Respect Your Elders v2 - Galactic Boogaloo [Warhammer Lizardmen Quest]

[gutza1]

Tally:

Adhoc vote count started by gutza1 on Dec 16, 2017 at 2:51 PM, finished with 110 posts and 51 votes.

• ---

  21 people have voted

  [X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan, but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his Oracle Ten-zlati, who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.

  • Ziggydoo
  • obssesednuker
  • longmasher
  • useofstrike32
  • Kairos123
  • Funeral Pyre
  • SouvikKundu
  • always_confused
  • Manatee supreme
  • ctulhuslp
  • aceraptor
  • geolas
  • auduni
  • NSMS
  • Avemap
  • Professor Vesca
  • Hazardine
  • Azurath
  • Speed53066
  • Dragonjackel
  • jamie96969

  14 people have voted

  [X] Mazdamundi - The lord of Hexoatl, and the oldest of the second generation of slaan. Mazdamundi is the most active of his kin, and is incredibly skilled at manipulating the geomantic web to use in geomancy, and boasts a well-rounded mastery of every aspect of magic, as could be expected from the personal student of Lord Kroak. He commands the loyalty of the ancient saurus Kroq-Gar, and will take the oldblood with him if he does not remain.

  • Sinsystems
  • Umi-san
  • EVA-Saiyajin
  • Rungni Khazadson
  • StarkDemise
  • CrossyCross
  • Vyushia
  • MilitaryAaa
  • Kairos
  • wingstrike96
  • Artemis1992
  • Romv
  • Maragas
  • Happerry

  8 people have voted

  [X] Huintenuchli - Once lord of Chaqua, Huintenuchli was left without purpose when the skaven destroyed the city. On the rare occasions when he rose from his slumber, his thoughts were occupied by musings of technology and mechanical research, which is his passion. His magical speciality lends itself well to this line of thought, for he is talented in the construction of magitek devices, enhancing armor and weapons to be more effective, and destroying the devices of his enemies - breaking walls, crushing soldiers in their armor, and causing machines to behave however he wishes. On one occasion he was beset in his sleep by a Norscan Chaos Lord, and was saved by the intervention of the mythical kroxigor Nakai, who he has formed an affinity with in the time since.

  • Mortis
  • Pyro Hawk
  • CritsHappen
  • RookDeSuit
  • No7sHere
  • Korporati
  • gutza1
  • ganonso

  2 people have voted

  [X] Kroak

  • Always Late
  • Aodyssey

  1 people have voted

  [X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - ​

  not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan​

  , but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a ​

  wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge​

  now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his ​

  Oracle Ten-zlati​

  , who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.​

  • DevilsAdvocate

  1 people have voted

  [X] Adohi-Tegha - The lord of Tlaxtlan, Adohi-Tegha is one of the best slaan at reading and interpreting the web of fate, and possesses a potent affinity at wielding magic related to manipulating the physical world - telekinesis, weather control, conjuring bolts of energy and teleportation are but examples of areas he holds a speciality in. In his service is the powerful skink priest Tiktaq'to, who will accompany his master wherever his path takes him.

  • RulerOfNothing

  1 people have voted

  [x] Mazdamundi

  • mcclay

  1 people have voted

  [X] Zaqunda - Steward of Itza, Zaqunda is one of the primary reasons Itza's walls were never breached in all the years since the Great Catastrophe. Spending much of his time amongst the Relic Priests has attuned his essence to theirs, and he is more easily able to elicit their aid, and perhaps even consider a way to restore their bodies. He was chosen to be the first city's steward for a reason - he is unparalleled in defensive magic of all kinds, capable of shielding against physical and psychic attacks on a large and small scale. The great albino saurus Gor-Rok is sworn to him, and will obey any command he gives.

