Hey there! Fae back again with another Void Dreaming crosspost from before the Itch page went live!

Last time we took a look (at length!) at the different types of starship that fill the black in this galaxy! Today though we’re bringing the tech down to the personal level again. We’re going to look at augmentation technology, and specifically the two main ways that a person can augment themselves: cyberware and biomodding!

Shiny and Chrome

Augmentation is an older technology, and of the two types cybernetics came first. Technically possible from the time of ascension, the melding of machine to flesh was actually not a development that came directly from the Seeds on the various birthworlds. For some reason, the humans struck all deliberate know-how to create and maintain cybernetic implants from their Seeds, inhibiting the efforts of the first generations of ascended to unlock the various features and conveniences that such technology could afford.

Regardless of the why, the method of crafting such augments came about after Authority scientists investigated why such information might be missing from the Seeds. Their research ended a century-long cultural moratorium on living in any way that was not specifically ordained by the Seeds, and was viewed as an essential step in casting off the last primitive superstitions that could keep a truly galactic civilization from advancement and greatness. The first implants were capable of incredible feats for their time, and kicked off the period of time referred to as the Chrome Age. In fact, despite its age, more than a few terms and even slang have survived to the present day, some three hundred years later, as a testament to the cultural impact that cybernetic augmentation had on the greater galaxy.

The simplest cybernetics operate as little more than prosthesis, either by choice or necessity. Cyberware can emulate the healthy functionality of any given organ or limb, enhance synaptic activity and neural cohesion, grant increased strength and speed or heightened senses, and much, much more. However, what wasn’t clear until the Chrome Age was in full swing, was that there was a tradeoff to be had. Bolters - cyberware obsessives who were fond of “bolting on” whatever chrome they could find - found themselves falling apart mentally and degrading physically. Warnings started to come with cyberware, and new laws were passed. While they were refined and changed with the times, the current accepted legal limit of a person’s body that may be augmented beyond organic parameters sits at fifty percent in Galactic Authority jurisdictions. And because of complications that would arrive when the young were implanted with cyberware, a decision was made early on that only after puberty had run in initial course and the development of the brain was slowing - initially seventeen standard years of age, but later refined up to twenty - was anything beyond standard prosthesis permitted.

Only cybes, heavily-augmented individuals who undergo such stark transformations to better attune themselves to hyper-specific tasks - push those limits, however. In the wake of the Chrome Age, the published lack of information on why humanity hadn’t deliberately left this technology for their children, and the amount of bolters and cybes losing themselves to their augments all resulted in a public resistance to cybernetic augmentation that persists even to this day.

That’s not to say that cyberware is frowned on, or restricted in use, or even culturally vilified. Indeed, most people come equipped with at least basic cyberware available with minimal hassle over the counter at hardware emporiums across the galaxy. Almost everyone these days has some degree of hardware in them, even if it’s as simple as the omnipresent bioregulator; an implant designed to balance hormone levels, tweak the immune system, and refine electrochemical processes. Or a standard MMI - a Mind-Machine Interface - designed to allow complex neural interfacing with specific tech. Some go in for more, some even go in for less. It’s not until someone identifies as a cybe, either applied by themselves or inflicted at the behest of society, that things change.

Life for a cybe is very different than for someone with far less augs. Cybes see the galaxy differently, in a more regimented fashion. They’re often described as robotic and unfeeling; more machine than sapient; indeed, the more cyberware is packed into a person, the less like themselves those around them tend to consider them. Generally, behavioral shifts begin to manifest with the implementation of neural augs, or when sufficient neural interfacing is required to maintain all of someone’s hardware; this usually begins to happen between the 4:1 and 3:1 ratio of biomass to cyberware. This makes cybes seem aloof at best, and outright alien at worst. Even simulants, designed to emulate sapient emotional processes, can seem more like a “real” person than some cybes. This tends to result in cybes being deeply misunderstood, or even outright reviled. They are a large part of the reason that galactic society frowns on extensive cybermodding.

Cyberware did fall out of fashion for a number of years during the time when Yosun threatened all that the ascended had built, but that’s a matter to discuss next time. Suffice it to say for the moment that cybernetics became more than just a potentially harmful way to augment your body’s natural capabilities. For some, the tradeoff would remain worth it. For others, careful moderation of augmentation was the order of the day. Still others wondered what else could be done with the base of knowledge that had been given to them by humanity.

Biopunk 2025

This eventually lead to an alternative line of developmental thought: what if instead of hardware, the organic body itself was simply honed through bioengineering? This gave rise to the process of biomodding; the adaptation of the body’s natural processes through genetic alterations, synthorgan replacement, and advanced surgery. Far more palatable to the general public (save for a standout group who believed that tampering with the natural body in any capacity was a bastardization of the efforts put into their children by humanity), biomodding became as much of a sensation as cyberware had. The Bio Age kicked off as the Chrome Age wound down.

