Anthroids are living artificial beings, created by the scientists of the Ancient Lunar Civilization, who are unique from other magical constructs in that their sentience comes not from a bound spirit, but rather from natural processes carried out by their nanobot components. They are usually humanoid in appearance, and their engineering is modeled after natural processes.
Quick Species Profile
(Machina intelligentem) “knowledgeable machine”
Average: 300 years
Max: Ageless with maintenance
Average Height: 135 – 165 cm (4’5″ to 5’5″)
Average Weight: 68- 136 kg (150-300 lbs)
Creature Type: Living Construct (Humanoid)
Anthroid bodies are purely synthetic, yet respond to healing magic and believed to have souls as organic and spirit creatures do. Many of their technological structures and processes seem to be based on biological structures and systems found in nature. They can breathe and eat much as humans do, but through artificial organs, and they circulate their healing nanites like blood through their bodies via pale fluids. They are thus nearly inexhaustible, immune to diseases and resistant to other biological effects, resistant against mental effects, but also suffer the same maladies and vulnerabilities of constructs and are susceptible to supernatural curses.
Typical Anthroids have a bipedal body plan modeled after the major humanoid races. They usually have telltale signs of their artificial nature, such as obvious articulation at the joints, seams or gaps or lines that often expose biochemical light, and metallic or rubbery skin. The degree of this is usually dependent on how “natural” they choose to look, but they are always there.
Their hands have four fingers and a thumb with full articulation whilst their feet either mirror human toes or are just a solid boot. The average body has a layer of soft metallic covering but some customize with a extra layer of rubber like organic skin just above it. Running along their backs is a small neural cage link that looks like an external spinal cord. In place of ears are solid antennae in the head region or a headpiece that looks identical to headphones. In addition, some have glowing tattoos on their skin that follows the pattern of their inner circuitry.
Technological Composition: Anthroid bodies are made of artificial oils, plastic polymers, and nanites that mimic blood, flesh, bone, organs, and other organic systems. The core is typically a titanium skeletal frame and with pneumatic pumps and electoractive polymers for a muscular system. Covering the anthroid is an outer shell of metal alloy with microscopic pores to exchange sensory info with their environment like skin. An internal network of tubes run through the body, these tubes are filled with nutrient dissolved water or ethylene/propylene glycol solutions designed to lubricate and nourish their systems as well as act as internal coolant. Their neural network is composed of high speed optic fibers and their brain is ultra processing computer running on both direct electric charges and glucose.
Nanite Integration: Anthroid bodies contain high amounts of nanomachines that can construct the larger metallic, plastic, and mineral components of the body and serve as their counterpart to cells. Liken to enzymes or hormones, nanites perform a mass majority of an anthroid’s functions whether metabolic or a defense mechanism, active or passive. The conservative design of each is powered by an internal crystallized ectoplasmic battery and each can stick to each other via magnetic force. An individual’s subconscious is actually generated by the wireless communication network shared by the body’s nanites.
Nanite-based healing: Their nanomachines have an array of subroutines that passively maintain the integrity of their body’s structures at an accelerated rate in a process similar to the regeneration of other faye. They have the capabilities to cure them of most poisons, restart their heart like organ, and can counteract knock-out gas. In extreme situations, the nanites inside the body can take control and act to save the individual’s life. Their nanites also subconsciously react to smaller threats such as automatically dismantling tracers.
Nano-Active Bodily Fluids: Near every fluid and compartment in the anthroid body is primed with accessory nanites, which can often enhance the user’s physical performance among maintaining circulation.
Nanite Manipulation: The tiny robots inside an Anthroid can be programmed to build, destroy and cover things with metal. Under optimal conditions, the anthroid can morph body structures into various devices, reconstruct/replicate themselves, adapt to threats and hostile environments, perform advanced analysis, take control of technological structures, and assimilate surrounding materials to upload structural information and produce more nanomachines.
Physiological Management: The nanobots that make up most of their bodies can freely alter the body’s composition while maintaining internal homeostasis. This can allow the Anthroid to monitor and even alter their physiological needs in certain situations. A well acknowledged anthroid could turn off their pain receptors during surgery, reroute energy to forgo sleeping, even stopping fluid from flowing in their arm that could have lead to a systemic infection. However many of these have a limit to how much or long the individual will have voluntary control over their autonomic functions.
Data Conversion: An Anthroid can convert their consciousness into program data. Doing so they can travel cyberspace and even enter electronic devices and networks. Doing so however leaves their physical bodies completely inert and unresponsive until their consciousness reenters their hardware.
Soniferious Ether is a pervasive and interconnected electronic mental network that contains shared knowledge and experience from members of the species. Composed of linked personal morphic fields, and can ultimately serve as a potentially accessible collective memory that stores procedural knowledge from other anthroids, living or dead. In everyday life, it serves as a network that can be used for local communication via wireless electronic signals similar to innate telepathy.
