Cloning technology

Clones should not be confused with Blanks, Egg birthing or Androids.

Cloning is the act of creating a biologically and genetically identical being from another through the copying of DNA fragments, cells or organisms.

## Cloning in Dalmer culture

Cloning technology is notoriously difficult to achieve due to the Dalmer misunderstanding the most basic concepts of medicine.

### Overview

Cloning is the process of replicating the genetic code of an original host in order to create a clone. Armies of clone troopers are often mass-produced by the empire at the request of warlords for the purposes of particularly lethal military engagements that require soldiers en masse capable of creative thinking. Later clones would be produced for armies who would have need of a military in the years to come. Using genetic modifications such as growth acceleration and increased docility, the clones were fully grown and programmed to a degree to facilitate learning.

Although clone soldiers served as the first generation of the Imperial army, known in its modern iteration as STAMP, over time the clones were retired and supplanted by birth-born soldiers. Despite the shutdown of the cloning facilities empire wide, the advantages of cloning technology, such as programmed learning, were not forgotten.

### Creation

In order to create a clone, samples of genetic code are drawn from a subject's cells, duplicated and implanted into donor cells. These donor cells would then grow, divide and, eventually gestate in artificial wombs, filled with nutrients and organic catalysts. Altering the nutrients and catalyst solutions that the cells received could influence the physical attributes and maturation rates of the resulting clone.

The genetic material donor was generally referred to as a prime, although genetic samples used for cloning degrade the original material.

Although cloning is considered useful because of its military applications, individual clones generally lack personality and are rather naive when out of military situations due to their accelerated development. As such, they often needed to be educated during the process of their development. Clones who fully matured in less than a year's time received an extremely rushed form of education through flash training and memory imprints, virtually downloaded into the copied subjects via the control chip. This essentially enabled a clone to learn all of its template's skills, but also emotional imprints, and thus the risk of instability as well. This led to the civilian usage of downloading skills among the Dalmer.

Due to the fact that growth environment is a highly influential factor, a clone develops characteristics and identities distinct from its prime, even if it is a genetically identical copy.

### Clone Reproduction

Despite clones being infertile as part of their creation, some clones are capable of reproduction. Clones that can reproduce have a high risk of having children with extraordinary powers. Examples include familial empathy, accelerated healing, and an ability to accept almost any kind of prosthetic.

### Usage of cloning

**Biological immortality**Dalmer obsessed with the notion of achieving immortality often look towards cloning and the transferring of consciousness as a means to essentially live forever.

The Dalmer unearthed the secret of attaining an eternal life. Through the efforts of science and cloning technology, cloning techniques yielded a capable, yet frail, clone body that was capable of housing an uploaded conscience. A clone body however, no matter how young decays by the great power required to implant an UC that resides within.

**Morella technique**

This particular mode of eggborn cloning involves the patient bien fertilized with a cloned egg, which hatches upon death of the patient. The egg while in gestation takes the attributes of the host when hatched and grows to be identical.

**Military Clones**

Some clones are batch raised for military applications, others are left to be raised as average citizens and studied.

Genetic tampering causes clones to grow at twice the rate of the regular species, making them ready for deployment within 7 years. Clones are supplied with control chips to be implanted in the brain of every clone at the earliest stage of their development.

Clones fight for the empire on all battlefronts across the Weltan System and are loyal to their Generals.

**Labor Clones**

Clones are used frequently to maintain resource extraction drones on asteroids, under the illusion of being unique individuals.

Labor clones have a lifespan of five years, after which they are killed and replaced by another identical clone.

**Pet Cloning**

Made in pet cloning clinics, the newborns are birthed in a lake.

### Society

**Legality**

Gene splicing is illegal in most of the Empire, Genetic Engineering Ranches are often shut down by the authorities and their projects seized. Cloning, gene splicing and hybridisation are common crimes in the empire.

**Clone Culture**

Due to the often illegal nature of their existence, clones often create clubs and hide their existence from the larger population. They also fabricate elaborate plans to deceive eugenics testing.

**Clone sickness**

Clones are plagued with genetic defects (among which a sexually transmissible disease that causes seizures, and a neurological disease that causes vertigo and progressive degeneration once the clone is 30 years old) and are often infertile.

**Clone organs**

Cloned tissue has been developed. After the first clone was grown, this led to the development of artificial organs. However due to the plethora of issues the Dalmer face with cloning due to poor understanding of medical science, and the multitude of sicknesses inherent to clones this practice is little used.

**School Cloning**

Schools in Dalmeran tend to have cloning programs for the best students, this isn't particularly useful as the clones are identical only physically but have no personality of their own, as such they are often used as soldiers from birth. The problem is that since the process is automated, the schools, once abandoned, become inhabited by completely oblivious clones. Recuperation programs exist in all school districts with varying degrees of success, dismantling the cloning apparati is more difficult however.

**Home cloning vat**

Most Dalmer have cloning vats in their homes, just in case.

### Historical events concerning cloning

#### Scleratic Invasion

The Dalmer settled a laboratory in a secret area somewhere in Dalmeran called the Island to create their future servants from captured Scleratic.

They created vat grown clones of the Sclera but who were but shadows of their former selves, called Shells. Shells were mindless husks that, when using the special helmets (dubbed Shellmets) derived from the Brain maggots, could be controlled to do the Dalmers bidding.

The Shells were made using modified brain maggots; called worms who did not require cranial application, the worms themselves have no influence on the host, they simply render the Shell susceptible to the control of the Shellmet.

#### Connexion time-line and ideas

The tethered experiment fails miserably, and causes an outbreak of impostors empire wide.

The clone epidemic is caused by the tethered being able to reproduce like rabbits. The clones are hunted. Some are born identical from different mothers all over the world at the same date. They later develop ROT which becomes widespread in the Dalmer genepool over the course of less than a century.

Later, the umbrella generation event causes simultaneous births of powered individuals.

The usage of combat Rotters led to government programs to force create Rotters by inducing identical births on a large scale. This led to a strange phenomenon of identical individuals being born from different parents and places.

## Cloning in other race Culture

Rumors abound of the other races having some conceptions and uses of cloning for their own purposes.

One account tells of mice being implanted with cloned personalities of sapients who live nearby.

Countless accounts tell of young girls kidnapped for experiments, children being cloned and experimented on to create super soldiers. The Dalmer are often present on enemy soil to try and sabotage this.