Aberrant RPG - So, Who Are These People, Anyway?

[michaelnenonen]

I was hoping that you could help me out here. There are a number of characters who seem quite central to the Aberrant storyline, but I can't for the life of me find out much about them, despite the fact that I have just about every Aberrant book that's thus far been published. I'm wondering if these characters are outlined in more depth in Trinity.

The characters are:

Divis Mal (I have Worldwide Part I and the Teragen sourcebook...is there more information on this guy out there?);

Caestus Pax (What the heck does "Caestus" mean, anyway? Thanks to the Babylonian database I know that "Divis Mal" means "Evil Divider", but I can't find any translation of "Caestus") (Again, I have WW Part 1, so what I'm looking for is information that isn't contained in this sourcebook);

Sophia Rousseau (I have the Expose: Aberrant package, which says pretty damn little about this woman); and

Max Mercer.

Any information you could provide regarding these characters' backgrounds, abilities, and overall role in the years leading up to, and following, the Aberrant War (as detailed in Trinity, if not Aberrant) would be much appreciated.

[The Ranger]

Divis Mal: Leads the Aberrant exodus from earth in 2060 approx. Incinerates the secretary general of the UN on the way off planet. Claims they will return. They do but he is never seen again. (as of 2120 anyhow...presumably he is still alive) Mal is at least 100 years old as he appears in the Aeon Society founders picture. As for abilities...virtually unlimited...pick up the Aberrant Players guide for an idea of what this guy could do if he felt like it.

Cestus Pax: Try a latin or English dictionary. I looked Cestus up before but I forget again what it means...some kind of fist-blade or shield I think. He is mentioned in Trinity but nothing seems to be known about him. Suspect he was killed in the Aberrant war...probibly doing something heroic because if it were bad the folks in Trinity would be giving him as an example of an "Evil Aberrant". May be still around and working in secret of Aeon in 2120. Ability wise mainly brute force related powers. Has vast kinetic manipulation abilites...can blast cities from orbit!

Sophie Rousseau: Dunno. Nothing mentioned in Trinity and precious little in Aberrant.

Max Mercer: Founder of the Aeon society. Over 100 years old and still alive (hinted that he is still youngish). May be the only living example of a Paramorph. Nothing much said about him in Trinity setting, could be still in control of the Aeon society at that point.

After the war there are theoreticly no aberrants left on earth. Some stay in hiding but the vast majority flee into warps to far off Planets.

[Jager]

Ranger and I have been down this road, before, but I think that CP is latin for "Fist of Peace". I know that Pax is Peace, but we have been uncertain about the meaning of Caestus.

[Guest]

Ceastus is an armored glove.

and a better translation of Divis Mal would be Terrible Angel (well Divis isn't angel, but it carries some some connotation od Divinity

[Stheno]

Caestus Pax could be translated as "Fist of Peace", though technically it should be "Caestus Pacis"...

[Guest]

Actually, a Cestus is a glove with spikes and/or blades on it. It's an all-round nasty weapon. Caestus, on the other hand, means fortress. Thus, Caestus Pax = Fortress of Peace.

[Stheno]

Cestus is the modern English word used to describe the item defined by the Latin word "Caestus", which refers to leather bindings worn on the hands of boxers. These bindings were frequently studded or spiked.

The word "Cestus" in Latin means "girdle" or belt.

Pax is the Nominative case of the Latin word for Peace.

A castle or fort is Castrum, while Castra is a military encampment.

"Caestus Pax" strictly speaking, is meaningless, as it is nothing more than two nouns in the nominative case. Translated it would be "Gauntlet, Peace" or "Fist, Peace", and nothing more.

"Caestus Pacis" would be meaningful, and would translate as either "The Iron Fist of Peace" (if we were to translate poetically) or "The Gauntlet of Peace" (literally) or "The Boxing Glove of Peace" (even more literal, if somewhat ludicrous).

Check out http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm

for more information.

I might not know what I'm talking about, but my fiancee is looking over my shoulder, and she's studied Latin for about 7 years.

They make you do that in Italy when you study history, for some reason. God knows why.

[Jager]

Thank you very much, and thank your fiancee as well. Ah, but to study history in italy. I actually wanted to study in Germany, but then I am a fan of the time period between Charles V and the rise of the modern Prussian state in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

[Stheno]

You're welcome.

