I was thinking of what else we can offer the Archmagos. presumably he has other minions, vassals and allies that he hasn't brought with him, if he's powerful enough to realistically take over his Forge World and assemble the assets we've seen here (normal Magi can't access interstellar spaceships or Skitarii). It would be to his advantage for those minions and for his vassals' and allies' minions, or the vassals/allies themselves, to be more competent.
We can offer a deal where he can offer the opportunity to effectively serve as mercenaries. We'll augment their officers and senior staff, or them, and they'll have their forces fight alongside us for a year.l, and reverse engineer some selected pieces of archeotech for them.
This is win-win-win*.
It's good for the Archmagos to be able to offer the opportunity. It strengthens his current allies/vassals, makes them owe him for the chance, and is an incentive for new allies/vassals to align themselves with him.
It's good for the allies/vassals as they'll get more powerful retinues/personal abilities and might get some very valuable archeotech blueprints.
And it's good for us, as we'll get some hyper-tech military forces to help defeat the Covenant and build wider alliances on the Forge World.
There are a couple of institutions that are of special note. First up, the Skitarii. If we consider how a Forge World is organised in this era:
You can see that the Skitarius are a separate branch of the military/heirarchy. That makes sense. They're a sub-cult with their own rituals and mysteries dedicated to the Man-Machine Militant and with their own command structure only formally answerable to the Fabricator General. If you think about it in medieval Catholic terms, an Archmagos like our friend is a Bishop, the Fabricator General is the Pope, and the Skitarius are the Knights of Malta.
The fact that there are some here in our ally's retinue means he has contacts within their leadership structure who have seconded some of their troops to accompany him. Their commanders back home may be interested in getting some of their officers or elites augmented by us. They might be particularly interested if when we grant physical mutation to a full conversion cyborg it upgrades their cyberware in a way that can be reverse engineered and rolled out to upgrade the rest of their forces in their own forges.This is particularly interesting as if it works like this a full conversion cyborg may be happy to receive something like a chameleon skin mutation that manifests as a piece of technology in a way that if granted as a biological mutation would be seen as an abomination. There are some other mutations that might manifest as pieces of integrated techbology for a full conversion cyborg that would require and so manifest as a supernatural power for a biological creative, like invisibility. That's a bit more speculative, but if so the leaders of the Skitarius would quite possibly be willing to do a lot to get access to such technology to upgrade their members.
Once again, that benefits both us and the Archmages. The Skitarius leadership is more likely to support his ascension to become Fabricator General if he's given them this opportunity, and supplying an army to fight alongside us is relatively easy for them. The regular Magos of a Forge World maintain some military/dual purpose forces to defend themselves from internecine conflict and to meet their feudal obligations in case of general war. The Skitarius are a full time professional miltary.
The other major faction we can help him appeal to is his Forge World's Navigator House. If we give his Navigator's genetics a tune up they'll probably be willing to pay both him and us almost anything they can manage in return for us doing the same to the rest of his house, and when they learn we can (probably) grant the knowledge and skill of how to use the Warp Eye that will only redouble.
The Navigators are probably very influential amongst the Basilikon Astra, the institution responsible for building and operating the Forge World's fleet, and so can likely ensure that any potential allies/mercenaries who are interested in coming and helping will be transported here, and also that we'll be able to get plentiful orbital fire support and transport.
Looking at how much we can offer, Lorgar can make a very, very good sales pitch to the Arch Magos, and probably advise him on how best to sell the opportunity on to those who might be interested, we could also ask for more than simple military support. Given the way the Mechanicus thinks of them, I wonder if we can effectively 'buy' a population of voidborn menials and lower ranking Tech Adepts from the Basilikon Astra via the Navigators, along with their assistance relating the shipyards in orbit enough for them to be habitable. Forge Worlds are feudal institutions, and menials and the lower ranks are chattels whose vassalage can be transferred.
Lorgar can then teach and uplift them spiritually to ensure their loyalty and happiness in our service, Fan can grant a core set of leaders the knowledge and skills to teach their fellows to continue repairs to the shipyards.
This gives us a massive head start on making Colchis useful and gives us a much larger population and economy which is a big force multiplier.
It also starts to restore the world's narrative. It's no longer a just a world of faith and deserts that it's become. It's also returning to being the world of progress and industry that it once was.
