I want to create a Monodominant who is fairly heavily augmented with bionics. Do you think this is antithetical to the Monodominant belief system? Scratch that, actually, I forgot to menion the concept includes psychic abilities Monodominance would be out of the question.
Is there an Ordos that works closely with the Adeptus Mechanicus?
The crux of the character is that his retinue is composed of high-end Arco-Flagellants whom he controls via wireless MIUs and Telepathy. Literally using them as his eyes and ears somewhat like what Ravenor does when he wares another. He is virtually indistinguishable in appearance from them in appearance (as I mentioned bionically augmented).
Quote from: monkhmer on October 11, 2009, 04:01:05 AM
Is there an Ordos that works closely with the Adeptus Mechanicus?
No.
QuoteThe crux of the character is that his retinue is composed of high-end Arco-Flagellants [...]
Why?
Quote[...] whom he controls via wireless MIUs and Telepathy. Literally using them as his eyes and ears somewhat like what Ravenor does when he wares another.
I see this as more of a game mechanic rather than background. What you really need to do first is decide who he is, where he's from and why he has these things. I assume that you're associating the Arco's with the Adeptus Mechanicus but strictly they are issued by the Ministorum so you might want to work that out a bit more.
Alternatively you could have an Inquisitor who was/is a tech-priest who has a unit of combat servitors. Much easier to work out.
QuoteHe is virtually indistinguishable in appearance from them in appearance (as I mentioned bionically augmented).
This doesn't really make much sense. Do you mean he looks like an Arco?
These are the Twenty Questions. I'm not sure if they're around on the Clave somewhere but I'll post them up here so you can have a look at them.
- Where is your character from? Be specific, not just a planet or a city.
- Does your character have a family? Give details; who are they?
- What does your character look like? Not numbers or clothing but style, looks, et cetera
- How does your character dress? Does their wardrobe contain twenty identical outfits or do they have dress-up/dress-down clothes? Go mad, look in your own wardrobe for ideas.
- Does your character have physical quirks, ticks or habits? Does he sweat profusely when nervous? does he scratch himself in unflattering places or chew his fingernails? has his nose been broken and never set properly?
- Where did your character learn their skills? Where did they first shoot a gun, wield a sword et cetera?
- What else does your character know, stuff that doesn't come into the combats like a passion for Terran Wines for example. Where did he learn it? How did it develop?
- Where did he get his goodies?
- Where does your character live? Again, be specific.
- Who does your character know? Some of these may be warband members, others not. Detail them, do the twenty questions for them if you have time.
- Who are your character's enemies? Does he have any? Or are enemies something that will only come in here? If so, What are your character's primary threat. Tyranids? Eldar? Mutants? Psykers?
- How did your character develop their psychic abilities; a special question, if your character is a wyrd or non-psychic you have one less question to answer.
- What are your character's likes and dislikes? Is he nervous of space travel? Does he hate cabbage? Does he love to drive ground cars at ludicrous speeds?
- What is your character's Moral Code? Where does he draw the line? Where does radicallism or puritanism become Heresy?
- Does your character have goals? Is he a point and shoot weapon for the heirachy or is the vaguest hint of Ork stink going to have him running off to find Orkimedes?
- Does your character have personal beliefs? Does he follow the Imperial creed to the letter? Is he a Thorian et cetera?
- Does your character have any personality quirks? Is he Arrogant? Humble? Laid back? Stressed out? Opinionated? Superstitious? Paranoid?
- How did your character become an <Inquisitor/Rogue Trader/Arbite/Whatever>?
- How does he see his role? Is he a crusading knight? A subtle schemer? A Diplomat?
- Are you happy with that? If not - go back and change things. If you are then congratulations, you're done.
First up, try to ignore Ravenor. The "waring" device was a pretty lazy piece of writing by Dan and fits badly into the vision of the 40kverse usually inhabited in games of INQ.
A heavily-bionic, psychic Monodominant is not out of the question at all. Many Imperial psykers are filled with self-hatred and a passion for self-mortification leading from their overwhelming disgust at their own witchery, which they put to use in the Emperor's name. Such morbid internal confliction easily fits with his heavy bionics as the result of said self-mortification. It may also link to a long-running debate as to whether psychic-ness is inherent in the entire human nervous system, in the brain, in a part of the brain, or linked to some other, more metaphysical aspect of a human being. Perhaps he has, in the name of self-mortification, gradually cut away more and more of himself to see if he can somehow diminish his own witchery whilst pursuing a brutal campaign of annihilation against his own kind?
As far as being indistinguishable from his arco-flagellants, well, that depends. Arcos may be more or less bionic, but are also usually filthy, naked, scarred and frothing with contained insanity. An inquisitor - even a self-hating monodominant - must necessarily be a bit more presentable and apparently-sane.
But I like the idea of a warband of extended senses. He might be using captured and altered psykers, built into a psychic network of senses.
Mechanically you could say that the inquisitor must pass a psychic test in each end phase. If he passes, then he is aware of everything his party is aware of and can use and move them normally. If he fails, however, the psychic feedback renders him senseless (stunned) for one turn whilst his party becomes frenzied.
So, he gains a big advantage but with the pay-off that, if he fails, he suffers a huge disadvantage.
R.
Thanks guys. Some good suggestions.
First off, I meant "high-end" Arcos to be not frothing. From what I've seen until their codewords are given they could look pretty normal under long hooded robes. These may work better as servitors but I think I'll start with the Arco profiles as they will be glanded and heavily augmented. They will all be faceless, bionic heads. They'll simply have the Inqisitorial "I" on their faceplates and sensor bundles here and there. The same goes for the Inquisitor.
I like the idea of paring away the brain bit by bit. I was thinking of giving the Inquisitor a highly advanced bionic brain which replaces the majority of his meat brain but also included the MIU equipment and a Psi Booster. Maybe work up a bit of story where the bionic brain limits his exposure to the perils of the warp by making him hyper-rational and suppressing lower emotions that warp entities grow from. As an unexpected side effect the Arcos/servitors in his retinue have Wyrd:Psychic Shriek. Perhaps his psyker gift was too uncontrollable until the majority of his meat brain was amputated (along with his lower more base emotions). The potential is still there but it feeds back through the retinue as a cacophony of psychic white noise.
The Arcos/Servitors might even be clones of his.
As the agents of an Inquisitor are often metaphorically referred to as the "eyes and ears", I rather like the idea of one whose agents really are the eyes and ears. Also, it fits into the dirty, manipulative, "you are only worth the amount of sweat and blood you give the Emperor" attitude of the Imperium. Psychics would not be absolutely necessary (some sort of bionic/radio linkup might be fine) - but it could add some interesting GM stuff - "Oh, your psychic is reminded by that guy of a particularly mean guard on the Blackship, and sees him as 30 foot tall and dripping blood, so thats what you see".
For looking like an Arco... Well, I used the Arco head on the Trader body for one Inquisitor - its a helmet with wards and plugs into his bionic spine, allowing him to walk. So elements are fine. Full Arco-ness might be awkward - how would he sign death warrants? Look at the art for how a human might be insanely bionic, yet still look like something that could walk around through Administratum halls...