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DOMAIN
Human Domain
CLASS
Construct
SPECIES
Human
AUTHOR
Devin Deng
LAST UPDATE
September 1st, 2021
The mages of the 26th century are no longer the robe-wearing, stave-brandishing wizards of yore. They are produced by the Terran Union’s Paraphysics Division to be engines of war, pilots of starships, and administrators of civilizations.
The overarching process to find and create a mage is known as the Mage Program. It was devised by Dr. Siddhar and Dr. Igarashi as a means of utilizing paraphysically powerful individuals for the securement and betterment of humankind.
Candidates are humans with the potential to become mages. A human is designated to be a candidate if they possess the minimum mana production potential requirement. There are two types of candidates in the Mage Program, based on their origin. They are known as Type-A and Type-B candidates. Type-A candidates originate from cloning facilities, while Type-B candidates come from the wider population.
The majority of mage candidates hail from the Jovian Cloning Facilities. These facilities do not produce clones as much as they produce brains in hopes that one would have the necessary MPP to become classed as a mage. Ones that do not reach the necessary requirements are reconstituted back to biomass for reuse. These facilities can produce more brains than the rest of the Human Domain can produce children. It is not completely known whether factions other than the Terran Union possess similar facilities. However, the increase in mage-to-mage engagements over time seems to confirm that other factions do have their own means of producing magus.
Throughout the Human Domain, mana detection stations and satellites were constructed to search for potential mage candidates. When a large spike in mana within an area is detected, a team of seeker mages is deployed to retrieve the candidate. There may be a false positive in the event that a person suddenly turns off their mana retention systems. In the event that it is a candidate, however, in-situ surgery or extraction is utilized whether to remove the child from its host parent or artificial uterus. To maintain secrecy, the host’s parents are psychoanalyzed and reprogrammed. The host is placed in a portable biobag and brought to a candidate collection facility. Occasionally, other rival parties and factions deploy their own forces to acquire the candidate as well. However, these forces are usually defeated and to the current day, only .027 percent of Type-B candidates have failed to be extracted.
After extraction, both Type-A and Type-B candidates are taken to collection facilities where their neural template is extracted and they are prepped for modification.
A mage’s class (and subclass) determines what jobs they are meant to accomplish. There are combat mages, pilot mages, and intendant mages. Combat mages are charged with warfare, pilot mages are charged with coordinating spaceships, and intendant mages manage infrastructure. This is dependent not so much on skill as much as on their mana production potential.
MPP is a grading system devised by the Paraphysics Division to categorize the differing mana outputs of organisms. These categories are named after the letters of the Greek alphabet, with Alpha being the highest possible MPP and Eta being the lowest. Mages in the highest ranges of MPP are turned into pilots or intendants, while the mages in the lowest ranges become combatants. This is due to spaceships and structures requiring much more fuel compared to the equipment that combatants use. Since mana is scarce in open space, spaceborne constructs require mages in the highest MPP ranges.
Mastery of the soma occurred during the 23rd century when the art of fleshcraft was devised. While it was usually used for visual modifications or medical procedures, the military discovered a way to compress and restructure the brain. They grew enhanced neurons using mages’ brains as templates and modified them. They then stored these neurons into central cognition cores (CCCs). They also created cognition stacks, which are dedicated banks of cloned neurons. Cognition cores and cognition stacks compose a mages neural network.
Genetic modification has allowed for the creation of more advanced neurons and neural structures. Mechanical and chemical modifications such as dendrite reinforcement and volatility thread implantation are used to enhance the basic structure of the human brain beyond simple genetic modification.
To channel psionic commands around their bodies, somatic threads that utilize the principle of psionic interference are used.
Ghosts are AI designed to reside within and control a mage’s neural network. They act as the consciousness and control system for a mage. They are uploaded after maturation and are designed to be operated using both neural matter and quantum computers.
The invention of the Concurrent Consciousness has allowed for a blurring of the lines between a natural and AI. For a mage, they are one and the same. A soul and an AI exist within the same soma, and operate as such.
Mages are incredibly powerful entities. To keep them in obedience, psycho-manipulators are installed into their CCCs. These are a series of precepts and protocols that prohibit mages from doing certain actions or having certain thoughts. In short, they are given an illusion of free will, and never have the notion to escape or disobey.
After the necessary modifications, mages are either placed in active service or placed in stasis units for future use.
A mage without their cognition matrices, even blessed with a natural affinity for mana, possesses the same degree of mastery over paraphysics as your average citizen. Insufficient psions and computation render any sort of advanced magic impossible. As a result, mages are supported by auxiliary cognition matrices of their motherships. The arrival of a mage can be heralded by its mothership high in orbit. As powerful as mages are, they are at the whims of their masters. Their psionics can be turned off in an instant, their suits rendered inert, their consciousnesses made dark. However, this is not the primary reason that a rogue mage is so rare. The primary reason is due to the conception of the concurrent consciousness and the installation of psycho-manipulators, the thought of escape or sedition is rendered impossible. These two factors have led mages to be dubbed “glass gods,” powerful entities that could be turned off at the input of a command key.