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Ok boys and gals, time for some good, old, trash talking.

Today, while on a bit of 3Gs binge i took some time to give the True Naruni a good, hard look and reread and must i say i'm quite unimpressed.

All the talk about them as some sub-species of the Splugorth or other alien intelligences?
Pure hot air, just propaganda to viralize their name in digital media and distract/intimidate business rivals.

Because as monsters go? Bottom-feeders, pure and simple.

Except for their (i'll admit, quite remarkable) intelligence, when it comes to supernatural powers, the True Naruni's abilities puts them on the tier of Dybbuk, Dimensional Ghouls or Dar'Ota, along with sub-demons like Gargoyles & Brodkill at most. Their psychic powers are decent, but about same level as a Gargoyle or Dog Boy's. Cool if you are the average master psychic, but for the strong suite of a greater than mortal being? Pfft, no bite to that bark really.

To boot, they are vulnerable to rune and holy weapons, that pretty much seals the deal on them being a minion/summon race (unlike Gargoyles or Broodkill and a bunch of creatures that get called "demons" but are nothing of the sort). If they have a reason to hide, is probably out of fear of being found out by some Supernatural Intelligence they owed fealty to but ran away from - or being bound by a random Shifter with the right obscure spell.

On a bright note, their regenerative abilities are on par with Gargoyle/Brodkill, meaning they can make use of cybernetics, MoMs, psynetics or TW-implants like those Tolkeen gave the Daemonix with no problem. There's always a silver lining!

Admitedly, that could be quite awesome and except for the TW implants the True Naruni are more than smart & knowledgeable enough to develop all of these on their own if given the idea or a test subject to study.

Yeah, being lower-tier Supernaturals just means they have to find other ways to build power and protect themselves from the other monsters that would see them as lunch.
This includes building armies of armed and expendable lower-level ablative meat to throw at/distract the other supernaturals.

taalismn wrote:Yeah, being lower-tier Supernaturals just means they have to find other ways to build power and protect themselves from the other monsters that would see them as lunch.
This includes building armies of armed and expendable lower-level ablative meat to throw at/distract the other supernaturals.

True, true. Little aside, the Naruni are so averse to the idea of fighting True Naruni PCs are ineligible to Men at Arms.
In fact the text say specifically of them, just to reinforce there are things they won't do and fighting is the one they really won't do.
Straight from the book "Personal combat? That is what mercenaries and Repo-Bots are for."

A funny thought. Considering they are minor psychics, i'm imagining some Uteni salesperson ending on Europe - and letting itself be captured "for the corp intel" (read, stealing back with tech as a Psynetics guinea pig) while in Angel of Death territory.

Truth be told, my initial aim was more than anything, to debunk all the noise around the "secrecy" over the nature of the True Naruni.
To expose how small fry are they behind the rumors and conspiracy theories. Actually, i dare say it makes their level of success, as one of the preeminent corporate empires of the 3Gs, below only its most powerful interstellar power blocs, all the more impressive.

And still, i must yet again deflate the poor bastards, by saying i think i might have found their match, in the most improbably acessible of the sources to boot.

CB, pgs. 189-190 wrote:Sowki — The Serpent
Unlike many supernatural beings, the sowki is very intelligent and not generally driven by blood lust or a desire to destroy the human race. Although human flesh is considered delicious, they see Earth as a land of opportunity. A place where a sowki can acquire great power, wealth, and perhaps, worship from lesser creatures.
I.Q. 13+2D6, M.D.C.: 3D6x10
R.C.C. Skills: In addition to the circle and magic knowledge already noted, the sowki can read mystic symbols, knows all magic words, recognize enchantment/possession 70%, literate in Dragonese/Elven and two other languages at 98%, basic and advanced math 98%, operate computers (+15%), demon & monster lore (+20%), palming (+10%), concealment (+10%), two ancient W.P.s and two modern W.P.s, radio: basic (+10%).
Can select an additional 12 skills from any skill categories, excluding hand to hand combat and acrobatics. All skills enjoy a +10% bonus plus I.Q. bonus if any. Most will have strong leanings toward espionage, rogue, science and technical.

And here we are. Yeah, those guys. Just as smart, possibly as technologically adept, slightly more powerful in the supernatural arena (being some of the best in the "lesser demon" weight class, while the True Naruni are very much in the "sub-demon" one). Yeah, could be an interesting rivalry.

The one edge/saving grace that i see for the Naruni is that, while they have an interest on technology, most Sowki are even more in love with manipulating people, lording over and being worshipped by them meaning that, while being business tycoons could certainly appeal to some Sowki, messing around with mass media (Omni News?) and social elites might be even more to their tastes. That and their ambition/ego could lead them into fighting for influence with other shadowy manipulators, like the Deevyls - what might end up as much more than they can chew.

Still, the Sowki are a group they might definitely have to watch out for, to nip that dangerous rival potential in the bud.
Supposing such occasional technologically-inclined individuals do not join Naruni Enterprises instead, just for convenience and the challenge.
Making some "director/major shareholder" NPC to deal or compete with Thraxus could be fun.

Do any of the books speak of Naruni Enterprise's status on Rifts Earth since Naruni Wave 2?

Re-reading some of the Phaseworld stuff on them and thinking of mixing with a few ideas from past games, specially one in which my character became a minor shareholder through some successful patent deals and would get himself embroiled in the whole "2nd Wave" backroom cold war, due to his newfound status and native perspective.