SOLOMANI ASSAULT
MARINES
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They are also morally offensive, apart from their racist views and cavalier attitude to life, they are prone to piously stating that their conscience must bear the burden of their war crimes, but this does not stop them from commiting more atrocities without a seconds thought.
All in the name of "Holy Duty."
Their sense of moral right and wrong has been reprogrammed and they are in essence a society of hypocrites.
Role playing an Ex-Marine would be challenging. Nearly all retiring SMAD marines can look forward to being transferred to the three or four Monasteries that the Order supports, here they perform support roles and meditate, living a quiet life until they die or some extreme sacrifice is required. At this point they form suicide detachments but this is an exceedingly rare event.
Some, however, feel a requirement to forsake the safety and familiarity of the Monastery and go out into society for a variety of reasons. They are in for an extreme shock. Even in the Solomani Sphere they are viewed with a mixture of repugnance and awe, and not viewed as the "War Heroes" they assume themselves to be.. Outside Confederation space they are seen as the feral monsters that they are and are persecuted by most right thinking sophonts. Also, their view of society is extremely distorted and they tend to make disastrous assumptions, such as assuming a "Hybrid" will give way to a "Pure Strain." Finally, they are violent and unforgiving, a situation which tends to make them become even more bigoted.
A recovering SMAD marine would be an interesting character and would require a sensitive party, their cult conditioning can be overcome by a psychologist, but the Fugue trigger could only be defeated by a psionic adept, (a psionic psychologist would have a good chance at a total cure, an interesting PC concept too! It also has about the most silent "P"s I've ever seen!.) Many preconceptions would have to be unlearnt, a distressing experience, and when a cure was effected the ex-marine must still come to terms with their past crimes.
Their whole interpersonal relationship structure requires rebuilding as well, nearly all SMAD Marines have no concept of sex, and the idea when explained to them would be horrific, although once away from their drugged food supply the basic drives would return. This could lead to yet more psychological problems.
While it is possible that the friction of reality may eventually erode away many of their mistaken beliefs, it is dangerous to allow SMAD marines to just "Stew" and not receive treatment, a large proportion of these marines have the Recruiting skill and it is possible that they may influence others in their misguided beliefs.
Ex-Marines should determine on leaving the service the reason for avoiding Monastic life, they could be:
Heretic, the conditioning has begun to fail. A relaltively "Soft" option.
Disgraced, the Marine has either failed a mission and been cast out, a very rare occurance because the Orders believe they can salvage almost any Marine,
or . . .
Disgraced, the Marine's base hase been overrun (probably by the Imperium) and s/he has no home, an immensely traumatic situation.
Questing, the Marine is searching for something of import to the Order, only extremely "Reliable and Pious" Marines are encouraged to quest, although they can still "Stray from the Path" - and often do. A very "Hard" option. Much of the Marines conditioning will still be in place unless s/he has been questing for an extended period of time, a final term in "Scouts" might be a way of reflecting this period of questing.