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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
→The Quest for Knowledge
'''The Quest for Knowledge''' is the driving mission of the Adeptus Mechanicus. The quest consists of research and exploration, but ultimately the focus of the quest is on the recovery of a working Standard Template Construct ([[STC]]) system. The purpose of the many exploratory missions is the recovery of STC knowledge.
For thousands of years the Tech-priests have pursued all information about the STC. To the Mechanicus, it is their lost bible. Any information on the STC including the scraps of knowledge recorded on hard copy designs are sought out and kept as holy texts. No only two functional STC systems have ever been recovered, one constructing [Iron men] and the other a type of steel. however Ibran Gaunt destroyed the STC creating Iron men soon after it was found for it had been corupted by chaos. The STC survives only as print-outs, some of which are many thousands of years old. Although considered the most reliable, there are very few first generation print-outs, and these are regarded as the most sacred of texts.
Through the Tech-priests' efforts much has been recovered or reconstructed through comparison of copies, although preserved knowledge of the most advanced technology eludes the Adeptus Mechanicus. Most of the early colonists' needs were simple and very few would have bothered to preserve the more theoretical and advanced technological information the STC contained.<sup>2</sup>
