What's Kepra's deal?

[acesahn]

When I started the game I thought Kepra was the down to earth, pragmatist of the group - not blinded by religious dogma or ambition. However, the longer you play the more you realize Kepra's sole interest is the survival, safety and even comfort of the Skritarii... the Skritarii... the heavily augmented, one step above servitors Skritarii.

She complains about them being treated as disposable. They are disposable though. She complains about the Skritarii casualties... even though many Skitarii are using radioactive guns that are slowly killing them, that's how 'precious' their lives are. What more she complains... about the Skritarii themselves complaining! Um... how many Skritarii are mentally capable of complaining? This is news to me!

So I ask this gingerly: Is Kepra overly attached and a bit warped in her thinking or are Skritarii far more human in this game then previously shown?

[Minim]

The way I understood it, they are an extremely zealous military caste. Their purpose is to fight and die in the name of the Machine God, but that doesn't mean that they are mere servator meat. Vat grown, fated to death, more metal than man - but still capable of human thought.

Khepra seems to take an almost motherly role with her command - which isn't hard to see why.They are kin in the same faith, fighting and dying for the same cause, giving of themselves for something greater. Regardless of how much humanity any given Skritarii actually possesses or if their lives are meant to be sacrificed, Khepra can hardly be blamed for wanting to see as few of the men under her charge from dying.

[acesahn]

I'd sympathize with her motives more if she didn't take such a constant and passive aggressive stance that the entire expedition wasn't worth the lives of her men. I mean... that's kind of what they're for.

[Minim]

Originally posted by acesahn:

I'd sympathize with her motives more if she didn't take such a constant and passive aggressive stance that the entire expedition wasn't worth the lives of her men. I mean... that's kind of what they're for.

I excuse it simply because Faustinius doesn't let it go too far. He acknowledges her emotional nature, even encourages it, but frequently puts her in her place if it becomes counter productive. There is never a situation where I felt Faustinius let her get too uppity, and that dynamic makes her sometimes petulant behavior believable.

That is true of Faustinius in all dialog interactions - probably why he is my favorite character.

[Ashtrails]

In the artbook, it says something along the lines of "This whole endeavor isn't an opportunity for Faustinius, but a test"
Seems like they crammed all the most aggrevating, dubious and extreme advisors into one exploration and see how he'd handle them... except for the quartermaster. He's just quartermastering ; )

[acesahn]

Originally posted by MinimMats:

Originally posted by acesahn:

I'd sympathize with her motives more if she didn't take such a constant and passive aggressive stance that the entire expedition wasn't worth the lives of her men. I mean... that's kind of what they're for.

I excuse it simply because Faustinius doesn't let it go too far. He acknowledges her emotional nature, even encourages it, but frequently puts her in her place if it becomes counter productive. There is never a situation where I felt Faustinius let her get too uppity, and that dynamic makes her sometimes petulant behavior believable.

That is true of Faustinius in all dialog interactions - probably why he is my favorite character.

Yea I noticed that too. I suppose its true she never goes past grumbling into full blown dissension, I just wished it wasn't SO constant. It feels like she'd only be happy if they never used the Skitarii at all lol.

[Pokemastuh]

If I remember correctly (and there's a chance I'm not) wasn't Khepra previously skitarii or at least a priest that served in much greater proximity? Regardless of that fact, Khepra's charges are her reason for being here. From a pragmatic point of view no living skitarii means she has nothing to do, from an emotional point of view she is their commanding officer and her job is to send these men of faith to their likely deaths against untold xenos horrors. She still has her emotions, as do most skitarii (the rust stalkers are a borderline case).

Thing about the skitarii is that they may be augmented, but most still have emotions (at least based on the books I've read. Different authors, different depictions). They can feel fear, anger, invigoration, and excitement. They also know what they are: devout servants of the machine god who speaks through their superiors, warriors fighting for a holy cause, and seen as expendable by those closer to their god, often techpriests whose emotions have been excised in favor of statistical projection.

In short, Khepra treats them like they're human because they are for the most part, even if a dominus can take remote control of a skitarii's body and supress those emotions.

[FlippantSausage]

Skitarri aren't really so much disposable as they are a limited resource that the other magi view as disposable. They have emotions and whatnot, they are basically soldiers with high tech gear and cybernetic augmentations. If they wanted brainless, expendable automatons, they'd just use gun servitors, right?

It's Faustinius's job to give their expenditure a wider significance, but its Khepra's to make sure that expenditure is as efficient as possible. It's important to remember she's coordinating the entire operation on a strategic level, while the rest of the magi make demands like "Hey, you need to assign valuable squads to this strategically insignificant area, that is also dangerous, so I can do a thing that isn't going to help right now." It's not like she's got an unlimited number of troops to work with, either. She'd be a pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥ commander if she just yes manned and sent troops to a pointless, avoidable death.

[Wormgobbler]

I feel Khepra is meant to be the conscience among the main cast. I mean, it's supposed to be grimdark and we're supposed to throw our men into the meat-grinder with no regards for the casualties, but it's always interesting to have that one character that tells us that doing such a thing is wrong. Not that we'll stop, mind you.

[acesahn]

I'm surprised so many here say Skitarii have emotions, since I could have sworn I read it was rare for them to have emotions other then the love of combat, the rest of their emotions removed for efficiency. I remember the fluff about one of their vehicles (The onagar crawler) and Vanguards are shoved into the reactor room (which is the size of a small outhouse) which literally melts them into a sticky fleshy mech filled mess they have to flush out and replace with a new Vanguard lol. I mean I dont think they can feel pain at the VERY least, otherwise doing such tasks would be unbearable.

[Pyro]

Vanguards are considered martyrs though, aren't they? The wield the most dangerous weapons the skitarii have to offer and give their bodies to do it, so they can slay the enemies of the machine god.

[Pokemastuh]

Originally posted by acesahn:

I'm surprised so many here say Skitarii have emotions, since I could have sworn I read it was rare for them to have emotions other then the love of combat, the rest of their emotions removed for efficiency. I remember the fluff about one of their vehicles (The onagar crawler) and Vanguards are shoved into the reactor room (which is the size of a small outhouse) which literally melts them into a sticky fleshy mech filled mess they have to flush out and replace with a new Vanguard lol. I mean I dont think they can feel pain at the VERY least, otherwise doing such tasks would be unbearable.

I don't know the source material you're citing, but unless stated otherwise a magos could have taken control of them, supressed their emotions and sent them to their doom. That fits the bill of emotionless excepting efficiency in combat. I know that skitarii and even priests that use rad weapons do so knowing it will lead to their death, but it's all in service of the machine god.

[Minim]

Originally posted by Pokemastuh:

Originally posted by acesahn:

I'm surprised so many here say Skitarii have emotions, since I could have sworn I read it was rare for them to have emotions other then the love of combat, the rest of their emotions removed for efficiency. I remember the fluff about one of their vehicles (The onagar crawler) and Vanguards are shoved into the reactor room (which is the size of a small outhouse) which literally melts them into a sticky fleshy mech filled mess they have to flush out and replace with a new Vanguard lol. I mean I dont think they can feel pain at the VERY least, otherwise doing such tasks would be unbearable.

I don't know the source material you're citing, but unless stated otherwise a magos could have taken control of them, supressed their emotions and sent them to their doom. That fits the bill of emotionless excepting efficiency in combat. I know that skitarii and even priests that use rad weapons do so knowing it will lead to their death, but it's all in service of the machine god.

From what I understand, most conscripted criminals have their higher functions taken away. That is probably what he is referencing.