Waking the Emperor, although it would rank among the hardest things you could do short of taking on the Eye of Chaos, seriously, don't do that, would stand a good chance of getting you an ally who could back up your weak points.
After what happened over the last few thousand years? You'd better believe that guy is fed up by the status quo.
They also had really good miniaturization: Las and plas guns the size of rings ( only one shot but still...) And there were some orangutan looking xenos that were like halo engineers, dumb savant tech wizards that upgraded everything.
huh. I did not know that. could I get a link to their specific race? Cause a seriously miniaturized laser/plasma weaponry could be very useful, even if it is a single use. And for a Commander, well, laser and plasma weapons are fairly common across sci-fi, so you might be able to refine the tech into multi-use.
EDIT: Also, the thought occurs to me, how long would it take our protagonist Commander to get to Terra, in terms of travel time? Cause WH40K is a BIG galaxy, plus Warp drives are screwy inconsistent in regards to travel time.
And does a PA baseline Commander have access to a reliable FTL method? They've got wormholes, but I don't think that translates well (currently) to a ship-based FTL engine.
huh. I did not know that. could I get a link to their specific race? Cause a seriously miniaturized laser/plasma weaponry could be very useful, even if it is a single use. And for a Commander, well, laser and plasma weapons are fairly common across sci-fi, so you might be able to refine the tech into multi-use.
EDIT: Also, the thought occurs to me, how long would it take our protagonist Commander to get to Terra, in terms of travel time? Cause WH40K is a BIG galaxy, plus Warp drives are screwy inconsistent in regards to travel time.
And does a PA baseline Commander have access to a reliable FTL method? They've got wormholes, but I don't think that translates well (currently) to a ship-based FTL engine.
I wouldn't go that far, some of the Eldar's high-end feats make anything we see from the DAoT look rather tame by comparison. Some of it would fit right in with what the Forerunners could do.
I wouldn't go that far, some of the Eldar's high-end feats make anything we see from the DAoT look rather tame by comparison. Some of it would fit right in with what the Forerunners could do.
The Speranza, an Ark Mechanicus class exploration ship built during the Dark Age of Technology, so huge it can dock other ships inside its bulk. Its combat training chambers can have entire small cities erected in them, and are large enough to allow Titans to train alongside infantry and tanks. The Speranza is also host to mind-bogglingly advanced technology an order of magnitude above what the Imperium currently possesses, with weaponry capable of crippling an Eldar warship with one shot in the middle of a temporal and gravitational storm— after first bending time so that its initial miss becomes a direct hit.
Eldar: True, most of the Wraithbone tech may be a bit out of your reach, due to, you know, needing to be a Psyker to make, use, control or do anything worthwhile with it.....
I always found the idea of A.I.'s not having Souls to be complete bull.
If have consciousness, awareness, you are a soul.
Even the Necrons, though they have severed themselves from the Immaterium!
And as there are technologies that can interact with the Sea of Souls, I see no reason why our dear commander cannot develop his potential!
Of course, he'll have to start out slowly and carefully, adopting some of the safeguards and measures others like the Mechanicus or Eldar use when dealing with the energies of the Warp....
I always found the idea of A.I.'s not having Souls to be complete bull.
If have consciousness, awareness, you are a soul.
Even the Necrons, though they have severed themselves from the Immaterium!
And as there are technologies that can interact with the Sea of Souls, I see no reason why our dear commander cannot develop his potential!
Of course, he'll have to start out slowly and carefully, adopting some of the safeguards and measures others like the Mechanicus or Eldar use when dealing with the energies of the Warp....
According to Admach the main difference between Machine spirit and AI is that Machine spirit have no ability to enhance itself, But AI can enhance itself without any human input.
However, some machines are allowed a limited form of independant intelligence under the guise of having an especially active Machine Spirit. An example of this is the vehicles of the Space Marines. The Space Marines' Land Raider main battle tank can continue to move and fire, albeit with lesser ability, even if its crew is unable to fight or no longer present. Imperial Titans have particularly complex Machine Spirits and can exhibit complete personalities of their own, though they still require a cybernetic interface with a human Princeps to function at their full potential.
