SolarFlare
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If I could figure out how to hug you from where I am, I would. Honestly just reading this kind of made my heart ache a bit.
Let's Read: Warhammer 40,000 Codexes and Star Wars RPG Sourcebooks (Dark Eldar Reviewer)
- Thread starter RiverDelta
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Thank you for the kind words, they are more than appreciated. Oh, and it is reassuring that tourists are insufferable on all worlds.
Do the Custodes fight the demons, or the Lucifer Blacks?
OOC: It looks good to me.
IC: Yes, it is a normal and valuable form of art and expression! There is nothing wrong with it, and there is nothing wrong with not wanting to engage in intercourse.
Sister Vandire:
...I should apologize. I blew up. You must understand, I was afraid that I might not be able to do my duty, that I might lose myself, that I might lose my idiot.
...It was so stupid and so shitty. Fuck. As for cannibalism, it is pretty blasphemous in our faith at least. Oh, and if the Broadsides are anti-tank vehicles, that would make a lot more sense. We must've gotten lucky.
Oh, and can you tell your friend that I'll pray for him?
Is that shitty to say?
Thank you, though I do believe Vior Or'es is the one in need of the hug. It was all so...stupid. You can understand the conflict between the three of us, of course. Oh, and might I ask what you thought of the Codex itself?
You're usually insightful, to be sure!
:] (Is this how you do a Terran smiley?)
OOC: That's an... interesting development. A good look beneath the mask, so to speak, at Ynathe at her most raw. And a wild plot appears! Who knows, maybe we'll end up with TTS-esque series!
IC: If you're worried about the imperial forces, don't. I can assure you, outside of navy or high-level authorities (sector governors or higher) most folks don't bother with astrography beyond their home system, sub-sector at best.
About psykers... Well, it's a long story, but to cut it short: psykers are treated like walking time bombs because they often are, sometimes through no fault of their own. I mentioned a misadventure with an astropath on my world - if the term didn't come up, astropaths are specially trained telepaths capable of projecting and recieving messages at interstellar distances. Because the Imperium has no other way of FTL communication, short of sending a voidship to physically deliver the message, they are tremendously important. Anyway, before I became scribe, I was a runner, so I often visited our previous astropath. A nice girl, if a bit weird and often unavailable due to working or tiredness. Then one day I go to her and the entire hab-block around is cordonned. Apparently poor gal was talking with someone on voidship that got caught in warpstorm. She got submerged in deep Warp and something got to her. One Arbites told me when he found her she was floating ten feet above ground, had her chest split from abdomen to neck and had a waterfall of eyes flowing from that hole. The cleanup took months, because on average three times per week someone on site went mad and clawed out their eyes, losing us a worker and adding to viscera.
Our next astropath was pretty much chained to life-support chair and kept in coma for all time he wasn't on duty and they stuck in him an implant that would flood his brain with acid if it detected warp energy overload. Mechanicus demanded comm priority for the next century as payment.
And like I said, it's rarely the fault of the psyker in question. Most of the time, it's just wrong place, wrong time. But when it leads to psyker getting a head explosion at best, an unstable warp-gate at worst, no one is taking chances. I wish there were ways to prevent such things, but Warp is Warp and comprehensive warding is stupendously expensive. And by "stupendously expensive" I mean warding of medium-sized city can bankrupt a planet due to demand on rare materials and advanced components.
IC: If you're worried about the imperial forces, don't. I can assure you, outside of navy or high-level authorities (sector governors or higher) most folks don't bother with astrography beyond their home system, sub-sector at best.
About psykers... Well, it's a long story, but to cut it short: psykers are treated like walking time bombs because they often are, sometimes through no fault of their own. I mentioned a misadventure with an astropath on my world - if the term didn't come up, astropaths are specially trained telepaths capable of projecting and recieving messages at interstellar distances. Because the Imperium has no other way of FTL communication, short of sending a voidship to physically deliver the message, they are tremendously important. Anyway, before I became scribe, I was a runner, so I often visited our previous astropath. A nice girl, if a bit weird and often unavailable due to working or tiredness. Then one day I go to her and the entire hab-block around is cordonned. Apparently poor gal was talking with someone on voidship that got caught in warpstorm. She got submerged in deep Warp and something got to her. One Arbites told me when he found her she was floating ten feet above ground, had her chest split from abdomen to neck and had a waterfall of eyes flowing from that hole. The cleanup took months, because on average three times per week someone on site went mad and clawed out their eyes, losing us a worker and adding to viscera.
Our next astropath was pretty much chained to life-support chair and kept in coma for all time he wasn't on duty and they stuck in him an implant that would flood his brain with acid if it detected warp energy overload. Mechanicus demanded comm priority for the next century as payment.
And like I said, it's rarely the fault of the psyker in question. Most of the time, it's just wrong place, wrong time. But when it leads to psyker getting a head explosion at best, an unstable warp-gate at worst, no one is taking chances. I wish there were ways to prevent such things, but Warp is Warp and comprehensive warding is stupendously expensive. And by "stupendously expensive" I mean warding of medium-sized city can bankrupt a planet due to demand on rare materials and advanced components.
hellgodsrus
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IC: ... well! I will save much of my commentary on the contents to say that I wish you well in your journey into T'au space; when not shooting at one with Broadsides (which are monstrous hard to fight when properly entrenched and when you had no idea they were setting up position until they're bombarding your lines) or hurling insults about the blood on your hands at you they are a lovely society. If you do decide to join, I hope you do keep in touch - they can be somewhat restrictive about external communication that's not approved by the Water Caste.
