Brainstorming Session - Breeds

[trousers]

Brainstorming Index

Disclaimer: The Brainstorming Sessions are an attempt to cover specific topics which sometimes come across as a little gray. They will be presented with cited facts at the top which players can refer to for concrete information on the topic. Following the facts will be speculations on the topic which may or may not be true due to a lack of information. Until concrete information on a topic is made available please feel free to comment on the speculative ideas, post your own, or even adopt them into your story.

Facts:
__________

• Five Human Breeds exist:
  • Homo Sapien (The Omega) [1, 272]
  • Homo Solitus [1, 236]
  • Homo Atrox [2]
  • Homo Opifex [3]
  • Homo Nano [4]
• Atrox are incapable of procreation. [2]
• Opifex are often stereotyped as thieves and scoundrels. [3]
• Nanomages and Omega suffer from above average to crippling fertility problems. [4] [1, 243]
• Any person bred in a laboratory has the option of being 'born' fully developed resulting in a 0 year old adult.[5]
• It is difficult for any of the engineered breeds to become intoxicated from ethanol based alcohol. [6]

Speculations:
__________
The notion that The Omega are extinct is widely held by the rest of the Galaxy.

While on Rubi-Ka it becomes common knowledge that the Omega exist and are holding out in the Shadowlands the rest of the galaxy may not be on the same page.

The Emancipation War concluded in 12127 AD resulting in eighteen Omega being captured by Solitus Forces. All eighteen prisoners were tried, found guilty of Crimes Against Humanity, and sentenced to death. An unknown number of Omega were able to escape punishment. [1, 272] The information regarding how many may have escaped would likely be a classified military secret and for the purpose of soothing the pains of an ailing, war torn people knowledge that all of the Omega were captured and killed would likely be distributed.

Conspiracy Theorists would exist who would claim that the Omega are alive would persist through the generations but with over 15,000 years passing without a single conflict or detection of an Omega this would make such individuals seem like lunatics. This would likely be the reception of anyone leaving Rubi-Ka and repeating that they have heard of, seen a, or done battle with an Omega.

Information regarding this topic is likely highly censored by Omni-Tek and any of Omni-Tek's subsidiaries. If, for example, a credible source were to make such allegations and it were proven to be valid a witch hunt would be declared since the Omega are a galaxy-wide hunted race. This would inevitability lead to a series of investigations which would reveal that the Omega exist in the Shadowlands, the Omega have ties to the Unredeemed, the Unredeemed have ties to the Omni-Tek Corporation. This would result in a witch hunt against Omni-Tek on a series of issues including, but not limited to, Omni-Tek's involvement in harboring war criminals and any infestation Omni-Tek may have by the Omega.

Crossbreeding.

When two breeds that are capable of independent breeding conceive a child the child's breed will be either the mother or the father's breed. Because the breeds are so similar to one another the traits of one breed will be dominate and the child will be labeled as that breed. Physical Characteristics of the different breeds may be present in the child, such as a Solitus with a smaller frame, or an usually tall Opifex, however, the genetic makeup of the child will either be Solitus or Opifex.


Citing:
__________

1. Prophet Without Honour

2. Timeline

3. Timeline

4. Timeline

5. Timeline

6. Resource Database

[Technogen]

I like the overall idea of these threads good idea Mr. Pants.

One note, there are obvious Omega free due as P.W.H. end with Roman on Rubi-ka.

[trousers]

Correct. There are numerous Omega alive, and Emancipation Forces realized this at the end of the war. The speculation that I have is that to cull fears and paranoia among the people they would have fed them a line that due to the war they are now believed to be extinct. Over the thousands of years of not seeing any this fib may become fact, and only those who have ventured into the depths of the Shadowlands would know otherwise.

[Ms_Idoru]

Yep. Try to mention that Eric Miller's chilling in Roch's sanctuary during a board meeting and they'd have a company shrink carting you off to a rubber room faster than you can say "Long term psychiatric sick leave"

[Honorbound]

I'm pretty sure that I've read this (or something along these lines at any rate) in some official source, but can't remember, where.

Anyway, most/all of the Homo Nano suffer from physical deformations of various kinds and severity (but mostly focused around the parts of the body closest to the central nervous system, such as the head, neck and upper torso), due to the extensive changes made to their genome/DNA in order to enchance their link and bonding with the nanobots to extreme levels.
Because of this, their bodies have to be "patched up" after "birth" by installing various flexible (and probably semi-organic, or otherwise capable of evolving/growing along with the host body) prostethics to replace the missing or deformed parts of their bodies.

[Redesine]

You forgot the empaths, you corporate tool!

