STC (Standard Template Construct) system
The Standard Template Construct system contains the collective knowledge of the Dark Age of Technology, including the application of said knowledge. In short it tells you everything you need to know and how to use that knowledge to affect the universe. This is the Holy Grail of the Adeptus Mechanicus – access to the complete and uncorrupted database of the STC system.
The Standard Template Construct system was perfected during the Dark Age of Technology and was instrumental in allowing humanity to expand across the galaxy. It provided an instant knowledge-base available to all colonies that would not only allow them to be self-sufficient, but in time progress to the highest level of cultural and technological sophistication.
Everything in the STC is standardized, not just the artifacts produced, but also the machines that make the artifacts...and the machines that make the machines, and so on. There is no innovation as such, since for all intents and purposes every field of science has been fully mapped out, and every technological application has already been invented, tested, used, improved, refined, integrated and standardized.
The STC system is not magical; it cannot conjure things out of thin air (but it can tell you how to build a machine that could, provided such a thing is at all possible). Instead the STC teaches those that can understand it how to make the tools to make the machines that in turn would allow them to make more advanced machines, and so on until the highest technological tier is reached. Going down this path would be prohibitively expensive and would generate little in return, so the process would have to be balanced with the need to provide for society's immediate needs.
So going down the path of the STC would take many generations of work, each generation building upon the advances of those that came before. However, each step of the process would be mapped out, progress would be accelerated, and it would all work perfectly and be the best that can be imagined. Indeed, any improvement the STC users might make would reveal themselves to be false as they progressed along the path, with even minor changes potentially having tremendous cascading implications further down the path.
STC Templates: Templates are the blueprints of the STC system, images of one part of the wealth of knowledge contained within the STC system. Such templates, or even parts of them, are highly valued by the Adeptus Mechanicus (and other Tech-guilds for that matter).
STC Constructs: Everything built using the STC system can be labeled Constructs; or more specifically Standard Template Constructs. So a lasgun produced using a STC template is a construct, as is a land raider, a heavy lift shuttle, or any of the other million technological horrors that drive the Imperium of Man.
STC Constructors: A constructor is in itself also a construct, albeit one with a special purpose; it has the ability to create new constructs (i.e. it is an STC factory). As long as it has access to uncorrupted templates and resources (specified in the templates) it can continue to output new constructs. Some constructors can be retooled (or can retool themselves!) to produce a variety of constructs.
Examples: The ubiquitous Chimaera is one STC template that is in common use throughout the galaxy. Each of the Chimaera's physical sub-components (as well as its operating software) is represented by one sub-template (meshed together to form the overall Chimaera template). The Chimaera is an old and flexible design, where the Mechanicus has access to a number of variant templates. These range in scope from major conversions (such as the Hellhound flame-tank), via intermediate variants (with different armor, engines etc. to accommodate for local resource availability and/or needs), to minor alterations (different display screen models, seating material etc.) of mostly cosmetic nature.
STC and the Age of the Imperium: Retrieved STC technology form the technological base of the Imperium of Man. Local variation does exist of course, both to meet local demands and to fill the many gaping holes in the available STC database, but by and large all Imperial worlds have access to mostly the same technology and utilizes it in similar fashions. So a lasrifle produced by manual labor on a small backwater Forge World in Ultima Segmentum might be slightly different (of a different pattern in Mechanicus jargon) from one produced in a holy STC Constructor back on Mars, but when you look past the variations it is the same piece of technology.
STC and the Adeptus Mechanicus: Not a single complete STC system has ever been retrieved; the Age of Strife almost destroyed humanity and with it the STC system. The exact reason why so little of the STC system remained, especially the most advanced parts, eludes the Mechanicus. All calculations indicated that more should have survived, yet it has not. Clearly there are some unknown factors in the equation, factors that if revealed may help the Mechanicus find the missing pieces.
Suffice to say that the Tech-Priests of Mars managed to cling to a great pool of knowledge throughout the Age of Strife, but they are far from having a complete database. They continue their holy work even today, and have now spent 10.000 years looking for bits and pieces of the STC in every dark corner of the galaxy. Unfortunately, as time passes it just gets harder and harder to find uncorrupted templates, and it seems unlikely that the Mechanicus will ever manage to reach their goal...through not for lack of trying. Still, the Adeptus Mechanicus have access to a great number of technologies not commonly available to the rest of the Imperium; techno-lore that it is very reluctant to share.
STC and the Tech Guilds: The myriad Tech Guilds that operate the hi-tech of the Imperium's many worlds have less access to STC templates than do the Mechanicus (and the Mechanicus does but rarely share its knowledge). They may have bits and pieces of it, but otherwise they must make do with whatever local adaptations they have managed to conjure forth over the millenia. Those guilds that do have access to special templates guard them well, for they provide them with a source of power and revenue not available to other guilds.
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