Dalmer

The Dalmer are a race of humanoids noted for their naturally growing dreadlock like hair and beards which is in fact a parasitic organism.

## Overview

The dalmer are playing at life. It is a simple fact, they are so confident in their abilities that nothing really fazes them.

They fight for fun, because it trains them and other more powerful dalmer pay them in loot and glory.

They have no morals, when a war is organized, generals are selected by the king, they find officers to create missions, and missions are given to whoever has the skill to take them.

Their sense of duty is void, if they tire, they warp out, another will answer the call.

When the deed is done, they are paid in loot and social rewards, and the cycle continues.

Their businesses are meaningless as everything is provided for them, the second they cease working in a factory, their activities are taken over by robots until they return or someone else takes the mantle.

Their establishments are public, people come to make whatever they came for and then they go. AI’s tell them how to make things when they don’t, their objectives fed to their HUDs.

They walk through life babysitted, their next objective always explained in simple steps by the technology they so admire.

They can be free from pain if they choose, simply electing to become cyborgs or UC’s.

Their city’s are monuments to grandeur and oversight, as they are much larger than necessary, and many of its buildings are empty shells if not for the maintenance of providers.

Their relations are simple, enemies will fight one day and paint portraits of each other the next. Some will create vast cult like organizations, and persecute it the next day when bored of it. Superstars will rise and fall like the wind, playing 600 concerts at once thanks to hologram technology, with all spectators not knowing or caring if they are at the real show, or if the artist on stage is still alive.

Their merchants have no interests beyond their need for new and exotic items. They will buy and sell whatever the customer has to buy or sell, as they know they can find the same on the universal market.

Without medbay and warp technologies, needless to say the Dalmer would have developed similar civility to the other races.

In the empire, nobody really cares about what you do, they will even support whatever you do with funding, people and material, just as long as taxes are paid.

When the dalmer are wounded, they do not die, they are sent to a medbay, where they are healed at the cost of some of their prestige and material wealth. This makes them fear having their HP depleted at all times.

Their perceived invulnerability means they have less qualms towards violence and mutilation.

Police brutality is the norm, beating suspects, using chemicals to force confessions, but the game ends when the suspect warps.

Most of the crimes the police will  actively pursue and reprimand (in a gradual order) is disorderly conduct/rioting, actual murder, religious behavior, contact/trade with the other races, destruction of property and tax evasion.

Children have a particular role, which is to perpetuate the system they were born into by becoming model citizens of the Empire, and more broadly their mission is to not be seen before they are adults. Example: those who wish to build cities have to take classes in city planning and public policy. Then they can give orders to create missions that are subsets of the global mission.

## The Dalmer as seen by the other races

To the other races, the Dalmer are a race of mad men, living in mostly empty cities, all too content to scheme and play until eventually “dying” in a flash of blue light.

In reality, the Dalmer are not insane, they simply have too much time on their hands. In their attempts to alleviate their boredom they devise plans, hatch plots to further their power. Naturally all of this happens within the limits of their tortuous and unfathomable legal system, which they all know thanks to their controversially excellent educational system.

The strangest part is that the Dalmer are fully conscious and aware of their situation, but it is simply better to act the role they wish to play, those who do not simply exile themselves to calmer shores.

To see a Dalmer outside its settlement is to see an overly excited or jaded person seemingly talking to itself and behaving like a madman, their intentions obscure and unknowable. Only the Dalmer could possibly know why they do the things they do, not out of malice or goodness, but because their actions are mere cogs in the grand machinations that characterize them.

The Dalmer people are not pawns however, they are all capable of knowing what the other is doing, provided they do their research. In fact, some dalmer make it their objective to make sure the general public is up to snuff by quizzing their intellect, knowledge and skills in order to weed out the underperforming elements of their society. This eugenics program is one of the few ways dalmer can legally kill another dalmer. These eugenicists tend to emerge in cities in chaos or with little regard for the law to restore the status quo.