Me, I'm a languages and literature kind of person.

Well, languages and a little bit of everything else, I guess.

Nothing teaches you a foreign language like having to run a game in it...

[The Ranger]

I think Stheno is having a moment of modesty here. Last count I think he could muddle by in about 4 extra languages. I can barely make myself understood in one.

[Stheno]

Ranger is perhaps too generous with his praise.

But thanks anyway.

[This message has been edited by Stheno (edited 07-06-2001).]

[michaelnenonen]

Now that we know what the name "Caestus Pax" means, can anyone tell me how it's pronounced?

[The Ranger]

Imagine the "a" in Caestus Pax is not there. The rest is like it sounds.

[Avenger]

Divis means Divine. Mal is the root of words like 'malicious', suggesting evil or iniquity. Divis' name also means nothing in perfect Latin, but in a very Americanized, roundabout way, it could be interpreted as 'Divine Wrath' or even 'Pure Evil'. I prefer the somewhat more poetic 'Fallen Angel'.

--@venger

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Don't try to run, you son of a bitch. You'll just die tired.

[michaelnenonen]

So, is the "C" hard or soft? That is, is his name pronounced "Kestus Pax" or "Sestus Pax"?

[Winter_Heart]

If it can help you at all, the french prononciation of Ceastus would be Sestus.... and French is a language with HEAVY latin roots, so I'm pretty sure prononciation would be the same.

[Stheno]

"C" in Latin is a hard sound. In French, the soft "c" is a development which dates back to about the fourth-fifth century, or thereabouts.

Roman citizens of the period already complained about the accent and mispronunciations (as far as they saw it) of their Gaulish fellow-citizens.

The High Latin pronunciation of Caestus Pax would go something like "kah-ess-tuss pax", although the "u" sound would be a peculiar mixture between "u" and "v".

Another possible pronunciation would be "chest-uss pax", as used by Church Latin (Roman Catholic Church), which derives from the dialect of Latin spoken in Italy during the 3rd or 4th Century.

Modern English pronunciation has the "c" as a soft sound in this case...normally, the english spelling of "Caestus" leaves out the "a" anyway.

I could go into further details about the specifics of the changes in the diphthong and linguistic shifts and how different romance languages tend to have different consonant shifts based on what other languages they interacted with, but I imagine you're all either bored enough, or have stopped reading by this point...

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There are no stupid questions.

Only stupid answers.

[Apep]

I don't care, I think "sestus" sounds better.

[Guest]

Cestus pax is the name caestus takes after he goes insane and starts to kill people. He dies shortly after the aberrant war at the hands of a psion hit squad.

From fortress to evil spiky glove

.....ouch

Divis mal bites the big one while basking in the mother of all tanning rays courtesy of the cromatics from the trinity timeline. He had been waging a one man war on them and had already raped a couple of their colony worlds. So they focused all the ambient light from a star into a big beam and roasted him.

[This message has been edited by Shrimpus (edited 08-03-2001).]

[Jordan]

Shrimpus, where do you get your info from?

[Winter_Heart]

Probably from his own game... as if the chromatic could even come close to doing what he said.

[Guest]

I'm afraid I told him that (I'm one of his players), and this was in and of itself related to me via a post on the Trinity forum. I asked what happens to Divis Mal in the future, and that's what they told me.

Oh, and a whole shipload of Chromatics, who trained together, spent WP on their Psi rolls, and at least one of whom had Photokinesis 4 (that's when you get the Laser effect, I think) could SO do that. The cooperative psi rules are BRUTAL, especially in large numbers, and we're talking about an entire races of psions, all of whom are photokinetic.

[Final_Knight]

Ummmm... no, Broblawsky, I seriously doubt that the Chromies COULD do that.

As for hearing that on the Trinity forum, I must have missed that post (though I visit the forums incognito every day), but obviously one of the twinks told you that. It isn't canon.

[Winter_Heart]

I think it is much more likely that Divis Mal would simply use Quantum Inferno and fry the pesky pickle faced gnats.

And let's not forget that if Mal was at Quantum 8 100 years ago, by Trinity you can't even measure up to him. i.e. Quantum 10 and at least 2 more Chrysalis, A Solar Flare probably wouldn't even be enough to dent him (soak above 1500 is far from impossible at that level... and that's a VERY mean Quantum Inferno). Oh, and let's not forget the guy control plasma... pop question, what are Stars made of?