  • veekie

  1 people have voted

  [X] Mazdamundi - The lord of Hexoatl, and the oldest of the second generation of slaan. Mazdamundi is the most active of his kin, and is incredibly skilled at manipulating the geomantic web to use in geomancy, and boasts a well-rounded mastery of every aspect of magic, as could be expected from the personal student of Lord Kroak. He commands the loyalty of the ancient saurus Kroq-Gar, and will take the oldblood with him if he does not remain.
  [X] Huintenuchli - Once lord of Chaqua, Huintenuchli was left without purpose when the skaven destroyed the city. On the rare occasions when he rose from his slumber, his thoughts were occupied by musings of technology and mechanical research, which is his passion. His magical speciality lends itself well to this line of thought, for he is talented in the construction of magitek devices, enhancing armor and weapons to be more effective, and destroying the devices of his enemies - breaking walls, crushing soldiers in their armor, and causing machines to behave however he wishes. On one occasion he was beset in his sleep by a Norscan Chaos Lord, and was saved by the intervention of the mythical kroxigor Nakai, who he has formed an affinity with in the time since.
  [X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan, but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his Oracle Ten-zlati, who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.

  • ScreenWatcher

  1 people have voted

  [X] Mazdamundi - The lord of Hexoatl, and the oldest of the second generation of slaan. Mazdamundi is the most active of his kin, and is incredibly skilled at manipulating the geomantic web to use in geomancy, and boasts a well-rounded mastery of every aspect of magic, as could be expected from the personal student of Lord Kroak. He commands the loyalty of the ancient saurus Kroq-Gar, and will take the oldblood with him if he does not remain.

  • ChiefTurtle117

 

[Professor Vesca]

Changing my vote.

[X] Huintenuchli - Once lord of Chaqua, Huintenuchli was left without purpose when the skaven destroyed the city. On the rare occasions when he rose from his slumber, his thoughts were occupied by musings of technology and mechanical research, which is his passion. His magical speciality lends itself well to this line of thought, for he is talented in the construction of magitek devices, enhancing armor and weapons to be more effective, and destroying the devices of his enemies - breaking walls, crushing soldiers in their armor, and causing machines to behave however he wishes. On one occasion he was beset in his sleep by a Norscan Chaos Lord, and was saved by the intervention of the mythical kroxigor Nakai, who he has formed an affinity with in the time since.

 

[Timewarriors]

so I just went on a journey to the wiki and found something interesting Umbra - Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum that might be useful for us even if it's from a questionable source.

 

[Night_stalker]

[X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan, but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his Oracle Ten-zlati, who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.

 

[Haikeu]

[X] Mazdamundi - The lord of Hexoatl, and the oldest of the second generation of slaan. Mazdamundi is the most active of his kin, and is incredibly skilled atmanipulating the geomantic web to use in geomancy, and boasts a well-rounded mastery of every aspect ofmagic, as could be expected from the personal student of Lord Kroak. He commands theloyalty of the ancient saurus Kroq-Gar, and will take the oldblood with him if he does not remain.

 

[Xantalos]

I suppose now's as good a time as any to yap about this.

There are many beings native to the warp - spirits, beings of pure soul stuff, which coalesce from the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs of ensouled beings - beings that possess a soul. There are an infinite variety of these creatures, but they can be broadly grouped into a few classifications.

First is spirits, the dross of the immaterium. Formed from the emotions, superstitions, and thoughts of most mortals, most spirits are short-lived things, only existing for as long as the emotion that spawned them lasts. For the most part they have no agency - if a child fears a bogeyman under their bed, while their fear will generate one in the Warp, it will not be able to affect anything in the material world. Some of them can get stronger than this, tribal spirits and the like worshiped by small communities that can bestow minor blessings once in a proverbial blue moon, but never more than this.

Second are gods, which span a large range of power, from the gods of minor nations all the way to gods that hold dominion over entire species. Regardless of their power, the defining characteristic of a god is that they exist semi-independently of their believers, and can take action to further their own worship or protect and empower their base of followers. They tend to embody various concepts, ie a war god or a god of the harvest. They can change their concepts over time as mortal perception of them changes, and add or lose domains as their power fluctuates. Gods that manage to claim domain over an entire species tend to be very strong, since by definition they are empowered by anything that species does. They also tend to be multifaceted if they reach this stage, often existing as a collection of aspects or a central being tended to by a hierarchy of lesser spirits that are part of their being, as with the Horned Rat of the skaven.

