Humans

The humans of New Horizon are more versatile than ever before. What further defines them is that even though all Humans are humanoid there are three distinct groups which show an enormous amount of phylogeny, like ants. The three distinct sub-species all live work and even interact with one another differently based on their creed. Each tailor made for a specific lifestyle and certain broad specializations. However, each Human regardless of creed is a unique individual and cannot simply be labeled.

Olympian

Note: All these racial traits are relative except the height, weight and armor/weapon types. Personality traits can, and do differ greatly from Human to Human.

Proper Name: Olympian Human.
Slang Names: Progenitor, makers.
Derogatory: Monkey boys, meat bags, breeders.
Height Range: 5'0" - 6'4" female, 5'8" to 6'8" male.
Weight Range: 120-220 lbs female, 150-275 lbs male.
Weapon Types: Large to extremely large hand held.
Armor Types: All armor rated light to heavy.

Origin:

An odd race of higher primates, descended from an African species of apes known for their ability to stand on their hind legs to look for predators over the savannah as well as build tools, but unlike Chimpanzees. They're considered by most natural specialists to be an odd and impractical example of natural selection at work. (Or not at work, see below.)

Alternately they are considered by theologists as the creation of a strange bearded man (or race of men) who live(s) in the sky and possesses magical powers sufficient enough that he himself created the universe as his great masterpiece in a fit of boredom, and decided to create them in his own image.

Both theories have lots of holes, be they in the fossil record or in the inconsistent literature of the fairy tales. However the most entertaining thing to do is get both parties together and let them duke it out. Someone wisely did this centuries ago, and those who have been able to observe it half been amused by their fighting for almost five hundred years.

But whatever their origin, the Olympian humans are the first of the five sentient races to have originated from Earth, and arguably the craziest. This is fortunate, as their insanity is often the catalyst for some of the most shockingly amazing advances in science as well as the arts in recorded history.

However, by the end of the twenty second century, the human race was suffering from many millennia of poor breeding. With rampant hereditary diseases and declining average intelligence, humans were forced to execute a multi-generation eugenics campaign in order to clean the polluted gene pool. For seven generations those with a likeliness of hereditary diseases were sterilized, as were the least intelligent 10% of the population.

Though abhorrent, humans cleansed their gene pool of problems caused by their lack of forethought in excluding themselves from natural selection. Human immune systems became stronger and many horrific hereditary conditions were all but eliminated. Last but not least, the intelligence of the average human being before the cleansing became the intelligence of the current lowest common denominator of society, creating a newer and sturdier strain of the old species. With the advent of their improved gene pool, they differentiate themselves from previous generations by calling themselves 'Olympians'.

Appearance:

Coming in all sizes, builds and colors, Humans possess and incredible range of different breeds, commonly called 'races,' all of who are more or less identical in capabilities. However some have mildly higher tolerances to recreational poisons such as tobacco or ethanol (alcohol) beverages than others, as well as different ranges of diseases susceptibility.

Perception:

Olympians are considered unpredictable, irrational, illogical, sanctimonious and just plain batshit insane. Depending on what day of the week it is, these can alternately or congruently can be applied in any combination to an Olympian.

Some Humans and Wafans perceive them to be a separate species from the strain of humanity that exists in our world today, circa 2009, having bred the old species away.

Facts:

Olympians are more psychologically varied than other strains of humanity, being both creative and unpredictable.

Due to their strict breeding doctrines designed to prevent the decline in the race, they do suffer a slight intolerance for the ill, which borders almost on paranoia.

Olympians, especially in regards to creative design and strategy, are often raised to hold themselves above Wafans. This is more regional, and areas like The Walk of Man, Aquilon and Tilaya are less prone to this than Xanadu, or New Chania.

Also, despite their bravado, they're very much the same humans that we are today, just healthier, and slightly less prone to mental illness.

Upbringing:

Little has changed in human upbringing in the last several hundred years, and it differs greatly from region, to region. The most important change really lies with the act of having children.

Rather than the old genetic lottery of procreation, at birth human children have a genetic sample taken, which is kept on file for the rest of their natural life. When a couple decides they want to have children, they must consult a medical specialist to apply for a Live Birth License(LBL).

concept art by Eriance

An LBL is granted or denied based on the genetic compatibility of the two individuals. It may be denied if the individuals are too closely related, or together have too great of a possibility to give birth to children with excessive allergies, birth defects or genetic disorders.