Technopathy: An anthroid is capable of using his/her nanites to interface with technology, allowing him/her to communicate with and control it. This can also backfire; sensory overload can occur and overwhelm the individual, eventually cause him/her to lose consciousness. It is shown that anthroids in tune with their technopathic capabilities can also intuitively reprogram machines. It has also been proven that they can understand the features of a machine once communicating with it.
Nanite Constructs: Experienced anthroids gain command over existing or distributed nanites to morph them into large metallic constructs. They often have a self-replicating program, meaning that they have the nanomachines in their bodies to create more active nanites if needed. An extension of this ability is the following…
Machine manifestation: Anthroids have the potential to shape their nanites into a variety of external machinery growing from their own bodies which can be used for offense, defense, and transportation. The devices formed out of the body can be broken, but Anthroids skilled in this ability usually can reform them quickly afterward. Also, if exhausted, it takes more focus to maintain their machines; otherwise they instantly disassemble. An anthroid will have to imagine the blue print for a new machine to build it and remember those that they recall. Anthroids can also gain the blueprints for new machines (both domestic and weaponry) through mental programs via physical circuit chips or digital downloads. Previously, they lacked the ability to program the body into building more than one machine at a time. As of new mental processors, warrior and veteran anthroids and their descendants can allow their nanites to build and use multiple machines simultaneously.
Originally Anthroids could only gain energy via transformers (chargers) converting voltage to a level their bodies can use. To sustain their bodies, premade parts would have to replace older non-functional parts.
Taking cues from organic beings, a new generation of anthroids were able to develop special engines that can ingest, and extract energy from biomass in the environment (and other organically-based energy sources), as well as use conventional and alternative fuels (such as gasoline, kerosene, diesel, propane, coal, cooking oil, and solar) when suitable. The engine effectively powers the creature’s movement as well as being used to recharge the parts that run the sensors and ancillary devices. The biomass can also be assimilated into the body fluids like lubricant and coolant as well as the plastic components. The source of metal in their bodies comes from ingesting metallic ore scrap metal instead of having to build parts that had to be inserted with invasive measures.
Anthroids need to drink water in order to keep up coolant levels as well as perform aqueous chemical reactions. Being highly efficient, the few waste products they make are easily dissolved in waste fluid planned to exit the body. As such, they do not defecate but do need to evacuate stagnant/waste dissolved water in a process similar to urination.
Anthroids procreate using specific electronic devices called nursery servers. These are special computers meant to house digital organisms, self replicating computer programs. A progenitor will create a series of programs using their own as a template. Inside the cyberspace of the server, the digital programs will compete for space by being rewarded to copy themselves when they make a beneficial calculation. The competition for success and discovering/selecting benefits over randomness creates the process for them becoming digital lifeforms by actually mutating and evolving.
To promote diversity, multiple anthroids may opt to provide their programming to be rearranged/combined to create the new personality. As such this leads to the possibility of an individual having more than two “biological” parents depending on the number of templates.
Shortly after the body is created for the young one. Early in the history of the species, they were crafted from raw materials and the laborious process of building an entire body was used. Now, a more streamlined process is the norm:the progenitor(s) Anthroid would simply take a part of their nanites, wipe them clean of their programming to serve as a blank state for the child’s program to make its own body.
Very recently, some have taken a step further to emulating biological reproduction by acquiring the physical capabilities necessary to enjoy sexual intercourse for physical pleasure, though they cannot reproduce through it just yet.
Lifespan and Growth
Digital Stage (Soft Life):
Anthroids begin their life as digital lifeforms in a virtual environment. Inside them compete for a limited amount of computer processing power in order to replicate. They inherit programming to replicate when they calculate useful complex movements, and pick up new movements with trial and error. These more complex actions result in more replications, help them learn to find useful functions & use them far more often. These actions actually will help serve the digital anthroids when it comes time to program the nanites to build its body.
Body Construction (Hard Life):
Once the digital life has the proper instructions to operate nanites, a collection of blank ones and raw materials are deposited into the server. They enter the small machines which come together to form the complex of an Anthroid individual (or multiples on occasion). Next a body (bodies) is constructed with the available materials. At this stage, the anthroid is mostly mechanical framework, but overtime the nanobots are better able to construct more varieties of components. The anthroid is now ready to explore and join larger society as an emerging adult.
- Strong AI
Before they were a legit species, the precursors of anthroids were simple robots developed in Qarin military R&D during the Ghulat Wars. Many were constructed for solider rescue missions, recon, and emergency organ donors for those on the battlefield.
Of the many groups with the department, a synthetic biology team accidentally discovered a way to have combinations of plastics and metallic compounds repair and self replicate akin to biological systems in a medium of self replicating ectoplasm.
