Genecaste
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Property "Update Needed From" (as page type) with input value "Clan Spaniel Sourcebook" contains invalid characters or is incomplete and therefore can cause unexpected results during a query or annotation process. The Genecaste is an alleged subgroup within the Dark Caste detailed in a report from an agent identified only as "Starling." According to these rumors, the Genecaste are Clan outcasts who use genetic engineering to occupy worlds even less hospitable than the marginal planets of the Kerensky Cluster. Starling's associate, "Lefty," expressed strong doubt regarding much of the report.
Contents
History[edit]
After Nicholas Kerensky founded the Clans, one of their most important ideologies was taking the medical knowledge of the Star League and using it in their eugenics program. This led to breeding better, stronger warriors with many advantages over their ancestors, including the ability to adapt to harsh environments. Rolen Macnole, author of a pamphlet entitled Genecaste: The Real Story, claims that among these groups were those who were dissatisfied with life among the Clans. Macnole claims they chose to pursue more drastic mutations to allow people to adapt and live in the very harshest of environments, such as underwater, or even in outer space, so that they might stay outside the control of Clan society. Those who followed this route eventually became the Genecaste, hiding and surviving out of sight of the clans. The Genecaste calls this form of Eugenics Geneforming.[1]
Geneclans[edit]
Allegedly, Genecaste society is made up of several Geneclans that occupy different worlds and regions. Geneclans may consist of a few dozen, to thousands of Genecaste members. Unlike their Clan counterparts, Geneclans do not base their societal groupings based on Astrogeography, Bloodlines, or ideology. Most Geneclan societies are based around the environment that they have mutated to adapt to. Another way to think of Geneclans is as colonies. Each colony is based on a different environment, and the special circumstances and geneforming required to adapt to it. This means that a genecastman who can live underwater, could not survive on land, and one who has been formed to live in a planet with less gravity will find it unbearable to step on a planet with more. This would be reason for the different Geneclans to have little contact with each other, yet the extreme paucity of every type of resource in the places they live, and the threat of their extermination by the clans, have led the Geneclans to keep minimal contact with one another for trade and information sharing.[1]
Subtypes[edit]
There are several subtypes of Geneclans within each Geneclan. Despite "not being clan" members, the Genecaste have five levels of society, the lowest two not being counted, similar to clan society.
Altform[edit]
Non-Genecaste Geneformed groups. Almost considered outsiders.
Genenorms[edit]
The lowest of the low. Looked down upon in a similar way to how clans look at freeborn among the warrior caste. Though not trusted much, they are often used as liaisons for trading and spies, when appropriate.
Firstform[edit]
All results of their genetic modification lie beneath the skin, undetectable to the human eye. Firstforms are often sent as spies within various factions of the Clans or Inner Sphere.
Secondform[edit]
These Castemen show slight alterations to their physical appearance. Often they have strange looking eyes, odd ears, slight webbing on their hands and feet etc. Their abilities often surpass those of Firstforms, making them useful for specific missions despite the possibility of detection.
Thirdform[edit]
The most radically altered in appearance, such as drastically extended arms. The Thirdform Castemen, in general, only have a specific part of their body changed, the rest appear normal. This makes them very effective in specific environments, and are sometimes sent on covert missions since hiding their mutations would be very difficult.
Fourthform[edit]
Never actually seen by non-Genecaste, the Fourthform and Fifthform are the real power behind the Geneclans. Fourthforms are similar to Thirdforms, but have changes on the rest of their body, such as scales or chitinous skin.
Fifthform[edit]
The Ultimate in Geneforming, the Fifthform Genecastmen are mutated and changed to the point of barely resembling humans, and are completely adapted to their environment.
Breeding[edit]
Much like the clans, the Genecaste have bloodlines, and develop future Genecastemen in iron wombs with whatever gene its leaders deem necessary at the time. Some Genecaste have begun a practice that is looked at as radical, even for the Genecaste, of Birthformers
Birthform[edit]
A Method of breeding where a Fifthform female Genecaste member has her physiology changed to become a breeder of offspring true to the Geneparents it came from [2]
Notes[edit]
The Genecaste were introduced in Interstellar Players, a book focused on in-universe rumors and conspiracy theories. Like many other topics in the book, how much of the information presented is accurate cannot be confirmed. Rumors of their existence in the Periphery do exist in the universe, however.[3]