), and in the case of some regiments (?I know this is the wrong term but I cannot recall the correct one, forgive me) for ritual and habitual purposes.
Not to contradict you - I am not fond of most 'Sisters' but you seem less awful than most - but don't your Astartes practice cannibalism? Both for tactical purposes given their ability to gain the memories of the dead (via the so-called 'Omophagea' organ; creative name
), and in the case of some regiments (?I know this is the wrong term but I cannot recall the correct one, forgive me) for ritual and habitual purposes.Nonsense and drivel. Firstly, try not keeping your psykers under such ridiculous stress, calling them witches, or sending them off to have their souls 'seared' by your Emperor to sanction them. All these things are more likely to result in higher control and stability. Secondly, proper training schools - rather than hokey religious bollocks - will help them recognise the warning signs of reaching too far for their bodies. Thirdly, demons are only a problem if you think they will be a problem. It's like the problem with elephants.
IC: Can't speak for the first or the second, not my area of expertiese, but third - I don't mean daemons when I say that Warpgate is worst case scenario. I mean the raw Warpstuff that pours out of one. Daemons at least can be banished, area twisted by Warp remains so pretty much until bathed in plasma or really high-grade promethium. Don't know how you think, but I don't think sane people would feel good living in an area where walls make faces at you, your alcohol turns into spirits and saying "fire" causes you to spontainously combust. I have on good authority that such situations did happen while Arbites tried to give our previous astropath the Emperor's Peace. In general whenever Warp pours into Materium bad things happen. Exhibit A: Eye of Terror.
SolarFlare
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It's kinda whiplashy, honestly. There's a kind of current of "These people are awesome and have cool things" but it keeps undercutting itself with what the author thinks are stealthy jabs at the Tau but might as well be blinking hazard lights.
When I was still with the guard, my abilities were never flashy or devastating. I overheard a lot of complants from the other troops about not only being stuck with a psyker, but a 'useless' one. And it wasn't like I was going to risk trying anything new, because I'd been tortured and had it drilled into my head that if anything I wasn't absolutely familiar with happened, I was supposed to kill myself. Hell of a thing to tell a thirteen year old.
So I was a walking trap detector. And it's hard to get into the right mental state to sense your surroundings when you're constantly afraid that someone's going to kill you if you sneeze or look at them funny. Now after I've found somewhere safe, and made my own life? I can do so much more than I used to. I can help people. And I don't get worse than a nosebleed usually if I push myself.
To pull a saying my mother had, "An engine never catastrophically fails at idle, but if you redline it for too long you'll regret it."
N:
'Heya it's the girlfriend here; I've been with T for... fuck, a while now, and I've also met a bunch of other witches/sorcerers/etc. doing my work. Universally, they are all fine and in control unless there's Imperial bullshit fucking with their head, or they're afraid there's about to be. I've seen horrible warp shit - I've been in and with it too. The worst shit I've seen had nothing to do with psykers. The idea that 'oh it's for the greater good' - like fuck it is. If they were actually that dangerous to be around, then they wouldn't be such a crucial part of the infrastructure. But nahhhhhh church says they're all dangerous - but not so dangerous that we can't use them like fucking tools, not people. Fuck, they show more respect for tools! Can't reload your fucking gun without singing the litanies of armament and dunking the thing in enough grease to burn down a spire, but Throne forbid someone not torture a child for years.
Yeah, years. Every Imperial Sanctioned psyker - even your astropath - was tortured for years before being let out. See anyone be stable and not have any bad days after that. Fucking bullshit. You better not let me find out what planet you're on because unless you defect pronto I'm going to be gunrunning and forging for every rebellion I can find there.'
hellgodsrus
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IC: Okay, firstly what you're describing there are dimensional phenomena? Not 'warpstuff' infecting the environment, honestly - really it is more like you're infecting the area of the Warp that is temporarily overlapping with you. I know you won't have access to these texts (and that the majority of actually useful literature on this subject isn't human; still, I'll try to restrict myself to recommending human works), but for a detailed description of the veil and breaches to it - both from spacecraft and from psykers - you want to read A Layman's Analysis of Dimensional Barriers by Sterling, Sterling and Brown, and Passing Through the Eye of the Horizon by Eisner and Anderson (the latter is rather too poetic for my tastes, especially the biographical sections, but it does describe a grand state failure manifestation, which is what it sounds like you're trying to describe). Both are pre-Imperium, but -
Secondly that happens with poorly trained psykers, and can also simply happen due to concentration of sophonts with a connection to the Warp (i.e., almost every species of sophont) in high enough vicinity all thinking the same thing - see, the Eye of Terror.
Thirdly, you're happy to praise it when calling it a blessed miracle of the Emperor. Manifestations are usually negative because the psyker is aware they've fucked up if properly trained; if improperly trained like most Imperial Psykers their whole beings are in a constant state of stress and fear and that's what drives the manifestations negatively. Train your psykers properly, and don't treat them like garbage, and this wouldn't happen.
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IC:
Naively, it would seem prudent to bring such hardware along on an assassination or sabotage mission. Certainly seems preferable to bringing along things like trumpet fanfares or giant flashing signs saying "DANGER, ALIEN INFILTRATORS HERE." Reminds me of Galactic Man's greatest joke, the Litany of Stealth!
Or is the question why the Tau would bring along a particularly large and advanced kind of stealth armor for the mission? I don't know. If you've got light-medium armor that can come along on a stealth mission, then the question is really "why do the Tau think it's a good idea to have armor support on a mission like that." Is that what you were getting at?
Is the problem that the Tau brought a stealth along on their mission, or that they brought a suit?
So maybe the idea really is impressive to them, as it has long since been forgotten.
