The Mutandids

LY from Sol: 12

Alliance: Twilight Empire

Home World: Mutandis Voll

Home Star: Skorpacellus

Primary Species: Humans

"In those glorious days after the reformation all was exciting and new. The old tyrant was overthrown by the first Geneticist Prime: Astal Valdis. The Dark Growth had been beaten back by sheer power of will, no matter how disfigured our kin were by the bioweaponry of the regime.

The gene crafters saved the world overnight. The labs were taken back into the hands of civilians, repairing the genetic disorders that were rampant from the Dark Growth. The military was completely disabled and replaced. A wave of enlightenment and new purpose washed over the world. The world was given back to the scientists. We would no longer be prey to the world we had created. Now, we would be its masters.

The genesis code was invented. Type K Mutagen was released into the untamable wilds and did its work flawlessly. The genetic code of the entire forest was rewritten by the new form of mutagen. All across the world, organic fibers connected every living organism. The transfer of organic compounds and nutrients was turned into a programmable code that could be written over and controlled digitally. The trees acted as living databanks of commands that were executed by the flow of nutrients from their roots. Every plant and animal in the forest serves with a purpose. Every part fits together in perfect adaptation and cohabitation.

When we needed water, roots grew into the streams, diverting the flow to our reservoirs in the most efficient path possible. When we needed food, the Forest was commanded to create orchards of any array of Mutandid fruits and vegetables we desired. When we needed a toxic sector from the dark growth decontaminated, a sea of mold would grow over it, perfectly designed to eat and metabolize the toxic materials. When pirates and scavengers came, predators hyper evolved to devour and eliminate the invaders with surgical precision. The Forest provides an answer to every problem.

It was indescribable. Energy washed over the forest in bioluminescent waves as cascades of bio-data flowed through the roots of the forest. The Forest erupted with life anew, a sea of reds, oranges, violet and deep green flora. It became something greater, something with a soul. Its design was incorporated into our houses, which were also living organisms that repaired on their own and could be configured into new shapes at will. It's complete genetic mastery. The Forest is perfect, immortal, and ever changing. We built the only perfect world, the only one that stands at the peak of biological potential. Metal will rust and wear away, but the jungle will remain forever. Adapting, repurposing, expanding for all of time. When the Supersystem rusts itself away, Mutandis Voll will remain as perfect and immutable as it always has been."

### Mutandis Voll: The System's Cradle:

Mutandis Voll is an extreme world that hosts an incredible amount of life. The planet is extremely large but also porous and rich with volcanic activity, leading to a number of "strata", or layers of the world. At many places, the top layers give way to the lower ones, each hosting unique ecosystems that arrived through human bioengineering and were eventually perfected by mutagenic forces to create stable ecosystems that can support human life.

**Carapace Plateau:**

In this low oxygen environment, sun baked crag protects the lower layers from intense UV radiation and frequent asteroid collisions. This layer hosts a wide variety of alpine life such as trees and scrublands and grasses but remains largely bare and unchanging. Large fractures and holes in this layer give way to the dense forests beneath and offer sunlight. This layer is a pale purple / blue shell that makes much of the surface of Mutandis Voll impermeable by long range interplanetary fire and even nuclear strikes. The shell of the Carapace hides the treasures below.

**The Forest:**

Here water and oxygen concentrations fill out to nominal levels, where vast, cavernous systems of water feed this level and the layers below. An extraordinary abundance of life lives here, perfected by the adaptive effects of mutagen. A teeming rainforest thrives and hosts the majority of the human population within its beautiful but deadly jungles. The rainforest covers the majority of land on Mutandis Voll.

**The Cathedral Seas:**

Tangling, creeping vines from the forest eventually make their way to the lower chambers of Mutandis Voll. Here, shallow seas encompass Gigantic ungrounded caverns, with beams of light that penetrate from the surface. This area is named as such due to the sprawling cavern appearance that acts as the grand canopy for this layer.

**The Undergloom:**

In a few select spots that dot the Cathedral, the ground gives way again to a caverns of unrivaled exotic potential. Here, sprawling caverns host interconnected streams and huge chambers of bioluminescent fungus and moss where the detritus of the world is broken down and turned back into its basic nutrient components.

**The Green Stronghold:**

Mutandids play an extremely important role within the Supersystem. These people are adepts of biology, genetic engineering and mastering the terraforming effects of mutagen to sell to for rest of the Supersystem to employ. The largest genetic bank of species and their genomes are kept in a highly fortified structure known as the Green Stronghold. Mutandids are deployed everywhere in the supersystem as Master terraformers. Their civilization itself is a marvel of genetic engineering, as they have mastered biology such that the buildings are living plant like organisms of extreme complexity that self regenerate and take in the resources needed for the people inside.

This world, while beautiful, can also be extremely dangerous for human life. Genetically engineered super predators stalk the forests and jungles for unsuspecting prey while highly toxic fauna can be found in most places with unassuming appearances. Many of the inhabitants wear fully protective suits in the wild or in certain strata that support their every need, giving Mutandids their distinct appearance. These proud and tough people are now attempting to tame a deadly jungle of their own design.

The Mutandid jungle is an ever changing dance of biological forces, and mutagen still ravages the landscape, mutating and adapting. This means that the world is extremely hostile to life forms not native to the jungle that wander outside with no protection. Those who do are invaded by mutagens and become “tainted”. Mutagen corruption can lead to cancers and mutations of the body and mind, eventually destroying you or turning you into some terrible, different creature. Some are resilient to the mutagens, but the natives know better. Mutandids clad themselves in “Jungle Armor” when outside of their expansive habitats, compact, air sealed suits that provide physical and environmental protection against the elements. These suits are known for their bulkiness and similarity to old fashioned diving suits.

