The "Fake" Skull Merchant is cooler than the real one
If you didn't read Skull Merchants lore (i dont blame you) then you might not know that shes actually basing her entire personality and clothing and weapons on a fictional character, also called the Skull Merchant. From what we saw in her original lore, it sounded like her dad just drew Fake Skull Merchant killing people in The Entity, but the Tome actually expands on it a lot more. I'll post it below and then talk some more.
"The Skull Merchant dips her blade into the fetid water. Lets the blood and ichor slide off of the gleaming carbon fibre. Lets herself relax. Another job done. She removes her weapon slowly out of the water, taking care not to let any fall on the floor, and hangs it on the wall. Water is a terrible thing to waste.
She walks across her tiny, spartan room and plugs a cord from the wall into the nape of her neck. The real world dissolves around her, replaced by the other world. A bright world. A clean, perfect lie. She stares right into the sun for a few moments, stopping only to close some particularly invasive pop-ups that have burrowed their way into her hardware.
You’re the merchant, right? A timid voice calls out somewhere behind her. She turns. A chipmunk with jacked human arms stares back at her. I might be. Who’s asking.
Someone with a job. This guy probably paid top credits for that avatar, and he looks like an absolute joke. She isn’t laughing, though.
I don’t take jobs anymore. I work for myself.
Well you might be interested in this one. He says you’re run down. That you’re all but retired.
And who is he?
Don’t know much about him. He’s a cyborg. Long past cyborg, I think. Mighta run out of flesh to fuse the steel to. Might just be a robot by now. Goes by the name of Terry Chrome.
We’ll see who’s out of touch, she says, and jacks herself out of the other world. She looks at her bed and sighs. Won’t get much sleep tonight. Hunt’s calling. She gazes out her window over the blasted-out wasteland of Neo De Janeiro as she plugs her arm back into the blade."
Why are so many things in this lore are just cool as hell? If they made this "Fake" Skull Merchant the one we actually play, this could have been their first cyberpunk killer and people might have been a bit less harsh on her design. But seriously BHVR, please consider writing more about this version of the Skull Merchant if she ever appears in a Tome again.