I recall what documentation I've seen of the Emperor's supposed behavior in life. And, more specifically, how he behaved towards those who had made alliances with other species, but who he believed properly belonged to Man.
If I am not mistaken, it might be more prosocial to reconsider that prayer. It sounds a bit like praying to Gork or Mork on behalf of someone who desires peace and quiet.
Leave them miserable, psychically vulnerable, and in no state to decide when they should disengage for their own safety's sake because they are valued only as an instrument and seen as 'broken' if they refuse to perform their functions, and you'll have an Anomaly crisis on your hands in short order.
Does Galactic Man possess the concept of "self-fulfilling prophecy?"
I will figure out what elephants are later.
I may be misunderstanding here, but I gather these stealth suits are surprisingly difficult to find for walking gun platforms. That they are liberally slathered in invisibility devices, jamming systems, decoy generators, and so on.
Naively, it would seem prudent to bring such hardware along on an assassination or sabotage mission. Certainly seems preferable to bringing along things like trumpet fanfares or giant flashing signs saying "DANGER, ALIEN INFILTRATORS HERE." Reminds me of Galactic Man's greatest joke, the Litany of Stealth!
Or is the question why the Tau would bring along a particularly large and advanced kind of stealth armor for the mission? I don't know. If you've got light-medium armor that can come along on a stealth mission, then the question is really "why do the Tau think it's a good idea to have armor support on a mission like that." Is that what you were getting at?
Is the problem that the Tau brought a stealth along on their mission, or that they brought a suit?
From what I've seen so far, I get the sense that Galactic Man hasn't developed meaningfully new weapon platforms within living memory, because replicating a pre-existing weapon system generally works better given their current state of technological decay.
So maybe the idea really is impressive to them, as it has long since been forgotten.
Do Space Marines no longer eat brains? We gathered they eat brains. Is this not a thing?
I would expect it to depend on what the anomalous entity one is praying to would be likely to do to the person one is praying for, if it caught them with its undivided attention.
I recall what documentation I've seen of the Emperor's supposed behavior in life. And, more specifically, how he behaved towards those who had made alliances with other species, but who he believed properly belonged to Man.
If I am not mistaken, it might be more prosocial to reconsider that prayer. It sounds a bit like praying to Gork or Mork on behalf of someone who desires peace and quiet.
Better safe than sorry. I'm sure you'll agree, right?
Again, I'm not expert, but I've gotten the impression that many of the defenses which minimize the risk of such detonations involve protocols that prioritize a psychic's safety, general well-being, and emotional integration, often at the expense of their theoretical utility to the institution they serve.
Leave them miserable, psychically vulnerable, and in no state to decide when they should disengage for their own safety's sake because they are valued only as an instrument and seen as 'broken' if they refuse to perform their functions, and you'll have an Anomaly crisis on your hands in short order.
Does Galactic Man possess the concept of "self-fulfilling prophecy?"
It is good to find a non-Xfftonian kindred spirit.
I will figure out what elephants are later.
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IC: I probably shouldn't be writing this according to regulations, but I'm glad you got better wherever you are. I don't envy the psykers' situation.
N: To my knowledge, psykers are critical part of Imperial infrastructure because Imperium has no other way of achieving interstellar communication and Warp navigation. Maybe there are, some sort of archeotech or xenotech, but even if there is, it's probably irreplaceable or costs more than an Imperator Titan. Whatever method T'au are using seems to have trouble working at greater distances - for all their development, T'au empire is small, but dense area of galaxy, so whatever works for them might be impractical at scale of Imperium.
I genuinly wish there was a way, because from what I know the Warp is that dangerous in ways completely disconnected from psykery. It's just incompatible with normal universe. And, if I'm being honest, for all the horrors of Imperium, genuine malice is quite rare, at least in the upper echelons of Administratum and government I saw. For the most part it's combination of incomplete or misleading information, systemic inertia and cost calculation - not evil, but pragmatic. If there were ways to keep the imperium running at lesser human cost and comparable material cost, many would do so, even if just to save on paperwork.
OOC: I hope I'm not coming across as too obstinate. I personally just don't like the "Imperium is cartoon villain" trumpeting anymore than "Chaos/Ork/Necron/anyone is cartoon villain", I find them more impactful and more horrifying if they're written as "the galaxy is such a madhouse that Imperium can't survive without atrocities" rather than "Imperium commits atrocities for lulz". I would die on that hill, even if canon says otherwise. That's why my IC voice is middle-rank Administratum scribe that may know more than average due to all the paperwork he works with, but still approaches things from perspective well immersed in Imperial POV. He would be just as disgusted with bad stuff done for no reason (like Commander Chenkov of Valhallan 18th, look him up for nasty piece of IG work), but accepts that sometimes there is no other way. Sometimes he's right, sometimes it's Imperial indoctrination.
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IC:
We've gotten as far as "traumatized psychics anomalize a lot worse than regular ones" on our own, but anyone who's got actual literature on a workable, rigorous set of protocols, even ones designed for the wrong species, sounds like a "I would like to subscribe to your newsletter!" moment down our our end of the scale.
I can't think of any way to pay anyone back for that kind of material, but...
Well, the obvious.
Is there any chance you could pass us those texts? Or, ah, any texts? Asking for an indefinite number of friends with a lot of zeroes on the end.
We've gotten as far as "traumatized psychics anomalize a lot worse than regular ones" on our own, but anyone who's got actual literature on a workable, rigorous set of protocols, even ones designed for the wrong species, sounds like a "I would like to subscribe to your newsletter!" moment down our our end of the scale.
I can't think of any way to pay anyone back for that kind of material, but...
