OneKelvin

Just finished my old box of musketeer-style M2E guild riflemen. For Christmas I took a chance on a vial of Culture Hustle MIRROR paint. Pretty darn expensive for a tube of silver paint, but after a few tries I don't regret it at all. It makes highlights POP, and if I go all the way and fill an area, I can see reflections in it. First mini I tried it on was Lilith's knife, and it made the knife look *dangerous*, as if in actuallity it was metal mini some psycho had gotten their hands on and filed the weapons to needlepoint. So of course I had to use it on my beloved riflemen. 😁 Hope you like em'!

Shooting the breeze here; since I like questions like this and I don't see anyone revving to answer. So, if I recall; lore-wise the Guild re-entered Malifaux with professional soldiers, the guys with military coats and hats - think M2 Riflemen, or M1 Guard Patrol. But, as time went by, many of them died, retired, or climbed the ranks; and the massive manpower requirements lead to local recruiting and quantity over quality. I think red coats used to be standard, and can be either bought or issued; but to cut down on price, most guard now just are required to have a splash of red on them like a sash or hatband. Red coat therefore probably indicates that the soldier is either a career Guilder, or takes extra pride in their job.

Malifaux has a well documented history of warping species over generations. Humans are the prime example, but the Guild hounds and horses also show magically induced evolution/mutations. Since a generation of rats is not very long in the making, it's no wonder that the rats in Malifaux have warped heavily. As for controls, ratcatchers in Malifaux are a thing on and off the table, and given the opulence of the head ratcatcher's office in the Guild book, it seems that they are a big thing. I can't say whether they use constructs or steampunk traps like the pathfinders, all I can say is that the head office lady can buy furniture from Earth.

Two dimensions, same timeline. Not sure how much they'd want to delve into alt history for alt history's sake. They seem content to make connections when it's a plot point for the story. If you wanna do a fanfic about Joe MacGarrack drinking liquid steel and forging beams with his bare hands, by all means go ahead, but I think MS&U already has a lady and a gremlin that do that.

A straight lore question, with an eye at the specific horror of soul loss and destruction. What is a soul, in Malifaux? Is it sentient, alive, a recording? If a soul isn't trapped, and used as wizard ammunition, then what happens to it? Heaven, hell, nonexistence? The destruction of the soul implies "real death" no? Void. But that's only particularly horrifying if there's a hope that keeping the soul intact somehow avoids dreaded nonexistence, right? What does the lore say?

This, is everything I ever wanted from Malifaux terrain. Bravo good sir!

I guess we'll have to conclude that the original guard is now about 99.98% zombies and the only two remaining guardsmen were cloned over and over again with the power of science. (It's because cloneflesh is hard to keep reanimated for long periods of time. The only downside is that they are all named either Sarah or John and they have to be told constantly that they are the most stylish people in Malifaux or else they'll begin to realize that the reason the other guards look like them is not because of fashion envy but because they were cloned a bunch while they slept.)

Adding insult to injury. There are more guardsmen models in the autopsies than in the actual guard.

I believe these may apply. And... "Characters have all sorts of reasons for bringing up the subjectivity of morality - perhaps they are the Constantly Curious Philosopher who wants to get to the bottom of things; perhaps they are The Fettered, acutely aware of the difficulty and complexity of their quest, moral hazards included; and then perhaps they are trying to fundamentally shake some kind of hero who believes themselves to be acting in the name of absolute good. This last flavor is by far the most common, and is a favorite tactic of the Straw Nihilist, the Card-Carrying Villain, and The Übermensch who adheres to Blue and Orange Morality and believes himself Above Good and Evil." "On the surface at least, "What is Evil" is a stressingly valid point. Philosophers of morality have, for centuries, struggled with the apparently impossible challenge of objectively proving a "should", even as most of us deeply believe that, say, murdering innocent children is objectively wrong. Typically, heroes tend to cling to that exact deep conviction; they don't care for arguing about moral relativism, much like real-life people who see themselves as morally in the right don't care for it. You could say that this has resulted from aeons of evolutionary pressure on heroes: the ones who stopped to think out the moral conundrums got killed by the Card-Carrying Villain who realized they could use this to Logic Bomb heroes. Meanwhile, the heroes who refused to give in to the villain's nihilism - either out of boneheadedness, or out of a belief that fighting for what you believe in is a worthy enough goal- persevered. Out-of-universe, the typical lack of moral ambiguity in hero/villain conflict may be attributable to writers just not wanting to waste any effort on that issue, for either ideological or pragmatic reasons." http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WhatIsEvil You will not sway me Demon! The Guild will put you down, and restore the peace! !!!!!!

