Recently I started diggint into Autochthonia and its lore and one interesting thing that came up was the antithesis of what PCs are expecting to play - the Engine of Extinction and its Apostates. I thought to myself that it might be interesting if there was an option to play a group of Alchemicals like this, but there was a problem - there isn't much to that side of the conflict besides "we're nihilistic and we're going to destroy the world we live in", which isn't that much of an interesting motivation for characters or a game. So here are a few thoughts about how that could be changed, and how we could give the Apostate Alchemicals something to work with philosophically. If you're looking to run a game with such characters as the PCs, or just want to give depth to your antagonists, hope you find it useful!
The Engine of Extinction and the Gremlin Syndrome
Authochthon is dying and he will die. This is a universal constant. He was sick and dying before death existed, and sometime between now and forever he will die. He will become the Engine of Extinction and join his Neverborn brethren he helped create (or perhaps he will suffer Fetitch death and become something entirely different thanks to the Viator of Nullspace or someone else, but that is not what we care about today).
In fact Autochthon's death is so powerful it manifest itself backwards through time to the present, creating pockets of sickness and creating Dissonance to bring it forth sooner. The whole premise of an Alchemical and Autochthonian game is to prevent that from happening.
The death of Autochthon manifest itself first in grinding gears, rusting metal and the sound of failing machinery, but then it progresses into an unusual space - the Gremlin Syndrome. Named after the folklore of the early 20th century explaining why aircraft and other machinery malfunctioned. It is organic life that springs forth from filing machinery, and it is cancer that kills.
The only way to fight that is by following rigidly teachings of Autochthon - Faith, Dogma, Tools! You must work together and toil day and night, least you all die together in the darkness!
But, what if that wasn't the complete truth? What if Autochthon was more self-serving and deceitful? After all, he is not some kind of benevolent robot Santa Claus, but an eldritch Primordial larger than the world whose thoughts are lightning and his soul is a whole hierarchy of beings. He is not beyond kidnapping untold thousands of people to slave away in his body for generations, toiling away from cradle to early grave just to sustain him. What if, in the end, he doesn't want you to see the alternative?
Life finds a way
Autochthon wants to live, and only way for him to live is to have people worship him. To that end he sustains them in a symbiosis. He taught his people that his death would mean the death of them all.
But I mean, there are plenty of people in Autochthonia that are void-touched gremlin-mutated people and they live. Maybe it's not the best way to live from the perspective of someone from an organised society, but it is indeed life. What if the Engine of Extinction is not a source of death for everyone, but more raw, messy life? Sure, it is the death of Autochthon, but not necessarily of Autochthonians...
What if the whispers of the Neverborn-to-be are that of freedom, of lush caves, and life more diverse than rats and cockroaches? That might be an alluring tale to tell, especially to people that toil endlessly in the world of machine and gears. Maybe they appeal to those Champions of the People by showing them a different way to save everyone and break down the metal cage the Great Maker put around everyone. Perhaps the Void will be the salvation of the people, but the process of getting there would be like ripping the most painful bandaid in your life...
Of course, just because that's what the Engine of Extinction would be whispering doesn't mean it has to be true, it just need to sound true. If Autochthon can lie, so can him the Neverborn. But that can make it all the more interesting of a struggle - the uncertainty of who is right.
But what would all of this be in service of? Void Cultist Alchemicals of course!
Apostate Alchemicals
So let's say you want to play a Void Cultist Alchemical as a PC. How could that look?
From what I've read on Alchemicals, the Apostates have been in a kind of a weird place. Void Tech Charms exist and they are known (as I understand, whenever someone creates a new Charm every Autochthonian Vats facility knows of its design), and as soon as you install one you are forever infected with the Gremlin Syndrome that can only be cured by killing you. I'd also imagine going into a regular Vats facility means your Void Tech gets noticed and you get terminated on the spot, so that's not really an option for you anymore. Luckily there apparently is some kind of Gremlin City around which might be your only option for getting maitenance, but as discussed before, Autochthonia is meant to be so vast travel between Nations should take months. So what if there was a better way?
