FA+
Shop
130
Views
Views
11
Favorites
Favorites
Category
Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Fox (Other)
Size 2283 x 1614
File Size 2.37 MB
Report this content
More from BuildingBullshit
Listed in Folders
Finally, we address Chieftain Mutants, AKA 'the smart ones'.
Much like Warriors, specimens of the Chieftain strain do not seem to have very strict limits on what animals they can or cannot take the forms of. Most often they tend to lean towards animals with notably higher intellects and cognitive recognition, such as animals of the vulpine, feline, or rodent gene pools, though Chieftains that resemble all other known forms of organic fauna are noted to be just as common.
In fact, upon first glance, it'd be difficult to not mistake a Chieftain mutant for a Warrior, as the two strains are incredibly similar. Chieftains tend to be significantly larger than that of Warriors, or even Hunters, yet outside of proportional discrepancy, Chieftains and Warriors may appear to be completely identical. There is no added bulk or muscle mass like a Brute, no scrawny and nimble frame like a Scavenger, and certainly no wings like a Harpy. Physically, it may seem like there is nothing special at all regarding Chieftains, especially not to mark them as an entirely separate strain.
However, even despite this apparent mundanity to their mutations, Chieftains are not only a very dangerous strain, but many within our public and scholarly circles will consider them specifically as the most dangerous one of them all, and it is not physicality that grants them this title. Rather, it is one simple feature that puts them above every other strain in the Primal Mutation's hierarchy:
Their mind.
For out of all of the variations, gestations, and the random evolutions that plague this curse of rampant Wild Magic, Chieftain strain mutants, by far, have the best track record of intellect preservation. Where a Warrior would charge right at a foe, a Chieftain would wait for the opponent's next move, studying their plan. Where a Brute would try to smash down a door, a Chieftain would search for a key, to enter quietly. Where a Hunter would chase its quarry with savage fury, a Chieftain would pretend to be docile, scared, confused, faking innocence and desperation for help, so that the prey could come to it instead.
If Scavenger mutants are the workers, Warriors the fighters, Hunters the assassins, Brutes the knights, and Harpies the scouts, then by this logic of a twisted parody of an organised army, Chieftains are the officers, the strategists, the leaders. If there is a proper hierarchy to the mutant hordes as we assume, then Chieftain mutants are comfortably seated at the very highest positions, not because they're stronger, faster, or more durable than their peers, but because they are the only strain capable of forming complex, careful, and borderline genius tactical measures. How do the hordes choose what city to attack? How do the Hunters know who to kill? How do the Brutes know what to destroy? How can they recognize a human army, understand its functions, and learn to use their innate strengths and advantages to counter it? How does a horde even organise itself into a co-operative, coherent state, without its members constantly trying to devour their own ranks?
A Chieftain, is how.
Chieftain mutants retain the ability to plan, to remember, to think. The one human ability that all other strains try to destroy in their hosts, the ability to think, is instead controlled, altered, and elevated by the mutations of the Chieftain strain. They, are self-aware. And thanks to this power, a Chieftain can look upon another mutant, and understand what it is, understand what it can do, and figure out how to convince that very mutant to serve it, as if they were still human, and merely taming an animal. Because of this, all the other strains of the mutation obey the Chieftain, as without the strain's guidance, knowledge, and tactical assertation, the other strains would be little more than rampaging beasts. Without the Chieftain strain, other strains would not know what to do, where to go, who to kill, and who not to kill. Without the Chieftain strain, a horde would be bereft of orders, and the confusion would soon cause it crumble and fall apart into in-fighting and desertion. Without the Chieftain strain, there would be no mutant raiding horde in the first place.
For the Chieftain strain, is the horde.
They, in a sense, are the lions leading the armies of sheep, and it is thanks to this combination of animalistic strength and tactical understanding, this tiny little sliver of humanity left behind in the writhing tide of Wild Magic, that the raiding hordes of the mutation are as dire of a threat as we know them to be.
And in terms of individual threat, Chieftains are quite substantial as well. Their increased size compared to their more common peers is not just for show, as behind the Brute strain, Chieftains are some of the physically strongest members of a mutant horde, able to overpower low-grade endoframe augmentation, or even Trooper class automatons of non-Imperial design. However, what puts Chieftains a step above even that is, once again, the sheer quality of how well preserved their cognitive functions are from their mutations. This means that a Chieftain will likely be the most skilled combatant out of their entire hordes, able to not only keep up with any human-crafted martial stance, but, with the use their magically enhanced strength and agility, could completely overwhelm it within a fraction of a typical human's time. Warriors are held back by their stupidity, Hunters their aggression, and Brutes their sluggishness. Chieftains are not, Chieftains do not have these drawbacks. As of the writing of this documentation, there is currently no known weakness that can be identified from the Chieftain strain. Facing one directly is a drastically difficult task, and often a Chieftain will be wise enough to not let itself travel alone. With groups, augmentation, or even magic, it will hardly matter, Chieftain mutants are incredibly dangerous targets, and only the most experienced or prepared combatants will have a chance of facing one head on. And unfortunately, the most sure fire way to bring down a raiding mutant horde, is to target the Chieftain.
