Standard Template Construct

In the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe, a Standard Template Construct (STC) system allowed the very efficient creation of technological designs. Introduced before the Age of Strife, an STC allowed workers to build anything from a sock to a tank to a dwelling. Examples of STC technology still in use are the , the and the . Imperial forces (especially those of the Adeptus Mechanicus) will go to any length to recover a lost or stolen STC, even if it means the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Imperial citizens.

A STC library is said to contain the total sum of all human knowledge, but as the technological level needed by the majority of the population was simple, most STC systems were for producing relatively simple equipment such as threshing machines and airplanes, not warp energy taps or holo fields. Very few examples of schematics for more advanced devices have been found.

The STC systems themselves worked by giving full blueprints for a device or vehicle according to the given needs of the user. This resulted in some extremely sturdy, functional designs found throughout the Imperium.

Since no confirmed reports of a fully functional STC have been made since the Dark Age of Technology, the full nature of the STC remains unknown.

Standard Template Constructs in Literature

The canonicity of the following novels is disputed.

*A Standard Template Constructor was found by Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt in the novel First and Only . The full abilities of the device were never fully made clear, but it is known that the device could make the actual objects (constructs) corresponding to a standard template, rather than producing designs. In this case, it made the legendary "Men of Iron"; robotic soldiery that are heretical in the Imperium, but it is possible that the Constructor also held and/or could create other STCs. However, the device had been tainted by Chaos and the robots it produced were misshapen monstrosities that attacked humans on sight. To prevent the use of these robots, Gaunt destroyed the device.

:In this novel several statements are made regarding the importance of a STC found earlier: "Sixty years ago a team of Imperial scouts found an intact STC It was the Standard Template Constructor for a type of steel blade, an alloy of folded steel composite that was sharper and lighter and tougher than anything we've had before. Thirty whole Chapters of the great Astartes are now using blades of the new pattern. The scouts became heroes. each was given a world of his own. It was regarded as the greatest technological advance of the century..."

*In the novel Dark Adeptus , a team of Grey Knights investigating a long overrun Imperial encounter an Imperial Titan allegedly made using an STC; the majority of Imperial Titans are not made in this fashion and are inferior to the STC Titan.

*In the novel False Gods Horus encounters a very technologically advanced race who still have standard template technology. Being corrupted by this point, Horus declares war on them. After a brutal and grueling war (their technology was very similar to that of the Imperial forces, so it was only the Space Marines' superiority that won the war) Horus gifted the machines to the Fabricator General of Mars, but no more has been heard of it since then. It is possible they are still on Mars, hidden away and hoarded.

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