More important Callumite assets
The Ring
Possibly one of the most impressive feats of human engineering since the fall of the Imperium of man, the Ring is the culmination of Boros Lethe's dedication to increase the might of Callamus even further.
Inspired by stories he had been taught of the ancient Ring of Iron that wrapped around lost Mars, he decided that he needed to create their own ring. Alas to his dismay he found that such a task would be far harder than he anticipated.
The faintly hilarious secret of the Iron Ring was that it was not an intentional design. In perhaps one of the most productive blunders of the Imperium's long history, the ring sprouted during the Great Crusade merely as the centre point for vast orbital production facilities and grew from there, with additional orbital spires added to facilitate the transport of resources, orbital pathways to make it quicker to move completed parts around etc. In fact, the whole orbit of Mars became such a mess that the Emperor himself had to step in to stabilise it.
Dismayed, but not dissuaded, Boros worked first as Archmagos and then rose to Fabricator General working upon this project determined to make it reality. However, he did not have the confidence that he could repeat the ancient Magi's unintentional success, and the Emperor was certainly not going to fix any mistakes he made.
Thus, over a century he innovated new ways of dealing with the strains such a structure would have to endure, how to make it as efficient as possible. It took such a long time, not due to a lack of enthusiasm, or fear of progress, but because of an earnest desire to create the best for his home as well as a clear knowledge of the consequence of failure.
When at last it was completed, and peer reviewed to his satisfaction he ordered the economic might of Callamus to go to work.
Pillars with cables thicker than titans appeared first, the base structures that would hold the Great Ring up high, while also transporting the energy, materials and more the Ring would need into orbit, until it could be properly established.
Afterwards then the real work began. Vast quantities of resources were dedicated to ensuring the project went ahead, as even the immense bounty of Callamus was strained nearly to the breaking point providing for it, but it was finished.
The ring of Callamus, circumnavigating the entire planet, complete with ship yards, solar panels, defence stations, mining and processing facilities and more.
The structure can be considered the most impressive feat of human macro construction since the fall of the Imperium, if not even longer and has capabilities to match…although it is easy to see why some argue the reach of the Mechanicus has exceeded its grasp.
The facility is enormous, but it is so resource intensive to maintain that it would be impossible to do so, without the miraculous regenerative metal provided by the lost Holy World of Avernus and the application of Callamus's unique gravity technology without which it would assuredly collapse.
However, its abilities cannot be denied and since its construction the number of ships produced by Callamus has skyrocketed, able to produce unmatchable numbers of ships in record times.
The Coffeanator-9000
If one were to ask a Callumite tech priest what they would put as the reason their polity survived and flourished while many did not you would get a variety of responses.
Some would praise the foresight and abilities of their Fabricator Generals, others their push for military expansion even before the end of the Imperium. Still others would cite their drive to uplift their fellow worlds and man for the benefit of all, their cooperation with their fellow Forge Worlds and some would say that it was their realisation that things had to change.
All would acknowledge that to Coffeanator is probably at the heart of it though.
The Coffeanator holds a special place in the heart of the Callumite magi not simply for producing coffee, but because it was the first STC recovered by their colony, rescued from a burning building by their first Fabricator General, Arkadia Lethe…the first.
While considered to be of little value to Callamus's sponsor Magnotrude and to Mars, Callamus believed it had struck gold and indeed it had.
While recaf and other caffeinated beverages exist, true coffee is a luxury of unspeakable value in the Imperium and the Coffeanator held the ability to make a facsimile of the legendary beverage that was indistinguishable from the real thing. Thus, Arkadia Lethe made the odd and at the time controversial decision to start exporting the Coffeanator to the sector around her in large quantities. This ingratiated herself to the sector leadership, letting her import menials, additional resources and establish mechanicus enclaves with almost a bare minimum of effort and cause her colony to swiftly boom and take advantage of its bountiful resources far quicker.
In turn she also accidentally created the foundations for what would later allow Callamus to practically take over the entire sector and survive the fall of the Imperium in such an easy manner.
In the modern day the Coffeanator is held up with almost legendary awe and indeed there is a phrase both within and without Callamus that states that the techpriests there "run" on coffee.
On rare occasions the forces of Chaos have even attempted to sabotage the Callumites supply of coffee and found to their surprise that in a handful of instances this can make the difference in battle, either positively or negatively, as sometimes this will be a staggering blow to the usually unshakeable moral of the tech priests or cause them to fly into a fury and charge.
Callumite politics
In any polity the size of Callamus trying to make broad political statements about factions is of course a doomed enterprise. However, for sake of ease there are generally considered to be six political parties that dominate the internal make up of the Forge Realm, each with their own colour to distinguish themselves.
To show one's affiliation with a party a Tech Priest need only wear some of that parties' colour on their robes. More than one colour maybe worn of course, however only the Fabricator General is expected wears the colours of all six parties as they are expected to act as a neutral arbitrator and show the unity of the polity despite these differences, although it is of course expected that they have their own personal affiliation.
In broad terms each party has a vision of how the Mechanicus should be, although there are of course internal factions, which does not even begin to get into the issues with cross party affiliations.
The Novus and the Old Guard
Colours: Blue and Dark Red
Known as the old arguments, these parties fight over differences in technological advancement. The Novus can be best described as equivalent to the Trust's progressives, although probably more extreme due to 1000 years of doctrinal progress.
