Skitarii class dialogue possibilities

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
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We’ve been talking about getting Fat Shark to add an admech class for a long time. I’ve pushed for a Skitarii, and I very much want Skitarii.

Maybe we’ll get them, prob not, but just for fun, what kind of dialogue exchanges would you expect to see? I’ll start with a couple I put in another thread.

Vet “So what’s everyone think of Hadron?”
Other vet “Not one I want to get on the bad side of…”
Zealot "She serves the god Emporer, though she misnames him,
Skitarii “It is the plight of the unaugmented to be unable to comprehend the perfection of her poetry in binaric cant…”
Vet “What did you say?”
Skitarii “File not found.”

Hadron “Varlets, your mission is {madlib} Try not to disappoint me, though I understand the magnitude of that task is most likely beyond you…”
Skitarii “Modem sounds”
Hadron “Oh really?.. I mean… do not attempt to make me blush, I had those systems removed.”

Psyker “Grenades are nasty, smelly, and crude! Much like some of you!”
Skitarii “Speak not so of the humble grenade, which waits patiently to offer up a single glorious prayer to the Omnissiah.”

Vet “If you ask me, Zola’s wound tighter then most commissars.”
Psyker “She seems conflicted. I don’t know why, I didn’t dream her that way.”
Skitari: “She would benefit from augmentation.”

Credit to @Lil_Aryslav
“Come back, Trapper - the Machine Spirit knows where you are anyway.” - Escaping Trapper Tagged.
“I purge thee in the name of Holy Mars.” - Elite/Specialist Killed.
“01001101 01111001 00100000 01100101 01111000 01101001 01110011 01110100 01100101 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01100111 01101111 01101110 01111001 00101110.” - Bonding dialogue.

Would like to hear other’s ideas. True, it will likely amount to nothing, but at a minimum it’s amusing to think about.

AdmechWaifu1
AdmechWaifu1757×1080 76.9 KB

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Oh, I love this thread already - time to brainstorm!

Which 3 kinds of Personalities for the Tech-Adept are you thinking of? Those deets might help me pump out some new ideas!

Quotes are below (I will update the list with more dialogue ideas when I get them)

• “Art thou so eager for unfunction?” - Response to certain borderline-heretical sayings from some of their teammates (such as a Loose Cannon Veteran considering desertion, or 90% of the filth that comes out of a Loner Psyker’s mouth)

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They could have a lot of fun with this.

There could be a personality that is almost entirely subsumed by the machine, speaking in a mechanical voice with only occasional break-throughs of humanity, perhaps even seeming confused by its own flashes of it.

They could have one with a malfunctioning vocoder who keeps being told it’s fine, even though it keeps changing between disparate voices in mid-sentence. Think from baritone to high, or something like that.

Perhaps one who is constantly trying to convince the others just how great it would be to give up that weak flesh!

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Picking up a teammate:
“Cogitate upon your failure”
“Life is directed motion. Move”

Getting downed:
“Flesh is weak!”
“[Angry Scary Modem Noises]”

I would be more than happy to give you some more, but English is neither my first nor second language. Nonetheless I will happily observe this thread!

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Well, I’m thinking Skitarii specifically. Skitarii are are the soldiers of the Adeptus Mechnicus. But I’m not on the team or getting paid by Fat Shark, so it’s whatever kind of personality you can imagine.

Skitarii are of course partly servitorized, but no where near as much as a regular one who just lifts or the like, retaining more of their brain/mind/whathave you so they can be imaginative in combat.

But these are also going to be in some way ‘rejects’ so you can use your imagination. Granted, that doesn’t help too much in giving you a specific direction. That said, for the purposes of an exercise in speculation, I wouldn’t limit anyone to only three.

Only personality I was thinking of was “crush on Hadron” but this guy says they get addicted to the rush of combat. They also serve with the legio Titianica as infantry and the like.

And obviously they will be machine obsessed as they are admech warriors… and machine spirits.

Unsure it if would fit, but perhaps one who was driven slightly mad by a corrupted (or merely extremely willful) machine spirit in a Titan or lesser machine with similar human-mind/god machine interface?