To add on further, most Chieftains tend to have had extensive experience in military combat from their old human lives, and should they have picked up any techniques, fighting styles, or clever tricks in how they approach combat, then such skills and experience would remain perfectly intact. If there are very specific methods a settlement uses to defend itself, people of interest, or some geographical disruption, a Chieftain will think to cautiously study any potential advantage and disadvantage available, and-if they find out- will know exactly how to make use of it. This preservation of human creativity is extensive in fact, that Chieftains are often the easiest to individually identify, should any records of their human lives exist. Meaning that, if the Chieftain in question is a sleeper, the human form can be easily tracked down and terminated before plans can escalate, assuming the human is caught far enough off guard, and that the impending raid involves a sleeper Chieftain at all.
This doesn't mean a Chieftain's humanity is entirely preserved of course, they do still suffer the loss of their sanity as all of their underlings do. But, it is a very noticeably different kind of loss. Whereas their peers would mostly devolve into baser instincts and animalistic behaviour, perhaps with some tragic writhes of their old memories or personalities leaking through, as if briefly lucid just to comprehend the horror of their situation, a Chieftain's mind is much less destroyed, as it is altered. A Chieftain still hungers, still desires carnage, still lusts to destroy and murder as much as it physically can, but many of our studies of this behaviour seem to paint it as a far more human breed of bloodlust. Unless emotionally compromised and sent into a instinctual frenzy to survive, Chieftains do not blindly charge at open wounds, Chieftains do not fall for petty tricks, Chieftains do not get on all fours to shove their snouts into carrion, it's even incredibly rare for a Chieftain mutant to fight without some form of man-made weaponry. They are still incapable of speech, incapable of surrender, incapable of mercy...but with so many reports and studies on their behaviour, it is very clear it's not because of a lack of understanding. Chieftain mutants know that they used to be human, reports of them trying to preserve their damaged clothing, take trophies, or displaying very distinct personality quirks, confirm undoubtedly that they remember their human lives, and the human values they held. And yet they still pursue fleeing civilians, they still refuse to show honour or spare pleading lives, they still lead the hordes to attack, consume, and expand. Some reports, from obscure sources, even make note of how some Chieftains would...laugh, at the destruction, bloodshed, and cruelty they're knowingly responsible for. Some Chieftains would look upon the chaos and ruin they bring...and laugh. Hysterically, in fact.
Some within of our scholarly circles believe the Chieftain strain still destroys the mind entirely, and instead just forms its behaviour and mannerisms around the old personality.
Some believe that the infected minds are perfectly lucid, and complicit, aware of what they're doing, but desiring nothing else, happy to let go of their human woes and inhibitions, and fading into the arms of instinct to reveal in their sadistic cravings.
And some accounts, particularly with rangers or huntsmen that have met a Chieftain face to face, may even claim that the mind is there, as lucid as ever...but able to do nothing. Only watching in despair, as the mutation takes their own body from their control, actively mocking the human soul trapped in its own flesh with every step, kill, and atrocity they commit, by parodying their personalities with frightening accuracy. The laughter in that case, would sound far from willing.
The topic on how much is truly left of a Chieftain Mutant still remains debated, but the primary agreement above it all remains standing, even to this day:
The human inside, is gone. Killing a mutant, no matter the strain, the size, or the similarity to their old lives, is an act of mercy.
Should you face down a mutant of the Chieftain strain-(which we do not recommend without at least augmentation or assistance)-you must do everything in your power to end them. For not only will a Chieftain's death cause a mutant horde to disperse, deplete, and disappear, effectively bringing the raid to an end...but you will be liberating countless innocent lives from a fate worse than death, in all parties involved.
Just beware.
When you face a Chieftain, you are fighting a beast, a monstrosity, not a human...
Not anymore.
And there we go, all of the base Mutant Raider types done. I'm not sure if this was a great idea as the first piece of worldbuilding to showcase on this account, but so much of my stuff is very deeply linked to lore and plotlines so they have to be uploaded in an order, and these just happened to be...outside, that order.
Look I know exactly what I'm doing, okay?
Much like Warriors, specimens of the Chieftain strain do not seem to have very strict limits on what animals they can or cannot take the forms of. Most often they tend to lean towards animals with notably higher intellects and cognitive recognition, such as animals of the vulpine, feline, or rodent gene pools, though Chieftains that resemble all other known forms of organic fauna are noted to be just as common.
