Character Idea - Secret World

[mcjomar]

I've been playing a lot of Secret World.
Not just recently either. In fact you'll have seen a few references to the game in the way I've used iconography and some background - I think TSW/SWL really gives a fantastic atmosphere - one which I think would be equally fitting in the world of Inquisitor. Change some equipment, and move it from modern day to 40k, and it would suffer very little in the transition, I think.
With that in mind, one of my models seems like a very solo character, and given the abilities of the average TSW player character, I wondered as an exercise if it would fit within the Inquisitor game space.
Below are my thoughts on relative abilities/gear that such a character might be equipped with.
This is ballparked as a "Blade/Blood" character, but with extra gear (the guns).




Exotic abilities:
Regeneration

Psychic Abilities:
Regenerate
Blood Boil
Detection
Choke

Special Abilities:
Feint
First Strike
Hip Shooting
True Grit

Equipment:

Force weapon (sword)

"Psycannon"
Range: E
Shots: 2
Reload: 1
Wt 30
Type: Basic
Mode: Single
Damage: 2d10+4

Carrying 20 rounds (10 reloads)

Bolt Pistol w/ 2 reloads (two mags)

Carapace armour all locations
Helmet w/average autosenses, voice/vox scrambler to hide identity. thermal scanner/infrascope inbuilt into visor.

Stats:
WS 63
BS 61
S 52
T 54
I 64
Sg 87
Wp 86
Ld 84
Nv 78

Right-Handed

Ordo Malleus


Background ideas:

Lone Wolf
Hires mercs/forcibly employed guard/arbites/gangers etc
Distant
Inquisitor
Investigator
Detective
Etc

Maybe experiments performed upon self by another in relation to regeneration exotic ability, possibly discovered by an inquisitor and ruthlessly tested before being proven pure (somehow? how?) and handed off to acolytes/warband/etc for training into suitably loyal acolyte.

initially naive, but became a cynic.


I'm wondering if this character would either be some sort of mutant - appears human, but can heal literally anything - loses his head, just stick it back on his neck, he'll be fine, etc. Warp borne mutation perhaps? Not sure if generic/genetic mutation (unlikely I think).
Alternatively, Sensei? Or reference to?
Accidentally got caught by a blast of experimental warp sorcery from heretical locals? cursed by tzeentch? He's become temporally unstuck on a genetic level?

It's the regeneration exotic ability that is the issue here - otherwise he's you're average common or garden biomantic psyker who has trained for years (thanks rejuvenat) with force blade, and guns, etc etc (see "Oh to be an Inquisitor" parts 1 and 2), so probably into his 60s (physically 20-odd) by the time he hits actual acolyte/interrogator, and then probably 70+ for Inquisitor.

Edit:
The model itself was originally thrown together as a riff on Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid (and will be painted in a manner reminiscent of that character).
This tempts me to also add in Catfall and Acrobatic to the mix, but that's a little crazy to begin with, really, and the model doesn't look particularly lithe, flexible, or "flippy" in particular either. In fact the model appears quite solid (hah), making it less likely to be suitable for those two skills.


Edit2:
Likely he would only have been kept due to his strange abilities (and his Inquisitor would likely be at least some manner of radical).
Further he would have been used/abused because of his regenerative abilities - what a fantastic body double, bodyguard, and all around meatshield!
He would likely advance his position as he grows more cynical through politics and backstabbery as much as anything else.
I have visions of him having, at adulthood, has his regenerative ability go wonky - still works, but his eyes have become jet black orbs, and his skin has become corpse-cold. Essentially a vampire but without the need to be a vampire (no vampirism exotic ability). Likely hides it through use of makeup, contact lenses, etc etc. Or more precisely, by hiding inside his body suit/armour/helmet, disguising his voice, and staying out of the public eye.
Likely only becomes an Inquisitor through the usual deathbead promotion - but not really. My money says the Inquisitor dies, and this character then uses that death as an opportunity to become an Inquisitor in Extremis via brevet promotion (Inquisitorial equivalent), and by politicking his way with whatever other Inquisitors could ratify his rosette - probably other radical Inquisitors that could be "trusted" (within reason) to do it. And probably with them (from their perspective) taking advantage of the newly promoted monster.

Likely works alone, building up distant networks of agents, and only has a few limited worthies trusted with certain abilities, and only to fill in gaps where his knowledge/abilities/precious time is lacking. So if he needs a daemonologist, he'll either borrow one, or have gradually groomed one to fill that spot.