One who wants to completely move over from flesh to machine?

Profession subgrounds of rangers, vanguards, maybe some kind of Sicarian?

Perhaps a Sydonian Dragoon who longs for the return of his mount? (EDIT Originally said “and it’s machine spirit,” but checked and those are Servitor controlled.)

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I do have an idea for a Skitarii/Tech-Adept Personality which acts as… well, think of it as an Agitator Zealot but they’re followers of the Cult of Mars rather than the Imperial Cult.

The Personality that crushes hard on Hadron is essential.

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Honestly I really hope they sound like this

To me these are peak tech priest communication

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When they talk to each other, certainly. Though recall that was most likely a way to save money on voice actors. Obviously we must have something like
Vet: “So what’s everyone think of [Blank]”
Skitarii 1 “Modem sounds”
Skitarii 2 “extreme hacking laughter”
Ogryn: “What? What’d 'e say?”
Vet: “Don’t ask big man.”

Though for the actual sound, personally I’d imagine something like this:
If anyone reading does NOT know modem sounds, watch the top one first.

Though for the sound of binaric cant I was originally thinking this:

But when I went looking for an example I found this:

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I see three potential character archetypes as the obvious ideas coming to mind:

  1. Punished Servitor
    Background: Former Convict of the Imperium given the highest punishment, turned into a suffering, yet mostly emotionless servitor. Classic example being the traitor from Darktide. Sent to the Morning Star as cannonfodder.
    Dialogue style: Monotonous, subservient, but mostly “characterless”, spitting mostly Imperium propaganda.
    Corresponding Skilltree: Melee style with abilities that center on self-harm or sacrificing themselves for the rest of the team.

  2. Skiitari Loyalist
    Background: Ordinary Skiitari soldier in line with the Ordo Mechanicus. Sent to the Morning Star as backup.
    Dialogue Style: Shows great displays of devout, faithful dialogue representing the belief in the Omnissiah. Probably with a more optimistic tonality, no cynicism.
    Correspending Skilltree: Ranged with admech abilities mixed in. Valuable Skiitari aren’t usually sent in as first row cannonfodder as much.

  3. Adeptus Mechanicus Initiate
    Background: Promising Skiitari with potential to grow into something higher, but still in the lowest ranks of the Omnissiah Cult. Sent to the Morning Star as a trial for further initiation.
    Dialogue Style: On the higher intellectual side, mostly misunderstood by everyone but the Psyker. Can have funny puns with other Skiitari or Psykers, meanwhile strong disdain for the rest, potentially dialogue indicating higher status and feeling superior.
    Corresponding Skilltree: Mostly admech tech focussed, gameplay mechanically closer to a sorcerer than ranged / melee fighter.

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Punished Servitor
Background: Former Convict of the Imperium given the highest punishment, turned into a suffering, yet mostly emotionless servitor. Classic example being the traitor from Darktide. Sent to the Morning Star as cannonfodder.
Dialogue style: Monotonous, subservient, but mostly “characterless”, spitting mostly Imperium propaganda.
Corresponding Skilltree: Melee style with abilities that center on self-harm or sacrificing themselves for the rest of the team.

Let’s warp this one.

I do not know how many forum goers have played the Mass Effect games, but there was one memorable AI character called Legion.
Basically he was what you could consider a emotionless, logical robot, that was able to surprise you out of the blue with a very emotional outburst or response. This made him very memorable and provided a surprising amount of depth to the character.

So let’s take the servitor take and warp it into a… Rejected Skitarii, which was classified as second choice due to being too imperfect (human) to fit into AdMech. Result: a character that tries very, very hard to be cold, logical, almost servitor like, but shows surprising depth of emotion and character when you least expect it.
It also fits into Reject trope in my opinion.

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One could be a follower of a Xenarite group of tech priests, (or former servant) who were purged, (thus why he’s a reject) or some other group of admechs seeking 'forbidden knowledge."

Another might have been on the battlefield when he was corrupted by scrap code and is malfunctioning in a serious way.

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As a non-40k fan (not ignorant of the lore, I’m just not into it), and speaking on the behalf of those who might not know what a Cadia is or care . . .