Back a few years ago one of the former Exalted devs that did work on Alchemicals back in the day released a fun homebrew called Exalted vs World of Darkness. As the name suggests, it let you play Exalts in the Old World of Darkness. It did let you play an Alchemical, but there was an obvious problem to overcome - there were no Autochthonian nations anywhere to be found, and there certainly were no Vats facilities. So we had a different solution - the Alchemical exaltation became self-sustaining. They could go dormant and retreat all of their charms into themselves for 8 hours before they could manifest a new set of charms. During that time they would be about as vulnerable as a heroic mortal (and they could put their charms back up with some effort in an emergency, but that would cancel their reconfiguration). You could also stylise it as the Alchemical making a cocoon around themselves for a few hours to dissolve and reform themselves in a new shape, necessitating them to find a quiet and secluded place in Autochthonia (which can be a tall order in a land of no privacy!).
So what if this was the new mode of operation for Apostate Alchemicals?
Instead of being champions of the people, they became selfish individuals that didn't need anyone. Dangerous infiltrators that could fester anywhere without a support network. More versatile partisans than even the Moonsilver Caste. They work tirelessly to liberate the people against their will because they are the only ones that truly know what is best for them. New Void Cults spring around them, work gets sabotaged, and dirt gets in the cogs. Or when all fails, rip and tear!
The greatest gift the Engine of Extinction has given its champions is this liberation, and the ability to liberate others. With enough time any Apostate can bestow the same gift onto any other Alchemical. Whether they accept that gift willingly, or have it thrust upon them, that's of no concern, they are infected now. But for balance reasons, lets say an Alchemical can only receive this "gift" unwillingly if they incapacitated, and it does require a few hours of grafting, so it only happens in a situation where the character would already be dead anyways.
Beyond this you could have a library of Void Tech Charms to add on that could help you on your way. Maybe some way to hide those Charms during a Vats maintenance in case you want to remain incognito. Maybe some more aggressive infiltration charms that let you consume people and become them. Maybe more violent combat charms that tap into your new nature.
And if you want some grand motivation for a character, there is always this comic for an inspiration:
Maybe the Engine of Extinction desires to create Champions of its own to build a grand army, but in its death it has forgotten the secrets of how to do so. So now it drives its corrupted Apostates to pry those secrets from the Demiurges, a very complex task since those master craftsmen don't even know exactly what they are doing, but that they channel the brilliance of Autochthon through themselves. And as the books themselves suggest, even if you got the secrets from the Five Sodalities, it would only be a fraction of what you would need to know, since the rest of the secret would still remain hidden in Autochthon's crystalline memories.
But there is more you could do with these Apostate Alchemicals...
In the world with no ceiling
A lot of people like running a mixed Exalt group, but Alchemicals always come with a big plot elephant in the room - the Autochthonian nations, Project Razor, the Locust Crusade and all that. But if you don't want to bring all of that along, you could just have an Apostate appear on their own. Maybe they cyst'ed through the Seal of Eight Divinities, or came from a future tomb of the Neverborn-to-be, or maybe the Seal war broken but the Locust Crusade stalled out somewhere else in the world and they just hitched a ride. But now you have your cool golem hero in Creation without the plot baggage the rest of Autochthonia brings with it. Just don't question the sound of grinding gears they make from time to time, it's impolite ;).
Conclusion
If you expect anyone to play the champions of the Engine of Extinction, it's good to give it some kind of motivation that you could get behind. Logical reason is more interesting than just senseless carnage, even if it ends up being built on a lie told by a selfish Neverborn. The possibility that they are the ones telling the truth and trying to forcefully liberate the people from the lies Autochthon might be saying is a good enough justification to listen to those grinding gears...
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