However if the compatibility is good, which is common, a limited LBL may be granted. If the couple has an exceptionally good chance of producing superior, gifted children, they can be granted an Unlimited License, and be encouraged to be fruitful and multiply more than average with special tax incentives and extended state funded child medical coverage.

There are those who break the LBL rules and regulations. This is difficult, however, as at birth each male child is implanted with a small device which keeps their body from producing a key enzyme in their sperm which allows them to penetrate the wall of an egg to fertilize it, in effect rendering them reproductively impotent.

Once an LBL has been granted, the male is given a prescription for an enzyme agonist which bypasses the implant, and within a week allows the enzyme to reach crucial levels for reproduction. However the sperm count which is at capacity is a little low, so more than one attempt may be necessary. Usually this is customary regardless, so there are few complaints to this aspect.

Social:

As vast and varied as the sunrise, Olympians are generally raised to be friendly, but due to being more unpredictable, and raised only by a single set of parents, typically, they can turn out to be as cranky and cantankerous as any of the current day specimens one might have seen.

Specialties:

Highly adaptable, Humans are capable of filling almost any workers niche that can be imagined when the proper precautions are taken. And they often do, even if it's more economically practical to have a Wafan do the work instead.

There are some professions that Humans simply seem to have a greater prowess in than their Wafan associates.

Humans are natural politicians. Having invented politics, and spending thousands of years perfecting its illogical subroutines, they have tailored the playing field to their own strengths and weaknesses and thusly excel.

Humans also tend to make more caring medical/medical engineering professional than their Wafan relatives, perhaps due to their view of injuries and diseases not as a simple problem to be corrected, but as a serious issue deserving of compassion and 'tender loving care'. It's an old argument which has never been successfully won, but most Humans and Wafans tend to prefer human health specialists.

Likes:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on the upbringing and regional background of the individual in question.

Dislikes:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on the upbringing and regional background of the individual in question.

Aesthetics:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on the upbringing and regional background of the individual in question.

Dwellings:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on their upbringing, as well as the region in which they live.

Promethean

Note: All these racial traits are relative except the height, weight and armor/weapon types. Personality traits can, and do differ greatly from Human to Human.

Proper Name: Promethean Cyborg.
Slang Names: Augments, cyborgs, sons of Gren (if said respectfully).
Derogatory: Canned meat, retread, chopjobs, sons of Gren (if not said respectfully).
Height Range: 5'2" - 6'8" female, 5'2" to 7'2" male.
Weight Range: 130-300 lbs female, 180-400 lbs male.
Weapon Types: Large to extremely large hand held. Small to large mounted.
Armor Types: All armor rated light to heavy, including hard points.

Origin:

Not actually a race unto themselves, Promethean Cyborgs are a modification of baseline Olympian Humans who have chosen to have their bodies altered with cybernetic components either to correct disfigurement/mutilation, or to improve their own physical performance.

'Cyborgs' existed as early as the 20th century, with the advent of technologies like the pacemaker, but what we call Prometheans did not appear until much later in history, and were actually an offshoot of the Wafan war for independence.

At the height of the war, Wafans had gained substantial inroads into toppling the human world government, however Humans were beginning to hold their own, and use their unpredictable nature to very slowly push back. The current Wafan leader, an Aesir dubbed 'Caligula' by his former human masters decided to use the humans own unpredictable creativity against each other.

Seeking the finest genetic specimens the human race had to offer, a trial and error process of surgical amputation and grafting produced many failures and unacceptable candidates before the 'rictus exoroid' project reached fruition with the subject designated as 'Grenzenlos Ritter'.

Grenzenlos Ritter was a cyborg, whose base human form had a massive frame, well developed muscles, advanced cognitive abilities as well as the rare genetic condition called Photographic Memory & Physical Feat. This allowed the finished subject not just to remember anything he saw with perfect accuracy, but also allowed him to mimic any physical feat he had witnessed with a high degree of accuracy.

Memory wiped and brainwashed, he was put to sue in combat. His humans limbs, spinal cord and many organs and bones were either replaced or reinforced to create a specimen with strength drastically superior to an ordinary Human (and most Wafans) as well as impressive durability.

