Banshee42
01/20/25 01:56 AM
99.73.18.99
|
Hey all, I've been looking at the mutations section in the Time of War Companion and was wondering how common things like oddly colored skin are in the Battletech universe.
Like in most places is it (and other similar mutations) a thing that gets everyone's attention/endangers them or is it more like how an especially strange hair color in the mall might make you look for just a second before moving on?
|
Cray
01/23/25 11:35 AM
71.47.208.18
|
True, native-to-a-planet mutations are pretty rare in BT. The Azami have developed an immunity to a lethal, blood-congealing plague on their worlds that kills visitors.
But skin and hair color variations beyond Terran norms are the result of cosmetics. Unusual attributes and skills (e.g., Elementals, Belters) are the result of a bit of genetic engineering.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
Banshee42
01/23/25 06:07 PM
99.73.18.99
|
Okay, but if simple skin color changes (red, green, blue, etc) are just cosmetic gene engineering, would they be common enough to show up in the odd merc team?
Would the clans hate them like genecaste?
|
Cray
01/23/25 10:13 PM
71.47.208.18
|
Quote:
Okay, but if simple skin color changes (red, green, blue, etc) are just cosmetic gene engineering, would they be common enough to show up in the odd merc team?
I haven't heard of them in canon previously, but neither is it breaking anything in canon. So, this is one of those "Free to do what you want in your game" situations. And there's also the possibility of skin dyes or whole-body tattoos to explain it.
Quote:
Would the clans hate them like genecaste?
The Clans would not object to skin color genemods. They might, at the most, grumble about non-productive uses of genetic engineering, but it wouldn't get them upset.
The genecaste are fiction in the setting, found in a book of wild rumors like hyperspace beasties. The similarly fictional Clans who existed in the genecaste fiction disliked genecaste because:
1) They were scientist castes who had run wild away from warrior control
2) They weren't producing better warriors by enhanced eugenics. Instead, the genecaste were trying to live on Venus-like planets, float in gas giants, etc.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
Banshee42
02/20/25 06:29 AM
99.73.18.99
|
I've been thinking about this some more, I guess I just want to know what sort of hereditary mutations might be found in a traveling merc unit and still be at least sorta close to canon.
For example the people of Trellwan are described as very pale and only having black hair.
But how far do other mutations go? Obviously tall people in low gravity, short in high gravity, traits from crossing with Clanners...
But what about likely engineered traits, like the odd skin colors I mentioned before, but also things like pointed ears or teeth and the other sorts of things you might see in a retro scifi?
I guess I'm really asking how far I can push it if I were writing a short story like something for Shrapnel?
|
Cray
02/20/25 08:21 PM
71.47.208.18
|
Some of the most extreme engineered breeds in BT are:
Clan elementals
Clan aerospace pilots
Inhabitants of Promised Land
If you don't have Touring the Stars: Promised Land (and Sarna's Promised Land entry needs updating), the ultra-high gravity of Promised Land (1.7Gs) prompted the Star League to bust out more genetic engineering than normal for homo stellaris. Quoting:
A drawback to the genetic engineering is that only the Free Worlds League’s revulsion for bionics exceeded their revulsion for the Landers. The arrival of the Clans further amplified that bigotry. The bigotry is amusing outside the Free Worlds League because the changes to Promised Landers are rarely recognizable even with advanced medical scanners. The strong heart and high blood pressure do not exceed human extremes, nor do the toughened ligaments and tendons. They have fewer circulatory, joint, and back problems than the human norm, and are tolerant of Promised Land allergens and infections. Promised Landers tend to be short, averaging 1.6 meters, and are athletic like gymnasts or equestrian jockeys. Free World depictions of them as goblin-like, hunchbacked boogiemen have no basis in reality.
