Comrade's Wargames

I’ve long been interested in getting some ideas down about my Dark Mechanicum warband: motivations, the names of various leaders and other personalities, and some general warband lore.

The Dark Mechanicum is one of just a small handful of factions in the Warhammer 40,000 that hasn’t been explored in exhaustive details, and that pleases me immensely. It means there are still some darkened corners to explore, some dim hallways that haven’t been illuminated with a wiki article. Light a torch, gentle reader, and let us plumb the unknowable depths together.

Curse This Metal Body

The Dark Mechanicum encompasses a myriad of factions who seek forbidden knowledge that exists beyond the flickering light of the Imperium of Man. While some may seek this knowledge from a position of misplaced altruism, we concern ourselves here with the truly corrupt few who understand that knowledge can be weaponized and used to wield immense power.

With most of their humanity wiped away after centuries of replacement and repair, the vile hereteks of the Dark Mechanicum seek to harness the darkest secrets that remain in a galaxy gone mad with ignorance. Operating from derelict space stations and abandoned asteroid hideouts, the Dark Mechanicum are composed of both brutal raiders and brilliant engineers, working side by side to accomplish their infernal goals.

The Seekers of the Fractal Schematic

The Seekers of the Fractal Schematic are one such warband. Emerging from the chaos that engulfed Gamma Euphorion Prime following a genestealer uprising, the Seekers have been seen operating throughout the Caluphel Sector on a variety of mysterious tasks. Garbled remnants of scrapcode broadcast on forgotten frequencies during their raids, together with the insane babbling of traumatized survivors, point to a singular focus on the fabled Fractal Schematic — a cryptic lodestone rumored to contain untold petabytes of infernal data within its gently pulsating crystalline lattice.

My Dark Mechanicum warband is a collection of miniatures from various manufacturers and sources. I don’t really like limiting myself to “official” figures or sticking with any one particular product line. So you’ll see figures in here from a variety of big name game systems, plus lots and lots of conversions, 3D prints, and smaller boutique sculptors. All it takes is a coherent paintjob to tie everything together and sell the warband concept.

If you’re curious about the origin of any particular mini, just leave a comment and I’ll do my best to enlighten you.

Draxus the Blighted Cog is among the most fearsome enforcers of the Seekers’ ranks. A hulking brute with a body assembled from cold steel, Draxus leads raids from his voidship Frigid Alloy. Although Draxus is admittedly a bit one-dimensional, he is but a servant of the warband’s true leader: the dread heretek named Rho-Terak, the Enslaver of Logic.

Rho-Terak has been a character in my warband’s lore for a long time, since the very beginning. Early on I used an Asphyxious miniature from Warmachine to represent Rho-Terak, but now I’m on the hunt for a suitably appropriate bespoke figure. More on that in the future!

Drudges form the core of most Dark Mechanicum raiding parties. With ill-fitting cybernetics and a variety of ramshackle weaponry, these zealots can often be found scavenging useful scraps from among the fallen, always looking for a tempting tidbit that could be used to improve their own wetware.

Remnants represent the lowest tier of the warband’s heirarchy and are often little more than a collection of emaciated limbs clutching rusted weaponry, animated by a crude battery pack. The tragic ranks of the Remnants are constantly replenished from among fighters who have displeased the Dark Mechanicum’s infernal leaders. Remnants have no free will of their own and rely on direct commands from nearby Surge Nodes, who drive them forward with sparking shock prods.

Surge Nodes are Dark Mechanicum warriors whose bodies have been threaded with so much wiring and augmentation that they fairly crackle with energy. In constant agony from their implants, these gaunt fighters lurch forward from ambush positions, tormenting their victims with gruesome shock prods.

Reclaimers operate as the second echelon on the battlefield, following behind raiders to mop up survivors. They use unholy fire to burn away flesh and clothing, revealing blackened metal parts to be scavenged by marauding drudges. This loot is catalogued and hauled back to the Seekers’ lair for implantation.

Ajax 07/4 Ascendant is an example of a Dark Mechanicum warrior who is reaching the pinnacle of his inhuman metamorphosis. Ascendants are tech adepts who have been mutilated almost beyond recognition and equipped with cybernetic implants and weaponry to help them serve the warband. Lesser fighters hope to one day receive the gifts of the Ascendants if their service is rewarded.

Exitor 5.41 is an enigma among the Seekers — is he a true synthetic warrior, or does his gaunt metal frame still contain some shreds of flesh, entombed within a steel exoskeleton? As a marksman on the battlefield, Exitor 5.41 once held position for 71 hours straight amid driving acid rain, patiently tracking an enemy officer with his augmented eyesight and waiting for the victim to step out from a bunker and present a satisfactory target.

The Septic Hound is likely a heavily modified automaton, perhaps one of the fabled Men of Iron. The Hound was encountered centuries ago in a long-forgotten hive sump, half buried in a fetid stew of engine oil and mouldering fungus. At the time off its discovery, the Hound was inert, its power core dark. A series of repairs and modifications ultimately created the skulking, scuttling monstrosity that now serves the Seekers of the Fractal Schematic.

Thoth-Mu-XIV is a tech adept whose cybernetic enhancements include razor sharp close combat fittings. While squads of drudges advance and scatter their foes, fast-moving stalkers like Thoth-Mu-XIV separate out fleeing soldiers to be captured, providing the Seekers with needed biomass for their flesh factories.

K-Vorst-14 was first seen during the last days of Hive Sacrament, when the acrid smoke had reached the upper spires and the planetary governor was evacuating with his house guard. K-Vorst-14 rumbled through a sheet of flame and broke the defensive lines of the garrison protecting the landing pad, providing heavy fire support that allowed Draxus the Blighted Cog to cut his way into the data vault and make off with the sanctified cogitator array.

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Thanks for coming on this journey with me! I’ve been noodling on this warband for a few years now, and it’s nice to get all my ideas down on paper (so to speak). Particularly since the Dark Mechanicum don’t have a lot of official lore attached to them. (Again, that’s a feature, not a bug, in my humble opinion.) Look for these guys to feature heavily in our upcoming games!