Teaser Text: Armed Caryatids
Armed Caryatids
Armed caryatids are not regular foes of the Eumenides throughout most of history. The furies are the scourges of the All-Lords, and there is generally little a caryatid can do to offend the Executors. Rarely, however, do they directly draw the wrath of the All-Lords. More often, they come into conflict with the furies when they are complicit in the crimes of others or bystanders to an occult conflict. Thus Caryatids are slain now and again as part of Violations, and murdered by the billions when narrative arcs are twisted into Sealed Systems and cut out of history, but they are of little overall importance, no more than the individual year cells in a bread dough.
It is only in the Age of War and later that the mass of humanity becomes a regular enemy of the Executors’ stewards. The Lords of All are constantly channeling the attention of the resource-starved human race toward occult and geomantic concepts during its later history in order to bring about their desired technomagical apocalypse. Breaching the Maze of Black Doorways is a natural fixation for tottering military-industrial nation states seeking a justification for continuing their centralized policy structures, and so there are endless attempts to pry into the secrets of the All-Lords, ranging in size from small teams to vast national efforts. These efforts are often protected or spearheaded by elite military forces equipped with their sponsor’s most advanced weapons. These troops are the caryatids most often confronted by the eumenides.
Threat
Despite their personal frailty, these late-era caryatids can seriously wound or kill a eumenidon with man-portable weapons. Not every caryatid soldier will have weapons that can easily kill a fury, but these weapons are relatively plentiful in the sort of high-powered formations commonly encountered at job sites and due to mission complications. Furies in these periods must rely on stealth and misdirection, and not combat power when confronting such foes.
Most eumenides engaged in battle with Final Age or Age of War caryatids rely on attacks that target the frail psyches and selves of the mortals that operate these weapons. Only the Dukes of Thunder and the Scarlet Myrmidons take the field for direct engagements against striker formations from late history, and even these are marked by heavy realiance on teleport warfare and concentrated maskirovka efforts. Caryatids are merely the illusions of history, and their death is not worth any sacrifice whatsoever. As with their wars against the nikisi in Tel Chesed, the armies of the All-Lords know there is no victory in prolonged engagements with these phantom foes, only degrees of self-defeat.
Armed caryatids are not regular foes of the Eumenides throughout most of history. The furies are the scourges of the All-Lords, and there is generally little a caryatid can do to offend the Executors. Rarely, however, do they directly draw the wrath of the All-Lords. More often, they come into conflict with the furies when they are complicit in the crimes of others or bystanders to an occult conflict. Thus Caryatids are slain now and again as part of Violations, and murdered by the billions when narrative arcs are twisted into Sealed Systems and cut out of history, but they are of little overall importance, no more than the individual year cells in a bread dough.
It is only in the Age of War and later that the mass of humanity becomes a regular enemy of the Executors’ stewards. The Lords of All are constantly channeling the attention of the resource-starved human race toward occult and geomantic concepts during its later history in order to bring about their desired technomagical apocalypse. Breaching the Maze of Black Doorways is a natural fixation for tottering military-industrial nation states seeking a justification for continuing their centralized policy structures, and so there are endless attempts to pry into the secrets of the All-Lords, ranging in size from small teams to vast national efforts. These efforts are often protected or spearheaded by elite military forces equipped with their sponsor’s most advanced weapons. These troops are the caryatids most often confronted by the eumenides.
Threat
Despite their personal frailty, these late-era caryatids can seriously wound or kill a eumenidon with man-portable weapons. Not every caryatid soldier will have weapons that can easily kill a fury, but these weapons are relatively plentiful in the sort of high-powered formations commonly encountered at job sites and due to mission complications. Furies in these periods must rely on stealth and misdirection, and not combat power when confronting such foes.
Most eumenides engaged in battle with Final Age or Age of War caryatids rely on attacks that target the frail psyches and selves of the mortals that operate these weapons. Only the Dukes of Thunder and the Scarlet Myrmidons take the field for direct engagements against striker formations from late history, and even these are marked by heavy realiance on teleport warfare and concentrated maskirovka efforts. Caryatids are merely the illusions of history, and their death is not worth any sacrifice whatsoever. As with their wars against the nikisi in Tel Chesed, the armies of the All-Lords know there is no victory in prolonged engagements with these phantom foes, only degrees of self-defeat.