In fact, upon first glance, it'd be difficult to not mistake a Chieftain mutant for a Warrior, as the two strains are incredibly similar. Chieftains tend to be significantly larger than that of Warriors, or even Hunters, yet outside of proportional discrepancy, Chieftains and Warriors may appear to be completely identical. There is no added bulk or muscle mass like a Brute, no scrawny and nimble frame like a Scavenger, and certainly no wings like a Harpy. Physically, it may seem like there is nothing special at all regarding Chieftains, especially not to mark them as an entirely separate strain.
However, even despite this apparent mundanity to their mutations, Chieftains are not only a very dangerous strain, but many within our public and scholarly circles will consider them specifically as the most dangerous one of them all, and it is not physicality that grants them this title. Rather, it is one simple feature that puts them above every other strain in the Primal Mutation's hierarchy:
Their mind.
For out of all of the variations, gestations, and the random evolutions that plague this curse of rampant Wild Magic, Chieftain strain mutants, by far, have the best track record of intellect preservation. Where a Warrior would charge right at a foe, a Chieftain would wait for the opponent's next move, studying their plan. Where a Brute would try to smash down a door, a Chieftain would search for a key, to enter quietly. Where a Hunter would chase its quarry with savage fury, a Chieftain would pretend to be docile, scared, confused, faking innocence and desperation for help, so that the prey could come to it instead.
If Scavenger mutants are the workers, Warriors the fighters, Hunters the assassins, Brutes the knights, and Harpies the scouts, then by this logic of a twisted parody of an organised army, Chieftains are the officers, the strategists, the leaders. If there is a proper hierarchy to the mutant hordes as we assume, then Chieftain mutants are comfortably seated at the very highest positions, not because they're stronger, faster, or more durable than their peers, but because they are the only strain capable of forming complex, careful, and borderline genius tactical measures. How do the hordes choose what city to attack? How do the Hunters know who to kill? How do the Brutes know what to destroy? How can they recognize a human army, understand its functions, and learn to use their innate strengths and advantages to counter it? How does a horde even organise itself into a co-operative, coherent state, without its members constantly trying to devour their own ranks?
A Chieftain, is how.
Chieftain mutants retain the ability to plan, to remember, to think. The one human ability that all other strains try to destroy in their hosts, the ability to think, is instead controlled, altered, and elevated by the mutations of the Chieftain strain. They, are self-aware. And thanks to this power, a Chieftain can look upon another mutant, and understand what it is, understand what it can do, and figure out how to convince that very mutant to serve it, as if they were still human, and merely taming an animal. Because of this, all the other strains of the mutation obey the Chieftain, as without the strain's guidance, knowledge, and tactical assertation, the other strains would be little more than rampaging beasts. Without the Chieftain strain, other strains would not know what to do, where to go, who to kill, and who not to kill. Without the Chieftain strain, a horde would be bereft of orders, and the confusion would soon cause it crumble and fall apart into in-fighting and desertion. Without the Chieftain strain, there would be no mutant raiding horde in the first place.
For the Chieftain strain, is the horde.
They, in a sense, are the lions leading the armies of sheep, and it is thanks to this combination of animalistic strength and tactical understanding, this tiny little sliver of humanity left behind in the writhing tide of Wild Magic, that the raiding hordes of the mutation are as dire of a threat as we know them to be.
And in terms of individual threat, Chieftains are quite substantial as well. Their increased size compared to their more common peers is not just for show, as behind the Brute strain, Chieftains are some of the physically strongest members of a mutant horde, able to overpower low-grade endoframe augmentation, or even Trooper class automatons of non-Imperial design. However, what puts Chieftains a step above even that is, once again, the sheer quality of how well preserved their cognitive functions are from their mutations. This means that a Chieftain will likely be the most skilled combatant out of their entire hordes, able to not only keep up with any human-crafted martial stance, but, with the use their magically enhanced strength and agility, could completely overwhelm it within a fraction of a typical human's time. Warriors are held back by their stupidity, Hunters their aggression, and Brutes their sluggishness. Chieftains are not, Chieftains do not have these drawbacks. As of the writing of this documentation, there is currently no known weakness that can be identified from the Chieftain strain. Facing one directly is a drastically difficult task, and often a Chieftain will be wise enough to not let itself travel alone. With groups, augmentation, or even magic, it will hardly matter, Chieftain mutants are incredibly dangerous targets, and only the most experienced or prepared combatants will have a chance of facing one head on. And unfortunately, the most sure fire way to bring down a raiding mutant horde, is to target the Chieftain.
