The Belicosa Potentis Omnissiah displays an example of a military-feudal organizational structure of a Forge World.
At the top is the Archmagos Intendant, the Planetary Governor or Fabricator-General of a Forge World, whose fealty is ultimately to Mars. In theory, anyway. Under him is the Holy Synod, the ruling Feudal-Clerical Oligarchy of the Forge World, which includes the Archmandriture, Archmagos, the Magos Majoris and other Magos. Under the various Magos would be the Taghmata Omnissiah.
Separate from the Holy Synod would be the Ordo Reductor, the Legio Titanicus, the Prefecture Magisterium (the Mechanicum counterpart of the Ordo Prefectus), the Skitarius and the Basilikon Astra. The Prefecture Magisterium is headed by the Malagra, Magos-warlords charged with enforcing the doctrine of the Omnissiah and the execution of the heretek.
The Knight Houses of the Questoris Familia are often seconded as vassals or allied warriors to both the Titan Legions and the Taghmata, depending on the ancient pacts of mutual support that bind them to whichever entities they fight alongside.
The Taghmata Omnissiah
The Taghmata Omnissiah is a military protocol enacted to create detached military formations, constructed by predetermined configurations of retainer troops, Tech-priests, war engines and support systems, placed under the command of Magos of the Synod. Often, they answer to a Magos/Archmagos Prime who possess overall authority over the diverse battle groups.
Composed of a bewildering tapestry of Magos, machine-works and indentured manpower bound under a rigid and labyrinthine hierarchal structure, the Taghmata Omnissiah is translated roughly as "That which is divinely ordered for war."
Each Forge World is an independent power, a kingdom in its own right that form a Feudal Order under Mars. And even then, within each Forge World lay a complex web of loyalties, fealties, doctrines and cultures, a myriad of factions as numerous as the forge-cities, forge-shrines, forge-fanes and manfactorum-citadels that populate the Forge World's landscape or even below it, in cases of subterranean forge complexes. Under this complex feudal structure, both on the macro-scale which encompassed whole Forge Worlds and alliances of Forge Worlds, and on the local scale of orders, colleges, fanes and forge cities, the loyalties of Taghmata were split between those who remained steadfast to the Emperor, those who swore fealty to the Warmaster, and even those who declared their own independence and sought to carve out their own techno-empires.
Each Forge World was a patchwork web of complex loyalties, composed of independent and semi-independent domains, in terms of physical infrastructure, territory, knowledge, craft and sacred rite. Thus, each Taghmata was a reflection of their masters, the Magos or Archmagos - their Learned Ones - who specialized in particular facets of the Machine Cult lore or commanded a sizable portion of their Forge World's infrastructure.
Each Magos commanded their own resources and military might, armies of retainers and cohorts of war machines outfitted and formed by their master's will and in accordance with their master's specialization and proclivity. These were the Taghma, the building blocks of the Taghmata.
When a Fabricator Archmagos-Intendant or Archmagos Archimandrite activates a Taghmata, the Magos under their command will provide troops and assets, including lesser Tech-priests and adepts, sub-cults and esoteric orders who owed fealty and vassalage to the High Magos called upon. They also call out distant outposts, Expeditionary fleets and client worlds tied together by patronage or ancient treaties or pacts of allegiance.
Before the Horus Heresy, the Taghmata was usually a defensive measure, mustered when a Forge World came under direct attack. Smaller Taghmata elements were formed during the Great Crusade to arm and equip Explorator expeditions, garrison outposts in hostile or hazardous regions of the void, and provide armed diplomatic escorts or deputations to the Expeditionary fleets and Rogue Trader Militant fleets. More frequently, though, the Expeditionary fleets and Rogue Trader Militant fleets would be accompanied by specialist military commands of the Mechanicum not loyal to any single Forge World: the Titan Legions, the Ordo Reductor, the Legio Cybernetica and the Legiones Skitarii.