Chief among the developments first discovered and later implemented was the biolock. Through the implantation and integration of a specialized gland that’s hooked directly into an individual’s bioregulator, a sapient is able to be “biolocked” at a certain level of physical development. This essentially suspends the aging process and stalls out physiological development of an individual at that specific age. However, the glands involved in the biolocking process don’t last forever, and need to be replaced regularly. The regularity of this replacement increases as a person ages, requiring more and more biolocks in order to maintain their youth. Eventually, a point is reached when a biolock induces toxic reactions in a body; such a person cannot have their biolock renewed, and tend to age at a rapid pace. Death usually follows within weeks, and biolock failure is the most common cause of death in the galaxy. Well… most common cause in the core worlds, anyway.

Consequently, while one’s first biolock is often early in life, most people allow themselves to live without a biolock for several years before seeking another; their body matures, it adjusts to its natural development once again, and is more receptive to another biolock down the road. This process of “lockskipping” has resulted in populations that are now able to live well into their fourth century if they carefully maintain their body and their biolocks. This ubiquitous augment is usually the go-to for those who want to point out how much safer and more reliable biomodding is when compared to cyberware installation.

This isn’t to say that biomodding, as much as many people would like to believe, is perfectly safe. Biomods, much like cyberware, carry inherent risks to the individuals who undertake them. In the case of biomodding, extensive biomodding can result in genetic instabilities. Common side effects include unplanned mutation, and at their most extreme can result in full cellular breakdown. It’s worth noting that for the most part, such things require truly insane amounts of biomodding to bring about; the effort of the Seeds and humanity’s bioengineering of their children has left them incredibly robust and open to significant alteration, leaving them not only fertile despite their augments but capable of passing down the effects to offspring.

However, that doesn’t mean that some people don’t overdo it. Splicers and genejunkies and all stripe of biomod addicts who enjoy the thrill of changing themselves to the core run along a narrowing edge, and eventually their addictions start causing irreparable damage. If they push it right over the edge of what their bodies can handle, they can “splash out” and end themselves, with competing and unstable mutations causing such extensive breakdown that the genejunkie’s cells to be reduced to base fluids. Disturbingly, some genejunkies who suffer this method of death have been known to describe it, as it’s happening, as the most mind-shatteringly exquisite sensation in the universe.

For safety’s sake, a similar code of practice was established as with cyberware; that a biolock could only be implemented at the earliest once a sapient had reached the age of twenty standard years and no other biomodding was permitted before this point. This is not to say that it doesn’t happen earlier, of course, but youth augmentation does tend more toward biomodding than it does cyberware, as the latter is viewed as for convenience’s sake and the former is considered to be more akin to standard medical procedure. Biomodding in the modern era covers everything from cosmetic surgery to wetware augmentation. Cancer from working a radioactive environment? Ten minute stint in a medpod. Not feeling your present sex? You’re under the knife for an hour before you wake up with your whole new you. Caught a bug going around? Well, clearly your bioreg’s not up to date; a quick patch to the soft and your immunoprofile’s updated and ready to handle it.

Everything At A Price

Worthy of note is that there is a thriving black market for hardware and wetware both. Blackware, as it’s commonly called, is among the dirtiest and most lucrative markets for smugglers and suppliers alike. Trawlers - hunters who scope out augmented individuals, disable them with extreme prejudice, and then rip out their augs (whether the victim survives or not) to sell on to suppliers - are usually near the top of a systems’ most-wanted boards on the GalNet. More than a few wealthy individuals who flaunt their ice chrome and slick biomods find themselves targeted by trawlers.

The best in the biz know better than to go after the most high profile targets, but there’s no shortage of desperate gutterpunks eager to make a quick cred who’re willing to try. Cybes tend to bear the brunt of the victimhood amongst the trade; their high degree of augmentation makes then an easy target, and due to society’s tendency to look down on them, they are not often missed when the trawlers catch them.

I do hope you’ve liked this look into the augmentations that the galaxy of Void Dreaming affords. Since one of the crew is a cybe and the rest have various degrees of augmentation, I hope it helps set your expectations when you encounter them in the story!

For as maligned as cyberware can be and as generally accepted as biomodding is, a topic equally fraught in the galaxy is a trend that only started in the last couple of decades. Simulant technology - the means by which many companies produce true-to-life machines for work, leisure and more - is a massive can of worms that’s become equally reviled and adored by the peoples of the galaxy. That’s what we’re going to cover next time!

Until then, stars guide you.

 - Faora