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Omophagea and eidetic memory


Nakuth

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First up, apologies to any and all members of the most holy ordos for the heresy I am about to commit. To those of you who are Black Templars, please do not burn me; at least I'm not a filthy psyker. sweat.gif

I have a question regarding one of the many implates that makes up an Astartes: The omophagea. This is the implant that allows a space marine to consume genetic material of another living being, and gain some of it's memory. I have read the listings about it in a couple of SM codexes, and also in two of the Deathwatch source books. What I want to ask is: How effective would it be for a space marine chapter to use the workings of this implant to assist with the effective integration of new initiates into their squads/companies?

Say, for example, neophyte Bob has just been elevated to an initiate (that is, a fully fledged space marine, black carapace et all), and has joined Tactical Squad Beta; replacing Jim, who was KIA recently. Jim's body was recovered, and his gene seed extracted. However, before the body was disposed of, a small portion of it was saved, and Bob consumes this. Now, in theory, Bob should gain at least some of Jim's memories, etc. If this was washed down with a thirst-quenching draught of blood of Bob's new squad mates, would this not make his integration into his new squad easier?

***

By way of explanation, I recently rolled a customer chapter using the tables in the Rites Of Battle Deathwatch source book, and rolled the overactive omophagea gene seed flaw. The above idea came to me afterwards, as a possible variation on that flaw.

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I think this idea has quite a lot of merit to it, and would be perfect for a Cursed Founding Chapter imo.

It doesn't even need to be a Cursed Founding chapter, to be honest, but it would make sense if it were one.

Hopefully some of Sanguinius's bloodline might be able to chime in on this one. After all, they seem to know a bit about the effects of the omophagea. whistlingW.gif

legoss; I'm not sure how plausible it is, either, but I hope it is. I doubt it would be the sort of ritual that any outsiders would be allowed to witness, let alone get a whiff of. Although it could make for an interesting twist. I do have a few ideas, though.

It seems like a plausible idea to me; and as others have said above, it doesn't need to be a Cursed Founding Chapter. Imagine a Chapter whose recruiting base includes cannibalistic rites or funerary rites where some of the remains of the deceased are consumed by his successors. Such practices might influence the Chapter's warrior cult. The Blood Angels and their Successors already have a semblance of this in their blood-related rituals, so it wouldn't be incomprehensible for one of them to expand to include cannibalism. Such practices wouldn't just be limited to the scions of Sanguinius, however. Any Chapter descended from any primarch could conceivably adopt such practices.

Yep. Actually in the very first Soul Drinkers' novel, we find out that the Soul Drinkers suffer a slight mutation in that very organ that let them do something similar to this, although they did not do it to help with the initiation procedure.

 

Interesting. Did they use it for any benefit, or was it more just for the sake of ritual?

 

I'm still working through a few ideas on exactly how to impliment within a DIY, but I am considering a data file format, where the file is the 'cover page', if you like, of a preliminary report on the appropriateness of a particular world for the purposes of recruitment for an Astartes chapter. I don't know if such a thing would happen, but it seems to make sense to me, and I would expect that anyone giving such a report would certainly have misgivings about any such ritual performed by the natives they may witness,

Mate love the idea, so much so I'm stealing it and integrating it into my Chapter fluff. This explains my Chapters deviation from their parent Novamarine Chapter. All very hush hush of course but they believe it speeds up the integration to full Battle Brother when Initiates start consuming (very small amounts of) matter from the Brother they're replacing.

Mate love the idea, so much so I'm stealing it and integrating it into my Chapter fluff. This explains my Chapters deviation from their parent Novamarine Chapter. All very hush hush of course but they believe it speeds up the integration to full Battle Brother when Initiates start consuming (very small amounts of) matter from the Brother they're replacing.

Starts consuming? Well, it sounds like you're chapter is committing outright heresy. Please wait here while I alert the Inquisition. teehee.gif

Feel free to use it. I know how it will impact my chapter, but won't mention it here, and I'm interested to see what others come up with if using a similar ritual. Hope to post something tonight.

I like it. It's a variation on the use of Sanguinius' blood in the BA implantation, and reminds me of the Bene Gesserits transfer of memories from one sister to another.

 

I'd make it imperfect though - rather than total recall of the transferred memories, make them more instinctive - affecting their reactions in certain situations which the original marine may have encountered.

Incidentally, it is the presence of this organ [Omophagea] which has created the various flesh eating and blood drinking rituals for which many Chapters are known, as well as giving the names to Chapters such as the Blood Drinkers, Flesh Tearers etc.

~ Rites of Initiation

 

... just saying. But be careful with it. The Sons of Malice were excomunicated because of cannibalism ( it's a little more complex but that was the original impulse).

I have used the same premise with my own chapter, the Prophets of Hatred. Part of my inspiration comes from various rites performed in Papua New Guinea (my parents lived and worked there for a while so I had an interest in PNG).

 

Keeping in line with the idea of a Marine being mind-wiped after fighting Chaos/Daemonic forces this rite was used to help speed up the process of mind-wiped marines becoming fully functional again.

 

However, my Chapter has a strong belief in war (on par with an Istvaanian Inquisitor) and over time this lead to the corruption of the Chaplains into Khorne worship.

 

Using material taken from Marines who had fought Chaos they were able to secretly corrupt a whole swathe of the Chapter. Some Marines were even given, through a longer process, the memories and personality of a dead brother (think Total Recall/Dollhouse).

 

The rituals continue in the Chapter despite this though with much the intention you state in the OP with dynsaties of Marines based on the knowledge of Chapter Heroe

Incidentally, it is the presence of this organ [Omophagea] which has created the various flesh eating and blood drinking rituals for which many Chapters are known, as well as giving the names to Chapters such as the Blood Drinkers, Flesh Tearers etc.

~ Rites of Initiation

 

... just saying. But be careful with it. The Sons of Malice were excomunicated because of cannibalism ( it's a little more complex but that was the original impulse).

Thanks, it was actually that passage that gave me much of the inspiration for this. Am currently working on ways around the heresy of the practice in the other thread. At this point in time, it is merely a rumour. ;)

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