One such famous tale is the Land Raider known as Rynn's Might that belonged to the Crimson Fists Chapter, which survived the missile that leveled their fortress-monastery. Despite not having any crew on board, the machine spirit fought a solo war against an attacking Ork Warband, killing its Warboss and many of his followers overnight, before finally being destroyed.
Differing definitions of "soul". What you're talking about is the computational definition, which doesn't care how you're built, but in WH40k a "soul" is a particular structure embedded in the Warp. Someone who doesn't interact with the Warp therefore, by definition, doesn't have a soul.
This of course has nothing to do with moral value and so on and so forth. My usual approach, in cases like this, is to ask people to please stop saying 'soul'—taboo the word, and expand the definition whenever used. It usually turns out that different people expand it differently, and then the conflict goes away.
Differing definitions of "soul". What you're talking about is the computational definition, which doesn't care how you're built, but in WH40k a "soul" is a particular structure embedded in the Warp. Someone who doesn't interact with the Warp therefore, by definition, doesn't have a soul.
This of course has nothing to do with moral value and so on and so forth. My usual approach, in cases like this, is to ask people to please stop saying 'soul'—taboo the word, and expand the definition whenever used. It usually turns out that different people expand it differently, and then the conflict goes away.
Men of Iron able to feel emotions, when they saw humans who are completely relied on the them to do virtually everything, they started to believe themselves superior to humans. In the end, the Men of Iron were destroyed by humanity in a terrible war that extinguished countless lives and destroyed the ancient galaxy's economic and political unity.
A Standard Template Construction (STC) fabricator for the Men of Iron was discovered on the Chaos-controlled planet Menazoid Epsilon during the Sabbat Worlds Crusade by Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt of the Tanith First and Only Imperial Guard regiment. It had been tainted by Chaos and was subsequently destroyed by Gaunt after the first two Men of Iron the STC fabricator produced were tainted by the foul touch of Chaos.This in itself may be evidence of what happened to the original Men of Iron. As sentient beings, they could have been corrupted by Chaos and then turned on their creators.
1.) The not-really-there, but animist belief in an animating force of machines, that helps the Machine Cult easily spread/teach/learn important maintenance methods
2.) The animal-level machine intelligence that an excessively large amount of Imperium technology has, due to the way they make their circuitry and their large amount of servitor and biological components in many of their items, or sometimes the primitive VI in lots of their technology, which is often somewhat corrupted due to being a partially complete pattern and has a lot of random and pseudorandom behavior
3.) The warp connections that many machines do actually develop, which can actually be seen by a psyker or with the right equipment (aetherscopes and similar things) that is sensitive to warp fluctuations and power and 'souls', which more complex computers are more likely to develop, which actually are analogous to a biological-created 'soul'
And I'm sure there's one or two others I'm missing...
My Doxes slammed into the enemy like a tide of unstoppable steel, spewing hatred-filled balls of plasma. Every one of the rapid-fire shots meant a melted cluster of enemies, every step meant a daemon ground beneath my giant robot feet. A horde of screaming barbarians, most armed with scraps of fabric attempting to be trousers and a sharp piece of metal or a crudely made autogun, didn't even compare to the types of enemies Commanders were meant to fight. There were a lot of them, though, and they weren't the real threat. They were just the meat shields for the real troops.
Daemons. Warp-borne entities composed of emotion, usually negative; very negative. Khornates were the servants of the god of war and murder. Every act of bloody violence committed in anger strengthened him. Which was something of a problem for me.
I did not consider myself a violent person. I actually tried my best to avoid conflict. I liked making friends much more than making enemies. I'd gotten to the point where even the shittier kinds of people in high school smiled and greeted me with a hearty "Yo Archie! What up?"
But, all the same, I hated Chaos. The sheer scale of its malevolence, the eternal torment of the poor souls foolish enough to follow them, the pointless, unchanging,unendinghell they perpetuated in this fucked-up galaxy; I hated it all so much.
And it felt good to destroy the things you hated. Very good. That was a problem when it came to Khorne, something the Imperium, with all of its litanies espousing the virtues of hatred, had failed to grasp for so long. Humanity was its own worst enemy when it came to Chaos. It was why Khorne had the most power out of all of the dark gods. Humans were so very good at hating, and killing, and all too willing to do so.