Lastly, there are the Gods of Chaos. They differ from normal gods in that they embody such broad concepts that they do not merely claim dominion over one species, but aspects of the spirit that all ensouled beings share. Khorne both rules and embodies the hate, anger, and rage of every mortal in the galaxy, for instance. This broadness grants them great power, for any speck of emotion not claimed by an existent god will inevitably wind up in the gullet of a Chaos God. Additionally, they do not rely on external support to maintain their existence - a Chaos God is self-sustaining, and once one is formed it does not have to fear losing power if it stops being worshiped - instead it can reach out across the galaxy and foster the emotion it embodies in the hearts of mortals and grow in power without limit. They are timeless beings once birthed, retroactively existing eternally in the Warp once birthed. This has implications as to whether they could interfere in the material universe before the event that birthed them, but these questions remain unanswered. What is known without a doubt is that they are the enemy of every sapient being, desiring nothing more than to convert the rich tapestry of every soul in creation into yet more of their particular stripe of power, escalating yet further towards the impossible zenith of brute purity they represent. They are so broad as to have no real agency or intelligence of their own, however - their will is expressed through their infinite daemons, shards of their power broken down into essence small enough to meaningfully interact with the material world. It is these agents that they corrupt the species of the galaxy with, each an embodied thought of their patron Chaos God.

I have one additional topic I'm planning to talk about since it'll be important for how the game proceeds, but if you guys want me to give my interpretation on any other aspects of the universe, just ask.

 

[SouvikKundu]

I suppose now's as good a time as any to yap about this.

There are many beings native to the warp - spirits, beings of pure soul stuff, which coalesce from the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs of ensouled beings - beings that possess a soul. There are an infinite variety of these creatures, but they can be broadly grouped into a few classifications.

First is spirits, the dross of the immaterium. Formed from the emotions, superstitions, and thoughts of most mortals, most spirits are short-lived things, only existing for as long as the emotion that spawned them lasts. For the most part they have no agency - if a child fears a bogeyman under their bed, while their fear will generate one in the Warp, it will not be able to affect anything in the material world. Some of them can get stronger than this, tribal spirits and the like worshiped by small communities that can bestow minor blessings once in a proverbial blue moon, but never more than this.

Second are gods, which span a large range of power, from the gods of minor nations all the way to gods that hold dominion over entire species. Regardless of their power, the defining characteristic of a god is that they exist semi-independently of their believers, and can take action to further their own worship or protect and empower their base of followers. They tend to embody various concepts, ie a war god or a god of the harvest. They can change their concepts over time as mortal perception of them changes, and add or lose domains as their power fluctuates. Gods that manage to claim domain over an entire species tend to be very strong, since by definition they are empowered by anything that species does. They also tend to be multifaceted if they reach this stage, often existing as a collection of aspects or a central being tended to by a hierarchy of lesser spirits that are part of their being, as with the Horned Rat of the skaven.

Lastly, there are the Gods of Chaos. They differ from normal gods in that they embody such broad concepts that they do not merely claim dominion over one species, but aspects of the spirit that all ensouled beings share. Khorne both rules and embodies the hate, anger, and rage of every mortal in the galaxy, for instance. This broadness grants them great power, for any speck of emotion not claimed by an existent god will inevitably wind up in the gullet of a Chaos God. Additionally, they do not rely on external support to maintain their existence - a Chaos God is self-sustaining, and once one is formed it does not have to fear losing power if it stops being worshiped - instead it can reach out across the galaxy and foster the emotion it embodies in the hearts of mortals and grow in power without limit. They are timeless beings once birthed, retroactively existing eternally in the Warp once birthed. This has implications as to whether they could interfere in the material universe before the event that birthed them, but these questions remain unanswered. What is known without a doubt is that they are the enemy of every sapient being, desiring nothing more than to convert the rich tapestry of every soul in creation into yet more of their particular stripe of power, escalating yet further towards the impossible zenith of brute purity they represent. They are so broad as to have no real agency or intelligence of their own, however - their will is expressed through their infinite daemons, shards of their power broken down into essence small enough to meaningfully interact with the material world. It is these agents that they corrupt the species of the galaxy with, each an embodied thought of their patron Chaos God.

I have one additional topic I'm planning to talk about since it'll be important for how the game proceeds, but if you guys want me to give my interpretation on any other aspects of the universe, just ask.

Click to shrink...

Maybe you can add emperor's power and limits in this explanation. Is he more powerful than a living korak?

 

[NotteBoy97]

I have one additional topic I'm planning to talk about since it'll be important for how the game proceeds, but if you guys want me to give my interpretation on any other aspects of the universe, just ask.

Click to shrink...

Okay in your universe what are machine spirits? Like are they just Admech superstition, unrecognized AIs, or are they actual spirits that can do things like make a bolter more accurate?

