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NMX Forces Update

Arieg

DEFCON Everybody Dies
Considering the direction this project's projections have taken with this thread I've decided to update this post with my present goings on. Firstly I've taken a step back from targeting the Mishhu as a whole and opted to go after updating their technology in a third party manner by establishing a 'supply' faction to give them the baseline articles that most factions are required to possess these days in the tech fields. Additionally taking into account the discussions with Fred over the NH-25 hybrid I've decided to pursue a Nightmare 'Lite' also created through this supply faction. In any event here is the spread below.

Insagri Kuggra Ussagri
A recently raised organization and rough counterpart to Yamatai's Ketsurui Zaibatsu, the Insagri Kuggra Ussagri or IKU is intended to bring a new order to the chaotic environment that is the military forces and equipment of the Mishhuvurthyar. The organization was first discovered by major factions roughly toward the second quarter of YE 37.

(List of project intents to follow)
 
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Alright, here's my nitpicks. If it's not here, assume I agree.
  • Missing references to Parasite type. Is this the 'swarm' that confuses you? Or are you thinking of the old SMX bugs?
  • Lifecycle of all NMX types should be on the wiki. If there is anything confusing or needing clarification I will be happy to explain.*
  • Crabs reeeeeealy don't need a secondary type. The NMX have Advanced types and their own Neko for light shock troops.
  • Hybrids under the NMX are just infected Neko with Parasites Types. They don't really follow the rules of the old Pumpkin-esque SMX. This is probably the one thing that's been misunderstood the most about the NMX from it's start as a lof of people assumed the new hybrids were like the old hybrids, but I'm not sure of how much of the ''canon'' RP has incorporated these SMX/NMX hybrid Hybrids.
  • As for the armaments, at least where they don't clash with what I've already stated, the new stuff looks good, but there's a lot of NMX armaments that already exist. And I'm not a technology person so I can't really address these at all except the new models look cool? Wes did all the work for all the NMX's vast arsenal

*Note: one of the good things that made the old SMX good baddies was that you COULDN'T explain a lot of them. When I took up the task of writing the NMX there was a lot of scouring through the available SMX information and like good evil creatures, you couldn't really explain them all succinctly. I feel like in actually explaining out the NMX I took a lot of that away, and I understand that as they are a GM tool, GMs are free to modify what has been set down as they see fit.
 
