Kal
Whispers
- Intent: Indirectly give droids a chance at Force Sensitivity, for science.
- Image Credit: Mechanoid from RimWorld by ApelAirplane, Unhuman by Dmitry Karasev.
- Canon: N/A
- Permissions: NeuroDigital Matrix
- Links: Shards (Minor Inspiration)
- Name: The Pale Heralds
- Designation: Non-Sentient*
- Typically in subservient symbiosis with a Sentient droid brain, NeuroDigital Matrix, or the like.
- Origins: Greystone Mercantile and Archangel Research and Design
- Average Lifespan: ~60 Standard Years
- Estimated Population: Rare
- Description: Force Sensitive symbionts readily subjugated by everything from droid brains, spirits, or the occasional organic, the Pale Heralds are a biological parallel to the political principle of separation of powers; they can harness the fearsome power of the Force, but lack the force of will and cognitive capacity to put it to good use. Their hosts, in turn, are reliant on the connection between them and the Herald to wield its power. A weakness in most situations, certainly, but a godsend for paranoid rulers - trust is nice, but control is better.
- Breathes: N/A, processed air only; chassis required.
- Average Height of Adults: ~40 centimetres (Core Organism)
- Average Length of Adults: ~10 centimetres (Core Organism)
- Skin Colour: White-spotted grey, various rarer colours.
- Hair Colour: N/A, Pale Heralds do not grow hair.
- Distinctions: The body of a pale herald resembles an 'armless squid' with pale skin and no eyes or other sensory organs to speak of. Incapable of autonomous locomotion, they rely on droids (or other constructs) for mobility. The primary sign of age is their skin - it starts off opaque but grows more and more translucent with age. Elderly specimens typically have visible internal organs, a disturbing sight to most humanoids.
- Races: Most Pale Heralds are made to be incorporated into a purpose-built droid, but some are instead bred to be bonded directly into a biological lifeform. If the lifeform is human-sized, the Pale Herald would have to be stunted in growth - and by extension in power.
- Force Sensitivity: All
- Force-Touched: Pale Heralds are inherently and universally Force Sensitive, a connection that can be utilised both by the core organism (it is capable of learning abilities as 'spiritual muscle memory') and the droid brain/spirit/matrix/etc. that typically controls it.
- Ironclad Form: While physically feeble, Pale Heralds are generally covered in bleeding-edge machinery.
- Simple Minds: Pale Heralds are mentally stunted by design, unable to do much but support a higher organism or act on instinct.
- Force-Fulled: Pale Heralds are nurtured by the Force - and by extension will atrophy if severed from its embrace.
- Dissonance: Skilled telepaths can interfere with the mental link between a Herald and its Master.
- Diet: Omnivore; subsists on biomass processed into an unrecognisable paste.
- Communication: Telepathy and Electrical Impulses; typically capable of speech through its chassis.
- Technology Level: The Pale Heralds are not themselves capable of assembling advanced technology, though they often end up encapsulated by it so as to better fulfil their purpose. They themselves are an example of highly advanced bioengineering and related alchemic practices.
- Religion/Beliefs: The Pale Heralds lack the mental capacity to form complex worldviews; the closest they come is loyalty conditioning.
- General Behaviour: Unbonded Pale Heralds are creatures of instinct; even without the guidance of a droid brain or the like they may be able to exert telekinetic force (or for more experienced specimens, the favoured Force Abilities of previous 'masters') in self-defence, but are rarely able to act in furtherance of long-term interests. This is quite intentional - their creators are fearful of the consequences of 'rogue specimens'.
- Conditioning: Pale Heralds are often conditioned to respond to code phrases or telepathic signals in specific ways. This can be quite harmless, such as recognising an ally from a foe while unbonded, but can allegedly include the brutal termination of its host.
The Force. Power or belonging, a tool or a guide. It is many things to many different traditions, but most will never truly touch it.
Given the rarity of Force Sensitives and the power they wield, many have attempted to recreate the phenomena artificially. Most such projects end in disaster but a few have seen some success, notably the Reborn. Not yet ready to attempt such a feat of empyreal mastery, Greystone's sorcerers saw an alternate route. By engineering a universally Force Sensitive symbiont, a host organism could touch the Force through it. In theory.
In practice, such an arrangement has several notable disadvantages over natural Force Sensitivity, most notably the vulnerability such a connection is on the field of battle - if either organism is incapacitated or the connection interrupted, the abilities of both would suffer a sharp decline, for the Pale Heralds lack the mental capacity to use its abilities with any real tactical acumen and the host (typically) lacks the capacity to touch the Force at all.
Should a Pale Herald on a rare occasion be paired with a being that is already Force Sensitive, this would certainly yield diminishing returns.
How exactly the project came to involve the less-than-public sections of Archangel Research and Design is a carefully kept secret, but whatever their agreement Archangel seems to have received a startling degree of access to an otherwise highly restricted resource - the Heralds themselves.