The Legio Cybernetica and the Magos Militant/Secutarius compose of the biggest orders that serve as allies to the Taghmata Omnissiah, wielding considerable power as partners or even as vassals. Underneath them are the principal tactical divisions of the Taghmata, including the Autokrator, bonded Cybernetica, Macrotechnia, Munitoria Logis, Lacyraemara, and associated Orders and sub-cults Militant such as the Myrmidon Cult, the Corpuscarii Cult, the Explorator Forces, and more. They can also call upon the Knight Houses of the Questoris Familiar for assistance, particularly those bound to them through ancient treaties and pacts such as the Sidon Protocols.
The Legiones Skitarii
The Skitarii Legions, also known as the Mechanicum Protectors or Tech-Guard, are a sub-cult of the Omnissiah and follow their own unique martial traditions. They are ancient standing armies of elite cybernetically and genetically engineered troops, originating from Mars and loyal to the office of the Fabricator General. Thus, when Zagreus Kane became Fabricator-General when the Arch-Traitor Kelbor-Hal turned his back on Holy Terra, the majority of the Skitarii cohorts pledge their fealty to the new Fabricator-General instead.
Skitarii regiments are deployed separate from the Taghmata, maintaining their own structures of organization. They are the bionic heart of the Mechanicum's - and later Adeptus Mechanicus - legions, defending the Forge Worlds of the Imperium. Cybernetic, but still technically human warriors, the Skitarii have been extensively rebuilt with augmetic battleware and neurosync implants that permanently link them to their Tech-priest masters via the noosphere. Adepts can transmit battlefield commands through data-tethers or inload combat programs into the Skitarii in this manner, often using them as remote eyepieces.
The Skitarii Legions often escort the vast goliaths of the Centurio Ordinatus, march at the feet of the god-engines of the Titan Legions, reinforce the battle-automata of the Legio Cybernetica, and serve as bodyguards for Tech-priests in the battlefield. They are the standard infantry for a Forge World's military, equipped with esoteric and sophisticated weapons beyond those of even the vaunted Legiones Astartes during the Great Crusade or modern Space Marine Chapters.
From this, we can speculate the transformation of the Legiones Skitarii from the Great Crusade to the 41st millennium. Once the perview of Mars and loyal only to the office of the Fabricator-General, the Horus Heresy showed that such military power should never be concentrated in the hands of any individual, even a Primarch. After all, if one such as the brightest and most favored Horus Lupercal could fall, then who among the Adeptus Mechanicus could be trusted? Thus, following the example of Roboute Guilliman, who divided the Legions into Chapters, as well as the Departo Munitorum, who saw the split of the Imperial Army into the Imperial Guard and Imperial Navy, the Adeptus Mechanicus too broke up the Skitarii Legions into macroclades under the command of their respective Forge Worlds, instead of consolidating all power into a single command, such as Mars. For, if the Fabricator-General would once again turn from the light of the Emperor, the damage caused by such a betrayal - as well as the number of Skitarii Legions sworn to his command - would be minimized.
Each Forge World will possess a huge number of macroclades as their standing military. Each macroclade is comprised of 4 cohorts, each composed of three maniples for a total of 12 maniples. Within each maniple is a varying number of units, including Skitarii maniples, Kataphron squadrons and even battle-automata cohorts, along with accompanying Cohort Assets under the Cohort Command. Often, Forge Worlds will activate specialized Skitarii Cohorts, such as the Hunter Cohort or Sicarian Killclades for either acquisition, elimination, protection, or repulsion.
The Legio Cybernetica
The Legio Cybernetica is one of the most feared and powerful of the Legiones Militant of the Mechanicum. A sacred order divided into cohorts, they are charged with the construction and use of Battle-automata in warfare, existing as fully independent structures and sub-factions owing either pacts of mutual support or alliance with the Synods of Forge Worlds.
Under the Crimson Accords of Mars, they not only deploy battle-automata in war, but are also responsible for the development, propagation and maintenance of these terrifying machines. While the Crimson Accords forbid the creation of artificial intelligence, or Silica Animus, they allow the survival and creation of "lesser and righteous works" of synthetic life, such as the Battle-automata.
