Mechified

Blue Collar Machines...

The First Minds divided the Cheldrun race into three castes when the Great Experiment was launched. While Allskins remained unchanged and the Biomade began genetic manipulation the Mechified underwent extensive cybernetic surgery.

Unfortunately, in such a situation someone usually falls to the bottom of the heap and that ended up being the Mechified. Numerically the largest of the castes, and always the caste which was most pragmatic, the Mechified have for millennia been the working class of the Cheldrun. Some embrace this condition with pride, others chafe against it quietly, some rebel violently, but it is extremely rare in Cheldrun society that you will see any Mechified in a position of authority.

Partly this is because the Mechified are unused to the very idea of having authority over others. From the very beginning of the Great Experiment the Mechified have tended toward a radically egalitarian mindset. Whereas the Biomade set an Oversight council above them to direct their experiment, the Mechified made it the individual responsibility of each Mechified to innovate. Every Mechified from early childhood begins tinkering and learning about mechanical engineering. Every Mechified directs their own gradual mechification over their lifetime, improving and converting their normal body functions. Since any person, regardless of genetics or social class can theoretically achieve radical breakthroughs in mechanical augmentation, Mechified culture has eschewed any kind of hierarchy.

Alongside this egalitarian push for innovation in the Mechified psyche is a brand of extreme pragmatism. While every Mechified is looking to improve themselves and finding clever and new ways to do that, mostly they look for small improvements designed to achieve practical results. Most Mechified choose a very specific function which they wish to excel at, for example “steel driving”. They then go about designing mechanical augmentations which make them more efficient at that task. In this case a piston arm, a reinforced frame, and stabilized legs, maybe even additional legs or supports. Many of these improvements will be relatively standardized based on the innovations of the generations before, but each Mechified will seek to tweek it just a bit to make it better. Every time a Mechified successfully makes an improvement he shares his discoveries with others who are then free to build on his designs. The Mechified are, in other words, an open source caste.

The unfortunate side-effect of Mechified pragmatism is that they have developed themselves so effectively into purposeful machines that the people who do feel comfortable having authority over others have typically regarded them as tools. Under the traditional rule of the Allskins, the Mechified were treated with dignity, but nevertheless expected to serve as laborers, warriors and do all manner of high risk work. The Biomade who now run the city-states of Karia feel less need to treat the Mechified with dignity. As a result the Mechified fill the lowest rungs on the ladder. They work the Blackrock mines (a dangerous and deadly job), serve as enforcers for the corporate police forces, muck the gutters, work assembly lines, do construction, and do anything else with extreme conditions and a short life-expectancy.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Mechified do actually find this kind of work fulfilling, there would have been a massive rebellion long ago. Mechified pride themselves on their ability to do what no one else wants to or is able to. Even they however have their limits. They reached their limits toward the end of the Flight with the old Saish-maintained traditional hierarchy. Along with some persuasive Biomade they rebelled and shattered the former Cheldrun way of life. At the time, the Biomade had promised them an equal share of a future open to anyone with brains and a strong work ethic. It has proved to be an empty promise. So many Mechified are again reaching the end of their patience with the Biomade leadership. In various cities and in the workforce of many corporations unrest is stirring.

The problem is that the Mechified are so egalitarian that they aren’t very good at organizing a resistance. Indeed, many Mechified whose lot in life isn’t quite as dire are happy to fight against their brothers and thus the caste is divided and conflicted within itself. Mechified enforcers clash with rebellious Mechified laborers, who strike industrial targets seeking to cripple the power structure. Unions are organizing in secret, but the Biomade can read minds and these groups are often crushed, cruelly, before they even take shape. No real progress is being made, but the ferment is spreading.

Mechified are born in the normal way to two parents and raised in tight-knit nuclear families. The parents usually begin the child at a very early age experimenting with mechanical parts and even wearing various exo-mech suits for practice. At the age of 8 kids are allowed to pick their first cybernetic enhancement. These are usually like training wheels, intended to be traded in at a later date for a fully-functional model. By 12 Mechified are beginning to articulate their Forged Destiny (or goal for personal mechification). By 15 they receive their engines and begin doing serious mechanical augmentation. At 17 they are considered adults and they commence working in some role suited to their function.

***

Players who wish to play a Mechified should determine very precisely what practical purpose they have chosen to serve – they’re function. With a clear idea of their function they should detail what mechanical modifications they’ve made to themselves and what modifications they’ve yet to make. Every Mechified is pursuing their own “Forged Destiny” defined as the perfect state of mechification for achieving their goal. What is your Forged Destiny? What job has your capabilities lent itself to? How do you feel about Mechified social oppression?

Appearance: Mechified can vary wildly in appearance depending on the mechanical augmentation they have done. The human portions of them are muscular and covered in grease and they tend toward dark complexions. They are usually humanoid in appearance, though you do see some that have replaced their legs with treads or added limbs. Their mechanical portions are powered by an engine which hisses and glows red with heat. When Blackrock is inserted in the engine it blazes white hot and spews oily smoke. When they move gears grind audibly and metal plates clank together, pistons send out a hiss of steam, and their weighty steps echo like hammer blows.

Example Names: Ajax, Asante, Barrett, Crank, Forrick, Hammer, Hezekiah, Jack, Josiah, Joshua, Karak, Mack, Moses, Pile Driver, Samuel, Tyrone, Thock, Winston

Example Functions: Artillery, Assembler, Bullet-Spitter, Driller, Forger, Hammerer, Joiner, Painter, Solderer

Example Attributes: Alternate Form, Armour, Elasticity, Extra Arms, Features (technological), Jumping, Massive Damage, Special Defense, Superstrength, Tough

Example Skills: Architecture, Artisan, Demolitions, Driving, Gaming, Intimidation, Mechanics, Physical Sciences, Piloting, Sports, Street Sense

Mechified attitudes towards….
Cheldrun	The makers. The builders. The designers. We could create whole worlds if we set our minds to it.
Allskins	The old lords are no longer our masters, which is good, but their disgraced state almost makes us feel pity for them.
Biomade	Whatever they say, the Biomade have made themselves the new masters. Damn their freakish intelligence. We’re they’re equals and they had better acknowledge it.
Mechified	We are the guts of the operation. Take out one gear or piston and a whole machine stops working. Well we’re the whole damn engine. What would they do without us?
Karians	What the fuck is that? If I didn’t know better I’d say these half-animal freaks were a twisted Biomade genetic experiment.
Anakarix	Huh? A talking lizard. If one of those monsters spits acid in my face I’m gonna rip its tail off.
Gogajin	Now these guys are good for some entertainment. They’ll rip a cow in half if you get them pissed off enough, which is easy to do. Just say something about his mother.
Jevumm	What was that? Did you hear that? I swear if it was one of those cats I’m gonna start letting the lead fly. I don’t want one of them within 50 meters of me.
Prill	Would somebody please make her stop singing that Enya shit. It’s doing my head in!
Vorax	I heard there was some sort of bird out there that couldn’t handle the smoke. What’s their problem? They’ve got the whole sky to breathe in, just stay the hell away from the smoke.
Zipsum	Dammit. Something’s jammed in my gears. Hey look at this! It’s a fucked up little squirrel. I must have stepped on it back there.