SERVITORS: I HAVE NO VOX AND I MUST SCREAM | Warhammer 40k Lore

[@Adeptusridiculous]

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[@oxmor]

Can you all do a video on paladins, crusaders, and or enforcers?

[@Dracobyte]

Happy New Year!

[@EzekialRagel]

The Drukari will turn you into a foot stool. The Empire will make you a light switch.

[@secretname2670]

conscious furniture piece vs conscious industrial piece

[@Sercotani]

Imperium*

[@Khornecussion]

@@Sercotani Which would make them an Empire and it even has an Emperor. Y'know. Like every single empire. It's just that to be legally distinct from Star Wars and things like Dune, they didn't dare use " Empire of Man "

[@prestonjones1653]

​@@Khornecussion And the fact that WH Fantasy uses Empire of Man.

[@gokbay3057]

@@Khornecussion Warhammer Fantasy already had the Empire of Man. Hence why one must use the word Imperium. If it is Warhammer Empire (of Man) that's fantasy, if it is Science Fiction Empire that's (to most people) Star Wars. It is the specific wording of the Imperium that keeps 40K distinct and memorable.

[@thewerdna]

Reminds me of a moment from a Ciaphas Cain book, where Cain is walking with this Tau diplomat who suddenly starts breathing rapidly, walking faster, and seems to be on the verge of a panic attack. Cain can't figure out what is wrong, not realizing it was because they walked past some servitors. The fact humans were lebodomizing and mutilating their own people was, rightly, entirely horrifying to the Tau, while to Cain, like everyone else in the imperium, it is just normal.

[@secretname2670]

Chadaphias Chadain versus Average T'au Diplomat

[@falconstudios146]

​@@secretname2670My brother in the Emperor, the Tau are right

[@KillerOrca]

​@falconstudios146 Ironicallu enough, Cain had to fight combat servitors man to man. TWICE. He didn't quite trust then after that

[@_NIKOS9_NIKOS]

That actually makes me wonder. What do the T'au do to the servitors in the Imperial worlds they take over? Like do they try to reverse the surgery or do they start going around putting them down Old Yeller style, until their fire warriors become critically depressed?

[@Psychoangel-d23]

@@falconstudios146 bullshit, everyone knows orks are right

[@WarriorTier]

Best title for a podcast so far! I love that short story.

[@vikingen244]

Yoooo

[@beccadixon1943]

A legend has joined the chat!

[@andrewcarney3088]

Two titans of industry shaking hands Also I have no mouth and I must scream is a phenomenal short story

[@Ironbattlemace]

Oh shit it's you!

[@De_Chappo]

Cant help but read this in WT's voice. Complete with all the intonations. Edit: love your stuff lol

[@YoBen100]

Tech Priest: [Congratulations, you are being rescued.] Imperial Guardsman: "Oh good, I just got small cut from cleaning the knife. I just need small medkit." Tech Priest: [Don't worry, we have great health care program. You will be brand new in no time.]

[@Not_the_FTA]

Oh no

[@steweygrrr]

El no sabe!

[@tdpuuhailee8222]

Imperial Guardsman: Isn't this a little... excessive? Tech Priest: [Not at all. Now get on the chair, so I can start the operation.]

[@lawaern3474]

I feel like they'd more have that rimworld energy. [Worry not, your arm shall never be do easily injured again. Expect an efficiency increase of 20%]

[@essex3777]

I always wanted to see written was a Tech-priest that's actually a moral human. Where he sees the flesh as not weak but something to be improved

[@secutorprimus]

Fun fact: in Lords of Mars, a main character (normal human with minimal augmentation) is given a chance to interface with every single servitor on an Ark Mechanicus at once. He quickly finds out that servitors are *not*, in fact, mindless. They are, instead, mind *locked*, with fragmented memories. All he can hear are screams.

[@secutorprimus]

I'm also glad that they brought up the Arco Flagellant chapter in LoM. They left out the most important aspect of the scene, however: it's POV.

[@High-LordHarza]

Most servitors are mindless, as many are made from vat grown clones that have never been people, and the ones made from real people are also mindwipes so they're mindless...until they glitch, or if the mindwipe was botched, or someone purposefully fucks it up. *Most* are vatgrown...but with a population in the quadtrillions and servitors needed for a lot of them, "most" can still leave millions of "I have no mouth and I must scream" situations.

[@andrewgause6971]

Rogue Trader has a random event where you can discover that a group of your servitors has spontaniously regained some of their memories and emotions. Like, they glitch out, wave at you/mimic your actions, and when you take them apart to find out what is wrong the others react with visible fear. You have the option to mind wipe them again, just chuck them out the airlock, or you can mercy kill them in order to free them from the hell they've awoken to, while noting that they "honorably finished their service" or some such. There is also another servitor you can find in a side quest where the guy who made it *deliberately* ensured it was not mind wiped and was fully aware, just unable to control itself. The horror that represents...

[@Duzon1602]

it was nomos

[@MrZacharyMc]

The best servitor story is from “Hellsreach”. Where one is tasked to sweep the church everyday and it can’t rest until it’s done. It’s broom breaks and nobody is around to replace it. So, it exhausts all of its energy walking around making sweeping motions until it dies because it can’t finish sweeping. They throw it off the wall in to the cemetery that he used to be the grounds keeper for.