**Phytonic Order:**

Also deemed the Druids, the Phytonic order is composed of scientists, explorers and shamans who immerse themselves with the Mutandid Jungle to know how it changes and develops. These people willingly accept some mutagenic corruption in order to have a more personal connection to the biosphere around them, often forsaking society entirely as they’re too corrupted to integrate back into the population. The Druids have an immensely important role to Mutandis Voll as the stewards of the forest. They report information about spikes in mutagen, cancerous forest nodes and the movements of dangerous creatures like Basilisks, Man Eaters and Mutandid Spiders.

**Cult of Adaptation:**

Some human groups of Mutandids have gone rouge. Seeing the perfection and brutality of the jungle, some become captivated and flee into the wild, taking on massive amounts of mutagenic corruption and living in open societies that see the jungle as a god. This group welcomes any mutation that befalls them and see it as the natural way: to blend into nature and coexist with the mutandid jungle. These people are more than willing to sabotage the Mutandids and sell their secrets.

### The Mutandid Reformation:

Mutandis Voll is very politically stable due to a time of chaos that erupted in its past. The first governments of this world dove head first into bioengineering with no limits. Horrific experiments and weapons beyond all measures of cruelty were devised and used on many different species during this dark period of rapid development. Agents to turn all of one’s tissues into bone, gasses that instantly liquefy flesh and experiments that produced abominable mutations have left a black mark on the past of this now productive world. The secrets of the time before the reformation, also known as the “Age of Dark Growth” are heavily guarded in the deepest Mutandid vaults. The founder of modern Mutandis Voll, the first Geneticist Prime, an ancient woman known as Astal Valdis, led the reformation. Astala used the brutal weapons of the Dark Growth to destroy resistance and build a more reasoned Mutandis Voll with the structures we observe now.

### The Sectors of Mutandis Voll:

**Sector Commeran:**

This is the sector of transportation which controls the Carapace Plateau where the great spaceports are located. These people control interstellar travel to and from the planet. These people are rarely in power.

**Sector Terramutis:**

The sector of terraforming and geographic manipulation. These people work closely with the Sector Commeran and are extremely wealthy because of their contracts to terraform other planets for human habitation. The second largest Sector. Believe the Mutandid jungle should be reclaimed through raw mechanical force.

**Sector Logios:**

This sector is the academic institution of Mutandis Voll. With college style institutions all around Mutandis Voll and even other parts of the Twilight Empire, it is one of the largest academic organizations in the Supersystem. Here the mechanics of biology, chemistry and natural science are taught to up and coming members of Mutandid society. This organization is somewhat at odds with others such as the Phytonic order and Myelings that have mystical connections with the forest, something the sector considers to be misinformed and a waste of time.

**Sector Biomutis:**

The sector of biological and genetic manipulation. This is the largest sector that is most frequently in power. These people are masters of genetic splicing, mastering and tinkering with genes to produce perfect specimens. They’ve participated in questionable human experiments but also produced genetic therapies that have saved billions. They believe the jungle can be tamed through genetic manipulation of existing species.

**Sector Militan:**

The sector of planetary and domestic defense. A surprisingly small sector because of Mutandis Voll’s hostile environment and strong seat in the interplanetary economy. These people are only in power in times of crisis. Mainly operated in the Cathedral Seas. Sector Militan it’s responsible for the safe storage and protection of weapons from the Dark Growth period of Mutandid history, lest they fall into the wrong hands. This sector is also heavily involved with the production of chemical agents that are exported to the Twilight Empire.

**Leader: Geneticist Prime:**

The Geneticist Prime is the supreme leader of Mutandis Voll. Often the Geneticist Prime is someone who excelled in academia, specifically concentrated in biology, genetics, forestry or biomechanics. These people are elected by an academic council and take on the mantle as the leader of the Mutandid Government, directing which projects and research should be prioritized in their ever advancing study of terraforming and genetic manipulation. The Geneticist Prime comes from one of four sectors of the government that control different aspects of Mutandid operation.

**Forest Knights:**

Sanctioned by the Temple of the Gravitas Astrum, the Forest Knights are an order of true Sentinels sent to the world to protect it. Mutandis Voll is designated as a world of high importance as it contains genetic manipulation technology that could be devastating, or apocalyptic in the wrong hands. The Forest Knights are designed with the Mutandid Jungle in mind and have asymmetrical granite armor covered in moss and vines to hide the Sentinels seamlessly with the biosphere around them. These Sentinels lay in wait, sometimes for centuries in a state of half-sleep only to wake when great need arises. Their primary targets are typically cult of adaptation members, nodes or especially huge monsters.

**Myelings:**

This is a secretive group that lives in the deepest crevices of the world, the Undergloom. Myelings form a coalition of devotees to keep the jungle safe through their understanding of “deep knowledge”, or knowledge supposedly gained from the jungle by consuming the hallucinogenic mushrooms that grow in the fungus-rich Undergloom.

**The Mutandid visage:**

People from Mutandid Voll are affected by mutagen deep in their DNA. As such, a couple mutations have become common in their population. Most Mutandids are born with 6 fingers and many are reddish in complexion.