Has it alreadybeen revealed fluffwise what the Tohaa did to the Aurora*? (*The second ship sent to Dawn, which the Tohaa manipulated to get to Paradiso where they used the humans for biotechnological experiments.) ...or the civil war against the Sygmaa. ...or the Koldinuk. There are still so many chances for the evolution of the Tohaa as a faction!
I hope this will never happens, Tohaa is the only faction that is keeping the CA at bay, and Tohaa has been doing it by its self for a long time and then came the humans, who Tohaa is using as a meat shield. So! I don't see the fall of Tohaa, but as a Tohaa player I will have a big problem with Tohaa becoming part of the CA, because I took the time to collect every Tohaa figure just to be told that my faction is now part of another. If that day comes, I will have to re-think being part of this game.
I started playing around the time of HSN3, so I do not know all the back history, but I believe Campaign Paradiso went into detail about what happened to the Aurora. From what I understand a section of the Triumvirate, (or maybe just the Triumvirate), was looking to find some way of replicating the EI's sepsitor technology and secretly tortured a Digester, (an action which is completely anathema to Tohaa as heralds of the Digesters), in order to gain knowledge from it. Their lab was on Paradiso, and they needed test subjects so as the Aurora was traveling to Dawn the Triumvirate were able to divert the terminus of the worm hole so the Aurora would end up in Paradiso instead. This caused the wormhole to collapse, leaving Dawn isolated from the Human Sphere and the Aurora to crash land. The Triumvirate then began experimenting on the humans with their Sepsitor like device which was more biological in nature and allowed them to control humans without a Cube. The Humans, realizing they were in a doomed situation and unwilling to leave their compatriots in the mind controlled state, lured the zombified humans into attacking the Aurora in mass and then blew the reactor once they were close enough. At the same time a small contingent mounted a suicide raid to blow up the Triumvirate research facility. With their test subjects destroyed, as well as most of their research, the remaining Triumvirate decided to make the best of the situation by activating a captured EI probe's rescue beacon and placing it near the destroyed Aurora, alerting the EI to the presence of the Human Sphere, and implicating the EI in the destruction of the Aurora. None of this is known by either the EI, the Human Sphere, or more than a few Tohaa outside of the Triumvirate, (and they are keeping quite about it due to the damage such a revelation would have on their relationship with the Human Sphere and Tohaa society). Little is know about the Sygmaa civil war beyond that they are from the section of Tohaa planets which were conquered by the EI and seem to be pretty mad that the rule of the EI is not as bad as they were led to believe, and see the Tohaa leadership of being guilty of just wanting to preserve their own place of power. The background of the Koldinuk and the other exalted races has not been expanded on much as far as I know.
That's my point. As far as I know the humans tried to send a last message home, as a warning about what the Tohaa did to them. Maybe it's time for that signal to reach some planet inhabited by humans. Well, then the Alliance might break, or "things might change"...
For sure. The current story line hints that Aleph has its suspicions, but is unwilling to reveal them at this time, (perhaps looking for more evidence, or also aware of the damage such a revelation would have on humanities efforts to combat the EI). It is certain that Aleph has the damaged Digester, and both the Tohaa and EI are trying to discover its location. There is a lot of interesting narrative space to be explored with Tohaa and their relation to the Human Sphere beyond the most boring narrative of the Tohaa empire falls to the Combined in the span of a few months and are absorbed by them.
The revelation of what the Triumvirate did coming out could easily fit in with the teases we have been given. Since it is pretty easy to assume how the Sphere would respond to that, I wonder how the rest of the Tohaa wold react? Would it be possible for the main group to denounce/exile them and save the relationship with the humans? Could that schism lead to a third front of Exrah/non-EI Shasvasti/Triumvirate all working together against the Humans an EI on Paradiso to get the information there for their own purposes?
The T’zechi Digesters are bio-artefacts of the Ur Rationalists (a civilisation that existed even before the EI) and packed with lore, some sort of eternal, living archives. They are very intelligent, but don't seem to be sentient. Sometimes they can impart some knowledge, but they cannot be data-scanned or forced to do so. (The Tohaa tried, but were fooled by the digester. But for a short time they had a way to manipulate wormholes and to sepsitorize humans without cubes.) But when a race reaches a certain level of civilisation, they might offer some knowledge that helps them to evolve further. They are rather mysterious, as is there origin and real purpose.
Maybe they blame it on the Sygmaa? That is plausible and might make humanity help them in their civil war. (Spinning this further...:) At the same time many of the shasvastii will abandon the EI*, so it is forced to enhance its army with more sygmaa troops**. Welcome to the Tohaa Civil War! * see https://forum.corvusbelli.com/threads/so-about-that-shas-update.26208/page-5#post-191179 The main reason is to "spread out the survival chances of the species", They become NA2 (and some become available as mercs, as some mercs become available for them), while the EI looses that sectorial ("Uprising version 2"), though some stay available for vanilla and low AVA TO-jobs in the sectorials. ** The new EI faction 'Sygmaa' with new profiles (some from Tohaa), some of those new ones available for Tohaa as well, combined with a Tohaa remake (SymbioMates anyone?)...
If I am not mistaken the Ur Rationalists are the race/civilization which created the EI and are not involved with the origin of the Digesters. There is a good possibility this is why the Triumvirate will be an NA2 army. The Tohaa had to have a hard stance that they are a separate political entity whose actions are unsanctioned by the Tohaa government, (even though their goals are generally the same).
If I recall correctly the digesters were left behind by a race that transcended, hence why the EI is so interested in them.
Yeah, thanks, got that wrong. They are even older. But what would be their distinction? Maybe a revolution! Maybe they'll break the rule of three!!! "No more Haris, - we want more!"
I do not know, but it is sure to be wacky. I remember almost 2 years ago, Carlos said the next new alien sectorial would use Yuan Yuans, so I expect there will be mercenary units as well as Tohaa. It remains to be seen if Triumvirate will have core units of Tohaa, or if they will have cores composed of from other races, (I definitely want a Chacksa Smart HRL in a core team), or if they will have a core at all.
No, the Ur Rationalists are the civilization that created the Evolved Intelligence that became the leader of the Combined Army. Nobody knows where the Digesters come, one of the "wild theories" was that they were probes from the far future.
I never heard of these theories before but I wonder how CB will handle the Digesters? Maybe we will never know their true origins. Keeping a cloud of mystery hovering in the same way GW does with their 40k or Warhammer/Sigmar lore.
I really do hope at least something the Tohaa did to humanity gets brought to light. As it is, they feel sidelined as there is no reason to really go to war with them for non-CA players in this wargame. They hold the secrets of making SymbioBombs a worthwhile option.
I wholeheartedly agree. Perhaps that secret does come out next year to the Human Sphere at large & to the Tohaa people. It would end up destroying the Empire from within as their own citizens learn of the sins of their nation. Still with the Tohaa sectorial on the horizon that seems to be mute as there are Humans who work with the Tohaa.
Crap! Ok, I'll play along. what would CB say to a guy like me who took the time to buy every Tohaa figure they make and how would something like this be fair to a customer like me, what would my options be? It's things like this that my historical war gaming friends warned me about companies like CB and GW, One day your army is good to go and the next day it is not, and it always happen just after you send a ton of money on it.
Personally, I don’t think Tohaa is going to be removed/reassigned completely, but bracing for the possibility of that happening might not be a bad idea. Something I always figure that I can do if it happens is simply refer to the HSN3 books or whatever has the most recent profiles available, so you could probably continue to play Tohaa, just not in a tournament. And since you have the whole lineup, then you’re probably set model-wise.
