Tome O' Bots Part 1

They all have names the head of nursing told us – Bertie, Harold, Bramble, Drop-cloth and so on. - Nurse

Bertie 

 Variants: Mk1, Mk2, Mk3, Mk3.5, Stork Eye Retrofit

Mk1

Mk2

The Mk1 and Mk2 Berties were designed as human sized heavy infantry units that were integrated into squads of soldiers or in squads of their own in groups of 12. The Mk1 Berties could be distinguished from the Mk2 by their lack of feet and wider body. The Mk2 had feet (helps with stability!) and a thinner body. Both of these marks used a variety of weapons from gatling guns, revolvers, RPGs, assault rifles, SMGs, machetes, and even sabers. 

Stork Eye Retrofit

The stork eye retrofit retained the Mk2 body but replaced the centerpiece sensor with a longer independent moving sensor. 

Mode B (left) & Mode A (Right)

The Mk3 was an entirely different beast compared to the Mk1 and Mk2. It maintained the overall shape of the other marks but the Mk3 is a a lot wider and taller standing at an imposing 12 feet. It was also said that the Mk3 was smarter then the Mk1 and Mk2 Berties. The Mk3 comes in two variants. Mode A, which is equipped with a massive shotgun and an auxiliary fuel tank. Mode B was equipped with two cannons and a spare canister of ammo. One thing of interest on the Mode B is the little bertie shaped head on one of the cannons. This was known a parasite controller and this allowed for the Mode B to have its cannons independently controlled. The Mk3 was only sold to the Earth Coalition. 

Mk3.5

The Mk3.5 retained the same size and shape of the Mk3. The only change is to the dome head with new sensors. Two long independent sensors  replaced the lone sensor found on the Mk3. 

Bramble

Variants: Mk2, Mk2.5

Mk2

The Mk2 Bramble was designed as a heavy infantry unit with thick armor, aggressive AI, and a penchant for just steam rolling through anything unlucky to be in their way. A Mk2 Bramble was wide bodied, extra armor surrounding its chest, and abdomen, long legged, and had medium length arms. The Mk2 Bramble came equipped with large gatling guns, revolvers, and RPGs. 

Mk2.5

The Mk2.5 Bramble, also known as the Heavy Bramble, was offered up to those who could not afford Large Martins but wanted to have accurate and devastating artillery on the battlefield. The Mk2.5 was not a whole new Bramble that rolled off Rothchild's assembly line but an upgrade kit that contained new arms, engine, and head for Mk2 Brambles. The Mk2.5 came with the AUNTIEJACK 4 Way Launcher which was the first AI driven weapon to grace the battlefields of the Great War.

Dropcloth

Variants: Mk1, Mk1.5 

Mk1

Dropcloths were the definitive infantry bot and were the most common bot on the battlefield during the Great War. Mk1 and Mk1.5 Dropcloths were human sized, slim (compared to other robots), with proportional limbs. The Mk1.5 Dropcloth was an updated version of the Mk1 possessing thicker limbs, rotating forearm shields, and a gorget. Dropcloths were outfitted with a variety of weapons: shotguns, semi-auto pistols, assault rifles, SMGs, gatling guns, meat cleavers, and machetes. 

Mk1.5

Armstrong

Variants: 0G, 1G

0G

Armstrongs were jet pack assisted robots with superior AI (second only to a Caesar). They had a pill shaped body, stubby legs, long arms, and a rotating sensor array. The 0G version of the Armstrong was designed for operations in low gravity environments. 0G Armstrongs were solely used by Rothchild in his Lunar Defense group. The 0G Armstrong came equipped with small jet packs, directional thrusters in the front, and a grenade launcher. 

1G

The 1G Armstrong was designed to operate on terrestrial bodies like Earth and Mars. It had a massive jet pack and replaced the front directional thrusters with bags. They came equipped with machine guns and revolvers. The first 1G Armstrong was was spotted on the battlefield with MOD markings (not a big surprise as MOD was a secret Rothchild group). Later the 1G was offered up for sale to both the Terrans and Martians.

Terrans and Martians

Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Martian Foreign Minister Gustav Von Maghen

Before the Great War

Before the Great War would kick off it's important to understand where both sides were. For the Terrans it would form the Earth Coalition (E.C.) which would see countless nations unite under one banner. A banner that saw may countries join under it for religious reasons.

The Martians had left the Earth at an unknown time but the main reason was religion. The Martians are mainly atheists but there could have been non-Christian religions that also fled to Mars to escape religious oppression back on Earth.

It seems in the time that the Martians left that the relationship with Earth was peaceful. Neither side had come to blows with one another. That would all change on September 1^st, 1986.

