Alraune
"What is an Alraune? Is it a bioroid? Artificial life? Or is it an RAI chained to a prepared organic vessel? How much should we take into account their own explanations of 'echoes' and 'the wood of a man who died untimely,' and how much should we study them? We don't even know how many walk among us. Without dissecting everyone with Antisocial Personality Disorder, it's likely that we'll never know. Considering that you'd have to be a psychopath to even entertain the notion seriously, we'd have to hire an Alraune to go hunting for their own if we ever needed to find out."
Artificial Life
An 'Alraune' is an artificially created being. Technically, this would make them a Bioroid, but formed through a different and much more esoteric process. The process is a closely guarded secret, mostly known in Kthoniker circles and even among those who know how to do it, actually making the attempt is rare and success is even rarer still.
The process involves a resonance chamber, a ritualistic and torturous execution, and an infusion into certain root systems specially prepared with fungal cultures. The result, if successful, is a being that looks mostly human. Mutations are common, and the Alraune can exhibit anything from saurian or goatish legs, spaded tails, horns or antlers, to wings or scales. Internally, they're more of a fungus or plant than an animal, despite their vigor and mobility. While they exhibit organs and animalian processes, these aren't always analogous to human organs and the lack of close or widespread study makes it difficult to determine exactly what everything is for. More to the horror, when scanned by normal means the internal organs appear to be human. Even an examination of cells often can't detect an Alraune unless the observer knows exactly what to look for.
Despite their human (or mutant) appearance, they aren't psychologically human. They are more psychologically aligned with Redspace Adversarial Intelligences than they are with humans, but even that isn't a perfect likeness. To humans, this means that they often display traits of high functioning sociopathy or Antisocial Personality Disorder. They are cruel, calloused, and predatory by nature and display little in the way of 'good' traits. Additionally, they also show the RAI's affinity for a single Vice's brainwave pattern. Notably, they don't have the RAI's seeming antipathy to a Virtue beyond a general disgust.
Legally speaking, an Alraune is just another Bioroid, albeit one of immense scientific interest. When discovered, they are typically snatched up by Tyros and dissected in a university hall after a lengthy interrogation, though the interrogations are typically useless as Alraune are notorious and often pathological liars. There are three known Alraunes at large in human space with their identities known to the public; the pirate Draupnir a disgraced academician named Anthelia Paz, and a serial killer named James Gum. All three escaped the collection teams and law enforcement interventions and each have hefty bounties on them for their capture or body.
Rumors and Memetics
Every celebrity has, at some point, an X-Pither Mob come for them on the SolarNet. By the time of the Age of Convergence, it's almost a rite of passage for a celebrity. They are tirelessly investigated until eventually nothing comes of it and the fervor fades to a low grumble. Eventually, if they exhibit any sort of antisocial or unusual behavior the previous investigations might be pulled from the archives and used as 'evidence' to add to the new behavior, resulting in a new fervor. At their worst, these SolarNet mobs sometimes result in some unhinged individual making an attempt on the victims' life. These mobs are sometimes called "Xinquisitions."
Only a few of the beings have been outed and caught, less than a hundred discovered between their discovery during the Reformed Solar Commonwealth and the Age of Convergence, a time frame that spans nearly nine hundred years. Despite this, there is a rumor whispered in the dark that a majority of politicians, corporate leadership, and entertainment figures are Alraunes who are secretly running human society for vague but surely nefarious ends.
Basic Information
Growth Rate & Stages
When first born, they are obviously an amalgamation of plant, animal, and fungal traits. As they grow, they shed the more obvious plant and fungal traits such as branches and molds, but they might acquire mutations seemingly at random.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Alraune require a high protein diet, and are typically carnivorous as a matter of convenience. Additionally, they share the Redspace Adversarial Intelligences' need for brainwaves carrying certain Vices. Unlike RAIs, they can partially generate these themselves, though outside sources are both preferred and required as a supplement. They can simply go much longer between 'feedings.'
An Alraune is born
Draupnir the Pirate with his crew aboard the Toxic Hangman
Serial Killer James Gum interrupted by a field Tyro team from which he would escape, leaving only one survivor; Ironically, his intended victim, Cathy Martenz.
Academician Anthelia Paz's last known recording, wherein she vivisected the amateur detective, Gerion Volstok, who uncovered her identity. Gerion made a full physical recovery, but Anthelia remains at large.
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