Heritage 7

What follows is a look into one of the deepest foundational elements in the entirety of Starborn: genetic manipulation. The primary elements of this field are the age-old Heritage 7 virus, and gene splicing.

First Episode

The first episode of Starborn begins with a window into its history. This first chapter is a look at underlying structure, where players stories set the tone for the future direction of the game. Look towards the timeline for information on what events guide this grand episode.

The first episode highlights the connectivity of the racial groups and how they're combined actions will shape the coming years. With the resurgence of a desire for a distinct personal culture, borders are reemerging within groups that had all but homogenized centuries before. Nations are rising from the long-cooled ashes of the past, and vies for power transfix whole regions that were once stable, ignorant of the calmness of their time.

Heritage 7 Gene & Virus

The Heritage virus was engineered as a cure for cancer, however in the end its widest application is found in its side-effects like a similar blue pill from decades before. The virus was an engineering feat ahead of its time, one that allowed humanity to eventually reach outlying star-systems and approach worlds once thought to be beyond man's reach.

Geneborn Races

All of the races within Starborn are little more than humans adapted through the application of the Heritage 7 virus. The virus itself unlocks the formerly latent mutagenic properties of mankind's genes and with careful guidance can create startlingly powerful, natural results. The virus has tapped into the dormant evolutionary adaptation that allowed men to rise to power on Earth, and by tapping it once more has eased the colonization of the stars.

A geneborn race is first created through the use of test-tube babies, where embryos are guided and age-progressed in the early days of a new system. These first generations are what are known as the colonists of a race, those who have no childhood beyond that progression in a lab.

Their bodies morph during that period, bombarded with application of conditions that would be present on the surface itself. These mutations are undertaken in the structure of a lab before the age-progressed individual is made alert and imprinted due to the high potential for errors. This controlled process happens something like an early puberty, one which sees the development of physical characteristics that are hard to predict and guide in their appearance.

See: Ecological Engineering for more information on the application of geneborn and racial construction as it applies to wild animals, plants, and microscopic life.

History

Intervention

The Heritage 7 virus came from a need for a change. In the history of mankind few things have caused more loss, more suffering than a simple genetic mutation run rampant. Likely to have been around to some degree throughout the history o mankind, cancer was identified by medicine in the 20th century and remained a pox. Generations saw a steady increase in the incidence of cancer and fingers pointed to countless culprits, each one when addressed failing to stave off the growth.

Ikhard Harlan, a genetic engineer in the middling days of the science lead a team to develop a virus that would target these cells, that would seek out and counter-mutate the mutants. There has rarely been a more lackluster beginning. After much adieu the drug born of an expensive venture went on to become one of several alternatives for cancer treatment that had a middling of success in combating the onset of cancer.

Rediscovery

The largest application for the Heritage 7 virus came after several hundred years passed. With the use eventually spreading to overtake the less-effective cancer drugs until the point where most everyone received some form of the virus early on it was only a matter of time until some of the side-effects were noticed on a larger scale.

When men spread out to the stars, the deep stars specifically, the virus came under scrutiny again as survivors from otherwise written-off ships returned to tell their tale. These men and women, came in handfuls over the course of several years before the most well-voiced amongst them managed to find support for his claims that something was wrong. This man was Captain Caspiez, and his efforts to help shed light on the growing phenomenon of aberrant mutations earned an immortal place as the father of the Caspiez.

Image used under [1]Creative Commons, by [2]Ernst Haeckel.