Between Heaven and Earth (A Warhammer 40k... Warp Entity Self Insert)
- Thread starter Black-Aengel-01
- Start date
- Novel Sci-Fi Fantasy
- Location
- USA
That show is a gem of fan animation. I won't give anything away but I think you'll enjoy it.
- Location
- miami
It's 40k everyone is fucked. If I was a SI dropped in to the setting in say the height of the federation with some OP powers I would still just spend my time gearing up, building a fleet and a large enough group of humanity to make a go of it then GTFO out of that fucking galaxy. You don't make your city with no access to water and every field having been salted that is what the galaxy in 40k is one massive salted field between the necrons and old ones they broke the damn galaxy millions of years ago.
Unless you're a literal god the moment you try and change things some eldar farseer will show up and cap your ass, or demons will come to posses your body or who knows what.
Awesome setting but too depressing by far.
Thanks for the chapter looking forward to more.
Unless you're a literal god the moment you try and change things some eldar farseer will show up and cap your ass, or demons will come to posses your body or who knows what.
Awesome setting but too depressing by far.
Thanks for the chapter looking forward to more.
So the best thing to do is to get your hands on a self sustaining worldship and park it in the space between galaxies, maybe grab a few necron pylons before going to protect against the warp.
I wonder if the painter is gonna try and get his followers to build something like high charity from halo and flee? Should be possible if he has some really high important tech priests and a high Lord, shouldn't be too hard to convince them.
I wonder how many STC's painter has or knows the location of? Maybe even some men of iron?
Last edited:
- Location
- In the Space between Spaces
Honestly, in a post scarcity era, you don't even need to spawn there with superpowers. You can just get a regular job, if its even needed, earn enough to become a cybernetic entity and do all of that.
Thankfully Painter is kind of on the 'extremely hard to kill' category due to his metaphysical nature. Any plan an Eldar Farseer sets up only needs to fail once to see everything come down in flames while he just giggles on in the background, knowing that his victory is almost always a matter of time. Also, he doesn't have a body to possess, hurray for being a warp horror!
Eh, when you are in the void between galaxies, empyrean resonance is pretty low, so the barrier between planes would be surprisingly thick and very unlikely for the Warp horrors to breach it unless with some pretty big help.
He knows quite a bit of STCs, but he is more interested in xenotech. Especially that from weird aliens like the Khrave and the Yu'Vath.
- Location
- In a stand
Are the Leagues of Votann a thing right now? The spiritual successor to the squats have still-functional STC's though they behave like half-senile grandpas at the moment.
- Location
- In the Space between Spaces
Yeah, but he is not interested in them anymore. He has everything he had needed from them a long time ago, but he does jump in every now and then and helps the Imperium...not find anything that could sour relationships between the Kin and the Thralls of the Emperor to a critical degree. If the Imperium knew that the League of Votaan made use of a lesser sub-order of Men of Iron and were ruled by the STC Neural Cores, well... to say that the Imperium would be declaring war is an understatement. Forget that they would lose horribly in spite the senility of the STCs they would be fighting, when you are a mouth frothing fanatic something like common sense seems an abstract and elusive thing.
Right now, timewise speaking, he is finding a way to propose the idea for the Kin to start building new Ancestor Cores and split existing ones in two and built the other half up to free up the Cores' processing power and restore their faculties once more. But the Kin are rather stubborn, and their lack of psykers make whispering ideas in their head really, really hard. Plus, he is so busy all the time, juggling making sure the Imperium does not self-implode for the most trivial of reasons, assassinating chaos lords whenever possible, warning aliens in advance of the Imperium's advance, leaving explosive pies in the Webway for a certain Clown to stumble upon, uncovering ancient and powerful arcane artefacts, checking under his mattress for explosive pies that a certain Clown places there when he's out, trying to get his hands on necron tech... and failing most of the time, help his disciples when they call him, and so... so much more. So the Kin have been pushed down on the list of important things. They are doing fine still, and he can afford to wait a bit.