## The other races as seen by the Dalmer

With the creation of artificial intelligence, uploaded consciences androids and conscious machines, the Dalmer had to change their definitions in order to keep their separation to the rest of Welt. The new definition of the Dalmer, "Made by the Dalmer with the ability to interact." includes UC, AI, Androids and conscious machines in general. Jurisprudence on the matter is plentiful and can be found here.

Other races signify a sentient, sapient being that is not a Dalmer. this separates the Other Races from animal and creatures.

The general definition of a non dalmer is the incapacity to form a symbiotic relationship with the beard organism.

Other criteria for an other race include the capacity to have social interactions with one another, language, culture, and the capacity to communicate and trade in any form with other other races.

## The empire of the bored

The Dalmer are a savage, warlike, race of humanoids who are spread all across the planet of Welt, and possibly beyond. They are seen by their enemies (ie everyone else) as savage, warlike, and cruel, but they are the most successful species in the whole Weltian System, having greater technology and conquered more territory than every other intelligent race, including Mankind.

Because of their technology and extreme xenophobia, the Dalmer are one of the most dangerous races to inhabit Welt. Ever present and always driven to explore, fight and invent, the Dalmer threaten every single intelligent species of the world. The Dalmer are possibly the most warlike races and amid constant, seething tides of war and the insanity that characterizes their behavior,, burgeoning Dalmer kingdoms rise and fall. Mercifully most are short-lived, soon destroying themselves in a maelstrom of violence and internecine conflict, but should the Dalmer ever truly unify, they would crush all opposition.

The Dalmers' unquenchable thirst for entertainment has always proved their downfall: historically, the clans and tribes have spent much of their time fighting amongst themselves, waging brutal wars with only the strongest surviving. On occasion, a Dalmer leader will emerge who is mighty enough to defeat his rivals and unite the warring tribes. Its success draws other tribes to it, and soon a great kingdom is underway, partly a migration, partly a holy war that can exterminate the populations of entire countries. The same phenomena happens when a Dalmer has a good idea, and it spreads to others who join it in its endeavour.

## Habitats

Dalmer holdings are as varied as they are steeped in violence. When they invade a realm or territory on Welt, the Dalmer bring with them an overly complicated ecosystem that overwhelms each conquered world as surely as the Dalmer themselves crush its defenders. Dalmer society and technology is so robust that it can exist almost anywhere, which is why their settlements have been found scattered to the furthest corners of Welt. road and railroad infrastructures, conglomerates of housing buildings, massive automated factories, amusement parks, urban jungles, are always left behind by the Dalmer when they eventually get bored of their current task, and the providers are left to maintain the constructions long after they are gone.

The other races have encountered Dalmer and their machines living and even prospering in such extreme environments as toxic swamps, islands still heaving with volcanic activity, or the depressurised carcasses of fallen meteors. They have been discovered amid corrosive chemical swamps, on lightless nightmare lands seething with horrific predators, even in the bombed-out remains of cities subjected to their own terrible weapons.

No matter where they are encountered or in what numbers, the Dalmer are a threat that will grow exponentially in deadliness if left unchecked. In a matter of weeks what began as a small party can swell into a roiling, mechanized civilization bent upon violence, science and industry. The other species of the world have many theories regarding how the Dalmers’ presence increases so quickly. These range from teleportation technology to demonic influence.

Some claim that the Dalmer inhabit pockets deep beneath Welt and simply climb to the surface, fully formed, wherever others of their kind are already at war. While many of these wild suggestions are patently ridiculous, it is certainly the case that where one lone Dalmer machine is encountered, more will never be far away. When combined with their relentlessly warlike nature, and tendency to build larger and more powerful machines with every battle they survive, it is easy to see how rampaging Dalmer can quickly overwhelm a kingdom's defences.

## Way of life

A warband of Dalmer machines allowed to leave their various colonisation crafts and disappear into the wild will return within weeks with an army of murderous machines, sweeping all before them in their desire for conquest. Those they do not kill will be studied, and that which they do not destroy will be looted for study and profit. Before long, another country will be conquered by the Dalmer, its cities upgraded to their level of technological wonder, before being left to ruins when its Dalmer populace grows tired of it and leaves.