Arieg's been talking to me about this and I've more or less been a sounding board for his ideas, so I think I may be able to shed some light on some of this if needed, as well as offer up my own suggestions.
  • I didn't talk too much about the bugs with him, but I'm guessing he's referring to the SMX bugs, given that the Parasite type has him crossing his legs at the thought of what they'd do to a Neko with a skirt. Considering what the Mishhu are supposed to be from an OOC standpoint, this is a good thing in my books. I'd rather we just keep those bugs in history and allocate the job of swarming at players to the Parasite. Additionally, some facehugger-esque stalking of the unaware would suit them perfectly
  • Talking with Arieg, it's not really a secondary type of crab. In all honesty, I'm told that the thing that really made the NMX unenjoyable was that they were so human. There were many, many Neko and very few actual Mishhu. And the Rippers were laughable. The idea that I suggested to make the Mishhu more monstrous and go back to their SMX roots was to simply get rid of most humanoid troops, and make the Mishhu the center of their own military. In order to do this, I quickly came up with a rough idea of how that would work out. That's a long explanation of its own though.
    The initial idea I put forward for him as a working example was that parasites would be trash-mobs, swarming players and individually stalking them when the situation permits. Accompanying them would be swarms of the infested, which would also be used for slave labor, and if any individuals were interesting enough, they'd be de-wormed for use as personal maids or something. These would be followed by actual Mishhuvurthyar themselves, but would basically be physically mature but very young, inexperienced individuals thrown into battle to prove their mettle by killing people bare-tentacled - they'd have to be clever and/or sneaky enough to move into closer range for melee AND survive to get promoted. It's absolutely vicious and also makes a point by showing just how powerful and dangerous even an unarmed one is. Serving as actual firepower and drawing most of the attention so that the former two have a chance would be Mishhuvurthyar Troopers; these are the ones that survived by proving themselves. Instead of PA, they're clad in mere un-powered suits with thick armor plating, a shield generator and thrusters; the weight, they are well able to lift themselves, and includes maybe any four guns they'd like to carry in addition to any attached to the suit itself. Very dangerous and more than a match for a single player. After that, I imagined that those that were very good at killing were allowed to grow into Crabs, which would follow the same theme and be used as fire support or even like AFVs. All depending on how large they've grown. This is that bit about the 'Type' of Crab Arieg was talking about. It's not an actual subspecies, but a military occupation or role. A type of soldier. From there though, we'd go towards command; Mishhu fit for that may be granted a Ripper, leading to their dismemberment into a 'brain slave' that's grafted into the chassis. I always hated how ridiculously stupid and idiotic Rippers were when I read any plot. This would change that, and make them as dangerous as an Elite was to a squad of normal human marines in Halo's books; completely outclassing. This way, that Hopeless picture suddenly makes sense. Hybrids, I suggested play specialist roles though, where they're primarily logistics and administration (you now see one with glasses sitting at the secretary's desk) or serving as scouts, snipers and infiltrators/intelligence. Given that they came from older Neko stock, I reasoned that they'd have enough Hemosynth Ability to wrap all their tentacles up and bind them in a thin, fleshy sheath or something. Nightmares would serve in the same capacity. However, the Hybrids would be more prone to being logistics and administration, while Nightmares would be more prone to take specialized field duties. This reduces the amount of humanity players see in the Mishhu military by putting them in more uncommon roles.
  • The life cycle bit came from his original insistence of making it so that the Mishhu were purely just a brain and spinal-cord like creature that then grew one of the now iconic bodies around itself and could be swapped. The intent of his was to increase initial spawn rate and just have them grow up into what we all know from there. After telling him it was a bad idea, and then telling him that the Mishhu pretty much beat the Krogans in reproduction, he asked me to explain that to him. After thinking about it a bit, I could only give him lots of theory based off of what I read and heard. I'll spoiler tag it since it's a fair chunk of text.
    I suggested that when a Mishhu wanted to get as many whelps as possible, they would essentially stuff a body - living or dead - with as many eggs as possible like some sort of Hellraiser-Turkey. Chest cavity, uterine lining, stomach, the colon; anything went. Being asked what the size of an egg was, I guessed that they were most likely between the size of a ping-pong ball to a tennis ball. Which then lead to what effects that could have on the spawn. Based off the fact that their hatchlings have burst out of victims in the past, and that some of them were even unaware of them inside themselves, I suggested that the smaller eggs would likely produce far more ravenous ones that would need to eat to make up for their smaller mass. Larger ones would just mature more quickly after hatching due to having a head start. I then theorized that less lethal instances would basically be determined by a higher priority on self-gratification and a low need on having several whelps. There was also the reminder that self-fertilized eggs were essentially a form of cloning, much like a Neko's ability to have a virgin birth. This, yet again, lead to another pair of questions and some more theorizing that I put forward; how did Mishhu actually breed, and why would they bother inseminating a victim? My guess was that if a Mommy Mishhu and a Daddy Mishhu loved each-other very much - ok, being serious. One would lay the eggs, and the other would fertilize if they wanted actual offspring between one another for whatever reason. As for the victim only getting cream filling, it made sense when the victim was someone particularly noteworthy in some way; gestation would take longer than with eggs, and in addition, their genes would actually mix. This means that what is born is undeniably the bastard child of the victim and the Mishhu - it's an act that is far more humiliating and psychologically damaging, something completely fitting for the Mishhu.
  • With the Hybrids, info has been sorely lacking with them from Day 1, so it would help to cement them with an article so that they're portrayed consistently. To be honest however, the SMX style of Neko is what I prefer over the 'new' version. I reason that if the Mishhuvurthyar return to being monstrous like they used to be, the instances where a GM needs to interact with the players with a more human face, the speaker shouldn't be someone that's basically losing their mind and possibly half insane or stupid. Rather, they should look great, be affable, speak nicely and politely, and also be disturbingly alien at the same time. A skirt of nothing but tentacles from the hips down fit the bill even better than the earliest Hybrids which merely had the skirt around human legs. Also, I point out that one thing that needs to be addressed is how they're made or born.
    They can be manufactured just like Nightmares, but I honestly found that disappointing and not monstrous enough. I'd suggest warping Mendel's Laws, where if a Mishhu and a Neko get together, there's a 75% chance of a Mishhu. The remaining 25% would be split between getting an actual Neko, or a Hybrid, with Hybrids being 25% of that itself, leading to the overall chance of getting a Hybrid as 6%. My reasoning for this is to emphasize the link between Neko and Mishhu, making the relationship between the two a far more terrifying intimacy. The RP opportunities that could come out of this would be very beneficial due to the potential amounts of horror a good GM and player can use.
  • It's actually a yes and no when it comes to the Mishhu having enough equipment to work with. With humans in their ranks, there's still not quite enough - the Impaler is horribly anemic, and forces GMs to reach into the SAoY's armory for a decent gun. Meanwhile, if we center the new military around the Mishhu themselves, it becomes very painfully obvious that there's next to nothing for them to actually use. They've always been mentioned as being tough as nails and capable of toting PA level weapons naturally, but they flat out don't have any for themselves to use. This is a massive problem, since what players fight against on a regular basis is far, far more important than a fleet of ships, as these would also be the very tools a GM has at their disposal to use. The current armory is very limited in this regard.
All these ideas aside, we'll ultimately need feedback from Wes and Fred, and more importantly, as many players as possible to see if they'll warm up to any of these concepts.
 
