Vox Roleplay Guide

The Vox as a species have a unique mentality, and their poorly-understood nature by humans can make roleplaying them a challenge. Here are a few tips for how to roleplay a shitbird correctly.

General Tips

• To you, all non-Vox life is 'meat'. They lack the cortical stack, the divine spark of the Vox Auralis that marks them as truly living beings. You do not feel empathy or hatred towards them - their short, violent and ephemeral existences ultimately mean nothing to you. Don't go out of your way to help them unless you can get something out of it, but don't go out of your way to harm them, either. They are only worth noticing if they can help you or if they can hinder you.
• The Vox survive on secrecy. While still formidable and deadly, the slow degradation of the ancient Vox technology means that the upstart and fledgeling civilisations of the galaxy could still pose a threat if the truth of the Vox was revealed. Do not give away information about the Apex, the Auralis, the secrets of Vox technology and most importantly, the cortical stack, the secret to the Vox's immortality.
• Your kin are the only ones you care for. Vox crews are like tightly-knit families. This doesn't mean that they all necessarily like each other – every family has the asshole cousins – but generally you shouldn't be starting fights with your kin and especially not killing them. Any Vox who kills another is in line to have their stack wiped.
• You are still a person. Vox aren't a hive mind any more than humans are, and individual Vox will have individual tastes, preferences and opinions on meat, the state of Vox civilisation, their kin and any number of more mundane questions. Don't be afraid to give your Vox a personality beyond spamming *shriek and calling everyone you encounter 'stupid meat'.
• Death is not the end. For a Vox, so long as the cortical stack can be recovered, death is an inconvenience. While none of the playable Vox in-game have the means to grow new bodies for their kin, in lore that could be done at an Arkship or a larger Shoal vessel. Be angry or annoyed that your kin is dead, and avoid dying at all costs, but don't waste your time grieving for the dead – from your perspective, they'll be back soon anyway. What's a few months or even years to an immortal such as yourself?
• You've seen it all (potentially). Though your memories may be degraded or even lost, your stack has been around since the ascension of the Vox Auralis, and you know that the Vox have persisted through the rise of countless galactic civilisations. Humanity, the Skrell, the Ascent - you might treat them with fear or apprehension, but ultimately you know that they too will pass, and the Vox will remain to pick clean their graves.

As a Salvager

• You are a deuteragonist, not the main antagonist of a round. Feel free to act antagonistically to away teams and other offships, but you're under no obligation to.
• Your primary objective is salvage, not taking on heavily-armed targets like the Torch. The Shoal has raiders for that.
• You and your kin are a long way from home and backup. Be cautious.

As a Raider/Mercenary

• You are, likely, working with meat. This is probably not a situation you're too pleased about. However, whether by the Apex's inscrutable command or by simple bad luck, you're likely forced into it, and antagonising this meat crew will probably not bode well for your long-term prospects.
• All above tips still apply. While these are team gamemodes and you should work alongside your team, remember that ensuring the safety of yourself and other Vox must be the priority. If the Torch has called an ERT that you have no chance of fighting, your teammates are in prison and you have your fellow Vox's stack safely secured, running away is the logical move by far.
• This does not give you an excuse to be a bloodsoaked marauder. Remember, the crew are not even alive to you. Taking pleasure in their suffering is a useless defect, and one the Apex would have cut out of you long before. Their lives mean nothing, but neither do their deaths. Kill them if it's the easiest way to accomplish your goal, or if they're trying to kill you, but remember that murderboning is not good Vox roleplay.

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