Well have fun! Learn new tactics, play new masters, and don't let the dream-invading demons try to convince you that they're the victims in all of this. "The city of Malifaux is a dangerous place, but it seems as cozy as a hearth when compared to the horrors that roam the southern Badlands. Every nightmare in every monster story ever told has its counterpart in a Neverborn creature that lives somewhere beyond the relative safety of the city's walls. The abilities of these horrors are as terrible as any nightmare, since many spawn from the same dark sources that gave rise to these nightmares in the first place. The Neverborn are terrible monsters that brutally prey upon the humans who have appeared to claim Malifaux for their own. The Neverborn take many shapes, from the winged Nephilim to the ghostly Sorrows. Some are deceptively similar in appearance to humans, able to walk among them, and these are by far the most dangerous, as their unknown designs are far more subtle and far-reaching. Where many Neverborn are satisfied by grizzly, indulgent murder, these human-looking monsters wage a campaign of terror on mankind through grand organized raids and clever attacks on human settlements. Despite this focus on the bigger picture, most of these Neverborn are not above the occasional indulgent murder. The origin of these creatures is uncertain. Many believe that they are created by some maligned force, and thus, they were dubbed Neverborn to help mankind explain away their complete lack of human empathy and mercy. Slowly, however, as the mysteries of Malifaux are revealed, its human settlers have been granted glimpses of the world's distant past. The appearance of monsters in this world seems linked to a great cataclysm, occurring ages ago, that transformed it from a place not unlike Earth into the ruined splendor seen today. This cataclysm marked the death of a world ruled by logic and reason, replacing it with one fraught with passion, madness, and death. The Neverborn are the people of this new age, a people completely foreign and unknowable by man. Savage and ruthless, they are prone to fits of murderous madness and capable of incredible violence. Beyond that, they are creatures possessed of a terrible secret, of sins committed in the distant past. They have endured the death of their world and will not tolerate man's trespass upon its ashes. The Guild has tried everything possible to diminish the Neverborn threat. Willing to deputize anyone, the Guild frequently sends groups of hunters on Neverborn raids; most of these deputies fail to survive their first encounter. The Ortega family, with their matriarch, Perdita, has proven the most effective deterrent to Neverborn proliferation. This family is credited with hundreds of slain monsters, and their success has led to fame among the people of Malifaux. The Ortega family are the heroes that the people idolize and the threats that the Neverborn, despite their best efforts, just can't seem to destroy." https://www.wyrd-games.net/malifaux-neverborn/ Soon they'll be saying that the official lore is Guild/Union propaganda.

Wait, what? Also I've heard the same "the Neverborn are good because they are defending their homeland" nonsense a dozen times. They were evil well before humans got to Malifaux. Like the Aztecs in Mexico they got invaded by a bunch of morally-questionable adventurers looking for loot. And like the Aztecs they were sodding rotten of their own accord long before the adventurers kicked the door down. And the means don't draw justification from the ends, means are justified of their own merit or they are not. Self-defense and defense of another is not characterized as an assault justified by the protected safety of an individual; the defense is a just action, and the ends are irreverent. The act of defending yourself doesn't become unjust if you die and fail to provide a proper ends to justify your attempted defense. Just as it doesn't become just when you survive and have the ends to show for it. It is a just action, with variable consequences. The Neverborn could kill all these humans, and still fail to save the world. What then would justify the actions they took? Nothing, that's not how it works. What they are doing is evil, and good may result of it. Which makes them... evil. Necessary evil perhaps, but evil nonetheless.

Well I can't say I'd feel much shame if it were real either. I mean, I don't feel shame for eating a pig and it didn't do me any wrong; I'm certainly not going to feel shame for deadifying a beast with a penchant for doing the same to humans. Also the argument has never been that the things are o.k. to kill just because they are arbitrarily scary. The things are scary because they are known to do unthinkable harm to humans of the innocent persuasion on a regular basis; and that is why removing the threat their existence poses to decent folk is less-than-morally-challenging. Reluctant dragons they are not. I do agree that all people are evil at their core and must fight it to remain good; a function of the responsibility of intelligence and the urges of instinct, kept in check by a solid will and an understanding of right and wrong. But if you are consistent with your behavior then you shouldn't worry over it too much; worry dulls the mind. Keep your intentions pure, and be willing to change if you make mistakes. Simple.

