I suspect Banes receive no special training whatsoever. They are are conditioned to lack free will and act as a 'hive mind.' Just one Bane knowing something means all other banes will also know it. Aside from some basic physical conditioning with a side-order of cybernetic implants, training to be a Bane just involves being a good listener.
Widows, on the other hand, would have a rigerous extensive training program that would hone their physical prowess as well as focus their pyschic abilities. I suspect that Widows don't receive much cybernetic augmentations unless they decide to become spider queens, so boot camp for a widow would be kinda like hell cubed on steroids and crack. With a survival rate of only 28%. Ish. Training would probably last for years, since most widows are indoctrinated at an early age and probably spend most of their teens doing nothing but training.
Hmmm... Years... That doesn't fit my time-line at all. Think it would be acceptable to accelerate the training time (to become a Night Widow, not a Fortunata) by a "bit" and crank it down to 3-4 months if the candidate is a former hero with a mutant psychic for a mother and some serious motivation to hone her abilities (physical and mental)? I realize it's a major change, but she was a DB/SR Scrapper beforehand so she did know how to fight and had already been training physically for almost her whole life.
Basically, is it believable? I could go as long ago as late 2002 for her starting training but it would cut out a lot of story. Anything earlier than that is out of the question, and even that feels like pushing it for her story. I would like to stay as close to the real story behind CoX as possible though.
Thanks for your input, Paradigm.
And advance thanks to anyone else who chimes in to help me.
@Johnstone & @Johnstone 2
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Typical military training lasts a period that lasts roughly half a year. Normal Soldiers of Arachnos (Wolf Spiders, for instance) probably have a similar training regimen.
I don't agree with the "lack of free will" of the Bane Spiders, largely because if there were a perfect Hive Mind running the Banes, then they would NEVER stop chasing you once you'd put enough of their number in the hospital. You would log in and there would be Banes running at you from around the nearest corner.
If there is a Bane Spider Hive Mind, it is FAR from perfect.
The very descriptions of the various Bane Spiders indicates that they're just really ruthless Wolf Spiders given special training.
Crab Spiders are probably just Wolf Spiders with special equipment training. Their description even describes them as Arachnos' SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) force.
Now, when it comes to the Widows, I would say their initial training regimen is a lot like that of the Knives of Artemis. Rigorously physical, the girls are trained in their late teens or early twenties to be able to stand up to the world's threats. This process could take women of such caliber about a year of dedicated training (which, with how most military organizations work, this is a believable concept; it's not like they really have or are allowed to have anything else to do).
Now, no woman is brought into the Widows without having some form of psychic capability, but the stronger ones are shunted into the Fortunata Corps. The rest are placed into the Blood Widow/Night Widow Corps, where the focus remains on physical training over mental training. Psychic training is a gray area, but I would say it works in much the same way as Occupational Schools in the military, and in the course of a quarter-to-half of a year, they're trained to be a warrior unlike what they were before.
Or, it could also work as it does for the VEATs, and that the characters are thrust out into the world and run through the Gauntlet of Real Life. After a few months of keeping the peace in the Rogue Isles or going on "Special Ops" (Bloody Bay, Siren's Call), they finally prove themselves to learn some of the secrets of the specific schools. However, their training doesn't come along as regimented as their peers.
Perhaps this is why players are able to function as Bane Spiders or Fortunatas, their personal training experience is far-removed from their fellows, but they're similar enough so as to still be considered within those schools of training.
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Look at that. A full-grown woman pulling off pigtails. Her crazy is off the charts.
Conditioning, the VEAT inherent mentions that everyone goes through some form of basic training. I'm assuming this is a combination of self defense, basic procedures for working in Arachnos, and some familiarity with weapons.
I would assume from there, Wolf Spiders are slapped with some armor, and shuffled out into rotation. The ones that survive and figure out the rules get promoted, etc.
Widows, however, would probably recieve gobs of specialized training, as Grey mentioned, because they fill a significantly more specialized role.
However, for the character you mentioned, one who has prior experience and training, it's conceivable that she only went through some basic training, something to familiarize her with Arachnos, and then some training to get her comfortable with Widow weaponry.
[ QUOTE ]
However, for the character you mentioned, one who has prior experience and training, it's conceivable that she only went through some basic training, something to familiarize her with Arachnos, and then some training to get her comfortable with Widow weaponry.
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Awesome, that's what I wanted to hear. Heh. I might still alter her time-line a bit, maybe make it half a year that she trained for instead of 3 1/2 months, but good to know that i's believable. Thanks guys for your input.
@Johnstone & @Johnstone 2
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But figured this would probably be the best place (and I tried searching but came up with too much unrelated material and saw nothing that even came close to answering my query).
Does anyone know how long a typical Soldier of Arachnos trains for before doing field work? I realize that when we make the characters, they are starting as new villains but how long did it take that toon to go from recruit to Soldier or Widow? We are obviously not starting in Arachnos Boot Camp or anything like that when we log in for the first time, so there must be some sort of preparatory program that the characters go through before we get to play them, right?
Reason I'm asking is that I want to make sure the time-line of my Night Widow's story is plausible before I go and make it into a comic/graphic novel (for my own personal enjoyment). I've already verified many of the dates used in my story but without an idea of the length of the initial training I'm left wondering if it will actually fit in my time-line.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
@Johnstone & @Johnstone 2
ediblePoly.com
All my characters