Posthumans would be the only way to have named troops in Vedic, as they are (were?) regular people before being assimilated by Aleph. It is not crazy to think they still have some sort of remains of their past selves.
Post humans could work quite easily as a group buy - akin to margot/duroc where your special character proxy comes with X specific bodies.
Ok, look at it this way: Aleph is Legion from Mass Effect, and each Deva/Dakini/Sophotect/etc.. (each aspect) is one of the programs that gestalt into it. So you are a part of Aleph, but not Aleph. As for how the RPG manages that (specially regarding death and the like) I imagine there is no difference between any character, since, given enough money, you can have a lv20 D&D gear for a lv5-6 D&D character. 'course it has! Its just that... the agenda is to keep humanity alive and intact. The how does Aleph interprets it all... is a mystery! XD
Given that humanity has a tendency to dig it's own grave, that can also imply working against humains in order to save them.
My country (Spain) is a clear example of this . But I'll leave politics out of this, sorry for the offtopic.
I had more ecological examples in mind, but i agree. Well, Aleph sure has a lot of work to do :) In my own interpretation (it may contradict the lore, since i don't know the whole lore and it's more a personnal view, you can say personnal propaganda if you like), Aleph is truly and sincerely working for humans. The fact is, humans can't understand it. Humans leaders tends to think as a whole, they talk about nations, countries, global aim ... They don't and they can't understand each individual people and their needs. They see people as big groups because they can't process them individually. Aleph may just be able to do it, and where no way a leader can know each people individually, Aleph can. People say an AI is inhuman and view humans as tools, but face it, it's the human leaders that see their kinds as tools. Aleph can be trully better for humanity than any human leader, but no human can really understand it. And lack of understanding only bring mistrust and suspicion.
You've been selected for the "Posthuman program" What is stated is that Aleph has his/her/its own agenda, which sometimes can clash with what another nation is trying to accomplish, but it could be explained either as your point, or just as Nomads say that "Humanity is Aleph's playground". I, for one, wellcome our female cyborg masters
I think that the "Evolution" of Humanity as a not-suicidal specie could reflect how the Fluff of the Terminator Movies has changed in the various movies (some excellent, some awfully bad, some just "meh !!") along the Years. . . In the first Movies the Skynet thought that a devastated, nuclearized Planet Earth was the only mean to solve the "Human Pest Program" and tried ANY possible mean to solve it; the "Matrix Movies" instead tried to frame that the A.I.s were not averse to use the Humans just as "Living Batteries" but also that the Mental Simulation was useful for the Artificial Intelligence to grow and learn to be creative. . . In the last movie of the Terminator Serie, the subtitle "Genysys" is also the name of an innovative, radically different kind of "Final Solution" for the "Human Problem". . . As the Old Proverb that says "If You Can Not Vanquish Them. . .Join Them !!" is expanded a side-plot of the TV Series of Terminator (the one with "Queen Gorgo of Sparta / Queen Cersei Lannister" Lina Hedley as Sarah Connor) that put some new ideas about Skynet Attitude towards Humanity. . . No more a Genocidal Massacre but rather TRANSFORM ALL HUMANS into Cybernetic Hybrids that will necessitate Skynet to properly function as a new, improved "Transhumanity". . . And it start with Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese in 2015 mournfully constating that EVERY Human walks around with a fucking Smartphone even working and totally co-dependent on it; a rather radical "Cybernetically Integrated Com-Log" will be the next evolutionary step. . . And as We see with the Morats "Shaolin Warrior Monks" of the Daturazi, a new manner of integrating brutally efficacious Martial Arts with "Com Log Suggestions" is the key to imbed oneself in a Society. . . So A.L.E.P.H. is probably planning an Ideal Future were EVERY HUMAN OF THE SPHERE will become, after formative Teen-Ager Years, a fully integrated Posthuman. . . The deal is A.L.E.P.H. does not want to become "More Human", but rather wants to become "HUMANITY 2.0". . .
