MetaWerkz - New Metavariants

METAVARIANTS - New

The following is an excerpt from a post to MetaWerkz, the peer to peer forum that's been traded on the downlow since it opened in 2070.  Only a short list of people have access to it, the actual identities of the people involved very concealed.  It's much like JackPoint, except that it features more old-timers, more new-timers, and a much lower profile than JackPoint.

Human metavariant - Halfling

Often mistaken for dwarves, the halflings came out of the woodwork from all corners of the world. It is one of the rare few metavariants that actually exists in a lot of the diverse phenotypes of mankind, almost every culture having some sort of tale about short and nimble peoples. The midget elephant trainers in the heart of Africa are one such example, as well as the individual that followed Beowulf in his journey, often told to be a dwarf in most tales.

The first examples of the halfling metavariant emerged as rogue births, just like those of elves and dwarves, but were constantly miscategorized as dwarven children when in truth they were another human variant. Possessing finer bone structures and an odd, uncanny personal luck, they had hairy feet and were as small as gnomes. Most of the time, they have curly hair and child-like expressive faces. Hints of pointed ears also made them too much like dwarves, but ultimately halflings emerged into their own when several dwarves were accused of insider trading and they turned out to be human.. but not human.

Thus, the halflings and their penchant for larceny and deception was born, from cat burglars to acrobats to stock market moguls to corporate human resources consultants. Unlike the venerated natarki, they want to remain hidden as a whole so that they can continue to manipulate quietly, often being thought of as hard-working dwarves when in reality they're humans in the Sixth World.

The major defining metatraits seem to center on uncanny luck and their childlike appearances, but also an extreme flexibility and quickness of reaction, putting them on par with pixies and other sapient critters.

• Despite all this, halflings sometimes are sized just like normal humans, if you know what I mean.

• Privateer

• Please stop polluting this forum with your pornographic bullshit.

• Caela

• Whoa, for once, I agree with you, you steroids-popping freak.

• Mongoose

Base Metatype Traits: +1 Edge.

Positive Qualities: Lucky, Metagenic Improvement (Agility), Metagenic Improvement (Reaction).

Negative Qualities: Impaired Body, Impaired Strength, Neoteny.

Modified Attributes: +1 Agility, +1 Reaction, +2 Edge, -1 Body, -1 Strength.

Metatype Net Cost: 10 BP

Elf metavariant - Svartalfen (Drow)

An offshoot completely different from the Night Ones, these elves emerged after the Year of the Comet occurred. They possess a similar light sensitivity, but no drawing to a nocturnal state, almost all of them having darkened skin. The palest human would become purple-skinned, while an African human might go completely pitch black with little skin variation, with hair color varying from stark white to pink to violet and back again. Highly resistant to magic, little is known of the drow beyond their insular clannish nature. They are known to oppose the immortal elves and the dragons as if it were part of their blood, part of their history, instead speaking of other powers just as great as immortal elves and dragons.

The elven nations have begrudgingly permitted drow entrance into their borders, but they tend to be very watchful of their cousins. Some locations are intent on hamstringing drow, others more intent on learning more about them before dismissing them into the annals of fiction as 'evil elves.' The truth of the matter is that svartalfen are no more evil than your typical elf - they just wear their paranoia more cleanly on the outside.

That being said, most drow harbor an intensity about them that can be frightening, mirroring and paralleling the charismatic values that elves stand for, except instead of being charming they are a lightning rod for odd behaviors. Many drow see the world in terms of a spider's web, each line connecting to another to another to another until it becomes an overarching webbing of a plot.

Drow, as a rule, experience UGE around midnight during new moon or underground. They are the only metatype that has been known to be so specific as to the trigger.

• This has led a lot of people to call drow 'moon elves,' not because they actually have anything to do with the moon, but because they wax and wane with the moon itself. Their activities seem to increase as the moon goes away, then decrease as it comes back. When the moon is full, this is traditionally the 'time of underground' where the moon itself will cause them pain to be exposed to it. Of course, this is partially bullshit, but drow have a noted sunlight allergy rather than a true nocturnal sleep cycle, and the moon reflects the light of the sun at night. Thus, they revere the moon out of fear rather than out of true reverence - a sharp contrast to most modern paganistic traditions and exactly the opposite of how typical elves see the universe. This is why many drow prefer to live completely underground unless they need to go outside.

• Moulder

Base Metatype Traits: Low-Light Vision, +2 Charisma, +1 Agility.

Positive Qualities: Arcane Arrester, Thermographic Vision.

Negative Qualities: Allergy (sunlight, mild), Striking Skin Pigmentation.

Modified Attributes: +2 Charisma, +1 Agility.

Metatype Net Cost: 40 BP

Dwarf metavariant - Mul

One metavariant that seems to completely lack any sort of basis in traditional mythologies, the mul has been misclassified as an ork time and again, much like halflings are mistaken for dwarves or gnomes. They are only born to humans or dwarves, but 80% of muls are born to a union of a human and a dwarf, leading them to be referred to as 'half-dwarves.' The only certainty that has been analyzed as to what might make someone a mul is their birth weight - a minimum of 5 kilograms. This is something that often leads the mother to die in childbirth in third world nations.

