niseag-arts · 6 months ago
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Cal lore dump
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you asked for this @systembug
words are hard and I might forget to include stuff so feel free to ask questions and thinfs. stuff under cut. also beware, there is drama and tragedy
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physical discription, for things that don't show in art very much: Cal is Large, they were chubby as a baseline human and have maintained that general shape even through the process of augmentatin. four bladed legs and a pair of extra arms add some bulk as well. their 6 eye-lenses can be colour manipulated to emulate emotion, this aids in interacting with baseline humans. as a scholar of languages, they maintain organic airways. the rebreather can be removed to give access to their mouth. (the downside of this is they have developed a habit of stress-eating only to realise later that they do no longer have the digestive system to actually process the stuff they "ate" and having to clean out their systems). They have two servo-skulls made from goat skulls and a cyber-goat (it's like a cyber mastiff) that follows them around. it's a shredder for documents. Oh, yes, their robes are dark purple, hemmed in red.
Early life, pre joining the mechanicus:
Cal was recruited from an agri-world. this is where the goat skulls come from, they belonged to Cal's beloved pets that they refused to leave behind when the mechanicus recruited them. They were recruited for their talent with archeo- and xenolanguages
Training and life on Aberdeen-6:
Not much to say about Cal here because this was pretty standard fare. Instead, let me tell you about Aberdeen-6. My main fanmade forgeworld is Repleator. Cal is not from there. Instead they hail from Aberdeen-6, a forgeworld located far from any other systems, bordering the void of space. The planet has pridominant trading connections to the space shark marine chapter, and relies strongly on their archeotech. as to why they are out there in the void? they're using spykic energy to power their generators. the planet has a strangely high number of psykers born among their ranks, and they send them out to platforms in the void (where they will not accidentally destroy the planet if a deamon gets summoned) to harness their energy. it is unsure if this is entirely throne-sanctioned. Cal is loyalist, though, in case that needs to be specified.
life as a Magos Dominus:
Despite being a scholar first and foremost, Cal eventually found themselves being pushed into the role of a military leader. Aberdeen-6 was short on those in an attempt to protect the planet from an encroaching threat. Cal underwent all of the augmentations needed for a dominus to thrive on the battlefield: their mechadendrites were fitted with tasers, they were given a pair of extra arms that had guns instead of hands, and the bladed legs to move without bounce for steadier aim. They also got the noospheric connection to their skitarii, connecting them to their vid-feeds and allowing for tactical taking control if the need arises. Caledon although pretty softhearted, did surprisingly well. Their campaigns were not as quick or efficient as others, but they consistently brought back their troops with minimal losses and the morale in these troops was consistently higher than anywhere else. They even became a parental figure to their skitarii alpha, Rho, though Rho might have wished it to be more than that.
This came to an end when they suffered a thundering defeat, wiping their ranks. Cal will never forget seeing their skitarii die before them and feeling them disconnect from the noosphere while their vid-feed goes dark. They have a lot of survivor's guild about this, and their internal systems still occasionally send out connection requests for skitarii that will never be able to heed the call again. Caledon stepped down from the position as a magos dominus and had their body rebuild to be more suited to work as a lexmechanic.
Working as a Lexmechanic:
their proclivity with archeo and xenolanguage became cal's main tool of the trade as they transitioned away from the battlefield. their brain was augmented to be able to process multiple feeds of information at once. This also removed their need for true sleep: different aspects of Cal's brain will take turns to perform sleep functions. Cal now spends almost all their time in the archives, translating and transcribing sources. They are key in aiding explorator fleets to translate their findings, as well as help current magi understand writing on stc fragments.
It was while working on one of these that Cal encountered the scared and mentally broken Intervallum, a skitarius (oc belongs to @thatspacecato). Cal, upon seeing this skittle, in fear and distress basically went "no. not this one. I will protect this one" and intervallum has been hanging around them ever since. I will not elaborate on skittle lore much more, because I feel like that's not my place, but yeah
I think that's about everything there is to say about Cal, feel free to send asks or something if you wish :D
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approximateknowledge · 1 year ago
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so i think it's common consensus that aranea's loredumps, while valuable, are all to some extent mixed with, well
shit she just made up; uneducated guesses; bias
and bias doesn't exist in a vacuum
now that brings me to the cherub rant, specifically this part
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the bizarre gender essentialism
the implication that gay cherubs aren't a thing, despite the fact the main deciding factor for kismetic "compatibility" should just be alignement;
also just prior to this she already made clear gender has no reproductive dimension, since the egg is always laid by the loser of the serpent dance, period
so why then this weird, and by alternian standards, nonsensical addition? cherubs "in the wild" likely don't even *have* genders in a way humans or trolls would understand, the cals are outliers!
so *why*
and then it hit me
DEAR GOG NO
BEFORUS HAD HETERONORMATIVITY DIDN'T IT?!
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