When i discovered Infinity, Aleph was my very first crush :) And yeah it's a matter of point of view, mine is the way i see and play my army. Thus it's why i had them painted (i dont paint myself, i dont like painting) as more "human looking" than the official painting. Like, even if most vedic troops are tools, they should have a human look so as 1. being able to operate among humans and 2. don't frighten humans too much. The best assassin is the one who looks like anybody :)
Same here. Aleph is my main army. I tend to paint SP troopers with more "normal" skin tones, and vedic troopers with a greyish-purple tone to make them look more unnatural. Also I tend to decorate my Aleph army bases with hexagons cut by hand. This way from afar it looks as a perfect bee-hive structure, but on closer inspection you can see rough edges and things that "don't fit quite well", just as Aleph seems to operate
Oh my point wasnt about Aleph being evil in any way. If I was this super smart and powerful artificial intelligence that has become and essential part to the continued survival and uplifting of humanity I can understand that doing as much as possible to not appear overbearing or controlling is one of its more importnant functions. Nothing is worse for the betterment of humanity than humans getting uneccesarily anxious about this decidedly not human thing influencing their lives.
Totally concur with the idea that many Operatives of A.L.E.P.H. (either for Secret Service Purposes or simply "Everyday Civilian Functionaries") will need a properly "Human 100%" Appearance. . . Is good for the Miniature Wargame where an instant recognition couldi be very intelligent (or at least courteous to Your opponent) but ESPECIALLY for H.V.T. Functionaries of "Big Bro Embassies" (or rather "Big Sistah Places" !!) some kind of better "Organic Flesh" feel is useful. . . When the old, vintage, venerable "Cyberpunk 2020" R.P.G. (from whose personalized Campaign then Corvus Belli "Core Staff" then started the Project more than 10 Years ago !!) was all the rage there were yet "Full Body Conversion Cyborgs" that were an Original Brain + Spinal Cord into an Android / Gynoid totally artificial body. . . But many of them were bulky, cumbersome, heavily armoured "Civilian Industrial Frames" immediatly recognizable for what they were; many of them were heavily inspired by the "Boomer Androids" of Kenichi Sonoda's "Bubblegum Crisis" Manga & Animes, or AT LEAST from "Battle Angel Alita / Gunm" kind of Mechanical Bodies with human-like features "sculpted later" as a sort of "Steampunk Style" reminiscent of Art Nouveau. . . Almost indistinguishable "Pseudo Humans" (clearly inspired by the aforementioned Terminator Movies) that were JUST developed by Masamune Shirow for the first inceptions of "Ghost In The Shell" were JUST the costly, rare, limited usage (Rich Corporates, Assassin / Spy Specialists and Media Stars) kind of "Gemini Chassis" that had anyway just a very convincing "Kevlar Skin" stretched over an Artificial Muscle Frames that mimicked perfectly Human Anathomy. . . When a Player Character had the coveted "Paladin's +5 Holy Avenger" kind of desired "R.P.G. Monty Haul" of attaining a Full-Borg that was NOT a Gemini, the response of ANY in game Criminal Crook / Security Guard / Paramilitary mOp-For to have one of the "Metalheads" walking in the 50m. Range (maybe just carrying home the Groceries' Bags !!) was on the line of: "Fuck ! Even My 7.62mm. Assault Rifle with Armor Piercing Bullets will not SCRATCH that Thing ! Hurry, open the Van Trunk and take out the 12,7mm. Antitank Barrett. . . . .!!" In a similar vein, at least based on the extant Art by Modiphius there are a LOT of persons walking around the roads with TELLTALE Artificial Looking Skin and Violet-Neon Tattoos that will probably cause any kind of POTENTIAL opposition to eschew Pistols, Chain Colts, Light Shotguns or S.M.G. or EVEN Chainrifles or Combirifles to try to have D.E.P. Rockets, Grenade Launchers or even Missile Pods to shoot at the POTENTIAL "A.L.E.P.H. Special Agent" (when they have not A.P. H.M.G., Feuerbachs, Red Fury Guns or Plasma Rifles stashed in the trunk of their vehicle). . . Meanwhile the two companions of the "Android Lhost", an Ariadnan Dogface that just seem an hairy hillbilly and an Haqqislamite Ex Special Forces with ENOUGH "Runihura Biografts" to be effectively a "Crossbreed Between Captain America and Wolverine" will not even be deigned of a second sight (unti is too late. . .!!). . . Instead I believe that in Infinity is rather the norm to have fully NORMAL APPEARANCE for any kind of Non-Military "Heavy Duty" Operative. . . I could swear to have read in some Official Manual that at the moment I don't remember, that Myrmydons of the S.S.S. are rather "Vat Grown Clones" that starts as 100% Organics, (even if paragonable to Olympic Decathletes / Navy Seals AT BIRTH just dripping with Vat Fluids), to whom later are ADDED Extra Cybernetic Implants and even affixed a "Bionic Armoursuit". . . But if You take away any Myrmidon (at least judging from the Female Lieutenant face), or Homeridae or EVEN FRICKIN Achilles HIMSELF OUT from the Heavy Armoured Suits, and dress them in Civilian Clothes then it will be difficult to distinguish them from "Baseline Organics" (or at least Biosculpted Admirers of the Maya-Archives Movie Stars called "Brad Pitt" !!). . . . . . . . Instead the typical reaction to seeing a Person with glowing Violet Eyes of an Ariadnan Colonist or Nomads CIVILIAN will be akin to: "Oooh! A Nice Deva - Asura functionary !!! EAT ARMOR PIERCING (TESEUM) BULLETS, THRICE-DAMNED TIN-CAN !!!!!". . . . . !!!