Apollo Miliken and few punks fried a whole Chromatic Fleet... and they aren't even as powerful as Mal was in 2010. No comments.

An interesting questions tho:

Elemental Mastery Plasma 5+ (Mastery 3):

Can you make a sun go nova? (pun intended)

[Guest]

Actually, in theory Mal should've had Q10 in 2008. He most likely has Quantum Supremacy, which means he should have Quantum Transformation, which means that Q10 is 5 successes away. That's what I never understood - based on some calculations of mine, it should be possible to hit Q10 about a day after you get Q6. This is, of course, assuming the GM will let you pick up a single technique of a suite power at one less level and quantum minimum.

[Guest]

We forget that though Divis is godlike he is not a god. From his out line in World wide. Mals powers focus mainly on toasting not on quantum based abilitys so there is no reason why he would have Quantum supermacy.

also anyone short of Q10 can be killed if you pump enough juice into 'em. A force field with mastery 2 still has a finite amout of soak. And a rule of thumb is that if something has stats it can and will be neemed down to zero.

[This message has been edited by Mishap (edited 08-08-2001).]

[Hugin]

Per Deirdre Brooks, one of the writers for Aberrant over on her group, Divas Mal has at least one dot in every power within his capability that has the words Quantum in it (ie. Quantum Supremacy, Quantum Leech, Quantum Imprint, etc) . His plasma based template was his earliest incarnation and he has since moved beyond it and well into the practice of pure quantum manipulation.

[Winter_Heart]

Fact 1: Mal has Temporal Manipulation listed in his ability.

Fact 2: Mal teleports the Teragen away at the end of WW1

Fact 3: WW1 claims that Divis Mal has 'exceeded his former expectation that he can now develop any power given time and training'

1+2+3: He's no longer limited to being a plasm god.

Fact 4: Divis Mal caused the Eruption

Fact 5: The only way to do such a thing would be to Max out on a Quantum Supremacy role.

4+5: Mal has Quantum Supremacy.

Just try and calculate what Quantum 10 with a decent to insane score on every power AND Mastery 3 on all of them looks like. Believe me, nothing short of another quantum 10 will hurt that.

Beside... at Quantum 10 you can:

Destroy Anything (Q inferno)

Create anything (Creation Ex Nihilo)

DO anything (Plank Scaling)

Be a God (Create Universe)

Not to mention all those juicy Quantum 8 powers. At Quantum 10, you are a god for all intent and purpose.

[Guest]

I would respectfullty like to disagree. There is no indication in any of the books I've read that anyone ever reaches Q10. Rumor has it that thte colony is the most powerfull nova in existance and his quantum never reached ten. You assume that divis has some sort of grasp on the actual rules that govern the Aberrant RPG. World Wide suggests that Divis is Mega Charismatic strong fast intellegent manipulative and all those other good things, it also specifcly mentions an aggravated area immolate. If we assume mal has a theme then warp does not go against his archetype but quantum manipulating powers seem out of his jurisdiction. Only muchkins take powers with no theme and since DIvis is not a PC then we can assume he is not actively searching for that perfect combination of loopholes.

Anyway this is beside the point. It is possible with common hold ingrediants to create a power that could take down divis in one hit unless he could generate over 400 levels of impervious soak. Something that seems just a little beyond the scope of his powers as they are described.

And to adress your qualms about Mal using quantum supremacy to cause the eruption of the world is a dicey prospect at best. Quantum supremacy is a single person type power not the global type effect you describe.

Another point against that theory is the hints that are dropped about how latency works. Mal coming out of chrysalis would create a surge in the ambient quantum thus pushing latent humans toward the nova side of the court. Every subsequent erpution would continue to push the scale farther and farther over toward the novas end of the court like the provierbial snowball that grows while rolling down a hill.

[This message has been edited by Mishap (edited 08-08-2001).]

[Winter_Heart]

You know... it does help my argument that the developper of the game said so. I think he probably knows what he is talking about.

True, he didn't say anything about quantum 10, but everything else is pretty much there.

[Sidious]

What theory? this has been established fact for quite some time.

[This message has been edited by Sidious (edited 08-08-2001).]

[Winter_Heart]

My point exactly... I'M not defending a theory, I'm stating facts.