[@ls-501templar8]

Skitarii are as autonomous as their tech priest wishes. In the book Skitarius, the skitarii are actual individuals because their tech priest believes it would be more advantageous to their missions. And ruststalkers are just veterans who have more augmentations.

[@louiscypher4186]

There was also one book where not only are the Skitarii all individuals, but their tech priest basically stepped in and overrode their consciousnesses ordered them into a suicide charge. Only after the mission was complete did they have control over themselves again and the really fucked up part was they enjoyed it because at the same time they get hijacked their bodies got flooded with endorphins.

[@starwarsnerd100]

It’s important to note the difference between Cogitators and Servitors. Cogitators are just computers and have no human brain. They show up all the time in the Eisenhorn and related spin off books. But anything that has a brain in it is a servitor.

[@williansnobre]

Cogitators are also just normal computers that deal with simple codes. Any advanced thing that gets close to AI is required to be handled by Servitors, such as face recognition for doors or landing systems for ships. It is part of the absurdity of it all that they use Servitors for very simple tasks.

[@pretzelbomb6105]

@@williansnobre There's some delayed horror to it too. Simple economics means that, by and large, the cheapest materials capable of fulfilling a purpose will be used for that purpose. If a traditional computer is cheaper, it will be used for the needed purpose instead of a full servitor setup. There are places in the Imperium where a human life is worth less than a CPU.

[@kinagrill]

Anything that requires actual self-doing or 'smart programming' would require a servitor. like pushing a button to reset the ship's schedule-timer. or a floorsweeping servitor. No machines for that, only lobotomized cyborgs for that.

[@DanielWW2]

11:10 The rare case of DK being right and Bricky being wrong. Servo-skulls are made of loyal adepts or zealous servants of the Imperium, who after death, have their skulls taken to be used in the creation of servo skulls. Like this, they may continue to serve the Imperium even in death.

[@DefaultFlame]

Yup. And there's no brain in a servo skull, just a cogitator.

[@Reddotzebra]

"Basically anything in 40k that's a robot." Except for the Kastellan Robots, which are actual robots except they require a specialized tech-priest to run along next to them and shove updated control chips into them every time they need to do something different. I always imagine one of these guys accidentally snapping one of the wafers in half when putting it into the slot, USB stick style and then being unable to shut the rampaging murder machine that's still acting on the last chip of "kill them all" down...

[@kirbyfanprime]

I was wondering if they were going to bring these up since that was one of the more fascinating episodes of Hammer and Bolter. Of course, I couldn't remember the name, so I kept calling it the Among Us robot in my head.

[@glitterboy2098]

those were originally Men of iron, until the mechanicus ripped out the AI. the USB-command program thing was their best effort to make use of the chassis.

[@vortex594]

Kastellans are a derivation of Castellax, and they do in fact use meat brains, from back in the day before/during the Heresy when the sentient part of the brain was actively used as part of the automata's function. You can see the skull on the models' chest. Turned out to be a bad idea because it gave the automata a chance of breaking free of their programming.

[@RustyKnightGaming]

Tech priest movie trips and drops all the wafers in mud. OH BISCUITS

[@MOFFSTER_MUSIC]

about the thing with small trauma damage being able to wake up a servitor a little. in the Mechanicus game, when a servitor takes damage, they get a cognition point. they integrated the idea in just that seamlessly

[@petrsukenik9266]

As i get it it was explained that tech priests take interest in enemy weapons

[@THExRISER]

The actual backbone of the Imperium.

[@floricel_112]

Nah, that's the overall physical infrastructure. Through what I can only assume is the sheer will of the emperor, it somehow hasn't collapsed from carrying all the sheer stupidity for ten thousand years. Especially with what the imperium nowadays considers "maintenance"

[@THExRISER]

@@floricel_112 It is absolutely a that the Imperium survived long enough until Guilliman came back and started trying to fix it.

[@soulhunter6438]

So an exoskeleton for the crippled humanity.

[@comlitbeta7532]

​@@soulhunter6438that is surprisingly accurate

[@Dracobyte]

Yeah!

[@thebaron9405]

Lets not forget, Dark Mechanicus also makes servitors, imagine chaos servitors

[@WTFisTingispingis]

_Chaos._

[@potentiallyaheretic9281]

Chaos spawn servitors, though to a degree daemon engines aren’t completely off the mark.

[@Tommy9834]

Probably not too different from the Imperial Servators, they just skip the lobotomy part.

[@underplague6344]

Chaos Skitarii would basically just be fanon skitarii. Especially a _certain artist's_ interpretation of them.

[@nicholaswalker757]

In my opinion the most terrifying part about servitors is that not all of them get their minds completely wiped, and still maintain a lot of their higher brain functions. So in that case they end up basically being a mind trapped inside their own body, unable to do anything with their body on their own and having no hope of being relieved from the torment. aka literally endless suffering.

[@kieranadamson3224]

I've heard that it's at least a common soft canon that if a Tech Priest is particularly spiteful they'll intentionally leave enough of you left to suffer.

