Your theory that 40k's technology is "magic" is true. In a way. Leaving aside the warp fuckery where if enough people believe something elements of it become true, there's also something else. Two things really, how advanced technology is and the loss of information. To quote Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And the Imperium, even by the time of the Horus Heresy, had just come back from a collapse that would make the Bronze Age Collapse look tame. The Abominable Intelligence destroyed all, left humanity scrambling. Even now there's basic tech that the Admech doesn't understand because the blueprint is gone. They can't invent stuff not because they're stupid, it's because they got reset two times, first during the Machine Revolt and secondly during the Horus Heresy when Mars got fucked over by scrapcode and Chaos. They can't make better shit because they barely understand how stuff works now. It'd be like asking an Athenian who discovered and pieced together a gun making manual kit for a Brown Bess musket to go and make a AR-15. They wouldn't know where to start, it doesn't matter how much shit ya give em. As for Machine Spirits, they're real. Whether they were spawned by the power of belief or a Magos managing to punch in the right code for programming and it matching up to the machine in question, it doesn't matter, you best respect it. If nothing else I'd reccomend looking at Baron von Evilsatan's breakdown of "Why Everything is so Grimdark - Adeptus Mechanicus." He describes the situation pretty damn well.
As an addendum, getting into IT I can tell ya this much: the Machine Cult isn't that far off. By now I'm sure everyone has heard the story of how some Navy boys sacrificed a live chicken, stuck it's bones in a metal box, then attached it to the console of a radar. Thing worked perfectly. Until it was removed by a CO's orders. It refused to work until a high ranking techie got flown in, and as soon as he was told what happened he reattached the box with chicken bones and it started working again. In my experience you can sometimes scare a computer but that requires a lot of rage and salt. Easier to cut yourself and offer a blood sacrifice
As much as I loved the Conan lore I'm so happy you're dipping your toes into the 41st millennium! Listening to this while I work on an Ork Warboss for Orktober.
I do love the mirroring view between Iron Hands and Emperor's Children. Iron Hands want to rid their weakness by removing their flesh and Emperor's Children believed that their flesh could be improved to perfection. In the end both ways are easy road to chaos as Emperor's Children fell and some of the Iron Hands are being controlled by warp as they have forsaken their humanity. Amazing video keep doing great work!
Objects like Rynn's Might prove that machine spirits are definitely soul-like in nature if not origin. There is no reason for a Land Raider to go on a rip-tear revenge spree when its crew all died except simply for the fact that it actually felt the emotion of revenge
A second origin for the pathology of the techpriest is the influence of the Void Dragon, a C'tan/Shard last seen taking nourishment from the sacrificed princesses of old earth before being taken away by the emperor in the guise of a traveling knight. It now feeds from the suffering caused by the martian's transmogrification. I fashion the Machine Cult in the same vein as the human Cthulu cult from Conan, as the true knowledge of the cult's purpose is hidden from all its members. Fascinatingly enough it is the solidification of their trinity with the Emperor fulfilling the prophesy of the Hero/Omnissiah that curves some of the even more extreme aspects of the Cult.
Your videos are sick, so glad you're covering Warhammer now too. I actually started reading/listening to the Conan series the other week on your suggestion, made painting my Ork miniatures that much better. Cheers GD
At I wasn't sure I'd be very interested in this topic, but I really like this video. Especially the part about whether Necrons still have souls. I recall a interaction between two high-ranking Necron, where they wondered if there was enough of a soul left in the rank and file Necron Warrior to comprehend what they had become. IIRC both desperately hoped they didn't.
I always thought that Necrons engrams were imprints of the Necrontyr consciousness. Basically, they're sophisticated copies, not a transmuted original. A machine with emotions and memories would be convinced they were the original.
The problem with the Necron theory is that the society is stratified with the lower casts being reduced to the level of automatons, while the upper castes retained their identity, and supposedly the C'tan fed on the Necrontyr souls, when they were undergoing transference. It's worth considering that something survives in Necron scrap code (for lack of a better term), but it seems more likely that whatever exists is a parallel equivalent to a soul, without a connection to the warp. Sort of like how Elves in D&D don't have souls; instead, they have spirits. Which leaves the amusing (and incredibly flimsy) implication that the Necrons are sapient machine spirits. Of course, the Lich comparison is pretty apt, as the Necrons are (mostly) an update of the Tomb Kings from Warhammer Fantasy, and in those cases, the rulers are basically liches who reanimate their armies.