Well, the obvious.
IC: I do find it strange that this author seems to make Mythic the act of choosing one's battle as many a Chapter and Guard Regiment dud just that during the Badab War -then again I hear little of the War from many a Imperial- one instance of this I would give was the Tyrant's Legion -that Guard Analog raised by Huron a few decades before the War began- although it could be the fact that this game doesn't really show this idea all that much. For instance the Lamenters Chapter was famed for it's skill in Naval boarding actions, our comrades the Mantis Warriors could wage an asymmetrical war against a numerical superio and well equipped enemy -they even did just that against the Fire Hawks and Carcharodons. Perhaps it is simply propaganda or a marketing tool, although I feel it does a disservice. On the matter of equipment I am perhaps not really best sent to give an unbiased picture as while I could complain about the number of malfunctions certain pieces of tech have suffered, although that equipment was still rather sophisticated. I can not say from my own past why happiness is, for a great deal of time it was service my life for the Emperor and killing in his name. Now I feel adrift I'm still aboard this Destroyer perhaps I join the fight against the Tyranids from what I have gathered a Blackshield would gather little attention. Maybe I'll move toward to Enclaves for a time I need to think.
Sister Vandire -or Felicity rather- this last bit is for you specifically. I have in past stood where you stood now perhaps not exactly but near at least. The first truth I would urge you to realize is thus the Emperor is not the Imperium and he as not been the Imperium in almost ten thousand years. There is more I would wish to say but will keep it at that for now I hope you enjoy you trip, may comrades always have stalwart arms.
Firstly the word is Chapter, second The Omophagea or the Remembrancer was not produced with the ideas of Cannablism in mind or not what its maker considered to be so. While it is true that the organ gives the Astartes the ability to experience by consuming specificly genetic material. It also as a duel purpose of helping parse information gained from this. Some chapter either don't use this organ, it as mutated into non-viability in certain Gene-seed stocks, or yes it is connected to the culture of the chapter. Those chapter that too tend to be unfriendly to put it mildly towards to wider Imperium not traitor at least not all but some have a habit of becoming traitors as the Imperium understands -that being generally hostile and attacking whomever they please- rather then simply leaving.
Sister Vandire -or Felicity rather- this last bit is for you specifically. I have in past stood where you stood now perhaps not exactly but near at least. The first truth I would urge you to realize is thus the Emperor is not the Imperium and he as not been the Imperium in almost ten thousand years. There is more I would wish to say but will keep it at that for now I hope you enjoy you trip, may comrades always have stalwart arms.
most - but don't your Astartes practice cannibalism? Both for tactical purposes given their ability to gain the memories of the dead (via the so-called 'Omophagea' organ; creative name
Firstly the word is Chapter, second The Omophagea or the Remembrancer was not produced with the ideas of Cannablism in mind or not what its maker considered to be so. While it is true that the organ gives the Astartes the ability to experience by consuming specificly genetic material. It also as a duel purpose of helping parse information gained from this. Some chapter either don't use this organ, it as mutated into non-viability in certain Gene-seed stocks, or yes it is connected to the culture of the chapter. Those chapter that too tend to be unfriendly to put it mildly towards to wider Imperium not traitor at least not all but some have a habit of becoming traitors as the Imperium understands -that being generally hostile and attacking whomever they please- rather then simply leaving.
hellgodsrus
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IC: I'm not sure - you value your species' security and independence highly and while I'm relatively positive to all but two alien races, I'm but a humble bonesinger and teacher; I don't sit on the council that guides the Craftworld. It's entirely possible if we make contact beyond discussions here that the contact will be traced and bring trouble to your door, or that we'll be the trouble ourselves - it's been only a few millennia since Iyanden gave up on their imperial ambitions, to be frank, and given how things have been going the past few dozen centuries there is now a reasonably strong reactionary movement trying to push for that time again.
That being said there are some relatively uncensored libraries of information available through this communications network; they can be a little tricky to find and (for human sources) tend to move around a lot. If interested, message me and I will grant you access to a few, and upload some seminal, Peak-era texts on various matters as well.
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IC:
It's been a while, had to deal with a Pirate Attack on the convoy I'm in. They weren't particularly smart Pirates, since, well, Convoy Full of Guardsmen, but at least the Navy Boys broke out the Good Stuff for successfully capturing several new vessels for the fleet.
Even got to watch as the Astartes Captain singlehandedly slaughter his way to the Command Deck to splatter the Pirate Captain, and like, 3/4ths of the Bridge Crew.
Astartes Terminator + Fancy Shield + Big Ass Power Hammer is something that I wish I had the benefit of far more often.
Looted some shit and traded it to the Cog Bois for some usability of my gear, (And finally got my Carapace Armor fitted properly.)
The Xenos are deserving of respect, as they're just as willing to fight and die for what they believe in as any Human.
Vior, specifically, deserves a *hell* of a lot of respect for putting up with your blind fanaticism. That's a *lot* to put anyone through.
Nobody wants to have a Psyker Pop and start spewing Warp Fuckery everywhere.
The sheer amount of times my regiment's gotten a new Battle or Wyrdvane Psyker and I had to teach them basic tricks to not Suddenly Explode is honestly depressing.
The Guardsman's Essential Primer lists the Litanty of Stealth in its pages, but if you search for it in the actual booklet, you won't find it. This is intentional, because the idea the writers had was that Guardsmen would realize that the Lintany of Stealth = Shutting the Fuck Up.
It's been a while, had to deal with a Pirate Attack on the convoy I'm in. They weren't particularly smart Pirates, since, well, Convoy Full of Guardsmen, but at least the Navy Boys broke out the Good Stuff for successfully capturing several new vessels for the fleet.
