The Easy Guide to the Modern Nomad

[The_Godslayer]

The Easy Guide to the Modern Nomad

Preface

Hello, Forum. It has come to the attention of our faction that there are intense misunderstandings and even disagreements when it comes to Nomad story, Roleplay, and even what non-Nomad characters would know. Being totally and completely dedicated to not making people sad, we (and by "we" I mean "I") decided that it would be a great idea to introduce a crash course or "For Dummies" type writing that could be easily linked to when doing such activities as: Arguing with story devs, arguing with people outside the faction, arguing with each other, etc.

This post will include common points of contention, explanation of our past, explanation of our present, and explanation of some current events.

Ancient History

In the beginning, no one really cares. Way after the beginning, though, there was a race called the Daam K'Vosh. One apostrophe, no more. Do not fight me on this. They are very mysterious, and did weird deity-substitute alien race things, like disappearing to nowhere for unknown reasons, leaving behind a genetically engineered race of biological machines capable of incredible technological feats, and having a hard-to-read name. The genetically engineered race, named Slomon K'Hara by someone or something, possibly themselves, is what you know as the Nomads. These caretakers were built from a single "progenitor cell", which had abilities like a telepathic hive mind, and becoming literally anything it needs to based on environment despite having a genetic code. Before their disappearance, the Daam K'Vosh put the sample-size race they made into family-size cryo-stasis containers, then spread pieces of their technology here and there for the society they built to grow to be just like them, or maybe even better than them.

Not-so-Ancient History

For what can only be described as "a long time", the Nomads chilled there. (get it? Cryo? Chilled?) There is at least one location with actual Nomad cryo containers, that is those four things outside the Shrine in Unknown. Rumors on the Shrine allude to this. Another location might be on the surface of the planet in Omicron Major, where the Rheinland expeditionary fleets were first infested, but this claim is disputed by official sources. It is also important to note that Nomads had no preset capability for combat. Until human arrival, Nomads had no weaponry or hostility, and had to evolve these to adapt to the human incursion. After the infestation, the Freelancer campaign we know and love happened, with the hypergate being opened and the hivemind being torn to pieces by it, causing a telepathic backlash that killed a lot of Nomads, drove nearly all of them insane, and was generally a pretty uncool move by humanity. This also fried the energy grid of the Dyson Sphere, making it inoperable for any use.

Not-Ancient History

After that, the Nomads were in a pretty sad state. The least damaged Nomads were Nomads that were far away from the Dyson Sphere, doing other things. Examples of this in the base game were those two unfinished systems, which both had Nomads. It's a common assumption that these systems would have had Nomad-cleanup missions should the game have been worked on more. But it wasn't, so all we have is assumptions that we make the most of. The remaining Nomads, especially ones that were far away, made an emergency mind, reestablishing the connection, and bringing together all of the insane Nomads, curing them, and giving general cognitive behavioral therapy for post-traumatic-stress-disorder to an entire race. They made an emergency landing on Xernia, and by emergency landing I mean they burrowed into it and basically ate all the heat because they feed on energy (more on that later)¹, then they took two of the artifacts remaining in their possession, and used them in Iota, generating Nebulas for them to live in.

Not History

After surviving, the Nomads began the process of rebuilding. Their emergency hivemind was upgraded to regular hivemind, they grew/built (2 more 2 later)² a new city (more on that later: Tokyo Drift)³, curbstomped Planet Toledo, and began expanding their forces exponentially. They also reclaimed the territory around the Dyson Sphere, made Azurite reactors, and began evolving to fight humans. That about covers it up until things you can find out in-game, and are basically happening right now.

How Does the Mindshare Work?

In short, Nomads are a combination of three things: Themselves (The Individual), being part of their superior in the caste system (The Extension), and being the Mindshare as a whole. It works kinda like the Holy Trinity. The individual, the extension, and the Mindshare are not the same, but they are all the Nomad.

One of the important bits is the caste system. Think of it like Zerg from Starcraft. The Overmind controls the Cerebrates, who control the Hives and Overlords, who control the individual units. The difference is that as Nomads get older and stronger, they move up the ranks.