Alright, look. I give no figs about who invaded who. Someone is always the defender, and someone is always the invader. Ice Age Migrations -Invasion Expansion of Rome - Invasion Colonization of the Americas - Invasion D-Day Landings - Invasion Steelers vs Patriots - Invasion Being invaded does not give you moral high ground. Being moral gives you moral high ground. I don't know what this is about the Guild slaving people, and they aren't war profiteers. War profiteers sell weapons and keep a war going for money. The Guild is fighting to keep the stone flowing, and would probably be perfectly happy to stop paying the guardsmen and buying weapons for them if the threat subsided. In their monthly spreadsheet the war is an expense, not a source of income. As for Fascist, that doesn't make them evil. I know what you're going to say; and my reply will be along the lines of "Well if the Guild is evil because they're Fascist, the Neverborn must be evil because they're demons." Fascism is at its core, (from what I've read) a system of government that seeks to create an autarky through loyalty to a group with a set of ideals, lead by a single autocratic figure. And that's about it. To quote: "Being asked to define fascism is probably the scariest moment for any expert of fascism."- Lachlan Montague. The word carries nice evil overtones from its use during the war, overtones useful for creating an oppressive atmosphere in your "steamhorrorsamurigothopunk" world, but in practice all it means is there's a leader, and they value loyalty to their group. Livescience did an article, so whether or not you think they're a decent source here are the shared characteristics that most fascist states possess: The primacy of the group. Supporting the group feels more important than maintaining either individual or universal rights. Believing that one's group is a victim. This justifies any behavior against the group's enemies. The belief that individualism and liberalism enable dangerous decadence and have a negative effect on the group. A strong sense of community or brotherhood. This brotherhood's "unity and purity are forged by common conviction, if possible, or by exclusionary violence if necessary." Individual self-esteem is tied up in the grandeur of the group. Paxton called this an "enhanced sense of identity and belonging." Extreme support of a "natural" leader, who is always male. This results in one man taking on the role of national savior. "The beauty of violence and of will, when they are devoted to the group's success in a Darwinian struggle," Paxton wrote. The idea of a naturally superior group or, especially in Hitler's case, biological racism, fits into a fascist interpretation of Darwinism. http://www.livescience.com/57622-fascism.html You can walk down the list and check it off for the Guild. 1. The Guild comes first. Duh. 2. They have plenty of enemies that actively seek their destruction. 3. Like unlicensed mages? Necromancers? 4. Plenty of brotherhood and unity. It is a Guild after all. 5. A guardsman is faceless, the Guard is legion. 6. Your mask m'lord? 7. They definitely have some beautiful warriors that are devoted to the group's success. And they even have real biologically different races to compete against; not just human palette-swaps, real ogres and goblins and demons to boot! That's the fascism for you. Not much evil except for the last one, which is kind of justified depending on your point of view. There is irony, and it is intentional. That doesn't mean I wouldn't still pick the colonization option over slowly letting the Earth become magic-less forever. (To be honest, I'm not sure what the "seriously scary" stuff you're seeing is. It's all there in the lore - earth, magic, demons. And it is supposed to be a bit of a horror game, so maybe being scared isn't a bad thing? You have seen the game yes?) I feel no shame in killing such things for money. Most of them were dead once anyway, so dying isn't anything they haven't done before.

Alright, alright, alright I think I got it. .... Yep I got it. Sometimes you are the bad guys. You play the Guild, or the Empire, or the Imperium. And you are bad guys. But it's cool. You hang out with the other bad guys at the bar, you play nice with their kids when they invite you over for the game, and you kick in heads with your shiny jackboots on occasion, but you try to stay cool with it. And then, sometimes you are the bad guys. You play the Neverborn, or the IG-88 series, or the Dark Eldar. And you are the bad guys. And what you do is just not cool. But you don't care. Because it's not about "them" or what "they think" or "their rules"; it's about you. It's about your plan, your vengeance, your power. And you are gonna be bad; worse than bad, EVIL even. But more than anyone else, more than the heroes, or the villains, or the antiheroes - you are free. That guy pisses you off? Kill him. Tear his arms off! Relish in his screams! You like that girl? Put her soul in a jar and use it as a reading light! You want the last Oreo but your sister said she wanted it? YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. You know this has a cost. One day they guy's son will kill you with a magic sword, or the girl's soul will get out and drive you mad, or you'll buy a package of Oreos and when you turn away your sister will eat every one out one out of spite. But until that day you have complete and utter control over your life; so remember to enjoy it, you magnificent bastard.