- Location
- Philippines
What about t'au tech? They're the poster boys in 40k for advanced, mass produced and practical tech that aren't half magic *aeldari* or so advanced they may as well be magic *drukhari and necrons*
Their infantry rifle they give every Fire Caste can punch holes in an astartes. They may not have Clarke tech like the older races, or the Imperium's cache of salvaged Dark Age tech, but when their infantry weapons can kill space marines, their pulse weapons are flat out better than Imperial plasma due to ease of production and thus not semi-relics and user safety in exchange for being a little weaker per shot and battlesuits that can make even the physically weak t'au a challenge for astartes it's pretty effective. Boring but practical.
Last edited:
- Location
- In the Space between Spaces
*Shrugs* T'au are not the only ones who have developed mass producible weapons that can put holes in astartes and have user friendly safety features. There are races out there (Many of them in fact) that have done the same. It's just that the T'au are the only ones getting 'media coverage' from the fact.
Heck, even the weird happy go lucky xenos (squidlies) that treat war as an opera show spectacle have plasma tech that just obliterfucks space marines. They just don't win because they have seen past the fourth wall and have their priorities straight. They know everything is a joke, so they dance to it and make themselves memorable by having fun while dying in droves to the Imperium.
So what Painter is more interested in is in experimental, weird, metaphysical, arcane and eldritch technologies. He knows his shit about the boring and mundane stuff enough that he could make a magos seem like an initiate, but his projects require a bit more than the mundane to get the ball rolling.
- Location
- Philippines
True there are several xenos empires either around as big or even bigger than them.
Post in thread 'Awoken (Warhammer 40k, C'tan OC, AU) - An unofficial 40k what-if scenario'
Awoken (Warhammer 40k, C'tan OC, AU) - An unofficial 40k what-if scenario
there's a list of some empires that didn't get a lot of "media coverage "
Though who are the squidlies? They sound interesting
- Location
- In the Space between Spaces
Thyrrus - Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
wh40k.lexicanum.com
These fun boys
When Drama Queens command Wars !
Id see that the Orks would have some fun with them
- Location
- USA
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: That's like trying to convince someone who's is simultaneously completely illiterate to how a computer works but is absolutely reliant on it for their life's work, that it's in their best long term interest to take it apart to make it run better.
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: So the idiots in the Adeptus Mechanicus?
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: We'll…I mean…
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: Hey this is a safe space. So far the collective us has yet to find a me that actually like the Mechanicus in its current state.
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: Even that Dark Mechanicus version of us, finds his colleagues to be on the same plane of idiocy as ours.
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: Fair.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: I find it a little depressing that the crazy Collective of Us are consistently the only sane brain around…Relatively.
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: Ah a kindred Warp entity. How refreshing.
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: Okay, me. Don't go chasing the tail feathers of yet another warp entity.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: Yeah man, last time you spent hours waxing poetically about her having the voice of a goddess?
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: EEH!? Firstly, I was just giving a compliment! Secondly, I don't want to hear this from two Squigeon Xenarites!
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: Woh. Woh. Woh. No need for name callin me.
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: Let's all calm down. Just like in the intervention, this isn't an attack on your person, this is just a self-given re-evaluation. Okay?
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: …[
]SotW! Khornelius 3:16: (Sighs) Okay. I…I get that y'all are coming from a place of good intentions.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: Yeah we're just looking out for one of us, ya know.
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: Besides I'm not a Xenarite, I only make use of emperor approved "living metal" just like the Primarch Ferrus Manus. No fictional Xeno material called Necrodermis here. His sons the Iton Hands, even backed me up when that Inquisitor tried to arrest me.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: How big of "donation" did you give the Iron Hands anyways?
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: Hahahaha…Now. Now, a 3:16 doesn't kiss and tell.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: You can't see it under my Ork-leather coat or from beyond this text box, but I'm rolling my bloody optics at you.
…
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: Wait a second! He called us Squigeon 'Initiates'!
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: I mean to an ageless warp entity, the Collective of Us probably don't know as much as him.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: Plus he didn't specifically call 'us' that, just me me, not you me. Dang this is confusing?
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: Agreed me, but regardless it's just rude! How do I send him disappearing paint?! That will teach him!
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: I'm an honorary Flayed One that wears the skin of my enemies. How are you the hot blooded one?