Details

This is a complex, confusing, and mildly long thing, so I suggest grabbing a drink and a chair with arms. Maybe a pillow. To begin with, you're going to need this picture. Just trust me.


First, you must understand what you're seeing. The top is a Human mind, where things are entirely centered around the individual, and there's no overlapping. The bottom is a Nomad mind, where these things are centered around the Mindshare itself. The current structure understanding looks a bit different, but when I tried to make one, Microsoft Paint literally crashed.

Now we will address the left side of the Nomad mind, which is the individual. As an individual, a Nomad is about how you'd think it is. It gathers knowledge, displays emotions, and has a sense of self, albeit limited. If the Nomad were cut off from the mindshare in a non-psychic-backlashy way, this is the part of the Nomad mind that would remain. It would develop independently to a certain extent, however, this is basically impossible in practice due to the feeling of disconnection being unpleasant for the Nomad, and the mindshare reacting with hostility to extreme deviations (more & later)⁴.

On the right side, we have the Nomad Mind as an extension of its superiors. For that, we must explain the caste system, which works like this: `³`A Nomad mind is born from a Nomad city, which is a physical point of the mindshare that harbors minds that have ascended beyond their bodies (More 5)⁵ and minds that are too young to have bodies, or occasionally collected from the outer reaches of space where there are still disconnected minds. Baby minds are generally weak, loosely connected to the mindshare, and are pretty insignificant. As minds get older, however, they do a cognitive mitosis, splitting their consciousness, but maintaining it under one mind. This gives them double the thinking power, double the ego, so on and so forth. They continue doing this for all their life, like a CPU that grows until it splits into two cores, growing like that. The mindshare as a whole works this way as well, through the caste system. The Nymphs (read: babies) are at the bottom, above them are the neonates, above them are the Elders/Methuselahs, above them are the Advisors, and above them may or may not be a singular super entity in charge of decisions and stuff, we're a little unclear on that one. In this caste system, each entity in each position are extensions of a mind in the position above them. One group of nymphs is controlled by a Neonate, a group of Neonates is controlled by an Elder, a group of elders is controlled by an advisor, and the advisors are controlled by the theoretical super entity.

Now for the easy bit. In the middle, we have the mindshare as a whole. Every Nomad is the Mindshare, and the Mindshare is every Nomad. In the previously explained chain of control, these minds also ARE each other. Every Nymph is the Neonate above it, so on and so forth, leading the entire mind to be one entity. Emotions felt by one are felt by all, knowledge obtained by one are obtained by all, thoughts thought by one are thought by all, everything is one entity.

How do I Roleplay that Wall of Text?

The easy version is this: You are a big brain ant, and you do what's good for the colony. This includes attacking your enemies, finding out things for your colony so that the bigger brains in the colony can think on them, and generally helping out. The harder version will be in the detail below, and has a lot to do with the details above.

More Details

The younger Nomads, who are normally smaller, are generally more individual than older Nomads. With the exception of nomad respawning (More and Later 6)⁶, young Nomads are bound to their bodies, and their bodies grow with their mind, with proper nourishment. `¹`Nomads, by the way, eat energy. Radiation, sunlight, heat, electrical, and chemical are the main ones. They burrowed into Xernia to absorb the heat from the planet's core as a food source, and they created the nebulas in Iota to absorb the electrical and chemical energy. With proper nourishment, Nomads grow from the LF to the HF, to the VHF, to the SHF, to the Bomber, to the Gunboat, to the Cruiser, to the Battlecruiser, to the Battleship, to the Dreadnaught. `⁵`However, by the time their bodies grow to about Battleship size, their mind has grown to the point where they can ascend beyond their body, and become an entity contained within the Mindshare itself. This allows them to grow separate bodies, and switch off through the mindshare connection. `⁶`The mindshare connection is also how Nomad respawning works. The Mindshare, through the middle node in the image explaining minds, remembers the Nomad, and grows a new body and puts this memory into it.

