HISTORY OF THE STC
During the Dark Age of Technology, humaniy travelled throughout the galaxy, founding new colonies and exploring new worlds. Many of these colonies failed to establish themselves, others were lost, whilst a few grew into independent civilizations with distinctive cultures. Most, however, established a subsistence economy and simply stopped. In such an environment the impetus for change was very low; everything the citizens needed was at hand, their new world supplied them with food, and the store of knowledge brought from Earth enabled them to maintain a high technological base without a technological society. In part this wasa result of the Standard Template Construct system carried by every colony.
The heart of the STC system was an evolved computer program designed to provide construction details for the colonists. Its prime function was to enable the colonists to build efficient shelters, generators and transports without any prior knowledge and using almost any locally available materials. The user simply asked how to build a house or a tractor and the computer supplied all the necessary plans - in short it was idiot proof. Many humans attribute the entire Orkish civilization to early STC systems - but the truth will never be known.
The Age of Technology ended in inter-human war and anarchy. The STC systems that had helped to build it either lapsed into disuse or decayed so that they became increasingly unreliable and quirky. On some worlds they were maintained, but most suffered damage by enthusiastic software specialists or subsequent jury-rigging. Hard copies of the information they contained survived much longer, and were frequently copied and passed down from generation to generation. Today, in the Age of the Imperium, the familiar designs of the STC are still discernable in the shapes of vehicles, spacecraft, and buildings. The Adeptus Mechanicus on Earth make it their business to collate and utilise STC material - it is their equivalent to a holy text, a font of all knowledge (which is exactly what it was intended to be).
One result of the STC system and its pivotal place in human development is that many worlds now utilize designs and machinery of a similar type. Of course, the millenia have wrought changes in the basic utilitarian devices proscribed the the STC, but many humans adhere religiously to the old designs. STC designs were intended to be able to cope with anything - by the standards of the day they were rough and ready, big and brutish, hard to damage and easy to repair. Because they were intended for use by unqualified people their power-plants were based around commonly obtainable materials, employing steam power, wind power, water power and combustion engines. High-tech material was described too (although rarely used) and designs were provided for full-scale nuclear power-grids and fission-processors. However, few people understood these, and the need for power was supplied quite easily by conventional means. Consequently hard copies were rarely taken and gradually written texts became lost or hopelessly distorted.
The weapons, vehicles and much of the equipment in the Imperium have their roots in the STC system. Fighting vehicles often look like tractors and prime movers because that's exactly what they were copied from! STC designs can be produced in almost any material; wood, plastic, concrete, steel, plastic, etc, and can be replicated on almost any world that has raw materials of some kind. Uncorrupted STC systems are unknown and after so many years will probably remain so. Nonetheless, finding such a system is regarded by many Tech-priests as their ultimate goal - a sort of quest for the holy grail. Legends surround the existence of lost, functioning STC systems, but whether they have any basis in truth is anyone's guess.
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