[@nicholaswalker757]

​@@kieranadamson3224 I don't doubt that at all, especially with how big of a-holes the ad mech are.

[@bruticus1496]

I imagine that is done to the worst offenders and traitors

[@nicholaswalker757]

​@@bruticus1496 Idk man, knowing the mechanicus and how little they value human life. I don't doubt that they'd do that to you just for mouthing off a little prior to getting servitorized, and they'd definitely do that if they held any kind of grudge against you. Edit: fixed a typo

[@Carrisonfire1]

You know, it's impressive that in an episode about servitors the most unsettling thing I saw was Shy editing the sword wiper to be cleaning the Great Clean one.

[@AGrumpyPanda]

That wasn't even Shy, that was one of the first memes people made when the sword-wiping mini came out.

[@Ezaviel]

In the 40k kids books the main character thinks that all servitors are vat-grown, but the book acknowledges that she has a bad feeling it's a lie her parents have told her.

[@Kropothead]

There are kids’ books? Oof. Sounds hard to write.

[@Ezaviel]

@@Kropothead They did a surprisingly good job with it.

[@Kropothead]

@@Ezaviel I believe it. I was a huge Animorphs kid, so meaningful grimdark YA stories about war are very doable, I just never thought much about it happening with 40K.

[@raygc1]

Ah yes, Servitors; The Squigs of the Imperium. You can make them into WHATEVER you need! Like Squigs!

[@Gitskreig]

Note that while a lot of servitors are criminals, most aren't. Most are just people deemed 'surplus to requirement' and the Admech have a really nasty track record of receiving refugee ships and just mass processing everyone inside into wetware.

[@noodleus99]

not to mention how easy it is to be declared a 'criminal' in 40k, whilst being completely innocent

[@aneveningwithebola2727]

40k - always grimmer and darker than you think!

[@Gitskreig]

@@noodleus99 Heck, I'm pretty sure that there is mention of hive worlds linked to forge worlds who give a certain quota of 'criminals' to the forge as their tithe of raw materials and if they haven't got enough criminals for this year, they just round up some poor civvies to make up the numbers.

[@breadstick4458]

Even then I’m sure the arbities can round up some “criminals” from the general populace if the mechanicus is running out of stock

[@TeRenner123]

Yeah but even the Admech dosent realy like that behavior anymore They mainly went for vat grown now just for ease of supply

[@NingenSlayerZamasu]

Oh boy, the sheer level of humans being devalued to becoming semi sentient forklifts. My favorite!

[@samtrue3]

Semi sentient forklifts is just so funny to say

[@Jfk2Mr]

Yet there's no palletised logistics

[@comlitbeta7532]

Baby i am MADE forklift certified 😎

[@brianvanmaanen1897]

Imagine a vending machine servitor, like multiple dudes stitched together so the actual goods are where their ribcages/guts would have been. And you inserts coins/tokens in their mouth or scan your credit card with their eyes. then they hand you your snack. And they would be able to move (4 legs being more stable than 2)... Servitors are such nightmare fuel, and I love them for it.

[@TheGallantDrake]

Excuse you, is that pattern approved by Mars? Magos, this enginseer right here!

[@johnnnysilverhand9819]

Yep, this one is a heretek

[@jakebailey1636]

the somewhat depressing thing is they'd probably consider that wasteful and just stick a guy to the back of one to pass you things or push them into a slot or something like it would be that menial they wouldn't even attempt to use more than one

[@morgansheepman2403]

That's basically a Daemonculaba, but for treats and not space marines.

[@Khornecussion]

@@johnnnysilverhand9819 " Death... for life! " - If you played Rogue Trader and got Jae her trader's writ, you know.

[@dudebruh8534]

Ah, yes. The incredibly easy question of which death is worse. Warhammer 40k edition: 1. Being turning into a flashlight by the Imperium. 2. Being turning into a fleshlight by the dark aldar.

[@falconstudios146]

I'd pick the latter. If I fall hard enough to slaanesh maybe I won't mind if so much

[@Kameth]

I'm picking the former. At least the AdMech would probably lobotomise you, rendering you unaware about what is happening until you permanently break and they finally destroy you. Not guaranteed but a decent chance. Dark Eldar would keep your mind intact, screaming, in pain, forever.

[@malix82]

​@@falconstudios146 then you'd just end up as discarded, as you're no longer providing grimdank energy

[@Bek359]

The latter is worse - if you're turned into a servitor, your consciousness is gone, you don't have to actually *experience* life in that state, whereas the Dark Eldar very MUCH want you to be aware of your horrific fate the entire time and make your existence last as long as possible. Edit: USUALLY your consciousness is gone, yes, sometimes fragments remain, but it's not an intended outcome, and if if end up causing issues, you might actually get that mercy-kill that you so desperately want, which, again, would not be the case with the Dark Eldar option.

[@GenuinelyHorriblePerson]

At least the flashlights get pumped full of drugs and don't have to think.

[@raycearcher5794]

We need Dark Mechanicus rules with heretical xenos servitors. Imagine being a guardsman, and you're fighting off some chaos cultists, then the servitor venomthropes show up.

[@Dracobyte]

That would be crazy!

