Category:Fourth Officio

"From iron cometh faith; from faith cometh strength; from strength cometh will; from will cometh knowledge; from knowledge cometh iron."

Officio Summary

The Fourth Officio Assassinorum, specializing in making things and breaking things. Insular and aloof towards outsiders, the 4th's technology is unmatched, rivaled only by the 16th and beaten only by the 13th bio-engineering; at the same time, the 4th's xenophobia means that it has very few friends. Visitors to the 4th's walking headquarters, the 'Olympia', often describe the Officio as being wondrous and alien in equal measure.

4th Officio girls are (in)famous for fully exchanging their flesh-and-bone bodies for completely synthetic ones known as Ironforms.

Officio At A glance

• Officio Nickname = The Machines (by outsiders), The Iron Circle (within the Officio)
• Location = Mobile Headquarters 'Olympia' (currently walking across the Sahara Desert)
• Specialty = Mechanical and cybernetic engineering, arms manufacture
• Incubator = Quartus
• Current Warmaster = Petra Dammekos
• Disposition = ~400 Magical Girls
• Personnel Distribution = Entirely Eversors, Vindicares, and Callidus; no Vanus, Venenum, or Culexus

Officio Organization

The Dodekatheon

The Fourth Officio is unusual in that the vast majority of its recruits are derived from transfers from other Officios--technical aptitude is the primary factor for being allowed a permanent spot in the 4th, but every aspirant is also expected to know how to defend herself. These and other considerations means that the Officio does not recruit Venenum, Vanus, and Culexus.

Instead, many of the functions served by Venenum, Vanus, and Culexus in other Officios are performed by Officio personnel. 4th Officio girls are divided into a system of twelve Orders called the Dodekatheon; in addition, each Order serves to both hone the Magical Girl's skills in a particular field and fulfill and important administrative or logistical role within the Officio. Certain Orders hold contests to try and engineer healthy competition among its girls, though this policy sometimes backfires.

Recruitment

The Fourth Officio's recruitment methods are unusual--instead of the Incubator going about convincing young women into becoming Magical Girls, instead the Officio headhunts Magical Girls around the world who show promise in handling technology. Magical Girls may also send applications to the Fourth, though again, they must be technically adept to be accepted.

Once accepted, the aspirant is brought to the Fourth Officio's mobile headquarters and are housed, fed, and trained for a period of one year--if the girl is found to be compatible with the Officio, and if she demonstrates an acceptable level of technical aptitude, she is given the option to fully join. Current members may transfer to other Officios if they wish, but there is a great deal of pressure for Fourth Officio girls to remain with the 4th.

Officio Culture

An Iron Circle

"To be weak is to be worthless."

An important part of 4th Officio culture is its philosophy, imparted unto it by its Warmaster, Petra Dammekos. At its core is the idea of self-improvement through mastery of the machine, to make oneself faster, stronger, and better through knowledge of machinery--to supplement this, Petra encourages a degree of competition among the 4th's girls to stave off complacency. This ideal serves to unite an Officio that otherwise shares no cultural, ethnic, or national common ground.

Several negative consequences have arisen due to the 4th's wholehearted (perhaps fanatic) embrace of this philosophy, however. One unintended result is the manifestation of extreme elitism, particularly by girls with Ironforms against girls unable to get Ironforms. Another is that 4th girls frequently express active dislike to anyone they see as being weak or stupid--sympathy and mercy are rare commodities on the Olympia.

Skitarii

"All that time and money on the Tactical Dreadnought systems, just so the Skitarii can finally get off their asses and be useful in heavy combat? What a waste."

Those incompatible with Ironforms yet still elect to remain in the 4th Officio are put into the Skitarii division. In theory, Skitarii are members in equal standing with everyone else in the 4th Officio...in practice, they are considered second-class citizens by girls with Ironforms. Because Skitarii members are stuck with, at best, augmentations rather than fully synthetic bodies, they are looked down upon as being slower and weaker, and the Fourth Officio does not abide weakness. All too often, the unfortunate girls of the Skitarii are bullied and ostracized, left with no one but themselves in an Officio that despises them.

Machine Spirits

A controversial topic among the Fourth is the idea of Machine Spirits--the notion that semi-intelligent beings reside within all pieces of machinery, even those with rudimentary or even no Artificial Intelligence. Proponents point to various incidents unexplainable by science, and that something like Machine Spirits aren't impossible in a world filled with aliens, magic, and creatures born of despair; critics maintain that, nonetheless, concrete evidence establishing the existence of these supposed Machine Spirits is elusive, and that any such incidents could just as easily be explained by a combination of coincidence and the projection of human qualities onto completely inanimate objects.

Part of Misaka's technical genius comes from her alleged prodigious affinity with Machine Spirits, which allows her to intuitively sense precisely what's wrong with a piece of technology and how to best maintain/upgrade it.

The Church of the Blessed Lady of Machines

"As Iron Within, So Iron Without."

The Church of the Blessed Lady of Machines, or The Machine Cult, is a religious organization unique to the Fourth Officio. It is, to be blunt, a heretical version of the mainstream Blessed Lady faith practiced by the 14th and others, though the Fourth's insularity means that few outside the Officio know much about it. The Machine Cult was founded by a former member of the Fourth, Kelba Halax, and is currently led by the Mistress of Skitarii, Valerie Kheredar.

