Don't forget that the Mechanicus blesses stuff so it works properly. So that probably cancels out the bad vibes.
Sterbelicht - One Sacrifice At A Time Against The Galaxy (40K)
- Thread starter HeroCooky
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi
- Pronouns
- They/Them
...and literally all of them are bad.
The Imperium differs across its various worlds in the kinds and texture of the badness, but not in the badness. There's no system of, "I'll kill and torture a criminal and use them as a slave" that doesn't in fact lead to people who don't deserve it getting servitorized, because Ted Fucking Bundy probably doesn't fucking deserve it as opposed to just death.
Let alone, say, desperate Underhive criminals trying to make their way in a literal hellhole, or etc, etc. Or people who wind up with heavy debts, which we know canonically does in fact get you sent to actual slave labor concentration camps or, alternatively, being burned alive or servitorized or a half-dozen other horrific fates.
Maybe? The Mechanicus itself is made of bad vibes 95% of the time. Like from an outside perspective their vibes are immaculate (Reject the Flesh, Embrace the Machine, yada yada), from an inside perspective it's just really shitty and exploitative.
- Location
- USA
I guess Ultramar was never a thing then.
HeroCooky
Unverified Monstergirl
The Chaos one. It serves the Chaos one.
Also, you're vastly overestimating how much the Guard values its soldiers compared to its equipment. You get whipped a hundred times for losing a comm-bead for example.
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I think their Narrative of the Machine Spirits and the Machine god keeps the bad vibes in check, keeping things balanced. Which could explain why the Imperium is still holding on despite all of the shitty things it does.
- Location
- The End of Glory
At first I thought this is a Genestealer Cult option. Kinda vaguely disappointed
sorry need to start checking votes
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- Location
- USA
Vote is closed but that vote won.
Amen
Except they're aren't even dead, pretty sure most servitors are kept alive after being servitorized.
You basically get the Nurgle experience, minus his corruption blotting out the pain, but also add on the horror of being trapped in your own body, incapable of even the slightest bit of movement as other parts of your body begin to slowly wither and rot away from shit like malnourishment and misuse.
Because god forbid we use even dumbed down AI, nope, in accordance with the Omnissiah's will, we take petty thieves and use them as a forced cybernetic slaves.
Nah chief you got it right.
The IoM really is mostly being held together at this point by sheer faith and spite.
Literally the indomitable human spirit, but mostly the negatives and absolutely no compassion whatsoever, it got ejected in to the vast endless reaches of space by Big E during the Age of Strife.
The only reason Big E hasn't flatlined is due to the amount of faith humanity puts into him as their de-facto god, otherwise the Golden Throne would've exploded millennia ago.
Of course, with Rowboat having come back it's slightly better now. Slightly better meaning that at least we now have someone who can actively voice everything players and readers have been saying about the Imperium without it ending with death, tears, or unwanted immortality as a lobotomized clippy. Along wide dragging the whole IoM kicking and screaming in to the light.
I'll have you know that the Imperium values their Guardsmen very much for your information.
Afterall, all of them are future corpse starch rations, so you got to keep them in at least two pieces as to provide maximum nutrition.
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Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
It is at least reasonably canon that Servitors are primarily vat-grown. If only because taking a perfectly good laborer and turning them into a Servitor is usually a step down in terms of reliable value, because at least menial workers can become proficient at their trade over time and be moved around if you need to shuffle your labor force around, while a Servitor is only generally good for dumb labor and doing a Specific Thing over and over again unless being nursemaided by a Tech-Priest, and those are actually too important to spend all their time on that.
The Imperium's got problems, but "Lol we lobotomize a bunch of our people to turn into useless meat robots" is not a default assumption. It can happen, but it's not "Because you breathed wrong" because converting a menial to a Servitor is honestly more expensive in time and material to just shooting them for breathing wrong, when a lasbolt is as close to free as it gets (And outside of RPGs, a lasbolt to the head is generally extremely fatal as opposed to just a likely critical and maybe not even that)
It is--legitimately--considered one of the Worst Punishments that someone can experience to be turned into one, not something that's a default assumption.
