The Rite of Setesh - At about 500 years of age the strength of most human bodies is utterly spent and death becomes inevitable.Simpler implants are available for those with the right amounts of money and connections, but the price is such that cybernetic augmentations are actually passed down as heirlooms for generations.įor those whose fear of death knows no bounds there are a few extreme measures that even Tech-priests fear to use: The Adeptus Mechanicus both uses and produces a majority of the Imperium's cybernetic augmentations and the most advanced augmetics are reserved for the Machine God's own servants. With the aid of micro- Cogitators even the human mind can be partly replaced as age takes its toll on deteriorating neurons. The flesh is weak, but with proper maintenance rituals, machines can last forever.īy exchanging a subject's organs with mechanical substitutes an individual human being's life can be greatly extended, though the price is the loss of a part of their humanity. After 400 standard years of life few human beings within the Imperium can survive without mechanical assistance. At that point the subject becomes more vulnerable to infections and organ failure. With regular use they can slow or even reverse human aging dramatically for centuries by repairing damaged DNA strands with specific enzymes and regularly cleansing the build-up of cellular and metabolic toxins from the human body.īut sooner or later even the most expensive chemical treatments fail to hide the ravages of age.
The use of rejuvenating drugs, usually referred to as "rejuvenat" treatments, is commonplace amongst the middle and upper classes of all technologically advanced Imperial worlds.