[@tomashamacek4384]

Bricky: in everything is servitor Cawl: yes there are definitly servitors in all my automated devices

[@shafts__6821]

I highly recommend reading the forges of Mars series, it goes into the horrible treatment of menials and servitors by the mechanics while also having large scale conflict and higher tier problems

[@windwalker5765]

I'm gonna say that Skitarii are definitely _not_ servitors. They are humans with heavy cybernetic upgrades, but closer to tech-priests in that they retain their individuality, their ability to communicate, their self-awareness. They know their names. In the most recent Cain book, we meet a Skitarii senior officer who has a sense of humor.

[@krald8421]

but we all know that most "real" 40k fans consider cain non canon because its not grimderp, 40k twitter is hillarious

[@sebastianholtsvendsen2597]

Bricky forgot the missile servitor, the servitors who control the missile guiding system from the missile itself (sent from voidships)

[@kieranhorne4141]

The return of the bird bombs from ww2

[@meeyatttA]

Fun fact: Despite Adeptus Mechanicus being the most recognised users of servitors and their new codex having multiple sections about them, as of now Adeptus mechanicus can't use regular battle servitors as units (But do use special variants of them)

[@thatoneguy5856]

of course, they only use the cool toys

[@pixo2280]

Why waste time babysitting battle servitors and exposing valuable tech-priests to danger when you have skitarii?

[@caucheka]

​@@pixo2280 kataphrons are Battle servitors

[@The_Sharktocrab]

​@@cauchekathey're kataphron battle servitors, as opposed to regular servitors used for battle

[@WorthDasGirth]

Ya’ll never talked about my boi Pinchy. This servo-skull was made to locate missing socks. However in a startling oversight from the tech-priests who made it, the skull was incorrectly programmed and could not distinguish between socks that were missing and socks that were definitely not missing and still, in fact, attached to the feet of their owner. The soldiers of the barracks it was assigned to didn't seem to mind though, even going so far as to name it "Pinchy" and declare it "indispensable to company morale." Pinchy never actually did find any missing socks though.

[@Kropothead]

Humans will pack bond with literally anything.

[@riedenstien9799]

My life has improved considerably with this information

[@nolanbaker2360]

40k knife roomba

[@meganobgutzkraka2398]

some fun notes: 1. servitors are anything with a brain, cogitators are actual computers 2. archoflagellatns are a fun system for a robot, where not only is it brainwashing but the person isn't still "there", before you use them, you have to scan everything in front of them and identify friend and foe, THEN give a killword, and you will bear witness to that flagellant go on an unstoppable rampagn of psychostim fueled rage and endurance until each and every marked "heretic" is dead. 3. Skitarii are actually there in those brain buckets, a LOT of them are autonomous however most of them are also tied to their commanders and believe the order they receive mentally are those given by The Machine God itself, not the commander. Ruststalkers are veteran skitarii, heavily augmented, and even MORE free thinking, it's actually quite common (by 40k numbers) for skitarii to become priests/commanders in their own autonomy 4. the tau HATE servitors, as such the admech know this and use them a lot against tau 5. servitors are the perfect use for criminals 6.cherubs are MOSTLY vat grown clones, and that's from the lore itself, "mostly", you'll never tell which is what tho

[@BoisegangGaming]

30:03 "I know most people who get servitorized are like heretics and criminals...." Oh, DK, you sweet, sweet summer child.

[@CatRaph]

I think one of the most horrifying parts of servitors isn´t the body horror of being turned into one, but how ubiquitous they are in the entire imperium. Lobotomization and mutilation en masse is seen as normal.

[@DashingMachandsome]

Every week, I check to see if they are making Bricky's forehead just a little taller each episode

[@Reddotzebra]

Servo-skulls are generally only created from people that are considered to have served the Imperium well in some capacity, it's literally a honor to be made into one after death. They are sort of like the closest thing regular humans get to being interred in a dreadnought, if that makes any sense? Also there is at least one Space Marine servo-skull in the codex.

[@TheDark1903]

In the rogue trader crgp you can save a loyal tech priests skull and honor them by turning them into a servo-skull.

[@DirtHermit]

Magos Dominus Reditus. A Tech Priest who's faith in the Machine, and knowledge of the Necrons, was to precious to lose. Loyalty and Service beyond death. The truest blessing of Machine.

[@chakatBombshell]

Honestly becoming a servo-skull wouldn't be too bad if your not working they kinda just let servo-skulls do what they want and if you're a servo-skull you're free from pain except psychic stuff and you get to be filled with tons of new information so you'll never be bored. Heck you even can get a skull mounted lazgun if someone upsets you or pretty much any reason because you where blessed with a face laser.

[@DirtHermit]

@@chakatBombshell theres also probably a reason most are not given the face laser option 😅

[@eduardodiaz9942]

Honestly, battle servitors have it the easiest of the bunch. At least the enemies of the Omnissiah can grant them the gift of death.

[@Deaf_gal]

I heard wine servitor and my brain screams; “WINE TIMOTHY!!!!”

[@uselesspocketwatch]

In one story, a Space Marine scout sniper disobeyed orders and took the shot. The ork boss had a force field, and the scout's Captain died in the ensuing fight. The council of officers at the hearing (which did not include the acout) decided on conversion to a gun servitor, "so his skills could continue to serve the chapter." This was the lenient compromise of a sentence.