Even got to watch as the Astartes Captain singlehandedly slaughter his way to the Command Deck to splatter the Pirate Captain, and like, 3/4ths of the Bridge Crew.
Astartes Terminator + Fancy Shield + Big Ass Power Hammer is something that I wish I had the benefit of far more often.
Looted some shit and traded it to the Cog Bois for some usability of my gear, (And finally got my Carapace Armor fitted properly.)
Felicity, I wish to strange you.
The Xenos are deserving of respect, as they're just as willing to fight and die for what they believe in as any Human.
Vior, specifically, deserves a *hell* of a lot of respect for putting up with your blind fanaticism. That's a *lot* to put anyone through.
That's Warp Fuckery, not Canibalism. They could achieve it just as well with a Gene Extractor as with their enemies' flesh.
Generally, Psykers aren't put under a lot of stress, either because it's inhumane or because it's inefficient. It's typically the Church-aligned fuckwads that treat their Psykers horribly.
Nobody wants to have a Psyker Pop and start spewing Warp Fuckery everywhere.
Congratulations, you've hit the nail on the head. The Imperium has no Proper Training Schools because the only Psyker that's allowed to write anything down is Malacor, (AKA the Emperor's Herald,) and he's been dead for 10k years.
The sheer amount of times my regiment's gotten a new Battle or Wyrdvane Psyker and I had to teach them basic tricks to not Suddenly Explode is honestly depressing.
I'll give you a pass on this since you're an Ignorant Xenos who lives in the Fuck Off Nowhere Nebula.
The Guardsman's Essential Primer lists the Litanty of Stealth in its pages, but if you search for it in the actual booklet, you won't find it. This is intentional, because the idea the writers had was that Guardsmen would realize that the Lintany of Stealth = Shutting the Fuck Up.
SolarFlare
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Yes, being stuck with thousands of needles to where I pass out at the sight of one to this day was definitely relaxing and not at all stressful.
There was another girl who was in the same tithe as me who screamed so much she shredded her vocal cords and had to get an augmetic larynx.
Or being isolated to where nobody talks to you unless they actively need something from you. For years.
Or not even getting flak armor and having to walk through a war zone to see if I can sense buried anti-vehicle mines.
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I said Generally because the Imperium is a fucking mess and Psykers are some of the most tightly controlled parts. Also, as a Non-Psyker, I simply cannot say anything about what actually goes on in Psyker Scholas or the Black Ships. I'm not trying to say that Shit doesn't happen, just that most of us Guardsmen would rather have a Functional Psyker than someone who's only not making our insides outsides because we've strapped a dozen explosives and enough killswitches to make existing torturous.
And I've already made my opinions on that FUCKING REGIMENT abundantly clear.
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We actually know absolutely nothing about Astartes directly, with not so much as bones or jumbo-sized Galactic Man weaponry ever found to suggest their presence. So if you're confident in describing that pattern, that's interesting to hear!
But in this case, the original topic was the Kroot, and from what I've read, the Kroot have some biological function that's closer to the Omophagea than anything else I've heard of- the ability to alter their physical forms by changing their DNA by consuming tissue samples from other lifeforms. I have no idea how that's supposed to work, but if it's unfair to call Omophagea use cannibalism, it's probably unfair to call what the Kroot do cannibalism.
My own supervisors would absolutely want me to err on the side of security, so I appreciate that you're thinking and caring about it too. We'll figure it out; I may want to bounce back and forth between talking to them about boundaries and safe access vectors and with you about the references. I'll send a message when I've consulted with them. Again, thank you.
Well, obviously! And this realization, when combined with the rest of the text and context of the Primer, is, in the opinion of myself and most of my colleagues, the greatest and most perfect joke we've ever seen produced by Galactic Man, yes, that was my point.
Seriously, the only reason it's not a perfect example of the best form of Xfftonian comedy is because we as a species couldn't pay the price to duplicate it. We're not committed enough to method acting as a species to pull something like that off on purpose. And we're too, let's just say xeno, to pull it off by accident in the process of normal content creation.
The note of sarcasm in telling someone to recite poetry with zero words is the feature of the Litany I was reminded of, in my earlier post. Because over here in the Fuck Off Nowhere Nebula (good name, keeping that), that's much of the reason that your army has us laughing about it. It's hilarious. I feel truly sorry for anyone who doesn't get the joke and thinks it's a command to actually chant poetry while trying to sneak up on the enemy.
I surmise that most Guardsmen never actually get the choice. Exactly because Galactic Man's indoctrination programs for psychics are, by design, leaving them impossibly traumatized and incapable of safely regulating their own powers independently before said psychics ever reach the front lines.
Given your career, and cross-referencing to accounts from our own military, I think it likely that you've had the experience of receiving shipments of important supplies that were broken or nonfunctional when they came out of the box. Some mistake in manufacturing, shipping, or storage, yes?
By design, Galactic Man seems to do this to virtually all its psychics. In some cases, someone at the front end may, by word of mouth, be able to convey unofficial (perhaps 'heretical' teachings) that can partially compensate for the worst of the damage. But at best, this is like making Guardsmen file the receiver frame of their lasgun to fit because it came out of the shipping crate incompatible with standard powerpacks. At worst, it's like shipping the Guardsman broken night-vision equipment and expecting them to improvise a fix somehow because it's easier than admitting the mistakes of the supply chain.
Except, of course, that the damage and malformations are not being inflicted on inanimate objects, but on living beings for whom every bit of this is entirely unjustified torture- which is absolutely important here, even if it is not my point.
