Undercover Aliens

[Locke]

One element that I have always liked in Science fiction is the aliens that are disguised as humans. The miniseries and normal series V is a perfect example, reptilian aliens wear human skin in a grand plot to take control of mankind to use them as food/cannon fodder. Now genestealers cults are pretty close to this but Ive always dislike them for the fact that they are just part of the tyranid hive mind(not that i dislike tyranids).  Anyways I was thinking of making a new Inquisitor and company where the Inquisitor is actually a alien in disguise. Now before you say anything I intend to have a very detailed history on the aliens species as to how they can pull off such a thing, im talking about breeding smaller subspecies that can wear an artificially grown human skin and still be roughly proportionate to a baseline human. As for how it became an Inquisitor it simply killed him when it had the chance( he was drunk in a bar and stumbled outside) and took his place. Ill have a bunch of fluff up tomorrow. Does anyone think this is a plausible idea?

[MarcoSkoll]

As for how it became an Inquisitor it simply killed him when it had the chance( he was drunk in a bar and stumbled outside) and took his place.

There is more to an Inquisitor than just looking like him. His contacts, his knowledge, all the genelocks on his possessions and Inquisitorial seal, passing through auspexes and scanners without being seen. You can't just impersonate an Inquisitor (much less when you're not even human, but an alien hiding inside artificial skin) and get away with it.

My suggestion would be to have an Inquisitor infected by some kind of alien mind control parasite. This has essentially the same end effect, but would get around the "not actually the Inquisitor" problems. If you wished, it could include a mechanic of him occasionally, but briefly, regaining control - which could be an interesting and characterful weakness on the table.

[Kaled]

Your mention of 'stealer cults sparks a couple of comments. The first is that they're not really part of the hive mind, they're independant of it and in many cases don't even know of it. They work for their own ends, their own plans - however when they grow in power the bloated psychic patriarch becomes a beacon that the hive mind can detect over vast distances. Only when the hive reaches the system will the cult fall under it's power.

The second thing is a question - I can't remember reading much about this, but how much change genetic change does a 'stealer's 'kiss' wreak on the victim? Would something that's gene-locked still recognise them? I seem to remember Kroot refusing to eat a brood brother as they could taste the 'stealer taint...

[Macabre]

Inquisitor Ralei wasn't human...

[MarcoSkoll]

I wondered if anyone was going to bring that up.

No, he wasn't human, but he had access to technology beyond any other known race in the galaxy. And even then, he was described it as having taken a century of work and that even of his own kind, there were but a handful who could do the same.

Far more sophistication than just murdering an Inquisitor after he's stumbled drunk out of a bar.

[Macabre]

Yes, but the [censored] race isn't the only species to have that level of technology, I'm sure the Tau have a hololithic projectors that can cast an altered image, the Lacrymole can shapeshift naturally, the Imperium has polymorphine, the Eldar can use psychic manipulation to cloud the minds of others and even the Charon make use of flesh puppets. It wouldn't be too far fetched to think that the Jokero, the Xenarch, the Demiurg and many other advanced races wouldn't have similar technology.

[Kaled]

I could buy the idea of the alien/Inquisitor fooling people for a short while - especially away from the centres of Inquisitorial power.  Maybe using the fear that the Inquisition instills in people, and perhaps some subtle telepathic influence to fool those people who know little of the Inquisition.  I wouldn't go so far as to have him attending Conclave and walking around Inquisitorial fortresses.  Write a good story and it could be plausible.

What about a model?  I hope he'd have two - both wearing his human skin and in his alien form.   It'd be rather disappointing if he just looked human and had roughly human stats.

[MarcoSkoll]

Yes, but the [censored] race isn't the only species to have that level of technology

I can see flaws in all of those, some way they could fall apart. They might last a while, but they wouldn't be truly convincing.

The other question is - why, if you have the level of technology that allows you to mimic someone so well as to fool almost all forms of scrutiny, would you then do something so crude with it? The [censored] race had their reasons, if slightly odd ones, but not everyone would.

Either way, where's the fun in an alien infiltrator who is never at risk of being caught? If I'm playing a character who's pretending to be someone else, there's little point unless it has a chance of going wrong and I might just as well just be playing that someone else.

Now that's given me an idea. Someone who loses it and thinks they're a clone of themselves created by aliens to fulfil some mission (which they then try and carry out). That sounds like a fun kind of lunatic.

[Macabre]

Very Sixth Day...

[Locke]

The way I see around the problems with his staff and contacts is this; the Inquisitor in question lets call him Getsburg, operates out in the southern rim away. Unlike most Inquisitors he doesnt utilize ships or a personal staff. Hes more of a silent recongregator type. Comes to a planet and causes some issues and ends up changing the dynamic of the planet. The alien species im thinking, would see Getsburg as a perfect subject to capture, kill, and replace. He has very few friends and those that do know of him know how he works. If they replaced him(Im thinking articial skin cloned/grown from him, as to pass simple genelocks, everything else will just be hard for him to get by, at the GM's discretion) the imposter can continue acting the same way Getsburg was but instead of putting better suited people in high positions they do the opposite, essentially making it easier for an invasion from the aliens at a later date.

[MarcoSkoll]

Unlike most Inquisitors he doesnt utilize ships or a personal staff.

That's pretty much "like ALL Inquisitors". The number of Inquisitors who do not use any personal staff, have almost no connections and hold no resources (there are people associated with most of these things) is pretty much zero.

An Inquisitor's power comes from who he knows, who helps him and what he has. An Inquisitor who only carries around a seal and waves it at people who want something done will hugely limit, even cripple, his power. To quote from a story I wrote a while back:

Your seals, badges and rosettes all come to naught without people like us - they are only a symbol of your power, a means to control those who are willing to obey, and get the resources you need to truly exercise your so-called "unlimited power". Waving your pieces of silver jewellery in the face of an iron-skinned mutant isn't going to stop it tearing your head off.