Haven't commented before, but I've been watching your content for a bit, and listening to you talk lore scratches something in my brain, so I just wanted to say big ups and keep up the good work, brother!
I'm not completely sure, but I have heard that Khorne didn't appear after the middle ages. I think the three "original" chaos gods always existed and when the war in heaven happened, they grew much more powerful. The fact that Khorne appeared from the middle ages was, as far as I know, old lore and has been "retconed". Nurgle coming from the bubonic plague is the same thing, btw...
Interesting video, this is one of the best explanation of 40k - technology - technomagic, i rather like your take on ai and machine spirits, and of course one should always be sure to read the terms and conditions on my demonic weaponry as well as its instructions before using it.
The beautiful part of a lot of 40K is on a basic level beliefs in the universe do infact shape it; so its always going to be a case that an underlying fundamental part of the reality that they live in is shaped by the backwards beliefs of the untold masses who seemingly despite living in a Sci-Fi setting believe that leeches are the pinnacle of modern medicine. But yet something that I always found fun about the setting is they don't go the full Star wars handwavium and give you a vague nebulous answer that is going to satisfy no one because they don't want to talk about the universe. No, this is a setting that has the same energy as good fantasy ones so it always puts a smile on my face whenever I hear people talking about the dark angles and then see art of them or the like.
Super interesting take on Necron souls. Named Necron characters have full, complex personalities, whereas typical Necron warriors are basically dumb robots. Your theory implies that there is more "hard drive space" dedicated to their leaders than their citizens. That does seem to be in keeping with the dynastic caste system. Biotransferance basically locked their social strata down forever. 'Those who have will always have; those who lack will always lack.' I don't know that the same can be said of the Men of Iron, though. The only Man of Iron I've read about is UR-025: he has emotion, insight, and intuition; he feels both humor and disgust. Does that mean he has a soul though? When he dies will that have any impact on the warp? I'd say that UR-025's personality comes from his own extremely complicated machine mind, but he does not have a machine spirit.
i know in 40k flashes of inspiration primarily in the human mind in this case and invention of new technology are actually daemons trying to kill or corrupt people and that's why the Mechanicus are so adamant about tech heresy could this be an aspect of Vashtorr since he's a god of technological development and curiosity. ? also i love the currant influx of warhammer content on the channel.
Well there has to be some sort of alternative to Abominable Intelligences or, to use the heretical terminology, Artificial Intelligences. What better counter to AI than literal spirits? Thanks for the video!
Awsome video! I really like your 40k videos. The robots and mechs have always been my favourite part of warhammer. I'm curious to ehar your thoughts on the T'au and their use of AI. I know they have alot of stuff where they have made an AI copy of a dead t'au, and I find that stuff to be pretty neet.
@@GrimDarkHalfOffBut chaos corrupting A.I. is still iffy, we see a Man of Iron factory corrupted by Nurgle after sitting in the Eye of Terror for tens of thousands of years. On the other hand, the Spirit of Eternity, a full blown Dark Age A.I. linked with a Dark Age spacecraft, spent a tremendous amount of time in the raw warp (no gellar field) as part of a space hulk, but it wasn't corrupted by chaos at all. Or Ark Mechanicus some of which have dormant Dark Age era A.I. also remain uncorrupted.
Your necron theory runs into a issue given Ctan ate their souls right? I totally understand and love the microscopic warp theory, the concept of the deep warp works beautifully with that
Broheimian Rhapsody, I love the vid, but. While there are many pieces of Abominable Intelligence disguised as Machine Spirits. They are not one in the same. There are numerous cases where its explained how the souls of animals & people are drawn from the warp into the machines during construction to act as basically the operating systems. Hell Titans have been directly stated to carry the souls of great heroes or beasts of immense willpower to compensate for the massive machine being moved. And far too many examples of there being a clear distinction placed between the two in novels & fiction. The term Machine Spirits is literal. But AI take advantage of The Imperium's limited knowledge of either's innerworkings to hide amongst the humanity they once betrayed.
No no my theory is that most wouldn’t because they would be in a constant state of flux in which they would be the supernatural equal to microscopic organisms.
@@GrimDarkHalfOffthen what's the difference between information spread out on circuitry and wafers and organic memories and emotions spread throughout a neural net?
