Species:Humanity

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Species data
Humans
Homeworld (Origin) Sol (System)
Age of spaceflight 1319 ESY
Physical characteristics 1.9m (tall)
Limbs: 4
Life span 105-125 ESY
Habitat Oxygen-Nitrogen
Number scheme Radix 10

Humans

Subspecies

  • Homo Sapiens Sapiens
  • Homo Sapiens Superioris (Primary faction: Shapers)
  • Homo Sapiens Cyberis (Primary faction: Mechanists)
  • Homo Sapiens Pluralis (Primary faction: Andolians)
  • Homo Sapiens Cosmonatalis (Other faction: Spaceborn)

Physical characteristics

Homo Sapiens Sapiens

Although small changes have occurred over the millenia, a great percentage of the human population remains without intentional genetic or physical modification, and thus remain not too far removed from the humans of more ancient history. Whether through simple lack of resources, lack of desire, or rejection of change, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, unmodified except for the genetic drifts incurred over centuries of colonization, remains the most populous of the human subspecies.

Homo Sapiens Superioris

Many eugenics programs have been launched in human history, but none have been so successful as the Shapers. The path of self-affected evolution via active genetic redesign has lead to a strain of humanity stronger, more durable, more resistant to disease and injury, of higher average intelligence, enjoying longer life-spans, and possessing keener senses.

Assuming that the universally ink-black UV resistant skin and complete lack of any hair other than the signature blue-white eye-brows is not disconcerting, any Superioris is almost certain to be considered physically beautiful, but it takes some experience to discern one Superioris from another. However, these benefits come at the cost of much higher sustanence requirements, and a tremendous narrowing of diversity.

Homo Sapiens Cyberis

Having replaced many of their body parts with mechanical equivalents, or having forgone any pretense of human form, these cyborgs cover a diverse and vibrant set of body types. This unique culture and society of Homo Sapiens has come to be known as the Mechanist.

Even those with total body replacement can usually pass anything short of close inspection if they're willing to deal with maintenance of a synthetic flesh exterior. If the goal is, as is often the case, to adapt the body to the demands of work or habitat, anything from mining attachments to full strength-enhancing endoskeletons could be an integral part of the form. Locomotion seen to date ranges from bipedal to poly-pedal, tracked, wheeled, or even sets of thrusters. However, no matter how modified they may be, at the least, portions of their brains and nervous systems remain. Motto: Perish human flesh, free the human mind.

Homo Sapiens Pluralis

Implanted at birth with hardware that allows data-net access and an array of near constantly transmitting sensors, a permanently linked existence has rendered this strain of humanity notably different in culture and mentality from all other strains and have come to refer to themselves as Andolians.

While every Pluralis retains its individuality, each is awash in a similarly accessible sea of information. Culling from the group of those not capable of entering into such an existence, combined with a willingness to engage in limited crafting of offspring has also lead to small but noticeable genetic drift over the past 800 years. Implantation is universal, and the use of synthetic or mechanicaly enhanced body modifications is not uncommon, but the desire for total body replacement present in the Cyberis strain is absent.

The linked existence and general culture proclivities of the Andolians have brought them to near unity on their religious doctrine. While an Andolian would refer to his/herself as a devout skeptic existing in the absence of proof of the metaphysical, many others find it simpler to call them Atheists.

While not overly concerned with improving the physical form, health related genetic traits deemed undesireable have been recorded, and then excised from the gene pool. When isolated for long periods of time from any data-net, Pluralis individuals often experience pronounced withdrawl symptoms, earning them the nickname "Link-Junkies". Motto: Through the advancement of knowledge, the betterment of Humankind.

Homo Sapiens Cosmonatalis

Crafted as a slave race by the now defunct Light-Bearer faction, the Spaceborn remain, frail and over-specialized, incapable of surviving in planetary environments. Instead, as they were designed to, they spend their entire lives in micro-gravity. The Spaceborn have a unique cardiovascular system superbly tuned to life outside of a gravity well.

Their bone structure, however, is a less cheery affair, and the Spaceborn, though not suffering the degenerative effects of planetborn entities in prolonged micro-gravity, never had much durability in the first place and are weaker and more easily injured. They are almost universally tall, lanky, and flexible, and all are possessed of a rather pallid complexion tending towards a slight reddishness. Spaceborn frequently begin developing severe medical problems between the age of 60-80 Earth years, giving them a somewhat shorter life expectancy than that of the other subspecies.

Habitat

Originating on the third world of the Sol system, all variants of humanity, even Homo Sapiens Cyberis, are most comfortable in Oxygen-Nitrogen atmospheres, and temperatures not overly distant from 294 Kelvin.

Culture

Listed here are Humanity Meme orginizations, factions and groups comprised of Humanity Sub-Species:

Forsaken

Here lies one of the larger tragedies belonging to Humanity's expansion into space. The first great colony ships to set forth from Earth towards the stars, were composed of some of the best minds and the most adventerous and couragous spirits. These ships, known as slowboats because they took generations to reach their destinations, were made obsolete by the development of FTL travel. But this didn't help these colonists in their slowboats, who upon reaching their destinations found--the worlds slated and promised them--already inhabited by Humanity which had leapfrogged in its exapansion outward.

Alienated from these new societies and factions, the colonists found themselves and the cultures they had brought suddenly second classed. Eventually driven to backwater worlds in search of a home for themselves, they have become known as the Forsaken.

