Godmen
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This article contains heavy spoilers. |
Godmen are a race of advanced beings from another planet, though they keep a significant stake in this one. They possess potent psionic powers and cybernetic augments that make them invincible in combat, as well as the means to traverse the In-Between freely. Only two confirmed Godmen can be encountered in Underrail, those being Six and Hadrian Tanner.
Background
Very little information about the Godmen's history is given directly, the main source being the psionic monoliths found in the underrail and Deep Caverns. They seem to experience time non-linearly, seeing it as a series of "frames" where outcomes are certain but events leading up to them are not, similar to how Dude experiences visions.
The pillars in Deep Caverns offer an assumed "starting point" for the Godmen lore; the Chosen sought a way to travel through the black sea of infinity (assumed to the In-Between) without dying, so they sought the blessing of the "Machine God". This was presumably when they received their cybernetic enhancements, allowing them to survive the physical trials of rift-walking.
The Crystal Mainframe and Core City pillars describe the next age, wherein they use their advanced technology to defeat their Leviathans, proclaiming an end to the Eon of the Beast and the beginning of their reign of the galaxy. They expand their domain, constructing immensely powerful energy sources to fuel their machines. At some point they learn of their unspecified doom, but are drawn by curiosity to descend all the same, leaving three.
The chronology of the remaining pillars is unclear, but can be speculated; the Intitute monolith shows the Godhead being woken by news of his children's "sickness", possibly referring to their morbid curiosity and placing it during or after the descent. The Jaws monolith is also vague, but describes more than three participants, placing it before or during the descent. It is also the only implied conflict between Godmen, the aggressor possibly being Tanner.
Technology
Although their artifacts appear completely alien to the Biocorp and NFT technology found in South Underrail and the Black Sea, they don't totally eclipse it:
- The Faceless are implied by Six to be connected to his kind, and they do seem to catching up somewhat; the Faceless Medallion shares physical properties with the material used in Oculus, and The Cube bears the same markings as the Jaws monolith.
- Dude is able to create and access Rifts through - all things considered - relatively simple chemistry. Unlike Six's more freeform travel, however, he is restricted to a handful of static locations.
- Six's and Tanner's attacks, though undoubtedly more lethal, aren't all that different from an advanced Laser Pistol or Shock Knife.
- The Shard on its own is part of a larger complex that even Godmen find it difficult to retrieve things from. Not so difficult for Steve Heave, however, who was able to dislodge it with a pickaxe - albeit at a cost.
- The Ethereal Torch is how The Shard manifests for the player, though talking to Six about it implies it can differ between people. Activating it is a matter of seeing it with the right eyes, and its effect is similar to throwing a Plasma Grenade with no cooldown (and the ability to banish otherworldly residue).