Masters

From Megaman Mush Wiki

The first androids were created by Drs. Light, Wily, and Cain in a joint effort. Dr. Light was given the lion's share of the credit, which angered Dr. Wily, leading him to steal the original prototype, Blues, and the six utilitarian androids the trio had constructed. Blues was eventually recovered and became a Maverick Hunter alongside his brother Rock, but the six utility androids were kept, forming the nucleus of Dr. Albert Wily's instrument of conquest: the Robot Masters. Having gone mad over his lack of recognition, Wily continued building robots at an alarming pace over several years - his mad genius resulting in an army to further his goals of world domination.

The majority of the Robot Masters have been built by Wily himself, except for the original six, now dubbed "Alpha Squad," and several others who he appropriated and reprogrammed to serve his will. He has made revolutionary advances in science and technology in the course of arming his warriors, and even now still builds new Robot Masters when he sees fit - although his present army, and devising new ideas and inventions to further it, takes up the greater part of his attention now.

Contents 1 Guidelines 2 Chain of Command 3 Original Characters 4 Applying 5 Reprogramming 6 Backups 7 Overview

Guidelines

The goals of the Robot Masters are the goals of Dr. Wily. They are his personal army. Some were built by him, others stolen and reprogrammed; all are equal in their servitude to his will. While the idea of an army of mindless robot slaves was appealing, Wily realized that to battle human soldiers and other intelligent robots, he would need to provide his Robot Masters with initative and intelligence without allowing them total freedom. He programmed them with simple but iron-clad directives: To not harm him, nor to let him come to harm, and to see him as their leader, in whatever form their personalities would put him. He found (to his vexation) that this did not prevent the Robot Masters from forming their own motives and desires, although they kept them from fleeing him or questioning him, no matter how badly abused. Mentally, all of the Robot Masters are original creations; androids programmed from the bottom up by Dr. Wily. This unusual mental architecture means that they are greatly resistant to the Sigma virus, although not completely so. Also, all the Robot Masters possess at least one functioning manipulator; if they do not have visible "hands" in the original game forms, one or both arms have retractable and fully functional hands, unless the player wants this to not be the case -- Spark Man is notorious for lacking them.

Some Robot Masters are capable of removing their armor and dressing in human clothing for disguise purposes. Others are not, and must use much cruder disguise methods (a large coat or superficial spoilers and decals, to make them seem more like a standard heavy reploid). Whether or not a particular Master is humanoid enough to pass for a human or humanoid reploid is up to the player to determine within the bounds of common sense; Robot Masters who are much larger than humans, who possess exposed rockets or arm-mounted weaponry, or who are mounted on tank treads or horse legs cannot pass for human.

Please remember: We're the bad guys, however fun and cheerful our attitude. Most Robot Masters would follow Wily's orders to the letter with not a thought of disobedience, no matter how atrocious they might be. This does not mean that they can't complain, mock their superiors behind their backs, mock their superiors in front of their backs, refuse orders, shirk duty, make friends with or roleplay with others outside the faction, etc. They can. However, all of these actions have IC consequences when found out, which may vary widely and not always be pleasant. Robot Masters are also incapable of falling into true love, as it would conflict with their primary and fundamental loyalty to Dr. Wily. Relationships out of the faction rapidly become a major IC concern, because Wily does not approve of a Robot Master who might put another above him. However, friendship is entirely possible, and many Masters have friends who are, in one sense or another, their enemies. It also does not prevent them from feigning love for manipulation purposes, or acting like oversexed teenagers.

Robot Masters aren't consciously aware that they are loyal to Wily due to programming, due to the devious genius Wily has put into the creation of that programming. It is unthemely for them to want to have this programming removed; no Robot Master would want to stop being a Robot Master. (Why? It's a dream job!) Any Master who even seems to be a flight risk would be targetted for recapture and reprogramming, which is certain to succeed sooner or later. Defections would require TP approval from both the RM staffer and the staffer of the target faction, and will be explicitly temporary in nature.

Chain of Command

On the bottom of the ladder are the armies of mindless drones that are the bulk of Wily's army and servants. They maintain the WilyDrome and Robot Master installations and serve as cannon fodder. They are not available for play, although they may be emitted as NPCs by Robot Masters if desired.

The regular Robot Masters are divided into teams, generally of 8. Their job is to command drones and make trouble. They generally do not give orders except under specific situations where their specialty makes them the most competent to do so.

The Squad Commanders and Executives, or COs and XOs, are higher up. They have either shown leadership ability and performance, or have pleased some perverse whim of those higher than them in the hierarchy. This is a very fluid situation, and any given Robot Master may become, or stop being, a squad CO or XO, for any reason, and sometimes for none. The only given is that unplayed Robot Masters will not permanently occupy such a position.

Ballade, Enker, Punk, Quint, and King form the Elite Masters and are above the squad leaders. While all of them command respect, Quint is perhaps the weakest and is seen as something of a joke unless the other Elites are backing him up. Enker is the highest-ranking Elite and is the strategic planner; King also possesses a certain degree of authority, although he is prone to exercise it towards his own ends.

Bass is Wily's second in command, and the only Robot Master with no behavioral restraints, lest they be used to defeat him. Bass is above rebuke from anyone except Dr. Wily.