This is one of the reasons we hope to remain undiscovered in the Fuck Off Nowhere Nebula. Galactic Man has an amazing talent for following this pattern. First, some appallingly powerful individual Man is allowed make an extraordinarily bad choice. Then Man collectively decides to force all of Man and all that belongs to Man, everywhere, for the next several thousand cycles, to spend their lives, either in the sense of "lifelong" or in the sense of "spent like water," pretending that incredibly bad choice was actually a good one. All of Man and all that belongs to Man is then forced to work around the consequences of that bad choice as best they can.
Even if Galactic Man weren't likely to try to kill us on sight, that alone would be a reason to stay away.
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SolarFlare
(Verified Cape)
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N's ranted about this before. Fixing errors is heresy because it indicates the Tech-priests could have made a mistake. Or something like that. Either way, you're not allowed to fix or improve things.
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- They/Their
As a Guardsmen, anything in the Primer beyond Doing Shit (Such as Fortifications
Damn, I was joking about the whole 'Fuck Off Nowhere' bit, but to have found no evidence of the Angels of Death means you're probably Beyond the 'Frontier'.
This is basically 90% of the reason Imperial Guard Units have Tech Priests imbedded into their Command. Even if the stuff comes to us missing significant parts the Tech Bros can often either improvise fixes, or construct replacements for the broken components.
This is depressing how close to accurate this is. However, more often than not, it's not a Mistake, it's Politics, Horus decided that he didn't actually want to be the Iron Fist of the Emperor anymore, so the Guard got shafted over by losing the ability to do Combined Arms Warfare (reliably, depending on how lucky you are during Amalgamation, you might be able to get a couple Tanks or Basilisks attached, that you can maintain through the Requisition Process,) the Church decided to pull a Stupid, Sisters of Battle.
A Primarch got Disappeared by the Emperor because he was a *little* too successful in doing Primarch Things and decided that maybe the man with God-like Powers and a Flaming Sword ranting about how Humanity needs to ensure its dominance over the Galaxy, the Xenos must Burn, and how he's *totally* not a God in spite of the fact that they both watched a Battlefleet suicide Charge a Star Fort after the Emperor Psykically kidnapped the Primarch from halfway across the system might not be the best option for long term sustainability or survival of Mankind as an Interstellar Power.
Ooc:
And thus, a little more of IC!Me (and how they're so knowledgeable about Things Which The Imperium Keeps Hushed,) is explained.
And yes, I am saying that IC!Me hails from a region of space *mostly* peacefully unified, with at least a couple of Xenos Species included, until the Great Crusade came and burned everything to the ground.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
My department could be substantially incorrect about this, but we've had a theory about that sort of thing going around for a while.
We've inferred that this is an example of one of the core social mechanisms used to enforce Galactic Man's social structures on those belonging to Man. The recurring pattern is a four-part internal paradox.
1) Systems, as nominally designed, are utterly dysfunctional.
2) Nevertheless, the pressures of survival demands functional systems.
3) Deviation from the system, or attempts to change the system, are officially forbidden and punishable by ghastly fates.
4) Commenting on the conflicts between the above is also officially forbidden and punishable by ghastly fates.
...
Because of the conflict between (1) and (2), surviving individuals belonging to Man at every level find themselves deviating from the system. This is enforced by process of elimination. If you belong to Man, and you are not in some way among the deviants, it is because you are among the dead.
Because of (3) and (4), all belonging to Man are thus officially in a state of noncompliance and eligible for ghastly fates. Thus, all belonging to Man are at any time susceptible to being terrorized for any reason or none, under the pretext of the inevitable deviations. Any representative of Man empowered to 'punish' the 'deviations' that every individual and small group has committed simply to survive can exploit this situation in a dizzying variety of ways.
Moreover, no individual (apart from those turned into myths by Man's hagiogenesis, usually posthumously) is ever truly "innocent" of deviation by official standards. Thus, any atrocity or, importantly, simple error on the part of Man or an individual Man can be made to appear inconsequential. There will always be the rationalization that the victims senselessly destroyed by Man's actions "were no living saints" or something of that nature.
...
The extraordinary horrors you were subjected to would, to most of my department, be an extreme example of this pattern in action, of course. Once again, my earnest sympathies. We of the Fuck Off Nowhere Nebula may be alien to your species of origin and decidedly Anomaly-averse, but we are not made of stone, at least metaphorically.
?
Astartes are both few in number and spectacularly busy. As such, I infer that they are not prone to pleasure cruises through poorly charted and inconsequential regions of space with no strategic value.
It is possible that Astartes have come through the Fuck Off Nowhere Nebula on missions, either before our emergence as a starfaring race or without our knowledge, and having done so have come to grief, but that the artifacts were destroyed beyond recognition, or that we have not found them.
It is possible that Astartes have simply passed through our region of space, accomplished their mission, and gone elsewhere without our knowledge. I gather that the Astartes often succeed in their undertakings, and seldom see a reason to ask unknown aliens for a permission slip. There might be little enough for us to see if we came upon the scene of their deeds many cycles later. I surmise that many Astartes, when successful in battle, may take steps to salvage their equipment and the bodies of their dead, as both are treasures of high practical and sentimental value.
There is a third possibility, but I shall observe the Litany of Silence regarding it. As one who both mastered and performed in the ongoing creation and renewal of this greatest Galactic joke, you may well be able to deduce the nature of the possibility.
[insert sigil indicating amused hinting benevolence here, I believe a 'wink' is the most common example in the literature]
[Okay, something is wrong with my interface, it refuses to display even standardized emotional sigils. Improvising...]
