hh3节译：机神禁卫军

The Taghmata Omnissiah

At the time of the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, the Taghmata Omnissiah was the principal type of operational military force of the trans-Martian Mechanicum and also the most numerous. To those outside the arcane secrets and strange mysteries of the Mechanicum, the Taghmata was a difficult thing to grasp, seeming at once a purely descriptive term applied to a bewildering tapestry of Magos, machine-works and indentured manpower, and also a rigid and labyrinthine hierarchical structure, the equal of any in the Imperiums armed forces in complexity. Its name, however, translated from the lingua-technis into the Terran-Gothic of the Imperial Court betrays its fundamental nature; Taghmata Omnissiah being related then as “That which is divinely ordered for war" 一 being the military reflection of a Forge World's essentially feudal power structure mustered for battle.

在荷鲁斯叛乱爆发时，机神禁卫军是源自火星的机械神教（组织们）军事力量的主要类型，而且也是数量最多的类型。对那些不了解机械神教的深奥秘密与奇怪奥秘的人而言，机神禁卫军是一种难以领会的事物，它似乎是一个纯粹的描述性术语，适用于令人眼花缭乱的贤者、机械造物和契约劳动力所构成的框架，有着僵化且迷宫般的等级结构，而且复杂性与帝国中的任何武装部队都不相上下。不过，当我们把它的名称从火星的科技语翻译为帝国议会的泰拉哥特语之后，其本质也就暴露了出来：机神禁卫军指的是“凭神的力量为战争而订购的部队”——这套体系是铸造世界本质上为战争而召集起的封建权力结构在军事方面的反映。

Alongside the elite Skitarii regiments, whose allegiance and command was owed ultimately to Mars, and the Collegia Titanica which comprised the planet-shattering Titan Legions, both of which organisations operated separate military traditions of their own, the Taghmata formed the great trinity, the "Triad-Magna", of the Mechanicum's power during the Great Crusade. Besides these three there stood the lesser' independent and allied divisions of the Mechanicum such as the Knight Houses, the Ordo Reductor, the Explorators and the Legio Cybernetica, among others. Each was a great power in its own right, but all were dwarfed both in scale and reach by the great three.

机神禁卫军，忠诚和指挥权最终归于火星的精锐护教军团，以及组成拥有撕裂星球之力泰坦军团的泰坦修会（两者的组织结构都遵循着他们自身的独立军事传统）组成了机械神教部队在大远征时期伟大的三位一体结构，被称为“三巨头”。除了三巨头之外，机械神教还有次级的独立和同盟分支，比如骑士家族、源还修会、探索者和智控军团，以及其他。虽然每个组织自身都有强大的实力，但他们在规模和影响范围上都不能与三巨头相提并论。

The Feudal Order

封建序列

Although Mars itself was a highly singular and unique entity in military terms, much as Terra itself was to the other worlds of the Imperium, each Forge World in the days of the Great Crusade was an independent power; a kingdom in its own right. While each owed fealty to the Lords of the Red Planet, in some cases these bonds were as absolute as satrapies, while in others the ties to the Mechanicums seat of power were weaker, often simply through distance, and in the most extreme cases this fealty became questionable at best, and rivalry and the threat of rebellion against central control or internecine conflict distinctly possible. By this web of fealty, bound more by common doctrine, culture and mutually shared obsession rather than by principle, loyalty or duty was the shadow empire within the Imperium that was the Mechanicum before the Horus Heresy formed.

尽管火星自身在军事方面高度独立且独一无二，其对于其他铸造世界就如同泰拉对于帝国其他世界一样重要，但在大远征时期，每个铸造世界都是一支独立的势力；他们自身就是一个（独立）王国。虽然每个铸造世界都宣布效忠于红星的领主们，而且在某些情况下，这些纽带就像他们对自己辖地的统治权一样绝对；而在其他情况中，一些铸造世界与机械神教权力圣座之间的联系较弱，通常也只是因为距离遥远；但在最为极端的情况中，某些铸造世界的忠诚度在最乐观的情况下也是可疑的，这些世界上爆发反抗火星中央控制的威胁或自相残杀的冲突显然也是可能的。在荷鲁斯叛乱爆发之前，机械神教依靠这张更多地是由共同的教义、文化和彼此共享的执念，而非由原则、忠诚或责任捆绑在一起的忠诚网络在人类帝国内部组成了自己的影子帝国。

The proof of this hidden disunity was given unequivocal form during the Horus Heresy when, just as the Imperium was riven by the treachery of the Warmaster, so was the Mechanicum, already rife with internal discord and disharmony, all too readily riven alongside it, turning on itself as well as siding unequally for the warring parties of Traitor or Loyalist, with Forge Worlds and domains siding along long- held fealties and feudal obligations as much as they did for Emperor or Warmaster. It was of this complex feudal structure, both on the macroscale which encompassed whole Forge Worlds and alliances of Forge Worlds, and on the local scale of orders, colleges, fanes and forge cities, that the Taghmata system was a direct reflection.