I refused to give Chaos an inch. Give them an inch, and they'd take everything, and leave nothing but pain and suffering. Thusly, there was only one thing I could think of that I could do.
'This mustn't register on an emotional level,' the combat doctrine.
I wasn't human in form. Unlike a human, directed by chemical impulses and brain structure, I was a machine. Everything I was, was now so much streaming lines of code. Code could be edited. Hatred was optional.
It was a drastic step, modifying myself like this. But when the choice came down to not doing it, and enjoying the carnage to come, giving even more strength to the strongest Chaos god, or doing it, then it wasn't really a choice at all.
I hoped I was making the right decision. God, I hoped so.
Here goes nothing.
Accessing root personality matrix.
Saving current personality matrix, codename: Prime.
Establishing new personality template, codename: Warface.
Establishing if/then personality template clause: If engaged in combat with the possibility of Chaotic influence, then exchange personality template Prime for personality template Warface.
Deleting emotional matrix 'anger'.
Deleting emotional sub-matrix 'hatred'.
Deleting emotional sub-matrix 'lust for battle'.
Suppressing emotional matrix 'fear'.
Updating primary objective: Preserve the physical and emotional well-being of sapient, non-Chaos lifeforms.
Updating primary objective: Destroy all Chaos forces in such a manner that does not violate the aforementioned primary objective.
Save personality template: Warface.
Applying.
End access.
And that was that. I let out a metaphorical breath. I felt calmer. More rational. The horror of my situation wasn't gone, but it felt a great deal more manageable. Useful as this was, I couldn't become reliant on it. Didn't want to risk irreparably damaging my psyche.
I wouldn't destroy Chaos because I hated them. I would destroy them because they stood in the way of peace. Khorne would draw no strength from battles with me. My machines were soulless, and thus could not be sacrificed. No blood, only metal and circuitry. No joy in battle, only clinical detachment and cool logic. Perfect professionalism.
I didn't hate Chaos, now. I pitied them. From my perspective, it wasn't their fault for being so fucked up. It was ours. The humanity from my world had created it. Games Workshop had designed this universe to be a parody, the epitome of grimness and darkness taken to the most absolute of extremes. If pressed, I could not come up with a setting more messed up than that of Warhammer 40k.
And now it was my job to clean it up. And clean it up I would. I pitied them, yes. But that didn't mean I wouldn't crush them wherever I found them. I had my goal. I would drag this galaxy into a Noblebright future kicking and screaming if I had to.
I watched dispassionately as howling squads of cultists and Bloodletters were vaporized by plasma, each shot calculated for maximum effectiveness with no unnecessary overlap. This ungodly level of multi-tasking made my efficiency of warfare obscenely high.
There were tanks and other daemonic engines of war on the field as well, contesting with the Leman Russes and Chimeras of the Imperial Guard while corrupted Valkyries on strafing runs wove between streams of flak emitted from IG Basilisks. Their plasteel and ceramite frames were holding up surprisingly well against plasma. Well, better than their fleshy infantry had so far. Yoinking imminent, once my fabbots arrive. See what I did there? Fabricator bots? Fabbots? Eh? Ah, whatever.
Daemonic engines of war adorned with skulls and the eight-pointed stars of Chaos trundled forwards into battle, powered by madness and blood and firing munitions of the same. Mortar-like tanks fired arching gobs of the sanguine liquid that boiled with a heat greater than magma at my army. It seeped into their frames and sought to wear away at the joints like acid, but the sturdy construction of the Progenitors held firm, and such weapons found no use against my Doxes. The engines equipped with melee weapons died before they could close the distance. It was the tanks that did any lasting damage. Shots here and there impacted against the armor, denting and tearing in some places, lucky hits blowing off limbs. Immaterial. I felt no pain. My units were expendable.