EDIT3: thinking about the possibility of the regeneration being so strong as to allow his head to be cut off, and reattach simply by sticking it back on to his neckhole, what if it goes a step further - if someone wants to torture him, all they have to do is keep cutting off the bits over and over and over again. And because the nerves regrow along with the bits, he can't become physically inured to the pain - mentally maybe, but not physically.
On the flip side if someone cut him up into bits (head, torso, limbs) would the bits need to be attached, or would they regrow on their own?
So one bit in each box/cell eventually grows (like seeds) into a clone of him?
Only the head is the original bit?
And what if, after the first time it happens, The Head (hah) gets the idea to keep using it.
So the Head remains in the shadows, and manipulates himself/his clones, and keeps occasionally getting them captured, chopping them up, and turning them into new hims/clones to spread through the Imperium as Inquisitors to hunt down his enemies/those he deems enemies of the Emperor.
"I'm Spartacus." "No, I'm Spartacus." "No, I'm Kade Mack." etc.
"The only way to kill me, is to chop me up, and spread the bits across the segmentum." (hah, yeah right).
And because they're all faceless, and dressed in armour to hide the mutation (black eyes, pale skin, no need to breath, no pulse, etc), then nobody can be sure who is who, which one is real, or even tell that they're actually clones at all (or maybe they think they're just normal clones, etc etc etc).
Hidden operations to hunt down those who discover the truth, witch hunts for those Who Know Too Much, etc.

[MarcoSkoll]

I've explored the concept of immortal characters with my own Jax Lynn, and I've had to consider answers to some of those questions:

~~~~~

Regenerative clones - they don't happen for her. For regeneration to breach mass conservation, it must have some element in the warp. It may not be a conscious psychic effort, but the energy/mass has to come from somewhere.

Because of this, only the part of Jax's body which her soul chooses to latch onto after injury/trauma/death will regenerate (this is normally the largest part). All the other smeared blood and viscera does not regenerate - otherwise you have the question of the thirty to forty thousand skin cells most humans shed every minute.

A plot hook I never got to in my unfinished Ad Vitam Aeternam narrative (on the RP boards) is that she has tried to clone herself, but the clone is brain-dead. As far as her regeneration is concerned, it's still part of her* - it's therefore not a new individual and has no soul of its own.
It ages and heals well, but nowhere near as flawlessly as the part fuelled by her full regenerative power.

*Spoilers for a part I will almost certainly never get to, and which would have been several narratives further down the line: One of her enemies makes a very concerted effort to destroy her body and keep it from regenerating... but this enemy doesn't know about her clone. And as far as her soul is concerned, her clone is a very big part of her to latch onto.
(As her clone would be a couple of hundred years old at this point, I imagine the effect of it suddenly having her full regenerative power to be a lot like the scene from The Two Towers film after Theoden is freed from Saruman's influence, losing about 50 years off his appearance over a few seconds - in my opinion, one of the most powerful visual effects in film).

Basically, no physical damage whatsoever can kill her - any living cell, anywhere or even anywhen, is enough for her soul to latch onto and regenerate.

(She's not however completely unkillable - it would just take the same kind of massive psychic damage that you'd need to truly kill a daemon, such that her soul no longer existed).

~~~~~

As far as torturing her... much of pain is an anxiety effect, which is why things like hypnosis can affect it.

For someone who didn't have to fear injury, pain would be considerably less intimidating, and for someone who can regenerate any body part, torture poses little lasting threat. ("I'll cut your eyes out!" "So what?")

[mcjomar]

Hmm, perhaps the cloning only works if the heart and brain are separated for long enough.
If it's only focused on those two organs, then that would eliminate the "cells and blood" issue.
I would also wonder if, each time a clone is created, a separate soul is also created, with its own personality, likes, dislikes, etc, but informed by the memories and experiences of the "original" (up to the point the separation between head and body took place).

This would make this character's immortality less capable than Jax' (being that it relies on only any particle of brain/heart matter), but also allow for the existence of clones - including clones with different personalities, and/or experiences post-separation. Sort of the Riker situation (as per Star Trek where two Rikers exist due to a transporter malfunction). So each individual/soul is entirely reliant on the survival of their brain matter - in the event of its destruction I assume either A) they're left hoping the heart is still intact or B) the soul is either lost, or gets transmitted to their "offspring" (at which point the two souls go to war over the host body, or something I don't know yet).

So far less effective in this instance than Jax.

Hmm... perhaps that's not quite fitting for how the Secret World plays it out - in there there's only one of you, but you always come back.
In which case, while an interesting idea in theory, in practice I think the "Jax" method for this is probably a lot more likely/appropriate to the character idea as an explanation for how it works - though I assume it would have to be tied to brain-matter only, and rely on a series of clones spread throughout the galaxy to ensure survival, and prevent any "eggs in one basket" issues.
It does, sadly, prevent the existence of mass copies, hydra style (which would have been rather fitting, as this character would have been an unknowing pawn of the Hydra faction - a pawn that thinks it's a queen). Oh well. It still sort of works, I suppose, in a muahahaha, I'll be back, etc etc sort of way. Although for this specific character, more in a "villain from the perspective of puritans, but sort of heroic in comparison to out and out xanthites/horusians/chaos-wielders/etc" sort of way.

Though it begs the question, what would happen if one transferred a brain into a cloned body sort of deal, given the technical abilities of the mechanicus.