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[Kot]

Spoiler: Yep. (click to show/hide)

Human tech is already basically a heap of scrap metal that only works through sheer force of faith, so it makes sense that it would be compatible with ork tech.

Very little of human tech is actually unsophisticated (at least in terms of military stuff, simple things get usually manufactured the old way, not by STCs), which is a problem of itself.

It's my understanding that over-reliance on digital storage for records,

Books burn. Books rot away. Nothing else really has good storage capability.

These sites are strictly protected by the previously mentioned ultra-conservatives, who (mis)interpret what little they successfully recover, and destroy everything that does not fit their preconceived narrative about the glory and majesty of his royal flatulence, the god emperor of man. (you know, because "HERESY!")

Wrong. I mean, yes, that's what happens. But Mechanicus aren't anti-progress for the sake of it. People like to believe they're some backwards selfish assholes that slap dicks on buttons to make things go because they lost all the knowledge. The truth is far worse - the knowledge is there, heaps of it, the problem is that it's ACTUALLY heretical. As in "wants-to-kill-everything-heretical". STCs and computers are corrupted, by direct warp influence or viruses, either normal or daemonic, making anyone use them go mad, and capable of spreading the madness just like your regular computer virus, and some of them are more insidious, pretending to be clean just to try to strike the Imperium when it would hurt the most. What doesn't make you mad, physically wants to kill you, basically every and all repository of old knowledge, Mars being the worst offender, contains millions of rogue servitors, machines, Men of Iron and Omnissiah knows what else, making any attempt to recover technology suicidal. Whatever left that is not heretical/murderous/broken/false/allofabove is rare and presumably delicate, so they simply can't let some retards that aren't themselves touch it, because while Mechanicus are vastly unqualified for the job, others are even worse. Working with science, technology and MY MACHINES requires the levels of careful that probably could only be equalized to trying to defuse an atomic bomb in middle of Moscow/Washington D.C. at the height of Cold War. If they fuck up, it's over, and it could very much be over for everyone concerned. On a side tangent - it always baffles me that people try to paint Imperium and assorted organizations as evil, when they're the only ones who even remember what good is even anymore, it's just that they can't afford it. The horror is not that everyone is now assholes, the horror is that being an asshole is the only way to survive the onslaught of asshole world with hope that in future, there might be world where we can stop being assholes.

It kinda makes me pine for a story from the perspective of a lowly technician who gets stuck in a temporal stasis cell on accident during the dark age, getting woke up in the 'modern' era, and subsequently going on the run from the imperium for his heretical views, getting into all kinds of trouble.

He'd be the least interesting item wherever he would be found. If he survived in a stasis cell, that means there had to be active power for like ten thousand years, which implies wherever he was has relatively untouched technology and power-generators that have been able to survive so long without people checking up on them. Another point for consideration, that he survived and no daemon pulled the plug to rape his mouth through the lower intestine (or no virus caused the field to break and cause accelerated aging while keeping him alive, or something fun like that) implies that the whole place is relatively untouched by daemonic influence. What Mechanicus would do is probably rip his brain out and shove it in a navigation system so he can point them to places that also contain old technology.

Although, given that FTL is a dangerous thing and isn’t used often (though I guess FTL communication exists?) there’s some isolation effect on various imperium worlds, so, you’d think that not all worlds would experience a dark age at the same time, or at least not experience it in the same way.

During Dark Age of Technology they traveled and communicated pretty much the same way as Imperium does, except with AIs as navigators and presumably sophisticated relays instead of astropaths. All worlds were hit by the Age of Strife at the same time due to heavy warp storms that appeared through the galaxy, fucking up FTL travel, making communication impossible, starting the whole "FUCK THE MACHINES ARE TRYING TO EAT MY BRAINS" debacle, causing psykers to pop up and then pop randomly because daemons, all that while dealing with regular traits of life in The Galaxy like Orks and whatnot.

I think the Emperor himself shows evidence to the rule that logic and reason do not win in this universe. The dude tried to play everything according to reason and mathematics, but the reality is that reality is super malleable. Faith matters in weird ways which make no sense. If someone woke up from the dark age of technology and tried to flush the machine spirit on a land raider, it would likely eat him.