Last edited:
Thyrrus - Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
These fun boys
Well, we've found a species other than the Eldar that worships Cegorach
- Location
- USA
Actually I think it's more accurate to say they worship us, the readers and fans of 40k, the same way chaos cultist worship the Chaos gods.
They constantly putting on grand spectacles because their constantly trying to get our attention. Because every time they succeed no matter how horrible the losses were their species will continue on unlike so many other minor species who have faded from the lore entirely.
We the audience are their fickle chaos god that they are always doing these insane things in an attempt to get our attention.
Edit: curse you autocorrect!
Last edited:
Chapter 1 Part 6
- Location
- In the Space between Spaces
Between Heaven and Earth
Part 6
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTPart 6
-Somewhere in the Formless Wastes-
-The Painter-
You know, most people don't realize just how big space ships are until they see them for themselves in all their might and glory. Admittedly, regular humans are not good at envisioning the scale of big things, not without assistance from technology. Heck, I am guilty of this myself when I went to a circus and saw an elephant personally for the first time.
Their size just left me astounded with how little they resembled the ones on television. Size wise I mean. Granted, perhaps I may attribute that to my warped sense of scale from my youth, but it was still distinct.
But even as big as the largest land animal on Terra was back then, it was nothing short of a speck of dust when compared to the multi-kilometer long ships of the Imperium. Alone, they were massive monuments of engineering and half forgotten sciences held together by faith, raw grit and the wisdom of those greater than the masses that squatted within their halls... called duck tape.
When they are clumped together in a hulk however, oftentimes they would even be comparable to small planetoids.
These monolithic amalgams of human and alien constructs were truly the stuff of legend, chuck full with all manner of horrors and dangers that could spell the doom of planets on their lonesome, and so big that its essentially impossible to displace them.
At least the tech you can find on board is very nice at times, even when its alien. Especially when its alien. Gaining a new perspective on technology is always worth the headaches and it always leads to new and exciting ways to innovate.
If only the Admech would loosen up on their study material restrictions, the human race would benefit tremendously from expanding their knowledge base. Its not like if several pieces of technology central to the continuation and survival of the Imperium were fully human creations in the first place! The Golden Throne was built upon the Astronomicon, which was stuff borne from the Fra'al's prior zenith cycles and the Warp Drive was only created by studying aliens who had managed to master the Warp before mankind. And then there is the Void Dragon dreaming and dead deep underneath Mars' surface.
If only they'd known. Eh, they would just keep hoarding stuff while going around and stealing better tech from aliens before subtly incorporating it into the admech's tech base... and only the admech's. Bunch of greedy fucks…
Ah, but a man turned spirit can dream… But not really as Lightbornes do not dream since we are incapable of sleep in the first place.
Anyway, where was I going with this tangent? Ah, yes, Space Hulks!
Ugly, jumbled together with warp-duck tape, filled with treasures and horrors aplenty and absurdly huge.
And way beyond my ability to push back into the Materium!
"This one is way out of my league." I say as one of the eyes on my vessel observes the continent sized heap of metal floating in the un-void of the Warp, moving in all directions simultaneously as Empyrean currents push it into some un-ordained path. "I may be able to face off against greater daemons, but forcing something this big out of the Warp is beyond me!" Maybe if we fixed all the Gelar Field generators from all the various ships that make it up and harmonize them we may be able to increase the Dimensional Homogeneous Resonance Field Pull to the point that it passively draws itself back into the Materium and just need a good shove. But there in lies a lot of problems with that.
Firstly, there have to be at least a thousand ships meshed together in there and at least a good half of them would be alien. It would be hard to set all the Gelar Fields up to play nice with each other. And some would need to be built completely from the ground up as some of the Generator models from the thirty fifth millennium and forwards make use of psykers which must have burned out ages ago or are possessed by the powers of the warp.
And lastly, the daemonic density in the air.
"Can you smell that?" I ask Kyras holding me. "Shit mixed with blood and perfume with an undertouch of rainbow. Way too many daemons to deal with." In short, this was a marathon and I was not running it.
I learned in gym classes that I was a sprinter and had low stamina. I also learned that in bed I don't have much of it either.