[@autarchprinceps]

All computers and connected functions inside a ship being powered by given the size probably something like a million servitors cabled together gives a whole new outlook to the machine spirit concept.

[@travelingspartan2035]

Skitarii are not servitors, but are basically a step above them. They have their own rank structure, and there's a Mechanicus novel that follows one of their marshals as the protagonist. Theyre heavily cyborg'd out and have a lot of brainwashing in place, but are capable of taking initiative and retaining some individuality.

[@someidiot6545]

My favorite servitor fact is that it doubles as the Healthcare program for guardsmen with too much PTSD to fight. You get to the therapy planet to heal, and if you haven't miraculously recovered from lifelong trauma in the first few weeks they send you next door to the servitor assembly line. Hey, if the only thing preventing them from fighting in the Emperor's name is their weak human brain, simply remove their brain.

[@omnilisk279]

Servitor: What is my purpose? Mechanicus: You open doors. Servitor: Oh my god.

[@OneNationUnderPug]

The process of becoming a servitor reminds me of Strogification from Quake.

[@TeRenner123]

It is mostlikly even the same

[@Zmanred02]

In one of the Forges of Mars books, they discuss the surgery of servitors and arcoflagellants in a very up close and personal way

[@YOGI-kb9tg]

With cherubs its probably most like many things with 40k nothing is standardized so there probably are still worlds that use actual babies

[@silverwing4153]

I always wanted a short story where a servator is sentient and awake during their existence. Slowly growing angrier and angrier until they explode as a demon of khorn.

[@marcospatricio8283]

Oooooooh, that'd be great! Maybe even better for Nurgle, tho, as Nurgle can make computer viruses, so a single zombie servitor could infect and corrupt several others and cause some REAL trouble on a spaceship. And could be framed as the servitor choosing to lose it's free will to a "grandfather" who they think loves them, instead of an empire who hated them.

[@HunterSentinel]

28:44 I’d also imagine messing with the brain requires them to be fully conscious for the brain scan.

[@manofwarandmusic501]

Just a thought: By putting people into every machine the Ad Mech are physically implementing there dogma that every machine has a "machine" spirit. They don't seem to understand that the malfunctions they observe to be signs of spirits in all machines are likely coming from the people and not the machines. One can see the line of thought trail from necessity during mar's isolation (snow piercer style repairs) to tradition honoring the sacrificed to the religious ritual of actions as knowledge of the why of it was lost.

[@williansnobre]

You are probably right. One of their dogmas say that intelligence without a soul always turns on their creators, but the T'au have advanced AI and they are fine and some ancient human made AI that do show up sound way more reasonable than the people from the Imperium, so it is most likely that the AI rebelion was caused by Chaos scrap code or something and not by the existence of AI by itself.

[@nolanbaker2360]

​@@williansnobreI'd say it's basic respect. I think it's all a truly powerful all knowing AI would want.

[@Reddotzebra]

18:58 In one of the Ravenor books (Gideon Ravenor is an Inquisitor that's so injured that he's confined to a super fancy wheelchair like Professor X, but he's also a crazy powerful psyker) we get a scene where he is scrying the area as a form of meditation, and he touches the mind of a servitor that's working in a warehouse. The line is something like "The servitor was having trouble stacking the boxes in the correct stacks, all the boxes were clearly labelled in huge letters."

[@Lakefront_Khan]

Vox in the Dark has one of the most terrifying stories ever about them. Also fantastic Night Lord stories.

[@Vaino_Hotti]

Vox in the Void* Their "Abomination" servitor story was genuinely unsettling.

[@TheTsugnawmi2010]

‘Abomination’ and ‘I AM’

[@floridamanwentwild4411]

There is this one servitor that sisters I think can role out on the table top that the story is during a battle sister were fighting along side the imperial guards and the sister who was carrying the flag died but a guardsmen jumped into action and took up the banner before it touched the ground and the sisters were so moved by this they made him into a servitor to carry the banner into battle

[@Aceshot-uu7yx]

That poor fool, that is the worst punishment for a good deed in 40k I have ever seen. It's not just torture, it's not just a betrayal, it's being turned into a servitor for trying to just save a dang flag.

[@mutantmaster1]

I think my favorite mind of servitor, just to show how messed up the Imperium is, is the one that pilots some sort of war machine that isn't safe for usage, so at some point, the poor sap piloting it dies from energy burn out or environmental damage. At which point the machine opens, the body is chucked out like a spent shell casing, and someone else is commanded to jump in and resume piloting it

[@barrybend7189]

You've just been Strogged. 34:05 Guntank.

[@kuroshine]

Another good "Making of a servitor" story is Stephen Duxbury short story "Abomination" @voxinthevoid has a great reading of it as well as another great Servitor story called "I Am

[@TenNoYaiba]

That idea of a servitor undoing their mindwipe through trauma gives rise to a rather excellent premise. Someone could be servitorized for whatever reason in the prologue and have a their traumatic reawakening rather early on. 40k has enough super science and surgery that it could be a reasonable goal to surgery oneself back to a functioning human and then take revenge on the power responsible. It would take a lot of scrounging for money or power to get to afford or otherwise enact the restorative procedures, but that's a rather compelling plot in my opinion.