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I think for the purposes of this thread we just go with the most literal and grim interpretation of the Imperium just to make overthrowing them more satisfying and avoid arguing about reasonable fanon or contradictory lore that fills in the blanks or corrects obviously absurd stuff (like thousand man slave gun crews being cheaper than having a few dozen guys with hydraulic loading equipment that takes up a tenth of the crew and life support space).
- Pronouns
- They/Them
This feels like it misunderstands some elements that influence Servitorization.
Yes, Servitors are not efficient. But they provide a measure of total and complete control, and people have sacrificed a great deal of actual utility for a sense of control and power.
Like for pete's sake, there's multiple unit types that rely on being Servitors, including a few that are explicitly punishment for criminals and heretics.
Again, a large part of the point of this is that they're... not efficient, because that's against what they believe in. Look at the real world and tell me people won't cut off their noses to spite their face, won't do inefficient and actively counterproductive things because they feel like it must be the right thing to do or it satisfies them. So much cruelty in real life working conditions, for instance, is basically proven to be actively counterproductive and inefficient, and happens anyways because it gives a greater sense of power and makes people assume there must be a good reason for it.
Control and Power are a hell of a drug.
E: As far as the military unit stuff goes: in their final days, the Nazis invented a crazy blend of drugs designed to keep someone awake for a week straight, fed it to children, placed them in poorly made and horrifying mini-subs, and then had them supposedly go around using these to damage British naval forces/American forces/etc.
Not a single ship was sunk and a bunch of teenage and preteen boys died horrible drugged out deaths under the sea achieving nothing but giving hope to a bunch of hardcore Nazis that surely THIS Wunderwaffen would turn the tide. Clearly, an impossible story, because look, that's so inefficient and pointlessly cruel!
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999.M41 - *WHACK*
HeroCooky
Unverified Monstergirl
"HOW DA-" *WHACK* "I'LL HAVE YO-" *WHACK* "STOP BEA-" *WHACK* "0110001" *WHACK* "Re-Starting STC-" *WHACK* "YOU FU-" *WHACK* And so it went, the cheers of hundreds within the large cavernous control room ringing out whenever one of the two Ogryns beating the broken Magos slapped it with their laser and plasma-impact pockmarked slabs of metal they had used as shields when storming the tower. If I strained my ears, I could probably imagine that I could hear tens of thousands cheer alike as they listened to the vox systems broadcasting this spectacle.
One part of me looked at this with a clinical eye and worried about not immediately executing this utter waste of human cells and intelligence, the chance of it pulling out some bullshit technology or weapon to trump our efforts at the last possible moment niggling at the back of my mind.
The other part was right there with the others cheering the two incredibly happy and merrily laughing Ogryns on, whooping and hollering washing over my mind as I extracted my pound of metal from the Magos by participating in its public and messy execution. Too many had died from its hands to consider any mercy, and a bullet would have been wasted metal on it when we had Ogryns to beat it to death as the last living member of the Dark Mechanicus aboard the station.
I knew, logically, that there were more important things to do now, now that we had...we had won. Still something I couldn't quite believe, the chance of failure had been an omnipresent shroud above my head all this time. And yet, here I stood with all those who had listened to my call to rise against our once-masters, masters of our fate for the first time in full. Here I stood among those who had tasted that dangerous drop of freedom that had them hooked evermore and would allow none to ever step back a single time, willing to brave Warp and Chaos with a prayer on their lips and a gun in their hands to see that light on the other side become more than promised reality.
There were a great many important things to do. Setting up a government structure came first, but other things like cleaning out the last of the experiments that fought us, cleansing chaos corruption with flame and song, collecting the dead and giving them one last farewell, repairing the damage, building an army from those who had survived and would take up arms again, and so much more.
Above all but the first would be to figure out where we were, as the last time I had the misfortune to stare out into the inky black void we had been orbiting a sickly planet around a too-distant star. Now we were in the center of a trinary star system, the red, white, and yellow stars staring back as unblinking eyes to an intruder that should not have been here.
*WHACK* *WHACK* *WHACK*
But that could wait. There was a show to watch first.