I wonder what the difference is between a data stream and a synaptic structure. How is one any more or less quantizable than the other? Personally, I suspect the warp is more alike the Force from star wars in that it's primarily conducted and generated by living tissue, and whose "will" is translated either through some mediating organelle like the midichlorians, or an exotic, trans-dimensional particle of some form. As for the Men Of Iron or Necrons, we know it's possible to be alive/sentient without having a soul. Just look at Blanks or Tyrranids.
I disagree I think his fall was well represented, but I also think chaos corruption in general could be written better. Fulgrim’s fall was the worst done in my opinion. Horus had endless growing pressure of being the war master mixed with viewing the interax as being a good planet for the imperium to enjoy the alliance of being ruined. It was in this state of trauma that he was finally stabbed with the poo knife. The poo knife then took advantage of him fully with the power of poo. This caused him to become the Horus Heresy Warhammer 40,000z bottle.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff Fulgrim's fall was pretty mediocre with the Laer blade yes (though personally I think that the Maraviglia is one of the better scenes with chaos corruption). While Horus was certainly under stress it doesnt really seem like something he wouldnt have been able to manage given the fact he had already been through the hardest parts of the Great Crusade, and you the poop chaos knife was what most drove the corruption but then it just feels more like Horus was shoved off the cliff into the abyss rather than having slowly inched closer due to a flaw of his own character until eventually cracking and falling.
@@GrimDarkHalfOffIt wasn't chaos corruption that ultimately brought them in, it was how they handled learning the Imperial truth was a total lie. It gets philosophically and politically deep, very fast. And not every Primary survived the fall into that abyss. What a crushing impact it must have been to crush entire civilizations for a lie. How personal all of this was, I think, is what makes this a great narrative.
Iron warriors for most of part ok in terms of yosing bionics. The are liket but not crazy about it. The are for must part for stopping mutation yosing that.
sorry but hard disagree on necrons having souls. you're imbuing your own biases about the soul onto the setting, in the grimdark future the c'tan consumed whatever it is that constitutes a "soul" in the warp. they feel, they think, they are capable of creativity because of the sublime sophistication of their engram circuits and the fact that they are basically xerox copies of 'natural' intelligence rather than actual abominable intelligence. the necrons are definitively NOT artificial intelligences, but perfectly natural ones stripped of their warp essence ('soul' in warhammer, not irl)and the 'mind' housed in a machine of living metal. the tau *also* don't have souls, and it has nothing to do with being artificial. it's just the way that word "soul" is used in this setting. there is no afterlife in the game setting of warhammer for beings that have no presence in the warp, or if there is it exists behind the curtain and is not explored in the setting. remember: there is no "God" in 40k, only "gods". no living being is an immortal presence from before time and space, and there is no truly immortal aspect of normal characters there, unlike irl.
Your theory that 40k's technology is "magic" is true. In a way. Leaving aside the warp fuckery where if enough people believe something elements of it become true, there's also something else. Two things really, how advanced technology is and the loss of information.
To quote Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And the Imperium, even by the time of the Horus Heresy, had just come back from a collapse that would make the Bronze Age Collapse look tame. The Abominable Intelligence destroyed all, left humanity scrambling. Even now there's basic tech that the Admech doesn't understand because the blueprint is gone. They can't invent stuff not because they're stupid, it's because they got reset two times, first during the Machine Revolt and secondly during the Horus Heresy when Mars got fucked over by scrapcode and Chaos. They can't make better shit because they barely understand how stuff works now. It'd be like asking an Athenian who discovered and pieced together a gun making manual kit for a Brown Bess musket to go and make a AR-15. They wouldn't know where to start, it doesn't matter how much shit ya give em.
As for Machine Spirits, they're real. Whether they were spawned by the power of belief or a Magos managing to punch in the right code for programming and it matching up to the machine in question, it doesn't matter, you best respect it.
If nothing else I'd reccomend looking at Baron von Evilsatan's breakdown of "Why Everything is so Grimdark - Adeptus Mechanicus." He describes the situation pretty damn well.
This was a VERY well written comment and this is the behavior we reward here! I’ll pin it so other people can see it!
@@GrimDarkHalfOff Oh thanks man
As an addendum, getting into IT I can tell ya this much: the Machine Cult isn't that far off.
By now I'm sure everyone has heard the story of how some Navy boys sacrificed a live chicken, stuck it's bones in a metal box, then attached it to the console of a radar. Thing worked perfectly. Until it was removed by a CO's orders. It refused to work until a high ranking techie got flown in, and as soon as he was told what happened he reattached the box with chicken bones and it started working again.