The majority of the Machine Cult's believers are Skitarii. For many of these scorned girls, Cult gatherings are one of the few places where they are among people who appreciate their existence.

Officio Technology

Fourth Officio technology is very advanced by modern, "mundane" standards. Prosthetic limbs that can do everything that a real limb can do and more, efficient directed energy weapons, even one of the few teleportation devices that exist in the world--if it involves cybernetic or mechanical engineering, the Fourth Officio has no equal.

Ironforms

"Flesh is weak."

More than perhaps any other piece of technology, the 4th is most well known for their synthetic bodies, i.e. Ironforms. An Ironform is completely artificial--the only part of the Magical Girl's original body that remains is her Soul Gem. The process is excruciating and not all Soul Gems are compatible with Ironforms, but those who succeed are granted bodies that are stronger, faster, and more durable than even the superhuman form of a Magical Girl.

Those with Ironforms no longer need to eat or drink and never become physically fatigued, though users may require periods of mental rest. Other bodily needs (such as the need for companionship) typically remain untouched. Pressure sensors allow Ironforum users to handle objects without breaking them, while damage-detection suites alert users of damage to their bodies.

However, this power comes at a price. Soul Gems do not as easily interface with synthetic bodies as they do with a Magical Girl's organic one, and the process of implanting a Soul Gem into an Ironform is a traumatic one, so to acclimate the Soul Gem a magical girl typically replaces more and more of her flesh body with augmentations. Even so, not all patients survive the process, and for others the process simply doesn't work.

Ironforms also put a strain on the Soul Gem, causing it to collect grief somewhat faster than normal. This is most of the reason why Fourth Officio girls are discouraged from using magic. Ironform users can still stave off Witching Out, however, through careful management of their Soul Gem and minimizing magic usage.

Tactical Dreadnought Armor

As a part of an initiative to improve the lot of the Skitarii, Petra and Fiona created the Tactical Dreadnought Armor system, a.k.a. the "Terminator" armor. It blurs the line between powered armor and a small, pilotable mech, standing 8 to 9 feet tall, boasting a powerful internal power source, massively increased strength, and slabs upon slabs of dense plasteel armor. Other functions include a multi-spectrum sensor suite and a sealed environment Most notable, however, is its ability to be wielded by anyone small enough to wear it--the "Terminator" was designed from the outset to be used by non-Ironform 4th Officio girls. Once worn, even an unaugmented Magical Girl will become capable of taking on a Heavy Ironform head-to-head.

There are at least two different classes of Terminator armor: the Indomitus, which was designed with firepower in mind, and the Cataphract, which was designed for optimized defenses.

The missing Indomitus prototype, dubbed "Tiny Pete", was originally from the 4th Officio.

The Olympia

"Home is where the explosions are!"

Headquarters, barracks, research facility, factory, siege engine: the Olympia serves as home and stronghold for the bulk of the Fourth Officio. Although the Officio does man a handful of outposts throughout the world (mostly as testing sites for new equipment), the majority of the Officio's 400 Magical Girls reside on the Olympia.

The Olympia itself is a vaguely humanoid-shaped robot, measuring approximately 2000 feet tall, with large, cylindrical towers rising from its shoulders and head. Its two arms each end in a large cannon, with collapsible runways installed on top of each to permit air traffic. Other features include housing for Officio personnel, manufacturing facilities, processing and refining facilities, point-defense guns, and hangars/garages for all Officio vehicles.

Petra and Quartus designed the Olympia.

Read more about 4th Officio technology on the Technology page.

Miscellaneous Information

• Young Misaka studied at the Olympia for some time. Despite being an outsider and never having gotten an Ironform, the little Russian arms dealer is remembered fondly (though jealously hated by others).
• An informal term for the Fourth Officio, used within the Officio itself, is "the Iron Circle".
• Officio personnel tend to be paid less on average than other Officio girls, but in exchange most construction/art material and tools are provided for free. Given that most Fourth girls' hobbies tend to involve engineering or the visual arts, the lower pay tends not to be such a problem.
• Interestingly, the Fourth Officio likes to refer to Warmaster Petra as the "Warsmith".

Trivia

• The Fourth Officio is a fusion of several institutions from Warhammer 40k, namely: the Iron Warriors (Legio IV); the Iron Hands (Legio X); and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Almost everything in the Fourth is derived in some form or fashion from Warhammer 40k.

Gallery

Reference Pictures By Deculture

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  Customized Indomitus-patern Tactical Dreadnought Armor "Tiny Pete"

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  Light Ironform, Emmeles variant

Reference Pictures From Outside Sources

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  The Olympia (original picture from http://www.deviantart.com/art/Imperator-Titan-Update-214752562)

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  Heavy Ironform (original picture by Games Workshop)

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  Light Ironform (original picture from Star Phantasy Online 2)

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  Mark VI "Crusader" Powered Armor (original picture by Games Workshop)

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  Cataphractii-pattern Tactical Dreadnought Armor (original picture by Forgeworld)