The Dalmer way of life is as straightforward and brutal as the Dalmer themselves. Much like their approach to everything else, Dalmer do not waste time pondering why they do things, although they will ponder how they might do them better. Instead they simply act, instinct and ability driving them on in a never-ending cycle of violence and conquest. The Dalmer have their own distinct culture.The fundamental tenet of their society is a simple one, might makes right.

But might can be of several orders, economic, cultural and social capitals are also essential in establishing the social order, all of which is analyzed and calculated by their machines. As such Dalmer instinctively know to obey those more powerful than themselves, and the most powerful entity in their society is undoubtedly the mysterious High King.

## Warfare

The bulk of a Dalmer army, which can be hundreds or even thousands strong, is composed of great mobs of robotic and machinated infantry. The Dalmer tend to be lazy and forgetful, and only war and the preparations beforehand really bring out their innate talents. The rest of the time, they spend socializing in their over defended keeps and fortresses.

The Dalmer thrive on science as well as conflict, but they are also intensely social creatures. The most ambitious rise to the top while the less motivated become subservient and benefit from the superior leadership of their superiors. To a dalmer this state of affairs is perfectly satisfactory. If a faction is beaten by another, the defeated welcome the opportunity to be led in their projects by a new leader of even greater power. Because in the end a Dalmer is a Dalmer and they will always put aside their differences if there is an opportunity to further their own civilization.

Like-minded Dalmer tend to cluster together, leading to factions, guilds, corporations cramped with businesspeople seeking greater wealth or warbands where mechanised warriors plan their next expedition for glory and loot.

However fighting is not their unique interest, they are always continuously buying, selling, swapping, and conning to get money. The richest amongst them wear richly decorated clothes on their backs and openly flaunt their wealth. They trade to get the best guns, the latest wargear, and the best food. Others are looters and plunderers who grab whatever they can from corpses on the battlefield, although they are not above "acquiring" things from other Dalmer who are not watching. Overall the Dalmer will take any excuse to brawl, lie, cheat and steal to alleviate their boredom.

If Dalmers were just single-minded killers they would be dangerous enough, but they would be unable to sustain the level of logistics and resource management required to maintain their already stretched Empire.

## Providers

Though the more powerful Dalmer will lord it over the less experienced ones, even a competent and motivated Dalmer is of limited use when it comes to practical tasks that does not involve fighting. Most of the day-to-day running of Dalmer society is therefore left to the Providers, robots whose duties include preparing food, taking messages, building just about everything a Dalmer civilization needs, general organisation and just being around the place when a Dalmer wants something. This gives the Dalmer plenty of time to lounge about, get into fights, study, research, debate endlessly and come up with new things to study and/or kill.

Providers are happy enough in their role. They bear little resentment towards their superiors (as per their programming), for to them Dalmer culture and society is just a fact of life. Questioning this usually leads to a shrug and not much else. Individual Robots can enjoy a relatively comfortable existence by providing valuable services to their Dalmer masters. In fact the sentient robots have created an entire enterprise culture of their own within Dalmer-dominated society.

Many robots operate their own black market businesses on the side, selling contraband, coordinating the bets when a fight breaks out and then looting the resulting corpses to feed the universal market and the circular economy.

These highly technical demands are met by a caste of robots known as the **Providers**. These robots all possess an innate understanding of their fields of expertise. A mechanically inclined Provider knows how to create engines and plasma generators, and a Medbay operator instinctively knows how to build autodoctors.

## Philosophy

Knowledge, and the will to seek knowledge is hardwired into the very molecular make-up of the Dalmers robots, perhaps a legacy left to them by their legendary High King. However it comes by this latent knowledge, as a Provider matures it will start to make itself apparent, leading him to assume the role in Dalmer society for which it is best suited. Should it lack any specialist knowledge, the robot will happily join the vast throng of servatrons at the heart of each Dalmer settlement and content himself with a life of service.

Dalmers have but one philosophy: power makes right, and they are the most powerful. This unshakeable self-belief is perhaps the most dangerous quality of the Dalmers. The Dalmers rule their civilisation with an iron fist. Self centered and violent creatures, they are the dominant life form of a race that includes their undead and sentient robot servants. Dalmers see themselves as the smartest and noblest race in the Welt, mightier by far than the other races. To prove their point, the Dalmers are more than willing to fight and kill everything that crosses their path.