Dr. Wily is the leader of the Robot Masters. His word is law and he controls who lives and who explodes comically. The Robot Masters generally do their best to please him and stay on his good side, due to both their own instincts and because those in his favor receive authority, good missions, and loot. Dr. Wily does care for his creations in his own idiosyncratic way, and will not abandon them as long as they continue to please his twisted mind.

Original Characters

The Robot Masters permit OCs to become allies of the faction. After a period of alliance, OCs may elect to become "Full Members." A Robot Master OC recieves some of the benefits of factional membership, such as a position in a squad, having a Robot Master flag in their +finger, the ability to acquire rank and influence, and access to crazy contests, prizes, and savings.

The only way to get an OC into the Robot Masters is to defect in. It is not possible to app directly as an OC into the Robot Masters. Most of the Robot Master OCs start as unaligned civilians, roleplay with the faction as an ally for a long period of time, and are then asked to truly become "one of them." It is not possible to defect in from any faction other than Unaligned; you must both be Unaligned and to have worked with the Robot Masters for some time before a defection will be allowed.

It is possible for any racetype to defect into the Robot Masters. However, humans and cyborgs are more likely to get in. A human or cyborg defecting into the Robot Masters is not eligible to apply for any statistical increases, as Wily himself is not a cyberneticist and would be unlikely to choose someone who required enhancements to be useful. Generally, any reploid who defects into the Robot Masters will be reprogrammed into an android, and will be considered one thenceforth. Any android who has defected in, or who was previously a reploid, will have the same Wilycode (see news masters2) that a Robot Master does. Because of this, it is harder for a robot to join, as Wily is more likely to roll his own or steal something that looks promising. Exceptions are generally for harmless and entertaining individuals, such as Number Man's horrible ethnic stereotype assistant Mariachi.

Because of the requirement for a working relationship, defecting into the Robot Masters is generally easy if the requirements are there, and does not require a TP. Defecting out can be done by any human or cyborg, but is much less likely for a robot character due to the likelihood of Wilycoding. Defecting directly into another major faction, while possible, will be percieved as betrayal.

Applying

When applying for a Robot Master, please keep the following in mind.

Histories are encouraged to be brief, especially for non-Elites. Simply saying, "Built (or Stolen) by Dr. Wily," is generally sufficent.

Remember that the games are not canonical here. The Robot Masters in Mega Man 4 were built by Wily, not Dr. Cossack. Also, it is heavily discouraged to include a specific defeat by Mega Man in the background, as most Masters have been beaten by a lot of people at various times (this is why it's still called Earth, not Wilyearth) and focusing on defeat at Rock's hand is very overdone. If you would like to form a rivalry with another heroic character, please feel free to do so (with the player of that hero's permission, of course).

Although the characters are FCs, please elaborate on the +finger profile when you write your application. If you don't like the +finger, you may request it be changed; Dr. Wily changes the programming of his androids around for experimental purposes or because there's nothing good on TV quite often. More drastic changes are less likely to be approvable, however, and not EVERYTHING will be.

Please do not request new abilities or attacks on your initial application. Attacks may be altered with staff approval after playing a character for 30 days; this does not apply, of course, if some attack's name was horribly misspelled and needs to be fixed.

Reprogramming

Wily can, and does, alter the programming of the Robot Masters. This can have comedic effect or may be used to provide new tactical options (example: programming Drill Man to explore for veins of Force Metal). This is occasionally used for punishment if a particular behavior pattern has become obnoxious and detrimental to the faction as a whole. If reprogramming is to be carried out of this sort, you may ask the RM staffer to speak with you and Dr. Wily about the issue; be aware that the judgment may be to allow the reprogramming. Generally, this reprogramming will only affect the issue in question, and will not fundamentally alter the character or damage their memories except when such is vitally necessary.

Backups

The Robot Masters' brains are backed up semi-regularly; generally a copy no more than a week or ten days old is on file, in case of sudden, accidental, and explosive defeat. Robot Masters going on major planned operations are also generally backed up.

If a Robot Master is restored from backup, he is, obviously, unable to remember anything that happened after the backup. He may find out later in some fashion.

This is not true immortality. Generally, a Robot Master who goes into action expecting to be utterly wrecked -- as opposed to defeated or even disabled and later recovered -- will awaken to creative and humiliating punishments and mockeries for his incompetence. (If the spectacular defeat was either essential to the operation, or saved it from failure, this is unlikely to happen... but not certainly so.) A Robot Master might even wonder if that loaded backup would truly be "them," or just a being identical to them yet not truly "them". This metaphysical argument can't be resolved, but provides the more thoughtful Robot Masters with a good reason to avoid seeking out spectacular explosive deaths.

Overview

The Robot Masters are a family, and when you get involved, you'll find that the camaraderie and esprit de corps in this faction can be astounding. We like players who don't mind being the bad guy, and who have a strong range of roleplay they can and will engage in. Things in the Robot Masters can be serious, grim, even Orwellian, but Wily's mad genius tends to lead to comedy as well; be ready for anything.

If you're thinking of applying for the original Mega Man villains, we urge you to read 'news application' and send us an app at robotmasters@megamanmush.com. If you've already gotten a character, welcome aboard! We hope you found this news file useful, and if you have questions, don't hesitate to @mail Mesarthim, your friendly local Robot Master admin.

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Database of RM Gestalt descs: RM Gestalts.