What Are Knight Pilots Like?

[Jacinda]

Some times you have to step back and look at things from a literary perspective.

 

First thing, establish what is considered the norm.

Long history of father to son heritage in a feudal society.  OK.  I think most people can understand concept readily enough.

 

Next, why has this not changed over the eons?

Personality imprints in the machine of all previous pilots.  Kind of heavy handed but OK.  It would make bucking tradition not only difficult but prone to psychotic breaks or likely lethal even for a son.

 

3rd step.  Make up some fluff for the major factions; those who hold sway and epitomize the normal traditions.

 

Now, we know the rules.  Follow the rules?  Where's the fun in that?  Let's break them!

 

Female pilots is the easy one.  Plenty of room in the fluff for a few of those. You can even follow psudo-rules for a suit that will not respond to a male pilot since it has been passed to daughters for umpteen gillion cycles.

 

Renegades!  Yeah, bad boys get all the action.  Maybe it was passed from tyrant to tyrant until the other houses blew up their home world.

 

But how do you really break the rules?  How about a daemon possessed suit subdued by a spiteful daughter (at the cost of her sanity) set on avenging her father by killing the Inquisitor who killed him?  Only to find out that her father IS the Inquisitor and he made a bargain with the daemon in the suit!  Of course he wants his armor back, too.  You could write a novella on her relationship with the daemon suit alone.

 

Anyway ... it is all set up so you can make it your own original creation you build up a back story for to show how they are different than the masses.  If that's your thing, anyway.  Some people like to recreate the minuet details.  What is modeling anyway if you do not model the original?

 

But that's my take on them anyway.  

[BassWave]

But how do you really break the rules?  How about a daemon possessed suit subdued by a spiteful daughter (at the cost of her sanity) set on avenging her father by killing the Inquisitor who killed him?  Only to find out that her father IS the Inquisitor and he made a bargain with the daemon in the suit!  Of course he wants his armor back, too.  You could write a novella on her relationship with the daemon suit alone.

 

 

I feel like I've seen that anime before :p

[Father Mehman]

I thought that this had been commented on already. Hrm, must be another post .  Anywho, going off the established fluff, it occurred to me that Knight pilots share many characteristics with addicts (of any flavour: Alcohol, Drug, Co-Dependency, etc). I won't list them because I loathe making lists but, suffice to say, this example will do:

 

Knight pilots have an ever increasing need to be in their Knights. This need starts off small- training and what-not- but it's then that the addiction starts. Well, really beforehand when the ports are implanted and "chair training" begins. Here's the physical need to be in the Knight. They're pilots in-training and it's all they can do to stay out of that chair. At first, it hurts like hell. After a few more times in the chair, the endorphins and adrenaline their bodies are pumping into them from their flight-or-fight response due to the pain laterally subside and are replaced by more endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, and GABA, ie: it's a huge rush; a high they've never experienced before. Then the Knight training really begins.

 

When they "take the plunge" and are placed into the Knight, nothing happens. It would be safe to say this experience could be likened to their first experiences just in the chair: heightened senses due to the chemicals in their bodies, fear, relief, and pride (it always happens before the fall, eh?). Then the voices start and the psychological need for the Knight begins. Past voices of the suits speak to the newly inducted, young pilots. They scream. They soothe. They laugh. They are forever linked to the pilots who came before in a very intimate way that no one else will experience.

 

So they train; spar; honour duel; go to battle. For some pilots, the first taste of battle takes the form of culls. Mutants that have overpopulated the forests and fields are slain. Medieval monsters of our past are dueled with and killed for honour, duty, and respect. For other pilots, who knows? Maybe they are thrust into virtual killing grounds or are told to kill "X" many servitors or battle Skitarii. The point is, they are given licenses to kill. To anyone who has taken a life, for whatever reason, they can (I can) tell you it changes you on a fundamental level. These boys, and probably not a few girls, experience this in their Knights, forever bonding them to this machine whose machine spirit is still mostly alien to all but a handful of Mechanicus Priests and complemented with the voices of ages passed.

 

They do all of this around age fourteen. What were you doing at that age, gentle reader?

[BassWave]

Of course they're all addicts. Titan crews also go through this, and are described as suffering from withdrawals if they haven't battled for a while.

 

Can you imagine how euphoric it would be to pilot a knight/titan? Its a miracle that Legios and houses don't fall to Slaanesh regularly.

Edited April 2, 2015 by BassWave

[Jacinda]

They do all of this around age fourteen. What were you doing at that age, gentle reader?

*shakes head and sighs*

Things that can not be said in a family friendly forum. It was a bad, bad time.

Edited April 2, 2015 by Jacinda