Servitor
Servitors are mindless drones of flesh and metal used to carry out simple, manual tasks. They are one of the few tolerated forms of robotics in the Imperium as they are simply surgically enhanced cyborgs, not true artificial intelligence.[8]
Contents
Overview
While many are vat-grown, often a criminal, particularly one who has offended the Cult Mechanicus, will be sentenced to "Servitude Imperpituis" and will be handed over to the Tech-priests to be mind-wiped, reprogrammed, and cybernetically-enhanced to serve some specific, rudimentary function. Servitors are mindless, possessing only the most basic of instincts. Their brains are programmed to perform only the task they were designed for. In rare cases, physical trauma may cause fragments of the servitors' previous human personality to resurface. The altered and fragmented brain of a Servitor functions poorly unless constantly supervised. Most will go into a state of mindlock, babbling incoherent nonsense as the Servitor tries to assert some form of awareness.[3]
Servitors are created by the Adeptus Mechanicus, and supplied to departments of the Adeptus Terra such as the Administratum, and to the Inquisition. Servitors make up the vast bulk of the population of Mars and other Forge Worlds, where they fulfill the role of workers.[1]
There are many types of Servitor, each designed for a certain task. Typical Servitors are "Technomats" which operate and service machines, "Holomats" which act as holographic recordists, "Lexomats" which are like human computers with tremendous calculating powers, and "Drones" which are living robots—stupid and essentially mindless slaves ideal for menial work and little else.[2]
Servitors are often used to carry out the more dangerous or laborious duties, such as heavy mining. They also accompany Tech-priest Enginseers on the battlefield with the Imperial Guard, as well as Space Marine Techmarines. These types aid in the repair of vehicles or sometimes carry large and dangerous weapons such as plasma cannons. For both forces, the Servitors are practically identical cybernetically, although the servitors of some Space Marine Chapters are created from failed Marine Initiates. Perhaps the most feared of all the Servitors are the Praetorian Servitors, a class of heavily armed and armoured Servitor created from Ogryn stock that are deployed by the Adeptus Mechanicus to guard the Tech-priests and temples dedicated to the Machine God.[Needs Citation]
In theory any living thing with a sufficiently-developed nervous system can be converted into a Servitor, as evidenced by Servo-Raptors, Psyber-Eagles, and the Black Gobbo gretchin, but it is generally considered a sin against the Omnissiah to create them from sapient xenos.[30] This has not, however, stopped a number of Magos from doing so despite their professed loyalty to the Mechanicus. House Delaque builds Spektors from Piscean brains, Vettius Telok commanded Servitors made of Orks,[11b] and Explorator Magos Caul went so far as to retrofit his Servitors with Tau weapons, communications systems, and even anti-grav suspensors.[35]
Servitors are extremely resistant to daemonic possession, utterly immune to the temptations of Daemons.[40] However, with great effort, demonic possession of servitors is still possible, though daemons will find such hosts provide little in the way of succor and sustenance, as servitors lack much in the way of the emotions that normally sustain them.[41]
Servitor Classes
- Technical Servitors are a common sight in the Imperium; they are not intended for combat but are very useful in assisting battlefield operations. These are referred to as "mono-tasks", being physically changed and augmented to perform a specific function. Commonly they are used as load lifters and cranes, but more exotic mono-tasks include the heavy weapon mount and the mobile weapons rack. These are the standard Servitors that accompany a Tech-priest.[Needs Citation]
- Golem Servitors are normally put to work at ports and can be equipped with thick pincer-hands.[18b]
- Combat Servitors are armed with highly effective combat weaponry and programmed with basic weapon routines in order to use them.[13b]
- Arco-Eviscerators are a type of Combat Servitor.[21]
- Gun Servitors are military-grade units that are equipped with enhanced sensors, programmed with targeting cants and fitted with heavy weaponry.[13c]
- H-Grade Combat Servitor - Ogryn Combat Servitors, that can be used by the Astra Militarum[32]
- Herakli - Large Combat Servitors used by Adeptus Mechanicus armies.[12]
- Kataphron Battle Servitor — Powerful war Servitors used by the Adeptus Mechanicus.[24]
- Kill-Servitors - A type of Mutant Combat Servitor used by the Dark Mechanicum.[23]
- Industrial Servitors have been modified with rigs to lift loads, drill rocks or smash ore in one of the Imperium's countless industrial complexes.[13c]
- Heavy Repair Servitors are fused with specialized repair gear.[13c]
- Medical Servitors (also known as Med-Servitors[13a] or Medicae-Servitor[22]) are programmed to provide medical care.[13a]
