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Infiltrator uses both nomad and human parts to control and indoctrinate humans. That is why humans must stay physically near the Infiltrator to become Thralls. Spacebound Nomads can't replicate this since they aren't this compound organism. Incubus can't do it on its own without a host, either.
I'm inclined to agree that infiltrators, to be effective, need to retain at least most of their host's mind and personality. I rather like the notion that they're still in there, albeit corrupted and changed as Niemann or Tekagi seemed to be. They have changes to their activities because of shifting priorities and goals ofc, but they still had little quirks and such that one could reasonably infer as belonging to the host's former self. Their psyches, in that sense, could live on as "edited programs" in a way. Masks to be worn.
(05-16-2024, 08:01 PM)Erremnart Wrote:
Infiltrator uses both nomad and human parts to control and indoctrinate humans. That is why humans must stay physically near the Infiltrator to become Thralls. Spacebound Nomads can't replicate this since they aren't this compound organism. Incubus can't do it on its own without a host, either.
This does incidentally result in a vast undercutting of a lot of Nomad player RP. If Nomads cannot psychically affect humans in their spacebound forms, it renders a lot of avenues of expression and interaction noncanon.
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Spacebound Nomads can control and indoctrinate humans through "verbal" manipulation and lies. Still, they cannot force it as Infiltrators can via long-term exposure (unless character is a Cardamine addict or an Outcast). In this regard, they are in a very similar situation to other humans—their victims might block off their "words" or "visions" by their own will.
That is why Nomads really, really need Infiltrators to control humanity.
EDIT: This isn't a big change, as space-bound Nomads couldn't control humans via telepathy without infection. It always required other player's consent. If they say 'no' now, their characters are just sane enough not to allow Nomads to go further.
(05-16-2024, 08:17 PM)Erremnart Wrote: Spacebound Nomads can control and indoctrinate humans through "verbal" manipulation and lies. Still, they cannot force it as Infiltrators can via long-term exposure (unless character is a Cardamine addict or an Outcast). In this regard, they are in a very similar situation to other humans—their victims might block off their "words" or "visions" by their own will.
Nomads don't speak English. They project raw ideas to their target. Visions and/or words are much more like speaking. You absolutely can choose to simply not listen, the same way you'd ignore some lawful telling you to cut your engines. It should end the same way too.
For the most part, there are two flavors of infiltrator. There is the passive version, who is the ones you know and love, who crawl into your human body, and subtly influence themselves into full control of the victim. They retain human mannerisms, and a large part if not all of the human identity. Then there are the active ones (for pvp or event participation or other throwaway type characters), because Nomads know that humans have infected scanners and, probably more effectively, paranoia, so actually infiltrating is much harder and generally worthless on a large scale. The active ones are just nomads wearing human skinsuits, very very little of the human remains beyond the body, because they only need to act human enough to get within killing-you range.
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