Sure, being a creature of the Warp now, I am tireless, but that does not mean I like to set myself against that shit!
"We need to find another hulk. This one is simply too damn big and too infested with daemons." A hum of acknowledgement and Kyras turned around walking off into a distance that had no horizon. I made sure that the illusions gave him a destination, even though we went in circles most of the time. The Warp's up and down don't share anything in common with Realspace. You could go in circles and be moving closer towards your objective or even further. Both things can happen simultaneously too. Don't ask how that's possible it would give you a headache.
Our walk continued without much issue. I made certain of it.
At best, it would be a lesser daemon, which I would need to provide aid to dispatch. The few other encounters were with other warp predators. Nothing truly threatening attacked us though, and I was thankful for that.
But as the walk stretched into hours… I began to notice some issues.
There was a very, very minute drop in Kyras' pacing. He remained quiet, which was not entirely unusual… but… a day or so ago he would at least look around the un-scenery. He wouldn't make any comments, but I could feel his mind shift whenever he looked at something, especially when he disliked it.
But now… it was quiet, yet at the same time, it was raging deeper within. Guarded, but not as energetic as before. A storm hidden behind a panel of sound proof glass. But even that was not enough to hide away the thunder strikes underneath.
I have seen this before on their kind. I have been present to witness astartes succumb to the dark embrace of Chaos, and likewise, I have done my own manipulations and revelations to break a Chapter's will so that I could achieve my objective all the easier.
Sad as it is, I am too familiar with how fatal doubt can be for a man, especially when they are in a very dangerous environment, like the Warp. The mind must be strong and defended at all times, even at rest. Faith, conviction and willpower are all armours the mind can cast to not let itself become lost. But doubt is a chink in that armour, and it alone is strong enough to leave one lost.
I cannot allow that.
I know I am at fault at this, but I would rather have the last children of Magnus not join their father in their damnation and at least hopefully bring some decent change while they are at it. Harmony with my long term plans be damned. I am not Tzeentch that must have everything be a part of some grand scheme. My plans are dynamic, maleable and made to operate with many factors at play but not ruled by them. They must be, or else I would have failed long ago. Best part of all, if my actions here snowball into something beneficial, then I am happy with having to skip part of my plans. I just hope that it doesn't happen like the last five times.
Maybe the sixth time is the charm?
But anyway, I need to adress this soon.
"You alright Kyras?" I ask him, but he does not reply straight away.
He grumbles and just keeps walking. "Yes. Let's keep moving." I could tell that it was a lie. Which means he is not alright, and therefore something is not in working condition.
I need my Bloody Magpie in good working condition. Wholly.
So, subtly, with slow and deliberate action I weave together a thread hidden by my illusions just behind Kyras. And then I strike, popping his mental defenses, and only his defenses, with the equivalent of a static jolt.
It causes the Epistolary to turn around wildly and flare his powers before realizing what happened. "Why did you do that for?" He snapped, holding me up to eye level.
A yellow striped face appeared on the gun and looked back at him. "You were distracted." I reply. "If you were any more alert, you would have noticed my thread." I look at him, imploringly, or as much as a tumor sized devil head on a gun can. "Help me out here Kyras, I want you alive here and I can't help you out of the Warp if you are preforming subpar."
I could feel the frown underneath his helmet. "Then I would appreciate that you kept your mouth sealed." Snappy, too bad for you I won't be doing that anytime soon.
And then, he sighed, loosening his arm and I followed the motion down. I had a new eye grow on one of the gun's limbs to see his next reaction and what he finally said was kind of odd.
"I am tired." I could tell he wasn't lying, but I was not quite expecting that answer from him.
"Pardon?"
He grumbles for a moment, then builds upon what he said. "I am tired, creature. Perhaps your kind have no need for 'petty' things like sleep. But we, beings of flesh and blood, do." That caught me slightly off guard. We haven't been in the Warp long enough for an astartes to start suffering from drowsyness.And I have made sure to make haste on our trips just to avoid this! So what happened?
"Aren't you astartes supposed to be able to go longer without rest by alternating your brain hemispheres to sleep? I have met some of you that have gone almost four weeks without rest."