One of the greatest strengths the Dalmers possess is the simplicity with which they approach their existence. For an Dalmer, the world is an incredibly straightforward place, free of the angst and worry that plagues most other races. Dalmers do not try to influence their own destiny and get frustrated when plans do not work out as expected, to them it is a game that they win or lose, and when they lose they try again until victory or boredom is achieved. They do not look for something to blame (except perhaps the nearest rival) and certainly do not reflect on weaknesses in their own way of doing things. They just try again a different way, usually because they have forgotten how they did it the last time. Thus the Dalmer make remarkable progress by trial and error, without counting the cost. Meanwhile other intelligent races steeped in high-flown philosophy fall into the same traps time and again, doomed to stagnate and decline, unless of course they are first conquered by the Dalmer.

So long as the average Dalmer has something to do, someone more powerful than it in charge of the more boring aspects of life, and something weaker than it to order around for the logistics and other boring aspects of life, it will know contentment. Dalmers don't tend to go hungry as their cuisine spreads to eating virtually anything, even one another at a pinch. Dalmer have no concept of cannibalism or the moral outrage that accompanies it, as it is only natural that the more powerful Dalmer should live no matter the cost. With conflict and research as their only real motivators, most Dalmers have little interest in interacting with the other races, even at an instinctual level. The one exception to this is a desire to possess ever better weapons, vehicles, tech and allies than the other races. A Dalmer will go to almost any lengths to get its hands on a gadget that's better than the ones the other races have. It will obsess over its acquisition until the exact moment it has it, through force, guile or sneak at which point his eye will stray to something even bigger.

The Dalmer need entertainment just as much as they need food and drink.

Due to their warlike culture, they constantly fight amongst themselves, or launch piratical raids upon each other. Such conflicts tend to be small-scale or localised. They never really develop beyond random outbursts of violence and looting amongst themselves. However, Dalmer populations can reach a critical mass of violence that leads to a full-scale migration. This is neutered by some of the Dalmer leaving to colonize distant lands.

## The Skilltree

Dalmer behaviour is dominated by the skilltree, a gestalt field they generate that shows each others accomplishments, which allows the Dalmer to instinctively recognize who is fit to be in charge, since power makes right in their society. All can read into and generate this field, and it grows stronger as the Dalmer enjoy themselves, and by getting to know each other, generally while fighting, more of them congregate together in one geographical area.

The congregation helps give momentum to the aggressive colonization campaigns. Such events are a cross between a holy crusade and a pub crawl, with a bit of genocide thrown in for good measure. Many Dalmer will gather together, drawn to the power of a single dominant Dalmer called a Prince Regent or Warlord, who is more powerful and intelligent than those around it.

Then the Dalmers will set off to find a virgin territory to conquer or an enemy faction of Dalmer to fight and defeat. These events will sweep whole regions away and destroy entire armies and fleets in tides of bloodlust and carnage, and only once the Dalmers have killed and conquered every available enemy and land, or grow bored, will they start to fight amongst themselves again.

The other races have theorised that this gestalt field also has a telekinetic effect, allowing the seemingly impossibly designed Dalmer technology to work as the expected, a universal "Motive Force" inhabits all technology, and that these Machine Spirits (AI) serve the Dalmer at the command of a Machine God.

Furthermore, the other races have noted that many Dalmer-built weapons will not function at all unless wielded by a Dalmer. This is because the technology is managed by AI and only functions with an Aether Web connection.

## Questing

First and foremost amongst all of the Dalmer instincts is the literal need for a Dalmer to go on quests. Dalmers need a sense of accomplishment, be it war, grand constructions or plain enormous projects for no real reason at all besides doing it. Just as a human needs food and water and over the long millennia of their existence the Dalmer have become very, very good at questing. Due to their inherently aggressive nature, Dalmers constantly fight amongst themselves to prove who is the strongest, smartest, sneakiest, sharpening their in-born skills and weeding out the unmotivated, though this process usually poses little threat to the larger world. However, Dalmer production and over cluttering of their settlements means the population can reach a form of critical mass that can unleash a full-scale migration elsewhere. This violent migration and the assaults that result from it is what the other races refer to as a project or quest, a crusade of pure aggression that crashes through multiple kingdoms in an absolute orgy of creativity and violence.