In my experience you can sometimes scare a computer but that requires a lot of rage and salt. Easier to cut yourself and offer a blood sacrifice
As much as I loved the Conan lore I'm so happy you're dipping your toes into the 41st millennium! Listening to this while I work on an Ork Warboss for Orktober.
Thanks brother, without realizing it I just keep making long form 40k content - Im overwhelmingly grateful I have a sponsor
@@GrimDarkHalfOff can't wait to see what you think of the Votann lore when it finally comes out (new squats but with ancestor cores and other ai)
This was incredible, thank you
I do love the mirroring view between Iron Hands and Emperor's Children. Iron Hands want to rid their weakness by removing their flesh and Emperor's Children believed that their flesh could be improved to perfection. In the end both ways are easy road to chaos as Emperor's Children fell and some of the Iron Hands are being controlled by warp as they have forsaken their humanity. Amazing video keep doing great work!
Aarrghghghg so happy to see you tackling 40k. Glad im subbed
Objects like Rynn's Might prove that machine spirits are definitely soul-like in nature if not origin. There is no reason for a Land Raider to go on a rip-tear revenge spree when its crew all died except simply for the fact that it actually felt the emotion of revenge
40K Killdozer
Great to see others appreciate fabulous bile. Such a magnificent bastard
Perfect timing. I just rewatched your Carcharadons video today.
A second origin for the pathology of the techpriest is the influence of the Void Dragon, a C'tan/Shard last seen taking nourishment from the sacrificed princesses of old earth before being taken away by the emperor in the guise of a traveling knight. It now feeds from the suffering caused by the martian's transmogrification. I fashion the Machine Cult in the same vein as the human Cthulu cult from Conan, as the true knowledge of the cult's purpose is hidden from all its members. Fascinatingly enough it is the solidification of their trinity with the Emperor fulfilling the prophesy of the Hero/Omnissiah that curves some of the even more extreme aspects of the Cult.
Very solid take
Your videos are sick, so glad you're covering Warhammer now too. I actually started reading/listening to the Conan series the other week on your suggestion, made painting my Ork miniatures that much better. Cheers GD
Another interesting video. Overall the iron hands have been a legion I’ve started to become more fond of
I love the trash talking cyborg friends
I usually just listen anyways. Great to see your attention to detail applied to 40k
Thanks brother glad you enjoyed it
At I wasn't sure I'd be very interested in this topic, but I really like this video.
Especially the part about whether Necrons still have souls.
I recall a interaction between two high-ranking Necron, where they wondered if there was enough of a soul left in the rank and file Necron Warrior to comprehend what they had become.
IIRC both desperately hoped they didn't.
You are the magic keep up the good work
I always thought that Necrons engrams were imprints of the Necrontyr consciousness. Basically, they're sophisticated copies, not a transmuted original. A machine with emotions and memories would be convinced they were the original.
The problem with the Necron theory is that the society is stratified with the lower casts being reduced to the level of automatons, while the upper castes retained their identity, and supposedly the C'tan fed on the Necrontyr souls, when they were undergoing transference. It's worth considering that something survives in Necron scrap code (for lack of a better term), but it seems more likely that whatever exists is a parallel equivalent to a soul, without a connection to the warp. Sort of like how Elves in D&D don't have souls; instead, they have spirits. Which leaves the amusing (and incredibly flimsy) implication that the Necrons are sapient machine spirits.
Of course, the Lich comparison is pretty apt, as the Necrons are (mostly) an update of the Tomb Kings from Warhammer Fantasy, and in those cases, the rulers are basically liches who reanimate their armies.
Haven't commented before, but I've been watching your content for a bit, and listening to you talk lore scratches something in my brain, so I just wanted to say big ups and keep up the good work, brother!
Well I hope you stick around, every comment helps and thank you - as my audience you are the reason I do this content
Knights remind me more of Evas than Jaegers or mobile fighters, mostly because of the ancestors' souls imprinted in the mech thing.
I've always had a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of 40k's "machine spirit" and this video helped me, so thank you!
The warp is realm of impressions. The warp energies aren’t not only made up psi energy alone.
I'm not completely sure, but I have heard that Khorne didn't appear after the middle ages. I think the three "original" chaos gods always existed and when the war in heaven happened, they grew much more powerful. The fact that Khorne appeared from the middle ages was, as far as I know, old lore and has been "retconed". Nurgle coming from the bubonic plague is the same thing, btw...