A minor faction, now, they were not asked to join the Confed, nor would they have accepted, having no love for the powers that had done nothing to stop the leapfrogging of colony worlds that had been slated them. And considering the Confed's protection would be at best hollow, and at worst a pretense for tyranny, the Forsaken declined the offer to join the LIHW, and instead focused on the settling the Diaspora sector, ignoring, to the best of their ability, the Confed. See also Faction:Forsaken

Homeland Security

The Homeland Security organization is primarily composed of Purists but may also included which others?FIXME See also Faction:Homeland Security.

Highborn

The Highborn are better known for their disregard of life than for their art or achievement. The religion of the Highborn is the bastard child of Calvinist WASPism and Objectivism, marinated in a counter-historical romantic view of the importance of chivalry and the duty of the better to the wretched. Primary they are manufacturers of dueling weaponry of all kinds with a motto: There is no substitute for a superior human being. See also Faction:Highborn.

Interstellar Church of True Form's Return

The Interstellar Church of True Form's Return (Luddites) Need desc. Composed of. FIXME See also Faction:Luddites.

Interstellar Socialist Organization

The Interstellar Socialist Organization (ISO) Need desc. Composed of.FIXME See also Faction:ISO.

League of Independent Human Worlds

Scattered across the frontiers of known space are many words housing minor subsets of humanity which hold no place among the larger more popular major meme-groups.

Humanity has, throughout the past, been an oft balkanized lot. While the bulk of human power and population has, for various reasons, aligned itself with one of the major or minor meme-groups there are many colonies, that, for reasons of either intense pluralism or adherence to a tertiary meme-group have remained independent.

  • such as the inhabitants of Vegan-ville, citizens of the "Brotherhood of Militant Agnostics" (motto: "I don't know, and neither do you!")

But in the wake of the Mankind's first notable interstellar fraternal conflict--the demolishing of the Lightbearer by the Andolians--and the efforts which followed in the founding of the Confed who's membership consists of the major meme-groups, the bulk of the lesser subsets realized that--while they may not get along all that well with each other--if they did not in some way present a united front of resistance, they would likely be consumed by the major meme-groups. As such, they joined the Confed united as the League of Independent Human Worlds (LIHW), and, counter-intuitively, gained, through their co-operation, a guarantee of protection of their individual and often separatist modes of life.

Those that did not band together, the Forsaken being the only exception, are now only records in history books, having been overrun, subverted, co-opted, or in other ways gobbled up by the major meme-groups. See also Faction:LIHW.

Lightbearer

<Defunct Meme>

One of the earliest factions bursting outward on FTL wings called themselves the Lightbearer. This early group of objective moralists believed themselves the forefront of evolution in the entire galaxy, and sought to claim their place at the throne of all sentients. Following their belief that the ends justify the means they ruthlessly enslaved some of the early Dgn, further twisting their development along their designs until they eventually had the Shmrn.

When later a Lightbearer exploratory group discovered the Klk'k homeworld they prepared to subjugate and enslave this species too. Fortunately for the Klk'k, the Andolians discovered them only some weeks after the first Lightbearer pacification vessel had arrived at the planet. The Andolians were outraged, and discovering the Lightbearer were prepared to destroy the Klk'k culture and way of life, the Andolians threw themselves against the Lightbearer in the first human interstellar war.

The Andolian's greater manufacturing base out performed the Lightbearer's economy to withstand and the Lightbearer military fell revealing a hidden secret not even the Lightbearer allies had known about, namely, the existence of the Spaceborn a genetically engineered slave race of humans, designed to live their lives in zero gravity so as to prevent Lightbearer from having to deal with menial tasks as laboring in vacuum.

It was this revelation that is believed to be the most responsible for the lack of action taken by any other faction when the Andolians proceeded to eliminate not only the industrial capacity of the Lightbearer, but also the Lightbearer themselves.

Those that did not manage to escape to Shaper or Highborn space, or were not fortunate enough to be killed in the assaults on their worlds, had the dubious honor of being turned over to the Klk'k, the Spaceborn, and the Shmrn. The ensuing combination of sterilization and incarceration served to eliminate the Lightbearer meme from the realm of dominant thought.

Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild

The Interstellar Shipping and Mercantile Guild (ISMG) Need desc. Composed of.FIXME See also Faction:ISMG.

Purist

A surprisingly large memegroup, and the dominant one in Sol, the Purists seek a humanity free of changes to the species. They do not stand for genetic modification, nor for cybernetic implants. They are, however, not opposed to technology which is not used to alter humans. Motto: In being what we are, become all that we can be. have they any history to add?FIXME

Unadorned

The Unadorned worship the cold logic of machines, and seek to abandon the limitations of human emotion and irrationality. Often referred to as the "mad monks of Myztheria", the fact that the other factions believe them to be somewhat insane has not stopped them from making use of their advances in AI and other computational fields. The unadorned worship logic. Moreover, they worship the logic of machines. And although most other groups think them a likely mad, the Unadorned find religious veneration of computational logic entirely... logical. Motto: Freed of noise, the mind will make true music. See also Faction:Unadorned.

Religion

The most mixed and varied in the known galaxy running the gamut from atheists to zealots. Refer to the individual groups for more information.

Number scheme

Base 10.

See also


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