Try telling this to those Morlocks and Pupniks from the Nomad Nation As the RPG states, cosmetic changes are now quite easy to come by, and almost everyone on the more "civilized" parts of the Human Sphere has undergone at least one change (the one enabling them to silk procedures and the cube installation). Also, being an advanced sci-fi (or sci-fantasy), most things can be explained as "because science allows it"
One of the nice things about the way CB has handled the Aleph story, that it is just murky enough that we can each apply our own head canon about just how it all works. It is a dangerous line to walk in the creation of fiction. We all want to know more, but if they define Aleph's personality and goals more, it may not align with what each of us want. I hope the new sectorial gets the right balance of teasing a deeper story, without revealing too much. From what I read there seem to be two possible sectorials. The Special Situations Sectorial, the blackest of black ops groups, and the Operation Subsection, the more mundane civil servants. In the game of Infinity the Special Situations Sectorial seems the more likely candidate for a sectorial. I still think they would benefit from having no identifiable face, but if for some reason Aleph felt it needed a relatable persona for PR reasons, then the obvious choice would be Sibylla with some sort of Warcor like stats.
Small correction here: The SSS is the Steel Phalanx, the public face and morale improving forces to face the EI, and the OSS is what we're all waiting for, the real Black Ops who do the things that need to be done in the shadows.
No, actually: SSS is Special Situations Section*, ALEPHs own forces - it consists out of: Assault SubSection (ASS) : more visible, initially just promotional but now fully active, military arm of ALEPH Operations SubSection (OSS) : technically just the bureaucrats, servants and security bots but also the clandestine spec-ops arm of ALEPH Support SubSection : technical department * : name is an obvious nod to Special Circumstances of Iain M Banks's Culture series :heart_eyes_cat:
Shame I can only give a single like XD Yeah, "blending in" is kinda the objective anywhere, because the hidden threats are what gets you. As for the Myrmidons, they really have very little in the way of body upgrades, almost everything but some performance boosters are just gear or training... Mind you, they start as software emulations, train (for whatever length of time... measured in processor cycles!), get into a body, train more (to get used to the body), then go to war... The characters have learned to ignore the damage and keep going! Achilles V1 was totally a base myrmidon with a nice, standard myrm suit... but 3 frigging wounds and 2 dermal armor (basic myrm spandex seems to have 2ARM + ODD), frankly I wouldn't mind he losing a wound and getting NWI for a discount of 10 points or so (so the extra wound V2 has could be the HI armor), but I digress (Hector, incidentally, is like Machaon with HI armor, logical since the real value he brings is his mind XD). Ajax is the one that would never "fit in" outside of the military.
Did not remember the specific Designation of the Assault Subsection. . . Now FINALLY I understand why the Spanish Comic Author "Andrewjenshky" (SURELY I mispelled it; will Edit later) had made so MANY satyrical Vignettes that derided Achilles to create the "Jerkilles" Trope (or, based on the Cyberpunk setting rather a "Memetic Virus") and so much uproar to have Thrasimedes appear as a Dire Foes Character. . . . . . . . After all "Jerkilles" is the Posterboy of the "Assault Sub Section"; so essentially is the A.S.S. FACE !!! (Sorry for the childish pun, Could not resist !!). . .