For your roleplay, it's important to remember the most basic forms of the things in the previous paragraph. Nomad Indies used to be locked to just the snubs, which enforced the caste system, and things were pretty easy. The order of ship weightclass is the order of the caste and the Nomads age. Things have changed and restrictions have been lifted, and so things have gotten a bit fuzzy. The solid bits, though, are that larger Nomads are normally stronger minds, and have stronger connections to the mindshare, and are controlled more by the mindshare, and the only exception to this is ascended minds inhabiting smaller bodies.

Now, for the big one: Nomspeak. The ever famous, mostly disliked, difficult to understand, and commonly overdone UTF-8 spam. Back in ye olde days, there were specific rules on this. There was even comprehension tests for new members. Now, it's been loosened and evidently lost, so I'm here to give you a quick and easy rundown, and by "quick and easy" I mean "another text wall".

First, and most important, symbol usage. Currently, this is entirely up to the user, however, most K'hara members settle into a pattern that looks a little something like: Symbols for Native Nouns and Pronouns, Symbols for Verbs (optional: symbols for adjectives and adverbs), Symbols for Foreign Nouns, Speech Enclosures. The speech enclosures are the *** *** bits around a message, denoting that it's a telepathic communication. As an example: *** "We" -will speak- |This way| -before purging- "Darklings" ***. However, the symbols used and the rules for usage are mostly up to you. While generally frowned upon, you also have the option of speaking in regular English with quotes or something.

Secondly, word substitutions. Nomads don't perceive things the same way as humans. The concepts of space ships and free will are completely foreign to them. To them, ships are shells, just like them, and humans are "Darklings", who are disconnected from the Light, their mindshare. So, in that way, Space ships are called "Metal-Shells", and individual Nomads that have experienced many different factions may draw distinctions between those ships, like Core/Bounty Hunters being flat, Corsairs being pointy, and things like that. Humans are "Darklings", because their mind is shrouded in darkness. Flying is "Swimming" to them. Space is "Oceans" or "Water". For more ascended minds, who have the ability to think so hard they can predict all possible futures like chess robots, time also falls into that "subject to perspective" scale. Many elders will use past, present, and future tenses when speaking, separated by forward slashes, to denote the perception of time as being singular. There are many more word substitutions, and for "quick and easy", it would be counterproductive to list them all.

Third, the other part of telepathy. Older Nomads can display visions, inflict emotions, and stuff like that. Doing it properly is a delicate balance of being moderate enough to not be powergaming, but being able to make a good story at the same time. Also, you need to find someone willing to roleplay, which is pretty hard these days. Trial and error is the best thing to learn, but the biggest piece of advice to give is that you should set aside a specific set of symbols for visions, and you should talk in normal English, usually third person descriptions, for visions. You can also use the vision to describe what you're doing at that moment for atmospheric storytelling, kind of like how people use asterisks in texts or chat software.

Fourth, the limit of individuality. Nomads don't really have rebels. `⁴`They actively purge extreme deviation from the mindshare, and view it the same way humans view cancer. So, roleplaying as a rebel Nomad is entirely out of the question. Due to both the middle and right sides of the image explaining Nomad minds, it is impossible for Nomads to keep secrets from their own mindshare, with a few exceptions (Later 7)⁷.

Do's and Dont's

It's important to have some basic guidelines, something that you can have open while you're ingame, so here it is:

Do remember that individuality is restricted. Nomads are mentally incapable of deviating too far from the hivemind, so, whether indie or official, you're an extension of the greater mind.

Don't make infestation RP. Infestation is a complicated process best left to the Wild, or older members of the official faction. Trying to do it without knowledge and experience generally ends in it being pretty cringe, going nowhere, and being something that will haunt your memory two months down the road.

Do know who's the boss. Smaller Nomads and younger minds will cling to larger and older Nomads because the connection to the mindshare is stronger that way. The only exception to this is ascended minds inhabiting smaller bodies.

Don't spam symbols without a set of personal rules. It makes your speech completely unintelligible, makes people cringe, and generally is frowned upon.

Do join the Discord. We can elaborate on specific things in there, and it will make your life ten times easier.

Don't complain too much about ganks. There are points where enough is enough, and we've been there before when people have taken it too far, but little things like 3v1s are not particularly an issue. Our ships are relatively strong when compared to human counterparts, and most of the time you're expected to win in 2v1s against opponents of equal skill.

