Mutants, Outcasts

The aberrant Adepts

Mutants (H. sapiens mutata) generally fall into two subgroups. The vast majority are the result of failed genetic manipulation, either through bioengineering before or after birth. A smaller subgroup consist of those who, due to radiation, drug and chemical exposure (accidental or deliberate), or due to environmental factors, show noticeable biological abnormalities. Since the days of Lord Alfred Ford Wright and the New Geneticists, what constitutes “normal” and “abnormal” seems to be a very subjective area. Certainly, there are many post-humans whose appearance can be unusual, and standards can vary from region to region. However, there tends to be two major criteria: beauty and functionality. The standard seems to be that beauty is the more potent of the two—the closer one looks to be like that of a Hollywood supermodel, the more accepted they are by the Adept community, even if their genetic enhancements are of little or bizarre use. Thus, what constitutes a Mutant is as much a social convention as it is biological. Most Mutants are deformed and asymmetric from the standard humanoid form, the most obvious being limbs and extremities, deformities of the face, exposure of internal organs outside of the skin, and the like. Other attributes include over-emphasis of certain animal DNA splices, particularly tentacles, insect carapaces and limbs, non-mammalian skin on occasion, and other animal features. Besides appearance, however, there is little socially abnormal about these people who suffer from discrimination and fickle prejudices and fashions. These are the most functional and capable who make up the Outcasts. However, some combinations of gene sequencing and splicing have also resulted in social abnormalities. These Mutants tend to exhibit social and instinctual characteristics deemed too extreme for normal social behavior. Many predatory animal behaviors believed to be psychotic or antisocial traits in normal Adepts ostracize these people from their society. Some of these Adepts can be treated with psychotherapy, gene modification, or pharmaceuticals. However, those untreatable are branded as Mutants and are either locked away without hope of rehabilitation, or “dumped.” The Outcast Movement takes them all in, and aside from minimal separation (for example, keeping those with predatory cat behaviors away from those with birdlike behaviors) does not seek to “cure” or “rehabilitate” these people in their societies.

Civilization and Culture

Culture and Cultural Heritage

As far as the majority of the Cyborg, Adept, Psychic, and Human subspecies are concerned, a Mutant is a Mutant is a Mutant is a Mutant. Unlike the subcultures within other subspecies, mutants may in fact have different genomes and DNA mechanisms and what makes them "Mutants", voluntarily or involuntarily, is perception. There are at least two distinct different subcultures, though, based as much on genomic makeup as by circumstance (and some would say, by attitude): Enviro-Mutants and Genetic-Mutants. The following are character references to each.

Enviro-Mutants

Let my People go.

Some say that evolution is dead. It's not dead. You are proof. It is, however, messy. You are proof of that too. You survive, though, because your parents loved you. And that is the lesson that you kept alive when your parents began to suffer the degradation of the environment. It is a lesson you still live among the Outcasts. You know love, not fear and hatred, will save the world.

Genetic-Mutants

You learn to live with it.

You were promised a better life through the genetic manipulations of the New Men. But something didn't take, and everything went to hell. They lied about a better life, but they didn't lie that they couldn't fix it. Maybe they tried to cover up their mistake. Maybe they just abandoned you. You hate Adepts and New Humans now. That's why you joined the Outcast Revolution.