Nah. But I did root for the humans in Avatar. And you sir, are rooting for the demons in Malifaux. It's crazy world ain't it? It ain't bad to root for the bad guys, but don't get it twisted when you do.

Welp... If I were a nine-foot tall purple deamon that ate children and cast my shadow through the breath to give humans nightmares, I would definitely vote for you!

That is definitely an option. Let's all just go back to earth, let magic die out, and never practice wizardry again. Yep, definitely an option... But then again, and think about this: maybe we don't. Maybe we stay, kick the teeth out of these man-eating daemons, mine our fill of soulstones, and secure the future of magic on Earth for centuries to come! So.... All in favor of going home and letting magic die raise your hands. *Crickets* All in favor of killing the daemons, rebuilding the city, and keeping magic alive raise your hands. "HUZZAH!" It's just more interesting to stay.

Look, I'm not trying to cut into the coolness of the faction. I've always played the Empire in Star Wars games, so I know that there are plenty of opportunities to sympathize with the faction that is mostly seen as the "bad guys". The thing is that in the Empire there are still people who have the right mindset, but the wrong approach. They think they're fighting for order and justice against guerrillas and terrorists; even though we know the man at the top is a morality-free powerluster. What we have with the Neverborn isn't that really. It's more a case of Blue-and-Orange morality. The Neverborn don't consider humans to be... well... human. Neverborn seem to see humans as distractions and vermin, and one of their primary motivations in the game is "destroy the human vermin". This makes them bad from the point of view of any human. The humans could really care less about the Neverborn as creatures. The humans want soulstone for their magics back home, and that is their primary reason for being in Malifaux. The big beef with the Neverborn stems from the fact that they like to murder, kill, and feed on humans which really jams up the soulstone production. You can argue that it's the Neverborn's land that the humans are invading, but possession is 9/10ths of the law. It's their land because they live there? Plenty of humans live there too; with families no less. It's their land because they take care of it? Hah! The place was wrecked long before the humans arrived. It's their land because they were there first? And that makes it theirs? If a stoat chases a fox out of a cave, does the cave still belong to the fox? Besides, the humans are mostly living in an abandoned city that isn't even filled to capacity. The Neverborn are not the colonists, but they are the aggressors here. They aren't defending their land because they need it or would use it better than the humans; they're defending it because they do not like how the humans look/smell/act/exist. They are the defenders purely through circumstance. And don't pull genocide into this. Genocide is not what is happening here. This is a case of kill-until-we-can-mine-in-peace for the humans, and kill-until-... um... the humans are all... dead... for the.. some of the... Neverborn. Hmm.. A lot of the Neverborn eat humans so not sure how that fits into the morality of it all. Basically you're trying to apply human motivations and ethics to non-human creatures.

