Sophontic Cloning

Sophontic Cloning is the practices and technology behind creating viable clones of people without damaging their soul or creating unawanted aberrations. It is an illegal technology in every Banner — though it is largely understood that the highest members of governing bodies are using it to prolong their life or create body doubles.

What so few people understand about the impracticalities of Cloning is its effect on the soul and the soul's interplay with the mind. If someone is perfectly cloned or attempting to control two bodies at once, their soul will invariably latch onto the two bodies and attempt to chain their experiences together.

This phenomena is well documented and thought to be the source of objects gaining a soul, but the difference here is that both hosts have a body capable of higher-level thought. Once the soul attatches to both it begins to share the experiences of one with another, causing a very unpleasant sense of double-self that most minds simply cannot handle. If it helps, imagine seeing two a different place and situation in each eye, such as running in your left eye and climbing in your right, and try to coordinate both halves of both bodies to coordinate their respective actions accordingly.

At the low end, this can cause incredible and immediate motion sickness. In more severe cases, we see neurological damage and other lasting physical trauma. This can also cause severe Soul Sickness.

There are some theoretical workarounds for this which may make Sophontic Cloning possible.

The first is for all the clones to be kept Hollow — soulless. The drawback in this case is Synchro Drift, which results in a "Evil Twin" scenario.

Another is for a buffer to be constructed between the central and the ancillaries.

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