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Qulaar tinkering, and the bio-horror character concept investigations
vorshoth
Posts: 596 Arc User
So, I'm curious, and figured people more immersed in the rpg might be the best lot to ask: Which entity or group is most likely to experiment on Qulaar bio-technology?
Just wondering, as Qularr stuff, being biological, has a lot of potential for body horror for the creations spawned through the tinkering of it. I'm thinking reverse engineered bio-armour creating a Prototype-inspired tentacled horror that can shapeshift, possibly with reference to similarities to the Roin'esh and fanoning in the Qularr developing special troops for anti-Roin'esh combat. Just an idea I've been considering for a character in Online, as I like to tie things to canon where I can, but wondering how plausible it is.
VIPER looks like a good bet for biological monstrosity creation, but without the snake theme, I doubt it'd hold their interest... But I'm unsure who else is available for unleashing bio-horrors, as almost everyone else seems robots or weapons development.
Also, I'm kinda curious which of the books have any details on the bug-eyed aliens, as in how they interact with other aliens, and how their society works. I understand that they don't have individual names and are usually named by their caste/function, aka Drone, Invasion Leader, etc? That would imply that the one we see in Westside missions, Ludvig, is either an oddball who likely has a proper name, i.e. Researcher or something due to his sciency nature, was nicknamed that by the local primitives, or is just named Ludvig and we should MST3K mantra his existence.
I'd guess Galactic Champions would as it's spacey, Champions Universe too, but anything else?
What's their adaptivity rate, generally, in peoples RPG games? With biological weapons, you could concievably have some Borg-esque adapting to attacks between encounters as they'd have a more innate understanding of biological modification, and could be easily adapted into having mastery over gene-modifying viruses at will, mutating them: we do see in Online that they drop mutagens, so that sounds like a plausible fanon about it, right?
Just wondering, as Qularr stuff, being biological, has a lot of potential for body horror for the creations spawned through the tinkering of it. I'm thinking reverse engineered bio-armour creating a Prototype-inspired tentacled horror that can shapeshift, possibly with reference to similarities to the Roin'esh and fanoning in the Qularr developing special troops for anti-Roin'esh combat. Just an idea I've been considering for a character in Online, as I like to tie things to canon where I can, but wondering how plausible it is.
VIPER looks like a good bet for biological monstrosity creation, but without the snake theme, I doubt it'd hold their interest... But I'm unsure who else is available for unleashing bio-horrors, as almost everyone else seems robots or weapons development.
Also, I'm kinda curious which of the books have any details on the bug-eyed aliens, as in how they interact with other aliens, and how their society works. I understand that they don't have individual names and are usually named by their caste/function, aka Drone, Invasion Leader, etc? That would imply that the one we see in Westside missions, Ludvig, is either an oddball who likely has a proper name, i.e. Researcher or something due to his sciency nature, was nicknamed that by the local primitives, or is just named Ludvig and we should MST3K mantra his existence.
I'd guess Galactic Champions would as it's spacey, Champions Universe too, but anything else?
What's their adaptivity rate, generally, in peoples RPG games? With biological weapons, you could concievably have some Borg-esque adapting to attacks between encounters as they'd have a more innate understanding of biological modification, and could be easily adapted into having mastery over gene-modifying viruses at will, mutating them: we do see in Online that they drop mutagens, so that sounds like a plausible fanon about it, right?
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Post edited by vorshoth on
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In fact in Monster Island there is lore *and* missions surrounding this idea in some capacity.
Aside from Teleios...maybe VIPER might have some interest...or at a stretch Moreau?
I've taken a lil bit of information from Champions Beyond.
The Qularr are humanoids who typically stand about 5’8” to 6’1” tall (females are about two thirds
the size of males, on average). In Human terms they’d be referred to as “insecto-crustacean,” since they descend from creatures who share characteristics with both the insects and the crustaceans of Earth. Humans and Qularr are biologically incompatible; implanting biomaterial from one in the other would cause illness, and could even be poisonous.