You might add in some funny skin colors for cosmetic reasons, or ultra-dark skin for high-UV red dwarf environments, but there's not much beyond that in canon. Elementals are, really, some of the most engineered humans in the game.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
Banshee42
02/21/25 01:33 AM
99.73.18.99
|
Hmm, so an odd skin color might be acceptable for a specific world's environment (like a blue or something to negate a certain bandwidth of the local star's light) but they would almost certainly be the target of some bigotry (unless they could convince people it was just skin dye). At least more bigotry than the ableist kind in the FWL.
Sounds like any other mods like the pointed ears or teeth would get even more hate due to being mostly cosmetic (outside of Canopus anyway).
I suppose something like odd hair colors that have been genetically engineered might be more acceptable, after all, how would you tell?
|
ghostrider
02/21/25 11:36 AM
45.51.181.83
|
Well depending on the world, it is possible for them to have things like camoflauge due to predators that hunt them. Such might come from say a large colony ship crashing on the world, and couldn't get a message out for generations. Not suggesting a full can't see them at all sort, but something like earth predators, such as the big cats. Lines of the camo might dictate what family lines they come from.
Pointed ears might well come from the people being hunted. A cone like setting in other fiction suggest better hearing. Not sure if that has real world truth, but it does seem cool.
Better vision, such as in the infrared or ultra violet ranges is another potential modification. Could be low lighting on the world, or even having to live underground due to surface issues like constant storms.
Gills would be another potential thing on worlds with a lot of water.
Getting away from what might be mutation survival traits, things like bone covers and such might be within range. Worlds that would destroy skin might well have developed external cover, like bug exoskeletons.
There is nothing stating that this could not be a result of 'mad scientist' messing with genetics, such as some clan scientists or even RWR or even SL era tests living today.
And this does not mean it would be limited to people.
The black widows that made it to the clan worlds grew to huge size, forming the reason for the WIdowmaker clans, and the Diamond sharks were a Smoke Jaguar invention to remove the Sea Fox, to humiliate the Sea Fox Clan. Or so goes canon legends.
|
Cray
02/21/25 07:02 PM
71.47.208.18
|
Quote:
At least more bigotry than the ableist kind in the FWL.
Note that bigotry against genetic engineering varies. For example, the people of Promised Land worked to secede from the Free Worlds League and join the Lyrans several times because the Lyrans were, in general, less uptight about some hard-to-detect adaptations to high gravity.
However, the bigotry pops up in odd places and in odd ways. Touring the Stars: Kerensky's Vision looks at world whose terraforming was hobbled by pre-Succession War Lyran nobles who were opposed to genetic engineering, and who would encourage widespread use of treatments like charcoal enemas to remove genetic engineering effects from homo stellaris. Later generations of the family, tired of wasting trillions on hobbled terraforming, ignored their ancestors' desires and went whole hog into genetic engineering to accelerate the terraforming.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
Banshee42
02/23/25 02:29 AM
99.73.18.99
|
Hmm, some of that sounds like the gene-caste (which I also have character/story ideas for unrelated to this post), I'm thinking of people in merc units or an unusual planet someone might encounter.
I want something odd like that but not quite so far beyond canon that people would say "well that wouldn't happen in Battletech"
|
Cray
02/23/25 08:18 AM
71.47.208.18
|
An alert observer might recognize the short gymnast build of a Promised Lander, or know what it means when a short character says, "I'm from Promised Land."
Odd skin color, such as gray-black, due to high-UV M-class dwarf stars, would be reasonable and recognizable.
You could even justify blue-gray skin from heavy metal exposure, particularly silver. There are a number of planets noted for heavy metal contamination in their ecosystem.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
ghostrider
02/23/25 12:01 PM
45.51.181.83
|
The tried story of a genetically made worker race could work here.
A race that was developed for just one world could have been made and was left to die because other worlds had resources that were less to harvest then the one world, so the company (or whoever made the workers) decided to just pull out and leave them all to die. This could well have started in the Star League.
As most would never return to a world that has high gravity, since it puts such a strain on a person, no one knew about them for a long while.
