Hardskin is the most common and the least respected of the Solar Mutations. Due to overexposure to the sun, rock-hard, cancerous tumors cover their skin, starting from the limbs and growing towards the core. In later stages of the mutation, the tumors will spread to the entirety of the host’s body, making it impenetrable to physical force, but eventually killing them.
In the final stage, the tumors harden the whole body, transforming Hardskins into living statues for the last moments of their lives.
Many believe that the mutation is contagious, although there has been no scientific proof of that. Since the mutation started in the early years after
The Lapse, it has entered the DNA of the affected. As a result, children are born into it, living their whole lives with this mutation.
Hardskins are never permitted outside the
Catharsis Wall. A selected few are employed by the
Syndicates as bodyguards. Many of them find work as hired hands for the lower-echelon
Dirt gangs. Late-stage Hardskins are sought by the gangs since they are virtually unbeatable in fights, even though their days are numbered.
Still, the majority of Hardskins who have no means of finding work, therefore mostly women and children, live their short lives in
The Center slums, discarded and forgotten even by their fellow Dirts. They barely get by thanks to a few acts of charity.
The average Hardskin has a life expectancy of approximately 27 years. No known cure has been discovered to this day.
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