We should think big. We have some very powerful tools and through the Archmagos a very powerful neighbour we can use them on to mutual benefit.
* Except for Chaos. They don't get to win from this.
We can offer a deal where he can offer the opportunity to effectively serve as mercenaries. We'll augment their officers and senior staff, or them, and they'll have their forces fight alongside us for a year.l, and reverse engineer some selected pieces of archeotech for them.
This is win-win-win*.
It's good for the Archmagos to be able to offer the opportunity. It strengthens his current allies/vassals, makes them owe him for the chance, and is an incentive for new allies/vassals to align themselves with him.
It's good for the allies/vassals as they'll get more powerful retinues/personal abilities and might get some very valuable archeotech blueprints.
And it's good for us, as we'll get some hyper-tech military forces to help defeat the Covenant and build wider alliances on the Forge World.
There are a couple of institutions that are of special note. First up, the Skitarii. If we consider how a Forge World is organised in this era:
You can see that the Skitarius are a separate branch of the military/heirarchy. That makes sense. They're a sub-cult with their own rituals and mysteries dedicated to the Man-Machine Militant and with their own command structure only formally answerable to the Fabricator General. If you think about it in medieval Catholic terms, an Archmagos like our friend is a Bishop, the Fabricator General is the Pope, and the Skitarius are the Knights of Malta.
The fact that there are some here in our ally's retinue means he has contacts within their leadership structure who have seconded some of their troops to accompany him. Their commanders back home may be interested in getting some of their officers or elites augmented by us. They might be particularly interested if when we grant physical mutation to a full conversion cyborg it upgrades their cyberware in a way that can be reverse engineered and rolled out to upgrade the rest of their forces in their own forges.This is particularly interesting as if it works like this a full conversion cyborg may be happy to receive something like a chameleon skin mutation that manifests as a piece of technology in a way that if granted as a biological mutation would be seen as an abomination. There are some other mutations that might manifest as pieces of integrated techbology for a full conversion cyborg that would require and so manifest as a supernatural power for a biological creative, like invisibility. That's a bit more speculative, but if so the leaders of the Skitarius would quite possibly be willing to do a lot to get access to such technology to upgrade their members.
Once again, that benefits both us and the Archmages. The Skitarius leadership is more likely to support his ascension to become Fabricator General if he's given them this opportunity, and supplying an army to fight alongside us is relatively easy for them. The regular Magos of a Forge World maintain some military/dual purpose forces to defend themselves from internecine conflict and to meet their feudal obligations in case of general war. The Skitarius are a full time professional miltary.
The other major faction we can help him appeal to is his Forge World's Navigator House. If we give his Navigator's genetics a tune up they'll probably be willing to pay both him and us almost anything they can manage in return for us doing the same to the rest of his house, and when they learn we can (probably) grant the knowledge and skill of how to use the Warp Eye that will only redouble.
The Navigators are probably very influential amongst the Basilikon Astra, the institution responsible for building and operating the Forge World's fleet, and so can likely ensure that any potential allies/mercenaries who are interested in coming and helping will be transported here, and also that we'll be able to get plentiful orbital fire support and transport.
Looking at how much we can offer, Lorgar can make a very, very good sales pitch to the Arch Magos, and probably advise him on how best to sell the opportunity on to those who might be interested, we could also ask for more than simple military support. Given the way the Mechanicus thinks of them, I wonder if we can effectively 'buy' a population of voidborn menials and lower ranking Tech Adepts from the Basilikon Astra via the Navigators, along with their assistance relating the shipyards in orbit enough for them to be habitable. Forge Worlds are feudal institutions, and menials and the lower ranks are chattels whose vassalage can be transferred.
Lorgar can then teach and uplift them spiritually to ensure their loyalty and happiness in our service, Fan can grant a core set of leaders the knowledge and skills to teach their fellows to continue repairs to the shipyards.
This gives us a massive head start on making Colchis useful and gives us a much larger population and economy which is a big force multiplier.
It also starts to restore the world's narrative. It's no longer a just a world of faith and deserts that it's become. It's also returning to being the world of progress and industry that it once was.
We should think big. We have some very powerful tools and through the Archmagos a very powerful neighbour we can use them on to mutual benefit.
* Except for Chaos. They don't get to win from this.
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