logi
Some sanctioned (and occasionally unsanctioned) individuals known as Info-Executors possess a unique Technoarcana (if it can be truly called that for its crude nature) though they are not true members of the Machine-Cult and possess no Martian Devices.