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

@Xantalos
Can the Geomantic Web extend to other planets? Or is it multiple Webs, one for each planet?

Is there any difference in magic-casting/psychic use with no Great Warding being held back 24/7/365, like in the days before the Great Cataclysm?

 

[RLDX]

[X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan, but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his Oracle Ten-zlati, who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.

 

[Always Late]

Khorne both rules and embodies the hate, anger, and rage of every mortal in the galaxy, for instance.

Click to shrink...

They are timeless beings once birthed, retroactively existing eternally in the Warp once birthed.

Click to shrink...

So this covers two very interesting segments of 40k: One, the birth of Khorne in humanity's medieval age. Two, the breadth of Chaos' involvement in the wider galaxy.
40k's always been rather human-centric. Even in the Horus Heresy novels, the extent of alien corruption by chaos during the corruption of the primarchs due to siad alien involvement are... somewhat brushed over.

So to try and make some sense again, I'm rather interested in hearing more about chaos' interest and involvement in non-humans.

 

[Mortis]

So this covers two very interesting segments of 40k: One, the birth of Khorne in humanity's medieval age. Two, the breadth of Chaos' involvement in the wider galaxy.
40k's always been rather human-centric. Even in the Horus Heresy novels, the extent of alien corruption by chaos during the corruption of the primarchs due to siad alien involvement are... somewhat brushed over.

So to try and make some sense again, I'm rather interested in hearing more about chaos' interest and involvement in non-humans.

Click to shrink...

I think that the chaos gods being created by humanity is old lore, they were actually born during the war in heaven due to all the psychic soldier-species the Old Ones were making messing up the warp.

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

So this covers two very interesting segments of 40k: One, the birth of Khorne in humanity's medieval age. Two, the breadth of Chaos' involvement in the wider galaxy.
40k's always been rather human-centric. Even in the Horus Heresy novels, the extent of alien corruption by chaos during the corruption of the primarchs due to siad alien involvement are... somewhat brushed over.

So to try and make some sense again, I'm rather interested in hearing more about chaos' interest and involvement in non-humans.

Click to shrink...

Presumably it came from the fact that the Eldar gods were keeping the non-fully formed Chaos Gods from receiving anything from the Eldar. And between the War in Heaven, the Enslaver Plague, and the war between the Krork and Eldar there wasn't really that much life not held by other gods for the Chaos Gods to nibble on for a damn long time. Whole species had to develop as ours did.

 

[ChiefTurtle117]

Maybe you can add emperor's power and limits in this explanation. Is he more powerful than a living korak?

Click to shrink...

Has to be more powerful than a singular Krork if maybe less powerful than an army of them. The Emperor defeated and locked up the Void Dragon or at least a significant fragment by himself and the various other feats of power whilst keeping the thing asleep, after all.

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

Has to be more powerful than a singular Krork if maybe less powerful than an army of them. The Emperor defeated and locked up the Void Dragon or at least a significant fragment by himself after all.

Click to shrink...

He meant Kroak.

 

[ChiefTurtle117]

He meant Kroak.

Click to shrink...

Whoops, my bad. Though i'd still wager yes to that too.

 

[Nix's Warden]

[X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan, but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his Oracle Ten-zlati, who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.

Oh well this looks interesting. While I would love to vote for my boy Mazdamoney I'm going to have to side with Kroak for this.

 

[Darik29]

[X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan, but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his Oracle Ten-zlati, who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.

Want him around to explain stuff. Also, with him around our focus Will be on figuring out how to revive the Slann. And we have Hundreds of First Gens currently in stasis awaiting revival or death.

 

[Xantalos]

Maybe you can add emperor's power and limits in this explanation. Is he more powerful than a living korak?

Click to shrink...

Meet him and find out.

Don't worry, it'll be explained when the time is right. As for direct power level comparisons ... the nature of their strength is different, that's all I'll say.

Okay in your universe what are machine spirits? Like are they just Admech superstition, unrecognized AIs, or are they actual spirits that can do things like make a bolter more accurate?

Click to shrink...