Heavy-boned like dwarves, their bodies are built for battle and war, their prominent genetic material being most of the positive benefits of humans merged with the positive benefits of dwarves with little of the negative. Pointed ears, hairless from face down, they have a number of unique recessive genetic traits that figure into their genetic makeup. The most pertinent trait is that when a mul manifests through UGE, about 90% of them either become immediately sterile or only have human or dwarf children. The remaining 10% breed true. This genetic instability is theorized to coincide with the tides of magic, as the muls reportedly began to UGE during the Year of the Comet. This, however, does not completely ring true, as muls have existed since 2011 or perhaps even beforehand in the form of spike babies.

Muls have other unique physical traits, leading their name to be pronounced like 'mule,' something they consider derogatory. The gender ratio is about five males to one female. Males and females both often have secondary traits common to equines, particularly horses and donkeys. This manifests in unique genitalia, heavy-boned faces, semi-prehensile ears that they can orient in any direction, and almost hoof-hard soles of the feet. Their skin is thicker than human or dwarf skin, resulting in an almost leathery exterior to a mul that spends too much time in the sun.

• This has led many a mul male to go into simsense pornography. Who wouldn't want to watch two men with horsedicks pounding each others' anuses?

• Privateer

• Just when I think you're on the level, you turn around and start talking about furries. You fucking pervert.

• Mongoose

• It plays into the fact that muls may have been a slave race in the Fourth World, just like orks were. The only thing is that why would someone breed humans and dwarves together to make a new slave race when they already had slow-witted orks to enslave?

• Moulder

• It's true that muls follow orders much more readily than anyone else in the world, but it doesn't mean they have a passion for being slaves. They're just better at sticking to rules than everyone else is. The mul that breaks a rule is a terrible sight indeed. Orks and trolls instinctively want to buck rules and regulations, while dwarves keep working even when given awards. Muls keep fighting even if their friends have all died, something very important in a merc unit.

• Caela

• Why exactly do you know so much about their plight? Are you some expert, or a mul yourself?

• Mongoose

• Hello?

• Mongoose

Despite all of this, muls rarely have an ounce of fat on their bodies, maintaining a 2% to 5% body fat. Even pregnant muls rarely go about the 10% body fat threshold. A forty-something mul often looks twenty, due to their impressive bodies and impressive metabolisms. Their major downside to their metabolism is the fact that they have to consume a minimum of four thousand calories a day, something that is untenable in countries that rely upon soy products for nutrition. This means they must often go and procure sources of meat, which drives them either to live in the wild or live near farms. Creature comforts are almost completely necessary for a mul to live without hunger or without pain.

Base Metatype Traits: +2 Body, +1 Strength, +1 Willpower, -1 Reaction, Thermographic Vision, +2 dice for Body checks to resist pathogens and toxins.

Positive Qualities: Bicardiac (effectively), Metagenic Improvement (Body, Agility, Strength, Reaction), Metagenic Normalcy (Reaction)

Negative Qualities: Genetic Regression (Thermographic Vision), Impaired Charisma, Impaired Logic, Voracious Appetites (+50% lifestyle costs)

Modified Attributes: +2 Body, +3 Strength, +1 Agility, +1 Reaction, +1 Willpower, -1 Charisma, -1 Logic

Metatype Net Cost: 40 BP.

Ork metavariant - Gnoll, "Beastmen"

While halflings and muls get mistaken for dwarves and orks respectively, gnolls are mistaken for shifters or people infected with HMHVV of some strain or another. They're actually an allegory of the minotaurs, the satyrs, and the night ones, having animalistic qualities bound into metahuman flesh. The difference is that gnolls are like hyenas and other peripheral animals in appearance and style, earning them the moniker of 'beastmen.'

The average gnoll is taller than an ork because of their backwards-bending legs. They walk on the pads of their feet and their toes, which resemble an animal's foot. Short fur is the norm, rising up longer over the head and the crest of the neck. They have canid faces with short snouts and lots of sharp teeth, dwarfing trolls for dentition. The rest of their bodies resemble humanoid hyenas. Despite all these animal qualities, they are definitely metahumans, given their ability to breed with anything human or formerly human under the sun.

• And breed they will. Gnolls have a higher incident rate than any other metahuman variant for a predilection towards sexual deviancy. This makes it easy to con them into making very sexy films.

• Privateer

• I'm not exactly sure why you like to post information about sex every time we want to talk about newly discovered metavariants, but you sure do like talking about sex.

• Mongoose

• He's called 'privateer' because he pirates peoples' private moments. That's how he makes almost all of his money, bankrolled in the Carib League tax shelters. It's pretty brutal when you think about it. He has a network that films people when they're having sex alone and sells the damned shit on the Matrix for dough. He takes it a step further with simsense and BTL rigs attached to willing participants. He's reportedly a porn studio executive that signed his life away by becoming involved in corporations.