With Chaos caught on two sides by the armor of the Imperial Guard and my Doxes, the battle, which had promised to be a long and grueling exchange, quickly turned into a rout. Enemy infantry simply couldn't survive in such a hostile environment, with bullets and plasma flying through the air thick enough to be mistaken for walls of death. They were liquefied first. The enemy armor didn't last much longer than that. With the ground clear, my Doxes could calculate the flight paths of the enemy air-power, and they set to filling the sky with plasma as well. It was even easier than sniping Banshees with a Scorpion in Halo.
It was as the last of the fighting was dying down when a tank on the IG side fired a shell at my forces and blew the head off of one of my Doxes. It remained standing. Wasn't like anything important was in there except for the optics, anyway. To a unit, my remaining forty Doxes froze, and very carefully did not point their weaponry at the twitchy Imperials.
I allowed a trace of annoyance to color my tone as I addressed the Leman Russ responsible, as well as broadcasting the transmission across the entire local IG battle-net. <Nice shot, soldier, but would you kindly direct your fire elsewhere? I am not your enemy.>
A hatch on a larger than average Leman Russ popped open and a grizzled man dressed in a uniform that at first glance appeared to be an old-timey set of dress blues interrupted whatever the pilot of the guilty tank was going to say, his gruff, commanding voice riddled with suspicious wariness as he spoke into a hand-held Vox-caster. I didn't blame him for it. <This is Tank Commander Abraham Cook of the 17th Mordian Iron Guard. You say that you are a friend of humanity, but your forces are clearly inhuman in design. What cause have I to trust you?>
Huh. I was more than mildly impressed. He'd asked a question before shooting. That deserved a prize of some kind! Later.
<I have not shot at you. Nor do I plan to. You have no cause to believe me, Commander, and that's fine. Believe what your eyes are telling you now. I could have just as easily stayed out of this fight and let you grind yourself down on Chaos, but I didn't. I value the life of sentient beings as precious, not something to be thrown away. I'm here to help save this world. Please, Commander. Let me.>
Please please please please please be a reasonable authority figure!
<...Fine. But give me a reason to regret my decision, and I swear that there will be a reckoning…whoever you are.>
<Thank you, Commander Cook. I promise on my life and honor, I mean no harm to the Imperium, and I will gladly surrender myself for questioning once all this is taken care of. But for now, every moment we dally is another moment the Enemy is slaughtering defenseless civilians. There is work that needs doing.>
And oh yeah, that's right. I needed a name. It just didn't feel right to use my real name. Drich and the other Commander SIs used their webhandles, but Lazurman kinda, sorta, lacked gravitas. Tiki and Torroar used their Commander designs as names, but that wouldn't work for me here either.
I dialed up the time dilation. I'd probably be thinking about this for a while.
…I was horrible at naming things!
But aside from that, I was ecstatic on the inside. Peaceful first contact! I had my foot in the door! Now, all I had to do was drive Chaos off the planet, and then I could sit a human-sized avatar down with them and we could see about helping each other even more! Yes!
Oh, hey, the base defenses and the reinforcements were done. My new armies utterly dwarfed that first force I'd sent out, with a mix of Doxes, tanks, bombers, and fighters. Now to start upgrading to T2 structures and setting up some orbitals so I can take a look-see at what we got going on up there…
Actually, I've phased out of using Theta as the greater handle and switched to the more accurate 'The Network' or just 'Network' at this point, but I totally understand the concerns about making a good name.
Autochthon, the Great Maker, is a Primordial in Exalted. He embodies the ideas of order, technology and science. His physical form contains the otherworldly realm of Autochthonia, which is home to his servants and worshippers (the Autochthonians) as well his his Exalted agents, the Alchemicals.
Along with Gaia, Autochthon sided with the gods in their war of rebellion against the other Primordials. Autochthon invented Exaltation and gave this secret to the gods, allowing them to get around the oaths they had sworn to never attack their Primordial masters. By the end of the conflict, all of the Primordials save for Autochthon and Gaia were either slain (becoming Neverborn or imprisoned (becoming Yozi).
Following the war, Autochthon left Creation, taking a large population of his human followers with him inside his body, which formed into a vast world of its own. His body is composed of the five magical materials, and is thought to reside in Elsewhere, warded against interference from Creation by the Seal of Eight Divinities. His physical form exists as both the world and god of his followers; the world is distinguished from the personified god by the name "Autochthonia". All Autochthonians are linked to their god by their soulgems, although he does not communicate with them directly. Autochthon also created the Alchemical Exalted, the champions of the god and his realm.