; v }
[Something like that]
See my remarks above. You belong to Man. As such, by extension, Man forbids you to deviate from Man's templates for your existence, while forcing deviation upon you if you are to live. Man then benefits from the advantages of having a pre-made pretext for your destruction at any time, for any reason.
This is one of the bedrock political meta-structures which has allowed Man to maintain rigid internal politics, with few true changes or upheavals, for thousands of cycles.
That, or our best xenopsychologists and political theorists are wrong, of course. It has happened before.
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- Pronouns
- They/Their
Ooc:
Shit, SV ate what I wrote.
IC:
Sorry, Archeotech Tablets sometimes get a bit... *testy*, and this one apparently decided to not keep what I wrote down.
Here's the rest:
"And maintaining your gear) is outright either falsehoods or propaganda, such as 'Orks are easily startled and shockingly frail' and my personal favorite 'Tau are physically incapable of matching a Guardsmen's physical might' since, yeah, they don't have to when they can simply blow a hole through your torso with their guns"
There are at least 4 Chapters (Orthodox Groupings of Space Marines, though most Chapters don't follow this via various Work Arounds, like the Black Templars always being On Crusade, or the Ultramarines having what seems like 7 times as many Successors than literally every other Space Marine type combined,) that I know of whose entire job is to range out from Imperial Space to go Pillage and Burn everyone else's shit, and that's just off the top of my head, I'm sure the Administratum Scribe in the Thread would have a far more accurate idea.
Close, assuming Humanoid structure, it should look more ;^), or : V if it's supposed to be a sarcastic joke.
- Location
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Unsurprisingly given that Man has published at least trillions of copies if not quadrillions in the course of galactic history, we became familiar with the full text of the standard Primer relatively early on. Even then, we'd encountered the Greener Bastards. This cross-check gave us a rough sense for how accurate we could expect the rest of the document to be.
Stipulate that there are ten chapters of Space Marines, subdivided into roughly a hundred company-strength task forces, constantly roaming the galaxy on deep space hunts for they know not what.
Given the remarkable speeds anomalous space drives are capable of when benefiting from some of Man's advantages, and given a very long time to hunt, we may imagine these roving bands of enhanced warriors visiting many worlds in a cycle, and they have had thousands of cycles in which to do so.
And yet.
From various lines of evidence, we conclude that there are something on the close order of 200,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy.
They can't be everywhere.
- Location
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Sister Vandire:IC: ... well! I will save much of my commentary on the contents to say that I wish you well in your journey into T'au space; when not shooting at one with Broadsides (which are monstrous hard to fight when properly entrenched and when you had no idea they were setting up position until they're bombarding your lines) or hurling insults about the blood on your hands at you they are a lovely society. If you do decide to join, I hope you do keep in touch - they can be somewhat restrictive about external communication that's not approved by the Water Caste.
Not to contradict you - I am not fond of most 'Sisters' but you seem less awful than most - but don't your Astartes practice cannibalism? Both for tactical purposes given their ability to gain the memories of the dead (via the so-called 'Omophagea' organ; creative name
Nonsense and drivel. Firstly, try not keeping your psykers under such ridiculous stress, calling them witches, or sending them off to have their souls 'seared' by your Emperor to sanction them. All these things are more likely to result in higher control and stability. Secondly, proper training schools - rather than hokey religious bollocks - will help them recognise the warning signs of reaching too far for their bodies. Thirdly, demons are only a problem if you think they will be a problem. It's like the problem with elephants.
I wouldn't know whether any Space Marines eat the dead. I try not to think about it. Oh, and I know Ynathe. She wouldn't defect to a society that wouldn't let her publish her writing. She thinks of herself as a multi-talented woman. I'm not sure if you really "get" the problem with demons. Thanks for me not being the most insufferable Sister of Battle out there.
I think the danger of the Immaterium is often profoundly overrated. It's typically strange more than actually horrifying. That said, yes, we know how to deal with these problems. It isn't a very big hole.
They...They told you to kill yourself if your psyker powers acted out? That is...totally and completely repulsive in every single sense. I cannot imagine a more cruel, unempathetic thing to say to any being, let alone a child.
I also found the whiplash confusing.
Oh, and good afternoon, N. My name is Ynathe Azuuza, Succubus and Wych of the Dark Eldar. It's a pleasure to meet you.
Sister Vandire:
I try to be respectful here, but don't you dare threaten my life. I don't come here to fight, I come here to talk and to learn. If you get so much as twenty feet from me with malicious intent, I will burn your heathen skin off. I don't say that as a Sister of Battle, I say that as a human being. Oh, and my astropaths have been fine, thank you very much. Not everyone suffered as badly as T did. We aren't comic book villains.
I am extremely confused by all of this, truthfully.
OOC: I try to write Sister Vandire as someone basically reasonable, yeah. The Imperium is a shitty dictatorship, and it absolutely is doing a lot of unethical things, but I tend to write the Imperium as being closer to Stalinist Russia than Nazi Germany. It's a horrifying totalitarian panopticon, but it's at least functional enough and there are decent people who work for it. Even some of the true believers are well-meaning people. It's a place where Psykers are often tortured, but where many planets are the kind of place you can relax and play a wargame on in between fairly safe work. It's far from Heaven, but I don't want the Imperium in this AU to be one-note villains. The idea is that every faction's people (save perhaps the Nids and such) are basically redeemable, and conflict comes less from some being obviously evil and more that people just have very different, conflicting perspectives. At least, that's what I'm going for.
Sister Vandire:
...I think I need some context, here. Tell me your story.
