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Children of the Skymother

Started by Alta, January 25, 2011, 06:21:05 PM

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Alta

Genestealers and Genestealer Cultists are by far my favourite races in the 41st millenium, so it was only a matter of time before I made a warband out of them...







"Dakka"

Dakka is right handed

WS    BS       S        T       I       Wp    Sg     Nv     Ld
26     41     106     87     31     46     12     74     19

Special Abilities
•   Force of Will
•   Nerves of Steel

Equipment:
•   Heavy Assault Cannon (may need additional rules to show it's primitivity)
•   Knife

Left arm is crippled and is S10

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Appearance:   WIP thread

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Background:

NameN/A
AKA"Dakka"
Age23
Place of BirthVentrax Reticuli
Height~2.1m
Weight>100kg
Threat LevelModerate
Threat Typexeno corruption, murder, rape
Psychic LevelNu - Kappa
Known ContactsGenestealer Cult
WargearPrimitive Assault Cannon, Knife
Known OffencesBelonging to a cult of and being a hybrid of a dangerous xeno lifeform
Murder
Rape
Additional NotesExcessively strong, exceed caution when approaching.
Left arm seems weak and crippled due to genetic mutation and is practically useless.
Scratch over eye does not impede vision.
Dim and slow-witted. Follows orders and does not seem to have much free will.

Born into the Genestealer cult 'the children of the skymother' "Dakka", as he came to be known, had been selectively bred to embody his forefather's strength. His father had been a dim, slow-witted lumbering hulk which, upon seeing him, made people wonder whether he had ogryn heritage. Most of these traits were passed down to Dakka, yet sometimes if you watched the care and precision he treated towards his weapon, you wondered whether or not he was as dim as he made out to be. His aggressive nature got him into lots of fights when he was younger. One particular trophy of these brawls was a large scratch down his left eye, obtained when he got on the wrong end of a death cultist's sword.

To begin with he was used to lift heavy weights. His left arm, left weak and crippled due to genetic mutation, was a burden, and meant he was not as favoured as some of the other cultists due to his two strong arms being on his right. He was often sent out when brute force was required, sent as a shock troop to soak up fire and smash down walls and various pieces of important machinery. He first acquired his taste for firearms when he ripped out an autocannon turret off a PDF emplacement. He used it initially as a club, but soon he realised that it might be more effective if he squeezed that little bit of metal that the other side had been pressing as he charged up to them. After that he began experimenting with different weapons in his spare time, and found that he preferred the high rate of fire of the auto weapons to the single, yet more powerful, shot of a rifle. The autocannon had been a bit heavy and awkward to hold, so he set about building his own rapid-fire weapon out of various weapons he acquired on his orders. The higher authorities were aware of this activity, so next time he was sent out he was told that he would be providing supporting fire and to bring his gun. The operation was a success, which made him incredibly pleased. Further operations yielding successful results eventually earned him the nickname 'Dakka'. Before then he was either referred to as 'you' or by his number.




I'm also working on a Maelignaci at the moment. After that I will probably work on a Genestealer Magus.
Comments and critiscism much appreciated

...Few things in life make sense and unfortunately for you I am not one of them...

InquisitorHeidfeld

I'm slightly disturbed by a couple of references...

Firstly, talking about the Autocannon, he is described as so incredibly dull-witted that he might well be a risk to the rest of the cult. Why would they "send him out" when he runs such a large risk of exposing them all?
If you're trying to capture the more animalistic intelligence of the early generation hybrids then I think you need to make more of his instincts, make him seem more feral than stupid.

The other is the reference to selective breeding. For a start I'm not certain how that would work as you only have four generations to play with and (IIRC) the first two are functioning via Ovipositor rather than conventional sexual reproduction.
Or is "selective breeding" a euphamism for being taken to the Patriarch or something?

None-the-less I welcome the Genestealer cult's reappearance outside my own games - armoured limosines and conversion beamers to the fore! ;D

Alta


Quote from: InquisitorHeidfeld on January 26, 2011, 01:28:04 PM
Firstly, talking about the Autocannon, he is described as so incredibly dull-witted that he might well be a risk to the rest of the cult. Why would they "send him out" when he runs such a large risk of exposing them all?

Not all genestealer cult activities are confined to sneaking around unnoticed. Most of it is, but not all. Often they will act more like a brute force gang than infiltrators.

'The Children of the Skymother' is not so much a genestealer cult, as a hidden network of cults spread across various worlds. Often they will get a cult to reveal themselves in an all or nothing destruction, often resulting in the destruction of that cult while, in the insueing confusion, another more sneaky cult has worked it's way into places of power. Dakka is part of a brute force cult, who often display public riots and attacks, so there is no risk of him exposing them. I might need to think of another name for his cult. Any suggestions?

Quote from: InquisitorHeidfeld on January 26, 2011, 01:28:04 PM
The other is the reference to selective breeding. For a start I'm not certain how that would work as you only have four generations to play with and (IIRC) the first two are functioning via Ovipositor rather than conventional sexual reproduction.