Natural plant and even animal life allowed those left behind to survive and even thrive, despite the last overlords wishes.
The population kept educated due to being able to receive incoming information but not send it out.
This could actually be used on several words, and not just for people. Animals and plants could well have been discarded while scientists experimented with things. Quarrenteed zones on worlds or even systems would make a good place to hide such actions. Things like illegal dumping of very deadly waste could well be why they were never spoken about.
Simple experiments in removing such waste could have led to the 'new' life forms.
It isn't like the canon verse doesn't add in new things that didn't exist before it was needed to be a threat.
The use of nukes could well have caused natural mutations, and honestly the entire clans trueborn breeding program looks to be a genetic mutation program. They just had to keep the end result looking like 'regular' humans.
|
Banshee42
02/26/25 01:29 AM
99.73.18.99
|
Those are good ideas,
Ya'know I just got to thinking, aside from the Trellwans in Decision at Thunder Rift, the Genecast in the Interstellar Players book, and the Mutation Trait mentioned in the Time of War Companion, the only other I know where such odd things are mentioned was in, ugh, Far Country.
Are there any other books where the weirder bits get mentioned?
|
ghostrider
02/27/25 11:14 AM
45.51.181.83
|
Given the sea fox was not man made, it is possible that some worlds have mutations on them, but are hiding from humanity.
I don't see why there couldn't be mutations in the main society either. There is nothing saying that the mutation has to be something you can see. Better resistance to environmental conditions, like a higher tolerance to radiation or chemical sludge is one such thing. I am not talking about walking thru a nuclear reactor here, but being able to withstand higher then normal concentrations for a much longer time.
The fact some people can hold their breath for longer then most may well be another mutation.
Now if you are talking about ones that can be seen, then this does change the outlook. The clan pilots are shorter then normal with the elementals being much larger comes to mind.
The idea of odd shaped ears might have lead to better or worse hearing. Manipulation may cause infrared or ultraviolet light being processed by someone's eyes.
As for books having some mutations, I want to say there were a few more things the clans did to animals on their worlds, but I don't remember it at this moment.
Nature itself has so many different things that aren't 'standard'. The entire history is full of such things, like dinosaurs and even ice age mammals. There is no reason why they could not be used in other worlds. Parrots can talk, so why not other birds and such?
For evolutionary progress, monkeys or something similar, could have developed along different lines.
Regress or advance things as wanted. More apelike people on a world a ship crashed in the colonization period before the SL, where they regressed from normal humans to more ape like versions. Advanced knowledge may well had been destroyed in the crash, or just wasn't even there to begin with. Without tools, fixing things like ships and machines becomes impossible. One fire could well destroy a computer memory, and that's it.
If you want, you could introduce some mutations to populations of the IS worlds. With the clans being a larger part in the later times, those mutations could well have caused other things to happen.
Maybe the manipulation of size between pilots and elementals might cause limbs to be much longer or shorter then normal. The clans do keep a strict watch over 'impurities' for the warrior lines. This my well be why.
|
Cray
02/28/25 10:50 AM
71.47.208.18
|
Quote:
Those are good ideas,
Ya'know I just got to thinking, aside from the Trellwans in Decision at Thunder Rift, the Genecast in the Interstellar Players book, and the Mutation Trait mentioned in the Time of War Companion, the only other I know where such odd things are mentioned was in, ugh, Far Country.
Are there any other books where the weirder bits get mentioned?
Belters of the Terran system allegedly use a fair amount of genetic engineering. Some to survive zero-G in the long term, some for cosmetic purposes.
Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
|
|
|
Extra information
|
0 registered and 0 anonymous users are browsing this forum.
Moderator: Nic Jansma, Cray, Frabby, BobTheZombie
Print Topic
|
Forum Permissions
You cannot start new topics
You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled
UBBCode is enabled
|
Topic views: 2732
|
|
|
|
|
|
|