Aside from PWH and SL obviousness, there's an NPC in Athen Shire who talks about the possibility of the Omega still existing iirc. He does it hushed and doesn't want anyone to hear I think.

[FoosballX]

You forgot the empaths, you corporate tool!

Aside from PWH and SL obviousness, there's an NPC in Athen Shire who talks about the possibility of the Omega still existing iirc. He does it hushed and doesn't want anyone to hear I think.

Yeah that's Sam Caden or something like that, I think I'm off on the last name... He's in the outpost south of Trashking.
He explains the Farmtek, the long winter, the Omega, and David. and when asked about the Omega he says something like "hush someone might hear".
He also talked about Newland, the Tir Accord, Lord Galahad (the clanner not the one in inferno) and the Trader Circle. I know it's the wrong post by wtf is the Trader Circle? I'm wondering if it was going to be some quest thing for traders like the fgrid quest for fixers that FC never got around to finishing.
Also his dialog is a bit dated and could be refreshed. But I would recommend to anyone they just talk to him to get a brief backstory instead of reading that god awful book.
I hope this makes sense I'm a bit Tipsy

[FoosballX]

You forgot the empaths, you corporate tool!

Aside from PWH and SL obviousness, there's an NPC in Athen Shire who talks about the possibility of the Omega still existing iirc. He does it hushed and doesn't want anyone to hear I think.

Yeah that's Sam Caden or something like that, I think I'm off on the last name... He's in the outpost south of Trashking.
He explains the Farmtek, the long winter, the Omega, and David. and when asked about the Omega he says something like "hush someone might hear".
He also talked about Newland, the Tir Accord, Lord Galahad (the clanner not the one in inferno) and the Trader Circle. I know it's the wrong post by wtf is the Trader Circle? I'm wondering if it was going to be some quest thing for traders like the fgrid quest for fixers that FC never got around to finishing.
Also his dialog is a bit dated and could be refreshed. But I would recommend to anyone they just talk to him to get a brief backstory instead of reading that god awful book.
I hope this makes sense I'm a bit Tipsy

[trousers]

You forgot the empaths, you corporate tool!

Aside from PWH and SL obviousness, there's an NPC in Athen Shire who talks about the possibility of the Omega still existing iirc. He does it hushed and doesn't want anyone to hear I think.

What are the Empaths? They would be the same stock as the Solitus but modified to be like Omega, correct? Because if I am not mistaken Alyssa and Min-Ji Liu were both Solitus before they were Empaths as we know them today

[Ms_Idoru]

There were empaths among Homo Sapiens before the Omega, such as Sara. Their line continued among Homo Solitus, becoming prominent in Alyssa's people. They're more a subset of humanity.

[trousers]

There were empaths among Homo Sapiens before the Omega, such as Sara. Their line continued among Homo Solitus, becoming prominent in Alyssa's people. They're more a subset of humanity.

So .. Sara was immortal like the Empaths in the Shadowlands? Or is "Empath" more of a title of a skill they possess rather then a name of a breed?

[Redesine]

From what I gathered in PWH, the redeemed manipulated human breeding at the time of the sapiens (just after the manipulation of the Omega) around the time of the catastrophe on earth. So they're a slightly more err... natural breed than the Omega. (Although this could have been going on for a long time before the events in PWH.)

The empath had abilities called truthdreaming... or something. I'm not sure they could live forever without the help of the redeemed, but certainly some were around a lot longer than they should have been. It was suggested that they were in contact with redeemed people (though they probably didn't realise it) and some of them were taken or perhaps cloned (?) by the redeemed. I reckon they were taken, since Aurea met Alyssa, who took her somewhere, presumably to RK/Shadowlands.

If they count as a seperate breed, they could cross-breed since David was an empath as well as everything else he was.

Are they a seperate breed? I would say so. More subtle than the Omega because of the redeemed influence, but not the same as the solitus. At least that's my interpretation of that... area.

[FoosballX]

Dear lord am I going to have to reread PWH again? I really don't remember any mention of the Redeemed tampering with Humans at all. I know from "the story so far" the pen and ado quests the some of the Xan left Rubi-Ka before the Cataclysmic and went out into the galaxy too seed life. So in essence all humans (including are descendants of the Omega) are decedents of the Xan. Keep in mind even thought at the time the Xan were split into two sides I'm pretty sure at the time they were Xan, and not like the Unredeemed and Redeemed as we know them today.

Homo Solitus is a direct result of humans living through a nuclear winter. Which is why the evolution process only took like 1000 years instead of 1 million.