- Cogitator Core Servitor - A forbidden form of Servitor used by House Van Saar on Necromunda. They are produced by taking the Cogitator systems from Necromunda's many monitoring and regulating systems and splicing them into a standard Servitor brain.[13]
- Cenobyte Servitors[4] (also — Cenobite Servitors)[9] assist the Chaplains of the Black Templars. They are used to carry relics into battle and intone prayers to the God-Emperor, as well as all other jobs given to normal servitors.[4] It is known that the Neophytes of the Black Templars who failed their duty became Cenobyte Servitors.[9]
- The Samech Redemption Servitor is a pattern designed to scavenge the wastes of Samech, and are relatively autonomous, with the ability to self-repair and an instinct to seek out valuable technology, powered mainly through Transmuter Cores. Creation of a Redemption Servitor involves heavy replacement of the neck, arm, and leg joints with pivots that provide almost 360 degree rotation, a torso with four additional limbs, creating a squat arachnid profile and most models also use epidermal armour plating. Although its design varies with the forge of manufacture, it incorporates several pieces of Samech’s electro-magnetic wargear.[Needs Citation]
- The Standard Configuration has a techxorcism cannon usually installed in the chest and fired through the gullet for neutralising other technological enemies and scavenging machines that may not be completely inert. In order to reach and disassemble precarious wreckage, also containing an auxiliary magnetic repulsion system that allows them to traverse unstable structures and its spindly limbs are capable of puncturing steel.[5]
- Guardian Configuration servitors have their plasma cutters replaced with other armaments. Solid ammunition weapons with an extended ammo feed stored in the servitor’s hollow chest cavity. With more two climbing spindles affixed with chain or power weapons.[5]
- The Retriever Configuration is designed for live capture, provided the target can be recovered from the servitor afterwards. They are usually mounted with a webber on its exterior, and a primitive auspex package is often added for tracking bio-signs.[5]
- Skulker Configuration servitors are equipped for the express purpose of causing terror and disruption in Imperial populations. It is claimed that such versions have enhanced vox units that produce a range of unhallowed cries. The units are also frequently described as being rusty and in poor repair.[5]
- Ecclesiarchal Servitors are exclusively used by the Sisters of Battle. They are specially modified by the Adeptus Mechanicus to suit the Sisters' needs and are dispatched first into combat zones to provide essential infrastructure for the Sister's campaigns; as well as providing maintenance for damaged vehicles and buildings. The Ecclesiarchal Servitor also has the ability to dismantle enemy fortifications, using its deep knowledge of structural engineering to cause extreme damage to enemy buildings.[6]
- Macro Servitors are extremely large and are invaluable tools on archeological digs or journeys into underground tombs. Their drills and chainblades are also very handy in fights.[20a]
- Munitorum Servitors are used by the Departmento Munitorum in countless menial ways. They are also sent to serve Enginseers in the Astra Militarum. There the Servitors used their industrial servo-arms to help with repairs and to also attack any foe that gets near them.[25]
- Runner-Servitor used by Imperial Army Regiments to gather bins filled with spent lasgun powercells. The Servitors would then drag the bins away to recharge the powercells with a Charger Maw, before returning them to the Regiment's Troopers.[26]
- Servitor Imps are made from diminutive Human bodies, though they are still able to carry heavy objects.[20b]
- Xenolinguitor Servitors are designed to translate Xeno texts and write down the translations for the Imperium use.[7]
- Servo-scrutinary Familiars are employed as parts of Enhanced Surveillance Systems.[17]
- Choir Servitors are skinny, limbless cyborgs with concealed the mechanical workings to keep them halfalive. Iron plates are bolted over their eye-sockets and vox-amp grilles are fixed over their mouths. Their heads are linked with ribbed cables connecting their singing in perfect synchronicity. Other models include a variant hardwired into a massive mechanical steam organ.[28]
- Servitor-Ogryn - Ogryns that have been converted into Servitors.[31]
- Heavenly Host - Similar to Cherub's
- Obliviate - a type of servitor utterly devoid of cognition, left a soulless automata. The Mechanicum was forced to accept it as a form of Tech-Heresy due to the pressure of Adeptus Ministorum and Ordo Hereticus, abhorred with the destruction of the soul.[34]
- Janus Simulacrum - a type of servitor with only the barest use of organic tissue, it's operation steered away from the living cortex towards a cogitator. Although used only as a pecularity in the wealthiest's collections some more irate tried to bring its cogitator towards sentience and awareness, their ambition answered in their doom from the Cult Mechanicus, which does not tread lightly around the threat of AI.