Shot, can you direct me to a weapon that is better than the Impaler? It's among the best weapons I could find for a non-PA infantryman vs PA short of rockets.
 
That may be true, but it's the worst ADR weapon to arm a PA with. It only does ADR 1, and in order for a GM to arm Mishhu forces with something more adequate, they have to go into the SAoY's armory and give them the LASR like I mentioned earlier. IC, this is somewhat understandable, but at the same time, the Mishhu have a lot of pride. If they do this too much, instead of making their own weapons, it kind of throws that under the bus.
 
Impaler's problem is that it can be issued to non-PA infantry with ease and in their hands it is probably one of the most formidable firearms on the site.
 
I'll reserve my opinion on this proposal, at least until @Wes has chimed in.

If you seek to make changes and flesh out the Mishhuvurthyar, I suggest taking the same approach I did back when I was Wes' co-Admin. Take a sample, apply said changes, and then demonstrate that it works better. Other GMs will probably pick up on what they feel works as well.

I'm more comfortable with this initiative trying to lead by example rather than flesh out the NMX as a whole.
 
It still makes for a horrible weapon to arm a PA with though ShotJon.

Right now, it's just a bunch of ideas being bounced around; I'd rather not even make small changes until I at least get some feedback, lest it be a flop. Still, what are your thoughts on this so far Fred? What do you like and dislike about the concepts, and why?
 
Cadet, if it is so bad, then don't carry it, the Reaper PA has other weapons built in anyway.

On the other hand, non-PA infantry don't have other weapons built in. Just because it is a terrible PA weapon does not mean non-PA forces will find it useless. You have to look beyond the PA usage. Or maybe not. People still pack pistols even when toting ARs, PA might treat it as a back up weapon.
 
FWIW, I disagree with @Fred in the case of the NMX. For the SMX, it's absolutely true and it worked well for them, but the NMX are a different beast coming at the situation of starting with a codified base. Now, I talked about my misgivings before about how that shapes their role as 'villains,' and I think one of the downsides we get as a result is people asking things about how the New Mishhu could integrate with other societies. The core facet of the NMX is that they are aggressors, driven by the need to dominate. @CadetNewb you ask about two Mishhu loving each other or having a child together. But that's entirely too human of a way of thinking. A Mishhu could impregnate another, but it would be as a form of dominance, essentially taking away 'being a Mishhu,' from it's partner. The ultimate punishment worse than death.

The reason Mishhu impregnate other sentient life is because that's their goal, to subjugate and dominate all other life. That's why they take the forms they do, that's why they act and are built as they are. Humans are not the real monsters in this case. They are the monsters. They are monstrous. They are the badguys. We're not supposed to see things from their side, to be sympathetic. That's what player-run factions are for. These are the villains that threaten all of space. Every faction. These are the badguys that anyone and everyone opposes and rallies against.

Now, the NMX obviously come from Nekovalkyrja stock and the base project that built them, and this is where I think the whole Hybrid appeal thing comes from with fulfilling the "dominant women with tentacles" fetish. But to understand things, this again was the old SMX, where they had these sort of characters. It certainly doesn't take a huge stretch to imagine this sort of personality might be possible with the melding of a parasite with a host coming out as a result. The NMX as built certainly allows for that sort of thing. And here's where I agree with @Fred in that if people do it in the RP, then that's what matters for their RP. The NMX as written in the wiki is a guideline. And this thread is about expanding on those guidelines.

And as for the specific point of the types of eggs they lay, it's dependant on their goals. The Mishhu implanting the eggs controls which type of eggs they are. I'm pretty sure there's something in the articles about this, but please correct me if I'm wrong. The actual gestation time is left up to the speed of plot required by the individual GMs, as is the needs of the Mishhu in question doing the implanting. There is some horror that needs to remain if only in the case where a PC won't really know everything about an outcome of any given encounter with the enemy.
 