当荷鲁斯叛乱爆发，战帅的反叛行径将人类帝国一分为二时，帝国中隐藏的不统一问题也就以明确的形式显现出来。机械神教亦然——万机之神仆人的内部已经充斥着纷争与不和谐，一切都很容易地随着荷鲁斯叛乱发生了分裂，矛盾双方彻底反目，而且不平等地站在叛军或忠诚派中的某一方。就像他们选择倒向帝皇或战帅那样，各个铸造世界和机械神教领地也根据自己长期以来的忠诚和封建义务选择了自己所属的派系。机神禁卫军体系直接反映了这套复杂的封建制度结构——这套结构在宏观层面上包括了整个铸造世界和各个铸造世界组成的联盟，也在铸造世界当地层面上包括了修会、学院、神殿和铸造城市。

The Structure of the Taghmata

禁卫军结构

Each Forge World of this age was itself a patchwork web of complex loyalties, made up of independent and semi-independent domains, both in terms of physical infrastructure and territory and, perhaps more importantly, of knowledge, craft and sacred rite. So it was that each Forge World was not merely a powerhouse of industrial production vital to the wider Imperium which it provided for, but also an empire of secrets unto itself .While nomenclature and structure was hardly uniform between them, the masters of these empires were its Magos and Archmagos —its 'Learned Ones'— each were lords both temporal and spiritual whose power was that of life and death in their own domains.

在这个时代，每个铸造世界本身就是一个由复杂的忠诚所拼凑起来的网络，构成这套体系的是各个独立和半独立的机械神教封地，而且这套体系既应用在物质基础设施和领土方面，也应用在知识、工艺和神圣仪式方面——后者也许是更重要的。因此，对于更广阔的人类帝国而言，每个铸造世界不仅是为其提供产品的重要工业生产集团，而且是一个拥有自己秘密的小型帝国。虽然他们的命称和结构之间几乎没有相似性，但这些小型帝国的主宰者们都是贤者和大贤者——“博学之士”们，他们每个人都是自己领地内世俗和精神上的领主，都在自己的封疆内手握生杀予夺的大权。

Each specialised in a particular facet of the Machine Cult's lore or commanded a sizable measure of their worlds infrastructure as their portion, and by this right took their place in the synod that provided the Forge World with its governance and control. Each Magos commanded their own resources and military might, armies of retainers and cohorts of war machines outfitted and formed by their master's will and in accordance with their masters specialisation and proclivity. These were the Taghma, the building blocks from which the Taghmata were formed. When a Forge World's master, the Fabricator Archmagos-lntendant or Archmagos Archimandrite under whose rule the synod served, called a Taghmata into being, it was the sworn duty of each Magos to provide such troops and assets as was demanded of them, and through them such lesser Tech-Priests and adepts, sub-cults and esoteric orders who owed fealty and vassalage to the High Magos were called on, and so on throughout the patterns of seniority and allegiance that criss-crossed the Forge World.

每位贤者都精通机械神教的某一特定方面的知识，或者根据自己所承担的责任来指挥铸造世界基础设施中份额相当大的生产工作，通过这种权利，他们在统治和控制铸造世界的议廷中占据了一席之地。每位贤者都掌握着自己的资源，指挥自己的军事力量；根据其主人的专长和癖好，奴仆军队和战争机器兵团被根据其主人的意愿进行装备组建。这些部队是禁卫队，也是组建机神禁卫军的建构基础。当一位统治铸造议廷铸造世界的主宰者——监造大贤者或司教大贤者要求组建机神禁卫军时，每名贤者都有义务按照其要求提供部队和装备资源，而这些被召唤的高级贤者们会通过那些向自己宣誓效忠和进行依附的次级技术神甫和技师、分支教派和奥秘教派征收资源和部队，然后命令以此在铸造世界纵横交错的等级和忠诚体系中贯通。

In many cases such calls to arms reached far beyond a Forge World and its star system to distant outposts, Expeditionary fleets and client worlds tied together by patronage or ancient treaty or pacts of allegiance. From its number the synod would choose several of its own, well versed in the arts of destruction, or with proven battlefield experience, to operate as the Taghmata's command structure. Such commands were much sought after by many Magos, both for the power and prestige they would bring, and for the potential for acquisition of new knowledge and reward they offered.