Symbol: Six stylized gears representing Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Starmetal, Jade, Soulsteel, and Adamant
Alignment: Somewhere between Lawful Neutral and Lawful Good
Portfolio: Absolute Mastery of Craftsmanship, Technological Divinities, Sufficiently Analyzed Magic, Being a World Unto Himself, The
Magical Materials, Order and Efficiency, Steampunk Aesthetics
Domains: Artifice, Craft, Creation, Knowledge, Law, Mechanus, Metal
Allies: The Unconquered Sun, Luna, the Five Maidens
Followers: The Alchemical Exalted, the Autochthonians
Primus is the creator-god of the Transformers. An ancient and ethereal being whose origins date back to the beginnings of the universe itself, Primus is a multiversal force for good, his life force existing across multiple realities and infinite alternate universes. In each one, he is the final defense against his fallen sibling, Unicron the Chaos-Bringer.
Primus eventually transformed himself into the planet Cybertron; from its surface, his creations have risen to defend and patrol the galaxy. Within the depths of Cybertron, the mega-computer Vector Sigma serves as his internal mainframe, and a gateway for select Transformers to access his power. A portion of his lifeforce resides within the Matrix, which often determines the leader of the Autobots. Prophecies of a war to come were written down in his holy covenant as well. The spark of each Transformer is a small piece of Primus's essence, and together they form his lifeforce, the Allspark.
Though wise and powerful beyond measure, Primus is neither infallible nor without weakness. At times he has been deceived by mere mortals, has made miscalculations which jeopardized all of existence, and has been betrayed by one of his earliest creations. Indeed, even the intended agents of his grand plan, the Transformers, have all too frequently become mired in endless civil war. Still, in most realities he has managed to hold the line against Unicron and other threats, either directly or through his innumerable children, the Transformers.
" Until all are one! "
—Primus to his children
Destructive Capabilities: Elder God Demonbane defeated and sealed all Outer Gods (except for Yog-Sothoth (Demonbane)) along with evil gods such as the Great Old Ones (beings that existed inside the Shining Trapezohedron). As a result of displaying such power against beings that can very well erase any universe with their power, it can presumably destroy anything that it wishes to in the material realm this would make him High Multi-Universe Level.
Material: Unknown
Range of Operation: Multi-Universe Level
Durability: Elder God Demonbane powerscaling only places him Multi-Universe level.
Maintains access of the weapons of its lesser versions, Demonbane and Mars Demonbane
Athleta Aeternum
Shining Trapezohedron
Lemuria Impact and Ain Soph Aur
Notable Abilities:
Maintains all of the abilities of Demonbane and Mars Demonbane while expressing the ability to rewrite reality, completely control time, and manipulate matter (among other things). A key ability that Elder God Demonbane has expressed before is the ability to create different versions of itself for a wide variety of purposes [citation needed]. For example, due to its lack of limits with regards to controlling reality, it could--using this ability to copy itself--create infinite copies for the sole purpose of fighting whatever the enemy in question is.
Final Clarification: Elder God Demonbane is a fully abstract being that can exist outside of spacetime and reality. As a result of its lack of limitations by the physical realm, it can be considered omnipotent in the most objective sense. With that said, the full extent of its capacity is entirely unknown, but what can be said with total certainty is that it cannot be destroyed by anything of the natural realm, nor any of the other Great Old Ones. Only Azathoth is technically more powerful than Elder God Demonbane because it is the source of the reality that Elder God Demonbane manipulates.
Autochthon, the Great Maker, is a Primordial in Exalted. He embodies the ideas of order, technology and science. His physical form contains the otherworldly realm of Autochthonia, which is home to his servants and worshippers (the Autochthonians) as well his his Exalted agents, the Alchemicals.
Along with Gaia, Autochthon sided with the gods in their war of rebellion against the other Primordials. Autochthon invented Exaltation and gave this secret to the gods, allowing them to get around the oaths they had sworn to never attack their Primordial masters. By the end of the conflict, all of the Primordials save for Autochthon and Gaia were either slain (becoming Neverborn or imprisoned (becoming Yozi).
