Background

Legendary Nod figure Brother Marcion designed the original Purifier Warmech as a manifestation of his own combat achievements during TW-II, designed as much to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies as to dominate the battlefield. In preparation for TW-III, Nod engineers took Marcion's original concept to a new level, creating a much more adaptable and versatile monstrosity; a veritable manifestation of Nod's forces on the battlefield.

An Avatar.

As part of Nod’s ongoing technological improvement program, the Avatar was designed to transmit operational data to LEGION in real time. In the aftermath of TW-3, the AI entity processed, analyzed and prioritized the data, revealing significant vulnerabilities and failings within the War Mech’s first incarnation. In several cases, the Avatar had proven to be more lethal to Nod's own forces than GDI; Avatar operators had made a practice of crippling and destroying other Nod vehicles, not to better equip themselves against GDI, but as a means of self preservation, grabbing weapons of opportunity and leaving wreckage to impede GDI’s passage. What had been seen as a key element of the original Avatar – real time adaptability on the battlefield – was proving to be more trouble than it was worth.

In response to this, alongside a variety of other pertinent data points, the Nod Engineering Corps designed a new and improved Avatar - Caturhasta Avatara, the Four Handed Manifestation.

This revision brought two major changes to the Avatar. First, the War Mech was no longer crewed by actual humans, but rather run via an advanced remote control system. Each Avatar Pilot is connected via direct neural link to their specific Avatar, resulting in a vehicle that truly lives up to its name, a massive mechanical manifestation of the its pilots will. Secondly, in order to reduce the aforementioned "friendly fire" casualties, the designers removed the Avatar's heavy reliance on other battlefield assets in favor of a quad mount weapon array, with each War Mech capable of wielding up to four massive weapons at any given time. The results from the first round of battlefield tests were spectacular, to say the least.

"Now I've felt how it is being Shiva, the destroyer of worlds"

Flight Lieutenant Hal Lynch, lead Avatar Test Pilot, paraphrasing Oppenheimer upon completing his first test run with the Avatar Mk. II.

This significantly revised design, alongside a visual profile so terrifying as to render ever its storied predecessor somewhat meek by comparison, have resulted in the Avatar returning to the forefront of the battlefield…and the nightmares of those who would oppose Nod.

Battlefield Specifications

A Gun In Each Hand

Avatars were initially equipped with four anti-tank cannons, one on each of its four arms, but the extra cost was deemed unnecessary and two of the arms were dropped from production. As conflicts over the TCN escalated, Nod removed some of the armor from the torso of the Avatar to add a third, more powerful cannon for extra firepower. Although the three cannon model is normally used for production, the Avatar retains its support braces for its extra arms, and commanders have been known add additional cannons to Avatars by salvaging enemy weapons in the field.

Reincarnation

After the introduction of the GDI Backup System revolutionized battlefield repairs, the Brotherhood began to replicate the same technology for use in their own vehicles. Patterned off the same systems used in GDI's Mastodon, the Avatar Backup System will slowly repair a fallen Avatar back to operational status. Unfortunately, the repair process takes time and Nod commanders should send Engineers to repair the walker if time is of the essence.

Retreat and ReArm

The Avatar’s arm cannons are tremendously powerful, but their power comes with a great drawback. Because the cannon arms are exposed and not particularly well armored, Avatar pilots frequently find themselves with useless cannons that are either damaged beyond repair, unable to fire due to electrical problems, or completely blown off by the enemy. To help remedy this, each arm cannon can actually be ejected from the walker and replaced by a new cannon with the proper engineering support. In heavy combat scenarios, the pilot simply ejects the wreckage and continues firing with whatever cannons are left. Most Avatar pilots disengage once they have lost most of their cannons, taking advantage of the reduced weight to more quickly return to base.