The Great War

On July 13^th, 1986 Martian Foreign Minister Gustav Von Maghen was visiting Geneva when he was arrested. He was informed by the Earth Coalition Foreign Minister Enrich Souille that he was under arrest for crimes against Earth and God. Along with his arrest Gustav was also informed that the E.C. now recognized all of Mars as its exclusive property under its direct control.

On September 1^st, 1986 the first E.C. liberation force was sent to Mars. This was the beginning of the Great War.

This liberation force sent to Mars was woefully unprepared. Only a third of the soldiers were acclimated for the Martian gravity and their robots weren't equipped with the correct filters to combat the Martian dust. The Martians themselves were very prepared. They had custom fit-outs for their larger bots that would take advantage of Mars' weak gravity compared to Terrans' bots.

This liberation force would make little headway on Mars. That alongside an unforeseen logistical
mishaps, like seeing a shipment of enemy Rothchild robots dropped at the wrong coordinates. Those coordinates being the bottom of the Valles Marineris (a total accident if one is to believe Rothchild). The Martian command estimated that the liberation force would be defeated in eight months or less.

Mars did not sit idle after being invaded. They themselves would retaliate against Earth with their own invasion force.

The Earth Coalition Fractures

At an unspecified time the Earth Coalition fractured. The fracturing was caused by what is known as the martian-sympathizers. Countries that started to feel for the Martians plight and wondered why they were even fighting them to begin with.

These martian-sympathizers didn't directly alley themselves with the Martians but they did withdraw themselves from the war. This did not sit well with the countries left in the E.C. and in return the E.C. declared these sympathizers enemies. In turn the Earth would become a chaotic and brutal battleground with Terrans fighting against Terrans and Martians fighting against those not on their side.

It didn't help when N.O.M. came out from the shadows and dealt both sides a nasty blow.

The war as it stands now is a fight between N.O.M., Terrans, Martians, and their sympathizers. All the while Rothchild has been evicted from his moon base and licks his wounds in the Colombian jungle.

Ways of War

Terran Grunt

Terrans: The Terrans had no problem throwing meat into the machine and seeing what comes out the other side. Meaning the Terrans would stick a rifle in any fighting age males hand and tell them to go fight for God and country. Training was minimal to none for some of the fighting forces in the E.C. but the E.C. didn't mind with their drowning them in bodies doctrine. Some of the fighting forces of the E.C. did posses better training, equipment, and different methods of conducting war but the majority were ill-trained and ill-equipped. When it came to the bots the Terrans used them as supplementary units to the humans they fought alongside. Either embedding them within human units or having them fight in their own formations but backing up or by leading the way for the human soldiers. Another aspect of the Terrans is that they didn't have an issue using nuclear weapons to accomplish their objectives.

Slaughterhouse Dropcloth

Martians: The Martians were very different from the Terrans when it came to war. They didn't have the same numbers that the Terrans did so the majority of the front line fighting was done with robots instead of soldiers. The soldiers of Mars were very well trained and equipped compared to their Terran brethren. While the Martians didn't employ nuclear weaponry like the Terrans they did not find the use of terror tactics above them. Most evident with the Slaughterhouse units that were planted in secure territories and activate at night to kill anything they could get their meat cleavers on.

N.O.M. (Not Ordinary Men)

Flesh, steel, fused and lifeless, this is not the outcome we support. We shall stop this, we shall right the wrong. - N.O.M.

Who are N.O.M.?

The enigmatic and mysterious N.O.M. (Not Ordinary Men) had their fingerprints all over the Great War and the WWR universe in general. Where they came from was unknown but we do know that they are extremely competent, resourceful, and possessed an inhuman ability. The inhuman ability to communicate with Rothchild's robots outside of normal verbal communication. A kind of telepathy that they could use to influence the bots to fight for them. These powers were granted by the special gas that was given to N.O.M. members by the Supreme NOM.

Any early history of N.O.M. comes from the Supreme and the first 33. Who these first 33 were is unknown. Is it the current de Plumes? A founding caste of N.O.M.?

How one joins N.O.M. is known. Every member of N.O.M. was chosen from birth and are drawn to N.O.M.. When do they join N.O.M.? That is up to the individual to choose when they do but it is an inevitability.

Silent Beginnings

Nom and Noir De Plume

N.O.M was not a major player during the beginning of the Great War. Instead they lurked in the shadows and weaved their way into the commands of the Terrans and Martians. They, however, did have operatives conducting operations on Earth and Mars. These operatives were know as the de Plumes. The ones of note during the early days of the Great War are Nom de Plume and Gebi de Plume.

Nom de Plume himself was a known figure by both the Terrans and Martians for one reason: the Dirty Deeds. He was the one that found them on Mars after the botched mission to kill Rothchild. After that he lead them on a series of massacres and engagements that saw him helping the Terrans one day and the Martians the next. It is also important to note that Nom de Plume took up the moniker Noir de Plume after finding the Dirty Deeds. Nom and Noir are the same person.