A sigh. "In most cases, you would be correct." He informs me. "But the Blood Ravens Chapter is cursed with a few gene flaws in spite of our overall purity. One of those same flaws affects our sleep cycles. We cannot go into REM sleep, not traditionally. We have a different sleep state that apothecaries have dubbed the Raven Stupor. It fills the functions REM would handle, but it requires a much longer time period to function, and is more frequent." He finished his explanation and sighs again, or rather, he masks his yawn with a sigh. "As such, my chapter requires more sleep than what a traditional astartes does."
"Ah… I see."
"Compound that to the sleepless days I spent on Aurelia fighting heretics, you can tell I did not start well off in this damn travesty of a journey. The longest we he usually can manage without any sleep is about half the time a regular space marine can."
Ah… "How long do you think you can hold off sleep?"
He frowns. "I am not sure. I cannot make sense of the passage of time. But if I have to give it a wager, I would say at most four days."
Well shit. That changes things a bit. A lot actually. We may need to do a detour someplace safe for him to sleep. A tall order in the Warp. He hasn't asked for food and water, and I am glad for that, as I would not be able to easily provide it, but most of that is handled by the life support systems in his power armor anyway, so there isn't much to worry about that. That in the warp, the subconscious state of a person can also help increase or diminish the need of sustenance is also a boon as much as a curse.
But sleep?
That one has a bit more significance to mortals, especially humans. And an astartes of a lineage that is more prone to it? There is significance to that which I cannot ignore, and thus must be addressed post haste.
Survival in the Warp demands peak performance of one's capabilities. As much psycho/metaphysical as physical.
"We need to address this." I say, with a sense of finality.
He does not deny it, but at the same time he does not fully agree with it. "We need to find an exit from the Warp! That's why we need to get moving."
"Rushing things won't get us anywhere. Especially with you around. I still don't know the exact locations of all the available Hulks we could take and if they are even safe enough for our purposes in the first place. This endeavor will take some time regardless of your wishes." His frown grows deeper and grips the gun harder. "But… I so happen to know of a place that is safe, or as safe as a region of the Empyrean can be to mortals." His grip loosens up. His eyes turn down to the weapon that is my receptacle in his hand.
"Where?"
"In a planet, that is also a shadow and a maze perpetually held in its liminal foundations." He cocks his head slightly at my explanation… which is not an explanation really, not without a lot of context. Then again, it makes more sense to experience it first hand than to speak of it. "But you have to agree to something first." Now I feel a spark of suspicion rise.
"What is it?"
"For the duration of our stay, you need to do everything I say." I can immediately feel him tense up at my demand. But instead of flat out saying no, he takes a breath in, and glares down at me.
"Why?"
"It is a place bound by many a rule and laws that are so ingrained and nigh absolute that even the Powers follow them there. Breaking those rules would spell your immediate doom and only the Emperor's full attention and intervention could save you. But if you follow them, then it's the safest place that you can find anywhere in the depths of the Empyrean." And it was true. Not once since I have walked its labyrinthine halls and valleys have I been subjected to an attack from the Neverborn or other Empyrean predators.
Mortals are not necessarily held to that same standard, but it allows them to cheat the system. At least to some extent. But Kyras is one, and one alone. He does not have the many hands to leverage the exceptions in this plane.
"And all I would need to do is to follow you word? Is that it?" He asks, clearly not liking the notion, even though its pretty much what he has been doing lately.
"Yes." I look at him, serious. "I need you to trust me on this. At least for our time there."
"I don't trust you." He states, bluntly.
I shrug. "Hardly an unfounded opinion."
A knowing and somewhat defeated sigh from the Epistolary. "But at the same time I don't have much choice, do I?"
I shrug again. "Not unless you allow me to possess you. But that's a straight up no from you, no matter what, mhm?"
"Correct." He nods, affirming his prior declaration and oppinion. "I do not want to find myself corrupted or worse if I follow your words."
"Don't worry." I know he won't believe me, but it must be said. "I am still bound by the pact, and in the end going there is your choice in the matter. I won't, and even can't, force you to agree." That may be true, and it is… but he is still too reliant on me to simply refuse. He knows this. I know this. It may be a nearly one sided agreement. But let's be honest, our relationship would not change in the slightest until he learns to move in strange angles and get his Warp legs on.