A quest usually starts small, perhaps even as small as a single Dalmer, who is visited by a dream of greatness. It will impart this vision to others of its kind through postings and debates on the aether web, or, if it is of a more intellectual bent, it will devise and build great plans for its projects. Rumours of the coming project will spread through the local Dalmer society and like minded Dalmer will begin to unite. New factions will join the growing throng with every passing day. Those seeking leadership roles will fight their way to the top of the hierarchy of this growing project and earn the status of a leader, adding the resources and skills of those factions to the project. As news and scale of the new project spreads, the trickle of reinforcements will grow into a flood. Technicians, engineers and artificers will begin to collaborate on more and more outlandish projects, building ever more ambitious plans and schematics for the project. Mobile production fortresses and titanic power engines are cobbled together out of nothing more than skills and the always heavy-handed hearty enthusiasm of the Dalmer. Another side-effect of the growing gestalt energy of a project is the excitement the Providers feel and the synergy facilitates access to better operating systems and resources.

At this stage there is so much rivalry between the various factions and groups, and each will strive to outdo all the others in terms of the work that can be wrought by its own faction. Those engineers without the resources to construct massive constructions will instead create mobs of helper robots and write programs to help in the project, or build the weapons with which the warriors can go to war. Soon the emergent project begins to span regions instead of just Kurats. Entire city populations are forced into service merely to manufacture ammunition for the guns. Factory-ships and war mechs are bashed into shape, the better to transport the Dalmer armies into battle. When the lure of imminent activity can be resisted no more, the fervour washing through them overflows. Teeming Dalmer industrial armies mass and swell with a roar like savage oceans, and the skies fill with bulky Dalmer vessels and crafts.

These massive projects are often ostentatious, pure demonstrations of hubris. These are generally a massive construction, a colonization effort, annexation of territory, instauring a radical policy or simply going to fight a faction they don’t like.

Whilst these masterworks of destruction and creation take form, even more Dalmer are drawn towards the construction by the impending promise of these massive projects' unveiling and use and the exciting rewards they will reap. Most of the workers of the project simply relish the chance to see it work. But those amongst their number who dream of becoming part of a truly awesome future often choose the roles of permanent engineers, crew and technicians on staff of the project. There is always a great deal of continued rivalry between the factions of a project and each strives to outdo all the others in the sheer effectiveness of the project.

The grand musters that precede a full-scale project are an awe-inspiring sight. As the Dalmers gather for work, smoke from thousands of engines fills the sky. The ground trembles beneath great wheels, tracks and the thunderous strides of towering machines. Armies of worker robots stretch across the horizon, raising their skilltree banners high to proclaim their reputations and allegiances, their warsongs audible for miles around. Bizarre machine pieces and force field generators chug, clank and buzz amidst the throng. Armadas of vehicles raise roiling thunderheads of dust into the atmosphere, whilst aircraft roar overhead leaving contrails of exhaust smoke. Here the power of the synergy is palpable as a wave of raw potential. Then as one, with an almighty chorus of song, the Dalmer launch their project.

The Dalmer that does not aid in the construction of the project seeks out like-minded fellow Dalmer who work in the manner that most appeals to them. The Dalmers call these groups headhunters. Hundreds of other Dalmer leaders will add their own workforce to the cause of a new project as it begins to spread across whole kurat systems rather than just a single one.

The leaders who launch a project generally have little in the way of a coherent doctrine. Their only goal is the completion of the project in as glorious a fashion as they can muster. The Dalmers are a plague upon the other civilisations of Welt, a race of sociopaths whose true purpose is null save for their own joy in creating and destroying. Once Dalmer have gathered, with one almighty chorus to the world from countless Dalmer throats, another thing is birthed to the world.