[@louiscypher4186]

Pretty sure that anyone that helps you is committing tech heresy. Which leads to another compelling story idea, where there's a guy being hunted down by the inquisition for the crime of restoring someones humanity.

[@theswordsman7590]

For anyone wondering the book “Flesh and Steel” a crime noir story and I hugely recommend it, it shows the world of 40K from a very human point of view, as well as a look at the hive cities, high nobles as well as the ad mech and their faith.

[@Tortle-Man]

People wonder why the Mechanicus always seem to lose in their own books. Then you read their lore and you remember they’re almost as evil as the Drukhari. They don’t usually deserve to win.

[@karlfrank4346]

The servitor becoming self aware is similar to the failed exo facilities at bray tech literally tearing themselves apart in order to free their flesh from their metallic prison.

[@matijasostojic4288]

RoboCop? I don't know anything about that world Aside from that scene

[@noabsolutelynot3660]

​@@matijasostojic4288No, Destiny.

[@Balrog4242]

Humanity: "We circumvented the mysterious corruption of our AIs by turning billions of people into horrible servitors." Vashtorr: "Yep. That was totally your idea." ALSO "I don't want to be a servitor." "Your choices are bidet servitor or..." "Any other kind of servitor is fine."

[@johnnnysilverhand9819]

Would love a series on Necromunda. It seems like tons of hidden gems (including miniatures) that even long-time 40k fans and players don’t even know exist. Maybe start off with “All factions in Necromunda) and then spin off from there

[@nicolasgomez6637]

Shout out to all door servitors out there, you fellas are the real ones, without everyone in the imperium would have to... To.... *shudders* to use d o o r k n o b s

[@cogsworther1639]

So, the lore for the Skitarii might have changed, but in the novel creatively titled, *Skitarii,* it's demonstrated that Skitarii soldiers do remember their previous life, and the main character was actually a former menial/security guard who "worked his way up" in the ranks It's not nearly as good as some other 40k novels, but the duology does a good job of describing how a tech-priest controls the Skitarii. It's not so much direct possession. Rather, the Tech-Priest constantly makes micro-adjustments in what the Skitarii unit as a whole are doing mid-battle. So an individual Skitarii will be fighting as normal until they feel the "Divine motive force" compel them to suddenly change tactics or fix a minor mistake in their aim. Then, the "motive force" leaves, and the Skitarii continues fighting having felt, for just a moment, the machine god's guidance. It's really conceptually interesting since it's not just a person without free will, it's a person who never knows when they'll suddenly and momentarily lose free will and has become completely inured to this state of being

[@dfwai7589]

"Abomination" by Vox in the Void is by far the best depiction of what becoming and being a servitor is. 10/10 God Emperor save me.

[@blackdiamond9636]

The story " I am" is my favorite servitor story some real nightmare fuel

[@odditiescollector4540]

im surprised that shy didnt comment about the ogryn servator for the water guild in necromunda when the other ones were brought up as it looked like big daddy from bioshock

[@Hsereal]

22:00 Greetings from the Momo swarm, Bricky! Was great seeing a collab between two of my favorite creators.

[@matanm6829]

DK and Bricky are basically shay's servitors. They just aren't aware of it.

[@jacobfreeman5444]

No no no, these vids are their reward for good service. They get to act like real humans again for a short while. That is why it always runs over. They don't want it to end

[@The_Sharktocrab]

Ironic because shy is a cherub, aka a servitor lmao

[@danniluxgarbe429]

​@@The_Sharktocrab The line between servitor and just an average AdMech is a fine one. It's not inconceivable that a cherub-sized-but-fully-intelligent Adept exists, given that some admech have given up everything south of their navel for a ducted fan arangment, or to roll around on top of a ball like Gizmoduck.

[@jacobfreeman5444]

Yeah, in a setting where therr is a whole religion built around transhumanism I figure there has to be cherub servitors built specifically to house elder admec

[@cavareenvius7886]

And in DKs case there was no lobotomy needed. 😂

[@craig.a.glesner]

Go DK for scoring one on Bricky with that Servo Skull knowledge. Hell, even I remembered that they’re honorable. :p

[@craig.a.glesner]

It is only after listening to this that I realize that WH40K has some things very much in common with the TV show THE LEXX.

[@Error-mn4el]

Vox in the Void has an audio book/drama/thingy that has the process of being turned into a servitor, was called "abomination" iirc highly recommend

[@christianschroter6589]

I second that recommendation. Made me very uncomfortable.

[@Sharksvsnids]

I knew it would be the thing from flesh and steel before they started the quote! Book was great! The process is worse than what they're referencing, I believe they did all the augment surgeries removing limbs and grafting on tools, and the last step was the mind wiping process. The whole book made it clear servitors have enough of their identity left to HATE their existence.