Eventually though, after some deliberation, Kyras is forced to agree to my plans. Its not like if he can hold off sleep forever, and that would leave him even more vulnerable than what he is at the moment. "Let's go. If I get to sleep there, then let's get moving."
I grin and I emerge from the receptacle of death and fire that I have been inhabiting for the last few sunless cycles.
Like wax melting and then reforming into something incongruent while retaining a stony shell behind to retreat into, the mockery and mirror of the once bolter turned shapeless weapon stops being an extention of me and more an open house with its doors left open for its tennant to return into.
Water where schools of six fingered hands swam underneath emerge from my imago, moments before a yellow and black devilish mask rises from its surface and suspended by chains of whispers and light, four leering faces of pink, green, red and blue are revealed held by hands that may in fact be horns.
The river and cloak that were one and the same unfurl and from beneath its icy coblestone surface a rain of polydactiled arms, feathered wings, paws, talons and fins come into being, and then spread.
Vast and wide, until the river becomes a lake as vast as a sea, and from them albatros and pterosaur wings create a corrona of feathers and membranes.
And all the while I am becoming, Kyras is observing how six fingered hands wrapp around him in firm gentle constrictions, unlike an adult holding a child's hand to guide them into the world.
I smile, for I know he is feeling more than simply my shape lets. Small hints. Small tales. Small fingers that are not.
Mayhaps he may see more by the trip's end. Who knows.
All that I know, is that I must make an announcement, for old times' sake.
"Alright, passengers, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Air-Hell. Please fasten your seatbelts and set your seats and trays in the right place…"
"You don't have trays!" He interrupts, but I ignore him. The captain cannot be interrupted!
"...and lastly, turn your devices to flight mode for the duration of the trip."
I laugh at his grumbling just before my wings and cloak beat against the airless ether and grasp magnetic field lines that are not there as we ascend into the incongruent sea and heaven of stories and law.
Uralan awaits.
TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
To be continued…
Isn't this the planet that Failbaddon found his sword?
- Location
- In the Space between Spaces
Yes. Yes it is indeed.
- Location
- In the Space between Spaces
The secrets of the Chaos Gods being one of them.
Mr. Cloak
Orchestrator of Paradoxical Apocalypse
- Pronouns
- I
It could be duck tape.
Made from ducks.
Look, it's the 40th or so millenium. Stuff got weird a while ago.
- Location
- USA
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: I'm way to ambitious to stop at spreading my technology to just the Mechanicus. I intend to see it being used by the Adeptus Astartes!
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: Same, though I'm targeting squishy leaders of the Imperial Guards.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: Recently dead or dying are my focus.
SotW! Khornelius 3:16: But were in agreement that the Mechanicus have the best toys?
SGoI! Cornelius 3:16: Yup.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: Mhmm.
BHaE! Chornelius 3:16: I've gone spelunkin' in Hulks a few times. Treated Genestealer carapace makes for good protective outerwear. Still workin' on a lab grown synthetic version but I an't qualified as a Genetor, yet.
Now excuse me, I have to go eat holographic Squigurkey for a cultural celebration.
- Location
- afasdsdaf
"Replacing the Adeptus Mechanicus with entirely different groups of people backed and funded by the Salamanders and Iron Hands while the Ultramarines and their descendants run administrative operations and set up effective research policies. With them running tech and development then you may be able to progress technologically and culturally like you should have nine thousand years ago..."
If we just change this or that then everything will work! WRONG! and the Adeptus Mechanicus actually is doing research and inventing new weapons. The problem is that knowledge itself leads to corruption. Techno sorcery and machine spirits are very real. Just slight mistakes or the wrong knowledge can completely warp a person and lead to catastrophic outcomes.
If we just change this or that then everything will work! WRONG! and the Adeptus Mechanicus actually is doing research and inventing new weapons. The problem is that knowledge itself leads to corruption. Techno sorcery and machine spirits are very real. Just slight mistakes or the wrong knowledge can completely warp a person and lead to catastrophic outcomes.