• Caela

• Do you know his shoe size?

• Mongoose

• Four, in children's sizes. He's a halfling.

• Caela

There is more of a psychological trigger with regards to the activation of the genetic material that makes up the UGE surrounding a gnoll. Their parents are almost always rapists or someone that enjoys sexually deviant acts, something that is unheard of in the entirety of UGE research. It is reported that 90% of new gnolls come from such a union. That being said, rape does not guarantee the child will be a gnoll, far from it. Gnolls are more often born in the wilds of Amazonia, Africa, eastern Germany, and Siberia, away from civilization. They come into repeated conflict with sasquatch, being more aggressive and volatile.

Gnolls go through growing pains much more brutally than other metavariants, as they are physically one of the most different. UGE drives a person absolutely mad, like when a troll changes, leaving the hormone-ridden monster totally incapable of feeling everything that they're feeling at the same time. This leads a lot of gnolls to being orphaned and forced onto the streets to make a living, which makes them turn to prostitution or violence. There are no known gnolls to have ever held public office, but there are gnoll despots turning out a meager existence in the jungles of Amazonia or Africa.

Base Metatype Traits: +3 Body, +2 Strength, -1 Charisma, -1 Logic, Low-Light Vision

Positive Qualities: Claws, Fangs, Metagenic Improvement (Intuition, Reaction), Satyr Legs, Vomeronasal Organ

Negative Qualities: Berserker, Critter Spook, Impaired Charisma, Impaired Logic, Impaired Willpower, Vestigial Tail

Modified Attributes: +3 Body, +2 Strength, +1 Intuition, +1 Reaction, -2 Charisma, -2 Logic, -1 Willpower.

Metatype Net Costs: 20 BP.

Troll metavariant - Heka Gigantes

Originally thought to be part of the same UGE expression as the Nartaki, the first Heka Gigantes actually came out of the union of two different troll metavariants, suspected to be a cyclops and a giant. Only the children of two trolls (often of different metavariants), the heka are impressive, frightening, and a reason why people don't trust trolls as a whole.

While the elves have their conspiracies, dwarves work underground literally, orks have their anarchist movements, the trolls have stories of Ragnarok, the Apocalypse, and worse. The heka are four-armed lobster-shelled monsters that look like something straight out of greek mythology. Extremely uncommon, they are said to be the union between the giant Typhon and the dread Echidna. The original story actually centers on Gaia and her producing these monsters, but this story is more frequently told now due to the origin of the metavariant.

What little is known is on the verge of urban legend. Just as tall as giants, they have four fully functional arms, an impressive ability to inflict bodily harm on others, a staggering resistance to physical harm, and a near lack of sentience. Even the most intelligent of the heka pale in comparison to the average of any of the other metavariants.

• Heka gigantes are the harbingers of another power, as they say. Six limbs, vicious killers without much in the way of brains? Sounds very Muspelheim of them.

• Moulder

• I don't really think you get it. The newest metavariants are either spread throughout the world or seem to be something that belong to a piece of all of us. Heka gigantes abruptly appear out of the union of two monsters and rampage by impulse and instinct. That doesn't mean harbingers - that means commonality. That all of us are related to some precursor. But then, if you don't follow genetic profiles very well, you'd be out of a muckraking job.

• Caela

• How the fuck would you know something like that?

• Moulder

• Mars. It all goes back to Mars.

• Caela

• I'm not really sure what the story is behind you, Caela, but you keep spinning things a bit further than they need to be spun. Mars, really? You really think that everything goes back to Mars? You're worse than Moulder for conspiracy theories!

• Mongoose

• The story behind me is that something is out there that connects all of us together, all of this situation together, and we're purposefully trying to ignore it to pursue a line of intrigue that completely saturates us with the memorandum that metavariants are just based in some arbitrary past that we all collectively remember in norse, egyptian, chinese, etc. folklore. These five have shaky basis, at best. This means they actually come from someone else's mythology.

• Caela

• Well played. You'll get your wish, Caela, with the next section regarding a sapient critter.

• HTML

Base Metatype Traits: +4 Body, +4 Strength, -1 Agility, -2 Charisma, -1 Intuition, -1 Logic, Thermographic Vision, +1 Reach, +1 natural armor

Positive Qualities: Dermal Alteration (Granite Shell), Dermal Deposits, Elongated Limbs, Metagenic Improvement (Body, Strength), Ogre Stomach, Shiva Arms

Negative Qualities: Impaired (Reaction, Charisma, Intuition, Logic, Willpower)

Modified Attributes: +5 Body, +5 Strength, -1 Agility, -1 Reaction, -3 Charisma, -2 Intuition, -2 Logic, -1 Willpower, Thermographic Vision, +2 Reach, +5 natural armor

Metatype Net Costs: 80 BP