Do be antagonistic. In the grand story of Freelancer, Discovery Freelancer included, Nomads are the bad guys. We've provided their justification, every good villain needs one, but they're not kind or benevolent. They're efficient, direct, and intelligent.

Interaction 101

Nomads do, in fact, have a sort of diplomacy or list of possible actions when encountering humans. The specifics of it are a widely debated and sometimes controversial subject, but I'll put the general information here. The list is ordered from most likely to least likely response on encountering a non-Nomad entity.

Hostility: Nomads are primarily hostile. Their literal birthright is being stolen, and they are less than pleased with that. The main Nomad Mindshare is incredibly hostile, and firmly believes in burning humanity to ashes. Every Nomad will reflect this, and the most basic, primary response to finding a human is to kill that human.

Curiosity: The second most common response to finding humans is information gathering. You can't fight a war without knowing stuff about your enemies, and things like emotions, opinions, and human politics are things that can be used against them. The Wild especially use this information while they infiltrate human society to destroy it from the inside.

Artificial Intelligence: Here's a special one: Nomads can't communicate with Artificial Intelligence. Nomad Telepathy works through stimulating organic brain matter, and AIs don't have that. To Nomads, AIs are literally just rocks that move around, and are commonly met with complete indifference. Sometimes, though, they are simply destroyed, in the same way you'd kick a pebble that was constantly floating into you as you're trying to walk down the street. It is possible for Nomads to use intermediaries to communicate, probably Wild, but good luck finding that out in the deep Omicron systems.

Disinterest: Sometimes Nomads have better things to be doing than dealing with humans. If they're on a mission that has nothing to do at all with some human flying by, the human will enjoy the glorious grace of being not worth the Nomad's time. This is pretty rare, since the Nomad goal is mostly to kill humans and reclaim what is supposed to be theirs, but it's not impossible.

Cardamine-flavored Disinterest: The rarest of them all, Nomad's unique interaction with Cardamine users. Due to the nature of Cardamine, which will be included below, Nomads are able to communicate more clearly with Cardamine users, resulting in one of the closest things to neutrality with a Nomad that can exist. While technically possible with all parties and individuals that use Cardamine, this unique neutrality is generally reserved for Outcasts that are not hostile to Nomads, given that the Outcasts have a long history of being right outside the Nomads back door, and vice versa.

Cardamine Lore

Cardamine grass was engineered by the Daam K’Vosh to serve as stable source of organic compounds for Nomads; it would be easier and much-less energy intensive to incorporate these into their anatomy than to assemble the compounds from scratch. Distinct enzyme co-factors are synthesized by Cardamine grass that assists in a Nomad’s physiological mechanisms, and the plant itself is capable of extracting and concentrating trace elements from the soil to be used in higher-level functions.

Though the plant matter itself is indigestible to humans, extracts of the enzyme co-factors act on their molecular receptors in beneficial, and adverse, ways. The enzymes are capable of acting as a genetic template within an adult stem cell, modifying telomeric activity to yield stable chromosome structures that will not fall victim to replication degredation; they also tend to show a high affinity for specific gene promoter sequences, upregulating the synthesis of RNA strands that lead to proteins involved in regenerative functions. When consumption of Cardamine ceases, though, the rapid decrease in the levels of gene expression lead to a cellular ‘crisis’ as a negative-feedback mechanisms force apoptosis and cell death; a massive flow of cancer signals generate a severe auto-immune response that causes a human’s immune system to attack its own body.

One critical drawback to Cardamine use in humans involves inhibition of gametogenic cells; meiotic division found in sperm and egg cells are prevented by the action of the co-factors in Cardamine grass, resulting in incredibly reduced birth rates.

Other Important Things

`²`Nomad structures aren't built like human structures. They're made in sort of the same way that bees and wasps make nests. Instead of making a secretion that mixes with particles of wood or stuff, though, they take minerals and spin them into a crystalline structure, almost fully transforming the materials into a separate element. This is a super-strong material whose recipe was left to them by the Daam K'Vosh, and is pretty consistent with regular types of unobtainium found in other sci-fi franchises. While not capable of just generating energy, this material can be formed into everything from living quarters to body generation cavities, to Azurite reactors, to Jump Gates and Trade Lanes.