- Archivids - Spindly constructs that resemble the arachnids of ancient Terra, designed to torture and extract data from prisoners.[39]
- Excruciator Servitor - Designed to torture and extract data from prisoners.[39]
Notable Servitors
Related Articles
- Servo-Sentry
- Cyber-Altered Task
- Servo-Automata
- Piscean Spektor
- Adeptus Mechanicus
- Skitarii
- Iron Hands
- Sons of Medusa
- Necron Pariah
Images
Technical Servitor with arm implants that function as vices.
Gun Servitor armed with an implanted Heavy Bolter.
Servitor with Plasma Gun[23]
Combat Servitor with an electro-flail and a small chainsword.
Cenobyte Servitor with a Black Templar standard.
Cenobite Servitor sketch.[9]
Ecclesiarchal Servitor.[6]
Squat Servitor.[19]
Macro Servitor.[20a]
Servitor Imp.[20b]
The first Black Gobbo as a Gretchin Servitor[30]
H-Grade Combat Servitor[32]
Sources
- 1: Codex Imperialis (Background Book), pgs. 22, 41 & 45
- 2: Realm of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned - The Cult Mechanicus
- 3: Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pg. 72
- 4: Deathwatch: First Founding, pg. 107
- 5: Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos, pgs. 90–91
- 6: Dawn of War: Soulstorm: unit description, unit ability description
- 7: Fire Warrior (Novel), Chapter 6, pg. 140
- 8: Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition Rulebook, pg. 278 — The Journal of Keeper Cripias
- 9: http://web.archive.org/web/20051210134551/http://uk.games-workshop.com/spacemarines/blacktemplars-concept-art/1/ (saved archive page, dated December 2005, last accessed 13 October 2016)
- 10: Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress - Escalation, pg. 22
- 11: Priests of Mars (Novel)
- 12: Deliverance Lost (Novel), Chapters 16-17
- 13: Dark Heresy Core Rulebook:
- 13: Necromunda: House of Artifice, pg. 52
- 14: Rynn's World (Novel), Part 1 - Chapter 6
- 15: Warhammer: Visions 8, pg. 187 — Parade Ground
- 16: Codex: Space Wolves (5th Edition), pg. 38
- 17: Kill Team: Moroch Rules Manual, pg. 49 — Phobos Strike Team - Strategic Assets
- 18: The Vorbis Conspiracy (Anthology)
- 19: White Dwarf 111 (UK), pg. 47
- 20: Warhammer: Visions 6 - Blanchitsu
- 21: Warhammer: Visions 12, pgs. 208-214 — Blanchitsu
- 22: Wrath of the Lost (Novel), Chapter 4
- 23: Arks of Omen: Abaddon, pg. 15 — The Coming of Vashtorr
- 24: Codex: Cult Mechanicus (7th Edition) — Weapons of Enlightenment
- 25: Codex: Astra Militarum (9th Edition), pg. 72 — Datasheets
- 26: Garro: Knight of Grey (Novella), Chapter 2
- 27: The End and the Death: Volume I (Novel), 4:ii
- 28: Rynn's World (Novel), Chapter One
- 29: Warhammer Community: Inquisitorial Agents Sprues Revealed – Meet One Of The Most Flexible Kill Teams Ever (posted 9/5/2023) (last accessed 14/5/2023)
- 30: Warhammer Community: Amazing Axe and Stunning Beard? Must Be a Dwarf (Posted 15/12/2019) (Last accessed on 24/11/2023)
- 31: Necromunda: Gangs of the Underhive, pg. 90-91 - Hangers-on and Brutes
- 32: White Dwarf 310 (UK), pg. 67 - Chapter Approved: Kill-Team Nemesis
- 33: White Dwarf 495, pgs. 76-77 — A Tale of Four Warlords - Created by the Games Workshop employee
- 34: Dark Heresy: Creatures Anathema, pg. 26-27
- 35: Fire Caste (Novel), ch. Eight
- 36: The Inquisition (Background Book), pg. 43 - Gunhound
- 37: Warhammer Combat Cards, Card Description
- 38: Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus (10th Edition), pg. 25
- 39: Dark Heresy: The Lathe Worlds, pg. 118
- 40: https://web.archive.org/web/20160111201747/https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Grey-Knights-Servitors-with-Multi-melta (saved archive page, dated January 2016, last accessed 3 January 2025)
- 41: The Master of Mankind (Novel), pg. 275 - Chapter 16 War in the Webway Dynastes, the Lords of Terra The Golden and The Soulless
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