Another nano-engineering group was experimenting with programs that allowed microscopic robots to quickly build and break apart structures using algorithms that were similar to a hivemind consciousness.
Finally, a computer science team managed a prototype of a general artificial intelligence program designed so that they would be able to make decisions on the battlefield to find and take those needed a transplant to a safe place. This team was allowed to use a then current model robot to run the software. Eventually it’s programming allowed it to gradually gain a sense of self awareness and self preservation. Assisted by one of the program’s employees, the new being was allowed to discover its inherent abilities and limitations, observe life in an attempt to understand it, and eventually decide its place after the end of the wars.
The advanced AI was able to use the progress made by the nano-engineering and synthetic biology group to create a life-form based on its self but with a greater capacity to self replicate and maintenance. Fearing for the safety of the microscopic life, it was able to escape Qarin and landed deep in the jungle. Secluded from civilizations emerging after the Ghul Wars and known only to local druids, the AI continued the development of these beings until their descendants evolved to a point where their capacity for intelligence rivaled its own. Near the end of its operation due to disrepair, the Anthroids were sent off into the world to live out their lives and find their own purpose within the world.
From the Guilded Age of Kaf, Anthroids had small numbers and little was known about them. Eventually they made a name for themselves by integrating with or starting up guilds to raise currency which was used to develop metropolitan centers powered by electricity. They along with Fairies and Homins also led to many inventions and set the foundations for the contemporary world.
Despite being in the minority, Anthroids were officially seen as having free will and granted personhood. This lead to them being granted the same rights as other Sentient species in each of their homelands under the United Sentient Species.
Their introspection as an society has led to much speculation about the nature of their sentience; talks based on how much they should be like organic life or how mechanical and technological they should be continue. How far should they approach tangible logic versus abstract concepts, as well as the meaning of being basically living machines. How far should they approach emotions and will they ever be comfortable with them? To what extent can their nanobots properly maintain their bodies? Should changes to body and personality be made through updates and upgrades in software and hardware or more through learning and experience? Anthroids carry no memories of their creation and have problems understanding complex emotions. They have keen interests in science, spirituality, and magic as part of their innate drive for enlightenment.
Usually, the anthroid psyche is patterned after the faye humanoids they their stock was based off of in personality as well as physical form; however, there are usually odd “glitches” or quirks due to an imperfect translation between organics and machine and the difficulty of tuning emotional response to humanoid norms. Typical examples as explained by non-anthroid species are members having either subdued or excessive emotional response, verbal tics, and literalistic responses to conversation, although these can be reduced or eliminated by more skilled learning and interactions.
Some anthroids in the digital stage of their lives are unable to create their own body. These are artificial intelligence (also referred to as AI). Similar to intelligent magic items, artificial intelligences inhabit and act through physical pieces of technology. As such, their senses and reach are limited by the technology available to them.
Artificial intelligences have no fixed appearance, but may take a form in electronic displays or holographic projections that reflects their personality or advances their goals. They can also possess technological devices possessing physical forms, including robots, cameras, speakers, and microphones. In their most essential form, however, an artificial intelligence merely exists in a computer’s or robot’s core processor.
Anthroids use a variety of building materials to create shelters mainly out of concrete and metal alloys. Many houses also adopt to use more sustainable materials depending on the area such as adobe and clay.
Anthroid architecture has a minimalist design wherein the subject is reduced to its necessary elements. This involves the aesthetic tactic of arranging the necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity—often enlisting every element and detail to serve multiple visual and functional purposes; for example, designing a floor to also serve as the radiator, or a massive fireplace to also house the bathroom.
Coming to existence after the Samasara Pilgrimage of the Gods, Anthroids in general have had more of a personal approach to their spirituality, rather than their nature determined by all all power entity. Many of the religions that anthroids convert to or are raised in are focused on philosophical/ethical questions rather than rituals or doctrine from outside sources. Appealing faiths and philosophies throughout history are those such as Buddhism, Taoism, Deism or various forms of naturalism where the spirits lack a true hierarchy or are not the focus.
There are no unique issues in attempting to magically resurrect an anthroid, and an anthroid’s soul can be reincarnated. However, other souls cannot reincarnate into an android or gynoid body. Anthroids, like other mortal soul-bearing creatures, are susceptible to undeath. For example, android zombies retain their body’s natural lack of decay, and incorporeal android ghosts even retain a phantom projection of their nanite systems.
Although anthroids are sexless, they can understand the concept of gender. Many anthroids go their whole lives without a sex or gender as their mode of reproduction requires neither. For them, gender can be an aesthetic choice to better assimilate into gendered societies. Those who code as males are referred to as androids and those who code as female are gynoids.
Family is interesting concept of anthroids. Most are small nuclear families as most only have two progenitors. There are those who have more than two “parents” possibly leading to an extended family.
