Definition
Motive Force is the Cult Mechanicus’s term for the animating principle: the cause of motion in any active system. The First Universal Law states that life is directed motion; the Motive Force is the divine substance that directs.
In practice, the term is used at three scales:
- Cosmic — the Motive Force as primordial divine substrate; the activity of the Omnissiah as agent of all change.
- Local — the activated state of any complex device; what an engineer would call its operational state and what the priest calls the wakeful presence of the Machine Spirit.
- Liturgical — the moment in which a machine, by ritual, is brought from inert matter to active service; “to invoke the Motive Force” is to start a system after consecration.
Aspect
The four canonical aspects of the Omnissiah, in standard order, are: the Motive Force, the Machine Spirit, the Sacred Pattern, and the Quest. The Motive Force is named first because, without it, the others have no field of application.
Cross-references
- Omnissiah
- Machine Spirit
- The Sixteen Universal Laws · Law 1: Life is directed motion.