Aztech Special Forces?

[Silent Wayfarer]

Somewhere on these boards, I read that Aztech fielded Earthdawn-style Adepts named after the Jaguar Warriors and so on of antiquity. Could someone enlighten me on this topic?

Also, how reasonable, fluffwise, is it for an ork runner to have been former Aztech special forces who retired for some reason? Is there anything special about how they equip their troops?

[Ancient History]

Somewhere on these boards, I read that Aztech fielded Earthdawn-style Adepts named after the Jaguar Warriors and so on of antiquity. Could someone enlighten me on this topic?

Per the Aztlan sourcebook and subsequent books, Aztlan has four warrior orders based on the old Aztec warrior lodges - eagle, jaguar, etc. - of which the highest are the jaguar warriors, who are all adepts.

Also, how reasonable, fluffwise, is it for an ork runner to have been former Aztech special forces who retired for some reason?

Completely unreasonable. Aztlan is a racist hellhole of a nation and orks aren't allowed in. Humans only, trog.

Is there anything special about how they equip their troops?

Depending on the sourcebook, yes, but generally they're kitted out as special forces.

[Silent Wayfarer]

Per the Aztlan sourcebook and subsequent books, Aztlan has four warrior orders based on the old Aztec warrior lodges - eagle, jaguar, etc. - of which the highest are the jaguar warriors, who are all adepts.

Derp, I am a retard. Which Aztlan sourcebook is this again, and for which edition? I'm only recently starting to look into the fluff of Shadowrun.

Completely unreasonable. Aztlan is a racist hellhole of a nation and orks aren't allowed in. Humans only, trog.

Gotcha. Is it like Japan which is supposed to be Super Racist as well and they send their orks/trolls to some kind of death camp called Yomi?

[Whipstitch]

The Azzies are kind of a hard group to draw player characters from because the line between where Aztlan ends and Aztechnology begins is a deliberately blurry one and so you end up with a corp that effectively has a country under their thumb, leaving them with some of the most loyal forces you'll see this side of the Red Samurai.

This means that old source books like Corporate Download describe Azzie facilities as having uniformly top grade magical security and comparatively "average" physical security forces aside from being well-equipped and having top flight elite units for more important facilities like the Leopard and Jaguar Guards, the latter of which typically don't operate outside of Aztlan at all. So if your guy is a former Jag you really need a good story because you're talking about a guy who served a company that is practically a country right down to having its own religion and language.

That's not even getting into the part where elite forces guard elite people and Azzie elites are often characterized as taking part in pants shittingly evil rituals too, so that tends to be a barrier as well.

[Silent Wayfarer]

Gotcha. In that case I'll probably say he was ex-Ares or ex-UCAS army instead.

Though that makes me wonder, why would anyone leave? I imagine that the powers that be would not want to let a highly trained, augged up supersoldier out of their control, so they'd probably pay them stacks of credits and keep their friends around to keep them loyal. Or they might just put a killphrase in him ("Laputan machine") to just destroy them if they get uppity. Probably both.

[Whipstitch]

It's really not any better for the unaugmented Awakened guys either, given that corp/national/group loyalty can be built into an initiatory group's strictures and it's possible to feel the bad vibes of a stricture violation through the group link when performing rituals. Likewise providing a material link can also be part of a group's strictures and it's pretty much a lock that a military brotherhood like some of the Azzie lodges would require one. Generally my characters haven't been too worried about ritual magic over the years but I'm pretty sure my attitude would change if a hundred odd eagle guerreros really felt that my character's continued existence was a black mark on their organization's honor.

[Username17]

Aztlan is the poorly thought out generic villain organization, and they do everything bad. That includes both being racist and refusing to hire metas (because racism is bad) and being full of monsters (because monsters are scary, and that's bad).

So Orks and even Wendigos and Shapeshifters are totally in their warrior orders except when the authors forget about that and go off on a rant about how it's a racist humans-only club instead.

Aztlan doesn't make any fucking sense, so do what you want with it.

-Username17

[kzt]

Considering that the Texas National Guard has more armored vehicles than the entire Mexican Army, and one tank company (of many) of the Texas National Guard has more modern tanks than the entire Mexican Army, yeah, the whole thing from start to finish is insane. Even ignoring the war over Aztlan planting trees. ...

[Whipstitch]

That's nothing compared to the Azzies managing to put through a national religion that isn't Catholic by 2041. Team Big Hat took their licks at the hands of the Mexican government before but last I checked Catholicism (syncretized or not) is still the big dog by a ridiculous margin.

[Fuchs]

First time I hear about Aztlan being racist with regards to metahumans. Where was that written?

[Silent Wayfarer]

I saw a reference to Aztech's upper ranks favouring humans in the 2e Aztlan book, though that was explained away by nonhumans not having been around long enough to rise up through the pecker order.

[Neurosis]

p.73 Corporate Guide for a good overview

[Silent Wayfarer]

I'll check it out, Schwarzkopf.

Anyway, after reading through the Aztlan book, the first thing I think of is how incredibly militarized everything is. I mean, the civvies are allowed to go around with medium combat armor and machine pistols because every single cop is loaded with milspec gear AND their laws make it so that if they kill someone in the process of shooting at you it's YOUR fault, so they don't actually have hostage crises because I imagine ACS cops will gladly blow up the building the hostage taker is in to kill him.

Also, mages are fucked because the entire kingdom is aspected towards blood magic and walking near one of the omnipresent temples means that spirit summoning is similarly fucked. The Azzies also work magic into damn near everything, so their squads are probably magically warded and have mage-level protection against mundane threats, which basically doublefucks everyone. Their warrior orders are basically adept initiation lodges that churn out magicked up killers. Leopard Guards are "only" cybered to the gills, but they're pretty much the mundane elites there.

Their main weakness seems to be the Matrix, since they can't pile on the guns or spam spirits/blood magic to protect themselves there. This is compensated for by making the illegal possession of a cyberdeck a capital offense, so good luck trying to hack into the pyramids.

So if you want to run against Aztlan, you've got a very uphill task, since they operate on a constant war footing and all their security personnel are at most one step removed from their actual frontline military troops.

[kzt]

So if you want to run against Aztlan, you've got a very uphill task, since they operate on a constant war footing and all their security personnel are at most one step removed from their actual frontline military troops.

And unlike real world regimes that try this kind of crap, like North Korea or East Germany, Aztlan has the power of Plot supporting them so they don't actually have any issues from doing all this.

[Neurosis]

Well, either that or they're due for one hell of a reckoning.