However, as opposed to bringing a decisive end to the war, over the next few years the war escalated to heights previously unseen in history. This was brought about by the unexpected escape of a a previous specimen, Tier Ritter, a new faction specifically forged to replace Wafans and Humans as the dominant race, making them subservient to a race that Tier believed had both of their strengths and none of their weaknesses.

Eventually Tier and Gren killed each other, putting an end to Tiers plans. However, the legacy of cyborg technology remained, even if the final details are somewhat fuzzy.

Cyborgs as extensive as Grenzenlos (known to history as 'Gren') were too expensive and too powerful to be mass produced, as excepting all but the most powerful and skilled Wafan and Humans, they were virtual gods on the battlefield.

Those who later received the 'fire of the gods,' as it has been dubbed since, were far less advanced in overall modification. They were named Prometheans, and despite having no direct connection to the grim horrors of all too well remembered war they find themselves shunned even to this very day, centuries later.

Appearance:

Being Olympians at their base, Prometheans are varied in skin, hair and eye color. But in addition, they are also further differentiated in the size, style and complexity and placement of their cybernetic implants.

The most common cybernetic replacements are limbs, such as arms, or legs. And the limb can vary from human in size and general shape, to enlarged and grotesquely cybernetic in overall design, sometimes pushing the limit of what people might choose to think of as human, such as the addition of extra limbs or replacement of eyes with more elaborate sensory apparatus.

Less commonly, as they are more expensive, replaced limbs can be designed to be specifically artistic in design, or given fundamentally combat oriented features which lend to a specific design motif the Promethean receiving them may have in mind.

Prometheans often have pale skin, as the medicine used to combat the body's natural instincts to fight off the implants as foreign bodies as well as strengthen the nervous system to transmit and receive the powerful impulses from the implant frequently weaken or destroy the body's production of Melanin. In fact many Prometheans who live long enough often become albinos.

Not all Prometheans chose their appearances, or their status as a Promethean, and only have their implants and prosthetics for legitimate medical reasons. As a result, in public they tend to wear cloaks, long coats or hats to cover what many see as their disfigurement.

concept art by Eriance

Perception:

Prometheans are often seen as grotesquely disfigured by Olympians. This is brought on by their eugenic practices making it easy to see Prometheans as aberrations that need to be weeded out, or ignored. This has actually led to many legitimate cases were Prometheans have been unjustly denied the right to have offspring.

They are also viewed as nearly superhuman in regards to their physical strength and stamina by Olympians, and as such have been completely disbarred from most Olympian competitions.

The progenitors of the Prometheans, such as Gren and tier, were potentially immortal due to an extensively revamped artificial immune system and advanced nano-filter which removed particulate matter from their bodies, however this technology is grotesquely expensive and impractical. The estimated cost in modern currency to produce either specimen was over six billion Geodites. Regardless of this fact, Prometheans are often perceived as 'unjustly' long lived in comparison to the benefits they receive from their augmentation. In fact, most Prometheans have a somewhat reduced life span.

The public eye often sees them as violent lowlife criminals who can't hold jobs, and simply clutter up society, and a result many are unable to ever acquire or hold a job due to this prejudice and as a result are forced to turn to less reputable businesses or even crime.

Facts:

Most Prometheans are unhappy individuals due to both their status as social pariahs among Olympians and even some Wafans. This is often made worse by the psychological effects their drugs and financial situations often impose upon them. More Prometheans die from suicide than any other sentient race except lemmings.

Prometheans carry a lot of anger, and if pushed are often more than happy to push back, which can often be deadly. Prometheans seldom know their own strength. Advanced cybernetics, adrenaline and the fact that the only built in safety on how hard they can push themselves is their own brains cane theoretically make them stronger than a Jotun when they fly into a fury.

Many Prometheans have a very poor self image, and simply live day to day, simply trying everything they can to get by, at least enough to buy their drugs, food and maintenance, and are notorious for putting away massive amounts of alcohol.

Upbringing:

Little has changed in human upbringing in the last several hundred years, and it differs greatly from region, to region. The most important change really lies with the act of having children.

There are those who break the LBL rules & regulations. This is difficult, however, as at birth each male child is implanted with a small device which keeps their body from producing a key enzyme in their sperm which allows them to penetrate the wall of an egg to fertilize it, in effect rendering them reproductively impotent.