`⁷`There are entities that have ascended beyond the mindshare in a way, and are not bound to the normal mindshare rules. The most notable one, currently, is Harbinger. Harbinger the Schemer is part of the mindshare, yet has the unique ability to keep secrets from and not be controlled by it. This comes with the cost of not having any control over the mindshare, but Harbinger seems pretty okay with that. They have a goal of making sure the Nomads complete their duty, and are not sidetracked or defeated, and do things in service to that end. All of these ascendant entities are the products of years upon years of roleplay, interaction, and even story.

Nomads are capable of infesting humans through the "Nomad Incubus". The way that works is they get a little larva shaped Nomad into the body, usually orally, and that thing burrows into the human's spine, hijacking it's nervous system and wearing it as a skin suit. They usually use their telepathic abilities to read their host's mind and blend in to human environments. They also have minor telekinetic abilities, though rarely use them. While it's possible for Nomads in standard bodies to infest, the process is usually left to other Nomad Incubi.

Nomads are also capable of infesting technology. This is a weird process, but it can be summed up by saying that a Nomad grows into a piece of technology it grabs, and assimilates it. A good example is the LNS-Tundra, a Liberty Siege Cruiser that was infested. While this allows for the assimilation of a shipboard AI, we're not exactly sure what the consequences of this would be. We still can't communicate with AIs, but with the interfacing of mechanical, electrical, and communications systems, it may be possible that an AI can be converted or imprisoned within the Mindshare, which would at least partially bridge the aforementioned lack of communication with AI.

There are more castes.

The first few, Nymph, Neonate, and Elder are actually subdivisions of the Keeper caste, but since the Keeper caste is so large, it's subdivisions are equivalent to regular divisions. The role of a Nymph is simply to grow up, but the others are multi-functional. Whether combat, construction, information gathering, or scouting, the Keepers make up the main bulk of the fleet. Most Nomads that you see around, especially in the Omicrons, fall into this caste.

The Infiltrator caste encompasses all of the Nomad Incubi, and is also pretty large. The various groups of Wild, from Das Wilde in Rheinland, to Division 9 in Liberty, to Aoi Iseijin in Kusari, all fall into this caste.

The Dreamer caste is the oldest caste, and the center for Nomad innovation. Their primary purpose is to think and create. Almost every evolution to the Nomads was proposed by a Dreamer. They are also the ones who actually do the whole respawn process, both remembering and regenerating the fallen Nomad.

The Wanderer caste is the all-seeing eye and long-reaching arm of the Mindshare. They're commonly spread far and wide in Sirius, gathering information for Advisors and Dreamers, enabling the mindshare to better react to the actions of their enemies. The Wanderers are also responsible for nearly all Nomad sightings outside of the Omicrons, and they commonly work with Infiltrators when doing their jobs. Through their rank in the hierarchy, they also drag Keepers along with them to do larger operations from time to time.

The Advisors are a separate caste from the Keepers, and used to be simply in charge of taking care of the mindshare, cataloguing information, and maintaining communication. In recent times, however, the Advisor caste has become more direct, and with their natural affinity with telepathy from taking care of the mindshare, has become greatly invested in the Keeper caste and with combat actions.

The Hierarchy of the castes is thus: Keeper, Infiltrator, Wanderer, Advisor, Dreamer. However, Wanderers, Advisors, and Dreamers can often fluidly change castes, rendering their place in the hierarchy just as fluid. Returning Wanderers may become Dreamers to think on and create things based on what they've seen. Dreamers may become Advisors in order to oversee the implementation of their ideas. Advisors may become Dreamers to contemplate fixes for problems in the Mindshare structure or resource management. Infiltrators are not capable of changing castes, due to their physical form and purpose for existing, but Keepers that grow strong enough will become one of the upper three castes.

Discord

Join our Discord server by clicking this link. We currently have a "Nomad help" channel, where we help with Nomad things. It's pretty cool.

Credit Where Credit is Due

A huge thank you to @Treewyrm, @Ursur, and the original creators of the Nomad Lore document, which can be found here.

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