Warhammer 40K: Every Faction Ranked From Least To Most Evil

The Adeptus Mechanicus are...strange. Descendants of humans stranded on a hostile Mars, to whom any piece of working technology was worth its weight in gold, the Mechanicus gradually traded their unreliable flesh for cybernetic limbs and organs. Not surprisingly knowledge, and the technology that came with it, became the basis for a quasi-religion.

The latter has raised eyebrows: In the Imperium anything other than the worship of the God-Emperor is regarded as heresy, but with the Mechanicus manufacturing all of their weapons the Imperium dare not upset them. As a result the Mechanicus are left largely to do their own thing, which is research and tinker.

That tinkering is where get things disturbing: the Adeptus Mechanicus are behind the creation of some of the most twisted constructs used by the Imperium, such as the lobotomised cybernetic menial labour force, the Servitors, the creepy cupid-like constructs, the Incensor Cherubs, and the horrifically mutilated, mindless engines of destruction, the Arco-Flagellants.

Even so, lacking its brand of religious fanaticism the Mechanicus are not quite as evil as the Imperium itself. They might be weird, but between them and the Imperium you’d much rather have the Mechanicus as neighbours.