Social:

Prometheans tend not to make friends easily, especially among non Prometheans. However those few friends that they do make, they will often treasure more deeply than life itself. To a Promethean, companionship is a rare and precious thing that no amount of money can buy them.

After a conversion, a Promethean usually has a lot of difficult relating to their family and loved ones. A few are able to make it through their severe emotional trauma and manage to keep close family ties, but such occurrences are rare.

Romantically, Prometheans tend to be opportunistic, only seldom being able to bring themselves to a monogamous relationship with another, even another Promethean. Their issues with self worth make it difficult to believe others can see anything in them other than an ugly monster and they will often react defensively to being propositioned.

Specialties:

In every sense of the term, Prometheans are fighters. Their very lives are a struggle to keep their bodies healthy and strong, pay bills and keep a roof over their heads in the adversity they struggled with breeds a tremendous amount of repressed anger.

Taking into account their impressive durability and phenomenal potential strength, a Promethean who stops repressing his anger is often like a force of nature. They're even more prized than Jotuns as police, soldiers, bounty hunters and mercenaries. Few trust them implicitly, but as fighters they almost always get the job done.

Much like Jotuns, their physical strength and stamina also allows them to excel at construction and manufacturing, though prejudice makes it hard to hold down a job.

Likes:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on the upbringing and regional background of the individual in question.

Dislikes:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on the upbringing and regional background of the individual in question.

Aesthetics:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on the upbringing and regional background of the individual in question.

Dwellings:

Entirely variable. Depends heavily on their upbringing, as well as the region in which they live. Most Prometheans tend to have difficulty affording nice homes, and often live in somewhat less attractive regions of town.

Medean

Note: All these racial traits are relative except the height, weight and armor/weapon types. Personality traits can, and do differ greatly from Human to Human.

Proper Name: Medean Human.
Slang Names: Trow, spliced, fae.
Derogatory: Flea bags, fuzz buckets, pixies, elves, fairies.
Height Range: 4'8" - 7'2" female, 5'0" to 7'5" male.
Weight Range: Substantial variation.
Weapon Types: Small to extremely large handheld, all DNA Helix weaponry.
Armor Types: All armor rated light to heavy, and DNA Helix armor.

Origin:

Of all the mysteries of New Horizon, it's ancient ruins and its bizarre life forms, no mystery is more intriguing than the Tulgey Wood. Entirely alien to this world, far more so even than it's human visitors. Creatures and organisms who dwell within diverged from life on both Earth and New Horizon at a virtually primordial level.

This lush, verdant fungal paradise is believed to have been planet sometime roughly five hundred years past, believed to have arrived by celestial impact centuries ago. It has since slowly expanded outward, slowly converting the enormous island of New Crete into a lush, but toxic alien paradise teaming with exotic plants and animals.

Exploration due to the highly caustic nature of the Woods spores was very difficult. However in 2442, a team of Olympians and Aesir using a new prototype exploration suit was able to delve several miles into the interior of the massive fungal dome and made the discovery of the century. A species of deadly gravity defying predatory jellyfish, who while unremarkable for what they were, these strange creatures were remarkable for what they would bring about.

These deadly jellies seemed to come in an almost infinite number of variations, including adaptations which were simply not normal for any jellyfish like species. Large Stingers, claws for their tendrils, armor plating, camouflage, the ability to spit poison and any number of other bizarre traits. The most commonly assimilated trait seemed to be some sort of powerful paralytic poison, earning them the name Gorgons.

A long careful study of the creatures showed that they were all born baseline, and at an age when they age they would stalk other predators and take a large sample of their flesh, then cocoon themselves for a period of a month and emerge adapted to the very DNA of their victim, allowing them to hunt in many new and different ways, ensuring the survival of the species through an impressive diversity. However all of their offspring were missing the third DNA Helix of their parents and were entirely baseline.

Several weeks of research led to the discovery of the substance which allowed these creatures to perform their amazing feat. Medea, a very powerful substance which acts like a prion, attacking foreign DNA and making it soluble to the host, and binding it to a third helix in the Gorgons.

It was postulated that the substance Medea could easily be modified for human use to create modified humans who bred completely true to baseline, but the financial leaders of the research expedition were thoroughly appalled and immediately pulled the plug immediately. However, come time to pull out many pieces of research equipment and sixteen members of the forty two man team had disappeared into the night.