Ah, the glory that was once Iyanden. How things have changed. Reaction is always a threat, mindless as it is. What glory do these reactionaries seek to reclaim, and by what method?
Sister Vandire:
...I just didn't want to lose Ynathe. Oh, and I know the Xenos are willing, but the right actions to bring about the wrong cause are still harmful. About blind fanaticism, isn't that just faith? I'm confused.
Yes, being stuck with thousands of needles to where I pass out at the sight of one to this day was definitely relaxing and not at all stressful.
There was another girl who was in the same tithe as me who screamed so much she shredded her vocal cords and had to get an augmetic larynx.
Or being isolated to where nobody talks to you unless they actively need something from you. For years.
Or not even getting flak armor and having to walk through a war zone to see if I can sense buried anti-vehicle mines.
Sister Vandire:
I prayed to the Golden Throne today that your pain might cease. I hope it helps. That's all miserable.
Are you hiding from the Imperium?
SolarFlare
(Verified Cape)
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N: I wasn't talking to you, but the same thing I said goes. You'd have the right to defend yourself, but if you think I'd countenance T receiving any abuse or hatred, or anyone like her - she's the one, unalloyed good thing I've ever fucking done or been part of. The fact that he was just smugly acting like the Astropath he was talking about had ever been happy in their entire life - that you act like yours can be well after Sanctioning - that the one who had acid ready to vaporise their skull was somehow safer -
Then I wish you luck trying to burn me before my rounds and sword find your heart.
Also, hey Ynathe, sorry we're introducing ourselves with me threatening your friend/girlfriend/whatever. You seem like a nice person. Sorry about having fought xenos before this.
T: Yeah, she was talking about the guy whose regiment turned someone into a voxcaster made of meat. And honestly it's hard to trust anyone when you know they're not too far away from killing you at the slightest sign things might go wrong.
And the throne had nothing to do with my life stopping being painful. In fact, it tried very hard to end my life right before it actually stopped being such. ...I mean, there's good pain and bad pain, but that's also not something to get into here.
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Sister Vandire:
I don't want to abuse anyone. Oh, and mine wasn't Sanctioned. Sanctioning isn't a universal process. The Imperium's bureaucracy and specific instruments vary wildly depending on territory and subgrouping. The Sanctioning process isn't always mandatory. I know that can be hard to believe, to imagine an Imperium that really is able to see "only war", but we're a complex society like any other. Do you think I like hearing about the voxcaster horrors? No, of course not! It's unconscionable!
But if you think the Imperium of Man is any more cruel than the Grey Knights, the Kabal of the Last Hatred, or the Fourth Sphere Fleet, well...
You just wouldn't be right.
Felicity, she has undergone a nightmare and a half? Why are you so insistent on poking at her wounds?
Sister Vandire:
I'm just trying to clear up some misconceptions. I'm sorry that I lost it. The Chaos cultist doesn't deserve me picking at her. That's on me. I'm genuinely sorry, and if there's anything I can do for her to make her feel better...
IC: I was born Heraen Tamar, in my youth I became an Aspirant for the Lamenters Chapter. For much of that time I fought the enemies that the Imperium demanded I fight some were true -those groups of Orks that raided civilized worlds, combat against pirates that targeted civilian shipping, etc.- most where not truly worth it. I would ascend from a scout to join the brotherhood during the Crusade of Wrath -that conflict which saw elements of the Maelstrom Warders engage in a series of campaigns into the systems near the Maelstrom- joined in this conflict was the Black Templars. I as previously note in other data entries from myself a ardent believer I killed for the Imperium as if it where killing for the Emperor himself. This would last until the end of the Crusade, I was party to the growing tension Between the Maelstrom Warders and the Adminisratum. I won't go into particular's what I would say is that which was true, the Maelstrom Zone was not part of the Imperium closer to a protectorate then a official sector, not granted the right of defense by Imperial Forces but obligated to pay for the upkeep of the Imperial Warmachine. Huron would declare the Articles of Just Succession citing the privileges granted to the Astartes by the Emperor. During the conflict I spent my time becoming an Apothecary a healer of my brothers and a I admit shamefully lesser extent healing other from outside my chapter. I saw much that challenged my beliefs in the Imperium although those would not truly come to anything before the Battle of Badab Primus and the obliteration of the planet. These things where not done by the Emperor no command for this was uttered from his lips rather it was the choice of the Administratum to make an example of what they saw as a threat to their power extinguished by Bolt, Las-shot and all other myriad of tools available to it's military formations. The War a slow tear down of all we -the Warders- had built at the hands of the bronze clad fists of the Minotaurs. This War which saw astartes fight astartes whom where both loyally to the Emperor -For all the Huron know is not an Imperial during the War up until it's end he ardently believed he was ordinaries to civilize the Maelstrom- the enemies the Imperium fought whee one's of their own design. When it was over though no one could be said to be happy the Maelstrom Zone was practically wasteland, the Karthago Sector -whoms lords first engaged hostilities- was decapitated of its leadership. The only real winners of that conflict was the Inquisition, whom secured much commendation for their work never mind the man whom over saw it was practically disappeared a decade or so after the conflict ended. My point is the Emperor in his life perhaps had vision for a better future -I truly don't know- but he has not been on the tiller of the Imperial Ship for over hundred centuries. In his steed humans have governed the Imperium and humans like all sophonts are prone to fault. So I would ask for now not to sound hostile consider that divided between Emperor and Imperium and that loyalty to one does not require loyalty to the other.
OOC: I really need to like note down somewhere to rough story beat I have for this character like as an Arc. writing this out has kinda give me a plot bunny I may play with. I am really enjoying this AU, can't wait for the next installment.