[@TeRenner123]

These are the once made from Criminals so made into servitor or killed crusomly Vat grown who arent fit for use are not grindet down but used as spare Parts Essantialy going back into the frigde

[@bloodwolfkoji]

I'm a little surprised they didn't mention the clown servitor which was literally a kids toy, or the pleasure servitors...you know what, kinda glad they didn't :)

[@WaltDevil060]

Pleasure servitors?! Who the fuck would want to use one of these things?

[@TheTsugnawmi2010]

‘I AM’ is a Servitor story found on KZbin that left me heartbroken. Excellent story.

[@TheGallantDrake]

Minesweeping is what the penal legions are for.

[@geoffreyprecht2410]

Why do we have so many lobotomy cyborg mass production assembly lines? Because this is the most efficient way to make doors. Praise the Omnissiah.

[@andrewcarney3088]

Just when you think Shy is gonna let DK off with this one it's quote time

[@vancodling4223]

Cogitators are the peak of grimdark for me. Machinery literally fueled by death

[@mistaj19]

i would highly recommend eventually reading the priest of mars books. a character gets servitorized

[@joshuawiese8446]

Space Marines do have servitors they can run… they’re listed as “Astartes Servitors” for their datasheet

[@underplague6344]

I remember there was one story where a guy insults the mechanicus and gets secretly servitorized as a punishment. They frame it as a "tragic accident" all while the tech priestess who ordered it smiles in smug satisfaction. The most horrifying part of it is they intentionally leave the actual "lobotomization" part for last specifically to torture this guy.

[@lukefishlock2715]

Listen to "I Am" from Vox in the Void. It's about the life of a Servitor that was left fully conscious. Its very good and very disturbing. 😁👍

[@kgp277]

DK was right! There’s a story where an administorum priest had a servo-skull of his old teacher who he had a crush on, and he quite cherished it. And another story where I think a tech priest’s gf or bf (kinda) kept him company. I might be conflating two stories though 😅

[@marcospatricio8283]

There's also Reditus, from the Mechanicus game. He's a tech priest turned servo-skull, and still very respected and cherished by his peers.

[@Shyruni]

Just to clarify, basic Servitors seem to be moving to Legends for some codexes. Marines and Admech removed them with their codexes. It's possible guard will also remove them when their codex arrives.

[@xxchaos315xx6]

Theres no brains in servo skulls!

[@javierev4994]

This is the best episode title you could've come up with, amazing stuff. 🎉🎉🎉

[@nogreen7727]

The bit about the servitor passing butter reminded me of a KZbinr that’s trying to make a circuit board from human neurons to control a robot that passes butter.

[@elitemook4234]

With how ubiquitous psykers are in this setting you’d think it would be a bad idea to use human brains as wetware computers.

[@user-uc4de4un2z]

1 and 10 million is a worth while risk, remember that the number of pyskers is very small, and most get snatched by the black ships anyway. Not much left over to be turned into a servitor

[@jurepec5779]

Could a powerful psyker “hack” an entire ship by mind controlling servitors running it?

[@elitemook4234]

@@jurepec5779 I think there's a story built on that idea called 'I am' but I don't know if it's cannon or not.

[@jurepec5779]

@@elitemook4234 I remember an episode of this podcast I think The Watcher in the rain where a bunch of servitor skulls are scrabbled by the Watcher but thats a warp entity and with no real direction or purpose. I wonder if a psyker could direct them more

[@Oscar_Lasco]

I bet the choir servitor sounds like the sardaukar singer from Villeneuve's Dune.

[@kirbyfanprime]

Using servitors to run computers just makes me think of using human brains as the equivalent of newer GPUs. "You're only running on a Highborn? Had to get a custom rig just to house my new Astartes servitor." However, given the advances in stem cell grown brain organelles for use in biocomputing, and the first thing someone did was see if they could run Doom, that reality seems a lot closer than is comfortable.

[@green_creeper288]

Could it run doom?

[@kirbyfanprime]

@@green_creeper288 if I remember right, yes, but it brings up the weird ethical issue of a semi-sentient brain having its only form of stimulus being the fires of Hell.

[@BoisegangGaming]

One of the most disturbing elements of the Imperium is just how needlessly cruel they are, and how clinically this cruelty is. The vast majority of humanity lives in squallor, little more than thralls for a great bureacratic machine that is long dead but continues only through inertia and scale. They toil, ceaselessly, and when they can toil no more, their flesh is made into meat or machine for the sheer utility of that their bodies are a resource that someone desires to utilize. There are more humans in the Imperium than have ever existed in our timeline. And yet the value of human life is so infinitesimal that it barely even registers as a thousandth of a percentage. Entire generations are churned out as soldiers or servitors or foodstuffs to perpetuate something that should by all rights- by all justice and righteousness- have died long ago. And yet it does this because it claims it is necessary. But is it? The pain the Imperium inflicts on its populace, the sheer evil it commits in banal mundanity, eclipses everything else in the setting. The Imperium is a nightmare. No one in it can even be said to be human anymore, for how often can they be said to be alive? Everyone- from the lowliest hive worlder to the highest born noble- are merely resources. It is necessary because someone long long ago declared it necessary, and it has continued to be because of stagnation and decay. It is a cannibal eating its own flesh. Are there horrors in the grimdarkness? Of course. None can deny the terrible machinations of the drukhari, the aloof elitism of the Eldari, the unstoppable revanchism of the Necrons, the single-minded conflict of the Orks, or the all-devouring tides of the Hive Mind. But it is the Imperium that is the greatest horror, the greatest evil, because it treats people worse than even we treat livestock. There are those who say things would be different with the Emperor in charge, but it was the same thing as it is now: cruelty, disguised as necessity, lies twisted into truth by sheer repitition over endless time. What was the fate of the Interex or the Diasporex? What was the fate of all who crawled out of the Age of Strife with what little hope they had, what little desire they had for a better world? Annihilation, pure and simple. Why? Because it was "necessary". Because it was "required". Countless excuses fueling endless cruelty because one being- one "Man"- desired galactic domination at any cost. The Emperor was no different than any other petty warlord on Terra beyond the fact that he won. But this victory was not born from righteousness, or justice. It was born from cruelty, from intentional ignorance, from the distortion of the basic concepts of truth and necessity and worth. Humanity is dead in the 42nd millennium. There is nothing left but rotting bones.