To add on further, most Chieftains tend to have had extensive experience in military combat from their old human lives, and should they have picked up any techniques, fighting styles, or clever tricks in how they approach combat, then such skills and experience would remain perfectly intact. If there are very specific methods a settlement uses to defend itself, people of interest, or some geographical disruption, a Chieftain will think to cautiously study any potential advantage and disadvantage available, and-if they find out- will know exactly how to make use of it. This preservation of human creativity is extensive in fact, that Chieftains are often the easiest to individually identify, should any records of their human lives exist. Meaning that, if the Chieftain in question is a sleeper, the human form can be easily tracked down and terminated before plans can escalate, assuming the human is caught far enough off guard, and that the impending raid involves a sleeper Chieftain at all.
This doesn't mean a Chieftain's humanity is entirely preserved of course, they do still suffer the loss of their sanity as all of their underlings do. But, it is a very noticeably different kind of loss. Whereas their peers would mostly devolve into baser instincts and animalistic behaviour, perhaps with some tragic writhes of their old memories or personalities leaking through, as if briefly lucid just to comprehend the horror of their situation, a Chieftain's mind is much less destroyed, as it is altered. A Chieftain still hungers, still desires carnage, still lusts to destroy and murder as much as it physically can, but many of our studies of this behaviour seem to paint it as a far more human breed of bloodlust. Unless emotionally compromised and sent into a instinctual frenzy to survive, Chieftains do not blindly charge at open wounds, Chieftains do not fall for petty tricks, Chieftains do not get on all fours to shove their snouts into carrion, it's even incredibly rare for a Chieftain mutant to fight without some form of man-made weaponry. They are still incapable of speech, incapable of surrender, incapable of mercy...but with so many reports and studies on their behaviour, it is very clear it's not because of a lack of understanding. Chieftain mutants know that they used to be human, reports of them trying to preserve their damaged clothing, take trophies, or displaying very distinct personality quirks, confirm undoubtedly that they remember their human lives, and the human values they held. And yet they still pursue fleeing civilians, they still refuse to show honour or spare pleading lives, they still lead the hordes to attack, consume, and expand. Some reports, from obscure sources, even make note of how some Chieftains would...laugh, at the destruction, bloodshed, and cruelty they're knowingly responsible for. Some Chieftains would look upon the chaos and ruin they bring...and laugh. Hysterically, in fact.
Some within of our scholarly circles believe the Chieftain strain still destroys the mind entirely, and instead just forms its behaviour and mannerisms around the old personality.
Some believe that the infected minds are perfectly lucid, and complicit, aware of what they're doing, but desiring nothing else, happy to let go of their human woes and inhibitions, and fading into the arms of instinct to reveal in their sadistic cravings.
And some accounts, particularly with rangers or huntsmen that have met a Chieftain face to face, may even claim that the mind is there, as lucid as ever...but able to do nothing. Only watching in despair, as the mutation takes their own body from their control, actively mocking the human soul trapped in its own flesh with every step, kill, and atrocity they commit, by parodying their personalities with frightening accuracy. The laughter in that case, would sound far from willing.
The topic on how much is truly left of a Chieftain Mutant still remains debated, but the primary agreement above it all remains standing, even to this day:
The human inside, is gone. Killing a mutant, no matter the strain, the size, or the similarity to their old lives, is an act of mercy.
Should you face down a mutant of the Chieftain strain-(which we do not recommend without at least augmentation or assistance)-you must do everything in your power to end them. For not only will a Chieftain's death cause a mutant horde to disperse, deplete, and disappear, effectively bringing the raid to an end...but you will be liberating countless innocent lives from a fate worse than death, in all parties involved.
Just beware.
When you face a Chieftain, you are fighting a beast, a monstrosity, not a human...
Not anymore.
And there we go, all of the base Mutant Raider types done. I'm not sure if this was a great idea as the first piece of worldbuilding to showcase on this account, but so much of my stuff is very deeply linked to lore and plotlines so they have to be uploaded in an order, and these just happened to be...outside, that order.
Look I know exactly what I'm doing, okay?
Category Artwork (Digital) / Fantasy
Species Fox (Other)
Size 2283 x 1614px
File Size 2.37 MB
Listed in Folders
Tactical Beast...
Maybe psychopaths turned?
Doesn't take much to remove the person from one and a beast form would just let them go from meticulously planning out a murder to not get caught to meticulously and enjoying the murder with a horde of other beasts...
At least that's my thoughts...
Maybe psychopaths turned?
Doesn't take much to remove the person from one and a beast form would just let them go from meticulously planning out a murder to not get caught to meticulously and enjoying the murder with a horde of other beasts...
At least that's my thoughts...
Comments