Machine spirit is a term often used to describe a bunch of different things, often inadequately. There are 2 general things they're commonly referring to when they use that term, basically - some shit from the dark age of technology had VI embedded in it to help with functions - helmets that automatically target stuff in their user interface, radios that try to find the best signal on their own, stuff like that. Secondly is, well, actual spirits. Ever gotten sentimental about an item of value? In warhammer, that creates a spirit of the item in question, which grows stronger the more the weapon/item is used, maintained, treasured ... worship, with a different name. This spirit, if it gets strong enough, increases the effectiveness of the item in subtle ways that shouldn't strictly speaking be possible. It's never on the level of taking independent action - examples of that in 40k are residual VI/AI systems - but stuff like swords being sharper than they should, items taking longer than normal to break down, all the way to a starship stubbornly not blowing up until all its crew evacuate. It's actually somewhat similar to the process by which dawi make artifact weapons, except worse because the dawi have runes and specialized dwarfish tradition to help the process along.

Remember, even if umgi work is high technology from the grimdark far future, it's still shoddy compared to good dwarf work

@Xantalos
Can the Geomantic Web extend to other planets? Or is it multiple Webs, one for each planet?

Is there any difference in magic-casting/psychic use with no Great Warding being held back 24/7/365, like in the days before the Great Cataclysm?

Click to shrink...

At the start I'll be tracking the Web city by city, much like in TWW2. Once you get to multiple planets, it'll take some work to ensure that the planets stay geomantically connected, but after a certain point I'll just be tracking planet by planet as nodes in the web (and then system by system, and on upwards from there) so as long as you keep them connected, it's all one web.

The universe is still corrupted by Chaos, so it's not entirely like it was before the Great Catastrophe, but the fact that you don't have to hold two planet-swallowing warp rifts from eating the world nigh-constantly is a big help for the slaan not being so damn exhausted all the time. Fighting greater daemons in magic duels when you're the mystical equivalent of hungover and sleep-deprived is harder than doing it when you're actually able to keep yourself in good order.

So this covers two very interesting segments of 40k: One, the birth of Khorne in humanity's medieval age. Two, the breadth of Chaos' involvement in the wider galaxy.
40k's always been rather human-centric. Even in the Horus Heresy novels, the extent of alien corruption by chaos during the corruption of the primarchs due to siad alien involvement are... somewhat brushed over.

So to try and make some sense again, I'm rather interested in hearing more about chaos' interest and involvement in non-humans.

Click to shrink...

The Middle Ages thing is old lore, so I don't really hold it as gospel. It's hard to tell when Khorne was born - it could very well have been before the Middle Ages, and then just happened to be when conflict on earth ramped up enough to draw a fragment of his attention.

Chaos cares equally about every mortal race - that is, both not at all and all at once. The reason so much of chaos is focused on humans in 40k is because humans are the dominant species by then, so there's gonna be more human chaos cults than anything else, because GW is imperium-centric, and because of the traitor legions constantly making an effort to corrupt the imperium and such. But in pretty much any psychically-sensitive species that aren't you guys (so everyone) is capable of being corrupted by chaos - even Orks and Tyranids, while they'll never foster cults or whatever, can be mutated by various gods and have those breeds survive and propogate themselves. The reason that doesn't happen much is because both of those have inbuilt measures to eliminate any deviant specimens in their ranks, so it rarely gets far.

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

[X] Kroak - The spirit of the firstborn slaan was rejuvenated by the Deliverance - not enough to personally act on the scale of the other senior slaan, but his true strength lies in his knowledge. He retains a wealth of knowledge of the lost might the lizardmen possessed once, and will be able to restore this knowledge now that he is capable of communication once more. He is still bound to his corpse, however, and thus he relies much on his Oracle Ten-zlati, who wields potent powers through his mystical connection to the ancient slaan, as well as acting as Kroak's eyes and ears when need be. If a way to revive dead slaan is ever found, it is no doubt Kroak will be the first brought back, for his resurgent might would be a great boon to the lizardmen indeed.

Want him around to explain stuff. Also, with him around our focus Will be on figuring out how to revive the Slann. And we have Hundreds of First Gens currently in stasis awaiting revival or death.

Click to shrink...

Mmm, I doubt there are hundreds of First Gens. Rather, there are hundreds of Relic Priests in general, from across the generations.

 

[Xantalos]

Mmm, I doubt there are hundreds of First Gens. Rather, there are hundreds of Relic Priests in general, from across the generations.

Click to shrink...