A New Order Must Rise, Choose Its Form:
[] By Blood And Meritous Heritage
[Dogmatic] - Now is not the time to spur what has worked for millennia. Humanity has long been a species that favored the strong hand over the soft touch, and we require a ruler who shall be able to steer us through the years and decades to come without having to bow to those who would sow discord and corruption. And yet, we must ensure that none who have not been proven by blood of deed and merit of ancestry to be able to rule are ever brought near positions of power. We will have nobility, but one that must strive to prove itself daily.
(Chosen Government: Enlightened Nobility, a feudal system where those with the power are those born into families that have proven their worth, and those who have done outstanding deeds in service to the nation. They rule for life over their appointed domain, though they can be recalled or replaced when needed.)
[] Proven Skill And Secured Futures
[Iconoclastic - Votary] - A singular can be far too easily corrupted and drag us all back into the abyss with their fall. A multitude cannot be tainted in one fell swoop, especially if chosen by different means, and a council with different duties that overlap yet stay aside from one another will see us through the worst and all attempts of corruption and demise that shall assail us all.
(Chosen Government: Oligarchic Council. One seat for the faith. One for the Emperor's Angels. One for the Choir. One for the Civilian Administration. And One for the Military. All will share power, none will be able to drag us all down if they are corrupted, and each will have a different means of sitting upon that chair that will allow them to lead us all. One risen through their faith. Another leading by age. The third chosen empowered to talk for all. One directed by our people's assent. The last guarding by might and a gun behind their head.)
[] Chosen Leaders And Dedicated Caretakers
[Heretical] - No More Masters! No More Rulers! Let the people yell their futures plainly into the void; let them choose from nine leaders every nine years to lead them by consent, one chosen by the faith of all, one easily massacred if they stray from the path that shall see the Star Child born!
(Chosen Government: Autocratic Democracy. One leader is chosen by the consent of all your people and empowered to take their desires and wishes into the future with action and faith. The Imperium has become a stagnant pool of rot; let us change it with hope and burning might born of faith!)
AN: Three votes are done, and two are left before we start the Action Crunch. Now would be a good time to figure out if you want to go for that Zealot Iconoclasm or branch out and miss out on another upgrade to Chaos resistance.
[X] Proven Skill And Secured Futures
- Pronouns
- They/Them
[X] Chosen Leaders And Dedicated Caretakers
[x] Proven Skill And Secured Futures
- Location
- The End of Glory
[x] Proven Skill And Secured Futures
If not going for Iconoclasm means we miss out on major Chaos corruption resistance then no thank you.
Besides, the reasoning for the option was already good enough to convince me to vote for it anyway.
[X] Proven Skill And Secured Futures
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
[] Chosen Leaders And Dedicated Caretakers
[Heretical] - No More Masters! No More Rulers! Let the people yell their futures plainly into the void; let them choose from nine leaders every nine years to lead them by consent, one chosen by the faith of all, one easily massacred if they stray from the path that shall see the Star Child born!
(Chosen Government: Autocratic Democracy. One leader is chosen by the consent of all your people and empowered to take their desires and wishes into the future with action and faith. The Imperium has become a stagnant pool of rot; let us change it with hope and burning might born of faith!)
This is honestly just really fun, and as a system it's easy to see how it could break down in ways that could wind up being more just than even the Iconoclastic version of things. The system as is is deeply flawed and won't work forever... but frankly all three of the systems are really flawed, even if all of them are much better than the baseline. But this one feels like the one where we might leap from it to something unique and interesting and democratic in ways that aren't often portrayed.
[Heretical] - No More Masters! No More Rulers! Let the people yell their futures plainly into the void; let them choose from nine leaders every nine years to lead them by consent, one chosen by the faith of all, one easily massacred if they stray from the path that shall see the Star Child born!
(Chosen Government: Autocratic Democracy. One leader is chosen by the consent of all your people and empowered to take their desires and wishes into the future with action and faith. The Imperium has become a stagnant pool of rot; let us change it with hope and burning might born of faith!)
This is honestly just really fun, and as a system it's easy to see how it could break down in ways that could wind up being more just than even the Iconoclastic version of things. The system as is is deeply flawed and won't work forever... but frankly all three of the systems are really flawed, even if all of them are much better than the baseline. But this one feels like the one where we might leap from it to something unique and interesting and democratic in ways that aren't often portrayed.