Emperor try was actually very successful, all thing considered, and he applied his reason and mathematics to "warp" stuff as well, because he knew it was real. He just fucked up (arguable, but I'll let it go) because he was wrestling more than four cosmic beings capable of altering reality. It was the various human governments during Dark Ages of Technology that approached everything with blind reason and mathematics, rejecting the idea of emotions mattering, despite travelling through warp on daily basis, and in general acting like Tau in regards to what is "not real", which actually makes sense if you think about it, considering that psykers only started appearing after mentioned warp storms, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say for longest time main bulk of humanity was blanks in one way or another.

Besides, said hypothetical person would have been contemporary with the era when humans were widely using AI, and when "the men of iron" initiated their rebellion. (if not slightly before.)

As such, the notion of a "machine spirit" might be seen as absurd to him. (Similar to how Tau tech is not venerated such.)  Hence, why he would be on the run from the imperium for heresy. (The mechanicus would be after him real bad with a serious hate boner.)

He wouldn't be on the run for disbelief in machine spirits. Mechanicus don't actually care to this point unless someone does something like public demonstrations, which well, smells of heresy. A lot of guardsmen don't believe in machine spirits, so presumably a lot of civilians don't, which just pisses off the Tech-Priest to big extent since people like those disregard procedures and maintenance protocols, not to mention high chance of actually angering the machine spirit.

The fact that OTHERS believe in machine spirits would however, MAKE them real-- as alluded to. 

Thus, the "What did you fuckers do to the universe!?" angle.

The fact they believe in machine spirits might have an impact on them, but I'm pretty sure even without that machine spirits would be very much real. Scraps of AI (which is forbidden, but it's not like Mechanicus can find an AI that tries to conceal itself), computer systems so advanced that while not being true AI, seemingly AI, and then there is the fact that a lot of Imperial tech involves fucking brains in jars in place of computers, that while mind-wiped, might retain and/or develop personalities. Machine spirit is just a term, Mechanicus explanation for the phenomena of machines acting seemingly out of their own volition and at the same time very convenient excuse to force dumb Guardsmen to actually pay attention to maintenance, or else their lasgun will come to life on it's own and fry their balls.

[Egan_BW]

Emperor try was actually very successful, all thing considered, and he applied his reason and mathematics to "warp" stuff as well, because he knew it was real. He just fucked up (arguable, but I'll let it go) because he was wrestling more than four cosmic beings capable of altering reality. It was the various human governments during Dark Ages of Technology that approached everything with blind reason and mathematics, rejecting the idea of emotions mattering, despite travelling through warp on daily basis, and in general acting like Tau in regards to what is "not real", which actually makes sense if you think about it, considering that psykers only started appearing after mentioned warp storms, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say for longest time main bulk of humanity was blanks in one way or another.

And whose fault was it that humans stopped having psykers for that time period? Checkmate, imperial.

I'd argue that the imperium doesn't "remember what good is" any more than the other factions. It's a massive, decentralized, dysfunctional bureaucracy kept working by inertia and spite for its enemies. The person who's supposed to be officially in charge has been effectively dead for ten thousand years, which happens to also be how long it's been since things were going well for humanity as a whole. The people in high positions got there through some mixture of nepotism, backstabbing, and faceshooting, are mostly unaccountable to anyone with fewer guns, and even if they so happen to be noble people who want to improve humanity's lot, there's only so much they can do when the imperium's infrastructure is fucked by the warp and being at war with everything at once.
Under those conditions, the average imperial isn't going to think "this is bad, but if I make some sacrifices maybe things will be better", they'll think about how to survive another day.
Even if the asshole choice is the only way to survive, the imperium isn't consciously picking it to preserve the good in the universe, it's ended up at the asshole choice because the other choices died.

[Kot]

And whose fault was it that humans stopped having psykers for that time period? Checkmate, imperial.

You are saying it like not having living atomic bombs of mind rape ready to open literal gates to hell on every planet is a bad thing. And either way, even if you do consider lack of psykers as a bad thing, we again arrive at the core problem of the Imperium again - majority of decisions that are made aren't some form of stupid malice for the sake of screwing over their own kind, and if they are you can pretty much bet that Chaos is involved (or someone is just THAT stupid, those things are bound to happen if you have that many people, but oh well). Emperor (or rather, Shamans) didn't decide to suck the collective psychical potential for thousand of years in advance to create Emperor just so he could dick around. They did so because that was the only way they had to create a being strong enough to fight back the already hostile warp. Before Emperor, people were being literally eaten by Enslavers and other random Warp beings like Earth was some kind of space buffet.