I'm not advocating tossing the Impaler out precisely because it's one of the very best infantry rifles out there. Rather, the Reaper could use some more proper weapons for itself. Sticking to its standard armaments, and not the special aether stuff, even it's 'hard hitting' cannon is inferior to the SAoY's at ADR 3 rather than 4. And then there's the Mishhu themselves; there's nothing specifically for them, so I've always seen GMs just defining what they got as being a generic railgun or something, and that doesn't say too much.

And whoah! Hold your horses Revolver! The mommy and daddy Mishhu bits were a joke. Being more serious though, I'd have to guess that a Mishhu would only fertilize another's laid eggs because the two have come to a 'breeding agreement' to try and get a better batch. Even that would be pretty rare, the idea in this case being that though they are monsters, they're still capable of respect.

With the Hybrids though, I suppose we don't have to have any concrete origin for them, but they were established in past RP as being NH-25's.

And the eggs themselves, well, I'm not too sure at all. Last I looked through Mishhu articles myself, there really wasn't much at all.
 
"even it's 'hard hitting' cannon is inferior to the SAoY's at ADR 3 rather than 4."

Hey, leave our "heroes" a slight edge at least! Heroes are suppose to have one. :) I don't really see it as a big problem.

As for Mish weapons, I kind of like the idea of their personal self defence weapons being multiple high damage anti-PA melee axes, slashing/stabbing blades and hammers. It sort of goes with the tentacles. A high damage close range "mini-boss" so to speak. Meet it in a corridor or a room and watch a PA squad dance with it.

As for inter-Mish relationships, how about hormonal? Mating season snuggle-snuggle, post-mating season, won't give you the time of the day. It would fit their racial character.
 
Giving the players the edge is the easy part. What's harder in comparison is making things tougher. Should a GM choose to do that, they simply have less options on the table to work with.

And I'm not sure a hormonal mating season is a good idea. Based off of IC, it already seems to be a 24/7 thing for them, and with the defeated/subjugated as the preferred other.
 
I disagree that making a scenario tougher is harder, you can meatshield your player's ammo low, add more units, traps, environment conditions etc. Changing the tech base is a very permanent thing, though I do agree a standardized variety of weapons that suit their tactics would be nice.

From the Impaler, if I were to guess Mish tactics, it would be the mass non-PA infantry rush with a lot of unarmoured infantry using decent weapons but mass numbers to overwhelm the enemy. In reverse, the SAoY does seem to have a preponderance of PA weaponry and accessories which would indicate a preference for PA. Their equipment would reflect their tactics.
 
Also there is something confusing with Mishu and their ehm... reproduction. In some stories they laid eggs in females while in some they just fertilised the female. So this should be brought to light as well.
 
Also there is something confusing with Mishu and their ehm... reproduction. In some stories they laid eggs in females while in some they just fertilised the female. So this should be brought to light as well.

This I'm certain is on the wiki. Mishhu can lay eggs in anything, male or female. This is their main mode of reproduction when better alternatives are available. Or if they just enjoy it, whatever. If they have a compatable womb-bearing creature, then they can instead fertilize her with special fluids that overtake the reproductive system and 'reprogram' it to birth Mishhu young. This is usually just NH-based creatures as written, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was RP where it happened otherwise.

Oh that's easy. The one impregnating is the boy mish and the one laying eggs is the girl mish. :p

Unless they are Neko or Hybrids, there really aren't boy Mishhu or girl Mishhu, outside of whatever gender identity they choose for themselves, as any given non-parasyte Mishhu can both lay eggs and fertilize them.
 
The way it's been role played and described from my point of view (as in, was relevant in the portrayal of Melisson):
- Egg incubation is usually invasive. Mishhu implant eggs into usually unwilling victims and they hatch later on. Horror stories usually abound regarding that, with burger-sized Mishhu broodlings "erupting from bellies", running amok if in public or if not usually having their host was first not-so-portable emergency food supply. Having a womb makes insertion more convenient for classic mishhu, and ghost mishhu don't care; they'll phase incubate you from any nook that's convenient.

