Mars eventually found itself cut off from Terra and all the other human-settled worlds during this period, and its leaders could no longer acquire sufficient food or resources to accommodate its large population. Mars was soon consumed by strife as its society drifted into anarchy and a new faith began to spread amongst its people, a religion focused on the technology needed to ensure their continued survival on a world whose carefully constructed biosphere was unravelling before their very eyes. This was the Cult Mechanicus, dedicated to the animistic worship of the Machine God. Under the direction of the Mechanicus' rigid hierarchy of Tech-priests, the cultists set about restoring order to their world. When the Tech-priests of Mars built their first temples to the Machine God and finally