Where they went was never discovered, and all attempts to track them failed. The team was forced to pull out without them, and nothing more was heard for almost ten months. Believing the dead, a special team was sent to discover their fate, and an enormous press conference was held at a safe distance from the edge of the wood. This event was crashed by the remaining scientists.

Striding from the woods, the six modified Humans simply walked to the press conference and unceremoniously made it their own, announcing themselves to the world, revealing they had made a quick breakthrough due to the ingenious thinking of their deceased colleague, Dr Hans Phae, that they breakthrough took only two months, and that they'd been living and testing their bodies free of the apparatus all this time.

Their biggest surprise was the unveiling by two of the scientists their newly born, entirely baseline baby girl, Anastasia. The repercussions of this unveiling are still felt today. That regardless of how different they were, their genetic alterations were mere window dressings and they human remained untouched underneath it all.

Since then, despite a very virulent hatred of these 'mutants,' especially in Xanadu, they have established their own city, Ilium, deep beneath the Tulgey Wood.

Appearance:

Their appearance is vast and varied, some Medeans are barely recognizable as human beings, so great is their change.

Perception:

With the bizarre, almost fairy tale like world they dwell in beneath the Tulgey Wood, they are often viewed as fanciful and whimsical beings, flighty and vainglorious.

Upbringing:

No one is born a Medean, and only the most unusual accidents lead to oen becoming a Medean involuntarily.

concept art by Eriance

In fact, to become a Medean one must either prove to the inner circles of Medean Society that they are worthy of the transformation, or pay an enormous fee to black market Helix Splicers for low grade outer circle transformations.

Offspring raised by Medeans are treated with the same love and care any human child would be, though their education tends to be a bit more arduous, as they often hope for their children to pass eventual tests to be selected as a Medean candidate.

Social:

Their social hierarchy is different than any another other on the planet, having a seven tiered social hierarchy based on individual achievements and the successively more sophisticated gene splicing possible as a result of their standing. However, these circles have little bearing on whether an individual.

Each circle is named after various mythical creatures and loosely describes the level of complexity of the splicing within each caste.

The most common are the 7th Circle Ogres. These Ogres are usually merely larger and stronger than normal human beings. They have no special duties.

Following them are the 6th Circle Trolls, who are more sophisticated than their 7th Circle counterparts, in that they often have special abilities beyond those of a normal human, such as improved healing, the ability to see abnormal visual wave lengths and the like. Again, their duties to other Medeans are negligible.

The 5th circle is called the Wyvern circle, and these Wyverns are not unlike the previous circles, but tend to be far more refined and less bestial, as well as possessing keener senses. They often act as councilors for new Medean prospects.

The 4th circle is referred to as the Outer Fae. The Faes are further refined still, and far more genetically complicated than the previous circles, and quite beautiful to look upon, far less chimerical than previous circles. They usually act as the primary employees in their racial government, and are commonly considered a civil service group.

The 3rd circle is called the Lords and Ladies, and they live only within their home city. They are often high ranking officials who handle any laws regarding Medean internal society. They tend to be nearly human in appearance, but far finer, more delicate and refined, scoured of all flaws, and with a single animal aspect handsomely emphasized.

The 2nd Circle is called the Daughters and Sons, and they are quite literally the princes and princesses of the Medean society, the children of the original founders. Their appearance is whimsical, but extremely refined, evocative of terrestrial creatures of legend and fiction. Within the society, their job is to wander the world, experiencing new sensations, and spreading the good will of their people.

The 1st circle is the King & Queen, which is the most complicated and perfectly engineered Medeans to date, and some of the finest minds produced by human society as well. They issue decrees and help craft the emerging Medean Culture with the aid of those below them.

Specialties:

Like Olympians, they're capabilities are vast and varied, and depending on their splicing they may fit into many specialized rolls.

Likes:

Much like Olympians, their preferences tend to be quite vast and varied.

Dislikes:

Much like Olympians, their preferences tend to be quite vast and varied.

Aesthetics:

Medeans tend to prefer smooth angular designs, or organically inspired shapes, shunning the right angles of ordinary architecture. To this end they make many things out of natural materials when possible.

Dwellings:

Medeans often prefer to live in genetically engineered oaks hybridized with trees of the Tulgey Wood, which grow extremely rapidly to great heights with massive open centers, and can be coaxed to grow bubble like hollow wooden blisters for rooms.