[@woaddragon]

Be a real fun at party. Nevertheless 100 percent agree.

[@williansnobre]

That's very heretical, not gonna lie. But it is true.

[@_NIKOS9_NIKOS]

louder for those in the back please

[@vancodling4223]

Mentions all the evils of the galaxy except chaos, heretic detected. Who is the bigger loser, the festering empire ruled by a corpse or the rabble of cannibalistic demon thralls who cannot even kill it once it's cleft in twain?

[@BoisegangGaming]

@vancodling4223 that wasn't meant to be an extensive list. I'm not a chaos apologist, for the record. It inflicts so much suffering on the galaxy, and those who worship it can often only be described as evil. But how much of the galaxy does chaos control? How many people are pushed into its thrall by the unending machine of the Imperium? The Imperium's self-inflicted ignorance has been its Achilles heel since even before the great crusade. Its definition of heretic, xenos, or mutant are so fluid and ill-grounded that persons who had no choice of where they were born- from voidfarers to those adapted to different gravities or atmospheres- would be put to the stake if they had the gall to come to a different world. How is such pointless cruelty necessary? How is anything that has no concept of innocence justified in its actions or righteousness?

[@corbieconway3256]

30:07 Did this man just say "Oh my GOD?!" Mr. Electric, servitorize this man!

[@spinetanium3296]

"Was that sound Bricky's balls dropping?" "Nope, that was him laying the pipe."

[@McSkumm]

If that Factor company doesn't make a Corpse Starch flavored meal, are they even really trying?

[@DouglasMeloche]

@29:25 always appreciate when fans cite the source for quoted passages👌Big UPs to AR

[@Gormathius]

I like how Bricky was talking about how the horror of servitors is more philosophical early in the episode, then he proceeded to describe the series of torture rooms they're made in... And that meatgrinder under the trapdoor? That's probably also a servitor.

[@jesternario]

"Shy, give him the quote." I was laughing at that one.

[@loiterring]

Love the polishing servitor added to the outro scene

[@mindwarp42]

The truly terrifying aspect of servitors is how close they are to what has been done historically to cognitively disabled people. We have lobotomized the disabled to try to "cure" them (cure in quotes, because if your disabilty is a developmental one, that's just part of who you are and you have to learn ways to cope with it). We also have tried to (and still do try to) essentially mentally reprogram developmentally disabled people into being pale imitations of "humans" (quotes as, no joke, the pioneer of such therapies Ivar Lovaas wrote in his book about it that his patients were not human otherwise). It really isn't that much of a stretch to apply such techniques into making servitors in the 40K universe😊.

[@breadstick4458]

The best/scariest horror and satire always has just a hint of truth behind it

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

Ah yes, the infamous Janeway tactic of calling unusual behavior “not human”

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

@@breadstick4458 I feel like a “satire” not based on reality is just a cynical comedy

[@williansnobre]

And to add to the real horror, surgeries in the past were done without anesthesia, and after anesthesia was invented it was still common to not give it to babies because medics used to believe that babies could not feel/remember anything. Quite a lot of the mental issues that became common in the 20th century were probably caused by these Drukhari-like practices and we are still dealing with the consequences to this day.

[@palapeura375]

I was born 2 months early and it was widely believed that babies, especially preemies, can't feel pain. I'm terrified of doctors and hospitals to this day.

[@UnknownTuber450]

Bricky would pose as an Ecclesiarchy servitor just so he could be a servant to the Sisters of Battle and bring them things. He would be so submissive to them that they wouldn't tell he isn't a servitor until he slips up.

[@richardvaldes3959]

30:00 remember that in that book these people were all convicted of the most ridiculously terrible crimes. They were by no means innocents.

[@breadstick4458]

Not always with servitors tho. Remember what the imperium considers as “criminal” is a long list indeed. Also it’s laughable how corrupt, uncaring and inefficient it is. Arbities might mistake you for someone else, to bad you’re a servitor now

[@richardvaldes3959]

@@breadstick4458 sounds like something a heretic would say. Show me your papers!

[@MatthewCSnow]

Something to note: there is a servitor in the Rogue trader game where a rich dude customed ordered to keep some of their memory/conciseness intact. Let that sink in for a sec.