Sleiti Race Concept

[BlackJack]

I've read back over a few of the recaps from the old FoD and I'm wondering what the general feelings for the Sleiti are.  I must admit that my ulterior motive is to get people (or Kev) excited about the Sleiti and maybe a few more of them will miraculously appear.  On the other hand, its hard to know what direction they are going in when so little is known about them.

From what I can gather, the Sleiti can be described by these things in general:

1. Bio-engineered / Organic Technology
2. Overly concerned with aesthetics
3. Cruel, narcissistic, domineering, draconian (?)
4. Elitist, Imperialistic
5. Fast, lithe, lethal,
6. Bishounen / androgynous / epicene

Beyond those things, which may be debatable, I have no insight into their proposed culture.  Are they the sort of race that would enslave others for the purpose of amusing, gladiatorial fights?  Would they equip their own like Predators and hunt down the lesserbred (or beat on them for training like Feyd did in the recent remake of Dune)?

What sort of things are honorable and dishonorable for these people (if anything)?  My guess is that they've got monstrous egos and a huge appetite for destruction and the suffering of those that cross them --- especially for the lesserbreds who actually manage to harm them and register as a threat on their radars.

Does it make more sense for their vanity to lead them to create indestructible bio-Mechsuits and "make war as personal as a punch in the nose" like the Cap Troopers of the Mobile Infantry, or for them to employ biological weapons to exterminate populations and then send in mop up?  Is there even honor in battle, is it a right of passage, or is it more like aristocratic fox hunts?  And what happens to the casualties or fatalities?  Are they looked down upon for being wounded at the hands of lesserbreds, are they scientific test-runs, or is Natural Selection fine-tuning their ranks more yet?

I don't really expect answers to these questions from you forumites, but I guess I felt I had to put it out there so that collective opinion (or Kev's position) might flesh them out a little better.

[Rod the Worm]

So Dark Eldar with less spikes?  Just kidding


I think it makes sense for Sleiti to be a kind of elitist army if at all - the fluff would seem to support the view that they see everything as being for their own amusement.  Both Predator-style and bio-Mech concepts sound good, as I think if it came down to a war, they'd use another species.  After all, that's what the Bohkin were made for.  I suppose bio-weapons would be an option if things got serious, but that's so little fun.  You don't get the challenge of army organisation or the thrill of the hunt!

I have to say, I imagine Sleiti as primarily being quite individualistic as I doubt their egos would go together well.  That means one might prefer getting up close and personal in an invulnerable war machine while another takes the role of invisible hunter, just in AvP2 for example some people enjoy playing snipers, flamers, minigunners, the various types of Alien, close combat Predators, sniper Predators etc.  Often they'll find one that they enjoy most and will usually take that role - for me it's the fast and fragile Runner Alien, but other people hate it.
Same with space fighter games - some will go for the little nippy fighter while others will go for the slower heavy one and still more will choose the big slow missile boat. 

It would give an enormous scope to what you could do.  I see Sleiti as the Spyrers* of Kev's universe.




*(   Orrus = heavy close combat
    Jakara = light skirmisher
       Yeld = winger stealth sniper
Malcadon = spiderman with claws)

[Captain_Jack]

Malcadon = spiderman with claws

the love child of spiderman and wolverine??

[S1ND3X]

yeah, about as lame as well

[Big Boris]

the love child of spiderman and wolverine??

[zoidberg]
Spidelverine??! I love that guy!
[/zoidberg]

What was the Doc-ock style spyrer they put out?

[uncle phil]

Been playing a starwars vid game recently and you keep ending up on one of the same dozen planets, crime syndicates are run by Hutts and use Rodians as henchmen and so on.

Yet on our one planet we have hundreds of different cultures and variantions in approach to life!

How much variety would we be likely to see in a people like the Sleithi who span numerous worlds?

Some Sleithi might hunt lesser species and want to test themselves in personal combat while others might find the very idea of looking at lesser species objectionable. MOst likely we will see all of the options offered in the first post -which means more variety in modeling

phil

[Avicenna]

What was the Doc-ock style spyrer they put out?

That was the Spyrer Patriarch



A dashing fat man in black and gold armour

[Rod the Worm]

Yeah, only found out about the Matriarch and Patriarch when I looked at that link.  I dislike them muchly.


You will never fear a Malcadon until you play a CC-oriented Escher gang whoe aren't monstrously good themselves yet.  The Orrus I could gun down with heavies with a bit of luck, but the Malcadon scared the crap out of me - twice as fast as me and better at my own game .

[Inso]

I don't really see the Sleiti being concerned with gladatorial battles and the like.  I don't think that it would pique their interest. 

I can see them being elitest to the extent where they would only enter battle at the last moment and only with the most violent weaponry imaginable (weaponry that could have turned the flow of battle, had they entered the fray earlier).

Slaves would be for a useful purpose only.  Why waste time building slaves only to see them wasted in an arena. 

I think that the Stargate idea would be about right...Sleiti treated more or less as gods because they have made the races that work for them and thus are deemed to be the 'creators'.

I would also say that the Sleiti think of their slaves as pets; creations that are not responsible for their thoughts and that need to be nurtured and trained.  To have a slave turn bad would probably bring great shame on a Sleiti household and to correct the shame would bring great reward (especially if done in a skillful way, rather than torture/beatings).

