Terl obar: Created page with '==Physcial Description== 300px Based upon limited intelligence reports, the Mechanons appear to be highly advanced robots. It is not known how ma…'

2011-06-25T00:24:33Z

Created page with '==Physcial Description== 300px Based upon limited intelligence reports, the Mechanons appear to be highly advanced robots. It is not known how ma…'

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==Physcial Description==
[[File:Mechanons-SF2.png|right|300px]]
Based upon limited intelligence reports, the Mechanons
appear to be highly advanced robots. It is not known how
many varieties of Mechanons exist.

Their form is roughly humanoid, though many have a
large metallic tail which is apparently used for balance and
other functions. A Mechanon's head is a cluster of various
colored crystals. These crystals are in some way
connected with the electronic circuitry of the machine.
Although unverified, it is widely believed that the
coloration of the crystals which form a Mechanon's head
are also an indication of the Mechanon's exact position in
its society.

==Culture==
The Mechanons evolved from Eorna robots. A large
number of robots, including robot brains, survived the first
Sathar attack. Some were linked to self-programming
computers. Without Eorna guidance, groups of these robot
brain / computer teams began building new robots.
Improvements were added bit by bit, and eventually a
group of self-programming super robots evolved. Over a
long period of time, and with more and more refinements,
these became the Mechanons. The robots used every day
on the Frontier worlds are to the Mechanons what
opossums and tree shrews are to humans: there is a
certain similarity between them, but the differences are
far more important.

The Mechanons are loosely classified as an intelligent
race, even though they are, as far as it is known, actually
machines. Nonetheless, they meet several of the major
qualifications for intelligence: organizing and controlling
their environment, utilization and transformation of
energy, and purposeful behavior.

The society seems to be organized into a strict caste
system that does not allow for advancement from a lower
status to a higher one. The lower classes are assumed to
be workers, but the exact details of the Mechanons society
are unknown.

What is known of the Mechanon culture is unified by one
dominant theme: machine life is superior to biological life
and must eventually replace it. Biological life must be
tolerated for the time being, but the day will come when it
can be exterminated and the world made safe for rational
machines.

This drive toward aggression supports the hierarchy of
Mechanon culture, which includes a reverence for both
brains and brawn. Extremely intelligent Mechanons are
regarded with something approaching awe by more
standard models, just as Humans feel that there is
something awesome and mysterious about a genius of
their own kind. The top leaders of the Mechanon society
are referred to simply as "the brains."

Only slightly lower in status than the brains are the
warriors. These are special Mechanons built for combat.
They are considered an elite group, by themselves and the
other Mechanons.

Mechanons use standard types of robots to perform a
variety of tasks, just as Humans and others do. It is not
known whether this practice is, in their view, a form of
slavery or domestication. One must always distinguish
carefully between Mechanons and ordinary robots.

Mechanon society does contain a number of oddities due
to the Mechanons' limited basic knowledge of the
universe. Their high technology is based upon crystals and
electronics; they obtained this through the early
computers and their own experimentation. However, their
understanding of the nature of the solar system was
gained only by direct observation, and is rather crude.
They do not have any concept of the vastness of the
universe, and are inclined to think that Volturnus is the
center of all things, that the rest of the universe is simply
there to provide a setting for their own activities.

Beliefs such as these have led the Mechanons to a religion
of sorts. Here, too, the Mechanons are somewhat limited.
They have lost all memory or record of their own creation
and the creation of the robots and computers that
preceded them. They believe that a machine god has
created them to do its will. Its will is to exterminate

biological life and replace it with Mechanons.
Mechanons have no sense of private or public property;
supplies simply exist and are used as needed. The
Mechanons have no families; new Mechanons, like new
robots, are created fully functional, and with complete
memories.

There are no laws as such in Mechanon society; every
Mechanon is given certain behavioral directives by its
programmers during construction. There are many fewer
limitations upon the warrior and brain Mechanons than
there are imposed upon other Mechanons. These elite
Mechanons are programmed to do anything that will
further the cause of mechanical life, keeping in mind the
need for curtailing some short term actions in order to
maximize gains in the long run.

It is entirely possible that at some time in the future the
Mechanons could present a tremendous threat to the
Frontier Worlds.

==Reaction to Player Characters==
The Mechanons will react to the player characters as they
react to all specimens of biological life: the same way a
scientist working on a new insecticide reacts to the insects
he is trying to kill. Some player characters will be taken
alive and used as objects of study, while those deemed
useless will be disposed of.

If the player characters manage to communicate with
them, the Mechanons will understand that the Sathar
could pose a major threat to their own plans, which are to
begin with the take-over of Volturnus.

==Sources==
* SF-02: Starspawn of Volturnus

Mechanons - Revision history

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