Language
The Qularr language not only relies on this instinctual telepathy, but also on infra- and ultrasonic sounds. Thus, Humans simply cannot learn to speak it without the aid of super-tech devices that can produce the right sounds and mental impulses; learning to read their written language would be next to impossible.
The whole instinctual telepathy doesn't enable qularr to speak mentally any more than humans can...however the Champions Beyond book says:
"The Qularr don’t have personal names. Instead, they’re referred to simply as what they are or what they do. For example, the commander of the current Qularr force on Monster Island is named “Qularr Invasion Leader.” His second-in command is named “Leader’s Chief Assistant,” and every single one of his shock troopers is
named “Qularr Shock Trooper.” Ordinarily this would cause constant confusion when a group of
Qularr tries to work together, but the Qularr have a sort of “instinctual telepathy” that eliminates the
problem. They cannot communicate mentally any more than Humans can, but if Qularr Invasion
Leader says to a group of Shock Troopers, “Shock Trooper, go patrol that perimeter,” all the Qularr
involved know exactly which Shock Trooper he’s talking to."
But yes...Champions Beyond pretty much has the information you are looking for.
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Don't look to Galactic Champions for Qularr info. Although it's IMO a fine book, it's actually set in the Champions Universe in the year 3000 AC, when the Qularr are probably extinct.
As for your request for bio-experimentation, there are a few possibilities. Of all the geneticists on Champions Earth, Teleios is by far the most accomplished, able to perform wonders of bio-science. If you haven't read my Unique Character Origins thread, the first post summarizes how Teleios operates. I imagine with all the Qularr running around Earth recently, it wouldn't be unlikely for Teleios to have acquired some of their genetic material or semi-bio-tech.
Other criminal geneticists who probably have the capacity to do what you describe include Dr. Destroyer, Dr. Moreau, and the Overbrain, leader of the Brain Trust. VIPER, ARGENT, and various world governments, do undertake research into superhuman creation, but with much rarer and less consistent success. Keep in mind that Earthly scientists have had much difficulty understanding and adapting Qularr tech due to its advancement and differences from human technology, so it would likely take one of the above mentioned geniuses to really control the outcome of their experiments with it. OTOH a fluke success, or an accident that "gets away," are more likely with the less-successful groups.
Along those lines, the post in that thread I linked to also outlines Department 17, the hub of the US DoD's attempts to create, and control, superhumans. The US government has preserved samples of Qularr biology, along with salvage from all other alien invasions and visits, in its top-secret "Area 53" facility; so it's possible that D17 might conduct research along the lines you describe.
Please post a followup if you'd like to know more about any of the above, or if none of these work for you.
I personally haven't used the Qularr in my PnP games, but from Champions Beyond I don't get the impression that the Qularr adapt fast enough to be "bio-Borg." They have bred various castes with particular qualities and abilities suiting them for specific tasks in their society, but those caste functions have been defined and set over millennia. Qularr also don't appear to be able to generate superhuman members of their species at will. Those occur in the same random way they do among humans, although less often and at a lower average power level.
One thing to keep in mind about the Qularr, as CB emphasizes, is that they're not going to deploy offensive gene-altering viruses or similar biological WMDs. Their world was devastated by past wars using such weapons, killing hundreds of millions of people, so as a society they renounced them altogether. However, the Qularr have been known to experiment with humans, and are particularly interested in superhumans. Their main motivation for invading Earth is to find ways to infuse humans' greater capacity to manifest superpowers into the Qularr genome.
Was generally thinking of the 'accident that got away' idea, but with Teleios it would probably be more 'the experiment that is being tested and only thinks it got away, when in actual fact it is constantly being monitored', which is cool as it adds layers of uncertainty to the character's backstory. And of course there is no need for it to know it was a Teleios creation, adding more uncertainty for a revelations at a later date.
Got a decent idea now.
And I'm glad you feel our input was helpful.