I'm not entirely sure about the selective breeding. I was mostly going on the lexicanium genestealer cult article. I presume you just get one very strong male Maelignaci to mate with a strong female Maelignaci to get a very strong hybrid. You only really need 1 generation for noticable changes.

I'll make rules for the Maelignaci once I've made his model.
...Few things in life make sense and unfortunately for you I am not one of them...

Kaled

Quote from: Alta on January 26, 2011, 08:21:05 PM
I'm not entirely sure about the selective breeding. I was mostly going on the lexicanium genestealer cult article. I presume you just get one very strong male Maelignaci to mate with a strong female Maelignaci to get a very strong hybrid. You only really need 1 generation for noticable changes.
Genestealers don't reproduce by breeding with each other - a first generation hybrid infects a human and the human's offspring are second generation hybrids, the second generation hybrid infects more humans whose offspring are third generation hybrids, and so on.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

InquisitorHeidfeld

Infects is not quite the right term for the (IIRC) third and fourth generation hybrids - lacking an ovipositor they breed among their maternal race...
But the third and fourth generation hybrids are far more human (assuming that Human is the maternal race), the fourth generation are all but indistinguishable, the third rarely have additional limbs and normally they're atrophied if they are present (and the third are generated through the ovipositor of the second rather than breeding).
This doesn't feel like a later generation though - assuming that his dim-wittedness is actually a more animal view then he's most likely first generation, perhaps second.

As to the network of Cults...
I don't recall any references to that but it seems counter intuative - the Patriarchs are in competition with each other - their hive is the one they want to take over the Galaxy... In the same way as you cannot have two Queens in a hive, two Patriarchs in contact with each other are not going to be cooperating.

Kaled

I believe a significant number of third generation hybrids lack the ovipositor of earlier generations but cannot breed in the human manner either and infect others by injecting them with their blood.
I like to remember things my own way... Not necessarily the way they happened.

Inquisitor - Blood Bowl - Malifaux - Fairy Meat

Alta


Ah, thanks for clearing that up - I wasn't entirely sure on how they bred.

About the network of cultists. There isn't any reference to it as I made it up. Also there could be no reference to it because the Imperium hasn't found out about them yet. These cults are normally led by a Magus as opposed to a Patriarch.

Are his rules okay?
Also, any idea of weapon stats and cult names would be appreciated...
...Few things in life make sense and unfortunately for you I am not one of them...

Elva

#7
Going, by the article and the recollection of an old white dwarf, I don't see why the brood mind wouldn't be able to act for communication and coordination amongst cults in a small to larger area depending on the power of the network(I have no idea on the specifics of that), however I'd say that it'd be one system at max extension(maybe using magusi or patriarchs as relays).

On the subject of the generations, the infected host species original offspring will be mostly genestealer, except with many deformities and more xeno like characteristics and qualities. From there, it gets progressively more like the host species, I assume this is because the  'stealer genetic material gets diluted and the DNA starts to adapt and figure itself out in that specific gene pool. However, it soon goes to complete opposite and the 5th generation is a purestrain, which I would assume would be the cult's trump cards, but apparently they tend to wander off and become patriarchs themselves. However, sometimes traits disappear for a generation or two, though this is an extreme version of that.

The whole patriarch concept is a bit boggling to me. It would generally be easier to infiltrate if the original infector(lack of a better term) stayed behind and let the host go about infecting others under the perfect cover; the fact that they don't know what they are doing. Plus, its a bit hard to sneak a genestealer onto most worlds regardless of who is controlling them(unless its already teeming with the cult's influence).

EDIT-I am under the impression that most worlds infecting hosts are infected in isolated areas(such as barren moons or worlds and space hulks) and then return to civilization to spread the influence.
"Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!!"

InquisitorHeidfeld

The first generation is certainly quite 'stealer-ish, 3-4 arms, hunched, possibly still moving on its toes rather than the full foot, elongated head...etc but it is most certainly not a 'stealer.
When the fourth generation produce progeny you get the next generation of purestrains.

And while Magi may run the cult it is the Patriarch's psychic abilities which keep it together, every cult comes back to a Patriarch in the same way as every Tyranid Warrior comes back to a Norn Queen.

As to infection vectors...
Remember that 'stealers are tougher and better adapted to hostile environments than the best Human technology allows, they can stand exposure to hard vacuum for long periods, extremes of heat and cold, radiation... I can envisage a ship diverting to investigate Space Hulk designation LV-426, plotting its movements and so forth, encountering nothing and proceding on their journey without realising that a 'stealer has crossed to its hull.
A couple of hundred years later its destination planet, thanks to the 'stealer clinging on inside the undercarriage well, is a site of heavy cult activity.
Yes, I'd expect an isolated group to be the first hosts, the cult slowly building numbers until the 3rd or 4th generation start to infiltrate the power structure and make a place for the cult in society.

precinctomega

Point of information:

Whilst the course of breeding of hybrids is exactly as stated here (allowing for the usual conditions of EYHBTIAL), human members of the cult - parents, siblings and other victims - still breed in the conventional fashion.

R.