#barant imperium

[thefirstknife]

Honestly I'm kind of endeared that Caiatl didn't go to war with the Imperium until the Tharsis attack. I'm sure there were tensions between them & maybe the massacre simply pushed them past boiling point, but it also kinda shows that she really does value us as allies. Or maybe she has lightbearers she really cares about. Maybe both

(Sidenote. Does Barant mean anything?)

Yeah, I also really enjoy that. I think that Caiatl absolutely perceives a direct attack on the Lightbearers as an attack on herself as well. And in a way, it's true, as Caiatl is part of the Coalition with the Vanguard and the Lightbearers. And she definitely has Lightbearers she personally cares about as well, primarily probably based on the fact that she works with Lord Saladin who is a part of her council, and she's definitely close to the Vanguard as well.

Barant does mean something! It's mentioned at the start of the campaign:

Eris: This “Barant Imperium” and their panoply are like no Cabal we’ve encountered. How did they rise so quickly? Eido: Caiatl’s Battlenet references “Barant” as the Legionary species. No other data…

It's also mentioned in the lore book (pages that still aren't around on Ishtar), from page 8 (Entry 5 - A Conduit for All Futures):

[telestoapologist]

morbidly fascinating barant corpses hooked up to various machines on europa. haven't seen any talk or screenies of these poor dudes, thought i'd offer up a few i took. i think the torso difference between the first and second pics are neat, like the first one has more defined muscle or just less fat compared to the other?

also: butt.

[thefirstknife]

So iirc, the shadow legion were/are (are they still around?? I have no idea) sort of mindless because they were clones, right?

If the Barant Imperium is using the same technology for their army, are they also sort of mindless?

Shadow Legion is still around, to our knowledge. Last we heard directly about them was around Echoes when we learned that they're now being led by the Psion Yirix.

Some of the Barant are clones, yep, though we don't know what's the scale of their clone production. As in, we don't know what percentage of the Barant Imperium are clones. I'm assuming more and more now, after we entered into a direct conflict with them. It would probably be difficult to replace all of their losses normally without cloning. But yeah, the clones are sort of mindless, though it is a good question how much of that mindlessness is just expected and if these clones could be treated better.