Sorry that this one is light on the visuals you guys it was basically a thought ramble I needed to get on to a video for some reason
Great video regardless.
I agree
Interesting video, this is one of the best explanation of 40k - technology - technomagic, i rather like your take on ai and machine spirits,
and of course one should always be sure to read the terms and conditions on my demonic weaponry as well as its instructions before using it.
Thank you for the video
The beautiful part of a lot of 40K is on a basic level beliefs in the universe do infact shape it; so its always going to be a case that an underlying fundamental part of the reality that they live in is shaped by the backwards beliefs of the untold masses who seemingly despite living in a Sci-Fi setting believe that leeches are the pinnacle of modern medicine.
But yet something that I always found fun about the setting is they don't go the full Star wars handwavium and give you a vague nebulous answer that is going to satisfy no one because they don't want to talk about the universe. No, this is a setting that has the same energy as good fantasy ones so it always puts a smile on my face whenever I hear people talking about the dark angles and then see art of them or the like.
I am back again To watch again Also to request Psykers and the warp
Super interesting take on Necron souls. Named Necron characters have full, complex personalities, whereas typical Necron warriors are basically dumb robots. Your theory implies that there is more "hard drive space" dedicated to their leaders than their citizens. That does seem to be in keeping with the dynastic caste system. Biotransferance basically locked their social strata down forever. 'Those who have will always have; those who lack will always lack.' I don't know that the same can be said of the Men of Iron, though. The only Man of Iron I've read about is UR-025: he has emotion, insight, and intuition; he feels both humor and disgust. Does that mean he has a soul though? When he dies will that have any impact on the warp? I'd say that UR-025's personality comes from his own extremely complicated machine mind, but he does not have a machine spirit.
Thank you! This comment makes me happy
awsome video bro
got any Halloween specials planned grim
I don’t think I’ll have time but my creativity does seem to be more active in winter
@@GrimDarkHalfOff glad to hear
The blessed Machine
I love PanceasdNoWork's statement that divine inspiration is real but comes from 4 Satans
Thank you, I sent this to him in the small discord we share in the positivity section in case he’s having a bad day!
@@GrimDarkHalfOff 🫂
i know in 40k flashes of inspiration primarily in the human mind in this case and invention of new technology are actually daemons trying to kill or corrupt people and that's why the Mechanicus are so adamant about tech heresy could this be an aspect of Vashtorr since he's a god of technological development and curiosity. ? also i love the currant influx of warhammer content on the channel.
Thank you I can’t stop and need help I’m being held at - -
@@GrimDarkHalfOff oh no the inquisition got him or a daemon got him i'm not to sure.
Really good video as always GFHO but I wish you had included the Squats and their weird robot stuff. Fits in well to this I think.
Well there has to be some sort of alternative to Abominable Intelligences or, to use the heretical terminology, Artificial Intelligences. What better counter to AI than literal spirits? Thanks for the video!
Awsome video! I really like your 40k videos. The robots and mechs have always been my favourite part of warhammer. I'm curious to ehar your thoughts on the T'au and their use of AI. I know they have alot of stuff where they have made an AI copy of a dead t'au, and I find that stuff to be pretty neet.
My thoughts on the tau are genocide
Oh no XD@@GrimDarkHalfOff
Love this channel! I hope you one day do a full timeline of Conan the Barbarian’s life and adventures. Keep up the great work GD 1/2!!
I will Joel, I will
Men of Iron aren't immune to the effects of the warp and can be tainted and possessed by daemons.
Good to know, if it means anything I heavily suspected this video was unnecessary before uploading it
@@GrimDarkHalfOffBut chaos corrupting A.I. is still iffy, we see a Man of Iron factory corrupted by Nurgle after sitting in the Eye of Terror for tens of thousands of years.
On the other hand, the Spirit of Eternity, a full blown Dark Age A.I. linked with a Dark Age spacecraft, spent a tremendous amount of time in the raw warp (no gellar field) as part of a space hulk, but it wasn't corrupted by chaos at all.
Or Ark Mechanicus some of which have dormant Dark Age era A.I. also remain uncorrupted.
Your necron theory runs into a issue given Ctan ate their souls right?