I guess I can see that. Grave Spirits are no joking matter. But even the native Americans were total jerks when it pleased them. It wouldn't have been so hard to paint them as the bad guys in the Old West if they didn't scalp people and attack settlers - and many loved guns and technology as much as the next guy. The Aztecs in Mexico were so jerkwaddish with their blood sacrifices and flower wars that the other towns and tribes were all to happy to gang up on them as soon as the Spanish gave them an excuse. I mean seriously, just look at the the attacker's role call for the fall of Tenochtitlan: 1000 or so Spanish adventurer-types and 100,000+ angry natives sick of having their cousins and drinking buddies dragged to the top of pyramids for happy-slashy time because "Uh, duuuude, it like totally make the rain come, duuude." Being native does not necessarily equate to being good. Now I'm sure the Neverborn have that relative-evil thing going for them with understandable worries about inter-dimensional colonization and ghost issues, but let's look at the masters for a second and I think it might become a little clearer why I think "Scum" is a good and proper term for them. (Well, that and the fact that after playing so much X-wing in a community where "Scum" is a chummy term of honor between happily-adjusted mercs, pirates, and smugglers, the word may have lost a bit of punch for me.") Lilith - Century-old demon that watched the rise and fall of the old Malifaux. Observed humans for a time, decided she didn't like them (they are kind of jerkish from time to time), now spends every waking hour devising new ways to wipe them off the continent. As a human this mindset is, troubling. Pandora - "A force of suffering for all Malfaux" this lovely lady was once the thrall of an evil box, and now goes about trying to drive people insane with the contents because it amuses her. Dreamer and Chompy - Nothing is as innocent or cruel as a child. Remember Calvin and Hobbes? Remember when Calvin was daydreaming that he'd nuke the school or suck the atmosphere off of the planet? It's like that, but Hobbes is a giant demon, Calvin has no sense of humor, and the people being murdered are real. This Christopher Robin wannabe and his slimy, eye-ridden Pooh are evil in the purest sense of the word, killing for nothing but the fun of it. Collodi - Once a friendly puppet master, now an insane child killer. I defy you to make a case for this one. Zoraida - A one-time human who plays cards and collects souls for somethingI'msureistotallywholesomeIdunnomaybeshemakesCAKESwiththem. Yeah. Not a good girl. Fun fact*, her real name is Quidproquo. Lucius - He's the Governor now no? Works for himself, runs the Guild, is he human? I don't know - but if you don't like the Guild then he's evil, and if you don't like the Neverborn then he's evil. Jakob - Also a fan of the cards, as mentioned before he's stuck between a demon and a Chinaman, and just wants to get rich and get out before something nasty gets him. Titania - Tinkerbell's angry cousin, killed some things called the Tyrants back in the day, then got locked in a box for a long time. Now is back to lead her army of fae creatures in singing Disney songs, bringing joy to small children, and murdering all of the humans off her lawn. You may have noticed, but "kill all the humans" is kind of a deal-breaker for me when it comes to evility. *The Fun Facts by no mean resemble canon or reality in any way.

Well, Perdita and her lot are Neverborn-slayers and folk heroes to boot. They're about as good as it seems to get - unless you muddy the water with them being on the Guild's dollar. Reva is pretty good for the Rezzys; standing up for the dignity of the dead and all that, and her box-set-minions are mostly humans too. The Neverborn are all scum except for Jakob who just wants out. Ironsides is pretty good in the Arkies, but Ramos is just as conniving and manipulative as any guildboss. And the Goblins are chaotic neutral. There's your good guys. Maybe the reporter box. And the new outcasts.

Could be - they do have the same uniform of the V1 guardsmen. That's probably the best theory I've heard so far. Does a soulstone retain it's power if you grind it to a powder? You could mix the powder with kerosene and get something similar; just shake well before use!

The other things are consistent though. The Netherborn have monsters, the Guild has monsters; the Arcanists have soulstone-powered machinery, the Guild has soulstone-powered machinery; the Outcasts have repeating rifles, the Guild has.... wheellocks? Also I'm pretty sure that's some sort of logical fallacy. "The game takes place in a magic world; therefore I conclude that all the shirts button themselves, all the horses eat dirt, and wheellocks are capable of semi-automatic fire." The magic is consistent, the guns are what I'm questioning. If they mentioned that the Guild has custom-clockwork guns that fire soul-stone-laced ammunition I'd be happy. The only thing the whale oil does is provide propellant for the gun in a world where gunpowder is unheard of: I'm still fairly leery of the purpose behind the wind-up mechanism on the Dishonored gun too.

This is my first post. If it belongs elsewhere please let me know. Now that that's outta the way, I'd like clarification. This is a Guild Rifleman: Do you see that gun? I have looked through gun databases, firearms collection galleries, and watched more than a fair number of Forgotten Weapons vids trying to find a single repeating rifle that could match up to what is being held there. There are none. That gun has a ramrod, heavy furniture clamps, and a flintlock mechanism. It is for all appearances a wheellock rifle. A this: It's not a question of looks; personally I think wheellocks look bad-ase. It's a question of mechanics and firepower. You see, they carried these things on the Mayflower. They are old guns. They take a long time to load. And it might just be me, but two shots a minute just doesn't seem to line up with the shoot-every turn riflemen. Now there have been guns with an apparent wheel-lock mechanism that use cartridges in fiction, the pistol from Dishonored for instance, but that runs on whale-oil and I haven't found a similar analogue. So, what's the idea? Don't tell me the Guild can't afford "modern" guns for their soldiers? How do they manage a five-second reload (the length of a turn)? I love this model but it leaves me confused.