在很多情况中，此类召唤部队命令的影响范围会超出铸造世界及其所在的恒星系，抵达遥远的哨站、远征探索舰队，以及通过资助、古老的条约或忠诚契约联系和它们在一起的主顾世界们。铸造议廷会从自己的成员中挑选出几位精通毁灭艺术或有实战经验的人，来组成禁卫军的指挥结构。这类指挥职位受到许多贤者的追捧，不仅因为它们带来的权力和威望，还因为它们可能带来的新知识和提供的奖励。

In practise a Taghmata could be of greatly varying size, disposition and scope, the nature of which was often determined by the role it was called on to serve. Before galactic civil war was to rock the Imperium, the Taghmata was primarily mustered as a purely defensive measure, commonly when a Forge World came under direct attack. On Forge Worlds such as Tigrus and Phaeton which came under frequent assault owing to the proximity of hostile xenos forces, this led to powerful and highly experienced Taghmata formations which effectively became standing armies, while others such as the isolated Stygies might go for decades without external threat, and so when needed Taghmata protocols were required to be enacted afresh. Smaller Taghmata elements would also be raised and formed during the Great Crusade to arm and equip Explorator expeditions, to garrison outposts in hostile or hazardous regions of the void. They were also formed more rarely to provide armed diplomatic escorts or deputations to the Expeditionary fleets and Rogue Trader Militant fleets. The latter two needs, however, were primarily the province of the specialist military commands of the Mechanicum not loyal to any single Forge World: the Titan Legions, the Ordo Reductor, the Legio Cybernetica and the Skitarii of Mars.

在实践中，禁卫军的规模、布局和能力范围可能会大不相同，这些部队的特性由上级召唤其去担任的职责来决定。在人类帝国中爆发银河规模的内战之前，禁卫军主要是为了纯粹的防御任务而进行集结，通常是在铸造世界面临直接进攻的情况下。在诸如提格里斯和Phaeton之类由于靠近敌对的异形势力而经常受到攻击的铸造世界上，战争导致强大且经验丰富的禁卫军编队在事实上成为了常备军；而在诸如孤立的Stygies等其他铸造世界可能在数十年时间里都不会遭遇外在威胁，所以它们要在有需要时重新执行禁卫军协议。在大远征时期，机械神教会训练和组建小规模禁卫军分队来武装探索者科考队、驻守处于虚空中敌对或危险区域的哨站。而在某些更为罕见的情况中，机械神教也会组建禁卫军，向远征探索舰队或行商浪人武装舰队提供武装外交护卫队或代表团。不过，满足后两种需要的主要是机械神教中专门的军事指挥部门：泰坦军团、源还修会、智控军团和火星护教军，这些部队不效忠于任何一个锻造世界。

The Cataclysm

灾厄

During the cataclysm of the Horus Heresy, the Taghmata was called upon on every Forge World and outpost as war and the threat of attack was constant. Soon, the Mechanicum was engaged in a battle for survival both against outside enemies and against rival factions of their own kind, and what had been an organisation of defence became just as frequently a means of attack, whether to claim vital resources, expand a sphere of influence or simply to annihilate an enemy. As the bloody struggle worsened, many Forge Worlds fought to the death to preserve their sovereignty from invasion by former allies, while others took an active and aggressive hand in the unfolding war, their Taghmata fighting alongside Loyalist or Traitor, or simply for their own ends. So it was that Mechanicum slew Mechanicum, Mechanicum slew Legiones Astartes and Legiones Astartes slew Mechanicum. In desperate battle were dark sciences and ancient secrets better left undisturbed turned to, either in vain hope of ensuring survival, or by wakened ambition and lust for power, and the nightmarish terrors of the Age of Strife were unleashed once more.

在灾难般的荷鲁斯叛乱时期，由于战争和进攻的威胁持续不断，每个铸造世界和哨站上的机神禁卫军都被召集参战。不久，机械神教也被卷入了存亡之战中，他们既要对抗外部敌人，也要对抗同类的敌对派系。曾经的防御组织也被频繁转变为攻击手段，无论是为了获取重要资源，扩大势力范围，还是仅仅为了消灭敌人。随着血腥的混战愈演愈烈，许多铸造世界都在拼死抵抗前盟友的入侵以保卫自己的主权；而其他铸造世界则在这场不断展开的战争中发挥着积极且具有进攻性的作用，它们的禁卫军与忠诚派或叛军并肩作战，或者只是为了他们自己的目的而战。此时机械神教在自相残杀，也与阿斯塔特军团相互杀戮。在这些绝望的战斗中，无论是为了夺取确保生存的徒劳希望，还是被唤醒对于力量的贪求和野心，双方都动用了那些最好无人问津的黑暗科学和古老秘密，纷争纪元那噩梦般的恐怖之物也被再次释放出来。