 

Gebi de Plume

Gebi de Plume wasn't a well known figure on the other hand. When a group of Earth Coalition troops were being heavily bombarded by mortars from Martians they were “saved” by Gebi. When the soldiers went to investigate what happened they found Gebi among a bunch of dead and dismembered Martians and burned out husks of dead bots. All Gebi said was that “they got in my way.” The investigating troops (a Sergeant and Lieutenant) didn't know who or what he was. Some kind of soldier or merc was what the Lt thought. Gebi was free to leave though and wasn't stopped. When the Lt. raised a concern about the figure he was told to be quiet or he would end up in the brig. This Lt. wrote a letter to his brother about this incident. It was intercepted by N.O.M. and the Lt. was killed.

   

 

 

Another de Plume was Blanc de Plume but not much was known about him.

Blanc De Plume

A Violent Reveal

N.O.M. didn't stay in the shadows for long. It only stayed their until it was in a comfortable position to strike a nasty blow to both the Terrans and Martians. Against the Terrans N.O.M. had hidden itself behind the forces known as Nightwatch and Daywatch. These forces were used as parade guards and bodyguards for some of the Terran commands and whole upper echelons of these commands were eliminated by their Nightwatch/Daywatch protectors. A similar event took place on Mars.

After this N.O.M. had truly entered the Great War as a major player.

It is unknown how long after this event that N.O.M. struck at Rothchild but it couldn't have been much later. It was probably part of their grand reveal to try and eliminate Rothchild alongside some of the high commands of the Terrans and Martrians.

N.O.M. wasn't the first to try and kill Rothchild. The Terrans would be the first with the Dirty Deeds. N.O.M. however did not choice to go with the personal route like the Terrans did with trying to kill Rothchild. Instead an Astro Nom was sent up into the orbit of the Moon and acquired access to one of Rothchild's kill sats. The Astro Nom then turned its weapons onto Rothchild's moon base. The attack destroyed the moon base but Rothchild survived.

The Fallen

Jung De Plume

 

 

Not all was well in paradise for N.O.M.. A few of the de Plumes had splintered away from the main body of N.O.M. for their own reasons. These de Plumes were know as the fallen.

The fallen could be traced back to one de Plume: Jung de Plume. Jung de Plume was the apprentice of Kuan Ti Plume.

Jung de Plume would eventually die and in his final breath told Kuan Ti Plume the truth of it all, the war, N.O.M.. This changed how Kuan saw the world and would emerge as the first fallen.

Kuan Ti Plume

 

 

 

Kuan was not the only fallen. Barguest de Plume would find himself a fallen. Barguest was not spurred on by the words of another however. He saw the reflection of N.O.M. as distorted and splintered and decided he would change that. He would try to change N.O.M. into the image he thought it should have been. One that shouldn't unite but crush all enemies in their path. Barguest was the de Plume that taught N.O.M. how to fight and was the first to call for aggressive action.

Barguest De Plume

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barguest and Kuan were quite different. Barguest saw Kuan as soft and took a more militaristic approach. Kuan on the other hand had become reclusive and did not take the violent approach like Barguest had.

One could argue that Von de Plume is a fallen de Plume. He believed that N.O.M. had lost their vision and he had set out to establish neo-NOM. 

Von De Plume

 

 

 

One thing was common for all the fallen. The Supreme NOM wanted them all dead and Marquis de Plume had been dispatched by her to hunt them down and kill them.

Marquis de Plume

Night & Day

We looked into the shadows and saw absolution. - Night

Radiance will rescind all shadow from its bursa. - Day

N.O.M. had a single goal in mind but the group itself had different philosophies. The two we known as night and day. The two ideals did conflict with one another but they were just opposite sides of the same coin. This gave way to the Nightwatch and Daywatch groups that we saw before and after N.O.M.'s big reveal.

Iconography

Trinity: The major symbol of N.O.M.. The trinity was the embodiment of N.O.M.'s main doctrine, balance, with the trinity representing the mind, body, and spirit.

N.O.M. Disciple

Third Eye: Appearing on the N.OM. Disciple the third eye was a very apt symbol for N.O.M.. The third eye was about perceiving the world beyond ordinary sight. N.O.M. had always presented itself as a group that saw the world in a different way then the other factions.

Darwin Rothchild

A day of battle, is a day of business – Darwin Rothchild

Intro

In war one needs manpower, supplies to feed that manpower, and weapons to equip that manpower. Darwin Rothchild in the WWR universe provides those weapons and one could say a bit of the manpower as well. For he is the man behind the company that makes all the robots that both sides in the war use. Rothchild is a weapons manufacturer that holds immense power or as he puts it “they say that he who has the gold also makes the rules, but now it is the rule-makers on both sides who are paying me gold to rewrite their inept rules.”