Yep. While the slaan were originally born in numbers I'll list in a few minutes (I have a document that has all this noted down) a lot of those were killed, and far fewer were able to be recovered and made into Relic Priests over the years.

 

[ctulhuslp]

Machine spirit is a term often used to describe a bunch of different things, often inadequately. There are 2 general things they're commonly referring to when they use that term, basically - some shit from the dark age of technology had VI embedded in it to help with functions - helmets that automatically target stuff in their user interface, radios that try to find the best signal on their own, stuff like that. Secondly is, well, actual spirits. Ever gotten sentimental about an item of value? In warhammer, that creates a spirit of the item in question, which grows stronger the more the weapon/item is used, maintained, treasured ... worship, with a different name. This spirit, if it gets strong enough, increases the effectiveness of the item in subtle ways that shouldn't strictly speaking be possible. It's never on the level of taking independent action - examples of that in 40k are residual VI/AI systems - but stuff like swords being sharper than they should, items taking longer than normal to break down, all the way to a starship stubbornly not blowing up until all its crew evacuate. It's actually somewhat similar to the process by which dawi make artifact weapons, except worse because the dawi have runes and specialized dwarfish tradition to help the process along.

Remember, even if umgi work is high technology from the grimdark far future, it's still shoddy compared to good dwarf work

Click to shrink...

Ah.

What happens when two are combined and the VI/AI is worshipped into becoming a spirit? Does it achieve sentience as the particular warpbeing/actually Machine Spirit?

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

Yep. While the slaan were originally born in numbers I'll list in a few minutes (I have a document that has all this noted down) a lot of those were killed, and far fewer were able to be recovered and made into Relic Priests over the years.

Click to shrink...

Your work ethic is to be admired.

Does Kroak's pre Great Cataclysm knowledge extend to "regular" arcane matters, the use of magic and psychic abilities in various and unique ways, rather than just knowing what exactly the magitech is?

 

[Xantalos]

Ah.

What happens when two are combined and the VI/AI is worshipped into becoming a spirit? Does it achieve sentience as the particular warpbeing/actually Machine Spirit?

Click to shrink...

That generally only happened in canon with bigger machines - titans being the foremost example of such.

Your work ethic is to be admired.

Does Kroak's pre Great Cataclysm knowledge extend to "regular" arcane matters, the use of magic and psychic abilities in various and unique ways, rather than just knowing what exactly the magitech is?

Click to shrink...

D'you mean like what spells he knows and such? If so, yes to everything - he was the personal student of two Old Ones, if he manages to get revived he effectively has a godlike specialization in any field of magic you could name. It's just that currently he's still dead, so he can't exercise his powers much, if at all.

Alright, slaan numbers. They were originally spawned with...
250 1st gen
500 2nd gen
1000 3rd gen
2500 4th gen
5000 5th gen

This might seem somewhat overkill, but as the character choice update explained, 40k is metaphysically bigger than Fantasy, so things have a scaled-up impact. Also, the Old Ones knew no kill but overkill. These numbers were severely cut down during the Great Catastrophe - a full half of all slaan died at the outset from the effort of trying to hold the polar rifts shut, and a shitload more were killed by daemons as temple-cities fell. Your current numbers look like this:
1st gen: none alive, 15 relic priests
2nd gen: 5 alive, 46 relic priests
3rd gen: 23 alive, 60 relic priests
4th gen: 109 alive, 435 relic priests
5th gen: 348 alive, 296 relic priests

Rather severely diminished from what you once were.

 

[EVA-Saiyajin]

D'you mean like what spells he knows and such? If so, yes to everything - he was the personal student of two Old Ones, if he manages to get revived he effectively has a godlike specialization in any field of magic you could name. It's just that currently he's still dead, so he can't exercise his powers much, if at all.

Click to shrink...

Mmm, that, yes, and matters generally arcane, fields of research and such. Applying his knowledge of magic to research and development and rediscovery for those mages sunder him who have forgotten/didn't know.

1st gen: none alive, 15 relic priests
2nd gen: 5 alive, 46 relic priests
3rd gen: 23 alive, 60 relic priests
4th gen: 109 alive, 435 relic priests
5th gen: 348 alive, 296 relic priests

Click to shrink...

Interesting. The 5th have noticeably more alive than the 4th, suiting their originally larger numbers, but the 4th has noticeably more Relic Priests.