They can be said to be the strongest drivers of innovation, reverse engineering of xeno tech and in general try to get away from the "outdated" traditions of the mechanicus as possible. While their success can be undeniable, they have also been responsible for some of the greatest accidents within Callamus as their enthusiasm gets away from them. However, without them the polity would have likely fallen as they have improved industrial production, weaponry and more without which Callamus would have fallen.
By contrast the Old Guard are best equivocated with the Moderates of the Trust. The views of the Old Guard can be best described as wanting to keep with the Old Mechanicus values and take the slow and steady path towards progress. As such they disapprove of innovating new technologies without the greatest need, reverse engineering of xenotech and the implementation of rediscovered technologies without extensive testing. Instead they prefer to send out expeditionary fleets to rediscover lost technologies. However, as the galaxy grows more dangerous fewer and fewer fleets are launched.
In general both parties are in a state of equilibrium with the Novus coming up with ideas and attempting to work on them, while the Old Guard tend to act as watch dogs, anticipating accidents and trying to shut down blatantly dangerous or foolish study, when such things arise.
The Organists and Mechanists
Colours: Green and Yellow
These parties differ on the subject of what is best for a tech priest in how to augment one's self a topic that became very pertinent in Callamus due to the Fabricator Generals steadfast refusal to dictate what is superior.
The Organists believe that the body is another machine that can be turned towards the good of the Omnisiah. As such they are biological experts without equal and make up the majority of the polity's biologists and medical professionals.
The Mechanists are those that preach that the flesh is weak and should be removed. They craft the best cybernetic augmentations in the polity.
These two are perhaps the weakest individual parties but are the most divided over all. Many members of other parties will wear their colours in different capacities. Old Guard for example often affiliates with the Mechanists, while Novus with the Organists. However, it is no sure-fire thing. For example, there is a dedicated Novus sect of the Mechanists that wishes to attain mechanical apotheosis via mind transference into a mechanical body.
The Praelia and the Almatia
Colours: Black and White
Probably the strongest factions within Callamus, they look at how the Mechanicus should project itself.
The Praelia are the war makers. It is very rare for a Callumite commander to not wear the Black somewhere on their robes and they dedicate themselves to the art of war absolutely. Their origins are found back when Callamus started to pre-emptively send its forces into battle rather than wait for threats to arise. They command immense influence within the Callumite military and especially the Myrmidon Legion. An odd sponsor are survivors of the ancient Ordo Reductor that have been incorporated into them.
The Almatia are "peace makers." Their beliefs are that the Mechanicus has been derelict in its duties towards humanity for tens of thousands of years, hoarding technology that should have benefitted all and is one of the ones directly responsible for the creation of the Abomination. In the Mechanicus their diplomatic skills are unsurpassed, as are their abilities in industry, creating phantom economies and ensuring creature comforts to the menials that make up the polity. However, they also serve a darker purpose, specifically as spy masters, keeping watchful eyes upon the menials to ensure that they do not fall to darker powers.
Grav tech
Callamus's only major discovery (though the Callumites would protest that) before the fall of the Imperium was a data core which contained information on a peculiar type of gravity technology. Unlike the kind found within vehicles like the Land Speeder, this grav did nothing more than lighten what it was attached too, without providing thrust.
What is more the information coming without any designs to apply it too thus if anything were to come of it the Priests would need to come up with them on their own.
This technology and the arguments over its use is often directly linked to Callamus being pushed in the direction of innovation. In the modern day this technology sees frequent usage in many aspects of Callumite technology as its advantages simply make it incredibly valuable.
Its most obvious and grand usage is in the vast Ring, but smaller ones are present in flying grav platforms, stacked factories, power armour and more.
However, these are not the only gravetic secrets recovered by Callamus. Much more controversial was the salvaging of strange gravity generators within an Orkish space hulk, slightly before the Awakening.
These generators were quickly snatched up by the Novus who started to experiment in one of their laboratories isolated safely on an asteroid where they eventually managed to activate them…successfully.
The resulting explosion tore through the core of the asteroid, but the well-designed lab was left unharmed and gained the information needed to unlock the secrets of the devices. Aside from being non-human in origin the exact capabilities of these devices are unknown. So far they have proven able to move objects, similar to common Imperial grav devices, but much more violently than a regular device.
So far, the Novus have created a pair of devices from these, a "flux" bomb, which produces a gravetic wave and a tractor beam to drag asteroids or even ships. Both devices are unstable, but when they work they can produce incredibly potent effects.
Observation groups from the Old Guard report that the Novus are working on refining these devices out of acknowledgement of the dangers they could pose, and are working on applying it to hover devices as well.
Stacked Lances
An incomplete and badly damaged design recovered from a destroyed ship that drifted into one of Callamus's vassal Forges, the Stacked Lances were reverse engineered by Novus experts in ship design.
On the surface the design appears to be an almost idiotic design, with nine barrels, each of which with a proper lance weapon. The gun then rotates and each lance fires one after another, allowing a ship equipped with such a gun to fire at an incredible rate.
The reconstruction however, was flawed. Lacking access to a savant like Archmagos Extremis Tranth the Novus made do with what they had and managed an impressive amount despite this. The gun remains expensive, power greedy and prone to overheating due to inferior capacitors and cooling modules that do not equal those created by the Ancients.
This ensures that it remains a common sight on system defences that can have larger reactors.
With advanced technology provided by the Trust such flaws maybe rectified.
More stuff for Callumas
@Durin