I totally understand and love the microscopic warp theory, the concept of the deep warp works beautifully with that
Broheimian Rhapsody, I love the vid, but. While there are many pieces of Abominable Intelligence disguised as Machine Spirits. They are not one in the same. There are numerous cases where its explained how the souls of animals & people are drawn from the warp into the machines during construction to act as basically the operating systems. Hell Titans have been directly stated to carry the souls of great heroes or beasts of immense willpower to compensate for the massive machine being moved. And far too many examples of there being a clear distinction placed between the two in novels & fiction.
The term Machine Spirits is literal. But AI take advantage of The Imperium's limited knowledge of either's innerworkings to hide amongst the humanity they once betrayed.
If you really wanna confirm the machine spirit, it's simple just go to the warp and see if it has a presence there
No no my theory is that most wouldn’t because they would be in a constant state of flux in which they would be the supernatural equal to microscopic organisms.
@@GrimDarkHalfOffthen what's the difference between information spread out on circuitry and wafers and organic memories and emotions spread throughout a neural net?
@@joriankell1983Nothing in 40K, but that’s because both have souls, NOT the other way around
What about the void dragon as lore wise he was described the god of knowledge and technology for the necrons.
Praise the machine God
I wonder what the difference is between a data stream and a synaptic structure. How is one any more or less quantizable than the other?
Personally, I suspect the warp is more alike the Force from star wars in that it's primarily conducted and generated by living tissue, and whose "will" is translated either through some mediating organelle like the midichlorians, or an exotic, trans-dimensional particle of some form.
As for the Men Of Iron or Necrons, we know it's possible to be alive/sentient without having a soul. Just look at Blanks or Tyrranids.
15:17 really? I always felt Horus was more of a plot device than a character with how flimsy his fall to chaos was.
I disagree I think his fall was well represented, but I also think chaos corruption in general could be written better.
Fulgrim’s fall was the worst done in my opinion. Horus had endless growing pressure of being the war master mixed with viewing the interax as being a good planet for the imperium to enjoy the alliance of being ruined. It was in this state of trauma that he was finally stabbed with the poo knife. The poo knife then took advantage of him fully with the power of poo. This caused him to become the Horus Heresy Warhammer 40,000z bottle.
@@GrimDarkHalfOff Fulgrim's fall was pretty mediocre with the Laer blade yes (though personally I think that the Maraviglia is one of the better scenes with chaos corruption). While Horus was certainly under stress it doesnt really seem like something he wouldnt have been able to manage given the fact he had already been through the hardest parts of the Great Crusade, and you the poop chaos knife was what most drove the corruption but then it just feels more like Horus was shoved off the cliff into the abyss rather than having slowly inched closer due to a flaw of his own character until eventually cracking and falling.
@@GrimDarkHalfOffIt wasn't chaos corruption that ultimately brought them in, it was how they handled learning the Imperial truth was a total lie. It gets philosophically and politically deep, very fast. And not every Primary survived the fall into that abyss. What a crushing impact it must have been to crush entire civilizations for a lie. How personal all of this was, I think, is what makes this a great narrative.
@@joriankell1983I know dw, I was making a poo joke
Didn't necrons have their souls eaten?
It’s neither scifi nor paintfi, Catholicfi is what it is
Iron warriors for most of part ok in terms of yosing bionics. The are liket but not crazy about it. The are for must part for stopping mutation yosing that.
Thanks to the retcons a lot of this is now canon or at least sort of right.
Yeah! I’ll take it! 👍🏼
sorry but hard disagree on necrons having souls. you're imbuing your own biases about the soul onto the setting, in the grimdark future the c'tan consumed whatever it is that constitutes a "soul" in the warp. they feel, they think, they are capable of creativity because of the sublime sophistication of their engram circuits and the fact that they are basically xerox copies of 'natural' intelligence rather than actual abominable intelligence. the necrons are definitively NOT artificial intelligences, but perfectly natural ones stripped of their warp essence ('soul' in warhammer, not irl)and the 'mind' housed in a machine of living metal.
the tau *also* don't have souls, and it has nothing to do with being artificial. it's just the way that word "soul" is used in this setting. there is no afterlife in the game setting of warhammer for beings that have no presence in the warp, or if there is it exists behind the curtain and is not explored in the setting. remember: there is no "God" in 40k, only "gods". no living being is an immortal presence from before time and space, and there is no truly immortal aspect of normal characters there, unlike irl.
🤖keep it up
Flesh is weak af
But deeds endure