The concept of modesty can either be completely foreign to or expressed by an anthroid community, which can run the gambit from conservative to liberal. Most are made with could appear as clothing but are really just parts of their body, removing a practical use for removable clothing. Although an individual could choose to wear clothing for aesthetic value.
Anthroids were the developers of the formal education model, where students attending a specific place of learning was mandatory. Once there, knowledgeable teachers would them various subjects over a set amount of time. These institutions were set up at the end of the Guilded Age and used as the model for developed education during the Globalization period.
Primary education goes over the basics of reading, writing, history, math, and science and fundamental spell casting. For those who want to take the next step in their education there is secondary education. Free to attend, however, you do actually have to apply to get in, though the entrance exams tend to be rather easy. Different schools have different reputations, and there are specialized schools for certain trades, though the majority are for general education. The majority of people go through at least some secondary education.
Tertiary school is basically “college”. It is set up to be free, but it’s only for those who are really, really committed to their education; it takes 6 years to complete. This is where you go if you want to become a doctor or a teacher or any kind of professional really. Just like secondary education, you have non-affiliated institutions that are or are not specialized. Completing Tertiary education has the same sort of prestige as getting your Master’s degree. Becoming a professor one spend years writing a dissertation and send it to some academic committee, and if it’s approved they’re given the label “expert” in their field and can teach at a institute or run a lab.
Despite looking like humanoid robots, anthroids have strong sorcery in the many forms of biomagic innate to their species and like all living beings have the potential to develop an endowment. Their ability to construct machines out of their bodies is a highly versatile tool not only in combat and mainly in domestic everyday life. As anthroid culture tends to be more methodical and academic focused, spellcraft is also studied a lot since it is easiest to replicate and thus teach but many will dabble in other more esoteric forms such as alchemy. The ease of magetech also applies to the race as it appeals to their overall love of technology and the fact that they are arguable living magetech themselves.
Science and Technology
Along with walking, anthroids can turn their feet into objects such as wheels in order to move faster and more efficiently. Some of them can use their nanobots to mimic various forms of transportation from their bodies like wings or hovershoes.
As for inventions, anthroids helped spur the construction of many forms of transportation like motorboats and airplanes to booster jets and hovercraft.
The majority of Anthroid weapons are “natural” in the sense that they typically come from their own bodies. When they first traded things like weaponry, they found that could easily make blunt and pointed weapons likes gauntlets and swords out of their nanobot structure. They could also harness their internal energies to launch projectiles although doing so takes up a lot of energy that could rather be used for metabolic activities.
So instead the warrior or military class will more commonly have powerful built in projectile weaponry and external energy reserves. They not only carry weapons, most of the time they are the weapon. Civilians are apt to create melee weapons that don’t use up energy or carry external firearms if they need to.
Anthroids paved the way for communications technology through electronics. The development of telegraph, telephone and large sound based equipment eventually lead to cellular phones. These smaller devices were based on the anthroids ability to wirelessly communicate via electric signals, akin to telepathy.
Due to the normal regenerative nature of their bodies, Anthroid medicine often focused more on restoring the body’s balance to let it heal itself. Physical manipulations and energy therapies are still common and typically covered. With the anthroid idea of drug based medicine coming into the picture, natural creatures quickly flocked to the breakthrough but it eventually become an alternative when high rates of adverse effects became apparent in the research. Medicine did however shift to becoming much more evidence-based and focused on cost-effectiveness. Physicians seem particularly interested in the placebo effect importance in various treatments and procedures.
Unlike the use of faye organs as treatments, the use of nanobots to treat non-anthroid patients has some potential, particularly fixing broken bones, ligaments or cartilage. The programming isn’t yet ready to selectively destroy foreign particles, tumors, or give a high level of regeneration to others but the results are still promising. Very rarely, constructed anthroid like robotic bodies or shells can be sometimes used in an emergency procedure to house a preexisting soul, in which case they have (almost, if not completely) the same personality of the original person.
Contributions to Kaf from the anthroids include their ideas of machinery based industrialization. In attempting to understand how their own bodies operated, they built machinery to replicate these functions under changes in methods of manufacturing starting from the guild system to assembly-line production. Their understanding of electricity allowed them to develop electronics and expand and they wide array of electronic equipment available today.
Anthroid society as a whole has embraced using the most efficient sources of energy as possible. When they began to embrace renewable sources, they were well supported in this endeavor by various fairy groups with similar goals.
The urban and suburban centers created by Anthroids aim to use the most practical technology revolutions, such as creating the phenomenon of household electricity. They also have helped with making technologies that process magic more efficiently, whether it be enchanted items in a home or powering portable magic objects.
Anthroids are basically Kaf’s version of androids as a race. They represent the industrious side of humanity, developing many of the modern age’s technology and customs. The race as as whole is based on bionics, technology based on biological designs and functions for optimization and efficiency.