To restrain their immense power, which was sufficient to overthrow empires during the Age of Strife, the Legio Cybernetica is broken down into Cohorts to limit the power any single Archmagos of the Legio could wield. Each Cohort ranges from having between 30-100 Battle-automata maniples, which in turn comprises between one to five of the war engines. Each Cohort is commanded by a senior Tech-priest of the Machine Cult, and below them is a covenant of Magos Dominus who will control the war machines in battle, Myrmidons, enginseers, servitors and thralls who will tend to the Cohort's needs. The Cohorts also maintain their own support networks, mobile workshops, transports, battlefield vehicles, orbital landers and even star vessels, but are forbidden to found their own forges or chantries. Thus they are dependent on other Lords of the Mechanicum and their Forge Worlds for their long term survival and prosperity.
Legio Cybernetica Cohorts not only serve as defenders of Forge Worlds and retainers of Mechanicum factions, but also participate in Expeditionary Fleets during the Great Crusade. They are greatly valued by the diverse forces of the Great Crusade, including the Legiones Astartes, Rogue Traders Militant, Knight Houses and Imperial Army Hosts.
After the Horus Heresy, the Legio Cybernetica's robots have been controlled completely by their masters using sanctified doctrina wafers instead of the bio-plastic cereba and nerve-like tendril webs of Mechanicum constructs. Thus, the Kastelan robots differ from their Castellax Battle-automata brethren, as well as other automata patterns.
The Ordo Reductor
The Ordo Reductor is a mendicant order of Tech-priests devoted to the arts of siege craft, demolition and mass destruction. They are essentially nomadic, gravitating to areas of intense warfare, but maintain links to Forge Worlds for resupply and support.
Known as the "Bringers of Blessed Ruin," the Ordo Reductor is a highly specialized military division of the Mechanicum that embodies the animus of the Omnissiah as the destroyer and bringer of oblivion. Their origins date back to the Age of Strife on Mars, and when Holy Terra and Mars signed a treaty of alliance, the Ordo Reductor was created to sunder and destroy the enemies encountered during the Great Crusade.
The responsibilities of the Ordo Reductor range from relying on their Biologis to devise methods of killing tenacious and terrible alien lifeforms, their Preceptors analyzing enemy human techno-empires' weapons and defenses for any vulnerabilities, and most importantly, demolishing seemingly impregnable fortresses.
Rather than pledging their loyalty to feudal masters of the Mechanicum, the Ordo Reductor - having split from their Forge Worlds and domains - is loyal to the Great Crusade first. They usually compose of outcasts, either dangerously heretical in their leanings or overly independent. Fortunately, their detachment from feudal politics of Forge Worlds means they are not considered with the same levels of suspicion and distrust that shroud other Mechanicum factions, such as the Legio Cybernetica.
The individual commands of Ordo Reductor Magos and their attendant servants and war machines are known as Covenants, which are based almost entirely on purpose-configured warships - long-range, self-sustaining Galleas class vessels instead of the more common Arks Mechanicum. These ships serve as transport, fane and permanent base for the Ordo Reductor during the Great Crusade, and are their own sovereign domains.
Ordo Reductor Covenants serve the various Expeditionary fleets, flocking from war zone to war zone, and function in the roles of battlefield intelligence gatherers, warrior-seers and savants of carnage. They seldom act directly in battle, instead conducting targeted raids and probing strikes ahead of a main advance, or stalk burning battlefields to study the dead and the destroyed. The one exception is siegecraft, the sole aspect of warfare that the Magos of the Ordo Reductor take pride in, sundering unconquerable defenses and surviving Zone Mortalis battles.
The Covenants of the Ordo Reductor operate as autonomous and self-sufficient warbands, containing a mixture of Magos and Tech-priest savants whose specialities range from tactical assault to macro-firepower to mimetic and forensic battlefield analysis to munitions production. The Ordo Reductor also possesses weapons forbidden since the Dark Age of Technology and dangerous arcana. They are also permitted to innovate new weapons and war machines in order to overcome the countless enemies encountered during the Great Crusade. The development of the powerful eradication cannon mounted on the Hellion-Minoris war machines of the Centurio Ordinatus during the Rangdan campaigns is one example.
The most widespread Ordo Reductor's creation is the Thallaxii, heavily augmented cybernetic shock troops meant to replace the Skitarii Legions of Mars, who answer only to the Fabricator-General, and thus are not accessible as infantry support. Extremely potent and durable, the Thallax are often gifted or traded to other Mechanicum factions, such as the Taghmata of Forge Worlds and the Myrmidon sub-cult in return for supply and allegiance.