I see them as a slow breeding race that reach great age and have a huge wealth of passed on knowledge that they hold very dear.  Their knowledge is such that they have moved on from technical machinery and have put all of their motivation towards perfecting bio-mechanics, with a view to creating life...like the gods that they are seen to be.  I also think that this knowledge would be forbidden to the lesser races as it holds the key to godhood.

As a result, there are certain castes of Sleiti that are responsible for maintaining the lesser knowledge of mechanical technology to equip the slave species and to ensure that they are trained to build and maintain the equipment that is required.

I would steer away from the Dark Eldar type of race and make the Sleiti a bit more god-like; showing a fatherly/motherly regard for the lesser races because they understand that, although they are slaves, they help the Sleiti greatly and deserve to be looked after.

The Grymn are despised by the Sleiti because they refused the nurture and decided that freedom was better...hence they have offended the god-like Sleiti and will receive penance by the hands of the Bohkin so that the Sleiti cannot be blamed.

[Rod the Worm]

Just thought I'd bump up the Sleiti stuff again considering there's a lot of talk about Grymn again.

I like a lot of the ideas on this thread and had actually missed Inso's final post, which was great - it reminds me of the Uplift books, which I'm currently part way through.  The elitist, ultra-destructive single models concept would also lend itself well to a small miniature range like the Harlequins or Spyrers of GW... 

In fact - how about multi-part models?  I know that's mainly Andy's trademark, but the Jotun was a step in that direction.  It would be awesome to be able to pick and choose various armour levels/weapons fits for the suits to make a highly individual force.  Kind of like the various loadouts for Tau battlesuits, biomorphs for Tyranids, additional kit for Marines.  Naturally you'd only be able to buy whole models, but the mix-and-match would give them more customisability than anything on the market outside of Inquisitor at 54mm!

Now I'm getting excited about Sleiti - I'll make a few concept sketches! 

[FlashbackJon]

Who wants to Wiki'fy all this? 

[GrymnLord]

I agree with Inso.

They should be like Xerxes in 300. A semi-godlike creatures with massive slave armies.

But what of experiment 43? A Grymn that killed every Sleiti on a research base? Was he a truely unique warrior or are the Sleiti simply not good fighters?

Or maybe they were scientist Sleiti who were guarded by inferior slaves, and the Sleiti warrior caste is perhaps much more hard to kill?

[FlashbackJon]

I imagine that it was a complex situation.  Experiment 14 had the element of surprise and was also grossly underestimated by his enslavers.  They didn't think he was capable of the thought process necessary to disobey, much less openly rebel and attack his creators.  I imagine his literally stalking through the halls of the facility, taking out guards and scientists one by one.

I also imagine the "Brain Caste" are significantly weaker from a martial perspective than the Sleiti Warrior Caste.

[Selya]

I'd say they are the Sci-Fi version of elves... elegant, beautiful, aloof, possibly long-lived (because of genetical engineering).
In fantasy settings, elves usually are the most ancient race, thus they're credited for being exceptionally wise and for teaching the "younger" races stuff like magic, etc. Now the Sleiti, they _made_ other beings and probably shaped their cultures as well as their bodies... I guess the more "successful" experiments see them as their benevolent creators and benefactors; not sure about the worship part though, it seems a bit too much...
I think they're not so much like dark eldars, in that the GW baddies are a bit over-the-top in their sadistically decadent ways. Sleitis probably think of themselves much like British imperialists used to do back when they babbled about "white man's burden" and so on...   

[uncle phil]

I think they would be less benevolent than the british empire. Being considered to be gods would probably make them a bit like central european arisocracy or the bad guys in Stargate SG1. High on ego but low on empathy and self examination

phil

[Inso]

I would say more 'Elitest Victorian Dad'.  Keep everything at arms length, have high praise for the children when they do well and be unforgiving when they misbehave...but also to understand that the behaviour is as a result of the upbringing, so would work very hard to bring them back in line.

The whole Grymn escape can be easily explained.  The Grymn were considered to be completely harmless so minimal security was at hand.  When 'experiment 43' went on the rampage, the scientists were so surprised that they couldn't take on board the fact that there was a problem and rather than defending themselves, wanted to watch and study what happened.  Unfortunately this approach didn't work.

[Hasslefriesian]

No. The whole "stalking and slaying one by one" thing would be more accurate

Anybody know why he's called "experiment 14", by the way?

[Big Boris]

If I say "Because there were 13 experiments before him?" do I get points taken off me like in the quiz show, QI?

[Graeme]

a reference to Kate Bush's Experiment IV ?

[Custom_Hobby]

The whole Grymn escape can be easily explained.  The Grymn were considered to be completely harmless so minimal security was at hand.  When 'experiment 43' went on the rampage, the scientists were so surprised that they couldn't take on board the fact that there was a problem and rather than defending themselves, wanted to watch and study what happened.  Unfortunately this approach didn't work.

Sounds like a bunch of non-coms in a lab

[Hasslefriesian]

If I say "Because there were 13 experiments before him?" do I get points taken off me like in the quiz show, QI?

Yes

[GrymnLord]

Snowwhite and the 13 little dwar... and number 14 went beserk. 

I have no idea. Why?

[Hasslefriesian]

It's from Lilo and Stitch.

Stitch was experiment 6-2-6.

6+2+6=14

[GrymnLord]

 

[FlashbackJon]

It's from Lilo and Stitch.

That is utterly AWESOME.