- Note that Mishhu are capable of keeping their own eggs; there is precedent of Ghost Mishhuvurthyar implanting newborn Mishhu into their victims rather than eggs. I figure that it's a question of nutrients. The Mishhu egg was always decribed as very soft, considering how it was always squeezed through the length of a Mishhu tentacle before insertion, so I figure it's nature is more of it being a placenta-like sac containing the broodling rather than anything shell-like (with "egg" used as nomenclature for lack of a better term). If the Mishhu keeps it, then it draws nutrient from it and the Mishhu is effectively pregnant. If the Mishhu implants the egg, then its nutrition is someone else's problem - the Mishhu gets to make someone else possibly miserable, and they avoid the whole fuss about pregnancy - a win-win for them.

Yamatai typically considers someone having been incubated to be a death sentence (though it's often not for nekos) and typically have the person soul transfered to dodge most of the fuss the situation would entail. When nekos give birth to a classic Mishhu, it's typically hard due to the shell that needs to be pushed out, but it doesn't necessarily entail death. The Mishhu broodliong themselves, aside from their usual needs, are actually pretty much as analytical and curious as any nekovalkyrja younglings. It's their environment and circumstances of birth that usually push them toward being more sinister.

- Mishhu eggs can be delivered sooner, and at that point it's largely under-developped and lacks volition. The popular appelation for those are "brain slaves" - they can be instructed and will do as they are told; their typical use is to 'crew' Mishhu battlepods and mechas.

- Fluid insertion is typically a different process in that it's transformative. Tentacle-rape hentai derived roleplay aside, it's a process that's usually done only with females (wombs required) and the fluids injected gradually change the recipient into a breeder; an humanoid 'conveyance' made to hold and give birth to Mishhu offsprings in a more controlled environment. The breeder's transformation changes them so much that they can't really be called individuals anymore at the end as the only thing they really derive purpose (and contentment) from is being implanted, holding thier youngs, bearing them and being eaten by them during their first feedings (nekovalkyrja shine there, as "the best meal is the one that can regrow limbs). Late in the process, breeders are typically grafted into the organic nature of Mishhu organic/fleshy dwellings.

- There's no Ghost Mishhuvurthyar without involvement from an Umbral (colloquially called "dark ones" or inaccurately "dark mishhuvurthyar"). If Umbral are the Mishhuvurthyar equivalent of gods, Ghost Mishhu are their demi-god children - they have much strong psionics, they can phase, and they're typically meaner and stronger too (arguably, Ghost Mishhu were never made into Neo Mishhu simply because the Ghost Mishhu are still superior). The process remains nebulous (as in, I'm not telling you) but it's been known to involve breeders and the Umbral staying close most of the time during gestation.

- Formerly, the Classic Mishhu lifecycle included the egg, which would either be a brain slave, the Mishhu broodling, or given proper attention, a Ghost Mishhu broodling. The Mishhu broodling would somehow reach adulthood and become a fully fledged Mishhuvurthyar, and at that point... it'd be able to insert eggs or create brainslaves. The Ghost Mishhuvurthyar can also do the same, but despite its ability to lay eggs which will become dark/grey-mottled Mishhu, they can't perpetuate other Ghost Mishhu by themselves.

The other states known were tied to the "Dark Mishhuvurthyar", which could 'explode in a swarm of bugs' (pillbugs are a recent entry, but originally they were more like angry wasps on steroids; or at least Melisson's were) or reshape parts of itself into different guise, such as the more comely and communicative humanoid "interpreter" or it's more battle-oriented variant, the "monster". The Umbral are at their fundamentals a swarm of creatures (nasty wasps) with which their biology allow to fuse with others and grow into a stronger being that functions like a hive intelligence.

- The Neo Mishhuvurthyar is a new process to the Umbral. The Umbral adopted the Mishhu and supported their war effort, but were largely not really into the whole "create an artificial body/soul transfer" schtick Yamatai has. Genetically recreating the Mishhu body and soul transfering former classic Mishhu to make them Neo Mishhu is basically what Wes described happening with that race - which makes total sense from the stance of someone whom decides to embrace Yamatai's way of creating their soldiers.

Melisson, however, sees something profoundly wrong with that, in that the Umbral endorsing such measures are purpose building their race of soldier/servants and end up just as bad as Yamatai - which is being attacked for the very same "ill". She sees purpose building the Neo Mishhu so to be in fact diminishing the species, and views them as inferiors. I kind of do as well; I don't think Wes considered all the societal rammifications creating the Neo Mishhu would entail. I'm not sure he cares either, but that's the story I'm sticking to - not for the least because it's more interesting.
 
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That's a good post @Fred that I really feel does an excellent job of highlighting how and why the SMX and NMX are so different from each other and why it's important not to conflate the two.
 
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