Thing with the empaths, there is no reference they are immortal, and there's no reference there's a portal from earth to rk or the shadowlands. I'm honestly thinking FC at the time just threw in some names in the hopes for tie ins. I don't envy Kintaii's job.

Also I'm not really sure Empath is really a breed? I would say it's more along the lines of rolling your tongue, some people have the gene to do it others don't. And what we know about the empaths from PWH it is hereditary, as David is in Sara's family line.

We also have to think about what we know about empaths from other sci-fi and fantasy works. For the most part all humans have the ability to become an empath it's just more prevalent in others for some reason. And with how a lot of people RP MPs there are a lot characters with empathic abilities.
Sotto and I also talked about this a bit a few days ago, David is a fail in the storyline (watch your step you might fall in here) as the Omega really aren't super-powered but more nanobot enhanced and to keep their immortality they need to keep their treatments up or they'll die. There is no mention of David needing treatments to keep himself alive.

Really thinking about it the Omega are really nothing more the Homo Sapiens with a fountain of youth. The whole Omega name comes from their whole elite mentality. Keep in mind not all of Farmtek became Omega, but Farmtek was known for finding the best of the best for their employees and the Omega were selected out of that group.

On a last note Omega's are suppose to look different from Solitus. Maybe Sotto can dig out his longs from the "Eva is an Omega" event to cut past one the answers proving she's not, because she doesn't look like one.

[Ms_Idoru]

I'd say it comes down to the standard definitions of species distinction.

The Omega could not reproduce with Homo Sapiens/Solitus, however this is a moot point as they could not reproduce WITH EACH OTHER. So they are a group of Homo Sapiens. ONE of them was able to reproduce with a Solitus, much as Lions and Tigers can reproduce on occasion.

Empaths are individuals with the truth dreaming ability, I'd say so far we have evidence that they can theoretically be of any species. Certainly any human-derived species. We've seen Homo Sapiens and Homo Solitus ones, certainly but I'd expect that Opifex, Nanomage and Atrox could carry the genes for it.

So Empaths aren't a species. Omega aren't one per se, but there are arguments for it.

[Phantom]

I'd love to see those logs, Foos. I wasn't aware that there were very distinct differences between the Omega and Solitus. I could understand some evolutionary traits in the Solitus that the Omega wouldn't have acquired, but I'm not entirely sure what those would be.

...and are we sure Eva isn't an Omega? I mean, plastic surgery isn't exactly out of the question right?

[FoosballX]

Well the pantsman can't find the logs. It was something about the skin color and their eyes being different, and something else. I can't remember and either can he. lol

I have a theory on Eva. Since she really can't be two places at once. I say the Eva on the BoD is really a type of clone of the Omega Eva. I could go into more but I'm pretty beat atm... and god forbid I'm right about it, it would get me into trouble.

[trousers]

I'm about 1/2 way done my piece of the Omni-Tek Board of Directors and that contains a piece on Eva and Ivan specifically. Those are the only two I suspect of being in cahoots with the Omega. I Might have that one up later today so that we can keep this thread focused on Breeds and move speculation on who might be one to a more appropriate place.

So Empaths aren't a species. Omega aren't one per se, but there are arguments for it.

Omega isn't a species, but Homo Sapien is. My take on it is:

Not every Homo Sapien was an Omega, but every Omega was a Homo Sapien. And since the Omega still exist I felt it was worth listing.

[Edta]

Omega isn't a species, but Homo Sapien is. My take on it is:

Not every Homo Sapien was an Omega, but every Omega was a Homo Sapien. And since the Omega still exist I felt it was worth listing.

Well, Homo Solitus was Homo Sapiens at the same time Omega was . Solitus now differs from Homo Sapiens through the progress of macro-evolution. Omega live long and as such didn't evolve much indeed, but they did other things to their bodies and those things affected their reproductive capacities, so you could argue that they are bot the same breed as homo sapiens anymore...

Question: Do the omega obtain their long lives purely through the nanobots, or do they also use other strategies (even more mysterious ones) like the things Roman discovered in the 1940's already... It's a while ago I read PWH and I'm not sure it's clear in there...

[Phantom]

Question: Do the omega obtain their long lives purely through the nanobots, or do they also use other strategies (even more mysterious ones) like the things Roman discovered in the 1940's already... It's a while ago I read PWH and I'm not sure it's clear in there...

I don't think it is answered specifically, but the impression that I got was that Roman's initial technique was just a rudimentary form of the same process managed by nanobots in the Omega, which he eventually refined and worked into something more feasible for whatever plans and schemes he had concocted.

[Technogen]

No, the processes he did were just longevity stuff like replacing blood and organs and such so that he could live long enough to get the nanobots.