Brother Battle Temple Guardian

Still on this Brother Battle thought-train. This time I wanted to exonerate a people that I respect: the Sikhs. First I had two Sikh friends in high school (they were brothers), and that's where I first heard about the religion. Then I learned some of their history and the battles these guys fought to stay independent and free. One of their tenets is "Protect the defenseless." I approve of any religion or ideology that sounds like a superhero credo. As for Fading Suns, I imagine that even a galaxy-wide church would have different  ideologies and thought processes, and not just with the in-game factions, so there would be sub-sects and philosophies. Factions within factions.

The Brother Battle Temple Guards not only protect the major cathedrals and BB installations to a planet, but the outlying communities as well, working more as the National Guard than as the local police. The most common weapons are the shotgun, shield, and kirpan dagger (on the back of the belt. I forgot to draw one so the handle is barely visible on his belt). The shotgun and/or Imperial rifle are both two handed firearms, so the mechanical armature around the soldier's right arm helps support the gun and the recoil. The shields lock together when the guards form their shield-wall, while supports slide down to hold the shield up as a barricade. An energy shield then radiates out from the physical shield for further protection. The shotgun or rifle use a matching energy frequency as the shield so they're the only things that can safely penetrate the shield once its up. The shield-wall is made to be steady, so a guard can even disconnect his/her arm from the shield to reload or fall back.

This guy went through a few iterations in my head. I originally wanted to have the Sikh guard be like a technical guru/wizard with wires and computers poking in and out of his turban. He would sit in a meditative trance, but with all this information floating around his head. Then I thought of them as battle-field coordinators and communicators, carrying heavy armor and all this radio equipment. Many Brother Battle "spells" focus on aiding and defending their buddies. They chant a verse from the holy books, and all their friends get combat bonuses. So the shield would have a computer screen on the inside that showed the necessary verse. I still use that idea, but also a read-out on the guard's personal health (which looks kind of like he glued a picture from his kid on the shield). The communicator idea looked...wrong. So maybe I'll use it for a sketch-dump later. Then I remembered Sikh history. When these guys want to protect something, they MEAN it. They're not going to sit on the sidelines or in an air-conditioned office somewhere staring at a computer screen and shouting at those poor schmucks on the battlefield. They're in the front lines, showing those barbarians who's boss. I mean, look at the history of this guy, Baba Deep Singh, one of the religion's exonerated saints.

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Now that I think about it, I think my buddies from high school were named after this guy. Can't say I blame them. See that? I came full circle with this post. There you go.