Personal staff are practically a necessity for an Inquisitor, even if they're a load of mercs he hired when he got on the planet to act as bodyguards and who he might shoot as he leaves.

But not having that grizzled old guard scout who could track a needle in a haystack and knows eight different ways to kill an Ork with just his bayonet, a Sister Famulous who knows the ruling castes of the sector back to front, a psyker who can rip secrets from the minds of prisoners or a personal confessor whose faith can stop daemons in their tracks on some sort of a permanent staff is going to hurt.

Besides, Inquisitors aren't idiots - if they are working alone, rare as that is, they don't go and put themselves at even more threat by going and getting drunk off their skulls.

Not having a staff is a bigger problem. Also, don't necessarily assume that a problem means that it should be got rid of. Like I said, where's the fun if there's no chance of him getting caught?
If he has to keep giving them drugs that leave them susceptible to suggestion so they mostly ignore his oddities, then that's more fun than him not having a staff (and will give his staff an interesting weakness, probably a particularly low Wp).

[Elva]

Just lightly skimmed over the thread and I thought I'd add a personal example.

The Prawn I'm making(slowly but surely), would stick out pretty bad in an Imperial hive city. That leaves two options that Elva would consider(this is after a lot of thought on my part):

1.really big cloak.
2.Say he's a mutant. Most hivers(or citizens in general) would be more familiar with mutants than aliens, so telling the difference would be difficult. Plus anyone that could see through the charade would either be an Imperial agent, a friend, enemy, or any combination of those, either way its gonna end up in a shootout or not an issue.
3. do a combination of the two.

An Inquisitor who only carries around a seal and waves it at people who want something done

Why did I think of the kind that you make slippers of? 

[Flinty]

Interesting - Im reminded of one of the (possible/probable) influences of 40k - the Nemisis strip in 2000AD. Torquemada reinforces his rule over the people of Termight by producing Bestiaries depicting even the most innocuous and harmless aliens as ravening terrors waiting to devour humanity, only held at bay by the heroic Terminators. One story even has the Chief Executioner (he plays the Pandemonium, a huge organ (fnarr, fnarr)) becoming infected by some alien spore/strian/virus and mutating into a rather visually revolting specimien.

Given that the Imperium stress the purity of humanity above all, yet still tolerates a mutant underclass as expendable labour/experimental subjects/trash to be disposed of in the future - introducing an Alien as a Mutant seems highly likely to succeed . How many Citizens - aware as they must be of the mutant underclass - would actually be able to identify something beyond the fact that it is not ''human''?

It does raise the question of how mutated it is possible to be before, pretty much instant, termination; and how tolerated mutants are within Imperial society. One assumes that on the fringes or in those systems with specific demand for mutant labour (promethium  refinaries, plasma conduit cleaners etc), an Alien that appears* very roughly humanoid, could get away with it.

One then has to wonder what kind of Alien would be happy to be viewed as scum by humanity (nefarious schemes aside). Or would they aspire to be viewed akin to the Squats - sorry, Demiurge, as a proto-human or the Jokero, as essentially harmless but useful?

Cutting the waffle, it strikes me as a seam of rich potential for a character.

* Appears through disguise, physical/morphological form or mental projection etc etc...

[Kaled]

Demiurg are the conceptual successors to the Squats, but they're xenos not abhumans. And while Squats may have been written off as a playable race in 40k, their strongholds destroyed by the Tyranids - they haven't been written out of the canon entirely so there's no reason they couldn't be used ad player characters in Inquisitor.

[Macabre]

The tolerance to mutation varies from world to world, some see such genetic deviation as abomination and have them destroyed as soon as they are born, some are put into ghettos to be used as slave labour, some worlds will operate a segregation policy (see American in the 50's with the afro-caribbean populous), some even grant the same rights and privileges as ordinary citizens, although this is very rare.

Understand also that not all mutation is 'extreme', some can be simple vestigial/cosmetic variances (such as extra fingers/toes/a small tail), and can be removed via surgical intervention. The more extreme mutations are often those that riddle the body and are clearly noticeable and beyond and such practical measures above. Also understand that naturally occurring mutation is as a result of biological degeneration of the human gene-pool, and so the mutations that manifest will be entirely random and only be within the scope possible of human genetics (by which I mean tentacles and cloven hooves were never part of our genetic structure no matter how much you tinker with it).

Abhumans, or Homo Sapien Variatus (such as Ogryns, Ratlings, Squats, the Navigator Third Eye, Pseudo-Beastmen, Nightsider adaptions, Necromundan Scalies etc) are considered a stable mutation that is caused by generations of evolution to a particular planetary bio-sphere, such as Ogryn's that adapted to the high gravity of their world. Again, abhumans are still treated with suspicion and phobic abuse, but are often much more tolerated by Imperial society than the mutants formerly mentioned. Theories as to why this is range from; their genetic stock is still relatively pure and they are seen as an evolutionary step rather than a degenerative one, to the simple fact they are more 'symmetrical' in appearance and less hideous than those afflicted by random mutation.

Xenos very very rarely can pass as human (even mutated/abhuman ones), simply because of what they are; xenos. Even the most radically mutated human, still has vestiges of their human ancestry, whilst xenos are simply too alien to be mistaken for anything other than what they are. Even GW further separated the gulf between the Eldar and Humans by altering their appearance slightly (especially the shape of the eyes) and added the utterly inhuman grace by which they move, in order (I guess) to stop such similarities being made (no, they're not just humans with pointy ears) when before, back in the 2nd ed 40k, Eldar could pass for human and indeed did infiltrate Imperial society by that means.