If they put an Admech class in, PLEASE do not make them all be praising the Omnissiah constantly. Vermintide was fine, because everyone really kinda had different beliefs. Even Kruber was more of a Taal-worshipper than a Sigmarite (though he toed the line well). It made Saltzpyre’s fanaticism a feature of him as a character - and much less annoying.

In Darktide, every character save for the Psykers are just PRAISE THE EMPRAH all the time and it’s actually kind of annoying.

So while you certainly do need to have an Admech character gushing about the Omnissiah all the time (as it’s both loreful and some people are going to want/expect that), let’s have one who is really just fascinated with the technology itself. This could even be why they’re a ‘reject’ - they don’t care about dogma and saying the right prayers to make the machine spirit appeased; they just want to understand how the machine actually functions. Perhaps they were caught disassembling a toaster or something to look at it inside, and that was enough to get him in trouble.

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Pretty sure not doing that would put you on the endangered list in the situation our characters are in.

VT2’s cast was a set of special heroes that were low-key operators.
We are penal colony “soldiers”.
…
VT2’s cast also didn’t have monitoring 24/7 checking up on their conversations and actions.

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Is this heresy or bait?

SURE! It’s admech characters. They can’t not be.

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Tell that to the Psykers who openly talk about not liking him. XD I get it, it’s part of the setting, but it does not have to be stressed so much on every damn character’s personality.

Not bait. I’m legit not a fan of the setting, and I have to imagine that a lot of people who pick up the game are not either, and maybe don’t want to hear how much every character loves the Emperor all the time.

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Opinion rejected.

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I would love to have one that sounds like Jacket (hot line Miami… or Payday 2) with like recorded voice lines mashed together to make sentence.

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Pretty sure he is a special case:
A) Already disregarded as the ‘useful lunatic’
B) May get a bit more leeway as Psykers get continiously tormented by the Warp Demons
C) His killing power outweights that of a normal lasgun, so again gets more leeway for his ‘deeds’.

The funny thing about ideologies is that they can (and will) be bent as needed by those who propagate them. And the Warhammer Franchise displays is stellar.
All the “lore inconsensities” go back to this, too.
Even in reallife many people don’t grasp this, but…
“If you’re my friend, you can do no wrong. If you’re my enemy, you can do nothing right.”

Almost every group or institution out there operates by this standard, it’s only Western “individualism” culture that slightly veers away from it.

Unspoken Law of Power that should be way more commonly known, but everyone is so stuck in their mindset of “consistency” and “finding hypocrisy”, that they fail to notice that our world doesn’t work like that.

That’s not true, though.
About half the cast is ignorant or otherwise sedetary in their thinking. Listen to the dialogue more closely and WHO initiates WHICH.
You’re missing this subtext because you’re paying too much attention to the general framing of the world building, while not listening enough to the individuals.

Cadian Vet: As open as it gets, he literally says he only cares about revenge and killing. There is even a dialogue when downed where he says to the Zealot something akin to “Where is your God Emperor now?”. And he references the Emperor’s failure to protect Cadia every chance he gets. The madlad is so rabid, the other vet archetypes threaten to take him down.

Professional Vet: His entire personality is “I’m tired of this :poop:, I want a drink.”** Don’t think I ever heard him speak well of the Imperium other than to shut the obnoxious Cadian Vet down. Also constantly points out the failure of the local enforcers. Make of that what you will.

Ogryn: All three of them, but the Bully type much more than the others. They don’t care about the Emprah or don’t even understand him conceptually. They just want to smash people to death and when you tell them a cute story about the Emperor doing the same, they feel vindicated. Listen to their dialogues more carefully. They hardly ever bring Imperium propaganda up, except for the express purpose of asking dumb questions.
Their biggest lament is the lack of brutalist guns and rations.

You really know the writing is good when the Fanatic alone, a character who is the mouthpiece of the Imperium, makes the players believe pro-Imperium sentiment is everywhere in a ragtag gang of tired convicts.

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Loose Cannon Veterans are also known to genuinely consider and even openly suggest desertion. I’m just going to leave that here.

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Great point, I didn’t even notice that because I hear his voiceset so rarely.

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