Marked of Kane
Original name: Marked of Kane*Affiliation:* Brotherhood of Nod*Type:* Cybernetic army / cyborg cult*Creator:* Kane*Commander:* LEGIONS*Established:* circa 2030*Reactivated:* 2052*Speciality:* Cyborgs, Tiberium-based technologies and unconventional warfare*Iconic units:* Awakened, Enlightened, Tiberium Troopers*Status:* Reintegrated into Nod’s forces prior to the Fourth Tiberium War
The Marked of Kane are a secret cybernetic army created by the Brotherhood of Nod on Kane’s personal orders. Alongside the Black Hand, they represent one of the most extreme manifestations of the Prophet’s ideology.
Their origins date back to Kane’s reflections following the First Tiberium War. Analysing the causes of his defeat, he eventually came to regard human emotions as a fundamental weakness.
Fear, compassion, anger or camaraderie may drive an individual to join Nod, but they can also lead them to doubt, disobey or betray. Kane therefore set about creating soldiers who would be completely devoid of such emotions.
In clandestine laboratories set up in the Red Zones of Russia and Central Asia, fanatical researchers began experimenting on soldiers and the corpses of Nod members.
The programme combines cybernetics and Tiberium-derived technologies to produce virtually dehumanised combatants, entirely devoted to Kane and immune to both fear and remorse.
The existence of the project is kept secret from most of the Brotherhood of Nod. Rumours, however, speak of experiments bordering on necromancy, which are officially denied by Nod’s command.
The Marked were originally due to become operational towards the end of the Second Tiberium War, but Nod’s defeat and the subsequent CABAL uprising brought the programme to a halt.
The Cyborgs were then placed in stasis in vast underground pillboxes, mainly in Russia and South-East Asia, where they remained for several decades.
However, this army cannot simply be reactivated: its members are linked via cyber-neurological implants to a network of control nodes and require an intelligence capable of commanding them.
This intelligence would be LEGION, CABAL’s successor, created by Kane using human, Nodian and alien technologies.
Following the Third Tiberium War, LEGION reactivates spontaneously in 2052. Kane then reveals the existence of the Marked of Kane to it and orders it to take control of the nodes that will allow them to be awakened.
Once activated, the Marked become the physical manifestation of Legions’ will: a vast army of half-human, half-machine combatants, obeying the artificial intelligence’s instructions without hesitation.
Kane describes them as the ‘chosen ones’, the ‘immortals’, the ‘Enlightened’ and the ‘redeemed’, their cybernetic transformation being presented not as a mutilation but as a form of elevation.
Their first major mission is to recover the Tacitus, held by the GDI in a heavily defended complex in the Rocky Mountains.
As the GDI’s experiments have dangerously destabilised the artefact, Kane orders LEGION to intervene before it is destroyed. The Marked of Kane crush the complex’s defences and finally recover the Tacitus.
LEGION is then able to interface directly with the Tacitus, stabilising it and providing Kane with the essential element needed to continue his Ascension project.
Militarily, the Marked favour unconventional warfare and advanced technologies over Tiberium, unlike the Black Hand, which is more focused on religious fanaticism, fire and direct confrontation.
The Awakened form their basic cybernetic infantry, whilst the far more powerful Enlightened make up their elite force. Tiberium Troopers, for their part, use liquid Tiberium as a weapon.
Their arsenal also includes particle beam weapons, self-regenerating Limpet Drones and cybernetic enhancements, which, amongst other things, significantly increase their Soldiers’ speed.
Despite their absolute loyalty, the Marked inspire deep mistrust amongst many Nod Soldiers, who are still traumatised by the CABAL rebellion and far from reassured by the existence of a new army of Cyborgs commanded by an artificial intelligence.
By the time of the Fourth Tiberium War, the Marked appear to have been reintegrated into Nod’s regular army. The Enlightened fight notably within its ranks, whilst the new Cyborg Reapers recruit their pilots from among the Marked.
The Mark of Kane thus represents a particularly radical vision of the future according to Kane: a humanity rid of its biological and emotional weaknesses through cybernetics and Tiberium, entirely subservient to a superior intelligence and prepared for the Ascension.