Following the war, Autochthon left Creation, taking a large population of his human followers with him inside his body, which formed into a vast world of its own. His body is composed of the five magical materials, and is thought to reside in Elsewhere, warded against interference from Creation by the Seal of Eight Divinities. His physical form exists as both the world and god of his followers; the world is distinguished from the personified god by the name "Autochthonia". All Autochthonians are linked to their god by their soulgems, although he does not communicate with them directly. Autochthon also created the Alchemical Exalted, the champions of the god and his realm.
Symbol: Six stylized gears representing Orichalcum, Moonsilver, Starmetal, Jade, Soulsteel, and Adamant
Alignment: Somewhere between Lawful Neutral and Lawful Good
Portfolio: Absolute Mastery of Craftsmanship, Technological Divinities, Sufficiently Analyzed Magic, Being a World Unto Himself, The
Magical Materials, Order and Efficiency, Steampunk Aesthetics
Domains: Artifice, Craft, Creation, Knowledge, Law, Mechanus, Metal
Allies: The Unconquered Sun, Luna, the Five Maidens
Followers: The Alchemical Exalted, the Autochthonians
Primus is the creator-god of the Transformers. An ancient and ethereal being whose origins date back to the beginnings of the universe itself, Primus is a multiversal force for good, his life force existing across multiple realities and infinite alternate universes. In each one, he is the final defense against his fallen sibling, Unicron the Chaos-Bringer.
Primus eventually transformed himself into the planet Cybertron; from its surface, his creations have risen to defend and patrol the galaxy. Within the depths of Cybertron, the mega-computer Vector Sigma serves as his internal mainframe, and a gateway for select Transformers to access his power. A portion of his lifeforce resides within the Matrix, which often determines the leader of the Autobots. Prophecies of a war to come were written down in his holy covenant as well. The spark of each Transformer is a small piece of Primus's essence, and together they form his lifeforce, the Allspark.
Though wise and powerful beyond measure, Primus is neither infallible nor without weakness. At times he has been deceived by mere mortals, has made miscalculations which jeopardized all of existence, and has been betrayed by one of his earliest creations. Indeed, even the intended agents of his grand plan, the Transformers, have all too frequently become mired in endless civil war. Still, in most realities he has managed to hold the line against Unicron and other threats, either directly or through his innumerable children, the Transformers.
" Until all are one! "
—Primus to his children
Destructive Capabilities: Elder God Demonbane defeated and sealed all Outer Gods (except for Yog-Sothoth (Demonbane)) along with evil gods such as the Great Old Ones (beings that existed inside the Shining Trapezohedron). As a result of displaying such power against beings that can very well erase any universe with their power, it can presumably destroy anything that it wishes to in the material realm this would make him High Multi-Universe Level.
Material: Unknown
Range of Operation: Multi-Universe Level
Durability: Elder God Demonbane powerscaling only places him Multi-Universe level.
Maintains access of the weapons of its lesser versions, Demonbane and Mars Demonbane
Athleta Aeternum
Shining Trapezohedron
Lemuria Impact and Ain Soph Aur
Notable Abilities:
Maintains all of the abilities of Demonbane and Mars Demonbane while expressing the ability to rewrite reality, completely control time, and manipulate matter (among other things). A key ability that Elder God Demonbane has expressed before is the ability to create different versions of itself for a wide variety of purposes [citation needed]. For example, due to its lack of limits with regards to controlling reality, it could--using this ability to copy itself--create infinite copies for the sole purpose of fighting whatever the enemy in question is.
Final Clarification: Elder God Demonbane is a fully abstract being that can exist outside of spacetime and reality. As a result of its lack of limitations by the physical realm, it can be considered omnipotent in the most objective sense. With that said, the full extent of its capacity is entirely unknown, but what can be said with total certainty is that it cannot be destroyed by anything of the natural realm, nor any of the other Great Old Ones. Only Azathoth is technically more powerful than Elder God Demonbane because it is the source of the reality that Elder God Demonbane manipulates.