I'd argue that the imperium doesn't "remember what good is" any more than the other factions. It's a massive, decentralized, dysfunctional bureaucracy kept working by inertia and spite for its enemies. The person who's supposed to be officially in charge has been effectively dead for ten thousand years, which happens to also be how long it's been since things were going well for humanity as a whole. The people in high positions got there through some mixture of nepotism, backstabbing, and faceshooting, are mostly unaccountable to anyone with fewer guns, and even if they so happen to be noble people who want to improve humanity's lot, there's only so much they can do when the imperium's infrastructure is fucked by the warp and being at war with everything at once.
Under those conditions, the average imperial isn't going to think "this is bad, but if I make some sacrifices maybe things will be better", they'll think about how to survive another day.
Even if the asshole choice is the only way to survive, the imperium isn't consciously picking it to preserve the good in the universe, it's ended up at the asshole choice because the other choices died.

Yes, no, kind of. In light of how absolutely massive Imperial bureaucracy is, it's fucking amazing anything ever gets done, that's the first point. They certainly aren't way worse than modern day bureaucracies are. The person who is supposed to be officially in charge has been effectively deprived of direct control, and communication with him (unless you're like, Papa Smurf) is done by fucking guesswork with Imperial Tarot. Emperor isn't actually completely cut-off as people seem to believe, he has tools to contact with Imperium, he just doesn't do it that often, but when he does, His will IS done, even if nobody knows why. Now, people in high positions have gotten there through some mixture of nepotism, backstabbing, face-shooting, and being generally a shitty human being, but actually dumb people don't last for very long in positions of such immense power, so they have to know that it is in their best interests that Imperium keeps on chugging - the only alternative is getting eaten by Tyranids, face-fucked by Warp, etc, none of which are positive career opportunities. So, they have to do their best to at least make sure it doesn't fall apart during their lifetimes. Under those conditions, the average Imperial IS going to think "this is bad, but if I make some sacrifices, maybe things will be better", if due to nothing other than sheer indoctrination. Factory workers, clerks, Guardsmen, everyone is fed the glorious idea that if they keep doing their best, Imperium is going to emerge gloriously on the other side, and Emperor will come up to them in afterlife and personally shake their hands in congratulation of job well done. The funniest part is that while it's easy to become cynical and disillusioned with said propaganda, at the core that propaganda is true, (though Emperor hand shaking is probably more like burning your soul away in His Light (which, out of possible final destinations for a soul in Warhammer universe, honestly ain't that bad) or possibly headpats), so said cynics are probably already evil heretics. Then, there is a step up from that, in the shape of Marines, officers of Guard, and assorted martially inclined people that WH40k tends to focus at (though, there are also nobles and administrators that aren't fucking corrupt assholes for once) that actually realize at least a fraction of how fucked the world is, but keep on chugging.
Anyway, the point is mainly that, Imperium is only (except maybe Tau, if they break away from being mind slaves, but they don't really have a shot at victory either) faction whose "victory" would be considered positive in traditional civilized morality sense. Eldar just gonna kill themselves because they're giant emos, Necrons will just murder everything living, Tyranids will just eat everything living, Orks will just keep on killing each other (and presumably their victory necessitates something akin to The Beast form of leadership, which was arriving at the levels of fucked-up that even Chaos Warriors felt aroused by how horrible it was), and so on.

[Andres]

What is the advantage of being Questor Imperialis over being Questor Mechanicus? As I understand it, Mechanicus knights generally get access to more advanced technology, which is a definite pro. As far as I know though, Imperialis knights don't get any advantage from their allegiance.

[Trekkin]

What is the advantage of being Questor Imperialis over being Questor Mechanicus? As I understand it, Mechanicus knights generally get access to more advanced technology, which is a definite pro. As far as I know though, Imperialis knights don't get any advantage from their allegiance.

In-universe, the primary benefit is that Imperial Knight houses occupy a position outside the usual military chain of command, loosely analogous to that of Space Marine chapters. They're expected to go do their thing, and they can be very strongly encouraged to do so in certain circumstances, but ultimately they are requested rather than ordered into specific actions. Mechanicum Houses are bound by the Sidon Protocol to go where they're told, often on behalf of specific forge worlds, and the Titan-affiliated ones follow the big walkers around.

On the tabletop, they get different stratagems.

