Anima Cult

"One can verge from the standard form, but one must always retain their humanity, or be lost to the Men of Iron and their ways."

- Text of the Oiled Cog v.12. Unknown publishing date. An accepted sect of the Cult Mechanicus, sanctioned for observation by the Archmagi of mars in 2.483.904.M30, the Cult of the Omnissian Animus is dominant throughout the majority of the Agaelan system. The central aspect of the sect is that the will of the God-Emperor/Omnissiah is made manifest through the minds of his chosen mechanical servants; the Beastia Anima, for as the machine moves, it analyzes all upon the battlefield and decides for itself what the optimal targets are, sharing the data with all around it which adherents of the cult then prioritize with all haste.The perfect and pure logic of the machine shall guide the hand of humanity.

Cult Overview
The Anima cult promotes a mentality of spiritual belief and trust in the God-Emperor not unlike the traditional Imperial Cult. The key difference is that the adherents of his cult believe their God to walk bodily among them in metal vessels which serve as avatars of His will and guidance. Such is this belief that priests dedicated to this cult are known to promote the active use of robots over traditional forces and have been known to (and condemned for) experimenting wildly with the Anima. It is the core tenant of the faith that holds Beastia Anima as holy and sacred, and adherents to this sect will do whatever is required to recover cybernetica cortexes upon the field of battle.

To many in the cult, robots are seen as living organisms like any other thing which moves at the behedst of man. Devotees of the anima cult are known to treat even basic ambulatory machines as kin, down to the lowliest servitor, and seek to imitate them in their ways; dedicating themselves often to single-minded purpose of one chosen task or objective and carrying it out with machine-like precision.

Sub-Cults
Within the sect of the Cult Mechanicus are two main branches which compete for prominence among the faithful. Each one of them holding significant sway among individual populaces of the forge, across the greater system, or in the various Imperial Bodies which make contact and trade with devotees of the cult. The crux of the division comes down to core disagreement on whether the teachings of the cult be applied primarily to society or to the individual.

The Acoemetae
"O Omnissiah, Omniscient Lord of Mars, replace these falliable and inconstant tides of human thought with the stern and rigid logic of the Machine God!."

- Levistians, 8.72. Unknown publishing date.

The more prominent of the two main sub-cults, and the more traditional of the two. Adherents to this particular creed place greater emphasis on applying machine-like logic to the individual and devotion to the Omnissiah as a whole by imitation of the machine. Devotees of this creed often arrive at their own logic and conclusions, and as such often theologically disagree. So many divergent religious groups under one umbrella share one unifying and strong trait; single minded devotion and desire to one thing best above all else, such that the devotees may guide the machine by becoming machine like themselves. As such, the menial population of the system are generally attracted to this facet of the cult; the glory and eventual salvation in monotasking drawing parallels and relations to their own lives of drudgery. Among the priesthood, the differing faiths come together to give a permanent chant of binary in cycle. Of the prevailing lesser subdivisions, seven come together and maintain five solar hour shifts, each one in a differing sub-dialect of binary to provide the greatest possible representation of devotion to the Machine God without ceasing such that their binaric hymnals flow from the Cathedral of of Perpetuity without end.

The Proodosi
"And lo, shall Your holy steel be as armor around our souls, and shall Your wisdom guide our hands. No spear nor barb shall trouble our flesh of iron. Let the will of Mars be done!"

- Collected Logic-Psalms 31.3, v9.1.

While lesser in number, the smaller faction of the sect maintains it's grasp on power equivalent or perhaps greater to the Acoemetae through their political ties. Adherents to the creed of the Proodosi are far more wildly divergent in individual belief, but are united by their belief that machines guide society. The high priests of the Proodosi maintain colossal cogitator banks which are consulted for virtually any and all questions of import. Adherents may travel to cathedrals dedicated to the creed and connect to the Great Network. The broader philosophy of the Proodosi is to guide the Forge forward by wisdom of machines; if they are thinking or not is best left unquestioned. Devotees of this creed typically are higher ranking members of the Forge. The current Mech-Deacon of the Cult, Archmagos Prime Alphaeus Gearhardt, is a member of this faction.

Autocadeucus Order
A conclave of warrior tech priests akin almost to the Apothecaries of the Space marine Chapters who tend to the behemoths in battle to reload their weapons and enact repairs. Walking among the cohorts of battle automata equipped with an Acciperia, an arcane device bonded to the augmetics of the priest and fitted with a micro-nest of mechadendrites equipped with laser drills, adamantium saws, and solders. This device allows the priest to cut through the metal hide of fallen automata and extract the Cybernetica Cortex for examination. If deemed undamaged, then the artificial brain may be placed within a new body to fight anew.

Expunged Orders
The final label of heresy is a relatively rare designation to acquire among the myriad of sub-faiths and interpretations of the Cult Mechanicus, but some manage to do just that.

The Order of the Animating Force
This sub-order, declared apostate by Fabricator General Jyohnson in 3.841.045.M42, worshiped the mysteries of energy and electricity which gave life and movement to the iron avatars of the Omnissiah, and as such, were close allies of the Hephaestian Electopriests. After the fanatical Electropriests rose up against the Anima Cult in religious civil war, the order was given by the Fabricator General to the order to go on their penitent crusade along with the Corpuscarii and Fulgarite. After the doom of the crusade, remaining members of this order were given the choice to recant and convert, or face execution by Lord Gearhardt, after which any remaining priests were declared heretek. It is thought that some of those priests have found their way into the hidden elements of the Logicians, deep in the bowels of the Forge.