The Ordo Reductor displays a long history of successful tactical and strategic integration with the forces of the Great Crusade alongside which it served, for example, swearing allegiance to various Space Marine Legions and even incorporating their heraldry and livery into their own.
The Centurio Ordinatus
The Centurio Ordinatus is the division of the Mechanicum that oversees the construction, maintenance and deployment of the massive Ordinatus engines. It is possible that they work in tandem with the Ordo Reductor or the Macrotechnia of a Forge World, the weapons mounted upon their machines possessing unrivalled, apocalyptic firepower - surpassing even that wielded by the formidable Titan Legions.
Other Mechanicum Tactical Divisions
The Autokrator comprises of ground armor, pioneer forces, mobile artillery units and Tech Guard regiments (apparently, not Skitarii).
Macrotechnia is composed of Enginseer Covenants, Tech-Thrall Combat Units, Macro-Machina, Ordinatus Locum and Technographica Determinus. The Macrotek Order is often the most numerous of the classes of Magos who govern the Forge Worlds, and are venerated fane and forge masters, the tech-wrights of great macro-furnaces that power endless cycles of production, and responsible for the ministrations of vast engines of industry and war. They often accompany their masters and mighty war machines they administer onto the battlefield, enacting field repairs, assuage fevered machine spirits and perform the required micro-calibrations to arms and systems to ensure the holy engines of battle perform to their optimal efficiency.
The Munitoria Logis is the producer and provider of munitions and wargear, Servitor and Drone Cohorts assigned to Taghmata service, signals and the Lexmechanicus Auditorii. Basically, logistics. They also compile data and are in charge of battlefield analysis.
The Lacyraemara provides indentured labor units, Adsecularis modified troops and tech-thralls, bio-alchem cadres, Tech-priest Lacyraemarta Covenants and cyber-hybrid carnivora. The Tech-priests Lacyraemarta are masters of the thralls and servitors that work the forges and march to war, and their arts are those of flesh-craft and alchemistry. They employ tech-thralls as expendable troops, augmenting them with inhuman levels of resilience and function in the short term at the expense of ruining their subjects' bodies. I believe they are also the ones who produce the Cybercanids for the Serberys Corps of the Skitarii Legions.
The Myrmidax are the lords of the Myrmidon sub-cult, savants of firepower and master weaponsmiths. Their sole concentration is the art of destruction and the embodiment of that power within their own vastly augmented bodies, in which little organic remains. To the Myrmidons, war is a matter of cold logic and murderous equation. Instead of swearing fealty to any single master, the Myrmidons are drawn to battle, seeking fresh challenges to defeat. Their invaluable arts and expertise form a cornerstone of many newly formed and expanded Taghmata.
Several craft their augmetics to carry the heaviest of weapons, often only rendered portable owing to their reinforced endoskeletons and implanted power systems. These augmentations enable them to maintain a furious barrage with unequalled precision and skill. They specialize particularly in the destruction of enemy armored and fortified emplacements, and wield all manner of esoteric and arcane weapons that circumvent conventional defenses.
The Basilikon Astra
The division of the Machine God's servants tasked with the construction, use and operation of void craft and interstellar vessels. They control the outer reaches of a Forge World's systems and so stand apart from the planetary synods, but are still tied to them by dependence and ancient tradition.
The Knight Houses of the Questoris Familia
I have already written an entire article on Mechanicum-Oathed Knight Houses, but suffice to say, the ruling noble Houses of the Knight Worlds form their own unique culture and traditions. They forge close bonds with the Mechanicum for mutual defense, resupply, repairs, maintenance and production of new Knight armors. There are varying degrees of independence, but while many Knight Houses broker alliances with or pledge vassalage to Taghmata and other Mechanicum forces, many more form the Ordo Questoris and join Expeditionary fleets during the Great Crusade in search of honor, glory and wealth. The Horus Heresy would see the same schism in the loyalties of the Knight Houses as the the one that has riven the Legiones Astartes, Mechanicum and Excertus Imperialis alike, with many nobly upholding their oaths to the Emperor while others instead swear fealty to the Warmaster to fuel their dark ambitions.
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