 

 

 

 

 

Backstory

Darwin Rothchild, or simply Rothchild, is kind of an enigma in WWR lore. There isn't a lot of backstory when it comes to him. It is unknown how he became the one sole manufacture of robots in the WWR universe or what even set him on the course to make them. However,  he did set out to make robots and that he has a monopoly on them. There is a little bit of info about Rothchild's younger years. For Rothchild he saw his family as lacking when he was very young and in one shape or another his family members all died... from obscure accidents of course: “it was obvious at a young age I was destined to be alone.” And one damning piece of evidence being “the death of my father was cathartic, it was at my hands naturally.”

Rothchild's father didn't care for him, he was a raging drunk, his mother was extremely religious, and do to this lack of care or empathy it made him into the man he is today. One would probably be correct in assuming that Darwin Rothchild was responsible for the untimely demise of his family members. Possibly due to them doing nothing about how his father treated him or maybe that's how his whole family treated him. I think it's a little bit of both.

001

The Moon and His Company

Rothchild had the headquarters of his company Rothchild Mechanics/Corporation/Company (it isn't specifically specified which name is correct) on Earth's Moon. How he came to own the Moon and make it his own domain is unknown. It is probably correct in assuming that thanks to his early sales of his robots to the Terrans and the Martians he was able to acquire it. Up on the Moon he had everything he needed to produce his lines of robots, perform R&D, and field test. If one didn't know that the Moon was Rothchild's domain then his advanced defenses would remind you. He had kill sats orbiting the Moon, patrolling 0G Armstrongs, and his Rothchild Internal Police or R.I.P made up of three very deadly Caesars.

002

Not all of Rothchild Mechanics was located on the Moon. Rothchild had areas around Earth known as storerooms. One of these storerooms was located in Geneva where Rothchild sent some of his experiments.

It might seem like Rothchild was a one man band but he wasn't the only human in his company. He's the visionary and a key part in the development of his companies robots but he also employed engineers, mechanics, administrative personnel, and others. There are references to a administrative officer and a storeroom caretaker. We also had the Rothchild mechanics (people who fix stuff not his company). 

 

003

Like other big corporations Rothchild Mechanics also had subsidiaries. One being BcELL which was a logistics company that delivered Rothchild's robots and other logistical goods. This added to his monopoly as he also controlled who his robots could and couldn't be delivered to.

 

Rothchild's Goal

Rothchild wasn't someone who stood around reaping the benefits for benefits sake. Rothchild had always had a goal when it comes the war. A direct quote explains it quite well: “The children of men were supposed to inherit the Earth, or so the story goes, but my children, my offspring, mechanical in design, and glorious in every way, shall inherit the universe, and I, Darwin Rothchild, shall not rest until they do.” Rothchild was using the war and providing the weapons for it to see the destruction of humanity. For when humanity had snuffed itself out, with a little help, then the creations of Rothchild would be the true owners of Earth, the Moon, Mars, and possibly the universe.

Rothchild had been very persistent about pursuing this goal. Not just in providing both sides with his robots but he had actively meddled in the war itself. This can be seen with his backdoor dealings with the Moderator group, the Peaceday Massacres, and having his own military units, like the Junglers who operated on Earth.

 

 

 

Exile

This goal and meddling had put Rothchild into the cross hairs of N.O.M who'd been actively trying to prevent what Rothchild had in mind for humanity. After N.O.M revealed itself to the public they performed their most important act. A lone Astro NOM infiltrated one of Rothchild's kill sats and turned it on Rothchild's moon facility. The base was totally destroyed and almost killed Rothchild. Almost being the key word there. Rothchild was able to escape, not unharmed though, and flee to the jungles of Colombia to link up with the Junglers. This started the next chapter in Rothchild's life and marked a new phase in the war itself.

Caesar Mk1.5

Now Rothchild sits in his complex deep in the Colombian jungle protected by the Junglers, now known as jungle defense, the Moderators, and his 12 Caesar Mk1.5s known as the Apostles.

We know at this time that a crack team known as the Shitty 9 lead by Von de Plume are trying to hunt Rothchild down.

 

 

 

 

Shitty 9

Iconography

 

The R: The big R can really only stand for one thing: Rothchild.

The Crown: Another symbol associated with Rothchild. A little more subtle then the R but not by much. The crown represents Rothchild being the king. He's the king of his robots and is the king of war.

The New Logo: The new logo was quite different from the old simple R. It had two horizontal lines intersecting each other. It was definitely abstract and could stand for a number of things. One could view it as the moon Rothchild's base was once apart of. The smaller section showing a kind of separation from the main body of the circle. Possible symbolism for when Rothchild was kicked off his moon? Maybe.