[Loud Whispers]

Astartes Part 4 has come out. The bois have a friendly discussion with psykers

[Tack]

Can’t get a bearing on their power level. Somewhere between Rogue Psyker and Librarian.
Something like a chaos Primaris psyker? Annoyingly they don’t exist in game yet.

[Loud Whispers]

Can’t get a bearing on their power level. Somewhere between Rogue Psyker and Librarian.
Something like a chaos Primaris psyker? Annoyingly they don’t exist in game yet.

Looks like Imperial primaris psykers gone renegade, probably a high gamma on the power scale. They're powerful enough to deflect bolter rounds, they're focused enough to blast away space marines, but it takes the two of them to hold back the space marine captain & they get overwhelmed by numbers. It also looks like most of the space marines (perhaps even all) survived the blasts of psychic force they projected.

It's highly unlikely that they're rogue psykers since they are very well-trained, there's two of them in the same uniform, they're commanding the rest of the ship's forces (in the earlier videos) and those spinal implants they have (to better control their own warp energies) are given to sanctioned psykers. They're likely high-ranking psykers from the Imperial planetary forces that rose up in revolt, joining the rebel leaders. If they were chaos psykers it's pretty surprising that they didn't use something more warpy or summon tentacular gribblies, so I think it's safe to say the psykers at least were rebel Imperial forces, not full-blown chaos. The chappies behind the vault however may be moreso inclined to chaos so who knows

It's just about what you'd expect from separating psykers from their imperial guard tarpit

[Tack]

Yeah, freezing dudes in place would have been much more useful back when they had the autocannon.

Also I thought it was just a cracked lens on first pass but I think that sergeant might have had blood shoot from his eye which can't have felt great.

[Dorsidwarf]

I recall someone saying that the creator of Astartes mentioned that the psycher guys were some of the rebellious nobles who started the uprising (And who the marines were chasing) using those spine implant things to turbocharge their psychic powers, but thats completely unsourced. (this might explain why they seemed very strong (Freezing leaping marines, gigantic long-ranges shockwaves, impenetrable force fields) but didnt know any of the actually deadly disciplines, simply relying on raw strength)

So far its been left highly ambiguous as to whether this is simple renegades, chaos, or something more insidious, but I guess we'll find out once the marines get into that vault.

[Rolan7]

I just had an exchange with a chaos cultist, where I am a forsaken Eldar, Dark Eldar, who wants to rejoin the wraithbone.  But in the meantime I um try to sate Slaanesh.

This might be the most desperate religion-post I've had the audacity to post.  But:
Is there any route for Dark Eldar to rejoin the craftworlds?  Perhaps even add their souls into the wraithbone symphony?

[Egan_BW]

It's a big galaxy, I'm sure it happens. But then, craftworlder eldar are pretty much high elves and thus extremely hard to deal with. So expect them to send you on a suicide mission so that they hopefully don't have to ever see you again.

[Tack]

Their souls are kind of atrophied because of segregation from the warp, and the psy-tech which most Eldar use wouldn't work very well either.
That being said, dark eldar are still eldar, and culturally there wouldn't be much pushback to it. Join the paths, wear a spirit stone, become a 'friendly' corsair and pretty soon you could likely pop on to a craftworld and be welcomed with open arms.

Worst case you might have to go exodite instead, but that still has some sense of community to it.

[Trekkin]

This might be the most desperate religion-post I've had the audacity to post.  But:
Is there any route for Dark Eldar to rejoin the craftworlds?  Perhaps even add their souls into the wraithbone symphony?

It's explicitly mentioned as possible, if exceedingly rare. They can go be Corsairs and Exodites, though, and from there moving to the Craftworlds is more frequent.

I guess they just claim to have been on the Path of the Utter Bastard?

[Grim Portent]

There's a 'redeemed' Dark Eldar in the Path of the Eldar novels.

They served as the Exarch of a Striking Scorpions shrine as I recall.

It's basically a matter of popping on a spirit stone and joining the path system. Big shift from the mentality of being a Dark Eldar, who would sooner trust in their ability to never die than put their soul in a box when they die so someone else can torment it. Craftworlders are dutiful and trust each other, Dark Eldar are much the opposite, so it's usually easier for the former to fall than the latter to reform.

A reformed DEldar would also still look physically different from other Eldar, be blunted in psychic ability and face prejudice from it's new people.